The Abbotsford Youth Orchestra
presents
The Prodigy
Kevin Chen (7-Year-Old Child Prodigy)
Director: Calvin Dyck
Guest Artists: LCMS Cello Ensemble
Saturday, October 13, 7 p.m.
South Abbotsford Church, 32424 Huntingdon Road
Tickets: Adults $20; Students $10
Kings Music and House of James
Seeing is believing!
For
further information about Kevin Chen please visit the Calgary Herald article by
Bob Clark at http://www2.canada.com/story.html?id=6298391 and accompanying video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T89BsQOUb70 .
The Prodigy
Kevin Chen (7-Year-Old Child Prodigy)
Director: Calvin Dyck
Guest Artists: LCMS Cello Ensemble
Saturday, October 13, 7 p.m.
South Abbotsford Church, 32424 Huntingdon Road
Tickets: Adults $20; Students $10
Kings Music and House of James
Seeing is believing!
There are child prodigies then there’s Kevin Chen of Calgary! At age five he
began music studies; at six he was the youngest in Canada to take and pass the
Grade 9 Royal Conservatory of Music exams, and this summer, at age seven, he
passed his Grade 10 - both with first-class honours! This past spring he
performed an 80-minute debut recital featuring works by Mozart, Beethoven,
Chopin and Debussy and achieved national recognition after his performance at
the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival. He can easily learn three Grade 10 pieces a
week, has transposed Bach while sight-reading, and that’s just the beginning!
This fall, Kevin, the youngest member of the Mount Royal
Conservatory of Music Academy, will be making his first concert appearance with
an orchestra as guest
soloist with the Abbotsford Youth
Orchestra as they present The Prodigy on Saturday, October 13
at 7 p.m. at the South Abbotsford Church.
When AYO director Calvin Dyck was adjudicating a music
competition in Winnipeg this summer he met Colleen Athparia, Kevin’s teacher.
“Colleen told me she was having a challenge staying ahead of her youngest
student. After playing his first recital this spring he said to her, ‘That was
fun, let’s do it again.’ We respect his tender age, yet because he likes to
play we are encouraging him by giving him this opportunity. He will be
performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17
and because he is not very big, under 40 pounds in weight, we are bringing in a
piano from Vancouver that has a very light touch.”
A
Mini Mozart
While Kevin is exceedingly shy he is playful, loves to
stand on one foot, and be ‘big brother’ to his three younger siblings. He is
creative; he is an artistic genius. Calvin explains; “Once every century
somebody comes along who is so gifted they are like a Mozart. They assimilate
music so quickly like it’s already a part of them, as natural as breathing.
Whereas most normal people take weeks and months to learn a piece and
understand the intricacies, for Kevin it is obvious.”
Remember Amadeus
(the movie) and Mozart writing music directly to paper with no changes, no
alterations? Young Kevin does likewise. He hears the music in his head but
instead of writing on paper he composes directly to his computer. Says Calvin;
“We will be doing one of his pieces but because he can’t play it himself (the
chords are too big for his little hands) Colleen is coming and will play it for
him.”
And
there’s more!
Adds Calvin; “To fill out the program the AYO will be
performing Mozart’s Symphony No. 17, (here
Calvin chuckles – he’s into creative programming) and Handel’s Passacaglia.
Joel Stobbe is bringing the Langley Community Music School Cello
Ensemble (eight high level, dynamic and versatile cellists) to
perform Death of an
Angel. It’s a high-energy peace written by Astor Piazzola, the
great Argentinean composer and father of the modern jazz-tango. The piece is
written as a three-voice fugue, which has been expanded to a cello octet. It’s
a lot of fun!”
This is Abbotsford’s chance to not only hear a fantastic
program of enjoyable, relaxing and yet exciting music but to also see a real
prodigy perform, a youngster who is inescapably an inspiration for all
existing and future musicians. That’s Saturday, October 13, 7 p.m. at South Abbotsford Church,
32424 Huntingdon Road, Abbotsford, BC. Tickets (adults $20, students $10) are
available at Kings Music and House of James.
There
are now various articles about him on the Internet.
