22nd Brott Music Festival Offers a Wide Spectrum of Music and Great Artists: June 13- Aug. 20

Beethoven in Burlington, Mendelssohn at 200, Russian masterpieces, plus opera favorites, choral masterworks, and even jazz and rock. Big orchestral concerts and intimate recitals, musical celebrities and up-and comers.

Under the artistic direction of Boris Brott, the 22^nd Brott Music Festival has something for everyone. Between June 13 and August 20, music-lovers have at least 17 good reasons to head to the Hamilton area, and enjoy concerts in Burlington, Ancaster and the home base of Hamilton.

Details are available at www.brottmusic.com. Tickets may be ordered online or by calling 1-888-475-9377, or 905-525-SONG (7664).

As Maestro Boris Brott says, ’ÄúYou can enjoy both high tea and one of Canada’Äôs finest pianists in a lovely Mendelssohn recital. Or you can catch a band and singer joining our National Academy Orchestra for an Elton John tribute. We have music inspired by paintings, which in turn inspired new works of art. We have Beethoven concertos and fine Canadian works, opera, Gilbert and Sullivan, jazz and for a grand finale, Carl Orff’Äôs magnificent oratorio Carmina Burana, which is by turns thunderous, lusty and delicate, and always mesmerizing. And of course, an excellent array of artists from Canada, the U.S. and abroad.’Äù

A Beethoven Piano Festival at St. Christopher’Äôs Anglican Church in Burlington begins this year’Äôs Brott Music Festival. For three Saturdays in June, starting June 13, 7:30 p.m., Boris Brott conducts the National Academy Orchestra in music by Beethoven and other greats, with special guest soloists. Patrons can save 10 per cent by purchasing all three concerts online.

The National Academy Orchestra gives 45 young Canadian musicians professional orchestral experience. Joining them are leading professional musicians who serve as mentors.

Following is the schedule for an unforgettable summer music experience at the 22^nd Brott Music Festival, with locations:

Saturday, June 13, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Lisiecki Plays Beethoven

St. Christopher’Äôs Anglican Church, 662 Guelph Line (at New Street), Burlington

Fourteen-year old prodigy Jan Lisiecki (www.janlisiecki.com) joins Boris Brott and the NAO for Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3. The program includes the composer’Äôs rousing Symphony No. 2. Tickets: $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Saturday, June 20, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì A Fifth of Beethoven

St. Christopher’Äôs Anglican Church, 662 Guelph Line (at New Street), Burlington

Pianist Valerie Tryon (www.artset.net/ValerieTryon.html) performs Franck’Äôs Variations Symphoniques and a piano concerto by Hamilton composer David Fawcett. Beethoven’Äôs immortal Fifth Symphony rounds out this program. $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Saturday, June 27, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Mendelssohn Meets Beethoven

St. Christopher’Äôs Anglican Church, 662 Guelph Line (at New Street), Burlington

The Festival marks the 200^th anniversary of Mendelssohn’Äôs birth as Hamilton pianist Shoshana Telner (www.shoshanatelner.com) ’Äì whom Hamilton Magazine calls one of the city’Äôs ’Äúmost fascinating people and inspired individuals’Äù ’Äì plays the composer’Äôs Piano Concerto No. 1. Boris Brott and the NAO also play Beethoven’Äôs Symphony No. 7. $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Saturday, July 4, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Manoukian Plays Beethoven
Mohawk College, McIntyre Theatre, 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5^th), Hamilton
Beethoven continues in Hamilton as violinist Catherine Manoukian (www.catherinemanoukian.com) returns to the Festival to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Also on the program is Tchaikovsky’Äôs Symphony No. 4. $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Sunday, July 5, 3 p.m. ’Äì High Tea with Shoshana Telner

