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Volume 23 Issue 6 - March 2018

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • Jazz
  • Arts
  • Faculty
  • Theatre
  • Musical
  • Symphony
  • Orchestra
  • Quartet
  • Performing
In this issue: Canadian Stage, Tapestry Opera and Vancouver Opera collaborate to take Gogol’s short story The Overcoat to the operatic stage; Montreal-based Sam Shalabi brings his ensemble Land of Kush, and his newest composition, to Toronto; Five Canadian composers, each with a different CBC connection, are nominated for JUNOs; and The WholeNote team presents its annual Summer Music Education Directory, a directory of summer music camps, programs and courses across the province and beyond.

an Ontario government

an Ontario government agency The WholeNote VOLUME 23 NO 6 | MARCH 2018 Centre for Social Innovation 720 Bathurst St., Suite 503, Toronto ON M5S 2R4 PHONE 416-323-2232 | FAX 416-603-4791 Publisher/Editor In Chief | David Perlman publisher@thewholenote.com Chairman of the Board | Allan Pulker directors@thewholenote.com EDITORIAL Managing Editor | Paul Ennis editorial@thewholenote.com Recordings Editor | David Olds discoveries@thewholenote.com Digital Media Editor | Sara Constant editorial@thewholenote.com Listings Editor | John Sharpe listings@thewholenote.com jazz@thewholenote.com SALES, MARKETING & MEMBERSHIP Concert & Event Advertising / Membership | Karen Ages members@thewholenote.com Advertising Art /Production Support / Operations Jack Buell | adart@thewholenote.com Classified Ads | classad@thewholenote.com Website/Systems Support | Kevin King systems@thewholenote.com Circulation/Subscriptions | Chris Malcolm circulation@thewholenote.com SUBSCRIPTIONS per year + HST (9 issues)* *international subscriptions, additional postage applies THANKS TO THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS Beat Columnists Wendalyn Bartley, Brian Chang, Paul Ennis, Jack MacQuarrie, Jennifer Parr, Lydia Perović, Andrew Timar, Steve Wallace, Christopher Hoile, Matthew Whitfield Features David Jaeger, Jennifer Parr, Colin Story, Matthew Whitfield CD Reviewers Alex Baran, Stuart Broomer, Max Christie, Daniel Foley, Raul da Gama, Janos Gardonyi, Tiina Kiik, Roger Knox, Lesley Mitchell-Clarke, Ivana Popovic, Allan Pulker, Terry Robbins, Michael Schulman, Colin Story, Bruce Surtees, Andrew Timar, Robert Tomas, Ken Waxman, Dianne Wells Proofreading Sara Constant, Paul Ennis, John Sharpe Listings Team Ruth Atwood, Tilly Kooyman, John Sharpe, Katie White Design Team Kevin King, Susan Sinclair Circulation Team Lori Sandra Aginian, Wende Bartley, Beth Bartley / Mark Clifford, Jack Buell, Diane Boyer, Sharon Clark, Paul Ennis, Robert Faulkner, Terry Gaeeni, Gero Hajek, James Harris, Micah Herzog, Jeff Hogben, Bob Jerome, Chris Malcolm, Luna Walker- Malcolm, Sheila McCoy, Lorna Nevison, Garry Page, Rob Salmers, Andrew Schaefer, Tom Sepp, Dagmar Sullivan, Julia Tait, Dave Taylor, Randy Weir un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario BEAT BY BEAT 16 On Opera | CHRISTOPHER HOILE 18 Classical & Beyond | PAUL ENNIS 22 In with the New | WENDALYN BARTLEY 24 World View | ANDREW TIMAR 26 Early Music | MATTHEW WHITFIELD 28 Art of Song | LYDIA PEROVIĆ 30 Choral Scene | BRIAN CHANG 32 Jazz Notes | STEVE WALLACE 34 Music Theatre | JENNIFER PARR 36 Bandstand | JACK MACQUARRIE 54 Mainly Clubs, Mostly Jazz | DAVID PERLMAN LISTINGS 38 A | Concerts in the GTA 49 B | Concerts Beyond the GTA 53 C | Music Theatre 54 D | In the Clubs (Mostly Jazz) 55 E | The ETCeteras 23 BO HUANG DISCOVERIES: RECORDINGS REVIEWED 69 Strings Attached | TERRY ROBBINS 70 Keyed In | ALEX BARAN 72 Vocal 73 Classical and Beyond 74 Modern and Contemporary 76 Jazz and Improvised Music 79 Pot Pourri 81 Something in the Air | KEN WAXMAN 82 Old Wine, New Bottles | BRUCE SURTEES MORE 6 Contact Information 7 Upcoming dates and deadlines 37 Index of Advertisers 57 Classified Ads SPECIAL SECTION 58-67 SPECIAL FOCUS ON SUMMER MUSIC EDUCATION UPCOMING SPECIAL SECTIONS In May 2018: The Canary Pages All things choral in Southern Ontario In June 2018: The Green Pages Summer Music Guide 6 | March 2018 thewholenote.com

