When Erik Abbink heard Montreal pianist Antoine Joubert would be in the area this week, the artistic director for the Oak Bay Music Society felt he’d be a good fit for the local audience.
“We’ve been in touch the last few weeks. We talked about programming and what to play and what my audience was like and we thought he’d be a good fit,” Abbink said. “It’s the repertoire that he’s playing. The Oak Bay audiences are probably looking for more traditional repertoire.”
Oak Bay Matinée is a monthly concert series, bringing classical music performed by outstanding local, regional and national performers, presented by the Oak Bay Music Society, a registered non-profit organization. During Joubert’s performance in the series on Sunday he’ll perform works by Bach, Chopin, Liszt and Janacek.
“He’s quite accomplished for what he’s doing and he’s really busy in Montreal,” Abbink said. “We try to support people who are at the beginning of their career and trying to build their career.”
In November 2013 he won the first prize and the Superstar prize for all categories at the B.C. Piano Talent Superstar Competition. He also won the first prize in the national competitions at CCC Music Festival of Toronto (2012) and the first prize with gold medal at the Festival du Royaume (2011).
The concert will also be audio webcast for those unable to attend.
“It gets more people interested. There are people who would like to go to the concert but can’t,” Abbink said.
“It’s just another way of keeping in touch with your audience.”
Joubert performs Sunday, Nov. 30 at 2:30 p.m. at St. Mary the Virgin, 1701 Elgin Rd. Tickets ($20/$15/$5) are available at Ivy’s Books, at the door and online at oakbaymusic.ca where the webcast is also available.
cvanreeuwyk@oakbaynews.com