Vivacious Vivaldi, boisterous Bach, folk songs English and Irish, even some quirky Cuban compositions were on the program for the first concert of season three of Music for the Soul.
The concert series organized by Lisa Hornung and Jaya Hoy, who both grew up in North Battleford and have enjoyed international musical careers, started its third season Sept. 16, featuring mezzo soprano Hornung, Adam Streisel on trumpet and Mark Turner on piano.
In his third appearance as a performer in the Music for the Soul series, trumpet player Streisel brought out the flugal horn for R. Schumann's Fantasiestuke. Originally written for piano and clarinet, Streisel said he was compelled to transpose it to flugal horn, and the result was an obvious success with the audience at Third Avenue United Church.
Streisel is the music and band teacher at North Battleford Comprehensive High School and performed with his own band, Absofunkinlutely, purveyors of "stubble-funk, Prairie-disco, reggae-rock and northern soul."
Turner said his first performance in the Music for the Soul series was fun. President of the Saskatoon Registered Music Teachers Association, and co-artistic director of Saskatoon Youth Music Theatre, he and Hornung recently began collaboration and say they have found many common musical interests. They have plans to perform together again in the near future.
Hornung performed classics by Vivaldi, Bach, Debussy and Handel and several soulful Negro spirituals in which her passion for this genre rang through.
She also presented three each of English and Irish folk songs, asking the audience if they had noticed the Irish selections seem always to be about one of two things - drinking in a pub, or dying.
"I love Irish music, not because I want everyone dead or drunk," she laughed, "but because they have such emotion."
The evening ended with the brilliant Let the Bright Seraphim by Handel, a chance for Hornung and Streisel to do musical battle. The gloves came off, figuratively, much to the amusement of the audience, when Streisel set aside his suit coat, loosened his collar and rolled up his sleeves in preparation. Both came out winners with Turner's accompaniment.
The dates of the next two Music for the Soul concerts are Oct. 28 and Dec. 9.
