The Vancouver Academy of Music (VAM) presents an eclectic afternoon concert featuring Juno award-winning violinist Mark Fewer and special guests, Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 2pm at the VAM’s Koerner Recital Hall - a benefit concert for VAM's bursary program for underprivileged children. Joining Fewer will be Vancouver-based jazz artists Brad Turner, Jodi Proznick, and Tilden Webb, performing diverse repertoire including Beethoven, Ellington, and new work by local composer Kathleen Allan.

Fewer will spend the week, May 14 to 20, as the VAM’s Artist-in-Residence. The week-long intensive will include a series of specialized workshops for the VAM’s string students, including a violin master class and jazz and fiddling workshop, introducing classical musicians to concepts of improvisation. The week will culminate with the celebratory benefit concert, Mark Fewer & Friends.

“Mark Fewer is as versatile a musician as you can possibly imagine,” said Joseph Elworthy, Executive Director of the Vancouver Academy of Music. “He has toured the world as a classical soloist; recently won a 2012 Juno for jazz violin; instructs the next generation of string players as Head of Strings at McGill University; and was concertmaster at our own Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. As our Artist-in-Residence, he has much to share with our students and audiences.”

The Sunday matinee concert features a wide variety of repertoire chosen to showcase the flexibility and range of Fewer as a violinist, coupled with an all-star VAM string orchestra comprised of VAM Faculty and students – many of whom represent Canada’s most promising musical talent. The program will include multiple classical works by Beethoven, a jazz piece by Duke Ellington, and an original piece by local composer and conductor Kathleen Allan.

Allan is creating her new work using a poem written by Fewer’s father, a famous Newfoundland raconteur who delighted generations of Maritime audiences with his comedic stories. Allan’s arrangement will feature Fewer on violin, accompanied by the Vancouver Bach Children’s Choir.

Additional guest performers include celebrated Vancouver jazz artists Brad Turner (trumpet), Jodi Proznick (bass), and Tilden Webb (piano), as well as specially selected students and faculty from the Vancouver Academy of Music who will be joining Fewer on stage to display the result of an intensive week of rehearsals and classes.

About Vancouver Academy of Music (VAM):
The VAM is a non-profit institution founded in 1969 by the Community Arts Council of Vancouver. VAM is permanently housed in a modern facility at Vanier Park near the city centre with large classroom space, a library, teaching studios, the Koerner Recital Hall, rehearsal rooms for orchestra, choir, and ballet. The instructional programs at VAM offer a wide range of classical training for students of instrumental, vocal music, and ballet.

In addition to private lessons and class instruction, VAM students have the opportunity to participate in master classes, technique classes, opera workshops, and chamber music. For students of orchestral instruments, VAM is home to three symphony orchestras: Junior Symphony, Intermediate Symphony, and the VAM Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Leslie Dala.

From its inception, VAM has had one fundamental purpose: to improve substantially the quality of music training in Western Canada. Central to the curriculum, and constant at all stages of study, are private instruction and public performance. Accordingly, VAM recruits faculty members with strong professional backgrounds who are devoted to fostering a new generation of performers, teachers, composers, and audiences.

About Mark Fewer:
Described as “genre-bending” by the National Post, and “intrepid” by the Globe and Mail, Mark Fewer has performed around the world to critical acclaim in virtually every role asked of a violinist - and then some. His regular musical diet includes performances from the early baroque to the avant-garde, with recent performances as soloist with groups as wide-ranging as the Melbourne Symphony (Australia), the Fodens-Richardson Brass Band (UK), the Zapp Quartet (Amsterdam), and the McGill Percussion Ensemble (Canada). He is also a dedicated chamber musician, jazz violinist, artistic director, and teacher.

Since 2010, Mr. Fewer has been featured on eight new recordings, the most recent of which won the 2012 Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. The work, entitled Changing Seasons, is a jazz violin concerto written especially for him by jazz great Phil Dwyer.

Mr. Fewer was the artistic director of the Scotia Festival of Music from 2004-2009, and is the founding director of the SweetWater Music Festival, now famous for its programmatic creativity and performance excellence. He was concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony from 2004-2008, and has been on faculty of the Schulich School of Music, McGill University, since 2007.

Media Contact:
Laura Murray
Laura Murray Public Relations
604.558.2200
lmurray@lauramurraypr.com
205 - 2755 Maple St.
Vancouver, BC V6J 5K1

This release was published on openPR.