Cellist Julia MacLaine to perform at UPEI—January 11
As part of the UPEI Music Department Recital Series, cellist Julia MacLaine returns home to PEI to present 'Fairy Tales and Fantasy,' on Sunday, January 11 at 2:30 pm in UPEI's Dr. Steel Recital Hall.
MacLaine will be accompanied by pianist Jean Desmarais in a program of music that is fanciful, mystical, at times, dreamy and very colourful. The recital will include three pieces by Webern, the 'Fantasy Pieces' by Robert Schumann, 'Fairy Tale' or 'Pohadka' by Leos Janacek (featured in the film 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being'), and sonatas for cello and piano by Achille-Claude Debussy and Sergei Prokofiev.
Originally from PEI, MacLaine proudly joined the National Arts Centre Orchestra as Assistant Principal Cellist this year. She has performed worldwide as a soloist and chamber musician, in music ranging from classical to contemporary, and from ‘world' to her own compositions. She has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Louis Lortie, Joshua Redman, Brad Meldau, and Enya - to name a few.
MacLaine spent ten years living in New York City, first as a graduate student, and then as a freelance chamber musician. After a performance of Schumann's 'Cello Concerto' with The Knights in Central Park, The New York Times praised her 'compelling serenity' and 'grace.' In New York, Julia was a member of The Orchestra of St. Luke's and of The Knights, and was co-founder of Decoda, a collective that produces chamber music residencies around the world. In Montreal, she is the cellist of the Parcival Project and String Quartet and of the duo Moon Palace, with horn-player Louis-Pierre Bergeron. Together, they were 2013-14 artists of the SAMS (Société pour les arts en milieux de santé), a program that brings music to hospitals and health centers in Montreal. MacLaine studied at McGill University and at The Juilliard School.
Jean Desmarais is an internationally acclaimed pianist and pedagogue. Last year, he performed as a soloist with Orchestre de la francophonie conducted by Jean-Philippe Tremblay, concerts with Arthur-LeBlanc Quartet, Jessica Linnebach, Isabelle Lacroix, Denis Lawlor, and Joel Quarrington. Desmarais has been a guest soloist of many orchestras including I Musici, Orchestre de la Francophonie, Les Violons du Roy, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In 2007, he was the only Canadian pianist invited to perform at the Moscow Conservatory to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the famous recital given by Glenn Gould. Since the summer of 2013, he has been the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Under the Pines Music Festival in Bristol, Quebec. Desmarais has received the Commemorative Medal for the 125th anniversary of Canada, for his remarkable contribution to the arts in Canada and abroad.
Tickets for the upcoming performance are $15 general public/$10 students and seniors, and are available at the door, online at http://upeirecitals16.bpt.me, or in advance by calling (902) 566‐0507.
For information:
Susan Williams
UPEI Music Department
swilliamspei@gmail.com
