Look out for Bryn Blackwood’s Visit to the ‘Nish

The Antigonish Performing Arts is holding a series of concerts until April 29th. Most concerts will take place at Immaculata Hall on weekend evenings, costing only $5 per seat for students (regular admission is $20.) The upcoming concert will be performed by pianist Bryn Blackwood as part of the Atlantic debut tour. It will take place at 7:30 pm on Monday, November 21st.

Blackwood is an accomplished pianist based in Toronto. Alongside playing, he runs his own private piano studio and teaches at the Lane School of Music. He has won many awards, such as the Paul J. Bourret Memorial Award for Best Performance of the test piece at the 2018 Shean Piano Competition. In 2019, Blackwood won the Eckhart- Gramatte National Music Competition, he placed on CBC’s 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30 List, and won the University of Toronto’s DMA Recital Competition. He completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Music at Western University and earned his Master’s at McGill University, also in Music. Blackwood is currently completing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Toronto and working as the pianist for many of the university’s vocal courses.

Earlier this academic year, Blackwood performed at concerts in both Kitchener and Simcoe, Ontario, where he played a solo recital of works by Scriabin, Brahms, Ornstein, and Louie. Previous concerts have taken place in Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick and British Columbia locations. Many were held at universities, including Queens, Lakehead, Calgary, and Mt. Allison.

During the covid lockdowns, he continued to perform on live streams, virtually, and at socially distanced concerts.

Blackwood is most interested in 20th/21st-century music. His StFX concert will mostly feature pieces by Ornstein, whom he also wrote and published his doctoral dissertation about. Ornstein was an experimental composer and pianist who lived from 1895-2002. He published his final sonata at 94, which made him the oldest published composer at that time. Reactions to his compositions were mixed; people would shout and throw things during his early performances, whilst crowds of over 2000 would attend his later ones. As well as using some of his works, Blackwood’s concert will also include pieces by Brian Cherney and Alexander Louie, both of whom are current Canadian composers. Works by Brahms and Scriabin will also be played.

After playing in Antigonish, Blackwood will continue his tour down the East Coast, moving on to Tatamagouche to play at the Grace Jollymore Joyce Arts Centre. The Antigonish Performing Arts Concert series will host its final concert of 2022 on Saturday, December 3rd. Anita Graef and Taylor Furtick will play the cello and piano together. Continuing into 2023, Tracey, Marcel, and Dakota will perform in February (tenor, soprano, and piano), and the Elmer Iseler singers will perform in March (taking place in St Ninian’s Cathedral.)