Basking in baroque: Grand River festival celebrates period music BY VALERIE HILL, RECORD STAFF AYR — Granted, many musicians are a unique breed unto themselves, marching to the beat of their own drum so to speak. Never has this been truer with musical partners Guy Few and Nadina Mackie Jackson, co-directors of one of the most unusual and lively concert series in the region: the Grand River Baroque Festival. It is the partners’ unique spark, their devotion to bring audiences something completely different that has kept the carnival-like festival purring along like a bow on a finely tuned cello. “It’s always something that just takes me over the moon,” said the ever upbeat Few, a trumpeter, cornist, pianist and singer. Mackie Jackson plays bassoon and both teach at Wilfrid Laurier University’s music department. This is their second year heading up the festival, now in its ninth season. Few enthuses about this year’s program as “so innovative, so artistic” a program that really makes the period music come alive. The weekend also starts off with a bang. Mackie Jackson adds “it’s going to be fun like it was last year, only amplified.” The June 18th opening features fireworks and a masquerade gala, an idea that has grown every year since the first few participants at the festival showed up in fancy dress masks. Suddenly it was Halloween, baroque style and Mackie Jackson and Few decided to run with the idea, expanding the concept to create a carnival-like atmosphere. The program that evening includes Rebel, Handel (music for Royal fireworks) and Vivaldi. “It’s a very comfortable mix of people,” Mackie Jackson said. The festival really tries to capture the magic of the period, largely with musicians using period instruments, so fitting for the spirit of 18th century baroque known for its liveliness and highly embellished sound. “They’re a little simpler,” said Few of the instruments, “a little more raw. It’s a more natural sound and blends beautifully with the voice.” In a return engagement, Aisslinn Nosky who last year, apparently “rocked” The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, will this year be performing Vivaldi’s Summer and Winter with Argentinean tango composer and Astor Piazzolla’s Spring and Autumn. This year’s festival also has one new venue; Knox United Church in Ayr, where there will be two Saturday afternoon chamber concerts plus a yummy church supper. Concerts on Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoon will remain at the beautiful Buehlow Barn, a former working barn near Ayr that was converted into a concert space several years ago, set within a gorgeous rural landscape of flowing gardens and sprawling lawns. The festival includes many highlights this year: two musical premiers, including Canadian composer Glenn Buhr’s gift to the festival, his Concerto No. 2 for bassoon and strings and In Glorium for trumpet and strings composed by Few and Mackie Jackson. Few is thrilled “one of the great bassoonists” Mathieu Lussier will perform. Both premiers will be performed on the Sunday at the Feast and Fencing event which includes a pre-performance picnic and of course, a fencing demonstration. On the Saturday, Big Band Baroque takes the audience on an usual musical journey with early music and pop, a sort of pop-period fusion, featuring the great mezzo soprano Jean Stillwell, said Few. The partners are particularly thrilled to have scheduled Italian Viva BiancaLuna Biffi performing her one woman show, Fermate Il Passo (stay a moment, passerby). The Italian singer, cellist and specialist in early music instruments is on a summer tour of Ontario sponsored by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura. Her one-woman show revives a long-lost art of late Renaissance and early Baroque era musicians who would tell stories by singing the upper part of madrigals while creating the other voices on their instrument. So fitting for this truly unique event. Mackie Jackson said “it’s a really great party,” to which Few adds, “the energy goes right through the roof.” vhill@therecord.com Grand River Baroque Festival June 18 – June 20 To purchase tickets call 519-498-7332 Festival and ticket information online at www.grbf.ca