Pot-pourri et Amusemens is a program that features 19th century composers that will be new to many. Gaspard Kummer and Joseph Küfiner both lived and worked in Germany as performers and composers publishing works that were attractive to the general public of the time. The whimsical titles refer to a new genre of music that gathers together medleysof musical materials without a standard structure such as found in a dance suite or other multi-movement work. Often taking popular opera tunes for their arrangements, they sought to give the performer and listener a lighter version of the music for a more intimate setting in the home or at small gatherings. Relax and allow the music to wander though it’s whimsy, and we hope you will find some amusement in the potpourri that we present.

Ralph Maier completed his Ph.D at University of Calgary specializing in sixteenth-century Spanish music for vihuela. He is active as a soloist and chamber musician on classical guitar and a variety of plucked period instruments. He recently recorded, engineered and produced Variations, in which he performs on vihuela, baroque guitar, romantic guitar, classical guitar and electric guitars. Ralph is also a contributing author to The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones (2019). He is currently on faculty at the Mount Royal University Conservatory of Music where he conducts private lessons and ensemble classes, and at the University of Calgary where he heads the classical guitar studio and teaches classes in music history and popular music studies.

Tim Janz completed a B.Mus in flute performance and then went on to do a M.Mus in music composition. While experienced in modern flute performances such as contemporary music theatre at the Banff Centre, as well as performing in orchestral settings, Tim has lately been intrigued by pre-Boehm wooden flutes. He performs on one. keyed baroque flute with Justin Luchinsky in the Chamber Muse ensemble, recently presenting Bach’ Brandenburg No.5. In his performances with Ralph Maier, he performs on an eight-keyed flute that is a copy of the late 18th century German maker, August Grenser. While not as powerful as the modern flute, it has many rich colors and timbres that can only be produced on a wooden instrument.

Tim Janz, eight-keyed wooden (Irish) flute, and Ralph Maier, classical guitar, perform music that resonates with the warmth of the wood that brings sound to life. Whether the classical and romantic salon music of Italy, France or Germany (not to mention a little Spanish flair to add to the potpourri), or the traditional music of Scotland or Ireland, Duo Silva creates an atmosphere of pleasant indulgence. Music shared between an intimate group of friends has long been a mainstay of human interaction. Enjoy a tune, a story, a smile and perhaps a tear. Music, the food of life, plays on.