Classical music: New Year, Evergreen style in Coquitlam
Credit to Author: Aleesha Harris| Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2019 19:00:18 +0000
When: Tuesday, Dec. 31, 8 p.m.
Where: Evergreen Cultural Centre, Coquitlam
Tickets and info:evergreenculturalcentre.ca
At New Year’s the busy, social holiday season comes to an end. Though far from as musically festive as Christmas, New Year’s Day does have its own soundtrack.
Most classical listeners know of the Vienna New Year’s concert (which is not all that old, as it happens, an idea dreamed up in 1939). Metro Vancouver has its own, much more modest but no less delightful musical tradition, QuiRing in the New Year, at Coquitlam’s Evergreen Centre.
Though far from as ubiquitous as Vienna’s annual afternoon of musical bonbons, the QuiRing program isn’t exactly a well-kept secret either. For almost two decades chamber music has been offered as a sophisticated way of seeing the old year out.
It all started when two musical couples — Reg Quiring and his wife Rosemary O’Connor, and Reg’s sister Angela and her husband Marcus Goddard — moved to the northeast quadrant of metro. “We all moved out to Coquitlam because we couldn’t afford Vancouver anymore,’ O’Connor told me recently. Musicians being musicians, the quartet decided to create some community bonds through the medium of good classical music.
“We decided to try chamber music in a local church 18 years ago,” explained O’Connor. “That turned into an annual New Year’s concert, and it went really well.”
So well, in fact, that a bigger and more professionally apt venue was needed. Though the Evergreen Centre normally closed over the holiday period, everyone decided the idea was worth a try. And it’s been going strong ever since, with this year being the 12th instalment.
“It’s become a nice tradition, which pretty much sells out every year.”
It is important to realize this isn’t a lightweight proposition; rather, it’s a proper, if slightly abbreviated, chamber music recital. “The concert ends by 10:30, and the audience can either go on to other events or stay for a reception,” noted O’Connor.
Well known in the Tri-Cities area, the Evergreen Centre, which opened in 1996, boasts a 257-seat theatre and a public art gallery, as well as a rehearsal space and other studios. It’s also one of the most accessible of all suburban venues, with no need to drive: The Evergreen Line currently ends right at the front door of the centre (and remember that transit is free on New Year’s Eve).
The holiday illuminations at Lafarge Lake are a Coquitlam tradition.
A fine program is in store, starting out with a Handel sonata adapted for viola and piano, performed by Quiring and O’Connor, then Brahms’s Piano and Violin Sonata, Op 100, featuring O’Connor and guest violinist Ian Swensen. (Swensen and his brother Joseph were featured decades ago in the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival; he’s currently on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory, and is an old friend of the Quiring team.)
Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet anchors the evening, with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra violinist Cassandra Bequary and Vancouver Opera Orchestra cellist Heather Hay helping augment the complement of performers.
A non-musical bonus is the chance to experience the holiday lights at Lafarge Lake, another Coquitlam holiday tradition. The extravagant illuminations stay on until midnight Dec. 31 for a post-concert walk.
Musical notes: Though the Orpheum isn’t Vienna’s gilded Musikverein, it’s where the local franchise for the New Year’s Concert takes place Jan. 1, 2:30 p.m. Complete with singers, dancers, and members of the Vancouver Symphony (rebranded as the Strauss Symphony of Canada), this offers all the traditional favourites. Details at vancouversymphony.ca/event/salute-to-vienna-2020/.
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