Alberni Classical Concerts Society

Alberni Classical Concerts Society The Alberni Classical Concert Society brings world class musicians to Port Alberni to perform 3 - 4 classical concerts per year.

A subscription costs $100 for the full series of concerts. No individual concert tickets are sold.

11/09/2025

Up until last night I felt secure, even a bit smug, about my choice of Classical music being my favourite music - fulfilling my need for music that has stood the test of time, music that brings me to tears and makes my heart full to the brim with joy. For me there's nothing better than the amazing instrumental facility, the liquid tone, the perfect pitch and finally chosen dynamics shown by those musicians who have been studying their instrument since childhood. Because I've tried to get there myself I know what a long and arduous road it is, and just wanting it is not enough.

Up until last night I felt secure, even a bit superior, until Payadora came to town. I found that concert shattering. It made me want to cry, "Wait a minute. I've been looking in the wrong direction most of my life!"

The Payadora musicians have all the facility, tone, pitch, dynamics and something more. Their music is so human, - full of emotion, drama, joy and pathos. Whole conversations are delivered in a pause, in the joy of a dance step, in a saucy comment made over the bridge of the violin, the slide and thump of the bass, the big chords of the piano and the squeeze of the bandoneon.

Western European music is reserved and keeps its emotions in check. It rarely makes a scene, although it can certainly wind a person up. Music reflects the language and the culture of the people who write it. Western European music is organized and there are rules, forms and protocols.

Payadora played music with so much heart and warmth that I realized I should have learned Spanish. I should have learned to Tango and Samba. Fighting, teasing, crying and laughing should have been more acceptable. I feel shaken by the difference.

I should have looked South.

10/04/2025

What a great concert to start off our 2026 - 2027 season! Elizabeth and Marcel Bergmann brought friends, Jasper Wood and Sungyong Lim, to play a program entitled Pocket Symphonies!

Imagine a time before electricity or any of our current technology, when entertainment for the well-to-do was to gather their friends and instruments to play through the condensed scores of the music of the great musicians of the time. Some of these scores have survived the intervening 200 - 300 years.

And so it was that our first concert featured well known orchestral works by Mendelssohn, Debussy, Brahms and Beethoven - for 4 musicians. In the hands of strong, talented musicians such as the Bergmann Duo, Wood, and Lim the larger works do not lose their essential musicality, passion and energy.

Kodaly's beautiful Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 was added as a wonderful, unusual contrasting piece. It was enjoyable to hear the themes being passed between the violin and 'cello - sounding so much like a conversation moving from questioning to agreement.

Our next concert will be November 7, at 7:00 P.M. at Arrowsmith Baptist Church.

03/09/2025

What a great way to end our 2024 - 2025 Alberni Classical Concerts season. Tom Allen told us a story about the life of J.S. Bach, before he was famous. The story, A Long Walk in the Snow, was "based upon fact" as they say in the movies, and filled in with details of "what may have happened, and what came next," accompanied by the music of J.S. Bach (sort of). Allen played trombone, and narrated the story, while harpist Lori Gemmell, musicians Dave Harding on Viola, Leslie Dala on Piano and Shruti Ramani, Voice, provided the music. The audience enjoyed the experience immensely. From intermission on there was a thread of happy excitement bubbling through the crowd, and the standing ovation was heartfelt.

Subscriptions to the Alberni Classical Concerts Society's 9th season are now on sale, from any board member. The price is $125 for 4 concerts and tickets are transferable if you cannot attend.

We hope to see you there at our first concert on October 3rd, 2025.

01/28/2025

Saturday's concert featured Duo Concertante, a violin/piano duo from Newfoundland/Labrador. Nancy Dahn (violin) and Timothy Steeves (piano) are remarkable musicians, who have performed around the world in all the big concert halls. They have won several JUNO awards and CBC's top classical recording award of 2020. In Newfoundland they are the co-Artistic Directors of the annual Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival, and maintain a busy schedule of touring, teaching and encouraging young musicians and composers.

The second piece, Iridescence, was written for them by a composition student, Luis Ramirez. The piece sketched the life of a bubble as it stretched, shone with colour, bobbed in the air and finally swelled and burst.

