Vetta Chamber Music goes for baroque with all-woman ensemble in Vivaldi's Orchestra
Twelve artists take to the stage for the organization’s ambitious upcoming live performance, A Baroque Concertofest!, which includes Corelli’s Christmas Concerto
Among the artists joining Joan Blackman (left) in the all-woman ensemble for Vetta Chamber Music’s next concert is Meaghan Williams, bass.
Vetta Chamber Music presents Vivaldi’s Orchestra—A Baroque Concertofest! December 3 at 2 pm at West Point Grey United Church; December 4 at 7:30 pm and December 5 at 2 pm at Pyatt Hall; and December 6 at 7:30 pm at ArtSpring on Salt Spring Island; digital stream available.
IN 18th-CENTURY VENICE, an all-woman musical ensemble flourished under the guidance of Antonio Vivaldi at Ospedale della Pietà, a charitable institution that taught music to girls. Born in 1678, the legendary composer was 25 when he was ordained a Catholic priest and joined the staff as master of violin, working his way up to concertmaster. He wrote countless compositions during his time there, including concertos for violin and cello. Vancouver’s Vetta Chamber Music is echoing the all-woman group that drew audiences from across Europe with its next concert, Vivaldi’s Orchestra—A Baroque Concertofest!
Vetta’s 12 chamber players—all women—will perform concerti by Vivaldi as well as Bach, Corelli, and Handel. In celebrating women in music, Vetta Chamber Music artistic director Joan Blackman, the concert’s curator, designed the program with mentorship in mind, with emerging artists performing alongside more established players. And in paying tribute to the Baroque genre, the musicians are taking a deep dive into the exploration of its technique, some of them even at times incorporating the type of bow that players in Vivaldi’s era would have used.
“It is a whole new world for most of the players, but I did choose a mix of women who have some experience with the baroque set up and some who are eager to try something new,” Blackman tells Stir. “I think this is a real opportunity for us to step outside of any boxes we have and try something new with old stuff—it’s a fresh look.
“We will definitely be experimenting with our sound and using the bow for expression more than the left-hand vibrato,” she says. “It [the baroque bow] goes across a string more gently; you have to use more bow. It’s like you’re dancing with your bow. We’re not trying to be completely authentic; we’re just trying to have this aesthetic of being light and dancing with the bow. It is a real group effort, no conductor, just a group of womenfolk having fun making music!”
On the program are four pieces that Blackman selected to create a concert that uplifts: Vivaldi’s Concerto for four violins in B minor; Bach’s Concerto for two violins in D minor; Corelli’s Christmas Concerto in G minor; and Handel’s Concerto Grosso Opus 6 No. 5 in D major. Featured in the program as a nod to the season, the Christmas Concerto, “Fatto per la notte di Natale” as the inscription reads, is the Italian composer and violinist’s best-known piece of music,
“Really, I picked things that are fun to play,” Blackman says. “I think the audience will appreciate having something fun and light at this time of the year. It’s celebratory. It’s so much fun for the musicians, and I think the audience will feel that.”
Min Jee Yoon plays cello in Vetta’s Vivaldi’s Orchestra—A Baroque Concertofest!
Joining Blackman on violin are Christi Meyers, a founding member of the period performance group Victoria Baroque and a member of Vancouver’s Pacific Baroque Orchestra; Jennie Press, who has a Master’s of Music from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore; Molly MacKinnon, co-creator of Never the Last, a genre-bending theatre-concert piece about 20th-century Canadian composer and violinist Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, which received five Jessie nominations; Rebecca Ruthven; a three-time alumnus of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada who studies baroque violin as part of Early Music Vancouver’s scholarship programme and UBC’s Baroque Orchestra mentorship program; and Jae-Won Bang, who has a Master’s of Music in Historical Performance from the Juilliard School. On viola are Emilie Grimes, who holds a Master’s of Music degree from the Juilliard School, and Katrina Chitty, a full-time violist with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Playing cello are Amy Laing, who earned her Master’s of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Min Jee Yoon, principal cellist with Vancouver Island Symphony. Rounding out the ensemble are bassist Meaghan Williams, principal bass of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, and harpsichordist Christina Hutten, who performs regularly with Pacific Baroque Orchestra and who pursued historical keyboard studies in Europe.
It’s the largest ensemble to take to the Vetta stage to date. “We wanted to mentor some young players; they are professionals, but we wanted a chance to let them shine and play an individual role in a group,” Blackman says. “The fact that they’re all women, yes, there’s resonance of Vivaldi, but in a way the concert is not at all, because we’re doing it ourselves—woman power.”
A video recording from Pyatt Hall will be available free of charge on Vetta’s website, the organization having learned from the pandemic that people who may not be able to make it to an in-person performance for any reason should still be able to access and experience it. The upside of COVID-era streaming meant new audiences for the organization, and Vetta has also shared recordings with seniors’ residences. “What better way to do outreach?” Blackman says.
For more information, see Vetta Chamber Music.
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