Jeffrey Pollock, Music Director

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November 1, 2024

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  • Question and Answers – Friday, November 1, 2024 at 7:00 pm
  • Home for the Holidays – Friday, December 6, 2024 at 7:00 pm
  • Sinfonia Masala – Friday, March 21, 2025 at 7:00 pm
  • Let’s Dance! – Friday, May 9, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Question and Answers

November 1, 2024 at 7:00pm

An evening with two different answers to the eternal question of existence, as asked by Charles Ives’ mystical masterpiece. The texts in Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder respond  to the question with their evocations of love and music, while the finale  of Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony seeks to banish any existential doubts with its resolute declaration of faith.

  • Charles Ives – The Unanswered Question  
  • Gustav Mahler – Rückert-Lieder, with Christopher Dunham, baritone
  • Felix Mendelssohn – Symphony #5

Meet the Artist — Jeffrey Pollock talks to Christopher Dunham.

 

Home for the Holidays

December 6, 2024 at 7:00pm

’Tis the Season! This festive evening is the perfect way for your family to kick off the holidays! The Hamilton Children’s Choir and Sinfonia Ancaster together will make your spirits bright with John Williams’ music from Home Alone and selections from The Nutcracker. Glorious arrangements of all your favourite carols and an audience singalong will get you in the holiday spirit!

 

Land Acknowledgement

October 20, 2023 at 7:00pm

Pre-concert chat with Music Director Jeffrey Pollock and the composers in the lobby at 6:00 pm

Sinfonia is proud to present this concert dedicated to the land on which the Memorial Arts Centre sits and the people who first lived on that land. Beethoven’s 6th symphony — a work that celebrates the composer’s love and experience of Nature — begins the evening.

The entire second half features works by Turtle Island composers that also glorify the natural world: Cree composer Jessica McMann’s work Miskwa’s Mountain Home, Anishinaabe composer Spy Dénommé-Welch’s Rouge Winter and the world premiere of Mohawk composer Dawn Avery’s Indian Territory, a Sinfonia Ancaster commission.

Home For The Holidays

December 15, 2023 at 7:00pm

Ho-ho-ho! Sinfonia Ancaster presents a spectacular concert filled with festive holiday arrangements, a Christmas story, and an audience singalong! Special guests Strata Vocal Ensemble will add extra sparkle and magic to this evening that will appeal to the child in us all.

Half The Sky

March 8, 2024 at 7:00pm

Women hold up half the sky.” — Mao Zedong

Elspeth Thomson, viola
Elspeth Thomson, viola
Megan Jones, violin
Megan Jones, violin

​In honour of International Women’s Day, this concert celebrates the musical achievements of women composers and performers. Pulitzer prize winner Caroline Shaw’s work Entr’acte for String Orchestra, a wistful piece with a touch of the absurd, opens the concert. Concertmaster Megan Jones and viola coach Elspeth Thomson are dual soloists in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, a glorious musical conversation filled with virtuosity and joy. The concert concludes with the turbulent 3rd symphony of Louise Farrenc, the only female professor at the Paris Conservatoire in the 19th century, who fought for and was eventually given pay equal to her male counterparts. This Third Symphony is her masterpiece.

Click here to download the concert program for Half the Sky.

Unabashedly Romantic

May 10, 2024 at 7:00pm

Sinfonia Ancaster is thrilled to be joined by Ancaster’s own, world-renowned pianist Valerie Tryon for this performance of the much beloved Piano Concerto by Edvard Grieg. Tchaikovsky’s brilliant Symphony #2, a piece inspired by Ukrainian folk songs, brings our season to a triumphant conclusion.

Valerie Tryon
Valerie Tryon – piano soloist