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Volume 26 Issue 1 - September 2020

  • Text
  • Ensemble
  • Classical
  • Concerts
  • Singers
  • Choral
  • Jazz
  • Toronto
  • Musical
  • September
  • Choir
Choral Scene: Uncharted territory: three choirs finding paths forward; Music Theatre: Loose Tea on the boil with Alaina Viau’s Dead Reckoning; In with the New: what happens to soundart when climate change meets COVID-19; Call to action: diversity, accountability, and reform in post-secondary jazz studies; 9th Annual TIFF Tips: a filmfest like no other; Remembering: Leon Fleisher; DISCoveries: a NY state of mind; 25th anniversary stroll-through; and more. Online in flip through here, and on stands commencing Tues SEP 1.

an Ontario government

an Ontario government agency The WholeNote VOLUME 26 NO 1 | SEPTEMBER 2020 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 dan@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 Wende Bartley, Brian Chang, Paul Ennis, Robert Harris, David Jaeger, Jack MacQuarrie, Jennifer Parr, David Perlman, Colin Story, Andrew Timar, Steve Wallace, Matthew Whitfield CD Reviewers Stuart Broomer, Max Christie, Sam Dickinson, Daniel Foley, Raul da Gama, Janos Gardonyi, Richard Haskell, Tiina Kiik, Kati Kiilaspea, Roger Knox, LesleyMitchell-Clarke, Cheryl Ockrant, David Olds, Ted Parkinson, Cathy Riches, Terry Robbins, Michael Schulman, Adam Scime, Adam Sherkin, Bruce Surtees, Andrew Timar, Ken Waxman, Mathew Whitfield Proofreading Karen Ages, Paul Ennis, Danial Jazaeri, David Perlman, John Sharpe Listings Team Ruth Atwood, Tilly Kooyman, John Sharpe, Gary Heard, Colin Story Design Team Kevin King, Susan Sinclair Circulation Team Lori Sandra Aginian, Wende Bartley, Beth Bartley / Sarah Caruana, Mark Clifford, Jack Buell, Sharon Clark, Manuel Couto, Paul Ennis, Robert Faulkner, Soudy Gaeeni, Terry Gaeeni, James Harris, Micah Herzog, Jeff Hogben, Bob Jerome, Chris Malcolm, Luna Walker-Malcolm, Jon Malstrom, Sheila McCoy, Lorna Nevison, Garry Page, Andrew Schaefer, Tom Sepp, Julia Tait, Davie Taylor. 23 JAZZ NOTES | Pandamit | STEVE WALLACE 25 EARLY MUSIC | How to Get Back to the Concert Hall | MATTHEW WHITFIELD 27 LIVE ELECTRONICS | Lessons Learned from the CEE’s COVID-Era Experiences | DAVID JAEGER 29 IN WITH THE NEW | Creative (E)mergings in These Days of Isolation | WENDE BARTLEY 30 BANDSTAND | The More it Changes, the More it Changes! | JACK MACQUARRIE 32 IN THE CLUBS | Three Bandleaders on Then, Now, and Next | COLIN STORY 35 LISTINGS: Live & Online, Livestream, ETCetera 56 REMEMBERING | Leon Fleisher – Music is the Star | PAUL ENNIS MORE 6 Contact Information 7 Upcoming dates and deadlines 37 Classified Ads 23 DISCOVERIES: RECORDINGS REVIEWED 38 Editor’s Corner | DAVID OLDS 40 Bang on a Can | RAUL DA GAMA 41 Strings Attached | TERRY ROBBINS 43 Vocal 45 Classical and Beyond 48 Modern and Contemporary 50 Jazz and Improvised Music 52 Pot Pourri 54 Something in the Air | KEN WAXMAN 55 Old Wine, New Bottles | BRUCE SURTEES SPECIAL PRINT SECTIONS IN THIS ISSUE, PAGES C1-C12 The 18th annual CANARY PAGES All things choral in southern Ontario. OCTOBER 2020 AND ON The 21st annual BLUE PAGES directory of music makers 18th Annual Directory of Choirs un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario 6 | September 2020 thewholenote.com

