Journeys

Music From the Past and Present

Afestival that transforms the lakeside village of Wellington into a canvas for performance and creativity is back for another year. Wellington Water Week, which ran from 2018-2019 and used Wellington’s natural heritage on Lake Ontario as its inspiration for artistic, community and environmentally-related programming, morphed into BIGLAKE Festival last season. After a successful launch, the team at BIGLAKE have put together another exciting line-up which will run from August 12 to 19.

This year, BIGLAKE Festival has branded the event as Journeys, which will present music from the past and the present, originating from different countries and influenced by disparate cultures from around the world. Attendees will see and experience a spectacular mélange of styles, genres, formations and eras.

Programmed by COC Music Director Johannes Debus, and award-winning violinist Elissa Lee, BIGLAKE will welcome some of Canada’s premier artists and ensembles and local venues. The festival opens on Friday, August 12 in the Drill Hall at Base31—a historic airplane hangar—and features three internationally renowned soloists performing famous and beloved Bach concertos. Lee is especially pleased to be presenting pianist Tony Yike Yang, one of the world’s foremost pianists of the younger generation and youngest ever prize-winner of the Chopin International Piano Competition. This concert will end with a rarely performed string orchestra version of Beethoven’s revolutionary Symphony No. 5. Lee shared that the opening night will be exciting. “We strive to bring programs that fit the various venues we pop-up in, and when we visited BASE31 we dreamed to bring an orchestra to perform, in particular with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. We found a really interesting string orchestra version of this brilliant symphony and we topped it off with not one, but three soloists performing three Bach concertos,” said Lee.

From there, the festival moves to Cold Creek Vineyards on Saturday, August 13, where Christina Petrowska Quilco will present Rivers, a program that celebrates Ann Southam. A proud feminist and nature lover, Southam incorporated her passion in her music. She is celebrated as one of Canada’s first prominent and recognized female composers in the ’60s. Rivers is a large collection of pieces that represents all the tempi of running water. Petrowska Quilico worked closely on these pieces with Southam over decades, forming a very close friendship, and recorded an award-winning CD.

Sunday afternoon is all about the kids. At 3 p.m. at the Wellington Music Hall, located at 42 West Street, Pinocchio’s Adventures in Funland will be brought to life. The program will be narrated to a dynamic musical score, with violin, cello, clarinet, flute, piano and percussion, and brought to life by composer Michael Gandolfi. In addition, the young audience will be introduced to the various instruments in the ensemble, with fun facts to highlight their special individual qualities. The Wellington Music Hall is a venue that BIGLAKE is reactivating with the help of Cheryl Douglas. “The acoustics are really amazing, very warm and perfect for chamber music. We are particularly looking forward to the Candlelight Concert with Rachel Fenlon singing and performing the piano part Schubert’s masterpiece Die Winterreise, a dramatic and beautiful song cycle,” she said.

Sunday evening will switch back to some adult fun when Canadian Celtic roots are celebrated in Fiddle’n’Dance at Loch Mór Cider Company. Canadian and US national fiddle champion Shane Cook will lead the Woodchippers, taking the audience through a journey of traditional Celtic fiddle tunes and songs, plus some dust-kicking step dancing. Show time is 7 p.m.

Award-winning violinist Elissa Lee and COC Music Director Johannes Debus are excited to launch this year’s BIGLAKE Festival entitled Journeys.

One of the festival’s favourite events will make a return this season. On Monday at 3 p.m, there will be a Musical Promenade through Wellington with four mini musical courses in various locations in the village. The locations are all surprises. Chef Chris Byrne will offer edible creations, inspired by the musical works presented in this concert, and Karlo Estates will complement the first and last stops with two of their award-winning wines. Starting and finish point is the Wellington Gazebo. Lee shared that this event will be a highlight of the festival. “We curated four mini-concerts in various surprise locations in Wellington and Chris Byrne creates a dish that is inspired by the works that are performed,” said Lee. “It is a fun way to explore Wellington and it’s like opening four Cracker Jack boxes, you never know what prize you get inside!”

Other festival highlights include the Sound of Persia at the CAPE, a candlelight concert titled Journey of the Soul at the Wellington Music Hall, Nordic Voices at SHED, a fundraising concert called IMPACT with the BIGLAKE Quartet at the CAPE, and A Taste of India at the Drake Devonshire.

The festival finale is on Friday, August 19, where the audience will be treated to a journey around the Mediterranean Sea with Vox Mediterranea. Mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb will perform together with Debus, who will make a rare appearance on the piano. The pair have curated a special collection of Lieder and Arias, to take viewers on a journey through the Mediterranean, including Tunisia where Rihab was born. The concert starts at 7 p.m. and is hosted at Mirazule, a new boutique inn with expansive water views of Lake Ontario.

New to this year’s festival will be a partnership with the Musicus Society in Hong Kong. BIGLAKE will host three rising star artists who are studying at various schools in North America and are at the start of their promising professional careers.

Debus is excited to be back and is looking forward to the lineup of performances. “We are thrilled to be presenting another year of varied styles, genres, formations and eras. There is something for all musical tastes and ages,” said Debus. Tickets are available online at biglakefest.com, and range in price from $10 for kids to $25-75 for adults.