Vivaldi and Piazzola’s Four Seasons, presented by GFN Productions, and performed by violinist Isabella d’Éloize Perron with conductor Francis Choinière and the FILMharmonic Orchestra, is on a tour that will take them to US and Canadian dates. The tour will kick off in Québec City on April 4, and hit Toronto on April 12.
As the tour hits cities from Vancouver to Philadelphia and Boston, both Isabella and Francis will be making their debuts at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at New York City’s Carnegie Hall.
The combination of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, which has proven popular on stage, is now also immortalized on an album just released on March 22, feauturing a performance recorded at Montréal’s Maison Symphonique in September 2023
We asked Isabella a few questions about the music that she’s put together, and the tour.
Personnel
Francis Choinière
Winner of the prestigious Prix Goyer Mécénat Musica 2023 and the Hnatyshyn Foundation’s Christa and Franz-Paul Decker Conducting Fellowship, conductor Francis Choinière’s busy schedule will see him conducting just under 70 concerts this year in 20 different concert halls across North America. He’s worked with international stars like Ute Lemper and Sarah Brightman, among many others. In 2022, he worked as assistant conductor with conductor Jacques Lacombe at the Canadian Opera Company for a production of Bizet’s Carmen.
Francis is the Artistic Director and Conductor of the OPCM (Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeur des Mélomanes), and the Principal Conductor and Co-Artistic Director of l’Orchestre FILMharmonique. He is co-founder and president of GFN Productions, and his work has been featured in multiple films and recordings, including Phonème (Francois Dompierre), Arise (Clann), and Hidden Assets (Michel Corriveau), among others.
Isabella d’Éloize Perron
Isabella has been playing the violin since the age of two, and made her concert debut by five. Before she turned 10, Isabella performed as soloist with the Orchestre Métropolitain and the String Orchestra I Musici.She’s gone on to perform as a guest artist with the Peninsula Symphony (San Francisco, CA), the National Theater Orchestra (Prague National Theater, Czech Republic), the Vancouver Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Lethbrige Symphony.
After multiple international prize wins, including first prize in the International Radio Competition for Young Performers Concertino Praga organized by Czech radio under the patronage of the EBU (European Union of Radio-Television) — leading to a tour of the Czech Republic — and first prize at and highest score in all categories at the Canadian Music Competition, Isabella is continuing her studies with Erika Raum at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory. Isabella was the Grand Prize Winner of the Robert W. and G. Ann Corcoran Concerto Competition at the GGS in January 2024.
Isabella performs in Vermont, USA in 2013 at the age of 13:
Isabella d’Éloize Perron: The Q&A
You’ve been playing the violin since you were a very young child. Do you remember what drew you to it? Was there a moment when you realized it’s what you wanted to pursue?
I was only 2 1/2 years old so my memory is partially informed by what my mother has since told me…but I do distinctly remember taking in many concerts in between the ages of 3 and 5. I remember watching my mother and her colleagues perform in Boca Raton, Florida, which is where we lived until 2005 as she had a teaching position at the University there. Having an older sister (10 years older) who also plays violin was a source of inspiration to me. As early as I can remember I was drawn towards music — always singing, humming back melodies I heard, and playing with the piano.
My grandmother was a respected early childhood music pedagogue, and she started me on both violin and piano, along with theory rudiments/solfège. She had a real passion for teaching young children music, as she never had the opportunity herself coming from a very modest family.
There was never a specific moment I realized I wanted to pursue music — it always felt like the natural path to go down. It’s hard not to be drawn towards music when that is all your family is doing/thinking about! It is an incredibly rich world that gives back tenfold what you invest in it. I’ve learned so much about life through music.
What led to your collaboration with the Orchestre FILMharmonique?
I met Francis Choinière in 2018 when I was studying at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal completing a two-year degree in viola. He was at McGill at the time, and we found each other through mutual friends. He asked me if I would like to perform the Piazzolla Four Seasons with the OPCM, and I gladly accepted. This is what started our collaboration, and eventually becoming a part of GFN productions with the wonderful Orchestre FILMharmonique.
How did you come up with the idea for this repertoire, which is on your recording as well as the program in concert? What drew you to the music, and to the idea of juxtaposing the two different ideas about the Four Seasons?
It is Francis that came up with the idea! As I mentioned previously, we had already performed the Piazzolla Four Seasons together before (which I only discovered through him), and it’s a work I fell in love with from the moment I heard it. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons also hold a special place in my heart, as they are amongst the very first pieces I ever got to perform with orchestra! I believe there is a video of a 13-year-old me playing Vivaldi’s Summer floating around on Youtube…
When he asked me if I would like to tour with the two works, I was thrilled to join in. I absolutely love performing Vivaldi and Piazzolla alongside each other as I get to explore a wide range of styles, emotions, and characters. The Piazzolla allows me to fully dive into the romance, tension, and passion of Argentinian Tango. This 1998 Leonid Desyatnikov arrangement of Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires that we are playing draws distinct quotations from Vivaldi’s original Four Seasons, linking the two works nicely together.
There is always so much to work with in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and I am not surprised that it has maintained such a wide appeal to this day. Vivaldi was especially creative in his use of harmony and rhythm…it really does have its rock-n-roll moments. It’s also an exciting work as it was one of the first programmatic pieces of music ever written, full of vivid Italian imagery.
What is your feeling about playing in Carnegie Hall for the first time? What is it for an artist to perform in this Hall?
I still have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact we are going to play in Carnegie! There is so much talk around it…lots about the “special acoustic”, but there is this “prestige” that has built over time because of how many great artists have performed there. All of my favourite artists, including Nina Simone (who actually recorded a live album there in 1963), have blessed this hall with their presence, so I am most looking forward to feeling what the energy of Carnegie hall will be like keeping this in mind.
Not so many artists tour nowadays, with costs so prohibitive. How important is touring to an artist, especially in the early stages of a career?
I realize it is no small feat to put together a tour of this magnitude. This speaks volumes to the quality of the team behind GFN productions. So firstly, hats off to them for making this happen!
Personally, I am incredibly excited, as it is always so special for me to get to perform live for an audience. There is something intangible about the connection between a performer and a live audience — we collectively feel this magic happen when an artist has something to communicate and has a receptive audience to bounce their energy off of.
Post-COVID, as we all know, many arts organizations have struggled to attract audiences, so I feel very grateful to be part of a tour that will reach so many people, let alone getting to play in some of the most beautiful halls of North-America.
- You can stream the new recording and find tickets for the 11-city tour [HERE]
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