are hosting Power Up 2011, an annual gospel music workshop onthe weekend of March 4-6. The weekend includes workshops invocal improvisation and songwriting, and culminates in a masschoir performance on the Sunday evening of the weekend. Moreinformation can be found at the Choir’s website www.tmc.ca.Lastly, on April 2, the Toronto Chamber Choir devotes anevening to the works of Josquin Des Prez (c. 1450 approx - 1521).In a time in which music was not disseminated easily, his pan–from the early Renaissance. Now even more remote to our ears thanMonteverdi, Byrd or Palestrina, his music denotes mystery, lostcustoms and sounds and beliefs. But well performed, it is hardlyaustere – he wrote rowdy and rhythmic popular songs as well assettings of religious texts.Full disclosure prompts me to acknowledge that I have asmall part to play in this concert. Likely, the proper thing for meperformances of Josquin’s music are rare enough in this part ofthe world that I really have no choice but to risk my journalist’scredibility by highlighting it for The WholeNote readers. In thebattle between journalistic ethics and Josquin, Josquin’s got to winpretty much every time. Benjamin Stein is a Toronto tenor and theorbist. He can becontacted at choralscene@thewholenote.comPETER MAHONSales Representative416-322-8000pmahon@trebnet.comwww.petermahon.comBeat by Beat / Classical & BeyondDistinguishedVisitors, Local RootsALLAN PULKERMarch has arrived and with it the vernal equinox, SaintPatrick’s Day, the famous Ides, probably an early thaw,and everywhere. Go to the website of the Faculty of Music at theUniversity of Western Ontario, for example, where events on thecalendar are colour coded: student recitals are orange, and therecitals – there just isn’t the space in the print magazine to do so.But I recommend going to one in March. It’s great fun being ableto say, down the road, that you spotted a great artist early in theircareer. Just go to the website of the music school nearest you andno studentperformances in our listings pages. We list music school recitals bystudent ensembles or by particular teachers’ students. For example,see the recital on March 4 by the York University Brass Ensemble orthe one the following day by students of the voice teachers at YorkUniversity.Meanwhile faculty recitals continue through March: the FacultyWoodwind Quintet at Wilfrid Laurier University will performI have reviewed in this month’s “DISCoveries.” Other universityteachers, Brock University piano professor Karin Bella and U of Tguitar professor Jeffrey McFadden will give recitals on March 1 and7 respectively, to name but a few.Vocal RecitalsIt looks like another good month forvocal recitals, getting off to an earlystart on March 1 with U of T voicestudents presenting a programme ofsongs composed by New Zealandersand Australians at the RichardBradshaw Amphitheatre. The verynext day, hot on the heels of “Nixonin China,” the COC’s vocal seriescontinues with compositions by JohnAdams, introduced by the composerhimself, in town because of his majorrole, as composer and conductor, in theTSO’s New Creations series.On March 6 the AldeburghConnection will tell the story in songof the life of Boston socialite and philanthropist,Isabella Stewart Gardner.Aldeburgh artistic co-director, StephenRalls told me this about the programme:“It’s one of those programmes[because it] has so many [interwoven]is the connection of the music withHer story in song;Boston socialite IsabellaStewart Gardner.Bostonian Isabel Stewart Gardner. She patronised American composers,such as Clayton Johns, Margaret Ruthven Lang and Charlesyoung woman she spent time in France and when back in Bostonprogrammed a lot of French music in concerts at her home, sothere will also be songs by Fauré, Debussy, Chausson, D’Indy andBemberg. One of her causes, Ralls told me, was the welfare of blackpeople in Boston, so there will be arrangements of spirituals as well16 thewholenote.comMarch 1 - April 7, 2011
as other music of her time, including piano duets by Gottschalk andtake in all the people whom she patronised or who were friends ofhers in Boston, [such as] John Singer Sargent, Bernard Berenson andHenry James…”Returning for a moment to the universities, Brock University inSt. Catharines appears to be a hotbed of vocal activity, with threerecitals, March 15, 22 and 25; and on March 26 the Port HopeFriends of Music are presenting a concert by three singers from theOpera School of the University of Toronto. Other upcoming vocalrecitals are mezzo Vilma Indra Vitols presented by the LatvianNational Opera Fund Canada on March 27 and baritone MichaelFitzgerald at Metropolitan United Church on March 31.Piano Recitalsare performing in Torontoin March. Two of theseare faculty members atthe University of BritishColumbia, Jane Coop andSara Davis Buechner. JaneCoop will give two recitalsfor Mooredale Concerts,one designed for childrenand one for the rest ofus, featuring music byBeethoven and Scriabin, onMarch 20. Then on March25 she will be at the AuroraCultural Centre’s BrevikHall, a beautiful new 150-seat facility that sells outfast, especially when anartist of Ms. Coop’s calibreThe WholeNote team,Sharna Searle, herself a pianist, who has recently come here fromVancouver and has heard Jane Coop play on several occasions, tosay something about her. Searle wrote: “I admire her focussed,considered and keenly intelligent understanding of, and approachto, the music. I’ve always thought she was a very grounded playerI always appreciate in a pianist. My teacher at music school (U. ofWestern Ontario), Ronald Turini, had a similar technique; he never‘got in the way of the music.’”Sara Davis Buechnerwill perform with SinfoniaToronto in its interesting“Fantasies” programmeon March 11 and for theKitchener-Waterloo ChamberMusic Society on March 12.She has an astonishing rangeencyclopaedic concert andrecital repertoire, spanningthe breadth of keyboardmusic from Bach to contemporary.An indication of this:her back to back SinfoniaToronto and K-WCMSappearances do not have asingle composer in common.Speaking of the K-WChamber Music Society, yetanother eminent pianist,Janina Fialkowska, willJane Coop: at MooredaleMarch 20 (twice); at BrevikHall (Aurora) March 25.Sara Davis Buechner: back toback with Sinfonia Torontoand K-W Chamber MusicSociety, March 11 and 12.also perform for the K-W Chamber Music Society on March 15.This remarkable organization, you may be interested to know, hasno fewer than eleven different concerts listed in this month’s issue.OPERA PROGRAMS FOR YOUTHEXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCES WITH PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS IN A WORLD CLASS FACILITY.SUMMER YOUTH INTENSIVE (Ages 13-18)July 4 to 8, 20115 per termYOUTH OPERA LAB (Ages 16-21)April 9, 16 & 29, 2011FREE!Visit us online for details and to register.coc.ca/explore 416-306-2392Official MediaPartners:Guillermo Silva-Marin, General Director145 Queen Street West, TorontoUnplugged!Straight-up!Powerful!SEASONFINALETheDeviland Kate …a village comedy ~with a twistMichael Rose, Music DirectorstarringMarion Newman, Giles Tomkins, Adam Lutherfeaturing Hillary Coote, Karen Bojti, Beste Kalender,Jeffrey Sanders, Jonathon Dick, Gregory FinneyOpera in Concert Chorus, Robert Cooper, Chorus DirectorMarch 27 at 2:30 p.m.416-366-7723 1-800-708-6754 www.stlc.comMarch 1 - April 7, 2010 thewholenote.com 17
