Experiences for the soul

BIGLAKE Festival audiences embrace impressive line-up

Imagine sitting within the bounds of a grassy, stony paddock with grazing alpacas on one side, three huge horses on the other, the magnificent creatures curious by the company who appear to have invaded their space. There are the sights and sounds of a working farm all around, the intense heat of late August afternoon, the familiar buzzing of cicadas, young children playing with hoops that happen to make interesting swishing sounds. SHED Chetwyn Farms on Closson Road seems an unlikely, even unusual venue for a concert, especially something falling more within the classical realm, yet violinist couple Drew Jurecka and Rebekah Wolkstein seemed at home offering a repertoire of different styles of music from dance and jazz tunes, a sad love song, as well as a few of their own compositions. “One of the things that has happened during this pandemic is that it has given us an opportunity to focus inwards and work on playing together,” said Jurecka. “The two of us being stuck together at home have developed our duo chops and have started to expand the ways in which we collaborate.”

Wellington hasn’t seen anything like the BIGLAKE Festival with its extraordinary blend of professional Canadian musicians, some world-class in their field. The week-long festival came with a new name, a fresh look, and had to be reimagined due to COVID restrictions, but the journey and the idea, started three years ago, continues on in exciting and robust ways. Performances and concerts over the course of the BIGLAKE Festival (formerly Wellington Water Week) included a cello playing duo in an apple orchard with Toronto-based VC2 at Loch Mór Cider Company, as well as the incredible sound of classical accordionist Michael Bridge who played by the shore of the lake at the Drake Devonshire. The musical promenade is always a favourite of this festival consisting of four miniconcerts held at four different walkable locations in Wellington. While the promenade usually comprises musical and edible elements, in a Covid year the food parings aspect had to be skipped. “We could still do the conceptual idea which is basically four different surprises in four different areas of town,” said Elissa Lee, BIGLAKE Festival’s executive director. “The whole idea of this program is you don’t know what you are getting; I don’t even know what I am getting!” she said, adding that it was left open to the artists.

Flutist Sue Hoeppner played a mini-concert at the Drake Devonshire as part of the musical promenade.

Actor and theatre performer Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster began the event on the grounds of CML Snider School with an interesting performance which included a participative audience tongue twister, then came a few short readings, first with a poem about an onion, followed by two Shakespearean letters.

“You are my very first live audience in a year-and-a-half, it gives me chills,” said Ch’ng Lancaster. Ryan Davis enchanted with viola and electronic creations at the Wellington Heritage Museum garden. “It’s just such a blessing to play in the outdoors and you never know what you are going to get with traffic, bird sounds and all these exciting sounds,” he said. Flutist Sue Hoeppner delighted with music by the lake at the Drake Devonshire. “This is my first live performance since the pandemic,” said Hoeppner. The promenade concluded at We l l i n g t o n park with Gregory Oh on piano who was joined impromptu by Ryan Davis on viola who enthralled the audience with a superb rendition of Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky.

Johannes Debus and Elissa Lee, artistic director and executive director respectively, and co-founders of BIGLAKE Arts and BIGLAKE Festival don’t just bring an eclectic array of Canadian music, musicians and performances to Wellington, they bring experiences, and they bring memorable experiences. One such experience included a week-long sound installation with 100 mechanical metronomes where just 10 minutes was all that was required to watch and hear and ponder the randomness of Poème Symphonique and the fascinating cacophony of frantically ticking metronomes inside the former Masonic lodge on West Street. Children weren’t left out of the festival as violist Ryan Davis entertained the little ones eager to learn about a new musical experience in the garden of the Wellington Heritage Museum where his skill and enthusiasm made the interactive electronic looping workshop and concert both entertaining and educational. The festival also brought a jazz trio and wine tasting, the brother-sister cello-piano duo Cheng2, and world-renowned baritone Russell Braun and pianist wife Carolyn Maule.

A serious festival highlight was Bach’s Goldberg Variations played on an Italian grand piano in an even grander century old barn on Danforth Road: the backdrop a deep orange setting sun slowly fading as darkness began to fall, the brightening twinkle of candles (artificial of course, but realistic nonetheless) pure magic. To call it magical seems a cliché, but hearing and experiencing renowned pianist and harpsichordist, Montreal-based Ilya Poletaev playing a gleaming grand piano in a rustic old barn, candlelight reflecting off the instrument’s shiny black surface, the 70-minute non-stop seamless performance was remarkable in every way. It was simply outstanding. “These days, we as musicians are starved for opportunities to share our music with the audience and this is a privilege and an honour,” Poletaev said.

It wasn’t a traditional concert hall venue, but the big airy barn at Cold Creek Vineyards, its rafters reaching for the sky making for equally impressive acoustics, a welcome breeze blowing through the magnificent space on a very hot and humid day made the experience a surreal one. It makes you think this is how concerts should be because bringing the formality of a classical concert into an informal rustic setting took it to an unexpected level of sophistication and an unforgettable and superb listening pleasure. “Just thinking about this piece and the artist, we’ve got such a beautiful instrument and it’s standing there in the barn in the fields, and the interaction between this miracle of music, with nature’s miracle, it’s just special,” said Debus. “I feel everything is in this piece: there is complexity, there is simplicity, there is the physical, the metaphysical, there is joy and sadness, all you can imagine wrapped in this one set of variations: it has always touched me personally to the core of my heart.”

“Despite the logistical challenges that came with moving around to different venues every concert, I think BIGLAKE created some real magic, combining incredible musical performances in stunning natural settings, which left a strong emotional impact on our audiences,” said Lee. “We were all spiritually uplifted by the power of live music, and listening to it in beautiful outdoor settings was pretty unforgettable; we felt like happy children, and we are very proud of the 2021 ‘Bubble Edition’. Debus said they adapted and had to re-think plans to accommodate COVID protocols. “We tried to think of it more as an opportunity and it sparked, in certain ways, our creative mind and it worked out beautifully,” he said. “We couldn’t be happier; it has been an exceptional week for us, really extraordinary.” BIGLAKE Arts hope to continue to bring a taste of Canada’s most exceptional musicians and artists to Prince Edward County throughout the year. Updates will be posted at biglakefest.com.