“Our theme this yr is dare to dream. There may be numerous dreamers concerned this season,” says Co-founder and Inventive & Managing Director of the Westben Centre for Connection and Creativity by way of Music, Brian Finley.
The Westben Competition kicks off June 13, with 37 concert events between June 13 and August 3.
As Finley factors out, the Competition opens with a totally staged manufacturing of The Wizard of Oz, as tailored from the traditional film by John Kane for the Royal Shakespeare Firm, and ends with Phantom of the Opera In Live performance — each of them tales about dreamers, albeit of very totally different sorts.
“It’s a season devoted to dreaming what the world could possibly be like,” he provides, “which is an efficient matter.”
Westben: Music within the Nice Outside
“It’s the setting that basically makes it particular right here in Westben,” Finley says.
The setting for the Competition is certainly a part of its draw. The venues are positioned within the Trent Hills area in Kawarthas Northumberland and Quinte Hastings County, providing inexperienced fields and forests, close to Cambellford and the Trent River. It’s the perfect of bucolic small city Ontario. Brian factors out the chook songs, and lots of native species of crops and animals that populate the realm.
“Once you drop Beethoven or Bach into that, it’s actually particular.” He notes that Beethoven and lots of different composers have been impressed by the pure world.
“It’s a special approach of experiencing the music from the remainder of the yr. It has a special entry level,” he says, “a refreshing and intimate approach that’s devoid of bow ties and black containers.”
The venues combine the outside with the live performance expertise, together with The Barn, a 400-seat venue in a discipline with cutting-edge acoustics. The Willow Hill Amphitheatre makes use of a nature amphitheatre beside a pond and willow tree, and The Campfire space seats 50 in garden chairs for a sundown live performance full with s’mores, drinks and the prospect to attach with the artists.
“I believe the artists actually really feel it in addition to the viewers,” he says.
Together with concert events, there’s a concentrate on out of doors actions like forest bathing, biking, Tai Chi, tea tastings, culinary occasions and extra.
“Rather a lot has to do with well being and wellness,” he says. It’s why he moved to a rural neighborhood, and a larger connection to nature, years in the past. “It makes your physique chill out, and it makes it open to new experiences.”
Earlier festivals have seen concert events within the woods themselves. “It’s extraordinary, nevertheless it makes you simply make you see the world in another way.”
The pleasant ambiance that the environment naturally create is an integral a part of the Westben Competition expertise.
Westben presents an eclectic mixture of musical genres. Right here’s a fast take a look at the classical music choices.
Classical Music at Westben 2025
Brian Manker, cello & Brian Finley, piano (July 17)
“I had an attention-grabbing profession as a pianist and a composer,” Finley says, “I all the time like to make music with our friends.” It’s one of many perks of working a competition, in spite of everything.
Finley shall be performing with cellist Brian Manker, a frequent visitor of the Competition.
“He’s the principal cellist of the Montreal Symphony,” Finley says of Manker. “He’s a unbelievable musician, a phenomenal storyteller — he’s additionally the cellist with the New Orford Quartet.”
The cello is a favorite solo instrument. “It actually captures that tremendous tessitura that may be so profound,” Brian says.
They’ll be performing a program that features the Beethoven Sonata No, 3 in A, Op. 69, the Rachmaninoff Sonata in G minor, Op. 19, and Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23 (1893) by American composer Amy Seashore.
Manker will discuss concerning the items earlier than every is performed.
“It’s so participating,” Finley says. It brings the viewers into the music and instrument.
Illia Ovcharenko, piano (July 20)
Ukrainian pianist and 2022 Honens winner Illia Ovcharenko performs a repertoire just like the one he lately performed for Toronto audiences.
“He’s such a superb piano participant,” Finley says. “Discuss a dreamer.”
He’ll be enjoying Chopin’s Polonaise in A Flat, Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, and works by fellow Ukrainians Bortkiewicz, Lyatoshinsky and Revutsky. Ovcharenko follows in an extended checklist of pianists who’ve carried out at Westben over time, together with Angela Hewitt, Louis Lortie, and lots of others.
“I’m actually glad that he’s a visitor of ours this summer time.”
Choral: Chanticleer (July 11) & That Choir (July 12)
Choral music is a pure selection for a competition that’s seeking to join folks, viewers and musicians, and construct a way of neighborhood.
