The Sackville Festival of Early Music kicked off Wednesday with a presentation at the Brunton Auditorium by the Eybler Quartet, who also open the festival concert series on Friday.
CHMA spoke with festival co-director Christina Haldane about this 20th year of the Sackville Festival of Early Music.
The SFEM is an “exciting and engaging musical experience that will entice ‘all the feelings’,” says Haldane, referencing the Eybler Quartet presentation on Wednesday, which explored the role of emotions in musical performance and composition.
“This is a special repertoire,” says Haldane, of the festival’s focus on music from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Haldane says the program will “provide an opportunity for you to learn more about this rich and diverse repertoire from the early European art music scene,” says Haldane, “and a chance to enjoy some exciting musicians who bring this music to life on stage.”
In addition to the concert series, SFEM continues its tradition of incorporating education in its mandate, perhaps fitting for a festival housed in a music school. “Creating opportunities for meaningful educational experiences for young learners is central to the Sackville Festival of Early Music and its activities,” says Haldane.
The members of the Eybler Quartet (Julia Wedman, Patrick Jordan, Margaret Gay, and Patricia Ahern) arrived in Sackville Tuesday night, and by 8:30 Wednesday morning “were straight into our schools in the region to lead some educational sessions with our youngest learners.” In the afternoon, they were in Brunton Auditorium presenting to a crowd of Mount Allison students, faculty and community members.
This Friday, the Eybler Quartet will be back in Brunton performing a programme of early string quartets by W. A. Mozart, J. Haydn, and black composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint George.
Then on Saturday night, a new ensemble born out of the festival takes the stage. Ensemble SFEM features festival co-directors Alex Dobson, Jimin Shin Dobson, and Christina Haldane, as well as Juno award-winning guest artists from Québec, Mélisande Corriveau, Julie Rivest, and Eric Milnes. The Ensemble SFEM will perform a sampling of German sacred works by Weckmann, Handel, Bach and others.
On Sunday afternoon, the festival closes with a concert by Les Boréades de Montréal, called Private Musick: English Chamber Music under the Stuarts. ’Private Musick’ is the name English King Charles II gave to his own private instrumental ensemble, says Haldane, “that were to perform just for him in informal settings.”
All Sackville Festival of Early Music concerts take place at the Brunton Auditorium in Mount Allison’s Conservatory of Music on Main Street. More information is available at sackvilleearlymusic.com.
