String quartets, French composers, and Land and Sea, as Vetta Chamber Music unveils 2024-25 season

Beethoven, Mozart, and Vancouver’s own Jeffrey Ryan are included on the roster

Clockwise from top left, Rosemary Georgeson, Joan Blackman, Jeffrey Ryan, and Jane Coop.

VETTA CHAMBER MUSIC has unveiled a 2024-25 season that includes the return of a cross-cultural concert, a string quartet by Vancouver composer Jeffrey Ryan, a live appearance by sax quartet the Four Jays, and more.

Uniquely, all concerts are performed four times at four different venues, including Vancouver’s West Point Grey United Church and Pyatt Hall, as well as either West Vancouver United Church or the Kay Meek Arts Centre, and then ArtSpring on Salt Spring Island.

The season kicks off September 27 to 30 with Liminal Spaces, a concert of string quartets, performed by the Vetta String Quartet, that explores dissonance and consonance, as well as the elasticity of musical tension and relaxation in Beethoven and Mozart. The musicians then connect those ideas to composer Ryan’s fourth string quartet Inspirare.

November 15 to 18 marks the return of Vetta’s 30th-anniversary cross-cultural commission Land and Sea, featuring words by Coast Salish/Sahtu Dene artist Rosemary Georgeson and music by Ryan, this time performed by the Vetta Chamber Players Mentorship Orchestra. Georgeson and Joan Blackman are soloists.

January 24 to 27, French Connections looks at the commonalities between Mozart and French composers Fauré and Francaix. On the roster: Mozart Piano Quartet in G minor, 1933’s Francaix Trio, and Fauré’s Piano Quartet in C minor. VSO principals Hung-Wei Huang and Henry Shapard join the concert.

March 5 to 10 sees the return of The Four Jays—Jane Hayes, Julia Nolan, Joan Blackman, and jazz bassist and composer Jodi Proznick’s sax-driven quartet. The group takes on classical, new music, and jazz.

May 2 to 5 wraps the season with the Grand Finale Viennois, featuring an all-star cast of musicians, including UBC’s horn prof Valerie Whitney and violinist David Gillham. Blackman, who joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 1988 and spent many years as its concertmaster, also draws on those connections, bringing in the VSO’s principal clarinetist Jeanette Jonquil, assistant principal bassoonist Sophie Dansereau, principal bassist Dylan Palmer, assistant principal cellist Zoltan Rozsnyai, and section violist Jacob van der Sloot.

Find tickets and more season information here.

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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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