Highway 19 Concert Series
Elinor Frey plays Bach Cello Suites
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 | 7pm
Rivercity Stage (1080 Hemlock)
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At the heart of the repertoire of nearly all cellists, Bach’s cello suites are among the most appreciated works of music around the world. The suites highlight how Bach is particularly adept at mixing particular characteristics of the cello from the low bass to the soprano range creating the illusion of multiple voices. The suites were probably composed around 1720 when Bach lived in Cöthen in the service of Prince Leopold, when he composed much secular and instrumental music, including works for solo violin and the famous Brandenburg concertos. For this concert, the main source is the manuscript copy of Anna Magdalena Bach, as no Bach autographs survive.
American-Canadian cellist, gambist, and researcher, Elinor Frey has performed as a soloist and with numerous ensembles and orchestras including Tafelmusik, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, London Symphony, Contantinople, Symphony Nova Scotia and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. Her recording Early Italian Cello Concertos won the 2023 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year.
Frey is the artistic director of Accademia de’ Dissonanti, an organization for performance and research and recipient of dozens of grants and prizes supporting performance and research, including the US-Italy Fulbright Fellowship (studying with Paolo Beschi in Como, Italy) and a recent research residency at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent. She teaches Baroque cello and performance practice at McGill University and the Université de Montréal. Frey was awarded Québec’s Opus Prize for “Performer of the Year” in 2021.
The Highway 19 Concert Series is supported by the Province of BC through BC Arts Council and BC Live, and the Government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage.
General admission tickets are available for $20 to be affordable to anyone who wishes to attend, or $30 help sustain this concert series. The choice is yours. Teen tickets are only $5 and tickets for kids are free when accompanied by a paying adult.
Lonesome Ace Stringband
Monday, November 18, 2024 | 7pm
Rivercity Stage (1080 Hemlock)
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Masters of their trade, The Lonesome Ace Stringband return to Rivercity Stage bringing grit, skill and abandon to Americana music, bridging old-time, bluegrass and folk traditions into a seamless hybrid of original material that is at once fresh and timeless.
The trio’s sound is anchored in the fiddle and clawhammer banjo of John Showman and Chris Coole. They are joined by a rotating cast of extraordinary upright bassists (including founding member Max Malone, James Mceleney, and Lotus Wight). The band moves freely between a sound so commanding it doesn’t seem like it should be coming from a stringband, to a sparse fragility that draws the listener closer. Whether singing about climate change, modern love, BBQ techniques or life’s inevitable existential crises, the band cuts to the core.
There’s a reason why they are a smokin’ hot outfit – they’ve put in their time. In 2007, Lonesome Ace Stringband took up residency in Toronto’s legendary Dakota Tavern, routinely playing 10 sets of music every weekend. They went on to spend seven years as the house band before ever taking the show on the road or recording a note. Those years of musical percolation honed them into a group that thinks and plays as one – something that comes from clocking thousands of on-stage hours together. Outside of their trio work, each musician is a veteran of the Canadian music scene, sought after for teaching camps, recording sessions and touring with some of the best artists in North America.
They’ve released six critically-acclaimed albums of original music and new takes on timeless classics and have toured through the US, UK, Germany including repeat performances at festivals like Rockygrass, Celtic Connections, Winnipeg Folk Festival, and Merlefest. This will be their third visit to Rivercity Stage. The previous two were sold out. If you were there, you know why, and if you weren’t, don’t miss your chance this time.
The Highway 19 Concert Series is supported by the Province of BC through BC Arts Council and BC Live, and the Government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage.
General admission tickets are available for $20 to be affordable to anyone who wishes to attend, or $30 help sustain this concert series. The choice is yours. Teen tickets are only $5 and tickets for kids are free when accompanied by a paying adult.
Saltwater Hank
Thursday, December 5, 2024 | 7pm
Willow Point Lions Hall (2165 Island Hwy)
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Jeremy Pahl, known by his stage name Saltwater Hank, is a musician whose heart beats with the rhythm of his Ts’msyen heritage. Pahl’s inspiration comes from the traditions that have been passed down through generations. He is genuinely immersed in the teachings of his elders, recognizing the importance of harnessing the language and melodies of his ancestors.
