reviewvancouver, - John Jane

The single night guitar extravaganza has been coming back to Massey Theatre for quite a few years. The 2026 lineup of four talented Canadian guitar players featured Vancouver-based classical and world fusion guitarist Itamar Erez, Winnipeg jazz guitarist and vocalist Jocelyn Gould, Montréal flamenco guitarist Caroline Planté and Northern Ontario innovative harp guitarist Jamie Dupuis.

The performance format was an interesting one. The first part, consisted of each artist performing two solo works, while following an intermission, the second part consisted of rotating duets with each musician separately joining two other musical partners and finally the foursome all coming together in a dynamic quartet.

First up was Itamar Erez who demonstrate delicate improvisation and melody lines with a couple of his own compositions. There were probably a number of people in the audience who had never seen anyone play a harp guitar. It is certainly an unusual instrument –a hybrid string instrument that combines features of a guitar and a harp. It still features the standard six-string neck, but also features additional open strings at opposite ends of the musical scale. Virtuoso harp guitarist Jamie Dupuis has earned international acclaim for his definitive interpretation of Comfortably Numb, taken from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. I had previously watched this on YouTube, but it’s even better live!

Caroline Planté is an anomaly in as much that she is almost unique as a female guitarist who plays her own contemporary flamenco compositions. Planté has trained both in Canada and Spain and on this night she performed two self-penned works that melded modern and traditional styles. Her rasgueado and picado techniques highlighted her fiery passion and rhythmic precision.

Last to perform solo, was award-winning guitarist and vocalist Jocelyn Gould, who obviously has a proclivity towards the ‘American Songbook.’ She accompanied her own vocals on rhythm guitar with Moon River and It was just one of those Things. Gould has a pleasant lyrical voice, who enjoys good-natured banter with the audience and fellow musicians.
Following the intermission, the musicians teamed up for duets. Planté and Gould paired for a samba duet, while Dupuis and Erez merged for a sparkling rendition of Take Five invoking original composer Paul Desmond’s unorthodox meter. The quartet ended the evening with a generous encore of a quartet arrangement of Sweet Georgia Brown.

The International Guitar Night was a celebration of guitar artistry, showcasing the diverse talents of Erez, Gould, Dupuis, and Planté. Perhaps the only negative was that these fine musicians deserved a better sound system than what was set up at Massey Theatre.