Young Canadian musicians thinking of Cambodia

For the 9th year in a row young musicians of Ottawa teamed up to present a concert in aid of homes for orphaned, homeless children in Cambodia. This concert took place at the MacKay United Church in New Edinburgh today and the local city councillor and neighbourhood businesses supported it. I found the advert for the concert yesterday while we were lunching at Da Bombe on Beechwood. When the owner saw me looking at the advert he said, "Here's a complimentary ticket we can't use. Would you like it?"

So I went to the concert for free this afternoon (leaving a donation). Some members of the Cambodian community of Ottawa––there's a Cambodian Association of the Ottawa Valley––were there too. The young man who introduced the concert said that the first wave of Cambodian immigrants settled here after the horrors of the Khmer Rouge régime in which 2 million people were wiped out.

The first musical item on the programme was an astonishing performance of the first movement (the orchestral parts transcribed for piano) of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto by a 13 year old, Maria Krstic. She couldn't half play, from memory too, but was shy about acknowledging the audience's applause and making eye contact with us. The rest of the performers, a few of them seeming rather scared of the audience too, were older, either undergraduates or very recent graduates from Ottawa University and McGill. Six of them were violinists and there were three violists (Tobi Nussbaum the councillor said that he had once played the viola), three pianists, two cellists and Kristina Slodki, a harpist, introducing us to a piano piece transcribed for the harp by her teacher, who had apparently "fallen in love with it"––an Impromptu by Hugo Reinhold.

The violinist Christina Deauville owned a resonant instrument and played a long movement from Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto which I don't remember hearing before and would like to hear again.

We listened to three items for chamber ensembles: the first movement of Schumann's E-flat major piano quartet, a couple of movements from Beethoven's Opus 95 and finally an original composition for string quartet by another of the violinists, Kyle Burghout, who had written these Tunes from the Blue Ridge during his stay in North Carolina last summer.

An unusual concert

Saturday, September 28, 2013 7:30pm. Classical, World, Jazz and something more.... Featuring: Special guest Beverly Soulière - native drums, Ralitsa Tcholakova - violin, Ron Korb - flute, Mark Ferguson - piano. Music by Ron Korb, Mark Horvat (Première of a piece based on First Nations Folklore), Hiroki Sagakuchi and other composers. MacKay United Church

Ralitsa, the Bulgarian-Canadian violinist, had sent me an invitation to this; she'd organised the concert herself and it was full of quirky juxtapositions (she used that word when introducing her programme, which caused me to smile). The first 5 items were as follows:

• a fast fiddle solo by a contemporary Canadian composer (I didn't catch the name, but I gather he used to work as a truck driver), part folksy, part classical
• a movement from Beethoven's "Moonlight" Piano Sonata played by one of Ralitsa's pupils, a talented Korean boy
• variations on a Korean melody, a duet for Ralitsa and the same boy, playing the violin this time
• a Jig and Reel by the composer of the first item
• an arrangement of Bulgarian folk music chosen by Ralitsa, in 7/8 time

Then Ron Korb made his appearance, wearing two long, pink, Asian tunics, one on top of the other. He is a man of striking appearance with long grey hair, who plays a multitude of flutes.

The concert continued with a piece for flute and piano that Mr. Korb calls "Mozart's Wedding." Mozart never had music at his hasty little wedding to Konstanze, so he'd written something suitable for that occasion "... and for his honeymoon in the Caribbean!" (wink) It was cleverly in the style of ...

Then followed a piece for penny whistle, fiddle and piano, dedicated to a Celtic God. This one sounded very Irish, bitter-sweet, with glissandi on the whistle.

The advertised "Première of a piece based on First Nations Folklore" came next, with Ms. Soulière on the native drum. She is also a Justice of the Peace, by the way. Mr Korb played an alto flute in this one.

Item no. 9, for violin, flute and piano, was inspired by Mr. Korb's visit to St. Germain in Paris and once again was very soulful. I'd rather like to get hold of one of his CDs to use as a conversation piece at a dinner party.

"Christmas in Prague" had an Eastern European flavour (as well as a Ron Korb flavour) and was written for a bass flute, such as you rarely see at concerts.

Five more numbers from Mr. Korb's albums:

• A harvest jig, with the audience clapping to the beat.
• "Beckett's Whistle"––a tribute to Samuel Beckett, inspired by a visit to his home in France. The piece was Irish folk style again, expressing Beckett's probable homesickness and featuring an Irish flute.
• A trio in the style of ... inspired by a visit to Beethoven's house in Vienna.
• Something completely different, played on a Cambodian bamboo flute, held crosswise. Mr. Korb put its end into his mouth where it pressed against the inside of his cheek as he blew into it. This one didn't sound at all Irish.
• "Saint Johann"––a tribute to J.S. Bach ... which dissolved into jazz, the pianist (Mark Ferguson) really coming into his own here!

The final two items on the programme were another jazzy one, "Dark Eyes," the audience again clapping a beat, and a "Native Earth Song" including the native lady drummer again and a tribesman's flute, which, so I learned, was traditionally a serenading instrument.

I don't imagine that the elders who founded the United Church on MacKay street ever anticipated it being used for this sort of purpose.