August 26, 2010

Publication title: calgaryherald.com, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Bob Clark

Music will ‘jump off the stage’ as string quartets compete in Banff

“If you like music, you’re going to love this,” says Barry Shiff man.

That’s the way Shiff man, director of the prestigious event and its biggest one-man band, sees the triennial Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC), whose 10th edition gets underway Monday at the Banff Centre.

The weeklong competition, founded in 1983 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Banff Centre, features nine young string quartets from six countries vying for the lion’s share of $100,000 in cash and prizes.

“I don’t think you have to be any expert,” Shiff man says. “The music, especially in the hands of these young performers (all under the age of 35), jumps off the stage and grabs you. It’s electric.”

Ensembles taking part this year include quartets from Germany, Germany-Switzerland, Russia, and two quartets each from the United States and France, as well as from Canada — the Afiara String Quartet and the Cecilia String Quartet.

The three laureates will be decided by a seven-member jury, following the final round on Sept. 5.

“I think there is something really exciting for any audience member to come out and not only be touched by the music, but also to compare,” says Shiff man, the former violist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, which won the BISQC in 1992.

“Not necessarily to say who’s better, but simply to compare.”

Shiffman points out that the way two quartets play Beethoven or Schubert, for example, not only allows listeners the chance to experience individual stylistic diff erences, but also offers insight into stylistic differences among countries. “A group from Russia will sound different from a group from the United States,” he says.

It’s an aspect of competitive spirit not dissimilar to what you find in international hockey matches or the Olympics, Shiff man says.

“There’s something about the international coming together of young people in the pursuit of excellence in anything, that’s really exciting.”

For full details and ticket information about the competition, which takes place at the Eric Harvie Theatre, call 1-800-413-8368, or go online at bisqc. ca.

With Alberta Ballet’s new season fast approaching and with the triumphant premieres of both the Elton John ballet Love Lies Bleeding and the Joni Mitchell ballet The Fiddle and the Drum, still fresh in people’s memories, we asked artistic director Jean Grand-Maitre for a progress report on the company’s newest venture in the genre of pop-inspired ballet.

The widely anticipated show in question, an as-yet-untitled Grand-Maitre choreography based on the music of Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan, is slated to premiere on May 5 to 7 at the Jubilee Auditorium.

“I’ve got half the lineup of songs made, and I have a script in my head,” says Grand-Maitre, adding that it’s “like a poem. It’s not based on her life, but there is a narrative that goes through the songs that I’m using.”

So far, there are 42 McLachlan songs on his eligible list, drawn from across the singer’s output, Grand-Maitre says.

“The amazing thing about Sarah is her incredible vocal control, and the poetry (in the songs). She can use the same song and interpret it five different ways, and although they (the lyrics) sing about the same thing, the emotions differ. So I have to not only pick the song, but also pick the version I want.”

Unlike his two strongly themed works based on songs by John and Mitchell — which dealt with addiction, homosexuality and AIDS, in the former case, and war and the environment, in the latter — the new ballet will focus on “the sensitivities of a woman, and how she lives in a world that’s still patriarchal.”

“It’s going to have to be a big collaboration with the women in the company, so I’m going to really start asking them to do a little homework for me and write things down for me to study — such as how they find the lyrics of a certain song that I like, and how they react, and what that means,” Grand-Maitre says.

The choreographer, a fan of McLachlan almost from the start of the singer’s career ( “I used to buy her CDs and give them to my friends in Europe,” Grand-Maitre says), arrived at his newest collaboration after working with McLachlan during the setting of one of her songs for the Vancouver Olympics Opening ceremony.

McLachlan, who also attended the performance of The Fiddle and the Drum that opened the Cultural Olympiad, evidently liked what she saw.

“Like Joni, she doesn’t do just any project,” Grand-Maitre says. “She has to feel an affinity.”

And the choreographer adds, McLachlan, with her philosophy of seeing the integrity of the body as an essential element of wholeness and well-being, “was really excited” by the underlying collaborative idea of using the body, through dance, as a “way to see the music.”

Alberta Ballet’s new season kicks off with a performance by the acclaimed and popular Pilobolus Dance Theater Sept. 16 to 18.

A play by local playwright Pam Rocker takes satirical aim at current prejudice regarding homosexual relationships by postulating a world where gay is the norm and straight is out. The Beyond Closed Doors Productions show, Heterophobia, was a hit at Sage Theatre’s 2009 Ignite Festival.