The Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society (KWCMS) will current the grand finale of their Full Beethoven Violin-Piano Sonata Cycle on January 11, 2026. The live performance, the final in a cycle of three, will probably be carried out by Canadian musicians Corey Gemmell (violin) and Benjamin Smith (piano) at First United Church in Waterloo.
The sequence was launched in November 2025 with the objective of presenting all ten of Beethoven’s violin-piano sonatas. The works symbolize music that embody Beethoven’s total profession as a composer, showcasing his evolution and growth of the shape.
The third and final live performance within the sequence will start with Sonatas 6 and 10, and finish with the enduring No. 9, the Kreutzer Sonata, often known as the Kreutzer-Bridgetower Sonata.
The Artists
Gemmell and Smith have carried out collectively as a duo with a shared ardour for Beethoven’s music. Right here’s a glimpse of their efficiency of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 7 in C Minor:
Corey Gemmell, violin
Corey Lyle Gemmell is a local of Hamilton, and he started his examine of the violin with an area personal lecturers. He carried out with the Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (HPYO) as concertmaster beneath the baton of Glenn Mallory. Corey continued his music research on the College of Toronto.
From his present house base in Markham, he has carried out as a soloist and chamber musician all through North America, in Germany, and in China. He’s the concertmaster for the Burlington Symphony Orchestra, Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Toronto, Esprit Orchestra, and Sinfonia Ancaster. Corey has beforehand served as concertmaster of the Scarborough Philharmonic, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brott Music Competition/Nationwide Academy Orchestra, the Elora Competition Orchestra, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Orchestra, the Ontario Philharmonic, and the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra.
Corey usually performs in Toronto’s musical theatre scene, and has been concertmaster in productions of Miss Saigon, Magnificence and the Beast, The Sound of Music, the Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton, the Hugh Jackman Present, and Charlie and the Chocolate Manufacturing facility, amongst others.
As a chamber musician, he has carried out as a member of Ensemble Vivant, the Elgin String Quartet, and the Nationwide Piano Trio, and is a frequent visitor artist with New Music Live shows.
Along with his performing profession, Corey is a passionate educator, at the moment a member of the school for the Nationwide Music Camp of Canada in addition to a member of the Royal Faculty of Examiners.
He’s additionally a recording artist, and his contributions will be heard on a 2023 launch with the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, in addition to three albums with Ensemble Vivant, amongst others.
Corey performs on a violin made in Milan in 1907 by Cipriano Briani, and a violin made for him in 2005 by famend Toronto luthier, Hratch Armenious, in addition to bows by Lamy, Martin and Voirin.
Benjamin Smith, piano
Benjamin Smith is predicated in Toronto. He studied music on the College of Toronto, the place he earned a Bachelor’s diploma, adopted by an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould Faculty, a Masters from Juilliard, and a DMA from Stony Brook College.
As soloist, Benjamin has carried out beneath conductors Rossen Milanov, Marco Parisotto, and Yunior Lopez, and made visitor look with the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, the New Juilliard Ensemble, the Las Vegas Younger Artists Orchestra, the Ontario Philharmonic, Orchestra London, the Burlington Symphony, the Windsor Symphony, and the College of Toronto’s Hart Home Orchestra. Within the US, he’s carried out recitals for the Texas Chopin Society and Chicago’s Landowska Harpsichord Society. In current seasons, he has appeared twice at Carnegie Corridor, together with as a soloist performing Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue with the Hart Home Orchestra, and a previous efficiency in recital with Canadian cellist Dongkyun An.
Benjamin can be a recording artist, and his contributions will be heard on a 2016 launch with Dongkyun An of music by Saint-Saens, Schumann, and Beethoven, and on the 2107 launch Aboriginal Inspirations, together with a number of recordings for the 2022 Royal Conservatory Celebration piano sequence. In 2025, Benjamin’s work will be heard on two album releases beneath the Orchid Classics label, one with cellist Daniel Hamin Go and the opposite with oboist Ari Cohen Mann.
As a chamber musician, Benjamin has partnered with quite a few artists in recital, together with Martin Beaver, Timothy Chooi, Colin Carr, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Jacques Israelievitch, Jinjoo Cho, Stanislav Pronin, Gábor Tarkövi, Øystein Baadsvik, and William VerMeulen, in addition to with ensembles such because the Penderecki, Cecilia, Annex, and Tokai string quartets. He additionally performs often with Esprit Orchestra.
As an educator, he’s an energetic adjudicator and juror for festivals and competitions, together with the CFMTA Nationwide Competition, and just lately for the OPUS competitors within the US. He’s at the moment a college member at The Glenn Gould Faculty and The Taylor Academy with specialties in chamber music and efficiency research.
Live performance Particulars
The live performance takes place January 11 on the First United Church in Waterloo.
- Discover tickets and different particulars [HERE].
Are you seeking to promote an event? Have a news tip? Have to know the very best events occurring this weekend? Ship us a note.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the each day arts information straight to your inbox.
Join the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! — native classical music and opera information straight to your inbox HERE.
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 artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
