( . ROBERT LOWREY Proudly Introduces the BECHSTEIN FAMILY OF PIANOS C. Bechstein • Wm. Knabe • Sohmer • Kohler & Campbell • Hazelton They Join Bosendorfer, Schimmel, Vogel, Baldwin, Chickering, Heintzman, and Nordheimer To Provide Robert Lowrey's Piano Experts with the finest and largest selection of pianos in Canada! • Concert Rentals • Appraisals • Rebuilding ROBERT LOWREY'S PIANO EXPERTS 94J Eglinton Ave. East 41 6 423-0434 pianoexperts.com 0)'11 \if,KSllY'oJ"'l'O)l(;INtq A GREA. MA TH MAn..e;S MUSf9. SPRINGBOARD STUDENT AWARDS PROGRAM IN MUSIC Turn into - just like that! For a limited time, che Faculty of Music at rhe University of Toronto is able co match THREE times every dollar donated in support of student aid. Through the Waters Challenge Fund.all gifts towards financial-need based awards in Music for Ontario students will quadruple in value instantly. Our goal is to raise .S million that when matched will create a multi-million dollar endowment to esc;iblish the SPRINGBOARD Student Awards Program - to provide our most talented students the resources for a successful career m music. Please call 416-946-3145. visit www.music.utoronto.ca. or email fnends.music@utoronto.ca to learn more about the SPRINGBOARD Student Awards Program at the Faculty of Music. University of Toronto. MESSIAH Quoolibet by Allan Pulker The month of December, as always, brings with it a host of performances of Handel's Messiah. The first this month according to our listings will be by the 180-voice Mennonite Massed Choir on December 3 in Kitchener's marvellous Cent re in the Square. The core of this choir is Kitchener's Menno Singers, who are celebrating their 50th season. I asked Dr. Peter Nikiforuk, the choir's conductor, about reasons for Messiah's enduring and perennial 'popularity. In his view the quality of the music icself combines with the work's effective conveyance of its theological message 10 elicit a very visceral response from performers and audience alike. He says that even his colleague, Howard Dyck, after innumerable performances of the work, still loves it. He pointed out too that far from being hackneyed, the Messiah actually has a lot of rarely heard music: "Having previously been involved only in chamber choirs - including the Exultate Chamber Singers for fifteen years -·I had never performed a complete Messiah until 2000. I was astonished by how much of parts 2 and 3 almost never get sung. This year we are doing everything, leaving out only a couple ofDa Capos." I asked what he was looking for in his soloists. "Tone colour that corresponds to the music. In preparing the choir for this year's performance I have been cultivating a clear, light, and agile singing s'tyle, so of course was looking for compatible soloists. The soprano who can do Messiah is not necessarily the one T would choose to do the Verdi Requiem. Of course I want the soloists 10 be a balanced quartet and, in the Menno Singers we want to use Mennonite talent as much as possible." Implicit in everything Peter Nikiforuk said is that, above all, Messiah is so singable. His massed choir, for example, is made up primarily of volunteers, amateurs. who pay a fee just to join the choir for the Messiah rehearsals and performance. And then, of course, there are the sing-along versions, in which the entire audience joins in for the choruses. So, whether you go to sing or just to liten, any of the Messiahs coming up in December offer an evening of memorable and stirring music-making. You can find a "Quick Pick Chrylarkfeawres the work of Oskar Morawetz EARLY JN TtlE M01"fH A new presenter this season, Atelier S, is presenting baritone, Stuart Graham in recital with pianist Jose Hernandez on Dec 1 at Christ Church Deer Park. The program, which is built around the theme of fate, includes works by Rachmaninoff, Poulenc and Mahler. On Dec 2, 3 and 4 at Sainte Marie Among the Hurons near Midland the "First Light" pre Christrnas event offers a variety of activities for the whole family, including music. The musical compo ·nent will showcase local-area talent sharing their seasonal repertoire. The Huronia Harmonizers will be featured on December 2, La Cle d'la Baie on December 3, and Vox Huronia on December 4. The beautiful Huron Carol wiU be sung by artist Adam MacMillan in the Sainte Marie Chapel. and the Christian Island Native Drum Group will. perform in the Sainte-Marie longhouse over all three evenings. For more information phone 705-526-7884 or visit the SMAR website at www .southerngeorgianbay .on.ea CH.RYLARK SERIE.S The third Chrylark Series begins on December 5 at the Heliconian Hall with a solo recital by pianist, Peter Longworth of music by Schubert, Morawetz and Brahms. This year's series focuses on the music of celebrated Czech/Canadian composer, Oskar Morawetz, who left his post as assistant conductor of the Prague Opera to come to Canada in 1940, becoming a professor of theory and composition in 1946 at the University of Toronto, a position he held until his retirement in 1982. A self-avowed traditionalist, he has embraced several of the compositional trends of the 20th Cenrury to devel Guide" to all of these Messiahs at www. thewholenote. corn. op a body of works that have been performed on four continents by f8 WWW.lHEWHOlENOTE.COM DECEMBER 1 2004 -FEBRUARY 7 2005