“Nothing does that like choral repertoire.”
Toronto primarily based That Choir is knowledgeable a cappella ensemble presently in its sixteenth season. That Choir attracts its singers from numerous backgrounds in tradition, research and work, and presents a three-concert season of latest and conventional choral works. They’re recognized for his or her collaborations in addition to their very own performances, together with performances with artists like Sir Christopher Plummer and Louise Pitre, amongst many others.
American classical ensemble Chanticleer was shaped again in 1978 as a Renaissance music choir. They’ve since branched into performing quite a lot of genres from jazz and gospel to modern classical music. The GRAMMY Award-winning vocal ensemble is thought for his or her virtuosity and viewers enchantment.
“It’s an actual honour to welcome a wonderful ensemble like that right here.”
Rhapsody in Blue – A Gershwin Celebration (July 27)
That includes Canadian opera singer Adrianne Pieczonka, pianist Daniel Vnukowski, soprano Jonelle Sills and baritone Justin Welsh, accompanied by Stéphane Mayer, it’s a Gershwin powerhouse recital.
“Adrianne was a visitor of ours a number of years in the past,” Brian remembers. “What an excellent artist.”
He notes her gracious persona as effectively.
“I so admire her exploration into different genres and different points of music,” he says. “This journey that she’s exploring with Gershwin goes to be simply wonderful.”
Vnukowski will play Gershwin’s iconic Rhapsody in Blue, and Jonelle Sills and Justin Welsh will carry out picks from Porgy and Bess.
Nahre Sol & Ben Finley (July 10)
Julliard and Glenn Gould Faculty-trained pianist and composer Nahre Sol, (whose YouTube sequence has garnered greater than 780,000 subscribers) groups up with Westben Affiliate Inventive Director Ben Finley, additionally a bassist and composer, to carry out authentic music. Their compositions are knowledgeable by every little thing from chamber music to ambient soundscapes and improvisation with a playful edge.
“Nahre is an experimental classical pianist. Her live performance’s going to be very, very attention-grabbing.”
Michael Kaeshammer (August 2)
“One other one which all the time sends me is Michael Kaeshammer,” says Brian. “He’s jaw droppingly wonderful.”
Whereas at present, Kaeshammer’s repertoire incorporates a mixture of jazz, pop and boogie-woogie types, Finley says that privately, the artist is more true to his roots in classical music, and performs Beethoven to heat up.
“It’s amazingly lovely,” Finley reviews. However, audiences shouldn’t anticipate to listen to any of that on stage — he doesn’t lapse into Beethoven in public.
“It’s simply so neat to know that it’s in his veins.”
Different Competition Highlights
The Competition will play host to many different artists in quite a lot of genres, together with:
- Canadian blues artists Matt Andersen and Colin James.
- Canadian singer-songwriter Tim Baker, folks music duo Tragedy Ann and Quiet Room Campfire with singer-songwriters Andy Forgie & Kris Tischbein.
- Extraordinary banjo participant and singer-songriter Kaia Kater.
- Jazz at Westben contains Canadian jazz artist Dominique Fils-Aimé and Brian Barlow Massive Band’s tribute to 100 years of Oscar Peterson.
- Traditional rock band Lighthouse and Guelph primarily based artwork and music challenge SHEBAD.
- Vocalist George Masswohl and percussionist Greg Hawco of the musical Come From Away be part of guitarist Gerry Finn for a live performance of music from Newfoundland. Between performances, there’s an East Coast kitchen celebration with Ken Tizzard & Music for Goats and Melissa Payne.
- East Coast folks singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Rose Cousins
- Pure Stability, that includes performers from Alderville and Curve Lake First Nations, and Inuk singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark
- Award-winning duo Twin Flames, who will carry out their UNESCO-commissioned tune “Human”.
Last Ideas
Finley sees the Westben Competition as a spot of pleasant connections between viewers members and artists, one thing exterior the standard live performance expertise.
“Particularly juxtaposing that to the remainder of life and what’s occurring in the remainder of the world,” he provides.
“It’s develop into a really particular backyard.”
Discover extra info and ticket particulars concerning the 2025 Westben Competition [HERE].https://www.westben.ca/2025-summer-festival
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.