Faculty member Annette-Barbara Vogel, violin, leads new Magisterra Summer String Institute
Magisterra Soloists, a professional string chamber ensemble (which gained charitable status in 2018) was founded in 2016 by violin professor Annette-Barbara Vogel together with alumni Jordan Clayton, Mikela Witjes, and Nic Carlucci. The ensemble was inaugurated in 2016 through a six-city tour to Brazil. Since then, Magisterra Soloists has remained active through over 100 concerts, with musicians hailing from over 13 countries, having performed more than 120 different works, including numerous commissions made by the ensemble of Canadian composers. Magisterra has toured Ontario/Quebec annually until the outbreak of the COVID pandemic and will resume touring in 2022.
In true Magisterra spirit – in order to envigorate the local and regional artistic and educational scene – the organization added a new program to its roster last summer: the Magisterra Summer String Institute (MSSI).
Although the first scheduled 2020 edition of the Magisterra Summer String Institute was cancelled due to COVID-19, the Institute was successfully launched this past July 2021. In the midst of the progressively waning pandemic, Annette-Barbara Vogel and the ensemble's Outreach Coordinator, Western alumnus, Jordan Clayton (BMus '10, MMus '17, BEd '12-UOttawa), took the musical and artistic strength of the ensemble and put it to use in service of the next generation of growing musicians through a one-week intensive string institute for students ages 4-25. Despite the challenges of running a live program during the COVID pandemic, and with serious limitations on venue rentals province-wide, MSSI exceeded its projected student enrolment at every level.
With a faculty of highly-trained musicians and pedagogues, the first ever Magisterra Summer String Institute was a massive success on every level, and left students and parents asking for more!
From July 25-30, students of the violin, viola and cello gathered at the Montessori Academy of London for five days of private lessons, masterclasses, chamber music rehearsals, private rehearsals with professional collaborative pianists, choral lessons, and music history classes paired with hands-on visual arts lessons, all with a first-rate faculty of professional musicians and pedagogues. Many of the faculty and counsellors are Western University alumni or graduate students enrolled in the Don Wright Faculty of Music.
A team of dynamic counsellors led junior students through a whole slew of fun camp games – when they weren't playing their instruments or engaged in learning, that is!
MSSI enjoyed the support of D’Addario, Long & McQuade Canada, Wilder & Davis (Montreal), as well as the support in form of scholarship for a deserving student to attend MSSI, established by the Steven Komar Scholarship Fund. Students and faculty were provided healthy and locally sourced hot lunches by Growing Chefs.
The week finished with exciting recitals of the participants, in addition to a special highlight of one of the 2020 Magisterra’s Young Artist Performer’s Award recipients, Taeoh Eom, performing Czardas by Monti.
Magisterra is back to perform live through its chamber concert series “Magisterra At The Museum” in partnership with Museum London, and looks forward to announcing the second MSSI 2022.
All images supplied by Annette-Barbara Vogel
