Cecilia Concerts has announced its 2024-2025 season of main-stage concerts, featuring a lineup of classical musicians and performances that “promise to enchant and inspire Halifax audiences.”
The season will open with prize-winning Québecois pianist Jean-Philippe Sylvestre on September 24 in a concert program including works by Franz Liszt, Maurice Ravel, Ludwig van Beethoven, JS Bach, André Mathieu, and Mily Balakirev.
“We are delighted to welcome Jean-Philippe Sylvestre to open our season,” says Cecilia Concerts executive director Greg Morris in a media release. “His exceptional artistry and highly engaging performance style will set the stage for what promises to be an unforgettable year of music in Halifax.”
The season will also feature a diverse range of musicians and ensembles, including France’s Baroque and Ancient music collective Ensemble Faenza on October 19, who revive the ancient art of self-accompaniment with a unique soundscape of strings and voice.
On November 2, Cecilia Concerts presents a concert featuring its 2024-2025 musician-in-residence, violinist Andrew Wan, with the Juno Award-winning New Orford String Quartet. The program will include a new work by Cecilia Concert’s 2024-2025 composer-in-residence, Métis composer Ian Cusson, plus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Quartet in D minor and Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden.
“Andrew Wan’s residency this season brings a remarkable depth and richness to our programming,” says Morris. “His presence, along with the three diverse and evocative performances he has curated, ensures a season filled with vibrant tones and colours, celebrating the vast emotional landscapes of chamber music.”
Other highlights in its 36th season include performances by the US-based Lee-Sung-Djokic Trio, which features Halifax-born cellist Denise Djokic on November 16. The new year gets off to a start on January 11 with award-winning pianist Jarred Dunn. The duo of cellist Cameron Crozman and pianist Meagan Milatz will perform together on February 1. The season also features violinist Andrew Wan and pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin with the Dior Quartet on February 15, Québec’s Ensemble Francoeur on March 1, and multiple prize-winning prodigy pianist Kevin Chen on March 15.
Wan returns for the final performance of his residency on March 29 in a performance featuring four of Canada’s symphony lead violinists from the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The violinists unite for a program of works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Antonín Dvořák, George Frideric Handel-Johan Halvorsen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Prokofiev, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Georg Philipp Telemann.
The season concludes next spring with performances by Manhattan’s Empire Wild on April 12 and French string ensemble Quatuor Elysée on April 27.
Subscription packages are now on sale, and individual concert tickets will soon be available. Visit ceciliaconcerts.ca for more information.