Grand Forks may not have the cultural pull of New York, but it doesn’t mean you can’t experience all the best of a classical night at the opera.
Peri Best, a local musician, will be bringing together a series of local musicians next week for a concert dedicated to classical music. Best will be performing with other well-known musicians, Joan Thompson, Vivien Brown, Mike Elliot and Cavan Gates.
Planning for the concert started in December, followed by the first rehearsals early in January. The program will be composed of the likes of Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin.
Over the past several months, the group has been pulling its repertoire together. Best said the group has been fortunate enough to be able to rehearse in their performance space at the River Valley Community Church, a rare luxury and a chance to play with the baby grand piano Thompson will be using to both play solo and accompany the others.
Best said she was looking forward to the opportunity to showcase the unique works, given they’re not commonly performed anymore.
“I so enjoy the opportunity to share this music, because you don’t see people doing it very often, so to actually hear these pieces is so much fun,” she said.
Rehearsals have been progressing well so far, and with just over a week to go before performances get underway, Best said the show is coming together.
“It’s pretty intense, when you deal with classic music you are right there on the edge, and all the performers are right there on that edge,” she said. “It’s a goof feeling, a good stretch.”
For this show, the group came together gradually. It started with Best and Vivien Brown, who had together previously played concerts around the Boundary, with Best on vocals and Brown playing cello and violin. From there, the search for an accompanist led to Joan Thompson, and expanded to include Gates on violin and Mike Elliot on vocals.
“The Operantics was basically Vivien and I. We did two concerts, but we hadn’t done one in a while, and with all the intervening chaos it was time to get back to it,” she said. “It’s always such an incredibly exciting thing to challenge yourself with fully encompassing a piece of music.”
Funds raised from the show will be benefitting the West Boundary Foodsharing Exchange, which provides fresh food to those in need around the Boundary. Best said Brown started the group, recognizing the need to provide more than canned foods to those in need. The organization recently became its own society, Best said.
A highlight of the program will be the two ensemble pieces the group is doing before intermission and at the end of the show. They’re also encouraging people to dress up, opera-style.
“We don’t have the Met, but if you were going for a night out and wanted to wear something really special, those things you have and think you have nowhere to wear it?” she said. “This is it.”
The show will run March 25 at 7 p.m. and March 26 at 2 p.m. at the River Valley Community Church. Tickets are available at Thistle Pot Gifts in Grand Forks, Christina Valley Service in Rock Creek and Lisa’s Bistro at Christina Lake.