Honens in the Park
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High River Gift of Music started their 2022-2023 season off with a free musical gift to the residents of High River with an outdoor celebration of live music in George Lane Park on Sunday, Sept. 11.
The crowd of over 600 people saw and heard Honens ever-popular “Open Air” piano concert performance, with performances by cellist Arnold Choi, The Bergmann Duo from Vancouver and world-renowned pianist Jon “Jackie” Kimura Parker.
Choi serves as the principal cellist of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and is on the cello faculty at Mount Royal University. He currently performs on a cello by an unknown maker, circa 1880, from the School of Caussin in France.
The Bergmann’s have played all over the world, have been on the faculty at Mount Royal University and University of Calgary; as well as being involved in various musical projects at The Banff Centre for the Arts.
Parker is an Officer of The Order of Canada and has received Honorary Doctorates from the University of British Columbia and the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.
“Honens exists to promote and foster the achievement of excellence in the art of piano performance and to spark and enhance the public’s appreciation and understanding of the piano and piano music,” explained Honens artistic director Jon Kimura Parker.
“Honens is all about the piano and we feel very fortunate to work with High River’s Gift of Music and to be here in High River”, said Amanda Smith, Honens director of marketing and interim CEO. “The Honens Open Air Concert is one of the most beloved events we do in Calgary.”
High Riverite Kevin Anderson, manager of Steinway Piano Gallery in Calgary, was on hand to let the audience in on a little secret – there was almost half a million dollars in pianos sitting on the George Lane Park bandstand, “The pianos we have on stage today are two Steinway model Bs. They are approximately seven feet in length. A very interesting fact, anywhere between 96 to 97 percent of performing artists choose to play on a Steinway grand piano. The piano with the red lid on the back is especially interesting because there are only six of them in Canada at the moment and if you wanted one in your own colour, you wouldn’t have to have red but any colour under the rainbow. The piano sells for about $270,000.”
Anderson said that they loan the Steinways out for free because they want to support local arts communities and their events and, most importantly, local artists.
Just before Parker played a complicated piece inspired by the music from the Wizard of Oz, he shared that he went to Juilliard in New York and was in school with composer William Hirtz.
“Bill educated me on the incredible variety of music there was outside of the world of classical music. With Bill, I started listening to a lot of Jazz, Rock n Roll, and he also introduced me to the composers of film and Broadway, like Stephen Sondheim, Harold Arlen and John Williams, who wrote the film scores. I started to appreciate how great music really was. Bill was passionate about the sound track from the Wizard of Oz and one day I said to Bill why don’t you use your love of music and compose something really cool for piano.”
A short time later, Hirtz sat down and wrote a fantasy on all the themes from the Wizard of Oz and it was so complicated that it was written for a piano duet.
“My brother and I played it several times and often got into a midair collision of hands over keys. I went back to Bill and said I’d love to play it on my own and if he could simplify it some how. A couple weeks went by and I received an email from Bill with a large attachment. I thought my printer ink cartridge had exploded because the pages printed off mostly black. I looked a little closer and realized those were all notes. I called Bill and said that really complicated piece for piano four hands is now piano two hands, you simplified it, right? He said he came up with all the ideas and bridges, he just couldn’t take anything out.”
The Honens performance concluded with a spectacular arrangement of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals” in which Parker read poetry on different creatures of the world in-between each piece of music that the Bergmann Duo played on the Steinways.
“Carnival of the Animals is an unusual piece of music. It’s not a serious in the way that so much classical music can be and it’s very light hearted. The audience is supposed to find it amusing in many places, certainly colourful and very interesting,” explained Parker. “We are so fortunate that there is an author, actor and broadcaster in Calgary by the name of Jonathan Love who wrote fresh new words for Carnival of the Animals and I have permission to use those words for this performance. Listen very carefully because it is very unusual for a composer to go to the trouble to write music that represents kangaroos hopping through the air or the absurdity of an elephant trying to dance a waltz. This is really one of the great pieces of music to play outdoors.”
This performance fit in well with the coming season of High River Gift of Music, “A Season of Musical Storytelling”. They will peek into the compelling and troubled life of Edgar Allan Poe, November 12th, lift spirits with Romantic masterworks by Brahms and the Schumanns, February 12th, become inspired by our Young Musicians Extraordinaire, March 19th, and enjoy a pageant of percussive sound, May 6th. Season passes are now on sale at www.highrivegiftofmusic.com.
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