This January, the Creston Concert Society invites music lovers to enjoy a unique blend of guitar and violin.
Fire & Grace, a collaboration between guitarist William Coulter and violinist Edwin Huizinga, will perform on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Kootenay River Theatre.
Hailed by Monterey County Weekly as “a monument to musical diversity and crossover brilliance,” these virtuoso performers explore the musical landscape of classical, folk, and contemporary traditions from around the world. Fire & Grace’s repertoire is vast, ranging from Bach to Vivaldi, tango to Celtic reels, traditional Bulgarian to American fiddle tunes and waltzes, all played with a sense of discovery and commitment to the elements of passion and virtuosity - fire and grace - found in these diverse traditions.
“Violinist Edwin Huizinga and guitarist William Coulter mixing two music styles that are rarely put together, proving that you can dance to classical music," said Nigel Zega, Otago Daily Times, 2017. "Fusing baroque and classical violin with folk and Celtic guitar made for some interesting time-signatures, but the resulting music mix exuded life, emotion, warmth and depth.”
Fire & Grace has released three albums and toured North America, New Zealand, and Australia. And in May 2019, the duo teamed up with longtime collaborator Ashley Hoyer (on mandolin) to release Fire & Grace & Ash’s debut album, Partita Americana. The title track features Bach’s Partita No. 3 transcribed for the trio and interspersed with traditional American folk music.
Performing both baroque and modern repertoire worldwide, violinist Huizinga has appeared alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, Mike Marshall, and Stevie Wonder, has been featured as a soloist with the San Bernardino Symphony, Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, and the Banff Summer Arts Festival, and has performed as conductor and soloist with the Guelph Symphony Orchestra. He is also a founding member of the ensemble ACRONYM which has released 10 full-length albums of previously unknown and unrecorded baroque music.
An avid composer, Huizinga was commissioned to write a piece for Canada's 150th anniversary. He is a member of the Juno-nominated indie rock band The Wooden Sky, and is a founding member of the Classical Revolution—an organization dedicated to shaping the future of concerts and jam sessions in alternative locations around the world.
Coulter is an internationally acclaimed, Grammy award-winning master of the steel-string guitar. His most recent recording, The Rolling Waves, was released in December 2022 on the Gourd Music label. This solo project is a collection of original arrangements of folk and original music from the Celtic lands and beyond. Coulter has also been music director for Tomaseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas since 1998, and has performed with the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Apollo’s Fire, and many other ensembles.
In March 2016, he debuted Celtic Journey, a full length concert with the Omaha Symphony featuring Irish music, story, song, and dance. Collaborations have been a mainstay of his career including tours and recordings with Gourd Music artists Neal Hellman, Barry and Shelley Phillips, classical guitar virtuoso Benjamin Verdery, and Irish flute wizard Brian Finnegan. Coulter teaches classical guitar at UC Santa Cruz and at many summer camps and festivals.
“The source material features a main progression that drips with emotion, and Huizinga and Coulter masterfully ply their trade at bringing it to life in their own folk-meets-baroque style," said Matt Wheeler, Great Dark Wonder, 2022. "You couldn’t ask for a duo to bring more intensity or warmth to an instrumental piece.”
Including pieces from Riverdance, Piazzolla, and Vivaldi, as well as Bach, and traditional pieces from Spain and Bulgaria, Fire & Grace is sure to add some sunshine to Creston's winter months.
Advance tickets for Fire & Grace cost $30 per adult and $15 for youth, available from Kingfisher Books and Public Vinyl/Modern Alchemy (cash only) or online at crestontickets.ca. At the door, tickets cost an extra $5 per adult. Concession will be provided by Kootenay River Secondary School Student Council (cash only).
