London Symphonia will launch its 2026 winter/spring live performance season with a efficiency by acclaimed violinist Lara St. John. Lara was born and raised in London, and the live performance represents each her London Symphonia debut and her first efficiency within the metropolis in additional than a decade.
Lara St. John: The Historic Flame takes place on January 17, and options the music of three composers with Jewish roots — Aaron Copland, Avner Dorman, and Felix Mendelssohn.
“2026 is off to an excellent begin for London Symphonia with the long-awaited debut by the outstanding violinist Lara St. John,” stated Andrew Chung, Inventive Producer, London Symphonia in an announcement.
“Now we have been wanting ahead to collaborating with Lara for numerous years, and this program with Avner Dorman’s riveting Violin Concerto No. 2 “Nigunim” is an ideal alternative for Londoners to witness her breathtaking artistry.”
Conductor Nicolas Ellis can even make his London Symphonia debut on the live performance.
“By way of his experiences in main the modern Orchestre de l’Agora, Les Violons du Roy, and studying alongside Yannick Nézet-Séguin as Inventive Collaborator to the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, he brings a wealthy vary of musical concepts and views to Dorman’s Violin Concerto and the opposite works on this system: music from Mendelssohn’s enjoyable and capricious A Midsummer Night time’s Dream and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring Suite, a peaceable, hopeful and optimistic piece,” Chung stated.
Lara St. John has an in depth connection to Dorman’s Violin Concerto No. 2, a piece that attracts from world Jewish traditions, and was awarded the Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music in 2018. It was initially written as a violin sonata, and St. John was concerned within the growth of the piece. She has recorded the Concerto, and carried out it in a quintet adaptation with the Gryphon Trio.
“I’m delighted to be again dwelling to make my London Symphonia debut,” stated Lara St. John. “I’m wanting ahead to performing Avner Dorman‘s Concerto for you, for which I gave the North American and European premieres. All of us respect your help of music in London.”
Lara St. John
Lara St. John began taking part in violin on the age of two. Born right into a household of academics, she and her brother Scott have been inspired to pursue their musical skills as kids.
She started taking classes with a personal instructor and gave her first public efficiency on the age of 4. By the point she was 5, she, alongside together with her brother and mom, have been making journeys to Cleveland, OH frequently to additional their music research. At age eight, she spent a yr in Paris to review with Gérard Jarry, and the next yr, gained the grand prize on the Canadian Music Competitors. Lara made her European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Portugal at age ten, and spent the subsequent three years touring Spain, France, and Hungary, amongst different stops within the continent.
She was accepted into the Curtis Music Institute in Philadelphia at age 13, the place she would earn her diploma, and at 16, grew to become the youngest post-graduate scholar on the Moscow Conservatory.
Lara later continued her research with the Guildhall College in London, Mannes School of Music in New York, and the New England Conservatory, and has since carried out with main orchestras, and in outstanding venues, all through North and South America, Europe, and Asia.
In 1999, she based Ancalagon LLC, an artist-owned file firm, and has launched 16 albums on that label since then. She was invested with the Order of Canada in 2021.
Lara owns and performs on three violins: a 1779 Guadagnini, a 2011 David Wiebe and a 2024 Isabelle Wilbaux.
Lately, Lara got here ahead with a public accusation of sexual assault in opposition to one in all her instructors at Curtis, which occurred when she was simply 14. Within the present bio on her web site, she feedback on her experiences within the classical music world.
“I started taking part in the violin after I was two years outdated and have continued to take action ever since. However although my profession has had many excessive factors and supplied actual creative satisfaction, I can’t actually say I might do it once more. It has required horrific sacrifices — together with my experiences with little one sexual abuse and being handled as little greater than a commodity by an extended listing of presenters, directors and so-called educators.
“Rampant misogyny continues to be depressingly commonplace on the earth of classical music, extremely, at the same time as we fumble our approach towards the center of the twenty first century. This has drained away a whole lot of the sheer pleasure of constructing music for me.
“On the identical time, I’ve made some fantastic mates on this enterprise. I’ll at all times think about them and within the profound energy of music to encourage and to heal. I’ll by no means cease being amazed by the chance inside a easy instrument just like the violin. However my want to make use of it as a device for making a residing has fallen off to nearly nothing.”
Her documentary Expensive Lara will premiere in 2026.
The Live performance
Concertgoers can select to attend Lara St. John: The Historic Flame in particular person at Metropolitan United Church in London, or just about via London Symphonia’s new Watch and Hear video on demand channel, which options prime quality 4K HDR movies of 2025-26 concert events together with occasions from previous seasons.
- The live performance takes place January 17, 2026 at Metropolitan United Church; discover tickets and in-person live performance particulars [HERE].
- Subscribe to their digital platform to view the live performance on-line [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 many years, and a inventive writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
