2020 | 21 Season
Subscription Series
Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Opening Night Gala
Saturday, October 17, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
St. Maurice & St. Verena Cultural Centre
$40 - $15 per ticket
or
and save up to 60%
Folk, Mysticism and Spirit
Saturday, December 12, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
St. Maurice & St. Verena Cultural Centre
$40 - $15 per ticket
or
and save up to 60%
Dark and Light
Saturday, February 6, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Flato Markham Theatre for the Performing Arts
$40 - $15 per ticket
or
and save up to 60%
Passion and Drama
Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
$40 - $15 per ticket
or
and save up to 60%
Melodies of Emotion
Saturday, May 1, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
$40 - $15 per ticket
or
and save up to 60%
Pärt, Górecki and Shostakovich
Saturday, May 29, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Cornell Recital Hall
$20 per ticket
or
and save up to 60%
Bruckner’s First Symphony
Saturday, June 19, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
CBC Glenn Gould Studio
$40 - $15 per ticket
or
and save up to 60%
Grace, Fire and Beauty
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
$40 - $15 per ticket
or
and save up to 60%
Special Concerts and Events
Unionville Canada Day Celebration
Thursday, July 1, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Unionville Millennium Theatre
Subscription Series
Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Concert Season Opening Night
Saturday, October 17, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
St. Maurice & St. Verena Cultural Centre
3300 Highway 7, Markham ON L3R 5N9
Join the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in celebrating the opening concert of the season featuring music that conveys the deepest of emotions. Canadian composer Erik Kreem combines his Estonian roots with rural Ontario landscape in his rhythmically whirling Waltz. Multi-talented violinist Sarah Davidson-Gurney ignites the concert hall with passion and innovation, performing the world premiere of Werner Chan’s Violin Concerto. Arguably the most famous symphony ever written, Beethoven’s expressive and turbulent Symphony No. 5 will have fate knocking at your door from the very first four notes.
Kristian Alexander | conductor
Sarah Davidson-Gurney | violinist
Werner Chan | composer
Erik Kreem | composer
Elli Kozak | host
7:10 p.m. Prélude (pre-concert recital)
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk
On-stage discussion and Q&A with Erik Kreem, Sarah Davidson-Gurney and Werner Chan
This event has been supported by Heritage Canada, the Ontario Arts Council, Celebrate Markham and the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation.
Folk, Mysticism and Spirit
Saturday, December 12, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.
St. Maurice & St. Verena Cultural Centre
3300 Highway 7, Markham ON L3R 5N9
Markham Contemporary Music Festival
Under the direction of Maestro Kristian Alexander, the Kindred Spirits Orchestra performs a night of unforgettable evocative music. Influenced by mysticism and transcendence, acclaimed pianist Gregory Vandikas masterfully tackles Scriabin’s introspective Concerto for piano in the “bright blue” key of F-sharp. Rounding out the program is Wagner’s classical, youthful and solely completed symphony: Symphony in C major.
Kristian Alexander | conductor
Gregory Vandikas | pianist
Michael Berec | host
7:10 p.m. Prélude (pre-concert recital)
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk
Onstage discussion with Q&A with Michael Berec and Gregory Vandikas
This event has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council, Celebrate Markham the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation.
Dark and Light
Saturday, February 6, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Flato Markham Theatre for the Performing Arts
Music imaginatively narrates both setting and mood in a concert surely not to be missed. Perhaps the finest cello concerto of the twentieth century, cellist Andrew Ascenzo returns to the Kindred Spirits Orchestra to perform Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1: a perfect virtuosic balance of romantic passion, tradition and form. Composed within a single month in 1944, Prokofiev’s melodically rich Symphony No. 5 is a musical exaltation of the human spirit.
Kristian Alexander | conductor
Andrew Ascenzo | cellist
7:10 p.m. Prélude (pre-concert recital)
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk
Intermission discussion with Michael Berec and Andrew Ascenzo
Post-concert live jazz with complimentary glass of Champagne
Passion and Drama
Saturday, March 20, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
Fervorous melodies of the Roma people captivate through violin pyrotechnics in Pablo de Saratsate’s Zigeunerweisen. Lost during the plight of the Russian Revolution, Prokofiev reconstructed by memory his Piano Concert No. 2, adding ten years of musical maturity and sophisticated compositional skill in this brilliant and evocative work. Set to Lord Byron’s touchstone of Romantic literature, Manfred Symphony by Tchaikovsky is an impassioned score recounting the tale of a guilt-ridden protagonist in pursuit of death.
