Free Concert! The Kessler Academy & Microcosmos Quartet with Special Guest, vocalist Charles Daniels

Saturday, August 9th, 2025
4:00-5:00pm

Presented with Music on Main

Langley Community Music School and Music on Main are delighted to present The Kessler Academy to the community at this free summer concert! 

Rising young string professionals and advanced students take to the Rose Gellert Hall Stage after a week-long mentorship program driven by the Vancouver-based Microcosmos Quartet. At this year’s concert, internationally celebrated English tenor Charles Daniels is the featured soloist for Benjamin Britten’s “Les Illuminations,” an evocative and luminous song cycle.  The orchestra will also perform Michael Tippet’s popular and uplifting “Concerto for Double String Orchestra.”

No registration is required, admission is FREE, and everyone is welcome to join us for this perfect afternoon of great music making!

The Kessler Academy is generously supported by The Greygates Foundation, held at the Vancouver Foundation, as well as by individual donors.

The concert will take place in the intimate setting of the Rose Gellert Hall at 4899 207 St, Langley City, BC, V3A 2E4

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About Microcosmos Quartet

Microcosmos was formed in Vancouver in the spring of 2010 to perform the rich repertoire of string quartets written in the past 100 years. The quartet takes advantage of the compactness and portability of a string quartet – four chairs and adequate light are all that is required – to present some of the greatest music of the 20th and 21st centuries in intimate spaces and sometimes unusual venues such as private homes, clubs, small halls, public and commercial buildings, for an audience that can experience the music close at hand.

The six quartets of Béla Bartók form the core of the quartet’s repertoire, complemented by important related works, including those by Canadian composers. Aside from the quartet’s intimate ‘house’ concerts, they have been guests on other series including a performance of Benjamin Britten’s three quartets, celebrating his centennial in 2013 for Music on Main’s lauded ‘Cellar’ series, the premiere of eleven works for quartet as ensemble-in-residence for Vancouver Pro Musica’s ‘Further’ Series in 2015, and ‘Speaking in Ligeti’, an interdisciplinary collaboration with MMHop Productions and four dancers that toured to Halifax and Ottawa.

In 2015 the quartet launched the Kessler Academy, an annual educational initiative featuring a conductor-less orchestra mentorship program led by the quartet members.

About Kessler Academy

With the understanding that there is no better learning situation than making music alongside those with more experience, the Kessler Academy was established to give young string players an intensive experience preparing and performing a challenging program in a professional context.

The session will involve a concentrated period of rehearsal at the Post at 750 in downtown Vancouver, followed by a public concert at the Roundhouse, presented by Music on Main on August 10th, 2024. Rehearals will begin on August 4th.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of friends of the Microcosmos Quartet, along with private and foundation sponsors, participation is subsidized. The Kessler Academy is open to advanced high school and university level students, as well as young professional musicians.

To learn more and to contribute to this important and valuable opportunity for young musicans, visit KesslerAcademy.com

The Kessler Academy is a project of Microcosmos Quartet, in collaboration with Music on Main.