Violinist Leila Schayegh Returns For Tafelmusik's Season Finale

Following her remarkable Tafelmusik debut in 2022, violinist Leila Schayegh was immediately invited to return as soloist and guest director for a program devoted to French baroque music. Grand Voyage: The French Baroque takes place on May 12 at 8pm, May 13 at 2pm, & May 14 at 3pm, at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul's Centre, wrapping up Tafelmusik's 2022/23 subscription season. Tickets are available at tafelmusik.org.

Known for her "ravishing legato," Schayegh brings "multicoloured delicacy and suppleness" (Gramophone) to Leclair's Violin concerto in E Minor, op. 10, no. 5, also featured on her critically acclaimed 2022 recording.

The Enlightenment idealism that captured the French imagination in the 18th century infuses the orchestral selections on this program, starting with Rebel's groundbreaking 1737 work, Les Elémens, which depicts the chaotic moment when time itself began.

Considered something of a radical composer in his day, Rameau created a stir at the Paris Opera when producing his first opera a few years earlier. The originality of his dramatic works is also displayed in his lighter opera-ballets: a suite of instrumental movements from Les Indes Galantes offers a colourful palette of 18th-century orchestral sonorities and textures. Grand Voyage closes with the Chaconne from the composer's Dardanus-music for which Tafelmusik has received a JUNO Award and a Grammy nomination.

Grand Voyage will be filmed for future digital broadcast.

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