La Scena Musicale closes our 2010-11 season with this July-August issue featuring an in-depth profile of Canadian guitarist David Jacques, who is also the subject of our monthly Discovery CD (in partnership with XXI Records and offered to paying subscribers). Hot off the competition season, we meet the winners of the Prix d'Europe (pianist Charles Raymond-Hamelin) and the Montreal International Music Competition (Italian pianist Béatrice Rana). Our summer festival coverage continues with features on pianist Simone Dinnerstein, the Igudesman & Joo duo, and a look at Heinrich Marschner’s rarely performed opera Der Vampyr. Furthermore, we close our Mahler year with an article on the composer’s famed Adagietto from his Fifth Symphony.

And of course, jazz, reviews, music news and other articles on music and the arts are also found in this jam-packed issue.

Look for our third annual La SCENA Arts Directory, hitting the stands this August in a new digest format. This directory (including our annual Choir Guide) has quickly become an invaluable resource in Quebec for musicians, artists, students and their parents, and the general consumer. New this year is a guide to performance halls and venues which will help musicians and artists find the perfect rentals.

In the past year, we hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know such venerable artists as Gidon Kremer, Emanuel Ax, Phillip Addis, Michèle Losier, Marianne Fiset, Shannon Mercer, Ensemble Pentaèdre, Marie Chouinard, and Danièle Finzi Pasca through our magazine, as well as our columns and features such as our series on the el Sistema program. Perhaps you’ve used our insightful CD reviews to help you purchase recordings, or checked out our concert and festival previews and calendars to organize your musical outings.

We invite you, our readers, to participate in celebrating LSM’s 15^th anniversary this September by sending us letters telling us what LSM has meant to you (email donation@lascena.org).

In the new publishing year, we will be launching exciting new initiatives as well as bringing back some of our best ideas from the last 15 years (such as the Bring a Teen program). We will also be returning to our traditional markets in Quebec City and Ottawa. We hope you will continue to support our mission to promote music and the arts with a donation (http://dons.lascena.org) and/or by subscribing (http://www.scena.org/fs_subscription.asp).

On behalf of the La Scena team, I wish you a relaxing summer full of concerts, exhibitions and reading!