Showtime

Leonard Turnevicius

Who: Angele Dubeau and La Pieta

When: Tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.

Where: McMaster's Convocation Hall

Cost: $17, seniors $12, students $5

Call: 905-525-9140 ext. 24246

The soloist's solitude is classical music's counterpart to the loneliness of the long-distance runner.

Ten years ago, Montreal violinist Angele Dubeau had had enough of that solitude and decided to form a chamber orchestra, as she put it, "just to be able to share music with others."

She planned a Vivaldi CD, and jotted down a few names of string players with whom she wanted to work. To her surprise, they were all women.

"It made me laugh, and think that maybe I could go easily up to 12 which was the number of players I needed for Vivaldi," said Dubeau over the phone from her Montreal home. "So here, La Pieta was born."

Named after the L'Ospedale della Pieta, the Venetian hospice where Vivaldi once taught, Dubeau's Montreal-based La Pieta is an all-female string orchestra with piano.

Though the size of the group is dictated by the music they perform, for the past three years La Pieta has hovered around the nine-member mark.

"It's not too big, and it's big enough to colour the music," stated Dubeau. To celebrate the group's 10th anniversary, they're on a 65-date tour which stops at McMaster's Convocation Hall tomorrow night.

Their 90-minute program will run without intermission, and will include works such as Saint-Saens's Danse macabre, Francaix's L'heure du Berger, Morricone's Lady Caliph, plus The Rabbi's Wedding at the Palmerston Street Shul from Srul Irving Glick's The Old Toronto Klezmer Suite.

"It's very close to my heart," said Dubeau of the latter work, "since I had the chance of speaking to Mr. Glick a few days before he passed away. He told me at that time he will be over my head like a butterfly every time I will play his piece. So, it's something really special for me when I play the Glick."

The program will conclude with Dubeau's and Marco Tessier's adaptation of Peter Heidrich's Happy Birthday Variations, in which the well-known tune traverses through styles reminiscent of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, polka, ragtime, tango and more.

This also happens to be Dubeau's 30th year in the classical music biz. Her start came with a tour for Jeunesses musicales du Canada, after which she embarked on a solo career that saw her perform around the world. She also became highly visible in Quebec, hosting two weekly TV programs on Radio-Canada, Faites vos gammes, showcasing young Quebecois talent, and Angele Dubeau: la fete de la musique.

With more than 20 CDs and two gold records to her credit, she attributes her accomplishments to hard work, talent and a lot of passion. But she also acknowledges the team behind her, led by the founder and president of Analekta Records, Mario Labbe, her husband of 20 years. Many consider Dubeau and Labbe as Quebec's classical music counterpart to Celine Dion and her Svengali, Rene Angelil.

For 30 years Dubeau has performed on Arthur, the $1-million 1733 Des Rosiers Stradivarius once owned by Acadian virtuoso Arthur Leblanc. She also frequently plays an 1864 Vuillaume.

Which violin will she bring to Hamilton?

"That's my little secret," said Dubeau.

Dubeau and her friends won't be the only chamber ensemble in action tomorrow night.

Jack Mendelsohn's chamberWORKS! takes to the stage of the Dofasco Centre for the Arts, 190 King William St., for music by a 19th-century husband and wife team, Robert and Clara Schumann.

chamberWORKS! will be missing its usual violist Chau Luk, who had previous commitments. However, Mendelsohn has pulled strings and snagged violist Uri Mayer for the concert. Mendelsohn and Mayer first met in Israel, and had a string quartet for three years in the 1960s.

"We were doing quite well until he decided he wanted to be a conductor," said Mendelsohn. From 1964 until 1970, Mayer was assistant conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Israel.

In 1968, he won the Damrosch conducting scholarship to study with Jean Morel at Juilliard in New York, where he also studied viola under Walter Trampler. From 1981 until 2000, Mayer held a number of top conducting posts at various orchestras: Edmonton Symphony (1981-1995), Orchestra London Canada (1988-1994), Israel Sinfonietta (1991-1999), and Japan's Kansai Philharmonic (1994-2000).

He has appeared in more than 20 countries as a guest conductor, and teaches at Toronto's Glenn Gould School.

Though Mendelsohn has played chamber music at Mayer's Toronto home, this will be Mayer's first time playing with chamberWORKS!

"First-class nepotism," joked Mendelsohn about Mayer's debut.

Mendelsohn was originally contemplating an all-female composers program, but in the end opted for music by each of the Schumanns. He considers Clara Schumann's G Minor Piano Trio "probably the only worthy chamber music piece" that she wrote. After intermission, the chamberWORKS! gang, including pianist Valerie Tryon and violinists Mark Skazinetsky and Jayne Maddison, will present one of their specialties, Robert Schumann's E Flat Piano Quintet.

They've played this work a few times in concert, and recorded it in 2004. (Mayer served as adviser during the recording sessions, but didn't play on the CD.) "It's probably one of my favourite pieces," said Mendelsohn. "It's a great piece. I can hear it every day. For me, it's like eating pasta everyday, twice a day. I don't, but I could. I will never be tired of pasta."

Alas, there won't be pasta at the concert, but patrons will be treated to complimentary home-baked cookies, soft drinks and coffee at intermission. Start time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 and $25, seniors $25 and $20, students $5. Call 905-522-7529.

Leonard Turnevicius is a music educator and organist.