{"id":25815,"date":"2020-01-31T19:37:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T00:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25815"},"modified":"2020-02-07T12:29:26","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T17:29:26","slug":"great-artists-help-aurora-cultural-centre-mark-tenth-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/great-artists-help-aurora-cultural-centre-mark-tenth-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGreat Artists\u201d help Aurora Cultural Centre mark tenth anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Aurora Cultural Centre will mark its tenth\nanniversary next month with a new set of \u201cGreat Artists\u201d set to grace its\nBrevik Hall stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 21, internationally acclaimed pianist Janina\nFialkowska will kick off the 2020 Great Artists Music Series, one of the Aurora\nCultural Centre\u2019s longest-running signature programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Great Artists Series is the brainchild of Grammy\nwinners Bonnie and Norbert Kraft, both acclaimed classical music artists,\nrecord producers and Aurora residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Kraft, who was the Aurora Cultural Centre\u2019s founding\nBoard Chair, says she and her husband created the series as a way to bring\nworld renowned artists \u2013 and their sounds \u2013 close to home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTen years ago, we had a vision to bring great classical\nmusic concerts to our community and, at the time, we thought it would be a way\nto have concerts right at our doorstep and avoid the trek downtown, especially\nin the winter, while also giving deserving musicians the opportunity to play\nbefore an appreciative audience. Today, we are so gratified that the community\nhas embraced the series and classical music offerings have become part of the\nregular offerings at the Aurora Cultural Centre.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the series\u2019 inception, \u201cworld class artists\u201d have\ncome to love playing at the Aurora Cultural Centre, says Ms. Kraft, and have\nbeen struck by the Centre\u2019s professionalism as a concert presenter. In turn,\nMs. Kraft says she has been struck by the way the community has continued to\nsupport the Great Artists series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last two years, the couple have spearheaded the\n\u201cFortissimo\u201d campaign, allowing local music lovers and patrons to support the\nseries by matching the Krafts\u2019 annual contributions. By the end of the 2019\nseason, the public had surpassed that challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat is really, really exciting because it really shows\nthat they support, love and enjoy the series, which is fantastic,\u201d she says.\n\u201cIt also allows us to expand our offerings to the public. The feedback that\nwe\u2019re getting, because of the success of the Fortissimo campaign, we\u2019ve begun\nto offer pre-concert talks before every concert and they have proven to be\nenormously popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe thought in that first week we would get a few people\nto come to the talks and everybody else would come to the concert afterwards,\nbut it hasn\u2019t been so; almost all the people who come to the concerts come to\nthe talks too, and that is a really great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pre-concert talk has its roots in Norbert\u2019s career as\na classic guitarist and music professor at the University of Toronto. There, he\nspoke before concerts to impart information not only on the following music\nprogram but background on the musical instruments coming into play as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having been in the classical music realm for nearly 50\nyears, the Krafts draw on their contacts at home and abroad to program the\nseries each year. They like to have a mix of mature artists \u2013 those who bring a\n\u201cmaturity, knowledge, wisdom and beauty\u201d into their program \u2013 as well as\nemerging artists to showcase emerging talent \u201cbecause they bring the energy and\na hope of the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe like to stretch the classical envelope a little bit\nto have popular music and maybe even music and musicians that depict different\nsorts of cultural traditions peppered throughout the performances,\u201d says Ms.\nKraft. \u201cThroughout it all, it is really important for us to maintain a really\nhigh standard in the musicians that we engage. There\u2019s really no shortage of\namazingly talented and wonderful musicians to choose from. We try to have\nCanadian artists as much as we can, but occasionally we bring in someone from abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Fialkowska is not just a Canadian artist, but a\nCanadian artist who lives and performs abroad. She is known for her \u201cglorious\nlyrical sound, her sterling musicianship and her profound sense of musical\nintegrity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She launched her career in the early 1970s and was\nmentored by Arthur Rubinstein. A recipient of the Order of Canada and the\nGovernor General\u2019s Lifetime Achievement Award in Classical Music, she is\ncurrently working on a new album of French piano music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next concert in the series will feature the Payadora\nTango Ensemble on April 3, which will feature dance performances from Artistica\nBallroom Dance Studio, and, on May 1, the cello and piano duo of Cameron\nCrozman and Philip Chiu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to make sure our audiences are entertained,\u201d\nsays Ms. Kraft. \u201cIt can be just pure fun and pure enjoyment. Classical music\ndoesn\u2019t have to be serious or intimidating. Norbert and I are still very much\ncommitted to continuing the series because our loyal community audience\ncontinues to enjoy the music \u2013 as long as that happens, as long as we\u2019re able,\nwe\u2019ll continue doing it. From the other side, a series such as ours \u2013 it gives\nthe opportunity for musicians to play and they need that opportunity. It keeps\nthe music alive and live music is really important. It is easy to download, but\nthere is nothing like the live performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really believe in the power of music to bring people\ntogether, crossing cultural barriers in its expression of our shared humanity.\nBesides that, it gives people an enjoyable night out and enjoying world class\nmusic right here in our own back yard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the Great Artists Music Series, visit auroraculturalcentre.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Aurora Cultural Centre will mark its tenth anniversary next month with a new set of \u201cGreat Artists\u201d set to grace its Brevik Hall stage. On February 21, internationally acclaimed pianist Janina Fialkowska will kick off the 2020 Great Artists Music Series, one of the Aurora Cultural Centre\u2019s longest-running signature programs. The Great Artists Series […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6In","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 13:15:11","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}