Pianist Bruce Vogt: ‘Lebewohl. A Final Recital’

Bruce Vogt has been Professor of Piano at the UVic School of Music since 1980 and will retire this June. Join us for Vogt’s final performance at the School of Music with captivating piano works by Haydn, Rameau, Schubert, Chopin and Liszt. Distinguished poet, Governor-General award recipient, and noted philosopher, Jan Zwicky, will recite a new poem commissioned by Vogt as an overture to Liszt’s Schlaflos! Frage und Antwort, which was written to illustrate a poem that has since been lost.

Canadian pianist Bruce Vogt was born in Southern Ontario but for the past 44 years has lived and worked in Victoria, BC and taught at the University of Victoria as Professor of Piano. As a soloist he has appeared regularly in concerts within Canada, and he tours yearly in many countries throughout Europe and Asia. His repertoire encompasses music from the sixteenth century to the present. In addition to having a special affinity for the music of Franz Liszt, he has both performed on period instruments and commissioned and premiered a number of new works. Because he sees teaching and working with young pianists and with piano teachers as an important commitment, he makes himself available as much as possible for masterclasses, workshops, festival adjudications, and lectures. In recent years, he has received many invitations in Canada and abroad to indulge another of his passions — improvising accompaniments to great films of the silent era. He has played for and lectured about films by Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Griffith, Murnau and others.

Jan Zwicky is the author of over twenty books of poetry and prose including Songs for Relinquishing the Earth, Wisdom & Metaphor and, with co-author Robert Bringhurst, Learning to Die: Wisdom in the Age of Climate Crisis. She was educated at the Universities of Calgary and Toronto and, in the 80s and 90s, developed the first courses in environmental studies at several Canadian universities. Her poetry has been published in translation in several European languages, and she has read and lectured widely in North America and Europe. Zwicky grew up in the northwest corner of the Great Central Plain on Treaty 6 territory and currently lives on Quadra Island, unceded territory with a complex history including Coast Salish and Kwakwalan influences. She is a serious gardener, a musician, and an amateur naturalist.

Pay what you can: $12-$35
Phillip T. Young Recital Hall