PARKSVILLE — The Vancouver Island Opera (VIO) recital series is presenting its second event of the season on Sunday, March 18.
Violoncellist Lee Duckles will be accompanied by pianist Nicolai Maloff at the McMillan Arts Centre Gallery (MAC) in Parksville.
With Maloff at the piano Duckles will perform a repertoire of Baroque classical and romantic music.
Duckles, the principal cello and soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VS0), received his early training in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since the 1980s, he has been the principal cello at the Cabrillo Music Festival of Contemporary Music in California where he has premiered a number of works for cello and orchestra and worked with composers Aaron Copland, Hans Werner Henze, Lou Harrison, Phillip Glass, A.J. Kernis, and John Adams.
In Vancouver, Duckles was a founding member of the Vancouver New Music Society, the Masterpiece Music Series and the contemporary music ensemble Days, Months, & Years to Come.
Duckles has recorded for the CBC, both as performer and arranger, the Musical Heritage Society of America, Heliodor Records, and Skylark Records with the salon music ensemble, Viveza.
Maloff is a winner of major piano competitions such as the Virginia Waring, Franz Liszt (Italy), Eckhardt-Gramatté and Canadian Music Competitions.
The recital is being held at the McMillan Arts Centre Gallery (formerly the Oceanside Arts Council Gallery) located at 133 McMillan Street, Parksville.
Performances start at 3 p.m. and tickets are available at the door.
On April 15, flautist Paolo Bortolussi and Maloff will perform together.
In the final performance in the recital series on May 27, the entertainment will be an eclectic program that includes the music of Beethoven.