LOVE, LOSS, & LONGING | Live from the Rockies invites you to an afternoon of exceptional piano artistry, featuring JUNO-nominated pianist Katherine Dowling, who sees a concert as an act of service, an opportunity to tell stories beyond words, to venture into - and share - every aspect of the human experience.
It’s the inspiration behind Love, Loss, and Longing - a journey through music written in response to these experiences, offering listeners a way to dive deeply into reservoirs of sometimes untapped emotions.
Join us on this rare musical journey into the heart of this shared humanity, an aural refuge for meditation and reflection rarely encountered in our day-to-day world.
CONCERT REPERTOIRE HIGHLIGHTS
Maurice Ravel - Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte (1899)
Alice Ping-yee Ho - There Is No Night Without A Dawning (2023)
Henri Dutilleux - Sonate Pour Piano (1948)
Enrique Granados - Amor Y La Muerte (1911)
Johannes Brahms - Klavierstuecke Op.118 (1890)
“My goal as a contemporary musical artist is to cultivate a desire for meaningful musical experiences that, while not always ‘pretty’, do always reflect the threads of our common humanity.”
🪑 Seating is assigned on a first come first served basis.
👤 Age requirement: 6 years old or older. Anyone under the age of 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
♿ Accessibility: This venue is accessible for those using a wheelchair or an assistive walking device.
Praised by the New York Times for her “crystalline performances, gestural expressiveness, and careful attention to color”, and by the Boston Globe for her “effortless incisiveness”, award-winning “tour-deforce” (OpusKlassiek, Berkshire Eagle) pianist Katherine Dowling performs across the Americas and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.
Katherine is familiar to audiences through regular appearances at Canada’s major music festivals and concert series, including Ottawa Chamberfest and Stratford Summer Music. She is further familiar as an artist-in-residence at the Orlando Festival (Netherlands) and a resident fellow of the Avaloch Farm Music Institute (USA); as a multi-year fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, a New Fromm Fellow, and a BrittenPears Young Artist; through extensive involvement and numerous positions at The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; and through multiple national tours under the auspices of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition. Recent highlights include her recital debuts in Vienna, The Hague, and Rio de Janeiro, and appearing as a concerto soloist with orchestra in repertoire including Benjamin Britten, W.A. Mozart, Colin McPhee, and Florence Price. She has premiered over one hundred new works by composers including Louis Andriessen and John Harbison.
As a soloist, and as a member of the chamber ensemble Gruppo Montebello, Katherine appears on nine critically-acclaimed recordings on the Etcetera label. Her debut solo album “Awake and Dreaming - piano music of Alice Ping-Yee Ho” (Leaf Music) has been celebrated as “impressive…compelling and virtuosic” (Wholenote), and has been nominated for “Classical Album of the Year (Solo Artist” at the JUNO Awards. Her performances have been broadcast on the BBC (United Kingdom), National Radio 4 (Netherlands), and Radio Canada, and her solo recordings have been featured on the CBC programs “About Time” and “This is my Music”.
Katherine treasures her collaborative relationships, and is deeply grateful to perform with an international array of celebrated artists. She credits her own teacher, legendary American pianist-pedagogue Gilbert Kalish, and conductors Henk Guittart and Oliver Knussen, as the major influences in her musical life.
PAVANE POUR UNE INFANTE DÉFUNTE (1899) - MAURICE RAVEL, 6’
Imbued with nostalgia and melancholy, Ravel’s Pavane evokes a ceremonial dance of the Spanish renaissance. While not in reference to any specific princess, this piece is beloved by listeners around the world for its touching melodies.
THERE IS NO NIGHT WITHOUT A DAWNING (2023) - ALICE PING-YEE HO, 7’
Inspired by a poem by American writer Helen Steiner Rice, this music plunges into an emotional abyss, a world of darkness and despair. It’s an intense reckoning with the loss of loved ones - the desperate yearning for hope and consolation before finding release in quiet acceptance. This piece was written for Katherine, and appears on her JUNO-nominated album “Awake and Dreaming”.
SONATE POUR PIANO (1948) - HENRI DUTILLEUX, 25’
Allegro con moto
Lied
Choral et variations
Composed through the Second World War, this work explores the creation that follows destruction. Having survived, the young artist was experimenting with every sound the piano was capable of making, and falling in love with pianist Geneviève Joy (whom he would marry). Listeners will experience all the sounds of postwar Paris - quintessential French mélodies, smoky jazz clubs, bombastic rhythms, dreamlike textures, explosive energy, and every possible pianistic virtuosity. Intermission
AMOR Y LA MUERTE (1911) - ENRIQUE GRANADOS, 12’
Enrique Granados and his wife Amparo Hal were civilian casualties of the First World War - they lost their lives when the boat on which they were travelling was torpedoed, lending a poetic resonance to his music. This luscious, expressive ballad from the suite Goyescas op.11 is pure musical storytelling, inviting listeners to sink into their emotions.
KLAVIERSTUECKE OP.118 (1890) - JOHANNES BRAHMS, 26’
Intermezzo in A minor
Intermezzo in A major
Ballade in G minor
Intermezzo in F minor
Romance in F major
Intermezzo in E-flat minor
Written late in the winter of his life, Johannes Brahms’s penultimate piano work takes listeners through his life cycle - from youthful exuberance; through first love and adventure, uncertainty and self-doubt; finally to reflection on the meaning of it all.
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