This year there will be five events, comparable to the downtown Masterworks series, on Sunday evenings, at the family-friendly hour of 7 p.m.
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VSO Surrey Nights
Stravinsky, Ravel & Márquez
When: Oct. 20, 7 p.m.
Josefowicz Plays Stravinsky
When: Dec. 1, 7 p.m.
Where: Bell Performing Arts Centre, 6250 144 St, Surrey
Local fans of orchestral music view the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and The Orpheum Theatre as virtually synonymous. Yet our orchestra has a long history of suburban runouts to various centres throughout Metro Vancouver, and to Surrey’s Bell Performing Arts Centre in particular.
Opened in 2001, the Bell Centre is adjacent to Sullivan Heights Secondary School and run by the Surrey school district. It’s a large multi-purpose hall, and home to the VSO’s Surrey Nights series of concerts.
The hall may be just half the size of the grand old Orpheum, but it’s an attractive venue, and the VSO’s Surrey Nights is the crown jewel of the Bell’s season.
“The VSO does amazing work with Surrey Nights,” says Surrey Arts Council vice-president Maxine Howchin. “To bring this calibre of performance to Surrey is a treasure that many people enjoy.” This year there will be five events, comparable to the downtown Masterworks series, on Sunday evenings, at the family-friendly hour of 7 p.m.
The Surrey concert series launches with one of the more anticipated events of the fall, the Canadian premiere of Fandango, a new violin concerto written for, and performed by, Anne Akiko Meyers. Andrew Litton, music director of the New York City Ballet, conducts a program which includes Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss ballet music and dance themed works by Maurice Ravel.
For many listeners outside his native Mexico, composer Arturo Márquez is something of a one-hit wonder: his Danzon No. 2 has been played worldwide since Gustavo Dudamel’s Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra popularized the spicy confection. Márquez was born in Mexico in 1950, was educated at the California Institute for the Arts in suburban Los Angeles, and did a stint in Paris on a scholarship from the government of France. The (in)famous Danzon No. 2 is one of an extended series now running to nine instalments, all redolent of the dance music of his country.
Violinist Meyers is an active commissioner of new repertoire, and the Marquez concerto is just the latest in a string of works that have enlivened the contemporary violin concerto repertoire. Fandango was premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in 2021, then taken on the road to New York and Mexico City, prior to its Canadian premiere here.
Fandango is just the first of two important violin concertos slated for performance in the Surrey Nights series.
On Dec. 1, Leila Josefowicz offers Igor Stravinsky’s 1931 Violin Concerto with VSO Music Director Otto Tausk conducting. This is bookended by two Prokofiev symphonies: his first, the Haydnesque Classical Symphony, and his last, the enigmatic Seventh Symphony, rather rarely heard, which has two quite different alternate endings. Literally with his eye on the prize, Prokofiev created an upbeat finale designed to wow the judges for the lucrative Stalin Prize. But, with cash in hand, he confided to the great cellist — and great friend of the VSO — Mstislav Rostropovich that the more enigmatic finale was the one designed for posterity.
While these programs make for a spectacular start to Surrey Nights, listeners who prefer their concerts in the Hollywood splendour of the Orpheum needn’t feel left out. The Márquez concerto will be heard as part of the VSO’s Musically Speaking series, Oct. 18, 7 p.m.; and Stravinsky’s concerto anchors two Masterworks Diamond concerts, Nov. 29 and 30, 8 p.m.
Full details at vancouversymphony.ca.
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For many listeners outside his native Mexico, composer Arturo Márquez is something of a one-hit wonder: his Danzon No. 2 has been played worldwide since Gustavo Dudamel’s Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra popularized the spicy confection. Márquez was born in Mexico in 1950, was educated at the California Institute for the Arts in suburban Los Angeles, and did a stint in Paris on a scholarship from the government of France. The (in)famous Danzon No. 2 is one of an extended series now running to nine instalments, all redolent of the dance music of his country.
Violinist Meyers is an active commissioner of new repertoire, and the Marquez concerto is just the latest in a string of works that have enlivened the contemporary violin concerto repertoire. Fandango was premiered at the Hollywood Bowl in 2021, then taken on the road to New York and Mexico City, prior to its Canadian premiere here.
Fandango is just the first of two important violin concertos slated for performance in the Surrey Nights series.
On Dec. 1, Leila Josefowicz offers Igor Stravinsky’s 1931 Violin Concerto with VSO Music Director Otto Tausk conducting. This is bookended by two Prokofiev symphonies: his first, the Haydnesque Classical Symphony, and his last, the enigmatic Seventh Symphony, rather rarely heard, which has two quite different alternate endings. Literally with his eye on the prize, Prokofiev created an upbeat finale designed to wow the judges for the lucrative Stalin Prize. But, with cash in hand, he confided to the great cellist — and great friend of the VSO — Mstislav Rostropovich that the more enigmatic finale was the one designed for posterity.
While these programs make for a spectacular start to Surrey Nights, listeners who prefer their concerts in the Hollywood splendour of the Orpheum needn’t feel left out. The Márquez concerto will be heard as part of the VSO’s Musically Speaking series, Oct. 18, 7 p.m.; and Stravinsky’s concerto anchors two Masterworks Diamond concerts, Nov. 29 and 30, 8 p.m.
Full details at vancouversymphony.ca.
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: For just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.
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