Amanda Maier's Sonata in B Minor was a remarkable piece written by a female composer who only produced 6 pieces before she married and stopped composing. It was a remarkable, emotional, lush, Romantic work. What a loss to us all that she did not leave a larger collection of pieces, and how wonderful to have her work performed and kept alive by Duo Concertante!

The second half of the program, the Sonata in A Minor, by Cesar Franck was dynamic, demanding, lyrical and has been described as the stages of a marriage. The piece was a gift from Franck to friends on their wedding. The technical and musical skill displayed by Duo Concertante was remarkable and brought the audience to it's feet in a standing ovation.

I am grateful to our business sponsors, the City of Port Alberni, The British Columbia Arts Council, bclive, our subscribers and our board for working together to bring such amazing talent to Port Alberni.

The last concert in this season is March 8, J.S. Bach - A Long Walk In The Snow. Tom Allen will narrate a little known story from the famous composer's life, accompanied by some of B.C.'s finest chamber musicians. There will be tickets at the door for $50 for those without a subscription.

We hope to have tickets and rack cards available for our 2025 - 2026 season. Subscriptions are $125 for 4 concerts.

Our November 8th concert featured classical guitarist Jacob Cordover. The program was mostly modern - by composers born ...
11/10/2024

Our November 8th concert featured classical guitarist Jacob Cordover. The program was mostly modern - by composers born in the 1940s and 1950s. Thankfully it is music that is lyrical and touches the emotions.
I find that I need to hear new music more than once to develop an understanding of its themes and how a piece moves ahead and then circles back on itself.
I went to Cordover's website and listened to Carlo Domeniconi's Koyunbaba Suite for Guitarre Op19 again and was even more impressed with Cordover's technique. In the Presto he sounds as if he has 4 hands - fast, accurate, no string noise, strong dynamic changes, and a theme that stands out against a constant thrum.
Cordover commands the stage, connects with his audience and then holds them safely in his hands while weaving a story with music. No one moves until the strings are released. This concert was a gift. Listen to Koyunbaba again.
https://www.jacobcordover.com/video.html

Island Chamber Winds at Arrowsmith Church in Port Alberni, October 6, 2024.
10/07/2024

Island Chamber Winds at Arrowsmith Church in Port Alberni, October 6, 2024.

10/07/2024

Island Chamber Winds put on an amazing concert in Port Alberni, Sunday, October 6. The woodwind ensemble, conducted by Ben Litzcke, is a fluid group that is built around the music chosen for each performance. They choose modern, rarely performed music, often composed by female composers, who have been neglected over the centuries of published music.

I have to admit that I expected to love the Beethoven Rondino the best of the 6 works, but that didn't turn out to be the case - which surprised me.

The first piece, by Judith Bailey, I couldn't process. It seemed to whiz by and I just couldn't catch on. I felt worried that I was too old for this music!

However I enjoyed the Divertimento by Gordon Jacob, perhaps because I played pieces by that composer in my youth.

The third work, Five Elements, by Yunfei Li (another female composer) was lyrical and descriptive and made me feel more relaxed about listening to such modern music. (The oldest piece was written in 1968, aside from the Beethoven Rondino from 1793.)

Ben Litzcke is a charming and informative speaker. He is so enthused about the musicians, the composers and discovering "lost" music that the audience was intrigued and willing to fill in the surveys after the concert.

The eight musicians are obviously at the top of their game - beautiful tone, perfect tuning, fast fingers, blending, soloing and tossing melodies around the group with ease. What a treat to see 2 oboes, 2 French horns, 2 bassoons, and 2 clarinets!

Beethoven's Rondino, I'm sorry to say, sounded like background dinner music to me - which gave my heart a little squeeze. (Not the fault of the musicians!)

I enjoyed the Ruth Gipps Wind Octet Op. 65 and I'm glad that her music is being re-discovered.

My favourite piece of the concert was Igor Bazlik's Four Pieces for Wind Octet. Litzcke heard this piece on Youtube, and contacted other musicians to find the hand written parts and have them printed. This performance was the North American premiere, for which we are grateful.

This was a great start to our 2024 - 2025 Concert Season.

Address

4283 Glenside Road
Port Alberni, BC

Telephone

+12507235407

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