such outstanding talents as Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Kun Masur. Glenn Gould, Jon Vickers and Louis Quilico. In 1987 he was the first composer to receive the Order of Ontario and was awarded the Order or Canada in 1989. The second concen in the series. February 6. 2005. will feature the Veritas Piano Quartet. performing music by Mozart. Brahms and Morawetz. AMICI A 'D RUSSELL BRAUN FEBRUARY is . .. IT>®rll®llDrnw g ] THU. PROKOFIEV: STORY OF A REAL COMPOSER Lecture by Canadian musicologist Simon Morrison (Princeton) 4 pm, Walter Hall, UofT Music Bldg. Free admission 4 FRI. JAMIE, SCOTT & FRIENDS PLAY PROKOFIEV Faculty artists James Parker, piano and Scott St. John, violin 8 pm, Walter Hall (Museum station). Free admission ALSO: A CELEBRATION OF SLAVIC MUSIC UofT Symphonic Band plays Prokofiev, Dvorak, Bestibaev 8 pm, MacMillan Theatre, UofT Music Bldg. , Russell Bra1111 Anotht:r conct:rt to look forward to in the new year is Amici's c:oncert at Glenn Gould Studio on January 21st with guest artist, baritone, Russell Braun. The program, built around the themt: of "Vocal Expression. M will include some: interesting repenoire. including Malcolm Forsyth ·s So11gs ill Times of Cri.is for baritone. clarinet, cello and piano. and Charles Loemcr"s Rhapsodies for baritone. clarinet. viola and piano. This will be an excellent opportunity to hear Russell Braun. who is in demand in opera houses all over the world. To his already extensive discography he is adding a soon to be released Das lied ''Oil der Erde with the Smithsonian Chamber Players on the Dorian Label. Die Wi11- 1erreise and songs by Noel Coward and lvor Novello, both on the CBC Records label in 2005. ThANSFORMUSIC Back in Feb 2004 I wrote about an International Compos111on Competition in Hungary. Called "Transfor Music. M it was inviting submissions of works of Mserious music based on or derived from "light" music. such as rock. musical theatre or popular music. We recently received notification that the competition reet:ived 61 submissions from composers in 27 countries. For those of you who have been wondering, among the four winners was a Canadian. Roussi Draguiev Tarmakov, whose winning composition was called "'With Feeling of the Beauty of the Ta11go" for amplified violin and orchestra. The other winners were from Hungary (2) and the USA. DECEMBCR 1 20041 • °Ff11RUARI' 7 2005 5 SAT. NEW LIGHT ON A MODERN MASTER All-day symposium examines the composer's life & work. TOPICS: Choreographing Prokofiev; His Unreleased Films; Prokofiev & the Piano; Anti-Realism in Opera, Theatre & Ballet; His Unknown Ltfe under Stalin; Was He a 'Soviet Composer'? PRESENTERS & PANELISTS INCLUDE: Christopher Barnes • James Kudelka • William Littler • Paul Mitchinson • Simon Morrison • Sofia Moshevich • Selma Odom • Michael Pisani • Lesley Anne Sayers • lain Scott· Jiri Smrz ·Tamara Trojanowska 9:30 to 12:30 & 1 :30 to 5, Town Hall, Innis College, Sussex Ave. at St.George. Free & open to the public 6 SUN. A RARE PROKOFIEV OPERA IN CONCERT His satiric comedy L'AMOUR DES TROIS ORANGES. sung in French. Music director Raisa Nakhmanovich, Chorus dir. Robert Cooper, Artistic dir. Guillermo Silva-Marin BACKGROUNDER at 1 :45 pm, lain Scott, with Michael Pisani 2:30 pm, Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre: 416-366-7723, 1-800-708-6754, secure.stlc.ca/oic.asp J MON. RESTORING A MODERNIST CLASSIC Lesley Anne Sayers (Open University, UK) presents her work on the upcoming re-creation of Prokofiev's historic 1926 ballet Le pas d'acier. A special open session of the joint York I Uofr seminar on Dance & Modernism. 10 am, Robert Gill Theatre, 214 College St. Free. PROKOFIEV FESTIVAL • February 3 to 1 • University of Toronto Faculty of Music • Centre for Russian & East European Studies • Dept. of Slavic Languages & literatures in collaboration with: Opera in Concert • National Ballet of Canada • YorkU Graduate Program in Dance For further information visit our website: www.utoronto.ca/crees/prokofiev.htm WWW. THEWHOlENOTE. COM
