The audience of the latest Stettler Variety Showcase performance enjoyed some classical music on Jan. 29 when a pair of performers from the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra came to town.
Robert Uchida and Rafael Hoekman, who have been performing as a duet in the Prairie Debut’s Close to Home tour, performed two shows in Stettler.
The matinee show saw Stettler’s Performing Arts Centre a little over half-full, and the audience was lost in the deep notes of the cello and violin played by the two artists.
Violinist Uchida and cellist Hoekman played two, roughly 40-minute sets with an intermission in between.
Reaching into musical history, the duo played songs by Kreisler, Bach, Gershwin and others.
While the songs were not originally writtento be played by a violin and cello duet, Uchida and Hoekman were able to do so thanks to the work of their friend John McPhereson who arranged the music for the two instruments.
To finish things on a more upbeat note, the duo finished the concert with a trio of songs originally written for the fiddle, again arranged for the violin and cello by McPphereson.
Next up for Stettler Variety Showcase is a double-header with the Misery Mountain Boys and Maddie Storvold on Feb. 26 before the season wraps on April 30 with Jenn Beupre and Lewis Frere.
