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Volume 21 Issue 2 - October 2015

Vol 21 No 2 is now available for your viewing pleasure, and it's a bumper crop, right at the harvest moon. First ever Canadian opera on the Four Seasons Centre main stage gets double coverage with Wende Bartley interviewing Pyramus and Thisbe composer Barbara Monk Feldman and Chris Hoile connecting with director Christopher Alden; Paul Ennis digs into the musical mind of pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, and pianist Eve Egoyan is "On the Record" in conversation with publisher David Perlman ahead of the Oct release concert for her tenth recording. And at the heart of it all the 16th edition of our annual BLUE PAGES directory of presenters profile the season now well and truly under way.

Nine Sparrows Arts

Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation & Yorkminster Park Baptist Church Present Rob Crabtree piper Colleen Burns narrator Elizabeth Anderson organ Special Guest Annalee Patipatanakoon violin (Gryphon Trio) Saturday November 7th, 2015 7:30 pm Admission Free Donations Welcome Lark Popov piano Yorkminster Park Baptist Church Choir The Hedgerow Singers Yorkminster Park Baptist Church 1585 Yonge Street at Heath Street www.9sparrowsarts.org www.yorkminsterpark.com Eric N. Robertson conductor GRAMMY and JUNO Nominated 2015/2016 Choral Concert Series Mahler by Candlelight October 17th | 8:00 pm | St. John’s Church, Elora David Briggs, guest organist Messiah December 13th | 3:00 pm | St. Joseph’s Church, Fergus Festival of Carols December 21 | 5:00 & 7:30 pm | St. John’s Church, Elora Festival of Carols December 22nd | 7:30 pm | St. John’s Church, Elora Choral - Grand & Intimate March 6th | 4:00 pm | Church of our Lady, Guelph Toronto Mendelssohn Choir All prices include sales tax. Buy a season subscription and save 15% off ! 28 | Oct 1 - Nov 7, 2015 thewholenote.com

Deeply Political Music BRIAN CHANG Teddy Abrams is the 28-year-old conductor of the Louisville Orchestra. His youth is not for a lack of experience and talent. At the end of the summer he was featured by PBS as the youngest artistic director of a major American orchestra. He spoke of many philosophical questions that are affecting live instrumental music. One in particular has stuck with me, and that’s his belief that artistic organizations need Beat by Beat | Choral Scene Nathaniel Dett Chorale to continue to create a positive direction for our society. He challenges himself and his musicians to think about the ways in which they can bring together, collaborate with and energize the communities they touch. And he sees important elements of civic, social and political life in music. These big questions are inevitably lost in the competitive musical life of Toronto and the surrounding areas. I have yet to meet a musical organization that exists solely for the creation of a better society, in so many words; but, on the other hand, if so many of us did not have positive experiences with live music, why would we contribute so much of ourselves towards it? In the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (of which I am a member), each chorister spends over 150 hours in more than 50 rehearsals each season, apart from personal practice time. Add my other ensembles to the mix, the Scarborough Concert Band and Incontra Vocal Ensemble, and easily eight hours of my week are spent in rehearsals or doing music. When I conducted the UTSC Alumni and Community Choir the commitment was drastically higher with preparation, technique, and score study. Live music is not an insignificant commitment to bring to fruition. But the result is unlike any other. The collaborative nature of music requires the blending of myriad forces into a cohesive engine that can lead in many directions. And yes, they can present ideas, stories and thoughts on deeply political and social issues. A few upcoming performances truly showcase this ability. Hail October! With October hailing the true start to the musical performance season, there are many performances ahead. Bravo Niagara’s North Star Festival is early in the month from October 2 to 4. This inaugural festival is endorsed by the UNESCO Slave Route Project. At St. Mark’s Anglican in Niagara-on-the-Lake on October 3 at 7:30pm the Nathaniel Dett Chorale presents “Freedom has a Voice.” The Chorale will be featuring Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Wheldon Johnson, a song written in 1899. A contemporary of Canadian Nathaniel Dett, Johnson would make his name as a writer, composer and dignitary in his position as executive secretary of the U.S. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for a decade. During the civil rights era, Lift Every Voice and Sing would become an anthem of the people throughout the movement. Niagara, an important terminus on the Underground Railroad, is the perfect place for Bravo Niagara to honour the important goal of many looking for freedom. Such spirituals as Wade in the Water and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot have histories connected to the Underground Railroad. These songs are now staples of modern choral tradition but were once relegated to minstrel shows, their powerful history perverted in racist processes of minstrelsy and blackface. Dett and Johnson were two of many musicians who revived these spirituals and re-elevated them from their degradation. With Polaris, the North Star, leading people onwards to Niagara, the region was a haven unlike any other. And the culture and peoples who braved this perilous journey have left an indelible and beautiful history for us to commemorate. I hope this is the first of many years for this festival. Wilfred Laurier University’s “Sing Fires of Justice 10th Anniversary Concert,” honouring missing and murdered indigenous women, takes place at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Kitchener, October 4 at 7pm. Choirs from WLU, the University of Waterloo, the Mino Ode Kwewak N’Gamowak (Good Hearted Women Singers) and many other guests are featured: music continues to be a salient and powerful tool in exploring communal trauma, sharing stories and celebrating. Admission is by freewill donation with funds going towards the Mino Ode Kwewak N’Gamowak. Buffy Sainte-Marie: The pathways that lead to the creation of music, the sharing of music, and the performance of music are many. These deeply social, economic and political issues are heightened through music. Dett’s and Johnson’s history, stories and sense of justice were strongly linked to their musical expression. And for indigenous women in Canada, one only has to look at the artistic practices of the last two years of Polaris Prize winners – Tanya Tagaq and Buffy Celebrating 35 Years! Friday, October 23, 2015, 8:00 pm Stories of Remembrance Friday, December 4, 2015, 8:00 pm Stories of the Season Friday, April 1, 2016, 8:00 pm Stories of Love and Longing Friday, May 27, 2016, 8:00 pm Stories of Peace and Justice Special guests, DaCapo Chamber Choir For tickets or more information: 416-971-9229 www.exultate.net an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario thewholenote.com Oct 1 - Nov 7, 2015 | 29

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