Vivaldi’Äôs Four Seasons with the VSO and Elizabeth Wallfisch

Vancouver BC ’Äì Vivaldi’Äôs Four Seasons is a timeless classic and a staple of the Holiday season. This year, Elizabeth Wallfisch will lead the orchestra from the violin in her interpretation of the piece, as well as chamber works by Purcell and Handel. Additionally, VSO Principal Oboist Roger Cole will be featured in Bach’Äôs Concerto for Oboe d'amore in A Major. The concerts take place on December 18^th and 19^th at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts and Massey Theatre in New Westminster on December 21^st for one performance at 7:30pm.

Elizabeth Wallfisch is in demand world-wide as a soloist on both modern and period instruments, and as leader directing from her instrument. Her playing has taken her from the Lincoln Center in New York, where she led the Orchestra of the Enlightenment in the opening concert of the 2003 Handel Festival, to Zimbabwe, where she appeared as soloist with the Harare Symphony Orchestra. Libby - as she is universally known - proves herself time and again as a favourite with both audiences and orchestras because of her superb instrumental abilities, her generous and sparkling personality and her impeccable musicianship.

Vivaldi’Äôs Four Seasons is one of the most popular works ever written. Vivaldi played a significant role in many important music developments, most notably the rise of the concerto. He wrote over five hundred concerti for various instruments, the most popular of those being for the violin. Vivaldi was paid the tremendous compliment of having Johannes Sebastian Bach transcribe many of his concerti. The Four Seasons are of course Vivaldi’Äôs most enduringly popular works, probably due both to their exceptional quality and the programmatic, or descriptive, nature of the music. Vivaldi made pioneering efforts in the area of descriptive composition, and was explicit to a greater degree than any of his other compositions in terms of his elaborate description of what the music portrays. The Four Seasons has become an iconic work, standing alongside the likes of Beethoven’Äôs 9^th as the most recognized and loved music ever written.

CONCERT INFO

Friday and Saturday, December 18 and 19, 8pm, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC

Monday, December 21, 7:30pm, Massey Theatre

Vivaldi’Äôs Four Seasons

Elizabeth Wallfisch, conductor/violin

Roger Cole, oboe d’Äôamore

Purcell Abdelazar, Z.570: Suite

Handel Concerto Grosso, Op 6, No. 9, HWV 327, in F Major

JS Bach Concerto for Oboe d'amore in A major, BMV 1055

Vivaldi The Four Seasons

Wonderful violinist and Baroque conductor Elizabeth Wallfisch leads from the violin in a program that includes Bach’Äôs deliciously beautiful Concerto for Oboe d’Äôamore ’Äì with VSO Principal Oboist Roger Cole taking a solo turn ’Äì and Vivaldi’Äôs timeless classic The Four Seasons, which has stayed on the top of the charts for over two hundred and eighty years.

The presentation of this series is made possible in part through the generous assistance of the Chan Centre for Performing Arts of the University of British Columbia.

Bach & Beyond Series Endowed By: The Chan Foundation of Canada

Bach & Beyond Series Radio Sponsor: CHQM-FM

Tickets for December 18^th & 19^th: $35 - $62.50 (senior, student and subscriber discounts available)

Tickets for December 21^st: $28 - $37 (senior, student and subscriber discounts available)

Tickets available online at www.vancouversymphony.ca or by calling VSO customer service at 604.876.3434

BIOGRAPHIES

Elizabeth Wallfisch, leader/violin

The violin gives Elizabeth Wallfisch a voice not only as a prominent interpreter of baroque and classical repertoire but also as the instrument of an inspiring leader and director. Always grounded in period performance practice, Libby - as she is universally known - proves herself time and again as a favourite with both audiences and orchestras because of her superb instrumental abilities, her generous and sparkling personality and her impeccable musicianship.

She is in demand world-wide as a soloist on both modern and period instruments, and as leader directing from her instrument. Her playing has taken her from the Lincoln Center in New York, where she led the Orchestra of the Enlightenment in the opening concert of the 2003 Handel Festival, to Zimbabwe, where she appeared as soloist with the Harare Symphony Orchestra (and brass band from the local police department!) in a rendition of Brahms' Violin Concerto. She has appeared with and directed Les Musiciens de Louvre, Tafelmusik, Apollo's Fire, L'Orfeo Barokorchester, Hanover Band, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Baroque and many others. For 15 years she has been the concert master of the prestigious Carmel Bach Festival in California. In January 2007 she was the Music Director of National Music Camp Australia.

Elizabeth Wallfisch's long and impressive discography offers a window onto her expansive musical world. From the High Baroque Italian violinist-composers such as Vivaldi, Corelli, Veracini, Tartini, Geminiani and the Classical and Romantic greats from Mozart to Mendelssohn, she also embraces the music of their lesser-known contemporaries such as Myslivecek and Abel. She has explored the music of Paganini and Viotti and has recorded most of the music of the great Baroque tradition, from the earliest Italian violin music of Cima, to Biber, Telemann, Bach and the rich, sensual music of the French Baroque. She has recently recorded Vivaldi's L'Estro Armonico with Tafelmusik in Toronto, to be released in September 2007. Future guest-directing engagements include the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Music of the Baroque Orchestra in Chicago, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Vancouver and the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester.

Elizabeth has collaborated with ensembles such as the Purcell Quartet, Convivium (formerly Locatelli Trio) and now the 'Wallfisch Band'. With Jaap ter Linden and David Breitman she has formed the Oberlin Fortepiano Trio, exploring the languages of Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms on period instruments.

Elizabeth Wallfisch also teaches at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. So far she has published one treatise, specifically on fundamental aspects of baroque violin playing: The Art of Playing Chin-Off for the Brave and the Curious, published by King's Music.

Roger Cole, oboe

Roger Cole has been principal oboist of the Vancouver Symphony and the CBC Radio Orchestra since 1976. He received his early musical training in Seattle, Washington and went on to become a scholarship student at Yale University and The Juilliard School where he studied with the renowned American oboist, Robert Bloom.

Mr. Cole has participated in summer music festivals at Aspen, Tanglewood,and Marlboro. Since 1998 he has been the principal oboist of the Carmel Bach Festival in California and in June 2003 Mr. Cole was named Music Director and Senior Orchestra Conductor of the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra.

He performs regularly in solo and chamber music recitals and has appeared as soloist with the VSO and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra many times. He has recorded a CD for CBC Records entitled "The Expressive Oboe".

Mr. Cole currently teaches at the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Academy of Music.