Four Amazing Performances in Five Days

It seems almost too good to be true, but that’s what’s coming up at ArtSpring between Sunday March 4 and Thursday March 8.

The programming starts with a Sunday matinee by Voca Me — five singers from Stuttgart who perform Byzantine music by a previously neglected early composer. Kassia lived in the 9th Century and predated Hildegard von Bingen by several hundred years. She may well be the world’s first know female composer. Within the context of her time she was an independent woman who determined her own paths in both music and spirituality.

The next day, on Monday evening, Nathan Rogers, son of the late Stan Rogers, visits ArtSpring to pay musical tribute to his father. Nathan Rogers is an accomplished musician and songwriter in his own right, but on this tour he plays and sings the music that made Stan Rogers an unchallenged icon of Canadian folk music till his untimely death in 1983.

Then on Wednesday ArtSpring welcomes blues harmonica virtuoso Carlos del Junco with his band The Blues Mongrels. Born in Cuba but now living in Toronto, he is the recipient of endless musical awards including numerous Juno nominations. Carlos del Junco is our country`s undisputed master of the ten hole diatonic harmonica. Simultaneously sophisticated and raw, his playing blurs the boundaries between blues and jazz.

To bring the five days back to vocal music, ArtSpring welcomes The Elmer Iseler Singers on Thursday, March 8. This is one of Canada`s longest standing professional choirs, founded in 1979 by the late Elmer Iseler and now conducted by Lydia Adams. For several decades, especially on CBC radio, the choir set the gold standard for choral singing in Canada.

How did all this richness and variety come to be together in five short days in March?

“Call it either chance planning, or inspired planning,” says ArtSpring Executive Director George Sipos. “The huge variety of styles in these four programmes gives us a concentrated dose of just how diverse musical traditions and sensibilities can be. In the wake of Salt Spring`s Literary Festival and Film Festival, think of it as a mini Music Festival.”

Tickets for these four events, ranging in price from a high of $28 to a low of $5, are available from the ArtSpring Ticket Centre at 537-2102 or online. Details about the programmes, including video and audio links are posted on in our events calendar.