Yo-Yo Ma, Evgeny Kissin, Yunchan Lim, and more as Vancouver Recital Society announces 2024-25 season

International lineup includes all-female Norwegian brass ensemble tenThing and soprano-conductor Barbara Hannigan

Norway’s brass ensemble tenThing. Photo Anna-Julia Granberg

VANCOUVER RECITAL SOCIETY has announced a 45th season that spans cello superstar Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Evgeny Kissin, and tenThing, an all-female brass ensemble from Norway.

Most of the concerts take place at the Vancouver Playhouse, with Ma’s May 6, 2025 performance at the Orpheum.

The 17-concert 2024-25 season will also include South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim, who soared to fame after a tour de force performance of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Grammy Award-winning soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan will make her VRS debut with renowned French pianist Bertrand Chamayou, November 30 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. Also making her debut with the series is soprano and pianist Rachel Fenlon, originally from Victoria and now living in Berlin; her September 8 program includes Franz Schubert’s epic Winterreise.

Elsewhere, the Israeli Chamber Project has joined forces with soprano Hila Baggio to celebrate the 150th birth year of Arnold Schoenberg with a semi-staged production of his ground-breaking expressionist cabaret Pierrot Lunaire (December 1).

A two-concert Brahms Fest in November is set to bring together eight musicians from three countries. The Castalian String Quartet, violist Timothy Ridout, cellist Zlatomir Fung, and pianists Angela Cheng and Benjamin Hochman will join forces in various groupings on works such as the String Sextet No. 2 in G major and the Piano Quintet in F minor.

Norway’s tenThing plays February 23, while Kissin hits the keyboards April 16.

Other highlights include pianists Steven Osborne and Alexander Melnikov, guitarist Miloš, and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras.

Find the full lineup on the VRS website.

Tickets, on sale May 1, can be purchased online or by phone at 604-602-0363.

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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