James Ehnes brings 50th birthday tour to Kelowna
James Ehnes performs at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland in 2017.
Photo: Yuja Wang Archives/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
KELOWNA — Canadian violinist James Ehnes will bring his 50th birthday tour to Kelowna next month as Chamber Music Kelowna opens its 2026–27 season.
Individual tickets for the six-concert season went on sale Monday, Aug. 17, with Ehnes and pianist Andrew Armstrong set to perform at the Mary Irwin Theatre at the Rotary Centre for the Arts on Sept. 14.
The Kelowna performance is part of Ehnes’s 50th Canada Birthday Tour, marking the Canadian violinist’s 50th birthday with performances across the country. Ehnes’s management lists the Kelowna concert for 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14.
Ehnes and Armstrong are longtime recital partners who have recorded works by composers including César Franck, Richard Strauss and Béla Bartók, as well as the complete Beethoven violin sonatas.
The season brings another prominent Canadian performer to Kelowna less than two months later.
Pianist Jan Lisiecki will give a solo recital Nov. 13. His official concert calendar places the Kelowna stop between performances in San Francisco on Nov. 12 and Kingston on Nov. 15. Later that month, he is scheduled for three performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Lisiecki signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon when he was 15 and now performs more than 100 concerts a year. His recordings have received honours including a Juno Award and Gramophone Critics’ Choice recognition.
The rest of Chamber Music Kelowna’s season includes the Busch Trio on Oct. 17; Poiesis Quartet on Jan. 28; Notos Piano Quartett on March 25; and Montreal-based ensemble Constantinople on April 23.
All six concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Mary Irwin Theatre.
Poiesis Quartet arrives in Kelowna after winning first prize and the commission prize at the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Its January concert is being presented with the Living Things Festival and Rotary Centre for the Arts.
Full-season subscriptions and five-concert packages remain available, while tickets to individual performances became available Monday.
Eighteen Grand Forks athletes competed at the Canadian Junior Ultimate Championships in Surrey this month, with Natalie Sjoden returning home with a bronze medal as a member of Canyon Women.