QSCM – ATT Delivers The Unexpected!
Message from QSCM Chair, Bonnie Sallans:
QSCM’s All Terrain Tour is on the move and gaining followers. We are three events in and preparing for the final leg: StirlingFest with the Madoc Quartet!
Have you made it out to an event yet? If you have what were your favourite moments? If not, you have one more chance! October 19 QSCM’s All Terrain Tour in partnership with StirlingFest presents The MADOC QUARTET offering a full program at St.John’s Anglican Church, Stirling, 3 p.m. Details and tickets at stirlingfest.com .
StirlingFest, a “feast of jazz and classical music,” operates out of St. John’s Anglican Church in Stirling. Like QSCM they are a volunteer-based locally run festival. When the Madoc Quartet was invited by Stirlingfest to present chamber music in one of the most chamber-music friendly venues in the region, sanctuary of John’s Anglican church, to an established audience, who could help but be excited? QSCM, approached to help make it happen, could all only give a resounding YES! I hope you will say “Yes” and join us, Oct. 19, 3 pm as the Madoc Quartet sits down with the music of J.S. Bach, Germaine Tailleferre and Alexander Borodin, and you.
QSCM’s All Terrain Tour is designed to get people excited about chamber music, live performance and what professional musicians bring to the experience. ATT 2025 began before the beginning! That is, the tour launched with a performance of medieval minstrel music, is the precursor of chamber music as we know it today. Performing on period instruments at once strange yet vaguely familiar, Montreal based COMTESSA introduced a rapt audience to the passion and depth of music entirely ancient, yet alive, throbbing with vitality, and entirely modern in its appeal. All of this happened not in the banquet hall of a castle keep, but on the patio at Bloomfield’s Stock and Row Cidery amid the orchards and vineries of the Cidery.
What follows castles with turrets and knights in shining armour? The Madoc Fair of course! QSCM’s Tailgate Party at the Madoc Fair drew in listeners of all ages and lifestyles. Passing through the arena en route to the horse pull, the sheep barn, the food booth, they stopped moving, listened, heard, and sat down. Most did not get up until well after the music stopped. Then they applauded, cheered and demanded to know: “When do you come back!”
Next year, for sure, but meanwhile all were invited to follow MQ to Picton the next day. Borodin at the Brewery was absolutely charming. Main Street Picton passers-by drawn in by the music, faithful 555 patrons looking for their beer stayed to listen, joining avid ATT followers and once again agreeing that live music is more fun, chamber music the definition of the beautiful, and professional performance makes it so, and proving once again, we are capable of beauty.
Next up, the final leg: StirlingFest with the Madoc Quartet. On the program, Bach- Brandenburg Concerto No 3, scored for String Quartet, French Composer Germaine Tailleferre’s only string quartet, and Borodin’s String Quartet No 2, now familiar to all who attended the outreach events. Familiarity in classical music brings ear worms to die for, and a passionate desire to hear more at the source! QSCM’s ATT sets out to create and meet that demand. The StirlingFEST performance is the culmination of all that excitement. I hope you can come!
All of this is made possible by you — supporters, donors, volunteers, listeners who care. 2025 was a year of change for QSCM. 2026 promises even more evolution as our team grows and develops to reach more listeners, to make the music real for an ever-widening audience, to make classical music, live and professionally performed, accessible to all. If you’d like to be part of making that happen, send me a message. I would love to hear from you.
Thanksgiving approaches. I have much for which to be thankful, not the least among that being the people, the friends I’ve made by way of my QSCM involvement, and the music I’ve been able to enjoy with you all. I wish the same for you, and a happy weekend celebrating with friends and family. Safe travels to all on the road, and all the best until we meet again. May that be October 19, Stirlingfest with the MADOC QUARTET!
Bonnie Sallans
Chair, QSCM
