OUTREACH CONCERTS 2024
The Victoria Summer Music Festival is pleased to present a free, public concert as part of our 2024 Outreach Program
As in previous years, the Victoria Summer Music Festival will also present outreach concerts in senior citizen residences in Greater Victoria as part of the Festival. Those concerts are open only to residents of the participating complexes. These concerts aim to bring joy of chamber music to senior citizens who would not normally attend or would be unable to attend our concerts.
FREE OUTREACH CONCERT JULY 18 at 1 pm
CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL
930 BURDETT AVE, VICTORIA
This concert will also be livestreamed, and the programme is available for download.
AYARI KASUKAWA (SAXOPHONE) WITH SIMI LUTTRELL (PIANO)
CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862 - 1918), SYRINX
CARL REINECKE (1824 - 1910), SONATA UNDINE, OP. 167
STACY GARROP (B. 1969), PHOENIX RISING
DEBUSSY, RHAPSODIE FOR SAXOPHONE AND PIANO (ORCHESTRA), L. 98
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AYARI KASUKAWA, CLASSICAL SAXOPHONE
Born in Japan, saxophonist Ayari Kasukawa was trained in classical music from a young age. Ayari started on the piano when she was 3 years old and at the age of 12, she picked up the saxophone in a youth wind symphony orchestra at school. After moving to Vernon, BC as a young student in 2016, she started her saxophone studies with a respected Okanagan musician, Craig Thomson in West Kelowna.
As the winner of the Cowichan Consort Orchestra Young Concerto Competition 2019, Ayari played the Glazunov Saxophone Concerto with the orchestra in March 2020 before the pandemic. She was also one of the finalists in the 14th Don Chrysler Young Soloist Competition in 2019 (Victoria, BC). In the summer of 2022, Ayari won the woodwind category at the Federation of Canadian Music Festival Nationals. Most recent accomplishments include; the finals at the Osaka International Music Competition (Japan) in 2023 and the semi-finals of the Nagoya Saxophone Competition (Japan) in 2024, as well as receiving an invitation to the live round of the prestigious Andorra International Saxophone Competition (Andorra). In the past years, Ayari was accepted to and attended the esteemed Frederick L. Hemke Saxophone Institute in Maine, US (2019) and the Université Européenne de Saxophone in Gap, France (2023).
She studied with Prof. Wendell Clanton and Dr. Erik Abbink at the University of Victoria and successfully obtained a bachelor’s degree in saxophone performance in 2022.
Ayari now resides in Tokyo and studies with an internationally acclaimed Japanese saxophonist, Rui Ozawa.
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SIMI LUTTRELL, PIANO
Pianist Simi Luttrell’s playing has been described as „magical from the first moment to the last. “Simi is an active chamber musician and he thrives off the connections and knowledge he gains through collaboration. He often finds himself working with the studios of Benjamin Butterfield, Anne Grimm, and the Lafayette String Quartet. His playing has also brought him to be on Artistic Team of the Victoria Children’s Choir as the Recital Choir Accompanist.
Simi has performed in various festivals such as Performing Arts BC, the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival and Kamloops Festival of the Performing Arts, earning first-place medals and numerous awards. He has also been awarded the Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarship, the Victoria Musical Art Society Scholarship, and the Dr. Robin Wood Memorial Cup. This April, Simi presented his undergraduate recital which was “… characterized by precision and clarity,” and „… marked by moments of whimsy and introspection, capturing the emotional nuances of the music.”
Simi has worked in masterclasses with pianists Charles Richard-Hamelin, David Jalbert, and André Laplante and attended prestigious summer programs such as the Mozarteum International Summer Academy, Orford Musique, and the Quartet Fest West. Simi currently studies at the University of Victoria with Professor May Ling Kwok, and previously with Professor Bruce Vogt.