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Well!! We’ve just floated back to earth after a

Well!!

We’ve just floated back to earth after a magical evening on Saturday.

Our 50th anniversary concert was a huge success and we were delighted to be joined by wonderful friends and family to celebrate the occasion.

Thank you to Ottawa Chamberfest for their hard work and determination in bringing the concert to fruition. Particular thanks go to Artistic Director @cklopoushak who not only organised and programmed the concert but also performed beautifully on viola, and to Executive Director Mhiran Faraday for overseeing everything and making this ambitious project possible.

Thank you to the amazing musicians for their spellbinding performances.

To our incredible Kun Artists @stjohnlara and @kellyhtviolin for their virtuosic solos of Bechara El Khoury’s Trois Pieces, Meitus Trois Piece: Allegro, and Bartok’s Rhapsody No 1. and effortlessly leading the ensemble works.

To Annalee, Jamie and Roman of the Gryphon Trio for lending their huge talents and helping to form the first ever Kun Ensemble!

To @okanmusicacuba for getting everybody up on their feet for a dance at the end of the show. Even Marina Kun and her family!

To the production team and volunteers of @chamberfest who have been working tirelessly to deliver a huge number of events across the last two.

To @cu_cdcc for providing their beautiful venue to the chamber music festival.

To the @violinchannel for hosting the livestream which was viewed by over 5k people!

To @jamesehnes for his gorgeous video message congratulating Marina, Juliana and the Kun team.

Thank you to our amazing in person audience who received the concert so warmly.

And finally thank you to everyone who has supported Kun over the last 50 years and helped it become the world renowned company it is today. We look forward to providing comfort to string players all around the world for many more years to come!

Love,

The Kun Team <3

#therestishistory

We’re just four days away from our 50th annivers

We’re just four days away from our 50th anniversary concert!

For the first time ever this weekend, the Kun team will be migrating from our headquarters at 200 MacLaren Street Ottawa to the intimate surroundings of the Dominion Chalmers United Church @cu_cdcc just a few blocks away to prepare for our musical celebration to mark this landmark occasion.

We are busy at work preparing everything for Saturday’s event and making sure we deliver a spectacular evening for all our guests to enjoy. The musicians are busy rehearsing and our Founder Marina Kun and Director Juliana Farha are preparing their speeches to mark the momentous occasion.

There may also be one or two surprises along the way!

We’re looking forward to welcoming friends, family, @chamberfest regulars, fans of our esteemed performers AND a global audience courtesy of our friends @theviolinchannel who will be live-streaming the event worldwide. Check the link in our Linktree for the streaming link 🤩

We are so EXCITED!

#thesrestishistory

✨Kun’s 50th Anniversary Concert✨ We’re ju

✨Kun’s 50th Anniversary Concert✨

We’re just ten days away from our musical celebration in @cu_cdcc and with
that we’d like to feature the last key piece of our Kun inspired programme.

Rhapsody No. 1, is the first of two virtuoso works for violin and piano, written by Béla Bartók in 1928 and subsequently arranged in 1929 for violin and orchestra. It is dedicated to Hungarian virtuoso violinist Joseph Szigeti.

The piece exemplifies a mode of composition using peasant-music sources, described by Bartók as taking an existing melody and adding an accompaniment together with some introductory or ending material, in such a way that the newly composed matter is strictly secondary, never competing with the folk material for prominence. We are excited to hear the piece performed by Kelly Hall-Tompkins @kellyhtviolin at our 50th Anniversary concert.

While Joseph Kun was a Czech native, he was ethnically Hungarian, which makes this work a perfect addition to the eclectic programme we will present in Ottawa next week. Kelly is renowned for her artistry with folk-inspired violin pieces, so it is sure to be an electrifying performance. Jamie Parker of the Gryphon Trio will be supporting on piano.

#therestishistory #kunshoulderrest #bartok #hungarianomposer #violinpianoduo #violin #piano

✨Kun’s 50th Anniversary Concert ✨ Written f

✨Kun’s 50th Anniversary Concert ✨

Written for the Eybler Quartet and commissioned by the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in 2018, Cris Derksen’s “White Man’s Cattle” is an important new work which explores the historic theme of land ownership in Alberta, where the composer originates.

As one of few internationally known Canadian companies in the music industry, we are very pleased to programme this stunning work by an Canadian composer who is making ripples in the classical music scene with their innovative work.

Juno nominated @cris_derksen is an internationally respected Indigenous cellist and composer. She comes from a line of chiefs from North Tallcree Reserve on her father’s side and a line of strong Mennonite homesteaders on her mother’s. Derksen braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music.

📸 : Nadia Kwandibens

#therestishistory #kunshoulderrest #creecomposer #soloviolin #chamberfest #ottawamusic #kunfeaturedartist #indigenouscanada #eyblerquartet

✨Kun’s 50th Anniversary Concert✨ The second

✨Kun’s 50th Anniversary Concert✨

The second featured piece on the programme for our celebratory concert is Trois pièces pour violin seul by Bechara El-Khoury. It will be performed by Kun Featured Artist @stjohnlara and has no recorded performance history online so are sure that this will be at least Canadian premier of the work!

El-Khoury, a Franco-Lebanese composer and poet, was born in Beirut in 1957. He completed his musical training in Lebanon with Hahop Arslanian and become an accomplished composer, pianist, conductor and chorus-master.

This work was chosen for the programme in recognition of our company founder, Marina Kun and her daughters’ Lebanese heritage.

We can’t wait to hear this intriguing piece performed at @cu_cdcc on the 30th July as part of @chamberfest 😍

#therestishistory #kunshoulderrest #lebanesecomposer #soloviolin #chamberfest #ottawamusic #kunfeaturedartist

✨Kun’s 50th Anniversary Concert✨ We’re ju

✨Kun’s 50th Anniversary Concert✨

We’re just over three weeks away from our celebratory concert in Ottawa as part of @chamberfest so we thought we’d share some details of our stunning ‘Kun inspired’ programme with you. A key piece being performed is the first movement of Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major.

Dvořák was Joseph Kun’s favourite composer so we it will be very special to have not one but two Kun Featured Artists: Lara St John @stjohnlara and and Kelly Hall-Tompkins @kellyhtviolin performing the work on first and second violin, along with Gryphon Trio members Roman Borys and Jamie Parker on cello and piano with Carissa Klopoushak playing viola.

The Quintet was premiered in Prague in 1888 and is considered one of the masterpieces in the form.
The first movement opens quietly with lyrical cello theme over piano accompaniment which is followed by a series of elaborate transformations. The viola introduces the second subject which is another lyrical melody, but much busier than the cello's stately line. Both themes are developed extensively by the first and second violins and the movement closes with a free recapitulation and an exuberant coda.

Have you heard or performed this work? Tell us your thoughts!

#therestishistory #kunshoulderrest #Dvorak #czechcomposer #pianoquintet #violin #viola #cello #piano #chamberfest #ottawamusic

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