Hi friends. I hope you’re all staying well. If you’re ready for some ebullient, upbeat music, this concert with the Victoria Chamber Orchestra is for you. I’ll be at the back of the first violin section for this one.

I’ve been playing a lot of music by Robert and Clara Schumann and people in their social circle lately, and that includes Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Mendelssohn was an interesting character - his family was very wealthy but many of the people in it died before the age of 40. He only lived to the age of 37 himself.

In that short life, though, he managed to become a fantastic violinist and painter, and one of the best composers in the Western Classical canon, so it’s safe to say that he made the most of the education that was offered to him.

Mendelssohn is famous among violinists for writing some of the most gorgeous things we get to play, but also writing some of the parts that make you wish you were paid by the note, and what he wrote demands clarity, lightness and precision. I like to think that he imagined himself playing all of it- or maybe he DID play through all of it - you can tell that he had something very specific in mind for every single note.

• MENDELSSOHN Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, Op. 21

  Mendelssohn was only 17 years old when he wrote this, and wrote music to accompany the rest of the play later in his life, which he incorporated this into. You can really hear people running around in the woods in this one - and you can hear the donkey too.

• HAYDN Cello Concerto in C
     Soloist: Adrian Zhang, winner of the 2026 Louis Sherman Concerto Competition

  This is a lovely piece and watching our young soloist (he’s nine years old!) perform it with such joy and ability is a lot of fun. Wherever life takes him, I think it’s safe to say that when he’s big enough to play a full-size cello, he’s going to make that instrument sound amazing.

• MENDELSSOHN "Italian" Symphony No. 4 in A, Op. 90

  Like many wealthy young people in the 1800s, Mendelssohn made a tour of Europe, and came away with lots of musical ideas - most notably from Scotland and Italy. Mendelssohn made a lot of changes to this symphony during his life - he conducted its premiere in London but didn’t consider it finished until something like 20 years later. The first movement is the most famous, and probably my favorite- though the saltarello that it ends with is a lot of fun.

As always, if you can join me for this one, come say hi at intermission! There will be snacks.

This concert is on Friday, April 17th at 7:30pm, at United Commons (that church at Quadra and Balmoral). You can read more and get your tickets here.

Thanks for listening!

Here’s what the rest of my orchestra season looks like:

1. Sunday, May 3rd: Camas Day with The Bald Eagles

2. May 9th and 10th (Oak Bay) and May 16th and 17th (Sidney): The Gondoliers with the Victoria Gilbert and Sullivan Society

3. May 30th: Civic Orchestra of Victoria

4. June 6th: String Quartet benefit show for Friends of Bowker Creek