St. Mark's Concerts 2014-15 series of seasonal Sunday afternoon concerts at St. Mark's Anglican Church, Ocean Park will be off to a great start Oct. 26 with the excitement of Fire & Ice.
It's an opportunity for local audiences to hear two stellar classical performers, pianist Krystyna Tucka and cellist Benjamin Louwersheimer.
The 2 p.m. concert at the church (12953 20 Ave.) will feature two pieces expressly written for piano and cello – an instrumental combination that, in the hands of performers of the calibre of Tucka and Louwersheimer, can easily encompass both fiery passion and icy elegance.
It's also an opportunity to experience infrequently-heard works by two acknowledged giants: Ludwig van Beethoven's sonata in A Major (Op. 69), followed by Frederic Chopin's Sonata in G Minor.
Polish-born Tucka received her masters' degree in piano performance in her homeland, followed by post-graduate studies at L'Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot (where she received the virtuoso diploma).
She won numerous prestigious national competitions in Poland and was a finalist in the fourth international Chopin Piano Competiition in Darmstadt, Germany.
In Canada, she was first prize-winner of the 1998 Eckhardt-Grammate Music Competition, which she followed with a coast-to-coast concert tour.
An experienced chamber performer as well as an accomplished solo pianist, she has played for recitals and concerts throughout Europe, Africa and North America. She has been broadcast around the world and on the CBC, and has worked with such distinguished conductors as Zygmunt Richter, Wanda Kaluzny, Sydney Harth, Leslie Dala and Bramwell Tovey.
Louwersheimer, who began playing cello at the age of eight, training with Ian Hampton at the Langley Community Music School, performed his first full-length chamber recital as a 12 year-old at the school's Rose Gellert Recital Hall in 2003.
He was a member of the Parnassus String Quartet, which placed first in the B.C. Provincial finals in 2004. In the same year, Louwersheimer won the Abbotsford Symphony Young Musicians Challenge and was the youngest winner of the Fraser Valley Symphony Concerto Competition in 2006.
He studied with Brian Manker, principal cellist of the Montreal Symphony, while completing his degree in cello performance at the Vancouver Academy of Music.
He has been a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and a returning musician for the National Academy Orchestra of Canada.
As a soloist, he has played numerous times with local orchestras in Chilliwack and Seattle, tackling such demanding works as the Schumann and Dvorak's cello concertos, as well as Haydn's D Major concerto for the instrument.
Tickets ($15) are available from 604-535-8841 or www.brownpapertickets.com/event/867315