Concert of I Medici di McGill Orchestra
I Medici di McGill Orchestra continues its 23rd season with a concert featuring violinist Mark Djokic, violist Frédéric Lambert and 24th Annual Lecture on the Biology of Music with the guest speaker J. Anne Bailey. The event is taking place on Sunday, April 22 at 4 p.m. in Concordia University’s Oscar Peterson Hall on the Loyola Campus. Entrance is free although a $20 donation is appreciated. On the program are works by Wolfgang A. Mozart: Overture Idomeneo and Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra in E flat major, K364, and L. van Beethoven Symphony No.1 in C major, op 21. The topic of this year’s lecture is Early musical training and how it changes the brain and behavior.
Mark Djokic is a critically acclaimed violinist who performed with many orchestras succh as the Toronto and Niagara symphony orchestras. Djokic has received a number of awards and grants including one from the Canada Council for the Arts. He appears in various chamber music festivals across North America including the Ottawa and Montreal chamber music festivals.
Frédéric Lambert, a talented musician who received his doctorate degree in viola performance from McGill University with Prof. Andre Roy. He performed with renowned ensembles such as the Les Violins du Roy, and has been a featured soloist with the McGill Symphony Orchestra, which resulted in the Prix Étoiles Galaxie of Radio-Canada. Lambert, a founding member of the Lloyed Carr-Harris string quartet has also received multiple awards including the Hold Medal of the 2005 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Currently he is a member of Molinari String Quartet.
Guest speaker Anne Bailey is in her final year of completing her PhD in Psychology at Concordia University with Prof. Virginia Penhune. The focus of her research is on the sensitive period in development of motor skills associated with musical training comparing brain structure and musical task performance in adult musicians who began training before and after the age of seven. Anne is also training to be a clinical psychologist, with experience working with children and young adults
Since 2000, I Medici has been under the direction of internationally renowned Montreal conductor Iwan Edwards. He is the founder and director of many choral ensembles in Canada such as the St. Lawrence Choir, Montreal Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Concerto Della Donna and others. Maestro Edwards has also conducted ensembles at the Schulich School of Music at McGill, such as the McGill Symphony Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra until 2007, retiring after 21 years.
About I Medici di McGill
I Medici di McGill was founded in 1989 by Dr. Ante L. Padjen of McGill’s Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. Its primary roots consist of musical talents found amongst the staff and students of the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. The current ensemble consists of more than 80 players. Over the years, more than 370 instrumentalists have been associated with the ensemble.
The mission of I Medici is to provide musical content for various events in the life of the faculty, the university and the community, thus adding a unique social dimension to medical education and to the profession. The orchestra has given over 170 concerts since its foundation. In addition to regular public concerts, I Medici has plays at faculty meetings, convocations, scientific meetings and congresses, fund-raising campaigns, as well as provided entertainment for patients of Montreal area hospitals.
One of the hallmarks of I Medici’s double heritage has been a series of yearly multidisciplinary lecture-concerts on the theme of “Music and Medicine—Biology of Music” exploring many links between the two areas. Currently, I Medici is supported entirely by private donations.