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Volume 11 Issue 5 - February 2006

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • February
  • Theatre
  • Jazz
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WORLD View by Karen Ages

WORLD View by Karen Ages More kudos Last issue, I began this column with a mention of George Sawa's lifetime achievement award for contributions to Arabic music. This month, another congratulatory mention is in order: sitar player and director of the Raga Music School, Neeraj Prem was recently awarded the Pandit Nikhil Banerjee Music Award, in Lucknow, India, one of that country's highest annual awards for Indian musicians. Neeraj has lived in Hamilton for the last four years, and has been active in the music scene there and in Toronto as performer and teacher. Some of you might recall that he was a featured performer in WholeNote's World Music salon last June. Congratulations Neeraj on your achievement! It's been a long time since the Black Watch Band of Scotland last appeared at Massey Hall - just over a century ago to be exact. Well, if you missed their September 1904 concert, you can catch this ensemble of pipers, drummers and highland dancers February 2 along with the Band of the Welsh Guards in what promises to be a rousing evening of music from Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales. Incidentally, the Black Watch regiment has a long and illustrious history. Formed in the mid l 700's, its pipers played troops into battle through most of its history, and drummers were added during the Napoleonic wars, forming what has come to be known as the Pipes and Drums of the Black Watch. Today, the regiment is still part of the British Army. Harbourfront Centre celebrates African Heritage Month with Kuumba, two weekends of music, film, dance, food, comedy, and storytelling, February 2-5 Michael J. Ierullo Concert Tuner I Technician and February 10-12. Musical highlights include a CD release concert of Afro-Funk vocalist/guitarist and songwriter Donne Roberts, February 11 in the Brigantine Room. For information, visit www .harl:Jourfiuntcentre.com. Also in honour of black history month, Zimbabwe's Black Umfolosi, an a cappella singing and dance troop known for their trademark hard hats and gumboots, perform at the Lula Lounge on February 10, and Small World Music presents rising vocal star Lura, at the same venue on February 17. Lura's music hails from Cape Verde, an archipelago west of Senegal, until 1975 under colonial government rule which along with the Church prohibited certain forms of music. Since gaining independence, Cape Verde has been rediscovering its African musical traditions through the likes of Cesaria Evora and Lura. Recently back from their first US tour, Toronto's lndo-jazz sensation autorickshaw will join forces with the Hannaford Street Silver Band in a program titled "Bollywood Brass", February 5 at the Jane Mallett Theatre. This is the first time the two groups have collaborated. Hannaford, Toronto's first class all-brass ensemble, will be added to the mix in autorickshaw's arrangement of some familiar jazz tunes, and they'll also collaborate in Suba Sankaran's arrangement for which the program is titled, among other works . For those of you new to WholeNote, autorickshaw appeared on the front cover of our September 05 issue. Sales - Service - Tuning - Restoration Serving Toronto's Major Concert & Jazz Venues Tel: 416-889-8667 / Fax: 866-711-3165 / E-mail: pianomd@sympatico.ca Black Umfolosi The last time I mentioned Yvonne the inside of a grand piano and live Ng in this column, it was as one electronic manipulation. of the dancers in Peter Chin's acclaimed work STUPA. February Last but not least, Toronto's pre- 8-11 at Harbourfront Centre The- miere Arabic and Greek music enatre, Yvonne presents "Signs", semble Maza Meze kicks off its consisting of two of her own cho- tenth anniversary season February reographed works, Paper Women 11 at Dancemakers Studio in the and Emerald Lies. Three years in Distillery District. Seating is limitthe making, these works are auto- ed, so reserve your tickets by e­ biographical in nature, reflecting mailing maza@mazameze.com. Ng's experience as a Chinese-Canadian artist, and her early years Karen Ages is a freelance oboist who at an all-girls Catholic school in has also been a member of several Singapore. Katherine Duncanson world music ensembles. She can be (alsofeaturedinSTUPA)hascom- reached at 416-323-2232 or posed music for Paper Women, worldmusic@thewholenote.com. consisting ofkeyboard, percussion, The [reversible] decline of CBC Radio continued from page 20 versity made by today ' s Canadian cultural contributors. What does the CBC stand to gain by becoming more like other broadcasters? Surely they should know that once they become like everyone else, they no longer need to exist. Positive solutions and interesting ideas? We have plenty. cbc.ca Two New Hours listserve censorship In order to distribute information about this collective protest, contributors used the most prominent listserv for the dissemination of new music information: the Two New Hours Discussion List. Unfortunately, CBC management decided to suppress this information by suddenly changing its policy and Terms of Agreement for cbc.ca users. Not coincidentally, this change in policy occurred a short time after the protest began, and a few hours after I received a phone call from a frustrated member of CBC Radio management. As a result, postings to the Two New Hours list are now filtered, and the mature and measured concerns about changes at CBC Radio are removed, no longer forwarded to their intended and interested audience. Previous postings have been scoured from the archives. One wouldn't expect this type of censorship from a public broadcaster, and one wonders what integrity there is in attempting to remove the voices of concerned individuals. What are they so afraid of? CBC meeting report: www.stopcbcpop.ca/ Petition against recent changes: www.petitionspot.com/petitions/ stopcbcpop Paul Steenhuisen WWW, THEWHOLENOTE.COM EBR UARY

