Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 things to know about Vetta Chamber Music’s French Connections concert

The program features works by Gabriel Fauré and Jean Françaix for a certain “je ne sais quoi”

By Gail Johnson

Hung-Wei Huang.

Vetta Chamber Music presents French Connections on January 24 at West Point Grey United Church, January 25 at Kay Meek Arts Centre, January 26 at Pyatt Hall, and January 27 at ArtSpring on Salt Spring Island

VETTA CHAMBER MUSIC is looking to France for inspiration for the third concert in its 2024-25 season. French Connections takes place at various venues from January 24 to 27. Here are five things to know about the upcoming performance.

#1

The program features three works

Audiences will hear Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op.15; Jean Françaix’s String Trio in C major; and Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K. 478. (Mozart spent time in Paris in his teens during a time of musical exploration and growth.)

“I always love everything French,” Vetta artistic director Joan Blackman tells Stir. “Fauré has that French atmosphere, but he respects the classical and Romantic traditions of composition, and he flirts with the edges of tradition and that atmospheric dreamy quality, the “je ne sais quoi”. [Pianist] Jane Coop and I decided on this fave from the start.

“What else to play with Fauré but the Mozart G minor Piano Quartet? Another composer that couldn’t help but leap out of the constricted rules,” says the violinist. “It is written in G minor, his ‘key of fate’, but other than the unison call to attention at the beginning of the first movement and perhaps the melancholic slow movement, the whole piece has a sparkly sunny disposition. 

“To give Jane Coop a break, I chose to feature the strings in the quirky Françaix Trio,” Blackman adds. “Virtuosic, at times silly, and certainly humorous, this work will be a refreshing palate cleanser between the two piano quartet works.”

#2

Coop has earned Juno nominations for three of her 16 recordings

A member of the Order of Canada, Coop has performed with the Manhattan, Miami, Audubon, Orford, Lafayette, Colorado, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Pacifica String Quartets. Having played all across Canada, she has also performed in more than 20 countries, in venues such as the Bolshoi Hall in St. Petersburg, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, the Beijing Concert Hall, and the Salle Gaveau in Paris.

#3

The concert features violist Hung-Wei Huang

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, violist Hung-Wei Huang was seven years old when he began music lessons, going on to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, then The Juilliard School and the Mannes School of Music in New York. In 2002, Huang became the youngest-ever principal viola of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra before he went on to play with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He has served as guest principal viola of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed chamber music at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and the Kennedy Center, and at the Marlboro, Santa Fe, and Great Mountain Festivals. In 2021, he joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as principal viola.

#4

Also performing is guest cellist Henry Shapard

Shapard was appointed principal cello of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 2020 at age 21. Before joining the VSO, he was principal cello of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. He graduated with distinction from Yale University with a history degree in 2020 and was principal cello of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, where he also served as assistant conductor. He has performed across Germany and Denmark as a member of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. As part of his work as a professional musician, Shapard does outreach at prisons, taking music to incarcerated individuals.

“I've found the amount of them who said ‘I wanted to play an instrument, but my school’s music program was cut’ or ‘I wanted to play an instrument, but my family could not afford lessons’ has made me think a lot about barriers to entry to the arts and how, you know, there’s plenty of money available for incarceration, but very little money available for the arts,” Shapard told Stir. “And I am surprised by the amount of personal stories people have told me about how they felt if they had had music be a part of their life—not even just at difficult times but before that, growing up—that they could have been set on a different path. And that has made a strong impression on me. That’s why I go to work or go to play for incarcerated people because everybody deserves to have the arts be a part of their life.”

#5

Critics have praised Blackman’s performances

Blackman, former associate concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, plays regularly with the VSO, Vancouver Opera, Turning Point Ensemble, and various other musical ensembles across B.C. She also curates the summer festival of the Pender Harbour Music Society. Critics have lauded her performances with praise such as “a ravishing tone”, “shapelier phrases and sweeter tone”, “playing with lyricism, precision, and evident joy” while she has been called a “first-rate soloist” for her “flawless performance” and “meltingly exchanged lines”.  

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