Sinfonia Toronto’s next concert on February 28 is titled PATHÉTIQUE | Songs from the Heart, featuring a program that’s built around Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique, which closes the concert. Maestro Nurhan Arman will lead the ensemble through five emotional soundscapes during the course of the evening.
It begins with Elgar’s serene Serenade, then moves through the world premiere of Petros Shoujounian’s Sinfonietta, imbued with the striking elements of the composer’s Armenian heritage. Toronto composer Colin Eatock’s Four Song Offerings, in the premiere of the work’s orchestral version, follows, a gorgeous setting of four poems by Bengali poet Rabindrath Tagore, then Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, a virtuosic showpiece for the violin. An orchestral version of Beethoven’s seminal Sonata Pathétique completes the concert’s journey through musical emotions.
Guest artists include Montréal soprano Kripa Nageshwar, who sings Eatock’s orchestral arrangement, a work the composer dedicated to her, and young violinist Evan Pyne’s talents come under the spotlight in Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso.
“I am looking forward to conducting this program that traverses centuries and continents, and, as we always do, blending classics with evocative new works by living composers. It will also be exciting for our listeners to hear the very talented violin virtuoso, Toronto’s Evan Pyne, and wonderful Canadian soprano Kripa Nageshwar,” comments Music Director Nurhan Arman.
In addition, Toronto artist Tamara Harutunyan will paint on-stage in a visual interpretation of the music’s emotions and tone-colours on canvas as the orchestra performs.
Kripa Nageshwar, soprano
Kripa Nageshwar has been working as a professional vocalist and teacher for more than two decades, and more recently, in the field of music management. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Alberta in Vocal Performance, followed by a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Montréal. The coloratura soprano also studied German Lieder at the Franz Schubert Institut in Baden bei Wien, Austria.
Her repertoire includes a range of roles and styles from Baroque to contemporary, jazz, and Bollywood. She has performed roles in Canadian opera productions of Cosi Fan Tutti, The Marriage of Figaro, Orpheus in the Underworld, Les Indes Galantes, La Serva Padrona and Die Fledermaus, and has also performed in the US, Austria, Czech Republic, France and the UK.
She is a founding member of Trio dell’Aria (soprano, clarinet and piano), who released their debut CD in 2019, and of the SKY Trio (soprano, viola and piano), whose goal is sharing music from across genres, especially French and Québecois.
Kripa also founded her own production company, Hamsa Lyric Creations, to create and production innovative projects, with a focus on blending elements of her own Indian heritage with Western classical arts. Her current project, Confluence: Where the St. Lawrence Meets the Ganges, combines opera with Indian music and dance, accompanied by a multicultural fusion ensemble.
Evan Pyne, violin
Evan Pyne began studying violin at the age of six, and made his concert debut at the age of eight at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio. After graduating from the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists at The Royal Conservatory, he went on to continue his studies at the Cleveland Institute of music, where he is currently in his fourth year. His competition wins include second prizes at the second at the Orchestre Métropolitain OMNI Competition in 2021, and the 2018 “Noche en Madrid” music competition in Spain, first prize at the 2018 Canadian Music Competition in Montreal, and third prize at the Ilona Fehér International Violin Competition in Budapest in 2019.
He is a former member of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2022, where he received the NYO Award of Excellence. He has participated in the Heifetz International Music Institute and the Interharmony International Music Festival, and was a winner of the Pacific Region International Music Association’s concerto competition in 2023.
Evan’s performances at Canada’s National Commemorative Ceremony in honour of Queen Elizabeth II and the National Commemoration for the Duke of Edinburgh were aired nation-wide on CBC.
Concert Details
Sinfonia Toronto’s PATHETIQUE concert takes place on February 28 in the George Weston Recital Hall at the Meridian Arts Centre.
- Find other details and tickets [HERE].
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