Kristian Alexander | conductor
Michael Berkovsky | pianist
Clare Pellerin | violinist
Michael Berec | host
7:10 p.m. Prélude (pre-concert recital)
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk in the foyer of Richmond Hill Centre
Intermission discussion with Michael Berec and Michael Berkovsky
Melodies of Emotion
Saturday, May 1, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
Maestro Kristian Alexander leads the KSO through an imaginative journey of musical colour, technique and passion. Rimsky-Korsakov brings Spanish flare and expert instrumentation to his dazzling masterpiece of orchestration, Cappricio Espagnol. A champion of the works of Chopin, international award winning Spanish Bulgarian pianist, Ludmil Angelov joins the orchestra for a stellar performance of the eloquent and richly ornamented Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor by Chopin. Composed at the turn of the century, Russian composer Scriabin’s Symphony No. 2 is a lush and brooding work surely to evoke the profoundest sentiment.
Kristian Alexander | conductor
Ludmil Angelov | pianist
Michael Berec | host
7:10 p.m. Prélude (pre-concert recital)
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk in the foyer of Richmond Hill Centre
Intermission discussion with Michael Berec and Ludmil Angelov
Pärt, Górecki and Shostakovich
Saturday, May 29, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Cornell Recital Hall
3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Markham Contemporary Music Festival
A highlight to Markham’s 2021 Contemporary Music Festival, the Kindred Spirits Orchestra presents three uniquely orchestrated compositions from three unique European masters of twentieth century music. Deeply touched by his fellow composer’s death, and scored for tubular bell and string orchestra, Arvo Pärt’s Canticum in Memoriam Benjamin Britten is a mournful and meditative elegy. Commissioned by the Polish Radio for the Composers Forum in 1980, Concerto for harpsichord and string orchestra by Henryk Górecki is a relentless raging tempest in musical form. Dmitri Shostakovich’s most extraordinarily scored symphony is his Fourteenth. Written for two voices, string orchestra and percussion, this work is a profound ode to the power of suffering and death.
Kristian Alexander | conductor
Antonia de Wolfe | pianist
Stephanie DeCiantis | soprano
John Holland | bass-baritone
Michael Berec | host
Bruckner's First Symphony
Saturday, June 19, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
CBC Glenn Gould Studio
250 Front St. West., Toronto ON M5V 3G5
Kindred Spirits Orchestra returns to CBC Glenn Gould Studio for an evening of musical grace and beauty. Composed early on in his orchestral writing career, Schumann’s eloquently playful Overture, Scherzo and Finale is a light and gracefully succinct sinfonietta. Pianist Christina Petrowska-Quilico brings discipline and skill to Chinese contemporary composer Tan Dun’s New York Philharmonic commissioned score: Piano Concerto “The Fire.” Started in his early forties, Anton Bruckner periodically revised his Symphony No. 1 throughout is entire life, producing a sonorous and commanding work, akin to the composer’s mature style.
Bartosz Żurakowski | conductor
Christina Petrowska Quilico | pianist
Michael Berec | host
7:10 p.m. Prélude (pre-concert recital)
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk in the foyer of CBC Glen Gould Studio
Intermission discussion with Michael Berec and Christina Petrowska Quilico
Grace, Fire and Beauty
Friday, June 25, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
Composed early on in his orchestral writing career, Schumann’s eloquently playful Overture, Scherzo and Finale is a light and gracefully succinct sinfonietta. Pianist Christina Petrowska-Quilico brings discipline and skill to Chinese contemporary composer Tan Dun’s New York Philharmonic commissioned score: Piano Concerto “The Fire.” Started in his early forties, Anton Bruckner periodically revised his Symphony No. 1 throughout is entire life, producing a sonorous and commanding work, akin to the composer’s mature style.
Kristian Alexander | conductor
Christina Petrowska Quilico | pianist
Michael Berec | host
7:10 p.m. Prélude (pre-concert recital)
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk in the foyer of Richmond Hill Centre
Intermission discussion with Michael Berec and Christina Petrowska Quilico
Special Concerts and Events
Chinese New Year Celebration
Saturday, February 13, 2021
Markham Civic Centre (TBC)
Enjoy traditional Chinese music and celebrate the year of the Ox.
Free admission.
Unionville Canada Day Celebration
Thursday, July 1, 2021 at 8:00 p.m.
Unionville Millennium Theatre
Celebrate Canada Day with entertainment by Kindred Spirits Orchestra. Enjoy music from your favourite movies, Broadway and classical pops and prepare for a dazzling display of light, colour, and sound.
Michael Berec | conductor
Free admission.
