Ioan Harea

“…the Harea concert was one of the most memorable that I can recall in the past 20 years…” - Okanagan Similkammen Concert Society

“…There was nothing he could not do with a violin. Virtuosity, the full range of dynamics…A violin sounding like birds? He did it. He seemed one with his instrument, and coaxed every imaginable sound from it…the audience was ecstatic…” - Watertown Daily Times

“…Harea’s velocity and dexterity is admirable and throughout the evening he made it seem like playing the violin was one of the most natural and easy tasks to perform..” - Daily News

HAREA is gifted with considerable flexibility in his bow arm that allows him to vault fearlessly through wide- ranging arpeggios, whistle-clear harmonics, flying staccatos and repeated notes that peal with the rapidity of a doorbell buzzer. - Ottawa Citizen

Ioan Harea is a Romanian- born Ottawa violinist who is better known for the light music he plays as a recitalist. He also heads a string quartet that specializes in occasional music. But almost everyone who has heard his virtuoso and usually very musical playing has wished to hear him in some straight classical repertoire.

Last evening they got their wish when Harea and two colleagues performed a program of substantial works ranging from Bach and Telemann to John Corigliano and Maya Badian and two or more pieces that, if not particularly profound, made a nice leavening for the more intense stuff. The whole enterprise took place in the National Arts Centre’s Fourth Stage, a venue with a nice atmosphere but also with a roaring ventilation system that can be severe annoyance.

The concert marked the launch of Harea’s new CD Unaccompanied and the program included a Bach sonata movement and a piece with the redundant title Monologue for Violin Alone by Maya Badian. Like Harea, Badian comes from Romania, but has lived in Ottawa for many years.

Though her music never panders to conservative tastes and nearly always challenges the listener, this score has a certain warmth and was played well enough that it went over nicely with the audience.

Harea’s playing, if not flawless, was always confident and engaging. In several pieces, including Ravel’s Tzigane he was accompanied by pianist Eugenia Tsarov. The pair worked well together and even better when clarinetist Alan Woy joined them in a workman-like and convincing accounts of Bartók’s Contrasts.

A particularly intriguing offering was a suite of unaccompanied caprices from John Corigliano’s film score for The Red Violin. Harea graced it with some of the best playing. Equally remarkable was his rendition of a movement from Ysaye’s second sonata for solo violin.

- The Ottawa Citizen, author Richard Todd