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN The More It All Changes ... Those of you who have followed this publication over the years know that without the existence of Toronto’s Kensington Market The WholeNote would likely never have come into being. For one thing, this publication started out 25 years ago as a classical music column (called “Pulse”) written by one of our founders, Allan Pulker, and appearing in a monthly neighbourhood newspaper, the Kensington Market Drum, founded and run by yours truly and The WholeNote’s operations manager Jack Buell. Back then, Pulker had the crazy idea that there was enough ongoing musical activity of the classical kind going on within easy bicycling distance of Kensington Market to warrant not only a regular column but also a solid half page or so of listings. He came back with a plastic bag of brochures and flyers to prove it. Perlman and Buell were quixotic enough to agree, and the windmills have been whirling ever since. Kensington is still our home (for going on 35 years now). People say things like “Oh you live in Kensington? - I haven’t been there for years but I was there last weekend. It sure has changed a lot …” Funny thing is, I find myself getting all knee-jerk defensive when they say it, irrespective of whether it sounds as though they are suggesting it has changed for the better or for the worse! Things we count on are somehow not supposed to change, even though as individuals we are changing all the time. So how does this apply to The WholeNote and our two decades of championing live music performance? For one thing, our magazine is evidence, for anyone who cares to look, of the ways in which our region’s live performance ethos is in a state of change. Because we have managed to keep our daily concert listings free, presenters get one whether or not they can afford to buy an ad. And because certain supporters of the magazine still harvest listings in plastic bags and bring them to us, musicians sometimes get free listings, even if they didn’t bother to send them in. Our listings tell us all kinds of things: That there are more performances all the time in what, even a few years ago, would have been described as “non-traditional concert venues.” That there are, today, very few places that cannot be turned into viable performance venues by opportunistic and/or creative musicians and presenters. And that, increasingly, many people want to listen to live music in places that resonate with them whether or not those places work for the music and the performers. On the other hand, they also tell us that so-called traditional concert venues, increasingly pronounced dead (or else shrines for music that is dead), remain astonishingly resilient. All the more astonishing given the ease with which technology today enables people to privatize their personal musical experiences, to use music to turn public spaces into private ones. There are still many thousands of concertgoers who want their listening to happen in places where other people have gathered to listen to the same things, and where the listening is the point. So we have among our readers large numbers of existing audience members who make regular concert-going pilgrimages to the music. And we have large numbers of potential audience members who believe that music makers should come to them with this music so they can sample it on their own terms. Or at the very least that it should happen in places in which they can feel at ease. So, we have the example of Tafelmusik giving beautiful traditional concerts along with programs that push the boundaries of the traditional concert form, all in Jeanne Lamon Hall. And we also have them offering “Haus Musik” in the Queen West Great Hall – immersive evenings of baroque and DJ music, imagery, and dance, side by side. Or, another recent example: Opera Atelier took a program called “Harmonia Sacra” (February 15) into the vaulted elegance of the ROM’s Samuel Hall Currelly Gallery, featuring a consort of early music players, soprano, baritone and three costumed Baroque ballet dancers; and threw in the bonus of a brand new performance piece for dancer and solo violin (Opera Atelier’s first Canadian commission – Inception) composed and performed by violinist Edwin Huizinga, with contemporary choreography by dancer Tyler Gledhill. It all became an illustration, perfectly (and beyond words) of how the underpinnings of what we call Baroque are alive and well today: sacred still meets profane; scored/choreographed still meets improvised; servant of the muse meets rock star. What this all has to do with Kensington Market is that when the two broad categories of music lovers described above collide, as they must if our art is to survive, the lesson of the Market is that rough-andready cheerful resilience is what keeps you going. You’ll still be in eatdrink-and-be merry mode long after some others if you can accept that to stay alive, music-making, and the way it is presented, must continue to change – that change is the only constant. Metaphorically, our musical streets bustle with grannies and children, homeless people and hipsters, wheelchairs, skateboards, and trick bikes, every kind of music and the languages of every nation. If you are lucky, in the middle of it all will be a circle of people standing around a musician playing the solo part to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, hearing the whole orchestra in his head. And the audience around him, drawn from every imaginable category of market goers and music lovers, yourself included, will all be choosing to listen in an elective silence as beautiful as any concert hall. And no-one will shush the child who starts to sing along. publisher@thewholenote.com Upcoming Dates & Deadlines Free Event Listings Deadline Midnight Thursday March 8 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Thursday March 15 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Monday March 19 Classifieds Deadline 10pm Saturday March 24 Publication Date Tuesday March 27 (online) Thursday April 1 (Print) Volume 23 No 7 “APRIL” covers April 1 - May 7, 2018 WholeNote Media Inc. accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported on or advertised in this issue. Printed in Canada Couto Printing & Publishing Services Circulation Statement FEBRUARY 2018 30,000 printed & distributed Canadian Publication Product Sales Agreement 1263846 ISSN 14888-8785 WHOLENOTE Publications Mail Agreement #40026682 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: WholeNote Media Inc. Centre for Social Innovation 503–720 Bathurst Street Toronto ON M5S 2R4 COPYRIGHT © 2018 WHOLENOTE MEDIA INC thewholenote.com thewholenote.com March 2018 | 7

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