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Volume 10 Issue 6 - March 2005

  • Text
  • Toronto
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  • April
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, THE GREEN &

, THE GREEN & EXPERlENCED 11 's always exciting to take in the powerful sound of the Elmer lseler Singers when they team up with University of Toronto undergraduate singers. It all happens March 18. Two days later, the Elora Festival Singers travel down the road to Guelph to perform Bach's Mass in B Minor, a pillar of the repertoire, with a classy array of soloists. GOOD FRIDAY CONCERTS The Good Friday story has inspired some of the greatest works in choral music through the ages and there are some new ones on the way. Canadian Christos Hatzis has composed Sepulchre of Life, which will be performed on a program with the Brahms Requiem in Kitchener on March 25, conducted by Howard Dyck. Hatzis writes: "Sepulchre of Life was commissioned by four different Canadian philharmonic choirs. I decided that I would compose a work based on the wonderful and moving Encomia sung in Greek Orthodox churches during Good Friday". That same night, down the road in London, the Fanshawe Cho rus performs Bach's St. John Passion with the great Albert Greer in the evangelist's role. Patricia Wright continues the Metropolitan United CLASIC:_9@n Mluo lih: u11111tl l.cutr Church tradition of Good Friday concerts with "Prayers for a Troubled World", featuring Mozart's Requiem and Vaughan Williams' "Dona Nobis Pacem". The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is front and centre for two performances of the St. Matthew Passion of Bach's on March 24 and 26. Early music veteran Nicholas McGegan leads the TSO and some truly great singer (Benjamin Butterfield, Daniel Taylor, John Tessier, Nathan Berg) in this masterpiece. It will be fascinating to hear it in the refurbished Roy Thomson Hall. Doubtless, there are still many around who remember Sir Ernest MacMillan's annual performances of the work, from the first complete performance in 1923 at Timothy Eaton Church, then on to Convocation and, later, Massey Hall. SoME THING New by Jason van Eyk When scanning the slate of new music concerts this month two recrring themes struck me. First is the malleability and resiliency. of composed music. Second is the growing prevalence of "creative process" workshop presentations. Both highlight the concept of music as process rather than product. When considering today's classical music (or music of the literate tradition), it seems we think of it as being fixed. In other words, creative work results in a finished product. Much like literature, visual arts and film, we assume that once a musical creation has been set to the page the work is unchangeable. We go to concerts to hear the end result of Thank goodness we have dozens applying compositional craft, or we of choirs m Souern Ontano now purchase it in fixed forms like CDs. who regu arly brmg these pass10 ·Yet, while this may be true of hissettm s o Bach t ? h . fe. The works torical classical music, which has becombmat1on of mt1mate solo re- come fixed over time within the livsponse, dramatically ntense choral ing practice of contemporary commus1c and contemplative and po1gn- position it is far from it. Rather, new ant chorals make annual heanngs a music takes on interesting and evomust. Believer or not, these works lutionary life. touch our profound sense of humanity very deeply. Mississauga horal Society hrys A. Bentley-Artistic Director Oth Anniversary Season I i j a h F. Mendelssohn unday, May 1, 2005, 3:00 PM slie Fagan, Soprano 'A .lla Krause, Mezzo Soprano Dennis Giesbrecht, Tenor Hammerson Hall, Living Arts Centre 4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga Single Tickets: /; / Seniors/Students Examples of this life are no more present than in the upcoming Esprit Orchestra concert. On March 6th at 8pm Alex Pauk will conduct the world premiere of Denys Bouliane's Snow is White but Water is Black. To call this a world premiere is somewhat strange, seeing as the piece has been performed and well received on tour with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. But for whatever reasons, the work the NACO performed was not Bouliane's final artistic vision. And so now, in its more complete form, Snow is White but Water is Black will receive its BOSLEY REAL ESTATE l()";Lli." ltAl l:STATC LTD., tU.t.T

