Opening Night: Kenneth Nichols’ 80th Birthday Celebration – Thursday, July 21, 7:30 pm

Ken Nichols_IMG_0782During the festival, we will be celebrating Ken Nichols’ 80th birthday. Ken was a long-time faculty member in the School of Music and is a widely known and respected Canadian composer. The world première of Kenneth Nichols Letters Home for soprano, baritone, piano and strings commissioned by the Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival.

Ranchers wife

The program will also include the mysterious and captivating masterworks of Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit which requires superhuman piano technique as well as the Dvo?ák Piano Quintet, one of the greatest chamber music works ever written.

Program:
Kenneth Nichols (b.1936) – “Letters Home”? for piano, baritone, soprano, 2 violins, viola and cello

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) – Gaspard de la Nuit
1.Ondine
2.Le Gibet
3. Scarbo
Alexander Tselyakov, piano

Antonín Dvorják (1841-1904) – Piano Quintet in A major, no.2, op.81

Alexander Tselyakov, piano; Kerry DuWors and Joyce Lai, violin; Ian Clark, viola; Simon Fryer, cello