Enjoy some favourite familiar classical scores, contemporary hits, and Hollywood soundtracks at this annual outdoor music festival featuring the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. There’s a different show with a different theme each night of the festival, and there’s even a special FREE family performance on September 1!
For the last eight summers, the charismatic conductor Robert Bernhardt has made the Heritage Amphitheatre in Hawrelak Park his “home away from home”. As a self-proclaimed generalist, who “grew up listening to everything and anything”, conducting the ESO at Symphony Under the Sky is a dream come true for Bernhardt, “it is an incredible five concerts in four days, and the orchestra is challenged to play Mozart one day, The Beatles the next, and then from Gershwin to Star Wars.” When asked about the challenges that come with an outdoor concert, this music director and university professor smiles and says that though wind can be an issue, he “loves the squirrel run-bys, the geese fly-bys and how informal it makes it all feel”, considering this performance to be a “joyful, risk-free way of attending a concert” and a way to show children “that art makes a difference in your quality of life”. When asked to pick a favourite amongst the repertoire, Bernhardt smiled for a minute and then responded, “it’s all diamonds, emeralds and rubies to me”.
Symphony Under the Sky takes place August 30 – September 2 at the Heritage Amphitheatre in Hawrelak Park. Call 780-428-1414 or visit www.winspearcentre.com for tickets and more information.
