James Ehnes’s 50th Birthday Tour
James Ehnes’s 50th Birthday Tour program opens our Cecilian Chamber Series season. Legend of the violin world and one of Canada’s great prides, James and his long-time duo pianist,
Andrew Armstrong, present a tour de force program that will be heard in all provinces and territories. Beginning with an enormous display of virtuosity, the “Suite in the Olden Style” by Norwegian composer Christian Sinding, a contemporary of Grieg, incorporates Baroque influences within a fiery Romantic spirit. To follow, Brahms’s long-loved third sonata for violin and piano draws the listener into a deeply personal and dramatic journey, combining inward searching and outward bursts of passion. In the second half, listeners will be treated to an exciting new commission by Carmen Braden, a Yellowknife-based composer whose music draws inspiration from the sounds of her northern surroundings. Bartók’s First Rhapsody celebrates bold Hungarian folk music, following the slow-fast progression of the “csárdás”, an exuberant Hungarian folk dance whose name originally referred to roadside taverns and inns found in rural Hungary – sites of many a high-spirited gathering! A spontaneous selection of favourite encores will end the program, to be announced from the stage.
Tickets are $70 for Level 1, $65 for Level 2, and $25 for students. Prices are inclusive of fees and taxes. Seating is assigned.
Single tickets go on sale on August 15, 2026.
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Biographies:
James Ehnes, violin
James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians on the international stage. Gifted with a rare combination of stunning virtuosity, serene lyricism, and an unfaltering musicality, Ehnes is a favourite guest at the world’s most celebrated concert halls.
Recent and upcoming orchestral highlights include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra.
A devoted chamber musician, Ehnes is the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society and the leader of the Ehnes Quartet. As a recitalist, he performs regularly at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Verbier Festival, Dresden Music Festival, and Festival de Pâques in Aix.
Ehnes has an extensive discography and has won many awards for his recordings, including two Grammys, three Gramophone Awards, and twelve JUNO Awards, the most of any classical musician in history. In 2021, Ehnes was announced as the recipient of the coveted Artist of the Year award at the 2021 Gramophone Awards, which celebrated his recent contributions to the recording industry.
Ehnes began violin studies at the age of five and became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin at nine. He made his orchestra debut with L’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal aged 13. He continued his studies with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and The Juilliard School, and upon his graduation in 1997, he won the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music. He is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he is a Visiting Professor.
Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.
Andrew Armstrong, piano
Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.
Andrew’s orchestral engagements across the globe have encompassed a vast repertoire of more than 60 concertos. He has performed with such conductors as Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Günther Herbig, Stefan Sanderling, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and has appeared in solo recitals and in chamber music concerts with the Ehnes, Elias, Alexander, American, and Manhattan String Quartets, and at chamber music festivals around the country.
Year-round, Andrew directs and hosts six thriving chamber music series. Three of them are in South Carolina – in Beaufort (USCB Chamber Music), in Columbia (SC Philharmonic’s Andy & Friends), and in Greenville (Sigal Music Museum presents Andy & Friends, a combination of evening chamber music concerts and daytime workshops with students at the remarkable public arts high school, the Fine Arts Center). He also directs New Canaan Chamber Music in Connecticut and A Little Night Music at Tuckerman Hall in Worcester, MA, the vibrant city where Andrew lives happily with his wife Esty, their three children, Jack (20), Elise (14), and Gabriel (8).
Andrew’s recordings have received great critical acclaim: “I have heard few pianists play [Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata], recorded or in concert, with such dazzling clarity and confidence” (American Record Guide). He has released several award-winning recordings with his longtime recital partner James Ehnes, including the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas and the complete works of Béla Bartók for violin and piano.
Program:
Christian Sinding: Suite im alten Stil, Op. 10 (“Suite in the Olden Style”)
Johannes Brahms: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
—Intermission—
Carmen Braden: Newly commissioned work (title TBD)
Béla Bartók: Rhapsody No 1
Various Selections of favourite encores to follow, to be announced from the stage
