Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

BENDING THE BOWS

Conductor: Tania Miller

Violinists: Eduard Minevich and Frank Leahy

Performed at The Orpheum 4 February 2001

It was a fun Sunday afternoon being in the audience among children in this entertaining and didactic VSO Kids' Concert .

The mission of "Bending the Bows" is to expose young symphony lovers to classical musical repertoire.  In this particular concert, it heightened the awareness of both international and domestic contributions made to Canadian culture in Violin music.

The repertoire in this afternoon's performance was both country and classical music. Familiar tunes from Nutcracker Suite , Flight of the Bumble Bee, and other classical favourites as well as folk, gypsy, jazz, swing and country music were performed comically by both Frank Leahy and Eduard Minevich.

The children enjoyed the battle between violinist Minevich and fiddler Frank Leahy who made a surprise entrance as he came fiddling in from the back of the auditorium.

The audience participation and rapport was fabulous.  At one instance, Leahy came down from the stage and got a mom from the audience to serenade her.  Minevich then tried to compete with his classical style, but the audience cheered for  the younger foot-stompin' country music fiddler.

It was a delightful afternoon, and both young and old enjoyed the hour and a half show of humour, banter and musical virtuosity. --Ed Farolan