Ian Hampton Book Launch

LCMS is proud to be hosting a book launch for Jan’s Quodlibet: A Year in Music, written by Ian Hampton, with Barb Nickel, which will be released this September by Ronsdale Publications.

We invite everyone to join us for this very special event to celebrate LCMS’ Artistic Director Emeritus and much-loved cellist, composer, artist and storyteller, Ian Hampton. The evening will include book readings, interspersed with performances from the LCMS Senior Orchestra under the direction of conductor Joel Stobbe, LCMS faculty Marcel and Elizabeth Bergmann of the Bergmann Piano Duo, as well as pianists Alan Crane and Holly Duff.

The book will be for sale in the lobby during the event, and Ian will be available for signings and to of course share a good story!

Light Refreshments will be served and everyone is invited to join us for the evening.

Kindly RSVP to Tawnya at twood@langleymusic.com to let us know if you will be joining us.

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Told in the voice of Jan (the third-person narrator of Ian’s first book, Jan in 35 Pieces), Ian Hampton delights, entertains and enlightens us with his tales of little-known composers and instruments, characters in music history and insider stories of the life of a working musician. Ian’s writing is enlivened by his playful drawings, recipes, poems/doggerel and advice for young musicians.

Who knew that Arnold Schoenberg and George Gershwin were friends and tennis partners? That Winnaretta Singer, heir to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, was a musician who had a relationship with Virginia Woolf? Hampton not only shares his own story but celebrates Canadian musicians such as gay Québécois composer Claude Vivier who was murdered in Paris in 1983, Haida composer Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson and Chinese-Canadian composer Alexina Louie.

Many in our community will know Ian as LCMS Artistic Director Emeritus and as a long serving faculty member, having joined LCMS in 1979. Ian Hampton’s first book, Jan in 35 Pieces, was a critical success and a finalist for the RBC Taylor Prize and the B.C. and Yukon Book Non-Fiction Prize. He was a founding member of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and member of the London Symphony. Since moving to Vancouver in 1966, he has been principal cellist of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra; Vancouver Opera Orchestra; CBC Vancouver Orchestra and founder and cellist of the Purcell String Quartet. In recognition of his contribution to Canadian new music he was named a Canadian Music Centre ambassador. hungdrawnandcultured.com

Barbara Nickel, a former faculty member at LCMS, is an award-winning poet and children’s author whose poetry has appeared in anthologies and magazines, including The Walrus, Best Canadian Poetry (2021 and 2024) and Poetry Ireland Review . She worked with Ian Hampton for over a decade on Jan in 35 Pieces. She lives and writes in Yarrow, British Columbia, on the Stó:lo territory of the Pilalt and Ts’elxwéyeqw.