Adas Israel Synagogue, 125 Cline Ave. S., Hamilton

Pianist Shoshana Telner returns to serve up an afternoon of piano favourites, including Chopin’Äôs Nocturne, Op. 27 No. 2, Bartok’Äôs Rumanian Folk Dances, Alexina Louie’Äôs Memories in an Ancient Garden and Liszt’Äôs Venezia e Napoli. Tea is served at intermission. $40 $35 seniors and students

Thursday, July 9, 8 p.m. ’Äì The Gryphon Trio Plays Mendelssohn

Christ`s Church Cathedral, 252 James St. North, Hamilton

Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin; Roman Borys, cello; Jamie Parker, piano
The extraordinary musicianship of the Gryphon Trio (www.gryphontrio.com) is on display in Christos Hatzis’Äô Old Photographs, Chan Ka Nin’Äôs ... and the masks evoke..., Mendelssohn’Äôs Trio in D minor and a seductive selection of Piazzola tangos. $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Saturday, July 11, 8 p.m. ’Äì Pictures At An Exhibition

Christ’Äôs Church Cathedral, 252 James St. North, Hamilton

Mussorgsky’Äôs brilliant Pictures at an Exhibition has inspired 10 new works of art by local artists ’Äì one for each of Pictures’Äô movements. They will be unveiled this evening, and projected behind the orchestra as it performs. The NAO and Maestro Brott complete the musical tableau with Harry Freedman’Äôs Images and Respighi’Äôs Trittico Botticelliano (Botticelli Triptych). $25 $20 seniors $10 students

ART CRAWL NOTE: NAO players will be playing in galleries in downtown Hamilton as part of the James North Art Crawl, Friday, July 10 between 7 and 11 p.m. Free admission.

Wednesday, July 15, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Beethoven’Äôs Emperor

Mohawk College, McIntyre Theatre, 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5^th), Hamilton
Acclaimed pianist Sara Davis Buechner (www.sarabuechner.com) performs Beethoven’Äôs Piano Concerto No. 5 (’ÄúEmperor’Äù). Boris Brott and the NAO also play Dvorak’Äôs cheery, folk-inspired Symphony No. 8 in G and Michael Parker’Äôs Shanadithit, a 1983 composition inspired by Native Canadian folklore. $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Saturday, July 18, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Gilbert & Sullivan Go to the Proms!
Mohawk College, McIntyre Theatre, 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5^th), Hamilton
Arcady Singers and NAO; Brian Jackson, guest conductor
British operetta meets Proms highlights and hijinks in arias, duets and ensemble pieces from The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore and other G&S creations. Guest conductor Brian Jackson leads the Arcady Singers (www.arcady.ca) and the audience in such favorites as Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia. $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Wednesday, July 22, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Russian Romantics

Mohawk College, McIntyre Theatre, 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5^th), Hamilton
Wonny Song, piano (http://wonnysong.com); Martin MacDonald, guest conductor

Wonny Song (winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York, and the 2003 Prix d’ÄôEurope in Canada) plays Rachmaninoff’Äôs enduringly popular Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor with Maestro Brott and the NAO. Conductor Martin MacDonald (a former NAO associate conductor) returns from Symphony Nova Scotia to conduct Rimsky-Korsakov’Äôs Russian Easter Overture and Tchaikovsky’Äôs Symphony No. 2 in C minor (’ÄúLittle Russian’Äù). $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Tuesday, July 28, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Cerovsek Plays Tchaikovsky

Mohawk College, McIntyre Theatre, 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5^th), Hamilton
Sensational violinist Corey Cerovsek makes his Brott Festival debut, performing the scintillating Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D minor. Maestro Brott & the NAO perform Elgar’Äôs Enigma Variations, and a work based on Canada’Äôs only connection to the great Beethoven ’Äì his father Alexander Brott’Äôs Paraphrase in Polyphony. The piece is based on a canon written by Beethoven and discovered on a document signed by Beethoven and dedicated to the Quebec music teacher composer Theodore Molt (1795-1856), who visited Beethoven in Vienna. $25 $20 seniors $10 students

(A bio on Corey Cerovsek is at www.mi.sanu.ac.yu/vismath/cerovsek/co7.htm. The National Library of Canada documents the Molt-Beethoven-Brott connection, with information and a picture of the Beethoven’Äôs composition, at http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/301/bulletin_nlc/2003/no4/p2-0403-01-e.html.)

