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Edmonton Youth Orchestra spotlights two young musicians

Pianists Joanna Has and Jason Liang join the 150 musicians at Winspear Centre
2202 EYO-Jason Liang
Jason Liang, a winner of the 39th annual Concerto Competition, plays with the EYO's Senior Orchestra on Sunday, Feb. 23 at Winspear Centre. SUPPLIED

PREVIEW

Edmonton Youth Orchestra Concert

With special guests Joanna Hao and Jason Liang

Sunday, Feb. 23 at 2 p.m.

Winspear Centre

4 Sir Winston Churchill Square, Edmonton

Tickets: $10 to $15. Call 780-427-1757 or at tixonthesquare.ca

 

The Edmonton Youth Orchestra Concert highlights two winners from the 39th annual Concerto Competition during its Sunday concert at Winspear Centre.

The two celebrated pianists are Joanna Hao playing with the Intermediate Orchestra and Jason Liang accompanying the Senior Orchestra.

“They are both very talented,” noted St. Albert conductor Michael Massey. A recipient of the lieutenant-governor's Alberta Order of Excellence, Massey has been the EYO’s musical director since 1977.

At the other end of the spectrum, Hao, a 13-year-old student at Grandview Heights has studied piano for six years. She has achieved first class honours with distinction and is a regular feature at local competitions.

She will perform Vivace, the first movement of Joseph Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D Major. The movement presents a theme that goes back and forth between pianist and Intermediates.

“She’s a good young pianist. She will do well. Her playing is lovely and clean,” Massey said.

Instead Liang, who is a multiple competition winner and is studying to complete the ARCT Performance Diploma, joins the seniors in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor Op. 11. It is a concerto that veers away from the traditional conversation between pianist and orchestra. However, it is filled with quantities of beautiful composition for the pianist.

“This Chopin is quite a difficult piece. However, Jason has a wonderful technique and it will go really well,” said Massey.

The Intermediates open the concert with two whimsical movements from Canadian composer Godfrey Ridout’s Music for a Young Prince.

“It was written for Prince Charles when he came for a visit to Canada in 1959 on a royal tour. The two movements are Dreams, as in the dreams of a child, and From the Caboose depicts riding a train.”

They Intermediates also play three Leroy Anderson compositions. The short, frothy works are Jazz Legato, Saraband and Jazz Pizzicato.

“They’re all quite light and the kids are having a great time playing them."

Last year, EYO introduced a three-month internship program training young conductors. After leading the youth orchestras for 43 years, Massey believes in preparing for a future exit.

“I’m not planning on leaving soon. There is so much new music out there as well as returning to favourite things I’ve done before. But it would be lovely if, when I do leave that we have 12 to 15 interns we can look at.”

This year’s intern, Mitchel Rees, now finishing a music program at the University of Alberta in double bass, will conduct the Intermediates in Handel’s Royal Fireworks Overture.

The Senior Orchestra is programmed to play fewer compositions, but they are more complex. In addition to performing Chopin’s concerto with Jason Liang, the older musicians will play Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, a symphonic poem for orchestra. It depicts pine trees in four locations.

“It’s a glorious piece and it is not easy. The first is an area in gardens. Children are playing and it’s very bubbly. It’s very lively and uses all the upper instruments. The second movement is in the catacombs where the dead are immured. The third movement is a soft silhouette with the sound of the nightingale at the end. And the fourth movement is the Appian Way where Roman soldiers would march. It’s absolutely stupendous and brings down the house if played well.”

Massey encourages patrons to investigate the afternoon concert's diversity.

“The EYO continues its legacy of music. It is a varied and diversified program that will meet everyone’s expectations.”

 

 

 

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