Music, for violinist James Ehnes, is social. During a conversation last month, friendship and communication were constants. He often uses “we,” because he is thinking of Andy, his friend and accompanist pianist Andrew Armstrong, or their families, who are often a part of their tours. 

“We’re like a traveling circus,” he says. “It’s close to 20 years that Andy and I have been doing a lot of work together. We’ve made a lot of recordings and worked in pretty intense circumstances. 

“Our families are really close: our kids are close, our lives are close. He is an extraordinary musician—extraordinary pianist—but also, you know, it’s important to be with somebody you really care about.”

The PEC Chamber Music Festival’s highlight this year is a recital featuring the renowned violinist and pianist, who are touring Canada in celebration of Mr. Ehnes’s fiftieth birthday.

“Speaking very honestly, this whole tour is my birthday present to myself,” Mr. Ehnes said. “This is stuff I love to do.”

“It actually started with my 40th birthday, where I wanted to go to every province and every territory. We did that and it was really fun. 

“This tour is even bigger than the one ten years ago. There are parts of the country that do tend to get left out and I’m really glad to get to a good variety of places, personally speaking. I love the opportunity to really get to know the country as well as I can.”

Mr. Ehnes is originally from Brandon, Manitoba, which accounts for his love of remote locations. “I know that the qualification for being a great music lover is not that you live in a big city. There’s people that love this music living all over the place .”

And, this year, Picton is on the tour. That of course, involves friendship. The PEC Chamber Festival’s current and former Artistic Directors have had Mr. Ehnes’s ear for a long time.

“I’ve known Paul Marleyne for years. It was his initiative, and Paul being a friend, I was certainly eager to have the chance to work with him. And Picton is known for being so beautiful, it’s not like it’s a stretch to get people to want to come! We are excited.

“And the New Orford guys, these are my buddies, so I’ve been hearing about Picton for years. And with Paul being there, this is a present to me to get to come and play for the music lovers of Picton and have a beautiful day or two in a beautiful place.”

He is not quite performing Carnegie Hall. Picton’s St. Mary Magdalene seats about three hundred.

“I don’t think that people go to a violin recital and say ‘oh that was really nice but, boy, I wish I was a little further away!’

“I think that an intimate venue is great—sometimes preferable. We really enjoy the smaller halls because it allows it to be a very friendly, almost participatory, environment. We like to speak to the audience. We want people to have a good time. This is not a recital where we sort of stand up on a stage off in the distance and people watch from afar.

“The violin, though it’s capable of great projection and of filling a large space and communicating across large distances, ultimately, I think, is an instrument that’s best suited to intimate music making.

“Everything on the program has particularly special significance to me, or to me and Andy and our collaboration of friendship over the years.” Mr. Ehnes will introduce each piece and connect it to his career. The roster includes a newly commissioned piece by Composer-in-Residence Carmen Braden, which will be the subject of a future Gazette article.

“We finish the program with a set of salon encore-type pieces. It’s music that we just really love. In recent years—probably recent decades at this point—there’s been a bit of a trend towards classical music events being very serious. I think there’s a lot of music that’s great in different ways and the violin-piano repertoire is just so blessed with miniatures whose sole purpose is just to be really nice to listen to. 

“I don’t think that going to a violin and piano recital has to feel somehow like you’re going to museum and you’ve got to study things to ‘better yourself,’ I mean, you’re allowed to just enjoy it!”

James Ehnes is in Picton October 3rd. For tickets to all events, visit pecmusicfestival.com