Mattina Musica returns to the Comox Valley for an exciting sixth season, beginning Monday, Sept. 14.
Italian for “Morning Music”, Mattina Musica is a six-concert series of classical music taking place on select Monday mornings. Each event begins with a pre-concert reception in the Sid lobby.
Co-presented by the Sid Williams Theatre Society and pianist Sarah Hagen, the series includes performances by cellist Ariel Barnes (Sept. 14), a solo recital by Hagen (Oct. 26), clarinettist François Houle (Dec. 7), violist Marcus Takizawa (Feb. 1), a “jazsical” program with jazz pianist Søren Bebe (March 7), and a grand finale of duets with soprano Anne Grimm and tenor Benjamin Butterfield (April 18).
Subscribers to the entire series earn a bonus complimentary ticket and have the opportunity to win lunch with Hagen and her guest artist after a concert of the winner’s choosing.
Season Opener
A favourite with Mattina Musica audiences, cellist Barnes launches the season with his “luscious tone and technical prowess” (The Vancouver Sun) and “deep personal connection” (Toronto Live Music Report). Now in their sixth year of playing duo repertoire together, Barnes and Hagen bring to the Comox Valley an exceptional collaboration built on intense music-making and light-hearted friendship.
Barnes’ solo and chamber music recordings have been nominated for a Juno Award and two Western Canadian Music Awards. As a winner of the 2012 Canada Council Instrument Bank Competition, he has been awarded the use of the 1730 Newland Johannes Franciscus Celoniatus cello, built in Turin, Italy, for the next three years. In January 2013, Barnes was appointed principal cello of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
From the Comox Valley, Hagen enjoys a busy and varied concert schedule that has taken her from the Sid Williams Theatre to Carnegie Hall and was named the BC Touring Council’s 2015 Touring Artist of the Year.
Recently returned from performing at Gothenburg Cathedral in Sweden, Hagen is in the midst of collaborating with Canadian SLAM poetry champion Brendan McLeod on a project of Rachmaninoff and spoken word.
Individual tickets for this Blue Circle Series performance are $22 (SWTS members) and $27 (regular). Subscribe to the whole series: $120 (members) and $150 (regular). Coffee and tea is served at 9:45 a.m. and music begins at 10:30. For more information on the Mattina Musica series and other upcoming performances, visit sidwilliamstheatre.com or call 250-338 2430.