On Saturday, three more local ensembles will bring their regular concert seasons to a close, beginning with the Civic Orchestra of Victoria, conducted by Brian Wismath. (June 8, 2 p.m., Dave Dunnet Community Theatre, $22/$18/$10, under 13 free; civicorchestraofvictoria.org).
The concert is charmingly titled Strum, in honour of the guest performers, a quartet of guitarists comprising Alexander Dunn, who teaches at both the University of Victoria and the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and three internationally recognized artists all based in the United States: Randy Pile, Robert Ward and Celino Romero.
Romero is the grandson of Spanish guitarist Celedonio Romero, who, in 1960, founded Los Romeros, the celebrated family guitar quartet, which is still active.
On Saturday, the soloists will come together in Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto andaluz for four guitars and orchestra, a colourful work commissioned by Celedonio Romero in 1967 and inspired by Andalusian folk music.
Celino Romero will also be featured in a Vivaldi lute concerto that is a favourite with guitarists. Among the other guitar pieces on the program is a fantasia composed by Celedonio Romero himself.
On Saturday evening, very different programs will be offered by the Victoria Philharmonic Choir and the popular women’s choir Ensemble Laude.
The VPC’s concert, conducted by Peter Butterfield and titled 500 Years of English Church Music, is a collaboration with Christ Church Cathedral, whose space is perfectly suited to the repertoire and whose music director, Donald Hunt, will provide organ accompaniments (8 p.m., $30/$20, under 13 free; vpchoir.ca).
The program comprises works in many forms, ranging in tone from the intimate to the celebratory, and representing various eras: Tudor (Byrd, Gibbons); Baroque (Handel’s glorious coronation anthem Zadok the Priest); Victorian (Wesley, Parry, Stanford); and 20th century (Vaughan Williams, Howells, Finzi).
This concert also marks a milestone: It has been 10 years since Butterfield gave his first concert as the VPC’s music director (replacing Simon Capet, who founded it in 2005). The program is well suited to celebrating this milestone, given that Butterfield’s close connection with Anglican church music dates back to his work as a seven-year-old treble singer at St. Mary’s Church in Oak Bay and an adolescent tenor at Christ Church.
Ensemble Laude, now in its 19th season and about 50 voices strong, will close its season with a characteristically eclectic program, joined by Douglas Hensley on oud (a Middle Eastern lute) and percussion (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., First Metropolitan United Church, advance $20/$15, door $25/$15, under 13 free; ensemblelaude.org).
The program includes traditional and contemporary pieces from countries on four continents (including Canada), and the première of Light, a work written for Laude by John Gordon Armstrong, who lives in Ottawa. The three movements of Light, settings of texts by Ottawa poet Susan McMaster, are filled with natural imagery: forest light in autumn, flowers in spring, birds in winter.
Laude will also perform a range of medieval music (its specialty), including the popular English canon Sumer is Icumen In, because, well, summer is a-comin’ in.
(On Sunday, Laude will travel to Salt Spring Island for the first time to repeat the program: 2:30 p.m., All Saints by-the-Sea, Ganges.)
The first of the annual summer series will begin this weekend: Christ Church’s Summer Organ Series, the 12th incarnation of which runs over the next three Fridays (7:30 p.m., $20, series $45; christchurchcathedral.bc.ca).
This popular series, a celebration of the cathedral’s grand Helmuth Wolff organ, completed in 2005, will be launched by Donald Hunt this Friday, with a program of music by Bach, Mendelssohn, Stanford and Parry, plus two works featuring trombonist Heidi Worrall, a University of Victoria music student and Christ Church choral scholar.
On June 14, Bruce Neswick, from Portland, will perform works by Bach and others. as well as Messiaen’s Messe de la Pentecôte (1949-50), a five-movement, half-hour-long piece inspired by Biblical texts and at once austere and vivid, expressive and mysterious. Neswick, himself a composer, will close his program by improvising on themes submitted by the audience.
Finally, on June 21, Aaron James, from Toronto, will offer a varied program including Bach and Muffat, a late work by Mozart, a sonata by August Gottfried Ritter (1811-1885) and music by contemporary American composer David Conte.
