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Volume 10 Issue 9 - June 2005

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  • Festival
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  • Toronto
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  • Choral
  • Classical

AUDITIONS High Park

AUDITIONS High Park Choirs of Toronto with Zimfira Poloz, ° Artistic Director throughout the month of June • Training Choir (grades l to 3) • Children's Choir (grades 4 to 6) • Senior Divisions (grades 7 to 12) We have two main concerts per season, in December and June, plus workshops with other choirs, several local appearances and our annual September Choir Retreat. Senior Choirs have an annual special event or tour. ·CALL 416-762-0657 www.highparkchoirs.org SPRING CONCERT A Concert to celebrate children and music! The High Park Choirs of Toronto Zimfira Poloz, Artistic Director present "Sounds of a Better World" Sunday, June 5, 2005 at 3:00 p.m. Humbercrest United Church, 16 Baby Point Road (Jane and Annette) "Here we grow again!" CALL 416-762-0657 or email info@highparkchoirs.org AUDITIONS CHORAL Scene by Larry Beckwith TORONTO'S VIBRANT choral community is on fire in the first half of June, thanks to the curatorial prowess of Soundstreams' artistic director Lawrence Cherney and the ingenuity of several of our leading community choral directors. The major choral events of the month are connected to the Northern Voices Festival. In keeping with their mandate of bringing together Canadian and visiting artists, Soundstreams has gathered a stunnng array of choral talent from Scandinavia, Latvia, Germany and, of course, Canada. Every evening, from June 4-12, top notch choirs will perform in the Festival's home venue: Metropolitan United Church. Canada is represented l?Y the Elora Festival Singers, Pro Coro Canada (from Edmonton), the Elmer lseler Singers, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale and the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir (conducted by the legendary Frieder Bernius). Guest choirs include the Latvian Radio Choir, the Norwegian Soloists' Choir and the passed. away early last year. I wondered whether Lawrence· felt that there'd been a sense of "torchpassing" from Niki, who had himself organized three massive June choral festivals in 1989, 1993 and 2002. Characteristically, Cherney praised the memory of Niki's genius for promotion and mixing and matching world and Canadian talent and commented on how inspiring he found it. However, he put his finger on an important difference between the two gentlemen: "I'm simply not interested in putting together another performance of the Verdi Requiem''. And indeed - as it should be - it is the intriguing repertoire that is front and centre in this festival. From major works by Canadians (James Rolfe, R. Murray Schafer, Abigail Richardson, Melissa Hui, Jacques Hetu and Harry Somers) to recent works by some of today's leading choral composers (T avener, Gorecki, Part, Penderecki, Vasks and Nystedt), the festival celebrates contemporary music by boldly putting it front and centre Danish National Radio Choir. ..,..----. In addition, several "cutting edge" smaller ensembles are featured in the festival. These include the Finnish Huutajat "Shouting Men", whose primal vocalizing reminds us of the roots of vocal utterance. Two small six-member vocal ensembles - the popular Rajaton and Nordic Voices - present finely-honed intimate choral repertoire, and the virtuosic Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble promises a varied and tremendously difficult program. When I spoke with Lawrence Cherney for last month's special choral issue of WholeNote, I reminisced with him about our mutual friend, the crafty choral impresario Nicholas Goldschmidt, who BOSLEY REALEST.ATE PETER MAHON Sales Representative 416-322-8000 pmahon@trebnet.com www.petermahon.com Sight Singing Workshops· (!'aught by David J. King, B. 'Mus., B . .Ed.) Level 2: June 13-15 & 20-22, 2005 Level 3: July 4-6 &11-13, 2005 When' 7:15 - 9:45 p.m. Locuic 111f Willowdalc Uniled Church. 3-l9 i'l'lllh:lh .\vc:nuc, Nocrh York : Co;t? (incluJc; m:ucri,ls, parkmi; and refreshment) Can 416-225-2255 20 JUNE 1 - JULY 7 2005

Abigail Richardson every night. Of course, the history of choral music is well represented also, by vital works from Purcell, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Ril:hard Strauss, Du fay, Gesualdo and Bach. On the weekends of the festival (June 3-5 and 10-12), Trinity College is hosting a conference featuring workshops, seminars and round-table discussions. In short, it's a feast. I'm going to try to get to as many of the events as possible. There's nothing like a festival of choral music to revive the spirit and teed the soul (not to mention the brain)!! Cal I 416-366-7723 for tickets, or visit www.soundstreams.ca for more information. As I MENTIONED ABOVE, there are plenty of other choral events happening rhis month, as well. I have had the riveting experience of hearing the incomparable Canadian baritone Russell Braun sing Martinu's Field Mass twice in recent years. He performs it again, with the men of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Toronto Symphony, conducted by J irf Belohlavek on.June 1 and 2. Also on the program is the setting of the Te Deum by Antonin Dvorak. On June 2, The Nathaniel Dett Chorale performs a fascinating work by the late Virginian composer Undine Smith Moore. Entitled "Scenes from the Life of a Martyr", the piece is a 16-part oratorio on the life of Martin Luther King Jr., for chorus, orchestra, solo voices and narrator. It was premiered in 1982 at Carnegie Hall and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize that year. The Mississauga Children's Choir premieres a new setting of Elizaberhan texts by'Vancouverite Stephen Chatman on June 4 and the following day sees a whole host of events foaruring familiar ensembles. The High Park Choirs, di- CONTINUES • An exciting program introducing children ages 5 - 8 to the joys of music and singing. • No prior training needed • 3 sets of 10-week terms at per term • Commencing in September • 45-minute Wednesday afternoon sessions at the Cathedral • Opens doors to the chorister programs at the Cathedral and to opportunities beyond LEADER: DIANE EDWARDS is a featured clinician and adjudicator throughout Canada. She directed the highly acclaimed Young Children's Kodaly Programme in London, Ontario for over 15 years, and lectures in the Faculty of Education (OISE) where she teaches music and supervises teacher candidates. Register by email music@sljamescathedral.on.ca or phone (416) 364-7865 ext. 231 The Cathedral Church of St. James King & Church, Toronto VVWN.sljamescathedra/. on. ea VIVA! Youth Singers of Toronto is pleased to announce a fourth VIVA! Choir! S.A.T.B. Youth Choir Dedicated to performing major choral works. Co-Conducted by Carol Woodward Ratzlaff and Brad Ratzlaff Auditions for Preparatory Chorus (4-7), Main Chorus I (7-11) and Main Chorus II (11-19) are also being conducted. Call Laura Menard for more information.

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