Otterville, with Andrew Downing & friends
October 11, 2024
8:00pm, Heliconian Hall
Vesuvius is delighted to collaborate with the recently-formed ensemble known as Otterville, a brainchild of the brilliant contrabassist and arranger Andrew Downing. Described as “a foray into the complex simplicity of his ancestral Tobacco Belt lineage,” this project features music by such disparate artists as Kurt Weill, Billy Strayhorn, Eric Satie, and Bill Frisell, and on this occasion will mix with Vesuvius’s take on the great Italian film composer Nino Rota.
Tickets available here – https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1026
2024 / 2025 Season
Hello, friends of Vesuvius Ensemble!
We’re excited to announce our 2024/25 concert series:
Otterville, with Andrew Downing & friends
October 11, 2024
8:00pm, Heliconian Hall
Vesuvius is delighted to collaborate with the recently-formed ensemble known as Otterville, a brainchild of the brilliant contrabassist and arranger Andrew Downing. Described as “a foray into the complex simplicity of his ancestral Tobacco Belt lineage,” this project features music by such disparate artists as Kurt Weill, Billy Strayhorn, Eric Satie, and Bill Frisell, and on this occasion will mix with Vesuvius’s take on the great Italian film composer Nino Rota.
Tickets available here – https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1026
From Chapel to Manger, with the Toronto Chamber Choir
December 8, 2024
7:00pm, Heliconian Hall
Vesuvius invites you into the warmth of our beloved annual Christmas concert. This time around, music from popular folk tradition will mix with sublime polyphony sung by members of the Toronto Chamber Choir, conducted by lutenist Lucas Harris.
Tickets available here – https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1027
Viaggio a Napoli: Il ballo del ritorno, with Geneviève Gilardeau & friends
February 28, 2025
7:00pm, Heliconian Hall
Vesuvius is thrilled to feature the brilliant Tafelmusik violinist Geneviève Gilardeau together with an ensemble of her favourite collaborators. Her unique program Il ballo del ritorno will explore the theme of returns: how coming back to a beloved work of art, a cherished place, a loved one, or even a simple return to a catchy refrain or jazzy bass line can stir our whole being, like a wake-up call from the past. Works by Valente, Falconieri, Uccellini and Matteis mixed with traditional Neapolitan songs.
Tickets available here – https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1028
Le Tarantelle: Spiders’ night!
May 16, 2025
8:00pm, Heliconian Hall
Our modern world is full of evils just as toxic as a spider’s bite. The rustic tarantella, born as an antidote to illness in rural Italy where there was no access to better medical care, might still today be the best treatment to purify your body and lift your spirits. But to access the tarantella’s healing power, we’ll need to find the music that pleases the “spider” whose “bite” caused your ailment. Join us to sample an array of tarantellas which may be virtuosic, melancholic, vulgar, comic, or frenetic. Somewhere in the mix will be the one that heals you!
Tickets available here – https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/1029
https://bemusednetwork.com/users/events/upcoming
Our Albums available here;
THE MUSICIANS
PHOTOS BY KAREN E REEVES
Italian tenor, Francesco Pellegrino, began his career during his early childhood. By the age of ten, he was a celebrated singer of traditional and classical Neapolitan music throughout Italy and Europe and recorded his first album of classical Neapolitan songs, circulated on radio stations throughout Italy.
In 1994 Francesco Pellegrino completed his Diploma in Voice Performance with a minor in piano, from the Benevento Conservatory of Music. His performance activities during that time included opera, oratorio, concert songs and traditional Neapolitan music. During his undergraduate, his extraordinary voice caught the attention of legendary tenor, Carlo Bergonzi. Maestro Bergonzi awarded Mr. Pellegrino with The International Arturo Toscanini Foundation Scholarship, inviting him to continue his studies with him at his academy of music, L’Accademia di Canto Verdiano di Busseto, in Parma, Italy and at L’Accademia Chigiana di Musica in Siena, Italy.
Lucas Harris began his musical life as a jazz guitarist in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. After graduating summa cum laude from Pomona College, he studied for a year in Milan, Italy as one of the first Marco Fodella Foundation scholars and then at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen. Lucas now keeps a busy schedule as a continuo player for dozens of Baroque ensembles across North America. He is the regular lutenist with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and is based in Toronto since 2004. Lucas teaches each summer at Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute and the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, and has also taught for Amherst Early Music, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and the New York Continuo Collective. He is a founder of the Toronto Continuo Collective, a weekly class and performing ‘pluck band’ dedicated to learning the art of seventeenth-century accompaniment. Some recent projects included a lute concerto program for CBC radio’s Young Artist Series, a solo recital for the Minnesota Guitar Society, a debut solo CD, as well as duo recitals and a recording with the Chinese pipa virtuoso Wen Zhao. Lucas was music director for a production of Cavalli’s La Calisto for the Opera Program at Ohio State University, and has also been invited as guest director with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Vancouver. He was praised for his work with Les voix humaines in Montréal: “The revelation of the concert was the Torontonian lutenist Lucas Harris, who weaved a poetic thread through his infinitely subtle interventions. The sweetness and patience of his playing . . . was astonishing.” (Le Devoir)