Music blooms in summer at the Sun Yat-Sen garden

by David Gordon Duke

Concert series offers mix of Asian and western styles. For an introduction, take a guided tour before the performance

If anything is sacrosanct in Vancouver, it’s gardens. We’ve exhibited a century-long civic mania for almost everything that grows. Summer visitors can be kept very busy simply checking out gardens that welcome the public.

“Music in the Gardens of Vancouver” seems like such an obviously great concept — until you consider those less-than-perfect summer evenings and the effects of seating on manicured lawns. So opportunities, however welcome, are relatively rare.

One striking exception is the concert series at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens. Now in its 13th season, Enchanted Evenings offers one of the most delightful musical experiences available during the summer months.

Back in the Expo 86 era, Vancouver acquired what was billed as “the first full-sized classical Chinese garden outside China.” Experts and artisans from the Landscape Architecture Company of Suzhou re-created a Ming dynasty-style garden as the central jewel in a larger Chinese-influenced public park.

Today the Gardens comprise a sequence of exquisite spaces and pavilions. Though the garden itself is delicate, its extensive stone hardscape and open-air covered spaces really work as an intimate musical environment.

Chinese literature makes countless references to the sophisticated life of flowers and music. The favoured few who obtain much-prized tickets to the Enchanted Evenings series get to share an experience as rarified in its own way as a Versailles fête champêtre.

This season, running from July 14 until Sept. 8, offers hour- long programs at 7:30 p.m. on each of nine consecutive Fridays. Understandably, a solid selection of the performing ensembles have a Chinese connection. Chinese music purists will want to hear the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble on July 21 bring the sound of traditional Chinese instruments to the Chinese traditional garden. The Red Chamber Ensemble combines “Imperial Court classics with the hot passion of the West” on Aug. 4. Perennial series favourite Silk Road combines pipa with non-Chinese instruments on Aug. 11.

Other groups explore different Asian traditions:

Amir Haghighi and Amy Stephen, who open the series on July 14, have found their own way to combine Persian and Celtic idioms. Tandava, which plays Sept. 1, is “inspired by the folk and classical music of India and Bangladesh;” Dharmakasa ends the series on Sept. 8 with Japanese shakuhachi.

Three other groups think way outside the box, creating “only in Vancouver” juxtapositions of east and west. On July 28, the Vancouver Piano Ensemble matches the gardens' classical idiom with western classical favourites. Their program highlights works written or arranged for two grand pianos and eight hands (that’s 176 keys and forty fingers).

Zeellia is devoted to Slavic folk music; its showcase is on Aug. 18. And surely the most eclectic of all, the Hot Club of Mars, plays gypsy jazz a la Django Reinhardt on a (with luck) hot evening Aug. 25.

“The Enchanted Evening concert series is always such a joy, and we are blessed with continued support from many dedicated patrons,” says the gardens’ executive director, Kathy Gibler. “I remember sitting at one of the concerts, immersed in the music, glancing up to see bright white seagulls flying overhead against that deep blue sky that comes before dark, and thinking, ‘It doesn't get any better than this.’ ”

But enchantment comes with one downside: Gibler cautions that tickets have become a hot item, very much in demand. Single tickets are still available, as are season passes.

For an introduction to the series, the Garden Tour and Concert combo is particularly attractive: enjoy the last of the Gardens’ guided tours at 5, take a break to explore Chinatown’s many dinner options, and then return for the evening concert.

The Vancouver Sun
6 July 2006

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