Every year thousands of visitors are drawn to Canada’s Maritime Provinces by the regions scenic beauty, rich history, succulent seafood and the outgoing friendliness of the people. Less well known are the numerous world-renowned music festivals happening all summer long which give the culture lover one more reason to head to the East Coast of Canada.

The season begins with the Scotia Festival of Music, now entering its 27th season. This is a two-week chamber music festival that takes place in late May and early June each year in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is a celebration of the art of music making with Highlight Concerts, open rehearsals, master classes, coaching sessions, and lecture/demonstrations by Guest Artists of international renown. Each year the Festival offers over fifty public events.

Equally dedicated to performance and education, Scotia Festival of Music exploded upon the international scene in 1991 when Pierre Boulez, heir to Leonard Bernstein’s throne as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic and one of the 20th century’s greatest composers, and his 36 member Ensemble Intercontemporain from Paris were in residence. That year, the Globe and Mail called Scotia Festival of Music 1991, “the greatest music event in Canada’s history”.

The long list of international superstars appearing as guest artists at Scotia Festival of Music over the years includes violinist and educator Sir Yehudi Menuhin, cellist Lynn Harrell, composer Philip Glass, contralto Maureen Forrester, flutist Julius Baker, pianist, Marc-André Hamelin, and composer R. Murray Schafer. The 2006 program includes performances by extraordinary Canadian violinist Mark Fewer, virtuoso pianist and trumpet player Guy Few, composer/trombonist Alain Trudel, the SuperNova string quartet and more.

Scotia Festival is first and foremost a festival of learning. It includes several educational programs to engage students in the experience of music, including the introduction of live classical music to elementary students in their schools and on the stage, the opportunity for students from grades 5 –12 to attend music clinics, Highlight Concerts, and dress rehearsals, and our intensive two-week on-site Young Artist Program for university students and young professionals.

The Young Artist Program provides an opportunity for advanced students and young professionals to study the art of chamber music and performance with Scotia Festival’s Guest Artists. The program’s purpose is to foster advanced study and career development. Selected through taped auditions, participants represent major schools of music and professional orchestras across North America.

If you’re in Halifax between June 1 - 3, 2006, you can also check out the Celtic Feis - an international festival promoting the rich culture and heritage of the regions Celtic roots through music, dance, art, and various educational workshops. The tradition of the Feis (pronounced “fesh”) traces its origins to early Irish history when every territory throughout the kingdom sent a representative to the Great Fair of Tara, seat of the Ard Rhi, or High King of Ireland for a general assembly. While the deliberative functions of the Feis were taking place, the public was entertained by seanachies (storytellers), bards, poets and genealogists who recounted Gallic history, telling stories of the important men and events that had gone before, the genealogy or descent of the leading families among them, and the legends, songs and stories so dear to them. The seanachies who demonstrated the most ability were celebrated - rather like the screen idols of today.  

When not attending concerts in Halifax, you’ll have time to explore the city’s rich heritage, its harbour, the famous Alexander Keith’s Nova Scotia Brewery, Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg. Halifax was the site of the first British town in Canada founded in 1749. The tour company, Great Expeditions, is offering guests a package that includes tickets to the Music Festival, city tours and a 5 day tour highlighting the best of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton with its combination of historical sites and unparalleled scenery.

On the rugged northern coast of New Brunswick in the towns of Campbellton and Dalhousie the Baie des Chaleurs International Chamber Music Festival, takes place from July 6-9. Now in its tenth season, the Baie des Chaleurs Festival will feature musicians from Canada and around the world, including soprano Chantal Dionne (winner of many prizes in Europe and at the International Concours of the Jeunesses Musicales), the Neptune Trio, the Empire Brass and the Four Seasons Harp Quartet. The first concert of the season will have a chamber orchestra of 16 musicians and a choir of 50 in a Mozart program. Packages are available that include your concert tickets, bird watching and/or kayak tours in the area.

Baroque enthusiasts have been heading to the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival in the northeastern corner of New Brunswick since 1971. Founded by harpsichordist Mathieu Duguay, it has attracted thousands of music lovers to picturesque Lamèque Island, delighting them with early music performed in the exceptional acoustics of the colorful Sainte-Cécile church in Petite-Rivière-de-l’Île. The Lameque Baroque Festival is unique in Canada for its dedication to music from the period 1600-1760, presenting outstanding performances on period instruments (or replicas.) Its programs include vocal and instrumental selections, featuring choral works, chamber music and solo pieces.

Another musical gem can be found in Fredericton, New Brunswick in mid-August: the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival. In it’s 13^th season the festival continues it’s tradition of providing the highest standard of performance and innovative programming. The festival focuses on the music of two composers each year, one well known, and one lesser known. With the world celebrating the 250^th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, it’s no surprise that the first of the two-featured composers in 2006 will be Mozart. You can anticipate hearing a selection of his marvelous chamber music works. The second featured, and lesser-known, composer will be the Chevalier de St. Georges. Until recently, this composer and violinist, the son of a French plantation owner and a slave, has been largely forgotten. In the last few years, interest has grown around this intriguing figure who was an established composer and violinist in the second half of the 1700s, as well as a champion fencer. His orchestral music has received some notice, but his chamber music has been ignored. The New Brunswick Summer Music Festival will be one of the first to perform chamber music from this important composer.

"To be at Indian River in the summertime is to be at the musical centre, not just of Prince Edward Island, but of all of Canada." - Michael Bliss, Canadian historian and author. The Indian River Music Festival is held in St. Mary’s Church in Indian River, PEI. It attracts a global audience who come for the superb acoustic experience provided by the all-wood interior of the church. Concerts run Friday & Saturday evenings from July 2nd to August 27^th and feature new international vocalists and musicians and the rising young performers that are becoming the next generation of elite talent.