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Volume 28 Issue 1 | September 20 - November 8, 2022

  • Text
  • Thewholenotecom
  • Arts
  • Jazz
  • Violin
  • Composer
  • Orchestra
  • October
  • November
  • Symphony
  • September
  • Toronto
Our 28th season in print! “And Now, Back to Live Action”; a symphonic-sized listings section, compared to last season; clubs “On the move” ; FuturesStops Festival and Nuit Blanche; “Pianistic high-wire acts”; Season announcements include full-sized choral works like Mendelssohn’s Elijah; “Icons, innovators and renegades” pulling out all the stops.

“Dance is poetry for

“Dance is poetry for the body.” — Heidi Sander through to renewal. “Dance is poetry for the body and I’m thrilled to collaborate with Bonnie to create an experience that is a tribute to both of our moms,” Sander told me. “Ben’s compositions have added such a deep layer of expression to my words, and his arrangements are fluid and impactful, opening up a doorway for movement.” In turn, Bolt-Martin, writing for a mixed ensemble of great chamber players (Liesel Deppe, flute, Andrew Chung, violin, Julia Seager-Scott, harp and Graham Hargrove, percussion), praises the “powerfully visual nature of Heidi’s writing,” while dancer Bonnie Jordan also celebrates the new collaborative experiment saying, “I’ve always wanted to dance to poetry. The way even one single movement to a phrase can speak so loudly fills my soul.” How We Live On has one live performance on October 2, in Stratford, but will also stream live and for 48 hours following the concert. For more details see innerchamber.ca/how-we-live-on Fall for Dance Dance is highlighted on the Toronto scene as well, with the increasingly popular and always “accessible to everyone” annual celebratory festival Fall for Dance North. Coming back to a mostly live performance slate this year, there will still be cinematic and streaming elements for those not yet comfortable with being in large crowds, elements that will likely now always be a part of festivals having become so essential in the restricting years of the pandemic. Highlighted is a new short film by Canadian choreographer Michael Greyeyes – a shared world premiere with Soundstreams – as part of the festival centrepiece presentation ARISE: 2022 at Meridian Hall. ARISE will also showcase a commission from visionary tap dancer, Dianne Montgomery, a traditional Indigenous Hawaiian performance from Ka Leo O Laka/Ka Hikina O Ka Lá, and the FFDN premiere of a monumental work by increasingly prolific Indigenous Canadian choreographer Jera Wolfe featuring 110 students from Canada’s National Ballet School. For more information on all the festival events running from September 17 to October 8, see ffdnorth.com Under the Mirvish umbrella In the world of the traditional musical there is no film more iconic than Singin’ in the Rain. The stage version of the glorious Comden and Green story of the coming of talkies to Hollywood is at last making its North American debut at the Princess of Wales Theatre under the Mirvish producing umbrella. This is a 2021 remounting of the hit 2012 production by Jonathan Church of England’s Chichester Theatre, that has already toured the UK, Ireland and Japan. Reviews in England and elsewhere have been rapturous so, like many, my hopes are high that the production will meet our high expectations. September 23-October 23. mirvish.com. Mirvish has also recently extended the run of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a unique tour-de-force of technical and actual wizardry that is anchored by a serious, and very contemporary coming of age story, centred on the children of the heroes of the movie series: Harry, Hermione, Ron and .. yes, Draco Malfoy. The production is astonishing in its non-stop movement, and is anchored by a strong Canadian cast featuring the wonderful Fiona Reid as Professor McGonagall and Sara Farb as the new character Delphi. Whirling staircases, dementors and intertwined storylines are woven together with clever choreography and Imogen Heap’s perfect score. The run of Harry Potter has now been extended into 2023. For more information see mirvish.com. Whatever your music theatre tastes, from mainstream to renegade, there are wonderful shows to see this fall in Toronto and around Ontario. Jennifer Parr is a Toronto-based director, dramaturge, fight director and acting coach, brought up from a young age on a rich mix of musicals, Shakespeare and new Canadian plays. IN WITH THE NEW Beyond Obligatory Inclusion? WENDALYN BARTLEY As the new season of concerts gets underway in these somewhat post-COVID days, some of the larger-scale presenters have, with fingers crossed, announced ambitious season lineups. As I looked through their listings, a noteworthy trend was emerging: the regular programming of contemporary works. Perhaps there’s been a shift away from the token or obligatory inclusion of music by living composers which would indicate that past events such as the TSO’s New Creations Festivals, or several seasons of the 21C Festival have been successful in bringing in an eager audience interested in listening to current ideas and styles. GLIONNA MANSELL PRESENTS A Music Series unlike any other www.organixconcerts.ca 22 Lunch Time Concerts 12:30 - 1:30 pm Free-will Offering (suggested $20 Donation) Kingsway Series Concerts Matthew Larkin TH OCT. 5 All Saints Anglican Church, 2850 Bloor Street West - Toronto TH OCT. 12 Peter Nikiforuk Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic, 3055 Bloor Street West - Toronto TH OCT. 19 Aaron James All Saints Anglican Church, 2850 Bloor Street West - Toronto ND NOV. 2 Zoe Kai Wai Lei All Saints Anglican Church, 2850 Bloor Street West - Toronto TH NOV. 9 Ian Grundy Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic, 3055 Bloor Street West - Toronto TH NOV. 16 Sebastian Moreno All Saints Anglican Church, 2850 Bloor Street West - Toronto For Information: organixconcerts.ca 416-769-5224 Mobile Call/Text:416-571-3680 20 | September 20 - November 8, 2022 thewholenote.com

