Louis Guy’s La Vie en Rose, is a tune popularized by French songstress Edith Piaf that has been featured in numerous films since its emergence. It depicts life viewed through rose-coloured lenses, as the literal translation is “Life in Pink.” The song Nature Boy is also from the early 1900’s, and was composed on the other side of the ocean by Californian-via-New York City Eden Abez. His West coast hippie lifestyle heavily influenced his creative work.
The selections from French composer Berlioz’s La Nuit d’Ete are brooding, passionate, almost fantastical, songs set to Shakespeare-style poems by Théophile Gautier, and were completed in 1841.
Love ballade Sweet Child o’ Mine barely needs introduction, but interesting to note is that Slash (Guns n Roses guitarist) disdained the song because it was birthed from a string-skipping exercise for the guitar (the iconic, running guitar riff) that he was jokingly working out before band members decided to make a song out of it. Sway started as a mambo tune composed by Mexican Luis Demetrio, but it has become a standard cover for jazz and pop artists including Michael Buble.
Rossini’s La Regata Veneziana paints a picture of a sprightly boat race through Venice in the mid-1800s, when the songs were written. The famous watery passageways wind through the historic, richly architectural Italian city.
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Eileen Kosasih has a B.A. Music (violin) from Ambrose University, M.Music (orchestral conducting) from Azusa Pacific University, and a piano diploma from the American College of Musicians. Eileen is principle 2nd violin of Symphony of the Kootenays and concertmaster of Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra. As a crossover musician, she has performed with various music scenes around the U.S. and Canada. Eileen directed the orchestra for Front Row Centre Theatre’s “Mystery of Edwin Drood” and Calgary Arts Orchestra, her own two-year project. She recently became resident accompanist for Calgary Multicultural Choir and also plays piano for Suzuki Talent Education Society and Calgary Girls Choir. Eileen is a host and programmer for Classical Revolution Calgary.
Mezzo-Soprano Bethany Yon holds a Masters of Music from Western University in London, Ontario and a Bachelor of Music from Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta. Excited about the world of classical singing, Bethany has embraced advanced study opportunities with Accademia Europea Dell’Opera (AEDO), The Centre for Opera Studies in Italy (COSI), as well as Edmonton, Alberta’s Opera NUOVA and Calgary’s Cowtown Opera Summer Academy. Active in the musical community in her home city, Bethany has and continues to perform with the Calgary Arts Orchestra, the Calgary Concert Opera Company, Cowtown Opera and the Calgary Opera Chorus as well at Classical Revolution and the Calgary Pro Arts Society. Bethany has been recognized as a recipient of the 2016 Calgary Arts Development Individual Artist Grant, the 2014 London Opera Guild Scholarship as well as the 2011 John Swindells Memorial Music Scholarship. Recent credits include: Flora in Verdi’s La Traviata, Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Conception in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole, Bianca in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, La Zia Principessa, Abbess and Mistress of the Novices in Suor Angelica, Sandman cover in Huperdink’s Hansel and Gretel, Mercedes cover in Bizet’s Carmen.
This concert is the third in a series of five Distinctive Performers Concerts during 2018 generously sponsored by: 
