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The Manitoba Chamber Orchestra’s final concert of the 2024-2025 season transports listeners to the sidewalk patios of Italy, a sunrise over Grenada, and to North Africa and the Middle East with familiar and innovative music.
The program for Dawn and Dusk features a program comprised of Baroque works by Giovanni Sollima and J.S. Bach while also featuring musical responses by longtime MCO collaborators David Braid and Larry Strachan.
The Bach and Braid pairing will be shared by another duo that has frequented the MCO’s concerts in recent years: violinists Timothy and Nikki Chooi. Arguably Canada’s most famous musical siblings, the pair are excited to interact with J.S. Bach’s “Concerto for Two Violins in D minor” in a new light that is shone on it by Braid with different interludes between the concerto’s three movements.
“The Bach double concerto is a piece that we’ve played since we were really young,” said Nikki in an interview on Morning Light, noting that the performance came at 12 and 7 years-old in their home city of Victoria. “How [Braid] explained it last night was how to kind of imagine Bach being in his 20’s and exploring the realms of North Africa... and to kind of incorporate those kinds of rhythms, harmonies and tonalities into these interludes between the movements.”
“I think that’s actually the first time we’ve expanded a piece other than the interpretation of the work itself,” Timothy adds. “It's really representative of the risks and the creative output that we’re starting to put into our repertoire as well because there isn’t that much for two violins in general.”
For both brothers, performing in Winnipeg is a chance to interact with more innovative and creatively risky repertoire than they do in their other musical pursuits. It’s an opportunity that both brothers relish for what it adds to their overall musical output. “Every time we’re asked to do something in Winnipeg, it’s always been something out of the box,” Timothy explains. “I think there is something to be said about the city and the creative programming, and also what the audience is willing to take on.”
“Oftentimes, we’re limited to certain repertoire due to the public. Here, we can go really crazy.”
“Every time we come to Winnipeg, we come out of it feeling very inspired,” Nikki adds. This is kind of like an oasis of creativity.”
Dawn and Dusk takes the stage at the Crescent Arts Centre in Osborne Village on May 14 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets and more information are available at the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra’s website.