The 20th anniversary 2017-2018 Season

We want to share the good news with you: we have already finished booking artists for the 20th anniversary 2017-18 season. We can only reveal that there will be a special event demonstrating how Polish folklor music influenced Chopin in composing mazurkas and polonaises and how Chopin influenced music on five continents. We have invited a famous folk band from Poland who will be joined by chamber musicians and a dance group. We hope that this fun event will help students to understand a source of Chopin's inspiration.

All subscribers to our series will enjoy a special price for this event.

We will aslo present Seong Jin-Cho, the winner of the last Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

The 2016-2017 Season

Pawel Huelle, the famous modern Polish writer, recalls his first encounter with Ewa Poblocka: "I had a depression. I was driving back to Gdansk considering commiting a suicide. I stopped at the gas station where among many CD's I noticed Bach's Partitas recorded by Ewa Poblocka. This recording changed my life. I din't want to die anymore. My only wish was to come back home and listen to this music again and again." Truly an inspirational story.
Poblocka's repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary music recorded on almost 50 CD's for such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, Pony Canyon, Victor JVC, CD Accord, and BeArTon. One of her recent Chopin recordings for the National Chopin Institute in Warsaw was done in 2013. Every serious collector should have this CD. Here is what Dave Saemann wrote in Fanfare magazine:
"...this is Chopin of great maturity and wisdom, as if the pieces have been lived with for many years. Always there is time for a small gesture here, a gentle rubato there—while maintaining complete control over structure. Pobłocka’s waltzes sound like nobody else’s, as may be said of Dinu Lipatti and Agustin Anievas’s. This is a sign of a rare spiritual communication with Chopin’s muse. And yet Pobłocka’s playing is quite unassuming. Her artistic personality does not command; it seduces. Pobłocka’s accounts may have concert hall dimensions, but they sound as if she is playing for her own enjoyment and that of a few choice friends."
It may be interesting to note that Poblocka's husband, Stanislaw Leszczynski is the creator and artistic director of the Chopin and His Europe International Music Festival, and the CD series The Real Chopin.

Among many brilliant Canadian pianists, one now finally has the legitimate claim of being called a Chopinist. Charles Richard-Hamelin is the silver medalist at the 17th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2015, the first Canadian ever to win a top prize in this prestigious Competition. He got a special Krystian Zimerman award for the best sonata at this Competition, which he will be playing in Vancouver. I hope that most of you will come for this concert to show support for this fantastic pianist. He has recently been invited to replace Maurizio Pollini at the Prague Spring Festival on June 3rd.

We have a special offer for you: Buy three tickets or more, you will get a free parking pass and 10% off to one of two restaurants close to the Playhouse, valid on November 6, 2016 only. We hope you will not miss his Vancouver debut.

Please remember that when you buy one subscription you are entitled to buy additional tickets with a 25% discount. If you are a teacher and want to bring a group of students or you want to invite your friends or family members, this is the best way to go. If you want to buy a subscribtion, please call us: 604.871.4450 or Tickets Tonight 604.684.2787. Single tickets went on sale July 5th.

I will be heading to Toulouse in September to see few pianists at the International Piano Festival.