The pianist who started Collingwood Music Festival continues to scale up the local event with the help of a team of volunteers, this year celebrating youth talent with performances by teens and tweens added to the lineup.
In addition to welcoming one of the bands from Collingwood Collegiate Institute, the festival will feature young pianists (12 and 13 years old). There will also be workshops about creating digital music.
Vnukoswki made the announcement during the festival's annual general meeting earlier this week.
This year's performances include the Toronto Concert Orchestra, John MacMurchy with a jazz quintet, the Toronto Welsh Male Choir, Stick and Bow, Jackie Richardson with Joe Sealy and a jazz trio, the Penderecki Quartet with James Campbell and Daniel Vnukowski, Thomson Highway with Patricia Cano and trio, and Gino Quilico and Julie Nesrallah.
The concerts will run from July 5 to 12.
Vnukowski and James Campbell have been working on a project together and will be debuting it at the Collingwood and Parry Sound music festivals. Vnukowski said the project is called Postcards Lost, which was inspired by a shoe box of postcards discovered by a Parry Sound man that contained letters between his grandparents who were both trapped in the Łódź ghetto during the Second World War. The music is inspired by their love story.
Tickets for the festival will go on sale mid-May.
In the meantime, Vnukowski and the team are tuning up for the annual fundraiser, a concert by The Odin Quartet with Daniel Vnukowski performing original music commissioned by the festival from Montreal-based composer Simon Bertrand.
Tickets for the fundraiser are available at collingwoodfestival.com.
