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8 years ago

Volume 3 Issue 8 - May 1998

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • Theatre
  • Choir
  • Arts
  • Choral
  • Symphony
  • Classical
  • Singers
  • Musical
  • Yonge

f!lEAR & Now: ... New

f!lEAR & Now: ... New Music in Toronto BY DAVID G.H. PARSONS t Aficionados of Toronto's new music scene will recognize the name "Hear & Now" from its previous incarnation, a broad sheet produced by New Music Concerts. That excellent concert guide is being merged into this publication - · "amalgamation" seemingly a trend in the New City! I am delighted to welcome r~ade_rs of The WholeNote to this page, htghhghtmg the offerings of one of the most vibrant contemporary music communities anywhere. Did you know that Toronto has more than 40 ensembles and concert societies dedicated to the presentation of contemporary music? Did you know that last season there were over 450 local performances featuring 20th century works? I hope that you will take advant?ge of this listing, and explore the dynamic world of new music in and around Toronto. Here are just a few dates to mark down this month. WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Arraymusic presents six noted alumni from its "Young Composers' Workshop" at the St. Lawrence Centre on May 2. Arrats ~onth-long residency (now entenng Its 12th year) has assisted numerous emerging talents. Come hear some of the future's great composers. "ENCOUNTERS" pairs sighificant ~anadi~n crea~ors with important mternatJonal figures, resulting in fas~nating_programming. This year's senes continues on May _12 at the Glenn Goul~ Studi~ with a concert of wor~ by Alexma LoUJe and American Joseph Schwantner. Louie, an ever-popular.composer, is currently working on her eagerly anticipated opera for the COC. Pulitzer Prize-Winner Schwantner's music is characterized by its broad appeal and rich colouring. · THE "OPEN EARS FESTIVAL of Music and Sound" brings together· the diverse worlds of concert hall, electroacoustics and sound ecology. From May 13-18, Kitchener buzzes with unfamiliar sounds, and its proximity to · Toronto should attract many adventuresome listeners. . Am~ng the highlights are a staged mstallation called The Sinking of the Titanic, and an appearance by Ensemble Karl (an electroacoustic bicycle orchestra from Montreal!). The unifying theme is on focused listening within different contexts. To find out more about this unique celebration, check out the Open • Ears websi te · The Modern Quartet < www .kwsymphony .on.ca/openears > or call (519) 745-4711. fOR THOSE WHO CAN'T get out of town, The Music Gallery presents "Victoria's New Music" between May 13-~1, a week-long series integrating a vaned spectrum of genres from jazz to avant garde. The programming looksjust great, so contact the Gallery for a detailed schedule (416) 204-1080. DON'T MISS THE FINAL PERFORMANCES in Tapestry Music Theatre's limited run of Elswhereless by ~tom Egoyan and Rodney Sharman. Set m a troubled Canadian diplomatic out-p9st, this new opera continues through May 16 before embarking on a tour that will take it to Ottawa's National Arts Centre, followed by Vancouver, Amsterdam, Paris and Rome. CONTINUUM HOSTS the Modern String Quartet on May 20. . These fine exponents give the world premiere of Dachau by Chesky Neceski, plus Officium breve in · memoriam Andrae Szervansky by Hungarian Gyorgy KurtBg. Listeners wishing to explore the Holocaust theme in d~pth could att~nd "Lost Composers Ill" this same evemng [see article, page ]. A very tough choice indeed for Toronto's new music fans! ONTHE EVE of a major Canadian tour, · Eve Egoyail demonstrates her sensitive technique and .dedieation to performing the music of our time at The Musia Gallery on May 22. If you've never experienced the artistry of this local pianist you're in for something special. A BRAND-NEW new music ensemble - con.TACT- will be launched by two of Canada's newer voices on the scene - Michael Hynes and Barbara Croall - at the Glellll Gould Studio on May 28 in a programme of their own new works destined for ·release on a new CD. And ( that's surely about as NEW as it gets! David G.H. Parsons is the Ontario Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre. QuicJc:New compiled by Daniel Foley This quick guide to new music in WhOieNote's concert listings (pages 23- 36). was compiled with the help of the Music Matrix Conflict Calendar an aid to scheduling new music ev~nts in .Toronto. •May 1: Toronto Heliconian Club •May 1: Amici •May 1: Arkell Schoolhouse •May 1: Exultate Chamber Singers •May 1: Soundstreams Canada •May 1: University Settlement Music & Arts School •May 2: Toronto Children's Chorus •May 2: Arraymusic •May 2: Consulate General of Portugal •May 2: Oriana Singers •May 2: Toronto Sinfonia of Nations •May 4: DoMusic: Workshop #1 •May 5: DoMusic: Workshop #2 •May 7: Arthur Campbell •May 7: Opera Anonymous •May 9: Canadian Children's Opera Chorus •May 9: 'Concertsingers •May 10: The Burdocks •May 11: DoMusic: Workshop #3 •May 12: DoMusic: Workshop #4 • May 1 2: Soundstreams Canada •May 13-18: Lend us Your Ears' Festival -See ad on p.11. •May 13: Victoria's Music · •May 14: Victoria's Music •May 15: Victoria's Music •May 16: Victoria's Music •May -19: Victoria's Music •May ~0: Continuum •May 20: New Music Concerts •May 20: Toronto Choristers •May 21: Toronto Wind Orchestra •May 21: Victoria's Music •May 22: Eve Egoyan •May 24: Ladder Festival •May 24: Les AMIS •May 24: Bloor Street. United Choir & Bloor Street Gospel Chorus •May 25: DoMusic: Workshop #5 · •May 25: Jewish Music- Toronto •May 26: Mystere d'Orient •May 28: con.Takt Ensemble •May 29: The Glass Orchestra •May 29: Toronto Camerata •May 30: Linda Shumas • May 31 : Arraymusic Young Composers Workshop •June 1 : Arkell Schoolhouse Concert •June 2: Jewish Music- Toronto •June 2: Music Toronto •June 3: Toronto Symphony Orchestra · •June 5: Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan •June 5: Orpheus Choir of Toronto ~June 7: Toronto Children's Chorus •June 7: Amadeus Choir TORONTO'S ONLY COMPREHENSIVE MONTHLY CLASSICAL & CONTEMPORARY CONCERT 01STING SOURCE

