The Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal) will launch its seventh annual OSM Classical Spree festival on August 29 with a free performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade at Montreal’s Olympic Park, led by Music Director Kent Nagano. Joining the orchestra will be performers from Cirque Éloize, and Canadian actor Emmanuel Bilodeau will serve as the evening’s host. The festival features 30 short concerts of less than an hour, plus other free and low-cost activities and events, through September 2. In addition to orchestra and chamber music concerts, there will be recitals and activities for families at the Place des Arts and Complexe Desjardins. This year, the orchestra has brought together amateur musicians from throughout the province of Quebec to form the Classical Spree Symphony, which will perform a concert led by Nagano and OSM Assistant Conductor Adam Johnson. OSM tuba player Austin Howle will perform a recital; violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja will be featured in Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire for voice and small ensemble; and oud player Nazih Borish, kanun player Didem Basar, and darbuka player Joseph Khoury will perform classical music from the Middle East.
Posted August 23, 2018
