Stick and Bow

County schoolchildren attend chamber music concert

Over 650 County schoolchildren enjoyed a chamber music concert at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Picton last Wednesday. About 315 students and 20 teachers from Kente, St. Gregory’s and PECI attended a morning concert, and about 355 students and 25 teachers from Athol-South Marysburgh, CML Snider, Sophiasburgh, Massassauga-Rednersville and PECI attended the afternoon session. The music was performed by the duo Stick & Bow, with marimba player Krystina Marcoux and cellist Juan Sebastian Delgado. Marcoux’s marimba is a behemoth, approximately four metres long, and she says it’s the “Ikea of instruments” that she has to assemble before each concert. The duo played an eclectic range of music, from jazz by Nina Simone, classical from Bach and Beethoven, a tango from Piazzolla, and commissioned piece inspired by Newfoundland folk music. “There’s very little existing repertoire for cello and Marimba,” said Delgado. “It’s a bizarre combination, so we started arranging music ourselves. We play music by Gershwin and Beethoven and Piazzolla and so on that we arrange. We also love new music, so we started commissioning works for this instrumentation.” The duo have played at dozens of schools and recently returned from a 40- date concert tour in France. Marcoux said that they want to give a different musical experience to children. “We want to give them a different perspective of what’s actually possible in music. It’s to open them up to a different sound and even quality, because a live performance is a different sound quality than what you have on radio. And we try to give them a bit of curiosity, so they can leave with something different,” she said. Both Delgado and Marcoux explained to the children what type of music they were playing and what to listen for during the pieces. The students gave their complete attention to the performances and asked some very relevant questions afterwards.

The student concerts are arranged by the Prince Edward County Chamber Music Festival, which is celebrating its 20th year. Festival chair Maureen Dunn said it felt terrific to be able to offer the student concerts again after a pandemic-induced absence of three years. “It was a lot of fun, sometimes intense, and it was very different. There were so many children, much more than in previous years, and we are very pleased to be able to provide this. So many teachers responded and brought their kids here,” she said. The event was sponsored by Ontario Power Generation, which covered the cost of school buses to transport the children to and from the church. The Festival covered the cost of the musicians.

This year’s chamber music festival kicks off on August 27 with a free concert at Macaulay Heritage Park featuring the Hannaford Street Silver Band. The New Orford String Quartet plays at St. Mary Magdalene Church on September 8, with a special appearance by Festival founder Stéphane Lemelin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the festival. He will also play a full concert the following week. Details of the schedule will be announced on June 1 at pecmusicfestival.com