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Volume 24 Issue 1 - September 2018

  • Text
  • September
  • Jazz
  • Toronto
  • Musical
  • Symphony
  • Quartet
  • Orchestra
  • Festival
  • Theatre
  • Violin
In this issue: The WholeNote's 7th Annual TIFF TIPS guide to festival films with musical clout; soprano Erin Wall in conversation with Art of Song columnist Lydia Perovic, about more than the art of song; a summer's worth of recordings reviewed; Toronto Chamber Choir at 50 (is a few close friends all it takes?); and much more, as the 2018/19 season gets under way.

an Ontario government

an Ontario government agency The WholeNote VOLUME 24 NO 1 | SEPTEMBER 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 Social Media Editor | Danial Jazaeri 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, Paul Ennis, Christopher Hoile, Jack MacQuarrie, Jennifer Parr, Lydia Perović, Colin Story, Andrew Timar, Steve Wallace, Matthew Whitfield Features Paul Ennis, David Jaeger, David Perlman, Lydia Perović CD Reviewers Alex Baran, Stuart Broomer, Raul da Gama, Hans de Groot, Janos Gardonyi, Tiina Kiik, Roger Knox, Pamela Margles, Lesley Mitchell-Clarke, David Olds, Ted Parkinson, Cathy Riches, Terry Robbins, Michael Schulman, Michael Schwartz, Andrew Scott, Sharna Searle, Colin Story, Bruce Surtees, Andrew Timar, Ken Waxman, Dianne Wells. Proofreading Sara Constant, Paul Ennis, Danial Jazaeri, John Sharpe Listings Team Ruth Atwood, Gary Heard, Tilly Kooyman, Ron C. Mann, John Sharpe, Colin Story, Katie White Design Team Kevin King, Susan Sinclair Circulation Team Lori Sandra Aginian, Wende Bartley, Beth Bartley / Mark Clifford, Jack Buell, Sharon Clark, Manuel Couto, 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, Andrew Schaefer, Tom Sepp, Dagmar Sullivan, Julia Tait, Dave Taylor, Randy Weir BEAT BY BEAT 20 Music Theatre | JENNIFER PARR 22 Classical & Beyond | PAUL ENNIS 26 Early Music | MATTHEW WHITFIELD 28 In with the New | WENDALYN BARTLEY 30 On Opera | CHRISTOPHER HOILE 33 Choral Scene | BRIAN CHANG 36 World View | ANDREW TIMAR 38 Jazz Notes | STEVE WALLACE 39 Bandstand | JACK MACQUARRIE 50 Mainly Clubs, Mostly Jazz | COLIN STORY LISTINGS 42 A | Concerts in the GTA 47 B | Concerts Beyond the GTA 49 C | Music Theatre 51 D | In the Clubs (Mostly Jazz) 53 E | The ETCeteras 25 DISCOVERIES: RECORDINGS REVIEWED 56 Editor’s Corner | DAVID OLDS 58 Strings Attached | TERRY ROBBINS 60 Keyed In | ALEX BARAN 62 Vocal 64 Classical and Beyond 66 Modern and Contemporary 68 Jazz and Improvised Music 72 Pot Pourri 73 Something in the Air | KEN WAXMAN 74 Old Wine, New Bottles | BRUCE SURTEES MORE 6 Contact Information 7 Upcoming dates and deadlines 54 Classified Ads UPCOMING SPECIAL SECTIONS In October: The Blue Pages Directory of Music Makers 2018/19 un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario 6 | September 2018 thewholenote.com

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN Instruments of Peace I t’s fascinating to watch the extremes of tone and temper that can be conveyed by social media, where sober second thought has about as much of a place as kombucha does while watching the Maple Leafs at Toby’s on St. Patrick’s Day. On Facebook, for example, one gets the occasional reasoned utterance. Yesterday, for instance, there was this one, shared with me (and 50 others) by an individual who has provided the quiet administrative continuity to a mid-sized chamber orchestra in town for the past 22 years: Participation in musical activities helps EVERY other part of children’s development, and also promotes habits that enable a more civil society. Funding after-school music programs saves tax dollars that would otherwise have to be spent later, in health care, mental health care, the justice system and other social services. De-funding such programs is a HUGE mistake. Write to your MPP and object! Unless, like me you are a shrinking violet who still reads CAPS as SHOUTING, the post might just pass you by, especially if the south-ofthe border twitterings of Agent Orange have become as obsessively compulsive a daily focus of attention for you as they have for me. Fortunately, Facebook allows for pictures as well. So one also gets to post louder, blunter versions of the same idea, like this one. Taken together the two versions of the same message got me thinking, in a way that neither on its own would have. As follows: Here at The WholeNote, we started following the fortunes of Sistema Toronto, almost from its inception, right after El Sistema’s Venezuelan founder José Antonio Abreu was awarded the eighth Glenn Gould Prize in 2008. El Sistema, as I learned then, thanks to the consciousnessraising power of prizes and awards, is a publicly financed, voluntary sector, music-education program, founded in Venezuela in 1975 and providing “free classical music education that promotes human opportunity and development for impoverished children.” (Over 700,000 of them, by 2015, in Venezuela alone). After school. Four hours a day. Four days a week. Impressed as I was at the time, I confess to having been cynical about the likelihood of transplanting it from a country with a government that has the power to simply set up a program like that at the stroke of a pen. Here, you don’t get to build things that way. Only, apparently, the power (also at the stroke of a pen) to tear them down. Visits to Toronto Sistema over the years, seeing children willingly and joyfully, commit to an after-school regime of work and play not much less rigorous than the Venezuelan model, made me change my mind about its viability. Yes, Margaret. I will definitely write to my MPP and object. But first I have one more thought to offer. I think we make a mistake to argue a case for the redemptive powers of things like Toronto Sistema if we tie our outrage only to the fact that it is a music program that is under attack here. Or to the fact that it is specifically targeted to so-called “at risk” neighbourhoods. The way our society is structured, the four hours of the day between the time most children get out of school and the time most home-based supervision or mentoring kicks in is when all of our children are most at risk. Make no mistake, their appetite for learning, their hunger to belong will not be any the less during those hours when deprived of such opportunities as these to exercise joyously and cooperatively the social muscles that enable a civil society. If we do not put instruments of peace in their hands, what will they take up instead? And from whom? And who will be most at risk then, crying into our beer-for-a-buck about how “kids got no respect for the law today”? publisher@thewholenote.com Upcoming Dates & Deadlines for our October 2018 edition Free Event Listings Deadline Midnight, Saturday September 8 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Saturday September 15 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Monday September 17 Classifieds Deadline 6 pm Saturday September 22 Publication Date Wednesday September 26 (online) Friday September 28 (print edition) Volume 24 No 1 “OCTOBER” will list events October 1 through November 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 JUNE 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 September 2018 | 7

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