preceded by a series of "work in progress" workshops with Omar Daniel and Ann Michaels, leading up to the world premiere of their new oratorio Lavinia Adronicus. Ju/ier Palmer Tapestry ew Opt;ra Works is certainly no stranger to the creative process. As a future-focused development house for new Canadian opera, their annual Opera Briefs concerts give a peek into the results of the annual "Lib-Lab" composer-librettist musical laboratory. As part of their 25th anniversary season, Tapestry is offering a taste of larger projects in development, including She/rer by Juliet Palmer and Julie Salverson. Sheller follows the "highway of the atom", along which uninium was transported across Canada to be used, ultimately, for the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in August 1945. This opera in progress will receive a workshop presentation March 18th & 19th at the Queen's University Drama Festival. The Canad ian Music Centre has also been active introducing living composers and their music through free, open performance workshops and feedback sessions. The CMC Professional Readings Series invites the public in communities throughout Ontario to be part of the creative process, witnessing and helping develop new musical works for the concert stage. The CMC will hold one of its last 2004-2005 reading sessions in Toronto on March 19th at the Music Gallery. An augmented Arraymusic Ensemble, conducted by Henry Kucharzyk, will read works by· composers Aris Caastathis, Tony K.T. Leung and Svetlana Maksimovic. I was recently at a reading session with composer Svetlana Maksimovic, hosted by the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. The workshop opened the annual Canadian Music Festival, and included a reading of one of her works and others l]y two Toronto-based composers (Kee Yong Kam and Colin Eatock). I was shocked to hear Ms. Maksimovic say that once her compositions are set to paper, they never change. In contradiction, both the otlier composers arrived with very recent revisions. Perhaps Ms. Maksimovic's creative process is just resilient in a , different way than I imagined? Or perhaps new music is too malleable to be underpinned by even these themes? This remains to be heard. (Jason van Eyk is the Canadian MllSic Ce111re 's 011tario Regio11al Director. He ca11 be reached at . 416-961-6601 x. 207 or jaso11v@musiccemre. ea.) Canadian composers and professional musicians showcase contemporary works in development a unique chance to see the creative process in action Engage in the n November 2004 to March 2005 full details at www.musiccentre.ca 416.961.6601 .,. In co11j1111crio11 wirb tbe Facult11 of Music. Nl'YJC presents the Micbael a11d Sonja Koerner Disti11g11isbed V1:iror i11 Co111positio11 at the Universitv of 1oronto. NEW DATE AND VENUE I Works by Holliger and Carter feawring Patricia Green, Robert Aitken, the NMC Ensemble and Accordes Aj/i/iated e1•e11t: Thursday March 31, 2005 12:15 Walter Hall, U of T (80 Queen·s Park) FREE lecture-n:cital with Heinz Holliger and the U of T Contemporary Music Ensemble Co-presented ll'ilh Goethe lnslitut Toronto Considered the "'1ising star" of young German composers, cla1·inetist jorg Widmann performs his music with the NMC Ensemble and Accordes (4 Canadian premieres) Co-presented witb The Music Gallery anti Two ew Hours on CBC Radio 1\vo Keith Hamel curates a concert of new music with computers NMC Ensemble I Robert Aitken Joseph Petric. accordion Max Christie, da1inet • music.: br +Hamel,+ Pritchard,• Radford +Berezan and +Steenhuisen Illuminating Introductions beforl' l'Very concert :11 7: 15 Admission: S25 regular I S 15 seniors I S5 students Music Gallery .J!610-t-IOKO • Glenn Gould Studio -il6 20'i-'i'i'i'i Jane Malletl Theatre (St. l111Tc1KL' Ce111rc) 416 566-7725 and J H!XI -o,'>-(1"'i-J Online.:: www.stlc.com • In person: a1 the STLC. 27 From Street 1s1. "liiro1110 nHTAAIO .UU COUHC:ll CnNSl:ll 0'1"11T!>Df'ONT•JltCI l+I ..._94.1 J'Z4: f1HJ$IC: GiQLLER'i Laidk1w FoundJtion Canadian Patrimoine • GOETHE INSTITUT Heritage canadlen INTER NATIONES The SOC.4N Foundation -% () ceC1!rraclig WWW. THEWHOLENOTE.COM

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