Student recitals enrich listeners

Kristine Berey

May 2012

This is the time of year when music schools in Montreal bring forth a new crop of young musicians, presenting graduation recitals to the public, usually for a small or no admission fee.

Many of the young performers are students of professionals well known to Montreal concert goers, such as harpsichordist Hank Knox, violinist Jonathan Crow or cellist Matt Haimovitz.

As years pass, some will rise to international fame, others will make music while also teaching, forging the next generation. Some, by choice or necessity, will leave their instrument behind and enter a different field, still playing once in a while, perhaps.

But all will remember their graduation concert as a luminous time, filled with limitless hope and pride in being able to say, “I am a musician.”

For the audience, such a concert is a gift. Besides bearing witness to a truly special moment in a young life, there is the unique opportunity to discover a myriad of instruments, composers and masterpieces. As every music lover knows, the easiest way to fall in love with a piece of music is to hear it live, and the better you know the work, the more you can enjoy it when you hear or play it again.

At McGill’s Schulich School of Music there will be several concerts daily from the beginning of May through the end of June. There will be percussion ensembles, solo recitals by cellists, violinists, pianists and even oboe, trombone and double bass players. There will be symphonic and choral music, percussion ensembles, performed by students and sometimes by faculty.

McGill: 514-398-4547, mcgill.music/events. Concordia: 514-848-2424, music.concordia.ca

Concerts Cathédrale, May 12, 19, 26, Christ Church Cathedral, Ste. Catherine and University. concert@bellnet.ca, http://bit.ly/Krd4TV