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN CONVERSATIONS PRICELESS! Eagle-eyed readers will have already noticed that the word PRICELESS! is back in its time-honoured spot at the top right of our front cover, where a price would usually be. It was supplanted this time last year in favour of a year-long 25th Season! shoutout. Before that it graced every cover for six seasons, commencing September 2013. Before that, FREE was the word, all the way back to Vol 1 No 1 in September 1995. Although it must be said that in the first year we were somewhat inconsistent about including it. Everyone understood that, along with such timeless institutions as NOW magazine that’s what controlled circulation publications were. So from “free”, to “priceless”, to a year of celebrating silver linings, and now back to priceless again. But for how long? And what comes next? Those are the questions. Looking back, at kiosk.thewholenote.com (come on you can do it!) at the very first “priceless” cover in September 2013 makes me smile, not completely wryly. It’s a gorgeous cover photo of Tafelmusik’s Jeanne Lamon, hard hat in hand, standing in the under-reconstruction balcony at Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church and Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts, Tafelmusik’s home from day one. She is smiling too. WORK IN PROGRESS! the story title shouts from that cover. Which, from today’s vantage point – an entire world of faith, justice and the arts stood on its head – might just as well be taken as a sign of better things to come. As to why we chose to go from “free” to “priceless” at that very moment in 2013, let’s just say, it was waving a flag: cocky, jaunty, danger ahead. Take your pick. For now the priceless flag is back. But, as the signs say, “Watch This Space”. Because whatever it’s going to be, it won’t say “Free” again. At what price The WholeNote? And who should pay? The answers to that are also a work in progress. No instant answers needed, but please, dear readers, give it some thought, and drop me a line. In the meanwhile, please enjoy our “While you’re waiting” stroll through 25 years of WholeNote covers. And a bumper crop of stories bursting with ideas. And look at “FOUR OF A KIND” on page 59. You could help keep the PRICELESS flag waving a little longer than it otherwise might. publisher@thewholenote.com OPERA SQUARED Anna Theodosakis On Brott Opera’s Don Giovanni DAVID PERLMAN It was a phone call from Hamilton, from Boris Brott, that put me on the trail of this story. Brott is indefatigable: between May 2 and August 13 the Brott Music Festival offered up 18 online productions, none more intriguing than their virtual Don Giovanni which aired, on Facebook, on July 30 and remains available at brottmusic. com. “You should watch it,” Brott said, so I did. Half way through I was hooked and called him back with questions. “You should talk to Anna [Theodosakis],” he said. So I did. What follows is a highly condensed version of a half-hour telephone chat. WHOLENOTE: I haven’t finished watching all the way through, life gets in the way when you don’t have to dress up. I have reached the party scene though! A lot of the virtual stuff being generated right now that tries to be a “reasonable facsimile” of live, leaves me cold. What struck me about this is you have made the medium a huge asset. Upcoming Dates & Deadlines for our October 2020 edition Free Event Listings Deadline Midnight, Tuesday, September 15 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Tuesday, September 15 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Thursday, September 17 Classifieds Deadline 6pm Saturday September 26 Publication Date Tuesday September 29 (online) Thursday October 1 (print) Volume 26 No 2 “OCTOBER 2020” will list events October 1 to November 7, 2020 and launch The 21st Annual BLUE PAGES for info: members@thewholenote.com 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 JULY 2020 5,000 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 © 2020 WHOLENOTE MEDIA INC thewholenote.com thewholenote.com September 2020 | 7

Volumes 26-29 (2020- )

Volumes 21-25 (2015-2020)

Volumes 16-20 (2010-2015)

Volumes 11-15 (2004-2010)

Volumes 6 - 10 (2000 - 2006)

Volumes 1-5 (1994-2000)