Hills come alive with music during Cascade Peaks ChamberFest in Princeton, B.C.
Inaugural festival, hosted by the Langley Community Music School, regaled attendees with rousing concerts, insightful workshops, and idyllic views
Violinist Jonathan Crow, pianist Libby Yu, and cellist Roman Borys. Photo by Wendy D Photography
FOUR DAYS OF immersive music-making and listening came to an end on Monday, as attendees of the Cascade Peaks ChamberFest packed up their rooms in RockRidge Canyon retreat centre and headed back to their real lives—no longer filled with hours of Brahms, Mozart, and Beethoven, but work deadlines, dirty dishes, and laundry. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
Created by the Langley Community Music School, the inaugural festival brought together renowned Canadian musicians—including cellist Roman Borys, clarinetist James Campbell, violinist Jonathan Crow, pianist Libby Yu, and the four members of the Borealis String Quartet (violinists Patricia Shih and Yuel Yawney, violist Nikita Pogrebnoy, and cellist Sungyong Lim)—with emerging young artists and enthusiastic amateur players (including yours truly) for an extended weekend of masterclasses, coaching sessions, and intimate concerts.
Set in a mountain valley up a gravel road near the village of Princeton, B.C., RockRidge Canyon boasts idyllic lake views, an enormous log-cabin-styled dining hall, an outdoor pool, beach volleyball, a zipline, and—as we stumbled upon—an enormous games room filled with foosball, ping-pong, and air hockey tables. If it sounds a bit like a teenager’s dream, that’s because the property is owned by the Young Life, a Christian ministry that also runs youth and family summer camps.
Not that there was much time to explore all that the locale had to offer, what with coaching sessions, rehearsal time, and concerts to attend in the 320-seat theatre—six in total, including those by the emerging artists, who ranged from high-schoolers to university graduates. Friday night’s offering featured Campbell, Borys, and Yu in a fabulous performance of Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11, by Ludwig Van Beethoven, all the more impressive given that they had only met and rehearsed it once before that day. Also on that program was an intriguingly experimental work by Maurice Ravel, Sonata for Violin and Cello, M. 73, ably performed by Crow and Borys, filled with pizzicatos, clashing rhythms, and pointed contrarianism.
RockRidge Canyon. Photo by Jessica Werb
The following night we were treated to Campbell’s dulcet, sensitive playing once again, in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, K. 481 in A major, and a lush new work, Spaces and Places by Marcel Bergmann, commissioned by the Langley Community Music School. This was followed by a bracing performance of Johann Brahms’s Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25, with Crow, Borys, Pogrebnoy, and Yu—Borys a particularly engaging performer full of smiles and bonhomie.
Closing out the professional concert series on Sunday afternoon, we were treated to Allan Gilliland’s Suite from the Sound, a three-movement jazz-inflected work originally written for for James Campbell and the St. Lawrence String Quartet. Here, the clarinetist was joined by the Borealis String Quartet in the piece that, while jazz-themed, gave him the opportunity to flex some klezmer skills in the third movement. Next, Crow and Borys joined Yu for a spirited performance of Anton Dvorak’s Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, known as the “Dumky”. Borys then joined the Borealis String Quartet in Franz Schubert’s Cello Quintet in C Major, D. 956, a rich and appropriately exuberant way to give attendees a rousing send-off. (While we “amateur artists” performed in the hall on Monday afternoon, after having received three days of valuable coaching from Yawney and Yu, the festival had, for all intents and purposes, wrapped up the previous day.)
Between the insightful coaching, lakeside strolls, cozy concerts, new friendships, and even a dazzling rainbow, chamber-music lovers would be hard pressed to find a more rewarding way to spend a few nights away from home. 
Related Articles