Thursday, July 30, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Jeans n Classics: Tribute to Elton John

Mohawk College, McIntyre Theatre, 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5^th), Hamilton
Jeans n Classics Band (drums, bass, piano and singer), Jean Meilleur, lead vocals; John Regan, vocals and piano

In an energetic fusion of symphonic rock, the band Jeans ’Äôn Classics (www.jeansnclassics.com) returns by popular demand to perform some of the Rocket Man’Äôs greatest hits, including Tiny Dancer, Bennie & The Jets and I’Äôm Still Standing. Those who attended last year’Äôs Queen tribute know the young and exuberant NAO loves to rock! $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Sunday, August 2, 3 p.m. ’Äì High Tea with Giampiero Sobrino

St. John’Äôs Anglican Church, 272 Wilson St. E., Ancaster

Famed Italian clarinettist Giampiero Sobrino returns to the Festival, performing Mozart Clarinet Concerto, Rossini’Äôs Variations for Clarinet and Mendelssohn’Äôs jolly Symphony No. 4 ’ÄúItalian’Äù. Traditional High Tea is served at intermission. $40 $35 seniors and students

Thursday, August 6, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Opera Favourites

Mohawk College, McIntyre Theatre, 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5^th), Hamilton
Sinead Sugrue and Michele Bogdanowicz, sopranos; Mia Lennox-Williams, mezzo-soprano; Edgardo Ramirez, tenor; Alexander Hajek, baritone

The Festival’Äôs superb selection of the world’Äôs best loved operatic arias and duets has become an audience favourite. Tragedy and ecstasy spring to life in highlights from La Bohˆ®me, Carmen and many more. $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Saturday, August 15, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Hot Jazz: A Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald & Oscar Peterson

Mohawk College, McIntyre Theatre, 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5^th), Hamilton
Darcy Hepner Jazz Orchestra; Sophia Perlman, singer

Ella Fitzgerald was known as ’ÄúThe First Lady of Song.’Äù Duke Ellington called Oscar Peterson the ’ÄúMaharaja of the keyboard.’Äù Jazz saxophonist Darcy Hepner (www.darcyhepner.com) and his 16-piece jazz orchestra and Sophia Perlman, a singer who scats like Lady Ella, celebrate the legacy of these two legends. From Peterson’Äôs Canadiana Suite to such Ella hits as How High the Moon and Satin Doll, it’Äôs a jazz lover’Äôs dream concert. $25 $20 seniors $10 students

Sunday, August 16, 3 p.m. ’Äì High Tea with Valerie Tryon

St. John’Äôs Anglican Church, 272 Wilson St. E., Ancaster

Pianist Valerie Tryon, a Festival favorite, performs an all-Mendelssohn program to mark the 200^th anniversary of the composer’Äôs birth. She has selected Variations Sˆ©rieuses, Songs Without Words, Andante and Rondo Capriccioso and other works to perform. Traditional High Tea served at intermission. $40 $35 seniors and students

Thursday, August 20, 7:30 p.m. ’Äì Carmina Burana

Mohawk College, McIntyre Theatre, 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5^th), Hamilton

National Academy Orchestra conducted by Boris Brott; Leslie Fagan, soprano; John MacMaster, tenor; Peter McGillivray, baritone; Arcady Singers, Brott Music Festival Choir
Carl Orff’Äôs choral masterpiece Carmina Burana stuns the senses and runs the musical gamut with bawdy drinking songs, exquisite soprano solos and the overwhelming O Fortuna chorus.

Canadian tenor John MacMaster opens with three great tenor arias. The 2009 Festival and NAO take their final bows with Richard Strauss’Äôs virtuosic tone poem Don Juan. $25 $20 seniors $10 students