To start off the regular season at the Prince George Symphony Orchestra, the non-profit organization decided to showcase musicians who got their start in Prince George.
David Louie began playing piano at the age of five under Loretta Zral's instruction before continuing his studies with Linda Stobbe.
Louie will be returning to Prince George after a seven-year hiatus to perform with the symphony during the David Louie Plays Mozart concert presented at Vanier Hall on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Louie said he has fond memories of taking to the stage at Vanier Hall, which as a child he considered immense.
"It's going to be exciting to go back because as I understand the concerts are at Vanier Hall still," Louie said. "To walk up on that stage and play the big black piano, which I think was new when I was a child and now it's still the same piano I believe so there's going to be a lot of nostalgia, to be sure."
He participated in many music festivals at the venue as a child and first performed with the orchestra there when he was 13 years old.
Louie is now a faculty member of the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto where he is the piano department coordinator. He's been there for the last 20 years.
The major piece Louie will perform in the Mozart concerto No. 23.
"Mozart was one of the first virtuosos on the piano and he really revolutionized the place of the piano with the orchestra," Louie said. "He established the concerto as we know it today. He had the idea of a keyboard soloist and placed the piano as the spotlight, the showcase."
Mozart wrote the concertos for himself to perform.
"And he's probably the first real successful freelance musician because back in the day most famous musicians had patronage," Louie said.
Mozart would book the hall and perform concerts entirely of his own music and these piano concertos played an important role because he was the keyboard virtuoso, Louie said.
"Back in the day everybody wanted to hear something new," he added. "It's like going to the movies today. We go out and see a new movie, with some exceptions, of course. So Mozart's concerts were big events held once or twice a year and he made money off selling the tickets. People came to hear him play because that was what they did then and they would hear things at the keyboard that they had never heard before."
The historical perspective is always interesting, Louie said.
"These are spectacular pieces of music and when he wrote this particular piece he wrote a letter to his father saying now he'd written something really good so even he understood that there was something quite special about this piece," Louie said about concerto No. 23. "I'm just really excited to come back to Prince George. I'm looking forward to visiting places I remember from my childhood and seeing if they've changed or if they've stayed the same."
Conductor Michael Hall will present a talk from 6:40 to 7 p.m. before the performance begins Saturday to offer some perspective on David Louie Plays Mozart.
Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz and Ludvig Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which is very familiar to most people will also be presented during the concert.
Tickets are at www.pgso.com
