About this Event
Join us for an enchanting musical afternoon at the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art for our Fall Music At The Smith concert.
Doors: 12:30 PM
Concert Begins: 1:00 PM
2121 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, B.C
La Modestine is a baroque chamber music ensemble formed in 2016 by west coast musicians Marc Destrubé (baroque violin), Natalie Mackie (viola da gamba), and Abraham Ross (harpsichordist). Each member of La Modestine has local and international concert experience, and play in a variety of other ensembles in both the early music and contemporary music genres. They have performed at Victoria’s long running Pacific Baroque Festival for several years, as well as touring in BC and playing in intimate concert venues.
The ensemble is dedicated to presenting engaging programs that celebrate the extraordinary repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries. Well-versed in historical performance practice, they play on original or copies of instruments from the baroque period. Prepare to be transported back in time and experience snippets of historical contexts and sounds through their wonderful repertoire. The afternoon will include works by well known baroque composers such as Bach, Handel, and Telemann, as well as less familiar but equally ravishing composers from the period.
Find out more about La Modestine:
La Modestine Home
Generously sponsored by Parc Retirement Living
About the Musicians
Marc Destrubé
Violinist Marc Destrubé is a musical polymath - soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster, orchestral leader and teacher - whose career straddles the contemporary and ‘early music’ worlds. Marc grew up in Victoria BC; following studies at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, he attended the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario and became an active freelancer. He was a founding member of Tafelmusik in Toronto and was soon invited to play with leading early music orchestras and ensembles in Europe. He has travelled the world and made dozens of recordings as co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century. He led the Belgian ensemble Anima Eterna, the Academy of Ancient Music and the Hanover Band and toured with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He is concertmaster of the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra. In Vancouver he’s been concertmaster of the CBC Radio Orchestra and music director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra.
He is currently a member of the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., which plays on the museum’s exceptional collection of Stradivari and Amati instruments, Vancouver’s Turning Point Ensemble, and the Microcosmos Quartet and Kessler Academy. He is Artistic Director of the Pacific Baroque Festival (Victoria).
Natalie Mackie
Natalie Mackie studied cello at the Conservatoire de Musique (Québec), followed by a degree from the School of Music, University of British Columbia. While at UBC she was introduced to the viola da gamba, and following graduation, she pursued further studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. Natalie has played with many ensembles in Canada and the US, including New World Consort, Les Coucous Bénévoles, Tafelmusik, Portland and Seattle Baroque Orchestras, Les Voix Humaines, Tempo Rubato, Les Voix Baroque, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Victoria Baroque, and Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra among others. Natalie plays violone in the Pacific Baroque Orchestra and is a founding member of the chamber ensemble “La Modestine”- both Vancouver-based ensembles. She has toured throughout Canada, Europe, and the US and recorded for Radio France, German Radio, BBC, CBC, and NPR, as well as the Canadian label Atma Classique. Natalie is a regular performer in the Pacific Baroque Festival, held annually in Victoria, BC, and is an adjunct professor in the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Program at the University of British Columbia. She also has a master’s degree in Graduate Liberal Studies from Simon Fraser University.
Abraham Ross
Abraham Ross enjoys an active career as a concert organist, harpsichordist, and director, presenting imaginative programmes informed by the most recent research on performance practice, technology, and musicological context. His accolades include appearances in international competitions, research grants from Quebec’s Fonds de Recherche en Societé et Culture and McGill University, and performances with Resonance Collective (Los Angeles), the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra. He values collaboration with other artists regardless of discipline and has appeared with various groups across North America, in Argentina, and in Europe.
Drawing on both findings in primary sources and the most recent performance science, Abraham’s repertory ranges from the earliest written sources to music by living composers. His recital programming reflects his commitment to diversifying the canon of western repertory and regularly features works of neglected and underrepresented composers. Collaborations with living composers enable Abraham to give several national or world-premieres each year. He has also given the modern-day premieres of numerous unfinished, reconstructed, and recently discovered works.
Abraham’s formative musical studies took place in his hometown of Bangor, Maine on an 1860 organ by American organbuilders E. & G. G. Hook, an experience that inspired him to take up the organ as a career. He now serves on the board of St. John’s Organ Society, an organization dedicated to the preservation of that instrument.
Event venue & nearby stays
Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art, 2121 Lonsdale Avenue, North Vancouver, Canada
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