CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The next performance in the UPEI Music Recital Series will feature an evening of masterworks for violin and piano.
Violinist Martin Chalifour and pianist Sarah Hagen will perform together Saturday, Sept. 21, 7:30 p.m., in the Dr. Steel Recital Hall, UPEI Steel Building.
This concert is part of the UPEI Music Department Recital Series. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for students. Barrier-free parking is available adjacent to the Steel Building via the driveway in front of the Regis and Joan Duffy Research Centre. Regular parking may be found in Lot C. All campus parking is free after 5 p.m.
Chalifour and Hagen met at a music festival on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia and over too many cups of coffee, began making plans to perform together. This highly caffeinated meeting led to laughter-filled tours in B.C. and Washington State and an eventual recording. Their upcoming program features Beethoven’s glorious and transcendent “Opus 96 Sonata”, a thoughtful work which transforms both performers and listeners.
From Quebec, Chalifour has been principal concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1995. He came to wide prominence upon receiving a certificate of honour at Moscow’s International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1986, with a laureate at the Montréal International Musical Competition the following year. Chalifour has maintained a career as a much-sought-after orchestral violinist, soloist and chamber musician ever since. He has performed a vast repertory of more than 50 concertos, spanning the world as a soloist and sharing concert stages with such notable conductors as Pierre Boulez, Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Hagen, who makes her home on the south shore of P.E.I., enjoys a busy and diverse life touring across Canada and internationally as both a recitalist and a humorist. She won first prize in the 2013 Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition and Artist of the Year by Ontario Contact in 2017 and the British Columbia Touring Council in 2015. Her interpretations have been described as “outstandingly inventive” by the University of Waterloo Gazette and “with great sensitivity and heart” by the Vernon Morning Star.
