Season's Greetings!

Let’s drive into

the New Year 2020!   

* * *

Ворвёмся в Новый 2020-й!

     

Kapustin Toccatina - YouTube

November & December

Finishing Tchaikovsky's The Seasons Op. 37 a

Just as the composer did when writing this cycle,
I recorded a piece every month of 2019

Tchaikovsky Seasons November - YouTube

November: Troika

Tchaikovsky Seasons December - YouTube

December: Christmas

September & October

“September: The Hunt”

Tchaikovsky Seasons September - YouTube

“October. Autumn Song”

Tchaikovsky Seasons October - YouTube

Story of a Theme: Another Premiere!

On October 12, 2019

on their 19th season opening concert

The Lions Gate Sinfonia

under the direction of Maestro Clyde Mitchell

premiered Antoine's orchestral version of

 The Story of a Theme Opus 8 b

Antoine Villeger Story of a Theme Lions Gate 12 oct 2019 - YouTube

 

Clyde Mitchell & Antoine Villeger

Antoine's Music... On Main!

On August 24, 2019

Antoine’s piece “The Story of a Theme” (op.8a)

arranged for string orchestra
was featured

 in the Music on Main concert series in Vancouver

at the Kessler Academy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHFndleL-zk&feature=youtu.be

The Pyatt Hall

Antoine with violinist Marc Destrube

and Artistic Director of Music on Main series David Pay

August

Tchaikovsky Seasons August - YouTube

A successful summer for Antoine! (updated)

A successful summer for Antoine!

·        In June 2019 he passed his piano exam for London College of Music (DipLCM in Performance, Recital) and received 97 out of 100. Proud of my only student!

·         His “Song without Words” op. 6 won FIRST PLACE in the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers' Association Student Composer National Competition (CFMTA). 

Niveau B – 15 ans et moins, catégorie de composition 1 pour instrument solo
Première place	Antoine Villeger (BC)	Song without Words
Deuxième place	Angela Li (AB)	Reflecting on Times Past
Deuxième place	Houtian Zhang (BC)	Atlantis Overture
Mention d'honneur	Tami Yang (SK)	Halora's Serenade

It shared the First Place at the BCRMTA Student Competition 2019 (category “15 and under”) !

July

Tchaikovsky Seasons July - YouTube

June

Tchaikovsky Seasons June - YouTube

Radio-Canada interviews young composer Antoine Villéger

The Butterfly and The Bee, suite...

The May 10 Vancouver Chamber Choir concert was recorded by Radio-Canada in Vancouver.

After Antoine's piece "The Butterfly and the Bee" then garnered two prizes, we received an invitation to have him appear in the May 28 edition of  Boulevard du Pacifique, the marquee weekday afternoon radio show presented by Jacques Dufresne.

Here you can listen to the interview (in French!)

Two of Antoine's pieces were broadcast during the segment, "Song without Words" with the Lions Gate Sinfonia conducted by Maestro Clyde Mitchell and "Le Nuage" from Svetlana Ponomarëva's latest CD

700 Hamilton Street in front of the show's billboard...

...And now "live on air" with Jacques Dufresne in the studio!

The technical team: Susana & Marc surrounding the guest (Melanie missing) 

 To all at Radio-Canada, merci for your warm welcome!

"The Butterfly and the Bee"

Antoine Villéger “The Butterfly and the Bee” (op.13)

after a poem by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

The Vancouver Chamber Choir

Conducted by Jon Washburn

At the 14^th Biennial Young Composer’s Competition

May 10, 2019

Antoine Villéger "The Butterfly and the Bee" / Антуан Виллеже "Мотылёк и пчела" - YouTube

Antoine received the First Place in Elementary Division

and a Special Barbara Pentland Awards for outstanding composition!

http://musiccentrebc.ca/2019/winners-of-2019-vancouver-chamber-choir-young-composers-competition/

(with conductor Jon Washburn)

Here is the program

May

Tchaikovsky Seasons May White Nights - YouTube

April

Tchaikovsky Seasons April - YouTube

2019 Svetlana's NEW CD released!

Svetlana's 2019 new CD features two first recordings by Canadian living composers: Michael Conway Baker's Sonata for piano Op. 31 (1975) & Antoine Villéger Le Nuage Op. 4 (2016), as well as Bach's Toccata in E Minor BWV 914, Prokofiev's Music for Children Op.65 and his Piano Sonata No. 7 Op. 83.

