LYELL GUSTIN RECITAL SERIES 2025
20th Season, with finest Canadian artists!
Duo Concertante
Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.
St. John’s Anglican Cathedral, 816 Spadina Cres. East
Gustin House proudly opens its 20 th season with the award-winning ensemble, violinist Nancy Dahn and pianist Timothy Steeves. Their music beautifully crosses boundaries, from European stages to their home in Newfoundland-Labrador to the Canadian prairies (Mr.Steeves is Saskatoon-born and raised). Returning to the Lyell Gustin Series, the Duo will perform Beethoven, Ravel, Amanda Maier, and Luis Ramírez. “Majesty, passion and excitement. Inspiring!” declares Wiener Zeitung (Vienna, Austria).
Praised for dedication to the rich canon of standard repertoire and for engagement with and commissioning of new music, Duo Concertante has performed throughout North America, Europe, the UK and China, appearing at Wigmore Hall, Weill Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall), Roy Thomson Hall, the National Arts Centre, and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. The ensemble has 13 acclaimed CD recordings, including two highlighted with CBC recognition, and the JUNO-winning Wild Bird (2011). In their Lyell Gustin Recital, the award-winning and audience-favourite Duo will perform sonatas by Beethoven, Ravel, and Amanda Maier, and a new work by the Canadian composer Luis Ramírez. Duo Concertante, “powerful and deeply moving!” writes Whole Note, and “a balm for the soul” (Audiophile).
Tickets $50 regular / $30 student: St. John’s Music, Saskatoon Academy of Music, Gustin House Committee, cash at the door, or online.
Kevin Chen, piano
Tuesday, March 25, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.
St. John’s Anglican Cathedral, 816 Spadina Cres. East Scarcely 20 years old, Calgary-born Kevin Chen is an extraordinary pianist on a meteoric rise. He has won an astonishing group of consecutive first-place prizes at important competitions, including the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition (2023), Concours de Genève (2022), Franz Liszt International Piano Competition (2021), and Hilton Head International Piano Competition (2020). Coming to the Lyell Gustin Series from world stages, he will play the dramatic and moving piano music of Chopin and Liszt.
Kevin Chen has given performances in some of the world’s most renowned concert halls, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s St. John’s Smith Square, and Taipei’s National Concert Hall. He has also been invited to perform in many prestigious festivals, such as the Festival International de Piano de la Roque d’Anthéron, the International Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, the Chopin and His Europe Festival in Warsaw, and the Oxford Piano Festival. Mr. Chen has been performing regularly with orchestras since his debut with the Abbotsford Youth Orchestra at the age of seven. He is also a prolific composer, and already has had several of his 100 compositions published.
Tickets $50 regular / $30 student: St. John’s Music, Saskatoon Academy of Music, Gustin House Committee, cash at the door, or online.
Andrew Haji, tenor & Rachael Kerr, piano
Tuesday, August 26, 2025, at 7:30 p.m.
St. John’s Anglican Cathedral, 816 Spadina Cres. East
One of the most sought-after voices on operatic and concert stages across North America and Europe, tenor Andrew Haji performs the summer recital in the Gustin Series. His richly varied program will feature art song as well as arias from opera and operetta. Mr. Haji’s voice has been described as “beautiful, bright . . . an aristocratic lyric tenor,” and “as smooth assilk” (Canadian Opera Company). Toronto-based pianist Rachael Kerr is collaborative artist for this special vocal recital, which is generously sponsored by an anonymous donor.
Andrew Haji has sung at Carnegie Hall and has appeared in major operatic and oratorio roles across the continent and in Europe with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Calgary Symphony, Symphony, Pacific Opera Victoria, National Arts Centre, Les Violins du Roy, and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, among other Canadian groups, as well as orchestras across the USA. This season the native-Ontario tenor appears in New York, Houston and Chicago, as well as Dresden and Hannover in Germany. Rachael Kerr, collaborative pianist at this recital, is a versatile and vivid chamber musician as well as soloist; she is well-known in Toronto circles for her work with the Canadian Opera Company and Glenn Gould School of Music.
Tickets $50 regular / $30 student: St. John’s Music, Saskatoon Academy of Music, Gustin House Committee, cash at the door, or online.
Season Ticket Package 2025
~ three recitals by finest Canadian artists to celebrate our 20th season!
$135 regular / $75 student
available until January 28, 2024 incl.
Season ticket package also at St. John’s Music,
Saskatoon Academy of Music, and from the Gustin House Committee.
Tuesday, January 28
Duo Concertante
Nancy Dahn, violin & Timothy Steeves, piano ~ vivid connections across the land
Tuesday, March 25
Kevin Chen, piano
Star young artist, native Albertan ~ top winner at multiple world competitions
Tuesday, August 26
Andrew Haji, tenor & Rachael Kerr, piano
Celebrated Toronto-based musicians, coming from international stages
Reminder of venue for the 2025 season:
St. John’s Anglican Cathedral
816 Spadina Crescent East
Saskatoon, SK S7K 3H4
Please note our new venue for the 2024 season:
All recitals at St. John’s Anglican Cathedral,
816 Spadina Cres. East
Please use the northwest doors for entry. Paid parking is available behind the Cathedral; street parking is also available.