Tag: Leila Getz
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Beyond the Concert Hall: Tiffany Poon
This is one of the videos in our Beyond the Concert Hall series. Our Beyond the Concert Hall series brings our audiences into the world of musicians and other creative industry professionals through intimate interviews. Beyond the Concert Hall featured interviews are updated here each season. You can watch all our archival interviews here.
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DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR VERY FIRST MUSICAL MEMORY?
When I was a boy my father would sing me to sleep every night. And when he went away on business trips, my mother sang to me at night instead. Now, my mother, whom I love dearly (98 and going strong!) has many wonderful traits and abilities, including playing the piano. But singing perfectly in…
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CAVORTING AT THE CLIBURN
I returned last Monday from a trip to the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas with a prize winner and a cold! It has been twenty years since I’ve been to a Cliburn Competition and have decided that I’m not waiting another twenty years. The next competition is in four years and…
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LEILA GETZ: HATS ‘ON’ TO TWO EXTRAORDINARY MUSICIANS!
Following their incredible journey through the Beethoven Piano and Violin Sonatas in three concerts for the Vancouver Recital Society, Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov were anxious to blow off excess steam and see something of Vancouver before they left for their next engagement in San Francisco. So I, as the tour guide, and Allison…
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LEILA GETZ: ONE OF THE MOST PERFECT CONCERT EXPERIENCES OF MY LIFE
Last night I had one of the most perfect concert experiences of my life. I have been attending a conference of music managers and presenters in Budapest. I discovered that baritone Christian Gerhaher was singing an all-Schubert song recital in the Vienna Konzerthaus. It was sold out, but after 33 years in the concert presenting…
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LEILA GETZ: WHY I LOVE ANDRAS SCHIFF
Yesterday I watched a video on the VRS YouTube channel featuring pianist Shai Wosner playing the concluding portion of Schumann’s “Carnaval”. I enjoyed it very much. As the video concluded, another video on the YouTube sidebar caught my eye: András Schiff playing the Andantino from Schubert’s Sonata in A Major, D959. I clicked on it…
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MURRAY PERAHIA…REMINISCENCES
Murray Perahia first came onto my radar in 1972 when he won the Leeds International Piano Competition. I knew Murray’s playing through his recordings but didn’t have the opportunity to hear him live for the first time until 1983, when on a visit to London I was able to attend a recital he gave at…
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THE SEASON BEGINS
Once again we have a season of musical treasures that will be yours to discover over 21 performances, plus one very special presentation. To start this season we present the Vancouver debuts of two young musicians: pianist Boris Giltburg and violist Maxim Rysanov. Boris Giltburg first came to our attention through a long-time friend of…
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TROUSERS, DUCT TAPE AND THE JERUSALEM STRING QUARTET
Paul Gravett, hasn’t worked at the VRS long enough to know that to ask me “to write a few words about something” is like asking me to fly a jumbo jet! Here is the response to his most recent request… “Would you mind writing a few words about your first encounter with the Jerusalem String…
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GET WIND OF THIS…
I regularly receive e-newsletters from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust in London, and this most recent one contains a blog by Ramon Ortega Quero, the young Spanish oboist who will be gracing our stage at the Playhouse on Sunday, April 25. If you don’t already have a ticket to this amazing young musician’s concert, try to finish…
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WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT ‘SPECIAL’?
Each season, as we prepare our new brochure, I stew over the concept of concerts we list therein as ‘special’ concerts. These so-called ‘special’ concerts are generally performed by artists who are well known, who will attract larger audiences (we always hope) and they are not part of any of our series concerts. What I…
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RENÉE FLEMING…SHE CAME, SHE SANG, SHE CONQUERED
Renée Fleming was recently on a short tour of South Africa, and as luck would have it, I was in Johannesburg on the weekend she sang in Pretoria at the Opera House. The two cities are less than an hour apart by car, and I’m sure that at least half the audience drove from Johannesburg…
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A DEDICATION TO DIE OVER!
When Javier Perianes dedicated his first encore to me (Chopin Nocturne in c sharp minor, Op. 20) at the Vancouver Playhouse I was rendered speechless for at least 20 minutes. What an extraordinarily wonderful thing to have happened. There’s actually a story behind Perianes and that Nocturne. This goes back about three years. I had…
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IN RESPONSE TO A QUESTION
In response to Deborah Hobson’s question as to what the artists like to do after a performance, I would have to say that, most often, they like to eat and unwind. Many musicians don’t eat very much before they go on stage, so if it’s an evening concert it means a late night supper for…
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HER CUP RUNNETH OVER
Remember that iPod Touch that I confessed to stealing from my husband? Well, now that I’m back in the swing of things, I barely get time to listen to it…and in any case, I’ve been listening to Murray Perahia practising in my living room for the past few days. Murray and I have exchanged quite…
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MURRAY PERAHIA HAS SOME WILD FANS!
A few weeks ago, I was sitting at YVR waiting for a flight to Seattle – Frankfurt – Johannesburg – Cape Town for a reunion with my friends from the College of Music in Cape Town. My husband recently won an iPod Touch which I quickly appropriated, so now I have finally joined the iPod…