SARO ONDINE Magnus Lindberg At the TSO A good example of this lies with two October concerts presented by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. On their October 12 concert, the programming includes a work by Christina Volpini, a Hamilton/Toronto based composer whose music is known for its subtle and nuanced textures, and the Canadian premiere of subito con forza (2020) by Korean-born/Berlin-based composer Unsuk Chin. Volpini’s piece is one of the five Celebration Preludes commissioned from GTA composers for the 2022/23 season. These recently composed pieces stand alongside 20th-century master Ligeti’s Atmosphères and classic compositions by Haydn and Beethoven. Chin’s piece was composed for the 2020 Beethoven anniversary year, and quotes from his 1807 Coriolan Overture are shape-shifted and woven throughout the orchestra. Other references to Beethoven’s music in Chin’s densely textured piece Unsuk Chin PRISKA KETTERER. include the Fifth Symphony’s opening rhythm and flourishes from the Emperor Concerto. On October 20, two more premieres are programmed: Janet Sit’s Celebration Prelude and Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No.3. Again, these works appear alongside an older work, a 19th-century symphony by Bruckner. Lindberg predominantly composes orchestral music using a highly complex musical language. In the early 1980s he was part of a Finnish group of composers that formed the Ears Open Society in order to advocate for contemporary music, a group that includes Kaija Saariaho and conductor-composer Esa-Pekka Salonen. As a touchstone for local audiences, Saariaho’s music was featured in the 2015 21C festival in Toronto. Lindberg’s new work is a co-commission between the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, China NCPA Orchestra, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Earlier in Lindberg’s career, he was influenced by Gérard Grisey, the developer of spectral music, and also by the experimental work at IRCAM, a Paris-based institute dedicated to the research of music and sound founded by composer Pierre Boulez. Lindberg has a very practical and rigorous approach to writing orchestral music. In a 2019 interview for the online publication Adventures in Music he describes his approach in this way: “The fun part of being a composer is that at first you get to be a visionary, with your utopia. Then you have to be a realist, set up your worksite and have a meeting with the engineers, so to speak. Next, you become a blue-collar worker, in order to get the job done. At the final stages you put in the last touches with your client, to get the finished product.” CONCERTS AND FREE PRESENTATIONS LIVE IN TORONTO AND ONLINE AT FUTURESTOPS.ORG September 29 –October 1, 2022 CANADIAN PREMIERES 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music Winner “Voiceless Mass” by Raven Chacon with Arraymusic Amina Claudine Myers’ “Improvisational Suite” with Nathaniel Dett Chorale Composers Premiering New Works Including Kara-Lis Coverdale, Rashaan Rori Allwood 21st Century Repertoire Performances by Thomas Mellan, Matthew Larkin Sarah Svendsen Radical and Diverse Approaches to the Organ FUJI|||||||||TA, Sandra Boss, Charlemagne Palestine Free Artist Talks and Presentations Including Jean-Willy Kunz, Sarah Davachi George Rahi, Kevin Komisaruk Kali Malone, Orgues Létourneau Juget-Sinclair Organbuilders MIDIWorks Gala Reception with the Jeff McLeod Organ Trio thewholenote.com September 20 - November 8, 2022 | 21

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)