Robert Holliston & Jamie Syer: “Dualling” Pianos in concert
with Jonathan Eng and Masako Hockey, percussion
Tickets:
Call – 250.386.5311
In person – 900 Johnson St – VCM Front Desk or at the Alix Goolden Hall doors.
Single Concert: Adults $25 / Students & Seniors $15
Show Details:
Date: Saturday, February 18th
Time: Doors (7pm), Show Starts (7:30pm)
Location: Alix Goolden Performance Hall
Do not miss what could potentially be the last time Robert Holliston and Jamie Syer ever share the stage. They will be partnering with percussionists Masako Hockey and Jonathan Eng and be performing three of the greatest pieces ever written for two pianos.
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Dr. Jamie Syer, Piano
Jamie Syer is Dean of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, Artistic Director of the Conservatory’s Collegium Program for Young Musicians, and formerly Head of the Keyboard Department. Dr. Syer is known for his imaginative recital programming, and his artistic, energetic playing. He is a popular adjudicator and workshop clinician, who works frequently with teachers’ groups and with students of all ages. In the fall of 2011 he is leading a Continuing Studies class at the University of Victoria called “Beethoven’s Fabulous Fifties.” He will be heard in solo performance performing Beethoven with the Sidney Classical Orchestra series in March.
Jamie is the recipient of an Alberta Government Achievement Award for outstanding performance, and winner of the national CBC Talent Competition. He studied at the Yale University School of Music with Claude Frank and Ward Davenny. He has completed several concert tours in Europe, performing in Scotland, Ireland, Hungary, France, and England, and has performed closer to home in many recital venues across Canada. Jamie is also Artistic co-Director of the Alberta summer music workshop “Strings & Keys.”
Robert Holliston, Piano
Robert Holliston studied at the Victoria Conservatory of Music under Robin Wood and 
Winifred Scott Wood, and at the University of British Columbia under Robert Rogers. A popular public speaker, Robert has given pre-performance lectures for Pacific Opera Victoria since 1993 and is POV’s Chorus Master/ Répétiteur. Still an active performer, Robert is currently coordinator of Collaborative Piano Studies at the VCM, where he also teaches piano and music history, and acts as vocal coach. Robert was a founding director of the VCM Opera Studio, and a founding member of the Goolden Piano Trio, with whom he currently performs.
As an accompanist and chamber player he has performed throughout Canada and the USA, England and New Zealand, and has been heard frequently on CBC Radio. He has recorded CDs with the popular salon ensemble Viveza, trombonist Ian McDougall, tenor Ken Lavigne, his brother Tom Holliston, Show Business Giants, and members of the Hornby Island Ensemble. Robert has collaborated with many of Canada’s leading singers, including Richard Margison, Benjamin Butterfield, Judith Forst, Nathalie Paulin, Susan Platts, Peter Barcza, and fellow VCM faculty members; string players Eugene Fodor, Moshe Hammer, Marc Destrubé, and Paul Marleyn; and dancers Karen Kain and Evelyn Hart.
Masako Hockey, Percussion
Having musical experience with a great variety of ensembles, Masako Hockey has played in situations ranging from major symphony orchestras, to opera houses and theatre groups. She has been a featured solo marimbist with numerous orchestras in British Columbia and has performed with the Victoria Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Victoria Operatic Society, Ballet Victoria, Victoria Music Corner Ensemble, and Aventa Ensemble, to name a few. An avid contemporary auxiliary Latin percussionist, she performs on congas, bongos and timbales with The Chris Millington Band.
As a member of the Tokyo Pipe Band’s drum corps, Masako marched in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade and competed in the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland. In individual competition she took top honours, winning the Solo Snare Drumming Award at the Tokyo Highland Games and was Japan’s only regimental pipe band snare drummer in 2000 to receive a major scholarship award in drumming abroad (Tacoma, Washington, USA).
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Masako received her Master’s Degree in Music Performance (Percussion) from the world renowned Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music, and her undergraduate degree from The Musashino Academia Musicae.
Masako is an enthusiastic music teacher, training young children from her private music studio. She is the percussion tutor at St. Michael’s University School, and a personal coach in musicality and advanced technical studies to school students and university music majors alike. Masako is an official Korogi Marimba Artist, and also endorses Istanbul Agop Cymbals and Ron Vaughn Mallets.
Jonathan Eng, Percussion
Jonathan Eng studied at University of Victoria, Humber College and the Banff Centre for 
the Arts. His versatility as a percussionist has allowed him to work in genres from classical to musical theatre and from Big Band to Fife and Drum. He has led a jazz quintet playing for the Governor General and the US ambassador to Canada, has performed for Queen Elizabeth II and recently for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Jonathan is also an active educator teaching privately, a clinician for percussion ensembles, and percussion instructor at the Victoria Conservatory of Music.
Programme:
En blanc et noir by Claude Debussy (1868-1918)
Avec emportement
Lent. Sombre
Scherzando
Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn, Op. 56b by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Thema. Chorale St. Antoni. Andante
Variation I Andante con moto
Variation II Vivace
Variation III. Con moto
Variation IV Andante
Variation V Poco presto
Variation VI. Vivace
Variation VII. Grazioso
Variation VIII Poco presto
Finale. Andante
INTERMISSION
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion by Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Assai lento – Allegro troppo
Lento, ma non troppo
Allegro non troppo
