Sisu – Celebrating the Finnish Labour Temple
05 March 2022 - 7:30 pm Digital Stream
This chamber performance features beautiful works by some of our favourite Finnish composers. The evening starts with Sibelius’ Voces Intimidae, then moves to Rubstov’s Three Moods, before closing with Rautavaara’s Quartettino.
Featuring
Heather Kilborn, flute; Colleen Kennedy, oboe; David Boutin-Bourque, clarinet; Janelle Wiebe, horn; Daniel Preun, bassoon; Thomas Cosbey and Lindsey Herle, violins; Geena Salway, viola; Marc Palmquist, cello
The String Quartet, “Voces intimae,” was composed in winter 1908-09, between the Third and Fourth Symphonies and during a time of health and financial crises. One of the last pieces he wrote on a four-year contract with the publisher Robert Lienau, it was premiered in Berlin in January 1910.
Andrey Rubtsov first came to public attention in 2004 when he conducted two piano concertos by J.S. Bach, with the Russian National Orchestra and soloist Mikhail Pletnev. In addition to conducting, performing and recording, Rubtsov devotes much of his time to composition. His Three Moods has become a standard piece in the repertoire for wind quintet, having been performed by more than 35 quintets all over the world.
Einojuhani Rautavaara’s first string quartet (composed in 1952) is from his Neo-Classical early period when he composed only little chamber music. Since then Rautavaara’s style has gone through dodecaphony to freer style beginning in the late 1960s and resulted in multi-faceted and versatile chamber music.

Beethoven Septet
26 February 2022 - 7:30 pm Digital Stream
It’s been said that Beethoven never quite forgave the Septet for its enormous popularity. There’s no doubt why music lovers admire it so much. Join us and listen to the charming serenade and wide range of ever-changing instrumental textures and combinations.
Featuring
David Boutin-Bourque, clarinet; Janelle Wiebe, horn; Kristy Tucker, bassoon; Thomas Cosbey, violin; Patrick Horn, viola; Daniel Parker, cello; Martin Blanchet, bass
In the septet, Beethoven combines the winds and strings in two ways. In some sections, he divides the ensemble into two groups, each with a leader. Thus, the strings are led by the violin and the winds by the clarinet. As a result, the septet often sounds like a chamber concerto for two instruments. In other sections, Beethoven allows each of the instruments, with one exception, to express its characteristic tone quality through solo passages. The exception is the double bass, which is used throughout to provide a harmonic foundation.

Family Day Stories
21 February 2022 - 3:30 pm Digital Stream
It’s story time with Glen Paterson and some of the TBSO’s talented wind and brass players! Gather the whole family for this special afternoon concert!
Luciano Berio: Opus Number Zoo
Darius Milhaud: La cheminée du roi René , Op. 205
Featuring
Glen Paterson, narrator; Penny Clarke, flute; Colleen Kennedy, oboe; E-Chen Hsu, clarinet; Damian Rivers-Moore, horn; Dan Preun, bassoon
Berio’s Opus Number Zoo tells a rhythmic story about the history of music, while Milhaud’s La cheminée du roi René is one of the most popular chamber suites of the twentieth century.

