The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra’s Global Soundscapes Festival returns for four days of classical and world music. From June 6-9 audiences will experience a rich line-up of sounds and rhythms from Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Canada. Festival concerts showcase outstanding local musicians alongside acclaimed national and international guest ensembles.
Featured acts include Taiwan’s Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (conducted by Chih-Sheng Chen), Montreal’s Mativetsky, Amiri & Pagé (tabla, santur and harp), Vancouver’s Zeellia (Slavic soul music), Borderland (Indian + Persian traditional instruments), the BC Chinese Music Ensemble, and the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra.
In the intimate setting of The Cultch Historic Theatre, audiences will witness a host of virtuoso performers playing instruments from different cultures, rarely seen together on the same stage. Global Soundscapes Festival offers a diverse sound palette and a range of innovative, inspiring approaches to making music that transcends borders.
The Festival Scheduled Includes:
Thursday June 6 @ 7:30pm
Double bill: Zeellia (Vancouver) + Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (Taipei)
The Festival reaches across the Pacific for an opening double bill!
Vancouver’s Zeellia combines the powerful, piercing harmonies and mournful, minor key melodies of Slavic folk music with a modern artist’s approach to arranging, sung both a capella and with bass, violin, accordion, and hurdy gurdy accompaniment.
The Festival’s featured international guest ensemble, Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (LGCCO), takes the stage under the baton of founding artistic director Chih-Sheng Chen. LGCCO represents a new generation of Chinese orchestral music, demonstrating the energy, passion, and proficiency of its dedicated musicians with every performance.
Friday June 7 @ 7:30pm
Double bill: Borderland (Vancouver) + Mativetsky, Amiri & Pagé (Montreal)
Start the weekend with another double bill.
Borderland is a new cross-cultural musical collaboration originally developed by the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO). Five virtuoso performers on traditional Indian and Persian instruments have worked together since the spring of 2023 to learn from each other, share musical ideas, and develop into a cohesive and exciting new intercultural ensemble.
Montréal’s Mativetsky, Amiri & Pagé are a new trio made up of musical adventurers, explorers, innovators, and virtuosi whose collective creations combine tradition and modernity, emotion and spontaneity; a dynamic coming together of santur, harp, and table.
Saturday June 8 @ 7:30pm
The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (Vancouver) with members of Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, Chih-Sheng Chen, conductor
Saturday’s Festival concert marks the culmination of a major international collaboration undertaken by the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra with Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (LGCCO). Part 1 of this project saw the VICO Tentet and members of LGCCO performing at two prestigious festivals in Taiwan and South Korea in early April 2024; now in Part 2, the VICO hosts LGCCO in Vancouver and will present its touring repertoire to the local audience.
Sunday June 9 – Matinee Concert @ 3pm
BC Chinese Music Ensemble with members of Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, Chih-Sheng Chen, conductor
Global Soundscapes Festival closes with a matinee performance featuring the BC Chinese Music Ensemble (BCCME) with international guests Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra. The BCCME is unique in Canada as a large traditional music ensemble capable of playing demanding contemporary work alongside the classics of Chinese traditional music. Formed in 2002, the BCCME’s mission is to present performances of the very best music by the finest Chinese professional composers and musicians. The BCCME performers are graduates from renowned music academies and experienced soloists and leaders of the top national and provincial orchestras and troupes in China and North America.
Global Soundscapes Festival runs June 6-9, 2024 at The Historic Theatre at The Cultch, 1895 Venables Street. Find more information and tickets at www.vi-co.org