July in January

Classical music festivals collaborate for online celebration

Throughout the pandemic, classical music festivals have embraced online media as a way to stay in touch with their audiences in light of continuing restriction on live performances. While the excitement and ambience of being with other people and hearing the music performed in real time is missing with streaming services, what is present is an up-close and intimate view of the performers, perhaps even better than from a front row centre seat. With this in mind, violinist Mark Fewer, Artistic Director of the Stratford Summer Music Festival, and clarinetist James Campbell, Artistic Director of Festival of the Sound, launched a collaboration of eleven Ontario classical music festivals to form Classical Music Festivals of Canada (CMFC) and create the July in January Festival that shares online music from each organization, recorded live at some point in the past two years. The participating festivals span across southern Ontario, from Parry Sound to Ottawa and Stratford to Ganonoque. The Prince Edward County Chamber Music Festival is very pleased to be part of CMFC, says Andrew Wan, violinist with the New Orford String Quartet, who are co-artistic directors. “We’re very excited to be a part of this. We really love to perform at those other festivals, and we’re also excited to share what we do, and our artists, with this wider audience,” he says. “We’ve curated a list of pieces we were able to record through our virtual festivals in 2020, and we had a rained-out outdoor free concert in 2021 to launch our season in September, so we brought our collaboration with the Slocan Ramblers, a Juno award winning bluegrass ensemble, to Saint Mary Magdalene and we have this amazing video captured for a much wider audience.” In addition to the Slocan Ramblers, the PEC Chamber Music Festival also features the Orford String Quartet playing works of Jacques Hétu, Dijuk Wijerante and Beethoven. In addition, Stéphane Lemelin, the founding artistic director the PEC festival plays Beethoven’s piano sonata number 31.

There is a wide range of music available from CMFC, not all necessarily what might be considered classical music. There are compositions from Beethoven, Mozart, Dvorak, and Debussy, but there is also jazz and big band music, opera from Ravel’s Shéhérazade, choral music from the Elora Singers, a musical tribute to Francis Pegahmagabow— the most highly decorated Canadian Indigenous soldier from the First World War—and drumming from Jordan Mowat of the Alderville First Nation. In a press release, Fewer writes “Nothing will replace the live concert experience, but streaming does give the music community a great way to stay connected, as well as offer others the opportunity to see what our individual festivals are all about. These are 11 unique festivals, highlighting what Ontario has to offer in the summer. It’s a way for us to reach classical music fans in new communities, both in Ontario and beyond.”

For Andrew Wan, online music streaming brings mixed feelings. “It’s a double-edged sword. Obviously we want to be playing live music and share with our audience in real time, to see their reaction, and to play for each other and share our art,” he says. “I must admit it is difficult to make recordings constantly, because you don’t have that feedback and sometimes it’s easy to say ‘Oh, if we’re putting it out there the result should be perfection,’ and that can be a trying element of making recordings. But on the other side of it is you get to reach an audience that may not have the opportunity to come and hear you live. Instead of being able to play for only a hundred people, we hopefully get to share it with many more people.”

The Orford String Quartet is planning the PEC Chamber Music Festival for 2022, with a free outdoor concert to open it in September followed by two weekends of performances at St. Mary Magdalene Church. Until then, classical music fans can get a taste of what will be on offer by visiting the July in January Festival at classicalmusicfestivals.ca. The concerts from the 11 participating festivals will be available until February 28.