A weekend of music once again rippled across Pender Harbour as the sixth annual Chamber Music Festival opened last Friday (Aug. 20) under the artistic direction of Alexander Tselyakov.

The free educational concert, Chamber Music Doesn’t Bite, drew a full house with 20 children in attendance. Possibly the youngest was choir director Joy McLeod’s little grandson who sat wide-eyed at his first concert. Perhaps that’s why it opened with two music students — Daniel Tselyakov from Brandon University on piano and Anthony Blackman on double bass with his own composition — to show what could be accomplished early in one’s life. (This concert will be broadcast on Coast TV at a later date.)

One of the highlights of the informal concert was surely the six hands, one piano rendition of Rachmaninoff when the two Tselyakovs joined Gryphon Trio’s Jamie Parker. Some members of the Trio Verlaine, Lorna McGhee and Heidi Krutzen, matched flute and harp in a stellar combination, and the concert closed with a contemporary composition, Old Photographs, the first movement of Constantinople by Christos Hatzis, that opens lightly and finishes with a demented tango.

It was exciting to hear contemporary Canadian composers like Hatzis on Friday, and again on Saturday when Kelly-Marie Murphy’s Give me Phoenix Wings to Fly, a piece commissioned by the Gryphon trio, was featured.

Friday evening’s concert started with the renowned Gryphon Trio (who received ovations for their performances) and the work of Robert Schumann. For novice classical music fans, the celebration of the 200th anniversaries of great composers has been terrific. In the past we’ve reprised Mozart and Mendelssohn, and learned more about them. Now it’s time for Schumann and his contemporary, Frederik Chopin, who were both born in 1810, but whose styles vary widely. Chopin’s music is so emotional it can make a person cry without knowing why. A Chopin selection, Sonata for Cello and Piano, was rendered exquisitely by Tselyakov on piano and Roman Borys on cello.

For a Schumann sonata, Tselyakov was joined by virtuoso violinist Corey Cerovsek who was born in Vancouver, and has “wandered around ever since,” as he told the audience. With impeccable technique, the Paris-based musician played an instrument made in 1728. His curly hair bobbed and the veins stood out on his arms as he demonstrated his intensity and control.

On Saturday, broadcaster Bill Richardson interviewed the articulate Cerovsek during the afternoon intermezzo where audiences learned more about Cerovsek’s two doctorates in both mathematics and music.

One of the highlights of the festival was not necessarily musical, says festival fan and organizing committee member Barbara Storer. At Sunday’s concert, the comical Richardson accompanied a performance of Camille Saint-Saens’ The Carnival of the Animals, a musical suite in 14 movements, with 14 brief, wonderful poems that had the audience in stitches.

Storer commented that the weekend was an excellent mix.

“There were some composers unfamiliar to many (such as the Spanish Joaquin Turina) and some old favourites,” she said.

Beethoven’s Archduke Trio performed by the Gryphon Trio sent audiences scurrying to buy the recording.

Next year’s festival is already in the planning for Aug. 19 to 21 with Tselyakov continuing as artistic director and Louise Argyle starting her second year as committee chair. Brilliant violinist James Ehnes and the Borealis String Quartet have been invited. Since tickets were sold out a month in advance for this one, plan to get yours early.