Sunshine Coast Registered Music Teachers will present an emerging Canadian piano star on May 4 at the Raven's Cry Theatre.
Hamilton Lau, the winner of the piano competition held by the BC Registered Music Teachers Association, is in the midst of a seven-concert tour across BC in anticipation of the CFMTA (Canadian Federation of Music Teachers' Associations) National Piano Competition in Montreal this July.
Lau began his piano studies at the age of four, after his grandparents spotted a sign advertising piano lessons in their Coquitlam neighbourhood and urged his parents to enrol him.
He is currently engrossed in Master's studies at the UBC School of Music, and was recently named by CBC as one of "30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30."
Lau is also a serial top-ranked finisher at the BC Provincial Festival, to which competitors in the currently underway Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts aspire.
"I had such an amazing experience at those small festivals," he recalled of his participation in Vancouver-area regional competitions. "I think it really helped push my playing to the next level, just the amount of preparation that it requires to learn all the repertoire and polish it to a super-high level."
Lau played a solo recital at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, Italy in 2023, and has appeared with orchestras across BC as well as delivering recitals in Colorado, Florida, and Vancouver.
For his Sechelt appearance, Lau is preparing an hour-long program of music that mixes traditional classical repertoire (Bach, Beethoven) with contemporary music (White Rock-born Howard Bashaw and Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti), plus a transcription of Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Lau said that he is drawn to composers who sublimate personal struggle into their scores — like Rachmaninoff, who completed his second piano concerto while recovering from years of depression.
"I really like I could be drawn into Rachmaninoff's life, and the same for Beethoven especially with his penultimate sonata I'm playing," observed Lau. "The sonata itself is very biographical. It shows his suffering, but since Beethoven was a very strong person, it ends triumphantly. I think that represents Beethoven showing the audience and the world that there's cause for optimism, even though he was suffering from illness."
Tickets for the concert at $20 ($10 for students 19 and under), payable by cash at the door or by e-transfer to [email protected].
Animated heroism
An award-winning Canadian film — Inkwo for When the Starving Return — is being celebrated in Sechelt with a special screening at the Raven’s Cry Theatre on May 1 at 7 p.m.
Amanda Strong is the director and one of the producers behind Inkwo for When the Starving Return, a stop-motion animated short film that runs 18 minutes. The work is based on the short story “Wheetago War” by acclaimed Tlicho Dene storyteller Richard Van Camp. The story was adapted and written for the screen by Strong, Van Camp, and screenwriter Bracken Hanuse Corlett.
The film is a tale of courage, identity and the enduring power of truth that follows Dove, a young, enigmatic, gender-shifting warrior, who discovers the gifts and burdens of their Inkwo (medicine) to defend against an army of hungry, ferocious monsters. Dove’s courage, resilience and alliance with the Earth culminates in a battle against these flesh-consuming creatures, who become stronger with each body and soul they devour. Inkwo for When the Starving Return is a call to action to fight and protect against the forces of greed around us.
“I vividly remember getting goosebumps when Richard Van Camp invited me into his 'Wheetago War' universe to create an animated film,” explained Strong. “His short story offered a balance of terror and beauty and challenged me to explore important and relatable topics: the gender spectrum, greed and destruction of the land, and the return of ancestral medicine and teachings. With this story, I knew we were embarking on something special, and it was my dream to lead this production and process into new creative and technical territories.”
The film, a Spotted Fawn Productions and the National Film Board of Canada co-production, was an official selection for numerous film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was selected for Canada’s Top Ten of 2024. It also won Best Canadian Short Film at the Available Light Film Festival in Whitehorse (2025).
This special event will include a screening of Inkwo for When the Starving Return, followed by a discussion and question-and-answer session featuring director Amanda Strong, screenwriter Bracken Hanuse Corlett and author Richard Van Camp. Attendees should note that film is unrated and intended for mature audiences, viewers ages 16 and older.
Admission is by donation at the door. The event is sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Spotted Fawn Productions, the National Film Board of Canada and the Raven’s Cry Theatre.
To strive, to seek, to sing
The Inspirito Vocal Ensemble has announced concerts on Saturday, May 3 (at 6 p.m.) and Sunday, May 4 (at 3 p.m.), both at Calvary Baptist Church in Gibsons.
The theme for the choral showcase is Untraveled Worlds, inspired by the 1833 poem "Ulysses" by Alfred Lord Tennyson that expresses a longing for constant exploration and experience. The central message of the poem is that the human spirit has enduring capacity for exploration, resilience, and the quest for meaning.
Inspirito's program will invite listeners to "come, travel with me," taking them on a journey through music in different styles and languages that provokes the question: "this is your one and only life... what will you do?" Inspirito performs under the direction of Sarona Mynhardt and accompanied by Toby Aldren on piano. Two flutists — Bernard Blary and Yewon Shin — will also perform during the concert.
Tickets ($25) are on sale by contacting Sarona Mynhardt at [email protected] or texting 778 888-4957.
