Skip to content

Orchestra launch

A Burnaby native is in the spotlight when the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra launches its 2011/12 season this weekend. Internationally acclaimed pianist Jon Kimura Parker is featured in the VSO's opening weekend concert - which runs on Saturday, Sept.

A Burnaby native is in the spotlight when the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra launches its 2011/12 season this weekend.

Internationally acclaimed pianist Jon Kimura Parker is featured in the VSO's opening weekend concert - which runs on Saturday, Sept. 24 and again on Monday, Sept. 26, both at 8 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre.

The orchestra, under the baton of maestro Bramwell Tovey, will offer up a program that includes Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.

Longtime Burnaby residents may remember Parker from the earliest days of his career - when he was launched into the spotlight in such local events as the Cavalcade of Stars and the Burnaby Clef Society's Concerto Competition. He's since gone on, of course, to worldwide acclaim as a concert pianist and recording artist, and he's also a professor of piano at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

For more about Parker, see www.jonkimuraparker.com.

Tickets to the concert range from $21.50 to $84. See www.vancouversymphony.ca.

AUTHOR READING SET

An award-winning Canadian author will be in the city Oct. 6 to talk about her latest book.

Gayla Reid is appearing at the McGill branch of Burnaby Public Library, 4595 Albert St., to talk about her newest book, Come From Afar.

The book is described as a "sweeping historical story of personal and political struggle."

The Australian-born Reid, who's lived in Canada for more than 30 years, has garnered major Canadian literary awards, including the Journey Prize and the 2005 Marian Engel Award for a female writer in mid-career. Her first work of fiction, the short story collection To Be There With You, also won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.

As always, the presentation is free, but space is limited, so register ahead at www.bpl.bc.ca/events/mcgill/, call 604-299-8955, or drop in to the library.

See more about the local arts scene at Julie's blog, In the Spotlight, at www.burnabynow.com - click on the Opinion tab and follow the link under Blogs.