SOME THING New by Jason van Eyk A T 8 T • G Ii O A G Ii T H Ii M A A T Y R There is a new trend gaining critical mass in the world of new music - more and more concerts bringing film and projected visual elements into the mix. No surprise, a cynic would say, given that our society places an inordinately high value upon the visual (see those home theatre, HDTV, multi-cine-plex, internet-addicted masses), and especially when viewed in light of the iPod generation (a socially disconnected bunch who treat music like a commodity that constitutes the background soundtrack to their everyday life). That same cynic might also claim that new music ensembles, needing to justify their existence through larger and broader audiences, are bringing heightened visual stimulation into the concert hall as an inevitable "product enhancement" in an increasingly market- and marketing-driven arts environment. It has nothing to do with appreciating music in the least. However, an optimist would counter those remarks by reminding us that the connection between live visuals and music has a long, healthy, and experimental history in the arts. Two very recent and important gallery exhibitions (Sons et Lumieres at the Centre Pompidou in 2004- 2005 and Visual Music at the Hirschom Museum in 2005) have demonstrated this history extensively and successfully. Both presented a 20thcentury survey of synaesthetic art that blends visuals and music, extending it out to the point of a revolutionary concept: that fine art should attain the abstract purity of music. Such a concept culminates in current artistic practice. By example, within Montreal's growing videomusic scene, pioneering Quebec composer Jean Piche draws on parallel compositional models to create abstracted visual music. No longer classified as video art, or electroacoustic music, Piche has stimulated a new groundbreaking hybrid form (which was highlighted as part of Montreal's 2005 Elektra festival). It is within the sphere of abstracted visual music that February's new music concerts begin. Kingston's LEARK Ensemble (that's Live Electro Acoustic Research Kitchen, a collective led by Kristi Allik and Robert Mulder) delivers an Electronic Zen Garden experience on February 4th at the Music Gallery. Electronic Zen Garden is designed as a contemporary, non-permanent installation that envelopes the audience in radiant, flowing colour, light and sound. The visual component is generated through a tall lumia column that forms an island in the gallery space. The matching soundscape is released through an all-encompassing 16-speaker configuration. Both are simultaneously created by the LEARK ensemble through a Zen-inspired improvisation. Another strand of this trend is drawing composers and musicians further back into the 20th-century to revive the lost practice of live music film accompaniment. This movement has been gaining momentum throughout North America and Europe, building a critical mass of work that seeks to restore the more privileged place of music-and-sound work that was a notable part of the silent film era. On February 5th, Torontonians will get a taste of this trend when composer Andrew Downing presents a new ~ score for the silent ~ film The Cabinet of 8 Dr. Caligari. This ~ concert/screening :a forms part of the 0 FREE FALL festival f- :i. of experimental performance taking Andrew Downing place at the Theatre Centre (January 26 to February 5). Downing is known for live music scores that present a more abstracted and interesting take on jazz and improvisation. For his live film scores, Downing calls on one of his live projects named Melodeon, a quintet that includes the composer himself on double bass. More info is available at www.andrewdowning.com. EBRUARY CONTINUES WWW. THEWHOLENOTf.COM tue jan 31 the dutch intensive feat. rosa ensemble + electra NETHERLANDS NEW MUSIC ON TOUR -- 8PM // sat feb 4 LEARK: an electronic zen garden INTERMEDIA: ELECTROACOUSTIC INSTALLATION -· 8PM /1 sun feb 5 continuum: playing in tongues NEW 'NORKS BY HI\TCH, OESTERLE, SI\INT·DENIS -- 8PM // sat feb 11 wavelength 300 FEAT. THE HYLOZOIST, PICASTRO + WOODHANDS -- 8PM PWYC fri feb 24 toca loca: vortex temporum RESIDENCY CONCERT #1: SPECTRAL MUSIC -- 8PM 1/$ 10 tue feb 28 progress STUDENT + EMERGING MUSIC @ THE RED GUITAR -- 8PM PWYC music gallery 197 john st. 416-204-1080 www.musicgallery.org WE ACKNOWLEDGE THE ONGOING SUPPORT OF: CANADA COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS, CANADIAN HERl't'AGE, ONTARIO ARTS COUNCIL, fHE SOCAN FOUNDATION, TORONTO ARTS COUNCIL, WELLINGTON BREWERY. Sunday February 26, 2006 • New @ New Music with flutist Robert Aitken and pianist James Avery -An Evening of World Premieres - Juliet Kiri Palmer (New Zealand/Canada 1967) drift, drop (2006) for piano, flute & 2 ensembles Denis Dion (Canada 1957) Donnant - donnant (2005) for piano & ensemble Andre Ristic (Canada 1972) Concertino (2005) for flute & ensemble Charles Wuorinen (USA 1938) Duo Sonata (2004) for flute & piano Tickets: regular I seniors I students (Cheapseats) 7:15 Intro • 8:00 Concert I Glenn Gould Studio 416 205- 5555 www.NewMusicConcerts.com • 416 961- 9594 Bts Canada Council Conseil des Arts © for the Arts du Clnild:i U'>IM Q ~ ~ · ~ ( Q

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