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Volume 16 Issue 2 - October 2010

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Candidly Speaking: John

Candidly Speaking: John BeckwithWhat do you mean, for music? Taken at NMC’s Pioneers! O Pioneers! concert March 23, 2003 celebratingWeinzweig’s 90th birthday and the careers of John Beckwith andHarry Freedman, all of whom wrote new works for the occasion. Left toright, composers John Beckwith, John Weinzweig, and Harry Freedman.Was Ernest MacMillan a role model? Besidesconductor we’ve ever had, he was involved --Is that why you did this new book with BrianCherney? You’ve contributed a reminiscence ofWeinzweig. What are you working on now? Couldn’t it be that it’s not that music is dying –it’s that musical values are changing. He laughs. ---Is there room for everything? So you need to keep fighting just to maintainthat margin? For further information on John Beckwith:,--PHOTO ANDRÉ LEDUC80 Acadia Avenue, Unit 309, Markham ON L3R 9V1SalesViolin Viola Cello BowsRepair and RentalProfessional violin maker andString instrument rental servicePhilharmonic Music Ltd.SchoolPrivate lessons and examsViolin Viola Cello Bass905-784-2028 www.philharmoniccanada.com56 thewholenote.comOctober 1 - November 7, 2010

We Are All Music’s ChildrenSeptember’s Child Jeannette Lajeunesse ZinggMJ BUELLWHO ISOCTOBER’S CHILD?“There are so many differentcharacters to play. It’s like‘acting plus’: because the musicthat’s added to it informs youas to what kind of characteryou are. It’s really exciting. Ijust totally fell in love withit … Opera makes sense to meculturally.”From the bullrings of Spainto the forests of Timiskaming,to “Dublin” this comingDecember 11, this colourfulmezzo with a preferencefor bright yellow, orange,turquoise, various pinks, andimpromptu backstage danceoutbreaks, continues to singher way into the minds andspirits of characters, audiencesand colleagues alike.Think you know who ourmystery child is? Send yourbest guess to musicschildren@thewholenote.com. Pleaseprovide your mailing addressjust in case your name isdrawn! Winners will beselected by random drawamong correct replies receivedby October 20, 2010.Autumn – Sooke, BritishColumbia, 1981.People often say “Oh – everyone at Opera Atelier is so beautiful…”They are often surprised that sometimes members of thecompany have learned that they are beautiful. There is not, Ithink, an ungraceful person in the world. I adore what I do.In her role as Opera Atelier’sco-Artistic Director, choreographerand dancer JeannetteLajeunesse Zingg has created aunique body of work which isinternationally admired for notonly its historical authenticityand detail, but for its own particularbaroque ethos and originalbeauty.Zingg is the determinedlookinglittle girl in September’schildhood photo. She wasborn in Zurich, Switzerland, “acountry that loved and respectedfolk music and early music, andwhere most children learned toplay instruments as part of thenormal healthy things that childrendo.” Little Jeannette’s fatherwas a professor and a medicalscientist who didn’t sing butplayed his symphonies and Carusolps “nice and loud.” Hermother, with a PhD in literature,had played the cello in amateurorchestras and also played therecorder. She led her little girland some neighbourhood childrenin a little recorder ensemblewhere they played folk musicand arrangements of Kodalysongs. When a record was playingin the house Jeannette couldbe found “rushing around, leapingand waving, doing the thingsthat all children do, with the innateknowledge that dancing isstorytelling…”Jeannette’s father’s workbrought them to Canada offand on and they eventually settledhere when she was about 7.When her mother wanted her tohave the opportunity to play anensemble instrument, 7-yearoldJeannette, who did not knowmuch about instruments, chosethe violin. They travelled backand forth to Europe a lot. By theage of 10 Jeannette, who hadbeen mostly home-schooled, wasstill studying music, seemed tohave an academic disposition,and had already become verytall very quickly.Jeannette had always wantedto dance, but nobody hadthought much of it. Somehow thetopic came up in conversationwith a doctor friend of her father’swho suggested FlorentinaLojekova as a teacher. Ms Lojekovakindly offered to provide10-year-old Jeannette with somedance classes that she taught inher basement.“We went to opera, to thesymphony, or because of mymother’s interest in anthropology,if there was an African ballethappening we would go to seethat… I only saw the Nutcrackerat 12 or 13 once I was havinglessons at the National BalletSchool.”Jeannette’s appetite for balletquickly outgrew the basementlessons. She subsequently tookclasses at The National BalletSchool, and completed her highschool education at The RoyalAcademy of Dancing in London,England, where in addition to aCONGRATULATIONS TO OUR SEPTEMBER WINNERS!HERE’S WHAT THEY WON–Sara Schabas and Charlie Sise each win a pair of tickets to attendOpera Atelier’s production of George Frideric Handel’s Acis andGalatea, (October 30 - November 7).This production features Mireille Asselin as Galatea, in her OperaAtelier debut, with Thomas Macleay, João Fernandes, Lawrence Wiliford,Artists of Atelier Ballet, and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra andChamber Choir under the baton of David Fallis.Ovid’s popular pastoral story of the waternymph Galatea and her doomed love for the Arcadianshepherd Acis inspired operas by Lully, Porpora,and in fact two different works by Handel.Hugely popular in its day it was later adaptedby both Mozart and later again by Mendelssohn.Sensual, tragic and ironic Acis and Galetea is Han-del at his best. Expect to be … well … metamorphosed! Lucky Francine Pedersen goes to the head of the line, for a pairof tickets to attend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito,(April 22 - May 1). It’s likely to become a “hot ticket” as springtime approaches,so if you didn’t win, consider buyingur ticket well in advance!La Clemenza di Tito will star soprano Measha Brueggergosman, malesoprano Michael Maniaci and dramatic tenor Kresimir Spicer, and willfeature the full corps of Artists of Atelier Ballet, with TafelmusikOrchestra under the baton of David Fallis.Opera Atelier’s brand new La Clemenza di Titois the premiere production on period instrumentsof this opera. Roman aristocrat Vitelia, daughter ofthe deposed Emperor Vitellio, plots the assassinationof Titus, Emperor of Rome, and Mozart treatsus to his best operatic ingredients: intrigues, unrequitedlove and startling reversals of fortune.October 1 - November 7, 2010 thewholenote.com 57

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