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The Gazette
February 13, 2007

La Presse
dimanche, le 13 Fevrier, 2007


Gala 2006

September 12, 2006 CBC interview on Home Run. To listen to the interview with Jeanette Kelly click here.


The Montreal Gazette


Allegra Therapy


JENNIFER CAMBPELL
Sunday September 24, 2006

The graceful and elegant Redpath Hall was the setting of Allegra's concert Gala

Hugh Alcorn (rear left), and Master of Ceremonies Dennis Trudeau join Dorothy Fieldman Fraiberg (front left), and Ghislaine Richard


I know I’m supposed to be a good social columnist girl and never reveal more than I should. But we all know that every now and then even a good girl has got to be just a teensy bit bed. So, though I’m really not supposed to confide in you, my inner wild child is going to teeter on the edge and admit a behind-the-scenes faux pas.

You see, on the night of the Allegra Music Chamber’s 26th annual benefit gala, I accidentally had our assigned photographer Tyrel Featherstone, on location (Redpath Hall) 1 1/2 hours early (gosh, I’m bad!). Anyway, I was sure I was toast, subjecting the cool twentysomething staffer (with the fab directional hair) to the evening’s entire performance when he was intended to be there only during the après-concert reception.

However, post-performance, while I was expecting a mad-as-heck Tyrel (justifiably so), instead I was greeted by a smiling Tyrel who gushed over the concert and expressed interest in attending others (all of which are free and open to the public).

And so, Sunday readers, I confide my faux pas for good reason – to illustrate just how incredibly therapeutic Allegra’s gratis chamber Music can be. I, like my photographer friend Tyrel, fell prey to Allegra’s energizing crescendos and hypnotic melodies produced by violinist Yukari Cousineau, violist Brian Bacon, cellist Katherine Skorzewska, clarinetist Simon Aldrich and the extraordinarily talented and dedicated woman who dared to dream up Allegra and keep it alive and well for 26 years – pianist/artistic director Dorothy Fieldman Fraiberg.

Post performance, the blessed-out crowd moved on to the reception, where the sea of culturally inclined included Leslie and Hugh Alcorn; pals Susan and Rick Hart; gorg ‘n’ glammy Nancy Brown with plastic surgeon hubby Harvey (no, that’s NOT why she’s gorg and glammy!); pageturner Michael Galletti; Anne Fish and Colin Irving; Julie Keith and head of the world Anti-Doping Agency Dick Pound; Ghislaine Richard with lawyer husband Max Mendelsohn; spectacular mother-daughter duo Mazie and Carmella Vincelli; ever-elegant Denyse Walsh with good pal Cherry Richards; the self-titled Mr. Cello Olaf Skorzewska; delightful Joan Rothman with friend Ray Robb; and the evening’s commanding emcee, Montréal broadcast royal Dennis Trudeau with wife Suzanne Jobin.

Moral of this story? For all that ails you, trail Tyrel to the next Allegra concert.

The Montreal Gazette


Sound is intimate and the price is right


It's been 25 years of free concerts


KATE MOLLESON
Saturday, September 10, 2005


Allegra Chamber Music founder Dorothy Fraiberg at home with her piano.

It all started with a philosophy: people need music. That's all people - young, old, those who can't afford $100 opera tickets. More specifically, people need chamber music - that most intimate and reflective form of music-making.

Thus the Allegra Chamber Music series was born - and the rest is history. At least four times a year for the past 25 years Montreal's finest musicians have come together to play the music they love best. And we get to hear it for free.

A 25th birthday is a significant milestone in anyone's books. Dorothy Fieldman Fraiberg, the group's pianist and one of the founding members, contemplates everything that has happened over the past quarter of a century, and what is still to come. Sitting beside her Steinway in her Westmount home - which doubles as Allegra's rehearsal space - she says that even many years and many, many concerts down the line, the aspirations of the group haven't really changed.

"Allegra's concerts have always been of the highest standard - our musicians are the principal players of the MSO and the Orchestre Metropolitain. We are still entirely non-government-funded, and our concerts are still entirely free."

Allegra works as a core team of Montreal musicians who put together concerts involving themselves and any other instrumentalists the programs require, but it is the price of the tickets that makes this group so different from any other.

In a world where arts funding is a pretty rare species, bringing together such high profile performers without charging entrance is no small achievement.

"Our sponsors have been very good to us," says Fraiberg - so good that last year Allegra was able to invite 42 musicians to play in a season of seven concerts. The group also holds a gala event at the start of each season, hoping that big names might help attract donations (this year's event is hosted by Quebec actress and singer Dorothee Berryman.)

"But of course, we always have to be looking for more. We want to do interesting works, with interesting instrumentation. We want to expand the series, to repeat the concerts so that more people have the chance to hear us.

"But it all comes down to funding."

There is certainly no lack of interest from audiences - the concerts, which take place in McGill University's Redpath Hall, are always packed, with people who can't find a seat standing at the back. Fraiberg is pleased that Allegra has produced such an enthusiastic response; the chamber repertoire is often overlooked by a music industry that bestows much of its attention on the larger opera companies and symphony orchestras.

While a string quartet or wind quintet might not provide the same overwhelming force that attracts audiences to orchestral concerts, there is an intimacy that can be reached only through the level of player interaction needed to bring chamber music together. Glancing, breathing, head nodding, arm raising, eyebrow twitching - every communication possible is used to make the music work.

In such small ensembles, every note played is of vital importance, and what lifts a performance from mere score-reading to real music-making rests in the finest of details: well-placed rubato, a slight colouring at the top of the phrase or a skilful diminuendo to nothing - everything must be accomplished together. And this is where the magic lies.

To hear chamber music is to be offered a glimpse into the real joy of music making. "Once the public experiences the intimacy of chamber music and sees how special it is - sees the bond that is created not only between the musicians, but between musicians and audience - they realize it's something very special, and they feel like a part of it."

In terms of programs, the scope is vast. There are the greats, the pillars of the repertoire - Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms - whose music alone would be enough to keep any chamber series busy for a lifetime. But Fraiberg takes pride that Allegra also tackles some more obscure works; this year's season includes a Czech-themed program and a bassoon-themed program, as well as new works by Canadian composers. She says that thanks to the free nature of the concerts, and therefore an almost guaranteed audience, the group is more at liberty to play what is really interesting, rather than just what sells tickets.

"It's a real privilege," she says, "because for musicians there is nothing better than offering an audience the music they love. We lend our ears, Allegra lends its passion. Because ultimately, sharing is what chamber music is all about."

Allegra Chamber Music presents its 25th-anniversary gala concert in Redpath Hall, 3461 McTavish St., Thursday at 7 p.m. Contact (514) 935-3933 or www.allegrachambermusic.com