OCC and Festival Quattro unite for Latin, Canadian sounds.
TOGETHER: Pictured are members
of the Oakville Children's Choir (centre row) and children from the
ArtHouse program.
Michelle Siu / Oakville Beaver
The Oakville Children’s Choir (OCC) and the local Festival Quattro are
inviting people to a concert that combines Canadian choral music and
Latin-American strings.
“It’s going to be a fantastic concert,” said OCC music director
Sarah Morrison. “It’s a top mix of string, combined with the Senior and
Chamber choirs. There’s no other opportunity to hear these groups
together in concert.”
The Friday, May 13 concert in Oakville, titled Musica de Espana y
America Latina, is a fundraiser for both the OCC and Festival Quattro,
which is the fundraising-concert arm for ArtHouse, which provides arts
programs to Oakville children.
The OCC is bringing its senior and chamber choirs while Festival
Quattro has recruited the Trio Micheletti, which features three
world-class musicians.
“They are a pretty outstanding group of musicians who studied at
Indiana University and they’re all doing their doctorates,” Festival
Quattro-ArtHouse founder Don Pangman said.
The trio includes Canadian violinist Véronique Mathieu,
Brazilian-born cellist André Micheletti and Japanese pianist Jasmin
Arakawa, all of whom have performed across the world.
Pangman learned of the group when Mathieu performed locally with the Oakville Symphony Orchestra in recent years.
The program will consist of the trio performing Spanish and
Latin-American music interspersed with the OCC’s chamber choir
performing Canadian music in the first half. The trio will return in the
second half, followed by the OCC’s senior choir. Together, the two
groups will do a finale, a Spanish-language piece called Oye.
The concert will be full of music, but it will also raise money for
children’s arts programs here in town. Proceeds from the concert will
be shared between Festival Quattro and the OCC.
The children’s choir organization is raising funds for its bursaries and education programs.
“It’s financial assistance to choristers who couldn’t otherwise
afford to be in the OCC because there is a tuition,” Morrison said. “We
also have other programs that cost us money, such as our young leaders
program and our education outreach program.”
For Festival Quattro, the money will go to ArtHouse programs, which
this year is serving more than 200 local children at seven different
programs at no cost to the child or his or her family.
“People will be supporting both ArtHouse and the Oakville
Children’s Choir. They’re supporting young people. They’re supporting
the arts and what’s better than that?” Pangman asked.
But Pangman added that Festival Quattro is more than just a fundraising initiative.
“Our goal is to bring as many of the best performers to the town as
possible. We’ve got access to artists all around the world and that’s
what Festival Quattro is all about,” he said.
Pangman added Festival Quattro also aims to provide entertainment
from some of the best artists around the world at an affordable cost.
Running ArtHouse, Pangman said he’s been lucky forming various partnerships locally, including one with the OCC.
Sarah Morrison ran a voice program earlier this year at ArtHouse
and he’s hoping some of the OCC’s choristers will volunteer at ArtHouse
programs this year and in the future.
“We’re hoping to have some people back from the choir, some
leaders, maybe some alumni, taking on the program next year, in
September,” he said.
He added he was honoured to work with the OCC in such a way.
“I think the fact we’ve got the Oakville Children’s Choir, that’s
doing so well competitively, perform and to partner with us is kind of a
neat thing,” he said.