Saltwater Hank’s musical style is a fusion of raw authenticity and modern innovation. He seamlessly blends pre-contact melodies and lyrics with the energy of rock and roll. Influenced by early punk rock icons such as the Dead Kennedys and the Sex Pistols, to legendary blues artists like Mississippi, Fred McDowell, and Memphis Minnie, Jeremy’s music expresses his artistic style while staying true to his cultural roots.
Beyond his role as Saltwater Hank, Jeremy Pahl is a storyteller, a dreamer, and a guardian of tradition and language. His ultimate goal as an artist is to carve out a place in the collective history of his people, ensuring that their stories and traditions endure for generations to come. His commitment to language revitalization is evident in his groundbreaking album “G̱al’üünx Wil Lu Holtga Liimi,” where he sings exclusively in Sm’algyax, the Ts’msyen language.
Through his music, Pahl resists the erasure of Indigenous culture and language, offering a powerful statement of the resilience of his community in the face of historical oppression.
Pahl’s journey as an artist and language revitalizer has been one of cultural resurgence and musical exploration, inspiring others to embrace their heritage with pride. He leads his career with conviction knowing that his music has the power to spark change and ignite the flames of cultural revival.The Highway 19 Concert Series is supported by the Province of BC through BC Arts Council and BC Live, and the Government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage.
General admission tickets are available for $20 to be affordable to anyone who wishes to attend, or $30 help sustain this concert series. The choice is yours. Teen tickets are only $5 and tickets for kids are free when accompanied by a paying adult.
Sarah Jane Scouten
Friday, December 13, 2024 | 7pm
Rivercity Stage (1080 Hemlock)
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In March 2020, Canadian folk & country artist Sarah Jane Scouten was living in rural Scotland. With tours cancelled, days stretched endlessly, punctuated only by the steady unfolding of Scottish springtime, leaf by leaf, petal by petal. Growing up on the west coast of Canada, to her the flora of Dumfries and Galloway was a pageant of scent and colour, altogether new but still strangely familiar.
This is where Sarah Jane was initiated into herbal medicine – hawthorn, valerian, yarrow. The plants’ subtle power drew her onto an unexpected path. In May 2020 she applied to a professional programme in herbal medicine in the UK and qualified in 2023. Training in an entirely different field gave her perspective and space from a career in music which demands everything. It renewed Sarah Jane’s love of live performance, which had been diminished by life on the road. Studying herbs, and just as importantly people, gave her music a deeper dimension and she began to write again.
The result was Scouten’s fifth album Turned to Gold, a road trip album, drawing on Tom Petty, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and Christine McVie that the Georgia Straight called “an unendingly lovely record." It includes a beautifully fitting tribute to the late John Prime (Rose and Carnations), a nostalgic co-write with Samantha Parton of the Be Good Tanyas (Wilder When I Was With You), and a personal family account of medical assistance in dying (The Great Unknown).
Sarah Jane Scouten has been nominated for 4 Canadian Folk Music Awards, a Western Canadian Music Award and an International Folk Music Award. She has performed at Vancouver Folk Music Festival, MerleFest, Calgary Folk Music Festival, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues, Dranouter Festival, and Maverick Americana Music Festival, has opened for Corb Lund, William Prince, Ron Sexsmith, and The Sadies, and shared the stage with Martha Wainwright, The Strumbellas, Allison Russell, Martin Carthy, and Mandolin Orange (Watchhouse).
According to CBC q’s Tom Power, "Stan Rogers was able to do it, Ron Hynes was able to do it, Kate McGarrigle was able to do it – and Sarah Jane Scouten is able to do it.” Hear for yourself when Sarah Jane Scouten returns to the intimate Rivercity Stage on December 13.
The Highway 19 Concert Series is supported by the Province of BC through BC Arts Council and BC Live, and the Government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage.
General admission tickets are available for $20 to be affordable to anyone who wishes to attend, or $30 help sustain this concert series. The choice is yours. Teen tickets are only $5 and tickets for kids are free when accompanied by a paying adult.