| One of the world’s leading composers, a dance troupe from northern Vancouver Island, a Mozart masterpiece, music theatre that is Olympics bound and, curiously enough, a group of mathematicians, will all play a role in the 2004 Banff Summer Arts Festival taking place at The Banff Centre from July 9 to August 14.
At a recent news conference, Phil Ponting, chairman of The Banff Centre’s board of governors, invited Calgarians to "shop till you drop, culturally speaking."
With more than 80 events to choose from, the culture spree is sure to be a hectic one for those who accept Ponting’s offer.
The Banff Festival Orchestra, conducted by the famed Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, will present – surprisingly enough, for the first time ever at The Banff Centre – Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Penderecki will also introduce his Concerto Grosso, written for three cello soloists. Penderecki began his career in the avant-garde vein and then rose to fame with his first major work, St. Luke’s Passion, which premièred in 1966. His operas include Paradise Lost and Black Mask.
Christos Hatzis’s new music theatre work, Constantinople, will have a test run at The Banff Centre’s Eric Harvie Theatre in July before travelling to Greece, where it will be included as part of a cultural festival taking place in conjunction with the Olympics in Athens. The Gryphon Trio, 2004 Juno Award winners, are featured in this piece, which was originally conceived by Hatzis in 1998.
Aboriginal dance has become a staple of the Banff Summer Arts Festival and this year is no exception, with 15 members of the Gwa’wina dance troupe from near and around Alert Bay, B.C. performing Kwakwaka’wakw Symphony of Dance. A work-in-progress, the piece combines elements of traditional and contemporary dance with music developed by Gwa’wina music director William Wasden Jr. The performance will also include digital animation and video as a backdrop.
As well, Festival Dance returns with another program of work by the great George Balanchine (Divertimento No. 15) and Canadian master Brian Macdonald (Tam Ti Delam), as well as a new piece by D.A. Hoskins, winner of this year’s Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award.
Tom and Isobel Rolston will be honoured for their 40-year contribution to The Banff Centre’s music and sound programs with a tribute concert. The event will feature jazz pianist Dave Restivo, Hugh Fraser, head of The Banff Centre’s Jazz Orchestra Workshop, and Calgary’s Katherine Chi, winner of the 2000 Honens International Piano Competition.
Mozart’s comic opera The Marriage of Figaro will take over the Eric Harvie Theatre from August 11 to 14, with David Agler conducting the 45-piece Banff Festival Orchestra. This production will showcase singers from the centre’s opera as theatre summer training program, which was introduced in 2002. Stage director Kelly Robinson takes the helm of Figaro after his triumphant staging of last year’s Filumena.
And if you happen to notice a group of people wandering around The Banff Centre this summer with scientific calculators in hand, don’t worry – they’re not lost. For the second year in a row, the centre is hosting groups of international mathematicians who come together at seminars and symposia. They also take time away from theorems and algorithms to get together with artists from various disciplines to discuss how other forms of creativity can contribute to the field of mathematics.
So it seems that a cultural shopping spree isn’t the only thing being offered at the Banff Summer Arts Festival this year, but also some lessons in thinking "outside of the stage." |
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