ll ONCERT COMPANION . lilil Celebrating Creative Lives Lost BY AUSTIN CLARKSON LOst Composers Ill (New Music Concerts, George Weston Recital Hall May 20) . counterpoints the zestful brilliance of music by three Jewish composers who lost their lives during World War 11 with readings by a young Canadian novelist from her acclaimed first novel. The words of Anne Michaels weave tales of growing up in Toronto with haunting memories of survivors from World War 11, while in the music of Erwin Schulhoff, Uo Smit, and Laszl6 Weiner we hear the joy, hope, and passionate conviction of the human spirit burning brightly in the gathering gloom. Schulhoff (1894-i942), an extraordinarily gifted and versatile pianist and composer, was born in Prague, studied in Cologne, and served in the German Army in World War I. After the War he lived in . Germany and plunged into all manner of experiments, especially Dada and jazz, composing music "inspired by the rubble and garbage of Europe," as he wrote in his diary. He was widely acclaimed as a concert pianist and especially for his jazz . compositions. ,· , The difficulty of making a living in Germany forced him · to return to Prague, where he composed the masterful Double Concerto for Flute and Piano (1927), which joins elements . of jazz and indigenous Czech idioms with traditional forms of concert music. In response to the rise of fascism Schulhoff joined the Communists and took out Russian citizenship. In 1941, shortly before his projected emigration to Russia, he was arrested by the Nazis and deported to an internment camp in Bavaria, where he died in 1942. Uo $nlit (1900-43) was born in Amsterdam and studied piano and composition at the Conservatory there. In 1927 he went to Paris and stayed for ten years, composing music steeped in French impressionism and the neo-classical experiments of Les Six, especially Darius Milhaud. The Sextet for Wind . Quintet and Piano composed in 1928, embodies with enormous skill and brilliance Quintet and Piano, the French ' · wind ensemble tradition. Smit returned to Amsterdam in 1937, where he had a successful career as composer, performer, and teacher. The Nazi deportations of Jews from Holland began in 1941. In 1943 Smit completed his last work, a Sonata for Flute and Piano, before he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where he perished. Laszl6 Weiner's life was by far the shortest of these three composers. Born in 1916 in Szombathely~ Hungary, he studied piano at the local school of music and at age 18 moved to Budapest to enter the Frartz Liszt Academy of Music. He studied composition with Zoltan Kodaly, and by the time he graduated in 1939 he . had participated in numerous public concerts as a pianst and conductor, and as composer he won a national prize for a Viola Sonata. Canadian composer' lstvan Anhalt who was three years behind Weiner at the Academy, remembers · him as n a very gifted conductor and composer." The Concerto for Flute, Viola', Piano, and Strings, which Weiner composed in 1941; shows his extraordinary promise. The singer Vera Rozsa was a colleague of Weiner's, and they were married in 1942, with Kodaly as their witness. During the German occupation Jews were allowed to perform only in Goldmark Hall (capacity 382) and OMIKE, a Jewish performing arts organization, was formed. Weiner conducted, accompanied, and taught for OMIKE until, in· June of 1942 he was taken away to a "forced labour camp" in Csepreg. One year later Kodaly wrote to the camp commandant requesting special consideration for his star pupil, but it did no good. Weiner was shot on July 25, 1944. Vera Rosza, who went to live in London after the War, became a renowned singing teacher, with Kiri te Kanawa, lleana Cotrubas, and Anne Sophie von Otter among her pupils . We are most grateful to Ms. Rosza for sending us this information and the photograph of Lazs/6 Weiner. Generously supported by: ~~Ud; mi-~A--u ~t

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