Honens Presents CADENCE, with Georgy Tchaidze and Wakefield Brewster

Calgary, AB, September 25, 2024 — Honens, home of Canada’s international piano competition, announces CADENCE, an event where the boundaries between music and spoken word dissolve. This special evening of piano artistry and live poetry takes place on Wednesday, October 9, at 7 p.m., at Flanagan Theatre (The GRAND). CADENCE features 2009 Honens Prize Laureate Georgy Tchaidze and Wakefield Brewster, a professional poet and spoken word artist who is Calgary’s sixth Poet Laureate and one of Canada’s most prolific poets.

"In many ways, this program is an attempt to combine the incompatible, an attempt to discover new facets of familiar sounds and rhythms,” says Tchaidze who, following his Honens victory in 2009, has gone on to perform throughout Europe, North America and Asia to great acclaim, including at Carnegie Hall, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, among many others.

“Wakefield's powerful and fierce poetry is filled with music and rhythmic harmony on its own,” continues Tchaidze. “The impact of this poetry on the listener is so strong that the idea of illustrating it with music, or accompanying it with some kind of background sound, initially didn't seem successful to me. Instead, I thought it would be interesting to create an entirely abstract sound space where the spoken word and played phrase could coexist and reflect each other. The hypnotic, elemental effect of the poetry on an almost subconscious level would merge with the mysterious, otherworldly sound of the piano. This program is a kind of leap of faith, a collaborative creative journey, and I am delighted to invite listeners to join me on it.”

The program—which includes John Adams' China Gates, Olivier Messiaen's Première communion de la Vierge (No. 11) from Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus, John Cage's In a Landscape, and more, interspersed with Brewster’s original poetry—explores the deep emotional and rhythmic connections between two seemingly incongruous art forms. The innovative program will transport audiences to the uncharted territory of musical phrasing and vocal inflection, which is brimming with potential for creative expression. 

Presented in partnership with The GRAND.

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Information:

Alberta Media Relations
Lisa Farquharson
Honens
403 862 5168
lfarquharson@honens.com

CADENCE 

WITH GEORGY TCHAIDZE AND WAKEFIELD BREWSTER

Georgy Tchaidze, piano
Wakefield Brewster, spoken word

Wednesday 9 October 2024
7 p.m.

Flanagan Theatre, The GRAND
608 First Street SW

TICKETS
Adult $45
A440 / Student $25

To get your tickets, click here.

About Honens 
Honens, home of Canada’s international piano competition, fosters the art of piano performance, identifies and supports outstanding young artists, and sparks and enhances appreciation and understanding of the piano and piano music.

Esther Honens created a legacy of musical pre-eminence to be enjoyed for generations. In 1991, Mrs. Honens gave $5 million to endow an international piano competition in her hometown of Calgary, Canada. Today, the triennial Honens International Piano Competition is considered one of the world’s most prestigious events of its kind. Honens prepares its Laureates, who embody the philosophy of the Complete Artist, for professional careers in music, through a comprehensive and customizable three-year artistic development and career accelerator program which creates opportunities for exposure and holistic growth. Driven by its commitment to responsibility to competitors, the community, and the art music ecosphere, Honens provides a runway for Laureates to set themselves apart from other artists as skilled performers who are also leaders, educators, advocates, and citizen artists.
 
The annual Honens Festival as well as community events and initiatives are intended to share Mrs. Honens’ love of world-renowned music, and provide every Calgarian access to barrier free, enriching musical experiences. Her generosity, vision, and love of music continue to touch the lives of musicians and music-lovers at home and around the world. 
 
Honens Legacy Partners support the ongoing growth and development of Esther Honens’ vision by securing the organization’s future. The Legacy Partners Endowment Fund enables Honens to provide wide-reaching programming through its annual festival and other enriching community education and outreach initiatives.

About Georgy Tchaidze
Georgy Tchaidze possesses “fine sensibility and perfectly honed technique,” according to The Telegraph, in its review of the pianist’s Wigmore Hall debut. Since becoming First Prize Laureate of Honens International Piano Competition in 2009, Tchaidze has performed throughout Europe, North America, and Asia to great acclaim. His performance of Rachmaninov’s second piano concerto with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra with Pinchas Zukerman was met with praise: “commendable clarity … unusually powerful for a performance of so little ostentation” (Ottawa Citizen). In the summer of 2015, Tchaidze was awarded First Prize at the Fourth Top of the World International Piano Competition in Tromso, Norway and then asked to replace Sir Andras Schiff with his performances at the Lofoten International Chamber Music Festival.

Born in 1988 in St. Petersburg, Tchaidze began to study piano and violin at the age of 7. He studied at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Professor Sergey Dorensky for his undergraduate degree and earned his master’s degree at the Berlin University of the Arts with Professor Klaus Hellwig. Since September 2016, he has been artist in residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium, under direction of Louis Lortie. 

Tchaidze has three recordings on the Honens label: a live recording with Cecilia String Quartet, an all-Schubert album, and a disc of works by Medtner, Mussorgsky, and Prokofiev.

About Wakefield Brewster
Wakefield Brewster's work has captivated people’s hearts for years. Since 1999, he has been known as one of Canada’s most popular and prolific performance poets. Brewster was born and raised in Toronto by parents hailing from the island of Barbados. He has resided in Calgary since 2006. In 2022 he was appointed as Calgary’s sixth Poet Laureate. The Calgary Poet Laureate produces literary work that is reflective of Calgary’s landscape, cityscape, and civic identity and that may raise awareness of local issues.

Brewster has spoken across Canada, and several states, and makes countless appearances on a regular basis in a variety of ways. He is a community builder through engaging in volunteering, leadership, and mentorship for youth and through the arts. He is an active advocate for literacy and the humanities; healing arts and alternative medicine; alcoholism and addictions; and mental wellness and recovery. In 2023 Brewster was named a TD INCUBATOR Fellow for the 2023-2024 Season, mentoring over 30 up-and-coming Calgary artists from all disciplines.