Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 diverse highlights from Music on Main's Summer Pop-Up Concerts

Ouds, violins, and zhengs fill the fresh air at Mount Pleasant Park this month

By Janet Smith

Saina Khaledi and Ali Sajjadi, of the Vashaan Ensemble. Photo by Jan Gates

Music on Main presents its Summer Pop-Up Concerts from August 9 to 12 and 16 to 18 at Mount Pleasant Park.

LAST SUMMER, MUSIC on Main offered pandemic-fatigued arts fans 10 free pop-up concerts in the park—exquisite music in a safe, open-air setting for a public who had lived through months of shuttered theatres.

The program was such a hit that the organization is hosting Summer Pop-Up Concerts in Mount Pleasant Park this month again—even though the world is somewhat opened up again.

Grab a picnic, or hit one of the food trucks that will be parked nearby on certain evenings, and enjoy this year’s wide-ranging mix of strings, world instruments, and more. It’s a smashing lineup you’d normally have to buy tickets to see.

Here are just a few of the highlights to mark on the calendar. All concerts are at 6:30 pm.

#1

Paolo Bortolussi

Paolo Bortolussi (flute), Min Jee Yoon (cello), and Lani Krantz (harp)

August 9

Paolo Bortolussi, the acclaimed flutist and co-artistic director of the new music ensemble Nu:BC Collective, joins a dream trio of virtuosos in the park. Min Jee Yoon plays cello while Lani Krantz hauls her beautiful harp into the park. Magical.

Microcosmos Quartet at Summer Pop-Up Concerts last year. Photo by Jan Gates

#2

Micrcocosmos Quartet

August 10

Devoted to the repertoire of string quartets of the 20th and 21st centuries, this tight ensemble has built its own unique chemistry over the past 10 years—and it shows. The foursome is comprised of violin virtuosos Marc Destrubé and Andrea Siradze, violist Tawnya Popoff, and Cellist Rebecca Wenham—some of the top names in classical, Baroque, and new music in the city.

Bogdan Dulu

#3

Bogdan Dulu

August 12

How often do you get to see and hear a grand Fazioli piano in an East Side park, anyway? Here Dulu, who sits on the on the faculty at UBC’s School of Music, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra School of Music, and the Vancouver Academy of Music, shows his stuff at the keyboard. Music fans may know him best from his breakout appearance with the VSO in the 2017-18 season, when the Romanian-born pianist was asked by late music director,Bramwell Tovey, to step in on 20 days notice to perform the world premiere of Shalimar Variations, the maestro’s own composition for piano and orchestra.

#4

BC Chinese Music Ensemble

August 17

A chance to listen to the finest Chinese composers and the mesmerizing sounds of traditional instruments like the zheng and erhu in the park. Vocalist Bruce Bai, zheng virtuoso Dailin Hsieh, liuqin/ruan/sanxian player Geling Jiang, dizi specialist Charlie Lui, erhuist Yun Song, and suona and sheng player Zhongxi Wu perform.

Vashaan Ensemble’s Saina Khaledi and Ali Sajjadi at Mount Pleasant Park last year. Photo by Jan Gates

#5

Vashaan Ensemble

August 18

Gathering together some of the top classically trained Persian musicians in Canada, the Vashaan Ensemble takes listeners on a. journey through Iran’s rich musical heritage—until now, rarely heard in North America. Expect a broad range of traditional Persian music styles, played by santour virtuoso Saina Khaledi, tar player, setarist, and vocalist Ali Razmi, tombak and daf player Bardia Sadeghi, and oud player Ali Sajjadi.

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