If any of the performers were to ask the audience to raise their hand if someone they know and care about has experienced some form of mental illness, every hand would be up in the air.” Case in point #2: The “Garage” is not a garage, it’s Galloway’s: I think it was six years ago that Jim Galloway and I, three times, took the freight elevator from just outsideThe WholeNote office on the fifth floor at 720 Bathurst Street down to the then-abandoned ground floor and surveyed the space, rife with potential, its high ceilings, exposed brick walls, old wooden pillars and beams. I remember how his eyes gleamed at the thought of what a jazz venue it might be, in the spirit of the Montreal Bistro and some of the other venues he loved and lamented in the 16 years he wrote his column for The WholeNote. The building at 720 Bathurst was between owners then, and for a few heady weeks, oh how we dreamed and schemed. Almost miraculously, after five years of ownership by the Centre for Social Innovation, that ground floor space still exists, with room for dreams and schemes and for a “wee big band” to play in, right in front of that selfsame freight elevator. So that, dear friends, is what will be happening April 14 from 7pm to 10. For one shining moment the back half of the space, whimsically called “The Garage” because of its large rollup door, will become “Galloway’s” as the “Wee Big Band” under the direction of Martin Loomer makes the building ring with music in memory of Jim. Join us! (Invite details are on page 18.) Case in point #3: Salon West Meets the 18th Century I found myself ever so slightly out of my comfort zone the other day, attending a gathering of something called Salon West, in a little rooftop solarium, with seating for around 25 people, on the fifth floor of the Spoke Club at Portland and King. Salon West bills itself as “a forum for much-needed dialogue on the arts and public policy in Toronto,” with the goal of “creating positive change through the arts” and inspiring “actionable solutions to the issues facing our great city.” Guests on this particular day (March 23) were both from Tafelmusik - violinist Julia Wedman - and the orchestra’s recently appointed managing director, William Norris, described in the Salon West program note as being “dedicated to pushing the boundaries of a traditionally conservative art form to attract new audiences.” It was a fascinating encounter. As readers of last November’s magazine may recall, Norris, from his description of his previous role with London’s Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, is already firmly committed to finding new ways of taking this music that he is clearly passionate about to new audiences, on their own turf. And he has strong views too about how some of the more rigid aspects of concert etiquette impose on how we listen to music constraints that the composers of that music would themselves have been uncomfortable with. “The music tells you when to applaud and not to,” for example, is a tenet with interesting implications. Just think of the cracks in decorum that might result if it were applied without qualification to our town’s typical concert halls! Wedman’s contribution was to interweave brief moments of music and musical treatise (Telemann, Mattheson) with detailed information about the unique characteristics of her baroque-style bow and instrument, before concluding with two movements from Bach’s Sei Solo Sonatas and Partitas. It was an object lesson in everything, from technical and intellectual skill to visceral and emotional commitment, that this music demands of its practitioners. I left with a spring in my step – with the image in my mind of a solution already well under way, rather than some burdensome problem to be gnawed over; 25 to 30 people sat and stood, listening as one to unamplified Bach in a rooftop room at twilight, oblivious to the noise of the building’s mechanical plant and the dull roar from dining and meeting rooms below. Happy reading! There are many more musical moments inside! publisher@thewholenote.com INDEX OF ADVERTISERS 5 at the First Chamber Players 56 Adam Sherkin 41, 51 Adi Braun 49 Annex Singers 52 ArtsMedia 64 Associates of the TSO 16, 43 ATMA 5, 69 Aurora Cultural Centre 44, 52 Blythwood Winds 41 Canadian Children’s Opera Company 22 Canadian Opera Company 13, 43, 49, 57 Canadian Sinfonietta 48 Castle Frank House of Melody 47 Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra 45 Christ Church Deer Park Jazz Vespers 61 Church of the Holy Trinity 41 Claude Watson Secondary Arts Program 46, 51, 65 Eglinton St. George’s United Church 45 Elmer Iseler Singers 31 Fanshawe Chorus London 56 Festival of the Sound 20 First Ontario Performing Arts Centre 55 Grace Church on-the-Hill 42 Greater Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra 44 Hannaford Street Silver Band 25, 45 High Notes Inc. 35 Horizon Tax 64 I Furiosi 47 Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts 4, 54, 55 Ken Page Memorial Trust / The WholeNote 18 Kindred Spirits Orchestra 53 Lawrence Park Community Church 52, 65 Li Delun Music Foundation 53, 63 LizPR 64 Long & McQuade 14 Manning + Ulster Refugee Project 44 MasterPerforming 64 Masterworks of Oakville Chorus & Orchestra 53 Mississauga Festival Choir 52 Mississauga Symphony 50 Mooredale Concerts 45 Music at Metropolitan 41, 50 Music at St. Andrews’s / Embassy of Austria 46 Music Toronto 9, 23, 40, 43 Musicians in Ordinary 47 Musikay 44 Naxos 71, 72 New Music Concerts 40, 48 Oakham House Choir 50 Off Centre Music Salon 33 Opera Atelier 41 Orchestra Toronto 48 Orpheus Choir 30 Pasquale Bros. 62 Pavlo / Hejaz Entertainment 46 Pax Christi Chorale 11 Peterborough Symphony 57 Remenyi House of Music 15 Rhodes Piano 64 Rich Brown 72 Royal Canadian College of Organists 47 Royal Conservatory 39, 45, 85, 87 Saluki Music 64 Scarborough Philharmonic 26 Show One Productions 27 Sine Nomine 49 SING! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival 19 Soundstreams 29 Southern Ontario Chapter Hymn Society 63 St. James Cathedral 37, 49 St. Jude’s Celebration of the Arts 42 St. Olave’s Church 45 St. Philip’s Jazz Vespers 61 Steinway Piano Gallery 12 Syrinx Concerts 26, 40, 51 Tafelmusik 2, 38, 40, 49, 88 Talisker Players 51 Toronto Children’s Chorus 52 Toronto Consort 17, 52 Toronto Downtown Jazz 19 Toronto Mendelssohn Choir 31 Toronto Operetta Theatre 21 Toronto Symphony Orchestra 3, 43, 49 Toronto Summer Music Festival and Academy 63 Toy Piano Composers 38 Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre 65 U of T Faculty of Music 27, 42 Unitarian Congregation in Mississauga 48 Universal Music Canada 69 Village Voices 53 VOCA Chorus of Toronto 53 Westben Arts Festival Theatre 22 Women’s Musical Club of Toronto 51 thewholenote.com April 1, 2016 - May 7, 2016 | 7
