On Sunday, April 3, the Coast Recital Society will conclude its 2021-2022 concert season with an afternoon of chamber music featuring the Kayaleh-Dolin-Blaha Piano Trio.
Violinist Laurence Kayaleh, who made her first appearance with the Coast Recital Society two years ago, will be joined by Montreal cellist Elizabeth Dolin and pianist Bernadene Blaha, a faculty member at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
In Kayaleh’s Paris debut several years ago, the music critic of Le Figaro described her playing as “regal,” and praised her “wonderful sound and innate sense of phrasing.”
Elizabeth Dolin is recognized as one of Canada’s finest cellists, in demand as a recitalist and chamber musician throughout Canada and the United States, and as soloist with major Canadian orchestras.
Piano and Keyboard magazine has reviewed Bernardene Blaha as “a pianist of integrity, with lovely sonorities and total clarity of line.”
The matinee performance takes place at the Raven’s Cry Theatre at 2:30 p.m. For tickets email coastrecital@dccnet.com or phone: 604 885-0991.
A cappella mastery of ancient mysteries
To mark the beginning of the millennia-old festival of the Passion, the MOTET chamber choir is presenting The Rosary Project: Sorrowful Mysteries, a program of music to guide listeners through the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.
MOTET is a Vancouver-based chamber ensemble composed of young musicians passionate about bringing sacred choral music to audiences throughout the region. It last appeared in January with a program of traditional Christmas chant and choral music.
The upcoming program invites meditation as MOTET sings the prayers of the Christian Church as realized by composers including Byrd, Duruflé, Morales, and Tchaikovsky.
A donation of $15–25 is suggested for admission. Belief in a deity (Christian or otherwise) is not required to enjoy the concert, which promotes reflection and tranquility.
The Rosary Project: Sorrowful Mysteries offers two performances: April 2 at 7 p.m. at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Port Coquitlam, and April 3 at 7 p.m. at St. St. Mary’s Catholic Church (956 Gibsons Way).
Film society continues to flower
The upcoming Sunshine Coast Film Society screening of Wild Rose will proceed on April 2 at 2 p.m. at the Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt, and April 4 at 7:30 p.m. at the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse.
This 2018 British musical drama blends contemporary Scottish culture with the allure of American country music.
Tickets are available at the door for moviegoers 18 and older. Proof of vaccination is required, and masks are recommended. Details are at www.scfs.ca
Local artists have sights set on High Beam Dreams
The High Beam Dreams event centre in Gibsons has announced an upcoming concert by three renowned Sunshine Coast performing artists.
In the Round will feature Jim Foster, Deborah Holland and Michael Friedman in a performance starting at 6:30 p.m. on April 9.
Jim Foster’s career has spanned five decades punctuated by numerous hit singles. Originally known in Canada as the leader of the band Fosterchild, he has since played in bands, toured solo and collaborated with some of the country’s greatest songwriters.
Singer-songwriter Deborah Holland is not content to rest on her laurels of six solo albums, or her two albums singing with the band Animal Logic. The U.S.-born and raised Holland is now a Coast resident and a frequent local performer.
Michael Friedman appeared recently at High Beam Dreams as part of the Humanitarian Fundraiser for Ukraine. A lifelong touring performer, recording artist, and TV composer, Friedman has released numerous solo albums as well as recordings by his folk noir trio FFM (Friedman, Fortin & Masich).
Ticket information is available at www.highbeamdreams.com
Author’s reading to be literally captivating
On April 9, the Sunshine Coast Arts Council’s Literary Reading Series will present its final author of the season: Michael Christie.
Christie is the multi-award winning author of two novels (If I Fall, If I Die and Greenwood) and a collection of short stories (The Beggar’s Garden).
Christie will be reading from Greenwood, a novel that seamlessly melds literary genres through a family saga that covers four generations in a dystopian future.
The event takes place via Zoom and is free of charge. To register, browse to: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/literary-reading-series-michael-christie-tickets-246671339617
Foolish Man to be a crowning achievement
Just announced is an afternoon performance of David King’s original songs to be rendered lovingly by a full band of top-tier musicians and vocalists on May 1 at 2 p.m.
The show Foolish Man has been assembled to honour the unique songwriting of David King, a legendary Sunshine Coast playwright, actor and musician. The program will include music ranging from catchy upbeat numbers to heartbreaking ballads, and King’s distinctively clever lyrics.
Foolish Man will take place at the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse on May 1 at 2 p.m. Tickets ($25) are available at One Flower One Leaf Gallery and Gibsons Florist—or online at eventbrite.ca/e/foolish-man-the-songs-of-david-king-tickets-262263997677.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