The CD has been personally sent to:

CBC Music Library

CBC Radio 2 Tempo & Piano Stream producer, Allison Howard

CBC Radio 2 Shift, host Tom Allen

CBC Radio Q

Ici-Musique Mozart, Cafe et Compagnie, host Isabelle Poulin 

Ici-Musique Toute une Musique, host Isabelle Trottier

Ici-Musique Quand le Jour se Leve, host Francois Lemay

So please let us know when a track is played in any of these fine programs!

+++++ Updates:

May 28, 2019:

Ici-Radio Canada Premiere "Boulevard du Pacifique" broadcasted Le Nuage on May 28, 2019.

June 21, 2019: 

Over two months ago we sent our latest CD to CBC Radio 2 Tempo and CBC Piano Stream producer Allison Howard. In this CD, Svetlana plays the wonderful Opus 65 by Prokofiev “Music for Children” for piano solo. The piece lasts 16 minutes.

 Here is Svetlana playing the waltz from this suite

Today, June 21, 2019 summer solstice, the orchestral version of this piece called “Summer Days” Opus 65 bis was played on Tempo from a 2004 Hyperion CD featuring the New London Orchestra from the UK conducted by Ronald Corp a British conductor and composer. The piece lasted almost 15 minutes.

July 22, 2019:

Over a month ago we contacted CBC North by Northwest host Matthew Parsons who has a keen interest in classical music and turntables. 6 months  later, no sign of acknowledging our email.

On July 17, 2019 as a follow up, we also contacted CBC Radio 2 'Shift" host Tom Allen.
Here is the letter we sent to Allen's own website which, nearly 5 months later, was still not acknowledged... until we received a standard promote email on Dec. 14 suggesting giving the gift of a "genuine Canadian mystery", staring Tom Allen among others, to family and friends!

Dear Tom Allen,
 As the Host of the CBC Radio 2 “Shift” program, you must have received last April pianist Svetlana Ponomareva’s new CD featuring works by Michael Conway Baker, Bach, Prokofiev, and a young composer Antoine Villeger.
Since then, Antoine choral piece “The Butterfly and the Bee” had received First place (elementary division) and a Special Barbara Pentland award during the Vancouver Chamber Choir 14^th Biennal Young Composer competition and been performed by the Vancouver Chamber Choir under the direction of Jon Washburn. This led to him being featured on Radio Canada “Boulevard du Pacifique”.
https://pianistsveta.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-butterfly-and-bee.html https://pianistsveta.blogspot.com/2019/05/radio-canada-interviews-young-composer.htmlFour months in, your program has yet to feature any of the tracks of this new 2019, made in Canada, featuring Canadian composers old and young, recording. We do understand many Canadian artists must be sending you their work, a sign of the vibrancy of creation in our country.
At this stage, as we strive to always improve, we would appreciate to know if you had a chance to listen to it and if so, why nothing in it had tickled your fancy enough to share our work with the CBC audience.
We wish you a great summer,

July 25, 2019:

This is how one "makes" it on CBC Music blog...

December 04, 2019:

CBC released their "20 favourite Canadian classical albums of 2019" and, surprisingly, ours is... not among them: who would have thought? Merry Christmas to you!  

March

Tchaikovsky Seasons March - YouTube

Winter Carnival

Snow and pancakes!

Tchaikovsky The Seasons Op. 37a February - YouTube

Tchaikovsky, The Seasons Op. 37a

February: Carnival

Orthodox Christmas 2019

Merry Orthodox Christmas

Tchaikovsky Seasons January - YouTube

Tchaikovsky, The Seasons Op. 37a

January: At the Fireside

С Рождеством!