Love is in the Air
14 February 2022 - 7:30 pm Digital Stream
The TBSO has a special treat for you this Valentine’s Day. Cozy up close with a loved one and enjoy listening to works from Ravel, Coleman, Tchaikovsky, and Montgomery.
Maurice Ravel: Tombeau de Couperin
Valerie Coleman: Umoja
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 1, mvt. 2
Jessie Montgomery: Strum
Featuring
Penelope Clarke, flute; Gwendolyn Buttemer, oboe; E-Chen Hsu, clarinet; Damian Rivers-Moore, horn; Daniel Preun, bassoon; Kathlyn Stevens and Michelle Zapf-Bélanger, violins; Marlena Pellegrino, viola; Marc Palmquist, cello
This performance opens with Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, which was originally written for solo piano. It’s six movements were dedicated to various friends lost in combat during the War. It wasn’t until a few years later when Ravel selected four of the suite’s movements for orchestral arrangements, dropping the original second and sixth movements and re-ordering those that remained.
Next, you’ll hear Coleman’s Umojax, which premiered in 2019. Umoja means unity in Swahili — arcs from serene peace to racing tension before emerging in sunlit joy. Coleman is not primarily an orchestral composer but her work is a powerhouse of emotional directness and bold orchestration.
Then, followed by the second movement of Tchaikovsky’s first chamber composition, String Quartet No.1. Consistently appreciated since its debut, the quartet contains one of Classical music’s greatest hits, and, according to Tchaikovsky’s own diary, it moved Tolstoy to tears.
We end the night with Montgomery’s Strum. The piece begins with what Montgomery calls “fleeting nostalgia.” Melodies weave in, over and between layers of strumming. Several minutes in, the music shifts, “transforming into ecstatic celebration.”

Newly appointed Order of Canada awardee, and Juno nominated composer, John Estacio, has been a Canadian staple in classical music for decades, being one of Canada’s most frequently performed and commissioned composers. Estacio says Such Sweet Sorrow was written while his life was in a state of flux, complete with a change of living location, a change in personal life, a change of jobs, and a change in the people with whom he socially interacted. In retrospect, he assumes that work was composed to serve as a security blanket as he plowed through into a new life. This piece is a personal and melancholic requiem for the life he left behind.
Born in 1887 in Little Rock, Ark., Florence Price is noted as the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer. After her death in 1953, most of her music was lost and forgotten. Due to her race and gender, historians and archivists did not see the value in her compositions, and many of her transcripts were packed and stored away without further thought. It wasn’t until 2009, when boxes of manuscripts were uncovered in Price’s summer home by the new owners, that her music saw the light of day once more. Her Piano Quintet in A minor is believed to be written around the same time as her Symphony in E minor and Piano Sonata; the fourth movement of the quintet and the third movement of her piano sonata share the same theme, indicated they were composed during the same era.
John Estacio: Such Sweet Sorrow
Thomas Cosbey, Lindsey Herle, Michelle Zapf-Bélanger, Christopher Stork, Kimberly Durflinger, and Madonna Lee, violins; Marlena Pellegrino and Geena Salway, violas; Marc Palmquist and Daniel Parker, cellos, Martin Blanchet, bass
Florence Price: Piano Quintet in A minor
Christina Faye, piano; Thomas Cosbey and Christopher Stork, violins; Marlena Pellegrino, viola; Marc Palmquist, cello
THIS IS A FREE CONCERT AND DOES NOT REQUIRE A TICKET

The Martin Blanchet Jazz Quintet returns once again to bring you this jazz-inspired virtual performance. Featuring several pieces written by Django Reinhardt, who was the first hugely influential jazz figure to emerge from Europe and remains one of the most influential Europeans to this day, plus other favourites like Myron’s Blue Drag, Leclerc’s Le Petit Bonheur, and Shostakovich’s Waltz No.2. This live-streamed concert will be sure to captivate your attention from start to finish.
Martin Blanchet, bass and vocals; Kathlyn Stevens, violin; E-Chen Hsu, clarinet; Kevin Brohman, drums; Mario Potestio, guitar
THIS IS A FREE CONCERT AND DOES NOT REQUIRE A TICKET

We have a special treat for you this Saturday evening!
We'll be releasing a digital recording of our Having a Lark concert on Saturday, January 15th!
This performance featured the long-awaited return of Music Director Paul Haas and a violin solo by our breathtakingly talented Thomas Cosbey.
The performance opens with the TBSO players celebrating one of J.S Bach's most famous and beloved works, Brandenburg Concerto No. 1. Then soloist and TBSO concertmaster Thomas Cosbey soars in Vaughan Williams' mesmerizing A Lark Ascending. The evening closes with Mozart's "Linzer" Symphony for chamber orchestra, a later work full of the grace and energy that define his style.
View the concert on our website www.tbso.ca