Classical music to take over Peace Park

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A new event is hoping to become an annual tradition in the Sherwood Park music scene. 

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The Festival Place Cultural Arts Foundation has organized Classics in the Park, which aims to bring some classical music to Sherwood Park’s Peace Park. 

“Festival Place has been very gracious and worked with us to move things along. With Hawrelak Park closing down and the classics having to move somewhere else in Edmonton, this might be a great opportunity to bring the classics out to Sherwood Park as well,” explained Sheila Smyth, secretary with the Festival Place Cultural Arts Foundation.

The event will be feature a mix of classical music and some more modern recognizable favourites.

“It is an outdoor chamber music performance, weather permitting, the Valkyrie String Quartet and two Spanish guitarists, Renee Perez and Valentina Benvenuti, and they are going to showcase a repertoire of popular pieces from movies and musical productions and long classical compositions from by renowned artists,” Smyth said. “It is going to be old classical mixed with some newer ones.”

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Two guitarists will start off playing solo, but they will then get a chance to collaborate on a piece on stage. 

“I just love Spanish music, and when we were able to get the guitarists here, which are very strong in Spanish guitar, and it is going to be just amazing I think,” Smyth predicted.

The performance gets underway on Sunday, June 25 at 2 p.m.

“We’re expecting about 75 people coming. When you think back to when the Patio Series started (more than 26 years ago), there were only 45 people and it has grown out to 400,” Smyth said. “If we can do it again next year, we can only think about doubling or tripling our audience. There are a lot of people in the Park that are great fans of classical and symphony, and we’re hoping they’ll be coming out to this.”

The event costs $12 per ticket and tickets are available at the Festival Place Box Office or at festivalplace.ca.

tdosser@postmedia.com

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