It seems that every second Mercoledi Musicale* seems to mark the passing of an artist that I spent much of my musical life listening to. On June 20th of this year the remarkable Jeanne Lamon died at her home in Victoria.
The American born Lamon came to Canada as a guest artist with the nascent (1979) Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and became it’s music director in 1981. For 33 years she led the orchestra and moulded it into one of the finest baroque ensembles in the world. In 2014 she stepped down and I remember the final Ottawa concert with her as director that year at the ChamberFest. The ovation at the end had the vaults of Dominion-Chalmers echoing.
Here is Jeanne Lamon, with that incredible smile reflecting her delight, doing two of the things she did best: shining as a performer and then stepping to the side and allowing others to shine as bright.
The Galileo Project was the first of their multi-media programmes where the ensemble performed with narrative, projects and movement but without sheet music. It was fitting that Tafelmusk marked the death of this great artist with a broadcast of the programme last week. A tribute to the riches and love she brought and gave to music here in Canada.
And here, just because I love Handel and it shows off the fine ensemble that Jeanne Lamon nurtured for three decades, is an extract from their The House of Dreams programme.
*This is the 281st Mercoledi Musicale that I’ve posted and the 3000th post since I began the blog on November 12th 2006. But more about that tomorrow.
The word for July 7th is:
Nascent /ˈnāsənt,ˈnasənt/: [adjective]
Just coming into existence and showing sign of future potential.
Early 17th century: from the Latin nascent “being born”, from the verb nasci.
Willy Or Won't He 