Ottawa Chamberfest creates a once-in-a-lifetime experience for artists and audiences alike

By Hinrich Alpers

My first time at the renowned Ottawa music festival, Chamberfest, was in 2008. I drove through the pouring rain to attend a rehearsal at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church prior to my piano recital. Through the downpour, I made out the church’s towering facade. A line of people with umbrellas and raincoats snaked from the front entrance, winding its way twice around the block. I thought, this cannot be the place. These people must be lining up for the funeral of someone important. I was wrong—they were waiting for my recital to start in two hours.

When I’m asked what’s so special about Chamberfest, I reflect on this moment almost 13 years ago. I’m a concert pianist from Germany, and the first time I came to Canada was in 2006 for Honens, a pianist competition in Calgary. Through this event I met Roman Borys, who was Chamberfest’s artistic director at the time. He invited me to play this recital for the concert series.

I felt terrible watching everyone get soaked with rain while waiting for me to take the stage, but nobody took offense to waiting for hours in inclement weather. In fact, they were as enthusiastic as ever. There’s such determination amongst Chamberfest’s patrons to attend every concert and have the perfect seats. As a performer, you don’t get that kind of dedication from your audience at every festival.

Chamberfest embodies the spirit of concerts in Ottawa, best described as a meeting of friends. That this resolve still lingers even after many years of concerts shows how Chamberfest has successfully evolved. The festival still drives people to do crazy things like wait in the pouring rain for hours. It means the concert series has adapted to continue being so fascinating to audiences that they want to return, time and time again.

I’ve had many inspiring experiences with Ottawa Chamberfest. The artistic directors have always allowed me to make suggestions, which is how I was invited into my current role as artistic advisor. If I hear an unknown chamber music piece that’s interesting, it’s my job to suggest that kind of programming. It’s an honour to be on board in an official capacity, and to be involved with the Ottawa music festival’s continued development.

Chamberfest has always been open to new and experimental pieces. I once played the Sonatas and Interludes by John Cage. You put all sorts of objects between the piano strings—screws, balls, pieces of wood, plastic, and rubber—and it totally alters the sound of the piano. When I played, it was a late night concert, and it went on for almost two hours without intermission. The audience was so rapt, it felt like a group meditation.

Chamberfest is the kind of festival that’s painted as the holy grail in professional music studies. It holds the kind of spirit you pursue as an artist, and it’s an experience you can’t buy. Sometimes, multiple international-class string quartets are present at Chamberfest, and  having that kind of potential on stage together is incredible.

Over the years, Chamberfest has become more streamlined. The artistic leaders have worked to create continuity and stability through the Ottawa music festival’s growth. Although performances have become slightly less intimate due to the pandemic, there have been no unnecessary changes, just a respect for what continues to work well.

I plan to return to Chamberfest in summer 2022 to finish the Beethoven Sonatas series that was started in 2019 and interrupted by the pandemic. Playing concerts in Ottawa creates opportunities that I and other musicians may not have elsewhere. That’s a big privilege of Chamberfest; it’s a time and space created only once in a lifetime.

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Hinrich Alpers is an internationally renowned concert pianist and artistic advisor for Ottawa Chamberfest. He is the winner of the Laureate of Canada’s Honens International Piano Competition, and was recently appointed professor at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music in Dresden, Germany.