Yes, We Are the Sultans....

I love the VSO Pops concerts and I have season’s tickets to this series.  It never disappoints.

Saturday night’s first offering featured the “Sultans of String”, Canada’s “ambassadors of musical diversity”.  They performed many world music pieces that had been developed with orchestral arrangements. It was a tapestry of Spanish Flamenco, Arabic folk, Cuban rhythms, and French Gypsy‐jazz, presented with great skill, warmth and playfulness.  It was a magical evening and it was fun to sit in row 5, my new seat assignment this year, and be so up close and personal!

I admit, I sometimes nod off during the pure classical, more challenging symphony shows, but the Pops series is so user friendly, so accessible, so…understandable!  The conductors are chatty and offer great background information, and this makes it very interesting.

It’s often lighthearted and lively, sometimes comedic, and always entertaining.