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Victoria Symphony plays Strauss, Bach and Beethoven this January
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In what will be music to the ears of Victoria audiences, the Victoria Symphony takes the stage several times this January, presenting a New Year’s Day performance, as well as several concerts in its 2021/22 Spring Season.

On January 1, patrons are invited to start the year off right with A Viennese New Year’s at the Royal Theatre, beginning at 2:30 pm and featuring the lively and nostalgic music of the family of Johann Strauss and his contemporaries. Lara Ciekiewicz and Owen McCausland join dancers from Ballet Victoria for this afternoon of music, dance and song.

Tickets can be purchased by calling the Royal Theatre box office at 250-386-6121.

The Victoria Symphony’s 2021/22 Spring Season has been designed to reflect the vibrancy, diversity and creativity of the symphony’s beloved musicians, its music director Christian Kluxen and its principal pops conductor Sean O’Loughlin.

When the VS had to cancel its “Beethoven 250 Celebration” mid-cycle in March, 2020, it vowed to recreate the opportunity as soon as possible. Under the baton of Maestro Kluxen, the orchestra explores the full range of Beethoven’s genius.

“Beethoven’s music has from the very beginning created a special bond between VS and myself,” Kluxen says. “The week I was announced music director, I stepped in for a concert of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony and Prometheus Overture. Through the week, there was a certain electricity in the hall. Since then, it feels like we are able to come back to this same atmosphere every time we play Beethoven. In other words, Beethoven has been a binding force for us. But his music is also a universal force. Every single one of his symphonies feels like they are both the beginning and the end; like all is new and as if every note is his last. This is how I believe that his music must be performed. Every note must be a new creation, show a way, comment on its surroundings and show us a bigger picture. Most of all Beethoven is the purest example of human struggle and final triumph. Beethoven is humanity.”

Single tickets are available, and as permitted by Public Health Orders, these concerts will be seated at full capacity.

Here’s the lineup for January:

• Bach to the Future takes place Sunday, January 16, at 2:30 pm, at UVic’s Farquhar, and features conductor Maestro Joey and performers from Platypus Theatre.

The story goes like this: Corky’s eccentric Uncle Siegfried is the obvious person to help her with her student project on classical music. While poking around in his peculiar workshop, she accidentally combines the ingredients of a magical musical spell making her tumble through time to meet some of the world’s most fascinating composers. Hopscotching through the ages of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak and Shostakovich, Corky must discover the secret musical formula that will bring her home. Will she be able to get back to the present and finish her schoolwork in time?

• Beethoven Symphonies No. 1 and 3 take place at the Royal Theatre, January 22 at 8 pm, featuring Christian Kluxen, conductor.

• Beethoven Symphonies No. 2 and 5 run January 23, at 2:30 pm at the Royal Theatre, with Christian Kluxen, conductor.

• Beethoven Symphonies No. 4 and 7 take place at UVic’s Farquhar on January 29, 8 pm, with Christian Kluxen, conductor.

• Beethoven Symphonies No. 6 and 8 run January 30, 2:30 pm at Farquhar at UVic, with

Christian Kluxen, conductor