Long-time leader of the Huntsville festival orchestra Kerry Stratton provides one of the highlights for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts’ opening weekend of entertainment.
Stratton’s program, taking the Algonquin Theatre stage on Sunday, July 6, will focus on the music of Mozart. The concert starts at 4 p.m. and will run for approximately 90 minutes.
This is not standard concert fare. Stratton, a master of the patter that adds so much to the musical interpretation, will be reading from Mozart’s personal letters throughout the afternoon. These readings place the master composer’s music in a context not normally experienced by concert goers and are sure to enhance the experience.
Mozart’s letters show a high-spirited boyish impression of his journeys, his great love and reverence for his father in conflict with his natural instinct for independence, his first love affairs, his tragic wrestlings with poverty, his hatred of his hometown and the tyrannical archbishop, and his true love for Constance Weber.
Mozart’s Mail will show a young man who managed to combine realism and tenderness in his personal relations. A growing sense of power as a composer is revealed through a character which emerges showing a vital and joyous nature.
There is no better interpreter of these readings than Stratton, an experienced radio personality and international performer. His personal knowledge of the works he is dealing with, combined with his natural affinity to engage his audience, will result in a great afternoon of music.
LIGHTNING CONDUCTOR: Maestro Kerry Stratton, seen here conduction his orchestra at the festival's Last Night at the Proms, brings Mozart's Mail to the Algonquin stage July 6.
Barely 24 years old, Milman has already seen and done more than many people twice her age. Her self-titled debut CD was released in 2004 and has sold almost 100,000 copies worldwide. It hit the Billboard Top 5 in Canada and the Top 15 in the United States, and topped the iTunes jazz charts in five different territories.
Meanwhile, Milman has maintained a rigorous touring schedule, headlining sold-out shows in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Japan and throughout Europe, and continues to balance her burgeoning music career with her commerce studies at the University of Toronto.
Milman’s story continues to inspire. After emigrating from Russia to Israel with her family at the tender age of seven, then moving again at 16 to seek a new life with them in Canada, her transition from bookish teenager to glamorous jazz ingénue was perhaps unlikely.
However, before long, Milman had earned a 2006 Juno Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album and was appearing on stage with international musical superstars such as Aaron Neville and the Neville Brothers, Chick Corea and Jesse Cook.
Two and a half years of touring the world have deepened and strengthened the collaboration between Milman and her band, led by multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger Cameron Wallis, and featuring Paul Shrofel on piano, John Fraboni on drums and newest member Kieran Overs on bass.
The opportunity to build a relationship with her bandmates and collaborators has cultivated an atmosphere of comfort and creativity where Milman can express who and where she truly is today in her career, her life and her music.
Tickets for both shows are $35 ,or $15 for youth under 18, and are available at the Algonquin Theatre Box office, by calling 789-4975 or online at www.huntsvillefestival.on.ca.
