Vancouver Arts and Music Festival ready to celebrate its second year

Expectations are high for another weekend of record-breaking crowds at the Vancouver Arts and Music Festival this coming weekend (August 2-5). It’s the second year for Vancouver’s unique cultural celebration at Esther Short Park, and it promises to be just as spectacular as the first year. The extravaganza will offer a wide variety of food and entertainment that is sure to appeal to those who enjoy pretzels and popcorn to others who want to survey the latest in acrylic paintings and fashionable artware.

Of course, headlining the musical side of the ledger will be the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, whose CEO, Igor Shakhman, teamed up with the City of Vancouver, The Murdock Foundation, and other foundations and granting organizations to make this extravaganza a reality. And this year’s schedule will bring another stellar lineup of stars from the classical music world to downtown Vancouver.

Leading off on Friday (August 2) is cellist Zuill Bailey, who will perform Tchaikovsky “Variations on a Rococo Theme” and John Williams “Schindler’s List” with the VSO under Music Director Salvador Brotons. In 2016 Bailey received a Grammy award for his recording of Michael Daugherty's cello concerto “Tales of Hemingway.” Also on the program are three Tchaikovsky numbers, concluding with the rousing “1812 Overture.”

Saturday’s concert (August 3) features pianist Olga Kern playing Beethoven’s “Fifth Piano Concerto,” aka the “Emperor Concerto,” with the VSO under conductor Gerard Schwarz, the former Music Director of the Seattle Symphony. In 2001, Kern won the Gold Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. She is the only woman in the last 50 years to do so. The orchestra will also deliver Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony with its dramatic opening statement.

On Sunday afternoon (August), Schwarz and the VSO return to the main stage at Esther Short Park with three Bernstein pieces, including his “Suite No. 1” from “West Side Story” with soprano Cecilia Violetta López and tenor Ben Gulley. A movement from Mahler’s Second Symphony will kick off the program.

To get more insight into the featured works, I contacted the performers. Here’s an edited transcript of what they said.

Zuill Bailey

“I’ve been on the road the last four or five months,” said Bailey over the phone. “I am now in New York City were my cello is getting cleaned up. You have make sure that the seams are together. It’s the Matteo Gofriller Cello that was built in 1693. These instruments were built to fall apart so that they don’t crack. Humidity and temperature cause the wood to expand and contract. So they must be flexible, but they need maintenance.”

“Tchaikovsky’s ‘Variations on a Rococo Theme’ and John Williams ‘Schindler’s List’ are two of my most favorite pieces,” remarked Bailey. “Tchaikovsky was inspired to write the variations because of Mozart, who was his hero. Mozart didn’t write a concerto for the cello; so Tchaikovsky uncorked this virtuosic, romantic and passionate piece. It brings out the cello which evolved a lot as an instrument throughout the Nineteenth century.”

“The piece was dedicated to the great cellist Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, who gave its premiere,” continued Bailed. “He added more octane to the piece; so that over the course of its seven variations, it builds to the finale. This was an early piece that I learned, and I received mentoring from Rostropovich. I played it for him in my mid teens while he was in Washington D. C., as music director of the National Symphony Orchestra. He was a force of pure nature and told me of the secrets behind playing the ‘Variations.’

“’Schindler's List’ was written for the violin and performed by Itzak Perlman in the Stephen Spielberg movie,” said Bailey. “During COVID, I thought about the piece over and over. It haunted me. So I learned how to play it in the range of the cello, which emulates the human voice. I tinkered with the octaves a bit to show off the cello, but otherwise, it is exactly the same.”

“It’s wonderful to play music by a living composer and the great Tchaikovsky piece,” added Bailey. “I’m thrilled to perform both at the festival.”

Olga Kern

“I have played all of Beethoven’s concertos often,” said Kern. “The fifth concerto is a monumental piece. I always loved how Beethoven gave the piano soloist a part right at the beginning of the whole the piece. It’s a wonderful beginning with the big rolling chords in E-flat major. They are just so grand and majestic. The orchestra plays just one chord, and then Beethoven gave the piano soloist a chance to shine right away. Usually the concertos up to this point started with a long orchestral introduction and the soloist has to wait before entering. But here it is wonderfully different.”

“The whole first movement is the biggest movement of the concerto,” continued Kern, “and so many things happen. The scenes change, and the pianist has to make a huge big line from one theme to next theme theme and to the third theme and the development. You have to make sure that it doesn’t sound separate. You need to bring all of the parts together in line.”

“Beethoven always loved to put a cadenza in the first movement,” added Kern, “but here, we don’t have it. We have a very short solo after the recapitulation, and it doesn’t sound like a cadenza. He wants to have a competition between the piano and the orchestra. But the piano rules the movement and must be in charge.”

“Of course, I love the second movement,” noted Kern. “Everyone is just waiting for it to arrive. It has gorgeous music from heaven. Every time I play it, I just feel like it could be just a little bit longer. It is so beautiful. He gives the main theme to the piano and then to the orchestra, then the piano accompanies a gorgeous melody in the strings. It’s just incredibly beautiful.”

“The third movement is a majestic dance with a happy ending,” noted Kern. “It gives you those good vibes! I tell my friend and fans to listen to everything. You can relax and enjoy it. “

Cecilia Violetta López

“I just returned home in Albuquerque from singing in an outdoor festival for Opera Idaho,” said López via Zoom. “It was 106 degrees, but we still made it a fun experience.”

I asked her to give us a little bit of her background.

“I went to the University of Nevada Las Vegas,” said López. “I was a music education major at first. I didn’t grow up on classical and opera music. I saw ‘La Boheme’ for the first time in college and was moved to tears. So I switched to a vocal performance degree and had to audition three times to be accepted. I auditioned for Opera San Jose in 2011 on a whim, and they gave me my first contract. I had just graduated from the university, and I’ve been singing professionally ever since.”

“I’ve done the entire role of Maria before,” continued López. “I grew up thinking that ‘West Side Story’ was more of a musical theater piece. When I saw the score and the thick orchestration, I understood how Bernstein wanted opera singers to do the music. Maria is really high. But it is such yummy music. I love it. The Latina identity resonates with me, because I am Mexican-American.”

Ben Gulley

“The Bernstein suites for ‘West Side Story’ allow you to hit fast forward – you get all the greatest hits,” said Gulley. “It’s got the great numbers like ‘Tonight,’ ‘One Hand, One Heart,’ and ‘Maria.’”

I’ve worked with Cecilia for about seven years,” added Gulley. “ We are dear colleagues. There’s not a show where the characters we sing haven’t fallen in love: ‘La Boheme,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ but in this concert version we get to stay alive.”

“I am an operatic tenor, but I come from singing in church and musical theater, which is the style you need for ‘West Side Story,’” noted Gulley. “I’ve never let go of that side of me. I recently did the role of Quasimodo in Dennis DeYoung’s ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ which won 53 out of 56 Broadway World Awards. So I am comfortable with everything from Pops to opera.”

Last year, Gulley rescued the Portland Opera production of Rusalka by jumping in with 36 hours’ notice to sing the role of the Prince.

“I hadn’t sung it in four years,” said Gulley. “There’s only about ten of us in the world who can sing that role in Czech. I had just returned home from vacation when I got the call. My agent said that I had to get on a plane in the morning. The dress rehearsal is tomorrow morning for 1500 people. I’m a big guy. I played nose guard on the high school football scene. The only seat available was the middle seat in the last role of the economy section. I was going over my part, whispering in Czech. You have to do what you have to do and it all worked out.”