Music on Vancouver Island
My daughter and I were looking for something to do in the evenings when we visited Victoria, British Columbia’s very British looking capital city on Vancouver Island – Clare lives in Vancouver and I was over to see her. On the first night, we went to an excellent dinner and jazz performance at Herman’s Jazz from Lorraine Nygaard and her band – she channels Nina Simone! The dinner followed by jazz combo works well and the singer and band were first class. I’ve not come across this format in Edinburgh although it needs a big space.
On the second night, we went to the Winter Harp Ensemble’s concert in the Conservatoire Hall, a converted church with a good acoustic. Winter Harp’s model combines performance built around two harps – a concert harp and a large clarsach – and a range of other medieval and modern instruments, accompanied by narration, stories and singing, with songs drawn from both the medieval and contemporary repertoire. Instruments include recorder, tin whistle, flute, bass flute, hurdy gurdy, concertina, violin, viola, nyckelharpa, bass psaltery, organistrum and a range of drums and other percussion. All are played with enthusiasm and great competence. The performers wore medieval costume, and the narration and stories were a key strand in the whole thing.
This was one hell of a good show, an annual event which played to an enthusiastic, and, as we heard from people sitting beside us, a regular audience. It was excellent, interesting and novel in its range of instruments - music in a format designed to be entertaining and to provide enjoyment for the paying customers. In this the concert succeeded completely. All the performers sang but Lauri Lyster with a lovely mezzo voice was the outstanding soloist – she also did her share of banging the drums. If you are in British Columbia lower mainland or Vancouver Island in the lead up to Christmas next year, look Winter Harp up and go. You will have a great time.
This is a form of performance which to my mind is missing on the Edinburgh music scene – interesting music which crosses genres, delivered in a deliberately popular format to an audience which gets beyond the usual classical music afficionados. True, the audience for both the jazz and Winter Harp were on the whole older, although there were a lot of children accompanying parents and grandparents at Winter Harp and they seemed to have a very good time. There is nothing wrong with serious music – I love all of Shostakovich – but he was a composer who in his jazz-influenced work also went in for entertaining people. The Irish Baroque Orchestra’s Festival concert at the Queen’s Hall included work by “the mysterious” Mr Charles which was absolutely intended to send his 18th century paying public home in a good mood. Folk musicians are good at organising this type of concert, but classically-based performers maybe less so. Perhaps this kind of format could provide an opportunity for some of the first class young musicians associated with Live Music Now Scotland to develop a similar approach, collaborating on concerts celebrating music from different music styles. Their training in engaging with audiences in all sorts of venues means that many of them are practised in incorporating classical, jazz, and traditional elements in their programmes.
www.hermansjazz.com//show/723683/
