Media Release

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For immediate release
June 2, 2006

Award-winning musicians, jazz greats, Mozart highlight Banff Centre summer music series

The Banff Summer Arts Festival’s music programming gets underway this month with a full schedule of concerts in and around the Bow Valley.

On Thursday, June 22, the Music for a Summer Evening in the Rolston Recital Hall will feature a performance of Schumann’s E-Flat Piano Quartet by the four young winners of the 2006 CBC Galaxie Rising Stars Award. Violinist Judy Kang, violist Sharon Wei, cellist Estelle Choi, and pianist Angela Park are all award-winning musicians with individual careers who have come together to study the repertoire of piano quartet.

On July 1, legendary jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader Phil Nimmons is joined by pianist David Braid for an evening of improvisation in the Rolston Recital Hall. And on July 28 in the Eric Harvie Theatre, participants in the Banff Centre’s summer music programs come together for a concert by the 45-piece Banff Festival Orchestra, conducted by Alain Trudel. The evening’s centerpiece will be a performance of Mozart’s lively Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra.

The 2006 celebration of the anniversary of Mozart’s birth continues on August 2 with a series of musical scenes from the composer’s great operas. Banff Centre musicians will present excerpts from operas including Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan Tutte, and Zäide.

Throughout the summer, audiences will enjoy a constantly-changing repertoire of classical and modern music, brand new compositions and old favourites. The Music for a Summer Evening series in the Rolston Recital Hall extends from June 16 to August 12, with performances by a roster of emerging professional musicians and acclaimed visiting musicians — including Shauna Rolston, Edgar Meyer, Erika Raum, Scott St. John, and others.

The Canmore Mondays series takes the music off-site to the Canmore Seniors’ Centre between June 19 and July 31, and the popular Serenade at St. George’s brings it to downtown Banff and the St. George’s-in-the-Pines church. On July 18 and 25, and August 1, Banff’s Central Park Gazebo will be the site of three special fresh air concerts.

The Galaxie Rising Stars Award

Partnering with The Banff Centre for the fifth consecutive year, Galaxie’s Rising Stars Award is presented to emerging Canadian artists performing in the Centre’s Summer Music Program, one of many awards the network presents in conjunction with more than 50 music industry partners across Canada to talented up-and-coming artists. Galaxie is the most listened to continuous music network in the country with more than 5 million subscribers and 45 music channels uninterrupted by ads or talk, and programmed by music experts.

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More information on the 2006 Banff Summer Arts Festival music programming.