Québec!!

I'm in Québec! I am happy to be a part of the 2nd "Série Grands Concerts" in Trois Rivières. We have 5 concerts and 2 master classes this week throughout the region. It is April but there is still a great deal  of snow, which looks beautiful against the blue skies and rivers.

Série Grands Concerts, Édition 2014

So thrilled to be in Québec for a week long concert tour! We'll have concerts and master classes in Trois-Rivières, Nicolet, Shawnigan-Sud, Saint-Élie-de-Caxton, and ending with the final concert back in Trois Rivières. I'm with Sébastien Deshaies from Québec and Alberto Cumplido from Chile. The concerts are solo sets from each of us, and a set of trios of Canadian music. This is my first time in Québec!

Practice, practice, practice!

Our beautiful practice space!

Practicing trios (check out the April snow!)

Practicing Alberto's composition "Sahara" for violin and guitar with Sébastien

Since we live in different countries, we learned music ahead of time and practiced pretty intensely for a few days before the concert tour. Sébastien chose the music, and we ended up performing some lovely trios by Canadian composers, as well as "Joy" by Marcos Vinicius from Italy/Brazil. We had the most amazing practice space in Sébastien parents' home, a sun room which glowed with the outdoor scenery of the snow!

Slow Snow

Let it snow

Let it snow

Let it snow!

OK, so we were practicing the trio "Slow Snow" (neige lent) by the Canadian composer Guy Bergeron, when I looked up at the window and saw...slow snow from the sky! Very exciting to see snow, especially in April! Here in Seattle it snows very rarely in the city, and it is always a major event. It's even more rare for Alberto, who's from South America, so we had no choice but to go out and play in the snow. We borrowed some snow clothes and boots and snow shoes, and went snowshoeing out in the forest in the backyard. Then--back to practicing!

Radio-Canada (and TV)

Monday morning, bright and early, we made our way to the Radio-Canada station for an interview to promote the shows. It was all in French, so Sébastien took over most of the talking (but I am very proud of my excellent contribution of "bonjour" and "merci.") We played some trio music on the air as well. Then off to Église St-Laurent for a TV interview, which was in both French and English, and we played quite a few selections from our program. The interviews went very well, and I did have a chance to hear and see them on the internet that day. However my google search to place them here on my blog came up empty. I could only find the most current radio and TV spots, so I guess our media spots are floating around somewhere in land of the internet. C'est la vie..

Concert d'ouverture, Trois-Rivières

Our first concert at Foyer Gilles Beaudoin, Trois-Rivières

After our first concert at Foyer Gilles Beaudoin

We played 5 concerts throughout the week. Sébastien organized the entire tour, and gave each concert a very poetic name (although everything in French sound quite poetic.) The first concert, Concert d'ouverture, was in Trois-Rivières in a beautiful building, Foyer Gilles Beaudoin. It was great to finalize the program and share the music we worked on with the very enthusiastic audience. After the concert Alberto told me he saw a reviewer there taking notes (!!!) More about that in the next post...

Reviews in French

Thank you, Le Nouvelliste!

Woke up the next morning to a review, my first one in French! A very positive review for the whole concert (hooray!) With a little help from my French friends and Google Translate, here are some blurbs:

From the newspaper "Le Nouvelliste":

"l'Américaine Hilary Field a manifesté une grande rigueur technique dans des interprétations sans faille et marquée par une technique impeccable."
"the American Field Hilary showed great technical rigor and flawless interpretations marked by impeccable technique."

" Les trois ont présenté quelques pièces très sympathiques en trio dans la seconde partie. Globalement, on a eu droit à un joli concert, très accessible et dans un genre qu'il nous est trop rarement donné d'entendre."
"The three presented some very nice pieces trio in the second part. Overall, we were treated to a lovely concert, very accessible and in a genre that we are rarely given to hear. "