header image
A Review of Heather Schmidt's 2007/2008 Season
Saturday, 17 May 2008 00:00

MGMG is delighted to provide this 2007/2008 season update for virtuoso pianist and composer Heather Schmidt (www.heatherschmidt.com). The season began with a highly successful live broadcast from the Glenn Gould Studio to celebrate what would have been Glenn Gould’s 75th birthday. CBC Radio commissioned 10 of Canada’s finest composers to write solo preludes and fugues based on the musically usable letters in Gould’s name. Heather performed her own composition “Twelve For Ten”. In October Heather performed in Quebec with duo partner cellist Shauna Rolston as part of Canada’s prestigious Piano Six/Piano Plus. This was followed by her performance of her 4th piano concerto “Phoenix Ascending” in Texas and a solo recital in Pennsylvania. November was devoted to recordings: the first for Naxos of the rarely heard solo piano music of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, another of Heather Schmidt compositions for cello and piano featuring Heather and cellist Shauna Rolston.


The 2008 year began with a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C+ in Montreal followed by a trip to St Petersburg, Russia to attend the premiere of her Flute Concerto. On January 26th, BRAVO aired “Synchronicity” a one-hour film by RedStar Films about Heather, her music and her remarkable artistic relationship with cellist Shauna Rolston. In February Heather traveled to Northern Ontario and again performed Mozart’s No. 21 C+ piano concerto. She also gave a solo recital “An Evening with Heather, Fanny, Clara and Friends” featuring the piano music of Heather Schmidt, Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel and Clara Schumann.
Much to Heather’s delight, the rest of the 2007/2008 season is no less hectic. In addition to conference presentations, master classes, adjudicating responsibilities and attendance at premieres of her compositions, she will be performing duo recitals with cellist Shauna Rolston in British Columbia and Ontario. She is especially looking forward to her Toronto performance of her Piano Concerto No. 3 for chamber orchestra and piano and the Bach Piano Concerto in f minor with Sinfonia Toronto. Once the current season winds down, Heather looks forward to a busy 2008/2009 which includes recitals in Calgary’s Celebrity Series and the world premiere of her Piano Concerto No. 5 “Ammolite Concerto” with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.