After his work with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, James Ehnes is looking forward to giving more intimate performances

It isn’t easy for Canucks to win Grammys — just ask Feist — but Brandon-born violinist James Ehnes pulled it off this year. His recording of concertos by Barber, Korngold and Walton with conductor Bramwell Tovey and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra picked up the Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra. The CBC Records disc is “a real Canadian project,” Ehnes says, “and that’s particularly exciting for me. It’s nice to know that it’s having an impact worldwide.”

At the age of 31, Ehnes is one of the hottest violinists in the world. Listen to his recordings, and you’ll understand why the London Times has said, “James Ehnes seems set to become one of classical music's biggest names.” He is a master of his instrument, drawing an incredible variety of sounds from his Stradivarius — from sweet whispers to gritty exclamations, you almost swear he can make it talk. Communication and establishing strong connections with his audience is very important to Ehnes. “Listening to music can be either an active experience or a passive experience,” he says. “I like my audience to be drawn into that [musical] world.”

Intimate recitals are the best venue in which to do this. While Ehnes enjoys playing concertos with orchestras all over the world, he says that recitals offer the chance to explore the full range of what a violin can do. The superb acoustics of the Rozsa Centre will be the perfect place to hear him draw gorgeous tones from his Stradivarius, made in 1715, during Stradivari’s golden period. “The instrument I get to play on is one of the great concert instruments in the world, so I’m very, very lucky,” Ehnes says.

The centrepiece of his Calgary program will be the emotional masterpiece, Brahms’s Sonata No. 1 in G Major for Piano and Violin. The three other pieces on the program may be less familiar, but no less intriguing.

The concert will begin with an elegant sonata by French Baroque composer Jean Marie Leclair, (D Major, Opus 9, No. 3). Bela Bartok’s Rhapsody No. 2 for Violin and Piano was written nearly 200 years later, and incorporates Slavic folk songs and gypsy fiddling techniques. An early work by Richard Strauss, the Sonata in E-flat Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 18 will conclude the evening.

“I like to put a lot of variety into my programs,” says Ehnes, “and I put quite a lot of thought into how they fit together. If it’s a program that I would want to go to, then I go for it.”

Ehnes will be performing with American pianist Andrew Armstrong. “I’m very excited for Calgary audiences to hear him,” Ehnes says. “He’s a wonderful artist, someone that inspires me all the time.”