Peter Elias in Concert

Thurs Sept 12 at 7:00 PM - CITIZENS FORUM at Victoria Hall - Limit 40 Tickets

Peter Elias, Bass, with Lorne Lofsky, guitar & Barry Romberg, drums. Digging the roots of The Cobourg Jazz Series. 1985 - 1992.

Peter Elias founded and curated The Cobourg Jazz Series in the Citizen's Forum at Victoria Hall between1985 and 1992. Although Peter Elias has lived in Switzerland since 1992 a considerable part of his experience in the music world has been as a professional bass player before dedicating himself to the construction of fine stringed instruments. Peter's Cobourg Jazz trio partners were Jack McCaffery and Dave Pilch. Musicians would come in from Toronto to play with the 'Elias house trio.' Some of those jazz artists became greats in the Canadian jazz world. Reg Schwager came frequently as did Don Thompson,and Jane Bunnett. Bob Homme, The Friendly Giant, would come over frequently from Grafton and record those concerts. Largely self-taught as a luthier, Peter's most important influences have been close working relationships with professional musicians. He sold fine basses to Dave Young and Joel Quarrington. To date over 140 of his instruments are being played by professional musicians in Europe, North and South America, Australia and Asia.

As a bass player, he initially found himself drawn to the research and construction of the double bass. His success in the bass world has been considerable and Elias Double Basses have been purchased by numerous orchestras or their players. Notably the Chicago Symphony Orchestra bass section unanimously decided to buy nine Elias basses. Other orchestras include: the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Royal Swedish Opera, the Gothenburg Opera, the Norwegian National Opera, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Südwestfunk Orchestra of Baden-Baden, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zürich, the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, the Portuguese National Orchestra of Oporto and the Brazilian National Orchestra of Sao Paolo. The Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm and the UDK in Berlin have Elias basses. Bass professors including Thomas Monohan, Joel Quarrington, Micheal Wolf, Thorvald Fredin, Micheal Karlsson and Marc-Antoine Bonanomi have bought Elias basses. When Jane Bunnett and I were organizing her recent April 30 concert, Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, she said "I haven't played in Cobourg since Peter Elias was leading the Cobourg Jazz Series," I began sleuthing and made contact with Peter in Switzerland. When I learned he was coming to Connecticut in August, we arranged for a side-trip to Cobourg where he still has close friends. Peter contacted old friends, Lorne Lofsky and Barry Romberg and this Sept 12 gig was born.

Tickets are $25 plus service fee and available at the Victoria Hall Box Office: 855-372-2210