On December 6, the Kindred Spirits Orchestra will current Sounds of the Season, a vacation live performance with a twist. Kristian Alexander conducts, with soloists Harrison Yang Meng, viola, and Daniel Vnukowski, piano.
Alexander, KSO’s Music Director, is thought for his imaginative programming, and the orchestra’s vacation live performance is not any completely different.
The Program
This system opens with Tchaikovsky’s basic Nutcracker Suite in a form of mash up with a few of The Beatles’ fashionable songs. It’s a wedding of beloved works by musicians of various eras.
Violist Harrison Yang Meng will carry out William Walton’s Viola Concerto, a piece that was written in 1929, and on the suggestion of conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, it was meant for violist Lionel Tertis. Walton was thought of an avant garde composer in his time, and Tertis rejected the work at first sight. It premiered in 1929 with Paul Hindemith because the soloist on the Queen’s Corridor, London.
Tertis would later write,
“With disgrace and contrition I admit that when the composer supplied me the primary efficiency, I declined it. … I had not learnt to understand Walton’s fashion. The improvements in his musical language which now appear so logical and so actually within the mainstream of music then struck me as far-fetched. It took me time to understand what a tower of energy within the literature of the viola is that this concerto.”
The work went on to nice success, and established the British composer’s popularity. It has change into a part of a violist’s customary repertoire.
This system closes with Symphony in C by French composer Paul Dukas, who devoted the work to fellow musician Paul Vidal. Dukas wrote the work between 1894 and 1896, and it premiered in 1897 on the Live shows de l’Opéra in Paris, performed by Vidal.
Whereas it garnered combined evaluations initially, the piece has come to be thought of as one of many key works of the French fin de siècle interval. Dukas was a part of César Franck’s inside circle, and he noticed the older composer as a mannequin. Like César Franck’s one and solely symphony, Dukas’ Symphony in C is written in three actions quite than the customary 4. They’re:
- Allegro non troppo vivace, ma con fuoco, C main, 6/8
- Andante espressivo e sostenuto, 4/8, E minor, C main, B main, E minor
- Finale. Allegro spiritoso, C main, 3/4 = 9/8
It’s an early work of Dukas’, and in lots of respects, it foreshadows his now uber-popular tone poem The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which he’d compose 5 years later.
Harrison Yang Meng, viola
Harrison Yang Meng is learning the viola as a full scholarship scholar at The Phil and Eli Taylor Efficiency Academy for Younger Artists on the Royal Conservatory.
He started his research with the violin at age seven along with his mom, Linda Yang, and joined the Academy at age 13. Harrison made the change to viola the next 12 months. Along with his research with Theresa Rudolph, he attended the Heifetz Worldwide Music Institute in 2024, and the 2025 Caledon Music Competition as a younger artist.
Meng has collaborated with artists reminiscent of David Ying, Barry Shiffman, Nicholas Kitchen, Joel Quarrington, the Isidore Quartet and Min-Jeong Koh, and has performed in masterclasses with
acclaimed artists that embrace Juan-Miguel Hernandez, Eckart Runge, Ayane Kozasa, Steven Tenenbom, Michael Van der Sloot, Annemarie Moorcroft, Jonathan Crow, and Violaine Melançon.
Harrison was the winner of the 2024 Worldwide Music Competition and Competitors, and the 2024 Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competitors, together with a number of different competitions within the area.
He has carried out with the North York Live performance Orchestra and the Canada Youth Chamber Orchestra as a soloist, amongst others, and upcoming appearances embrace a efficiency with the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra in April 2026. As a chamber musician, he performs with a string quartet that was invited to the 2025 Banff Worldwide String Quartet Competitors (BISQC) Youth Chamber Music Program.
Harrison joined the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra as Principal Violist from 2023-2025, and likewise performs because the Principal Violist of the RCM Taylor Academy Chamber Orchestra.
The Live performance
There’s greater than music on supply on the December 6 live performance on the Markham Flato Theatre.
It begins with a silent public sale, with gadgets that embrace tickets to the Royal Ontario Museum, Ripley’s Aquarium, Shaw Competition, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Raptors, together with journeys, classic wine, work, spa packages, musical devices, jewellery and extra. Opening bids start at 30% of the merchandise’s worth.
On-line bidding opens on December 3 at 10 a.m., and in-person bidding begins on December 6 at 7 p.m. Bidding closes at 9:30 p.m. on December 6, on the live performance intermission.
Antonia De Wolfe, KSO Principal Pianist holds a pre-concert speak at 7:10 p.m., and early live performance goers may expertise Prélude, a pre-concert recital with Alexa Ball, flute, and Rostislav Tikhov, bassoon, at 7:20.
Throughout intermission, there might be a dialogue and Q&A with Harrison Yang Meng and Daniel Vnukowski.
After the music comes a post-concert reception.
Discover extra particulars and tickets [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 a long time, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
