Feeling Warm and “Safe At Home” with Virtuosi Concerts

Virtuosi Concerts, in its 30th season, is a long-standing and venerable Winnipeg music institution which has presented, as the name implies, virtuoso performances of musical artists from around the world. Normally, these concerts have been staged in the Eckhardt-Gramatte Hall at the University of Winnipeg, which Virtuosi Concerts calls home.

In a regular season, VC has had musical guests come to perform from far flung locations as well as from within Canada, but the pandemic has closed borders and made travel unpredictable at best, and impossible at worst. This where their new online series, “Safe At Home” is an adaptation for the times. With an abundance of talent within our city, VC has reached out to the local music community and will be presenting some of them in this new format with special funding from the Province of Manitoba.

The first of this series is called Side By Side and features Yuri Hooker, principal cellist for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and a former student of his, David Liam Roberts, named one of Canada’s “30 Hot Classical Musicians under 30” by CBC in 2019. Together they will present a concert of pieces for two cellos by Jean-Baptiste Barriere, Luigi Boccherini, and David Popper. This was recorded for an online presentation with video by Julie Epp.

This concert will be presented on Friday Jan. 22 at 7:30 pm CST, free of charge. Just go to the Virtuosi website or click here. There you will find the link to the show.

Enjoy!