VISIT US AT: crowsnestpassherald.ca CONTACT US AT: passherald@shaw.ca 403.562.2248
Crowsnest Pass
Herald Serving our communities since 1930
Doors Open and Heritage Festival celebrations NICK ALLEN Pass Herald Reporter The Pass was home to the annual Crowsnest Pass Doors Open and Heritage Festival from August 3 to 6. 2023 marked the 18th year of the Crowsnest Pass Doors Open and Heritage Festival, attracting over 9,000 visitors a year over the August Long Weekend according to the event website. The festival uses the heritage weekend as a celebration of the Crowsnest Pass’ unique history, culture and heritage. The festival is a project of the Crowsnest Heritage Initiative, a collective of like-minded heritage sites and resources here in the Crowsnest Pass. Events over the weekend included a free swim at the Crowsnest Pass Pool, presentations from the Crowsnest Conservation Society, hikes and tours with Crowsnest Adventures and Uplift Adventures, escape rooms at the APP Barracks, a pottery sale with the Crowsnest Pass Pottery Club, e-bike tours with Sweet Riders, artist studio tour hosted by the CNP Art Gallery, entertainment around the Pass and more. According to Brandy Fehr, the community economic development and marketing coordinator for Community Futures, the event was great, but there was a decline in attendance. “From what we’ve heard around town, a lot of people didn’t want to be on the highways and weren’t aware that the construction was actually over on the Thursday,” said Fehr. Some of the drummers and dancers for the event were stuck for over two hours on the highway on the Thursday before the festival, explained Fehr. She added they look forward to next year’s 19th Annual Crowsnest Pass Doors Open and Heritage Festival. Photo courtesy of Rendall Photography
More photos on page 6 & 7
Vol. 93 No. 30
August 16, 2023 $1.25
12 - CROWSNEST PASS HERALD - Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Looking Back BY JOHN KINNEAR
Goin’ For Baroque On August 10th at Taco Van Leperen’s home ( the former Hillcrest United Church) and again at the Crowsnest Pass Golf Clubhouse the remarkable Ximenez Quartet performed flawless baroque works by Mozart, Haydn, Pleyel, Gossec and Ximenez to capacity crowds. The quartet is named after 19th century Peruvian composer Pedro Ximenez Abril Tirado (1784-1856), one of the key composers of Latin America in the early 19th century. The birth of the Ximenez quartet happened in 2019 out of the shared passion for exploring music by lesser-known composers, especially those from the Americas. The quartet included Montreal based Karin Cuellar on violin (Bolivia), Simon Alexandre on violin (Canada) Jimin Dobson on viola (Korea/Canada) and Jessica Korotkin on cello (USA). This quartet has made it their mission to bring this repertoire to a concert platform in a sensitive, historically informed and contextualized manner. Their presentations were absolutely perfect. Their aim is to place this music in equal terms with music from the canonic, mostly euro-centered repertoire. Canonic, as I understand it , is a melody played and then imitated (one or more times) by others i.e. playing the same part at different times. This resulted in some fascinating and delightfully engaging selections on both nights, played with obvious passion and expertise. The Classical era selections played were of music that dates from about 1750 to 1830 and is known for its elegance, balance and homophonic textures. Of this there was a great deal at both venues. Of this there was a great deal at both venues. The Ximenez quartet has appeared in many festivals including places like Montreal, Bolivia, Banff and Bloomington, Arizona. At both concerts each musician took turns sharing the background on selections to be played and, in the case of Jessica Korotkin, while explaining a particular piece, revealed that all their instruments are strung with animal gut and that her cello is 17th century. She further shared that her cello has no endpin(spike), a device which was only invented in the 1830’s. The endspike supports the cello but its design and attachment to the cello are critical to how the cello performs. Jessica supports her cello with her calves and claims this instrument has a beautiful mellow tonal quality . It did not escape some observer’s eyes that the leather pants she wore worked to help her grip her cello. Their presence here was facilitated by the one and only Debbie Goldstein whose mission is to broaden and enhance our music appreciation here in the Pass. In this case she reached out to Catalina Guevara Vasquez Klein who is with the Mount Parnassus Foundation in Calgary and who arranged for the quartet to come here. This is no easy feat coordination-wise and Parnassus covered flights and food while they were here. They were graciously accommodated in their stay in the Pass by Pat and Dick Warner. Debbie, who handled all the advertising, logistics and venue arrangement, informed me that the next important concert will be one that you will absolutely not want to miss. It will be performed by a group known as Taraf Syriana on November 24th. It will be a fascinating mix of artistry of Syrian and Romani folk music and will offer a spectacular step back in
John Kinnear photos
Ximenez quartet at golf course concert Ximenez at Tac Van Leperen’s church concert Quartet at church with Catalina Klein on bassoon
time to music cultures hundreds of years old. The artists featured will be Romani music legend and accordionist Siergiu Popa (Moldova/Canada), singer Dan Armeanca (Romania/Canada), and Naeem Shanwar on the qanun. The qanun is possibly a descendant of the ancient Egyptian harp and goes back to the tenth century. It is a trapezoidal shaped zither with a range of three octaves and a complex system of adjustable levers. With Popa and Armeanca will be Omar Abou Afach, a violist from Syria’s national orchestra and Noemy Braun, the inventor of a new cello-like instrument known as the sesacorda. This eclectic event is strictly a Goldstein effort this time organization-wise and once again will happen at Taco Van Helperen’s church venue, which offers an intimate and sound-friendly atmosphere. Tickets will be available through Eventbrite on-line starting in September and through e-transfer to missdebbiesmusic@gmail. com. For more info call 403-563-6454.