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Volume 4 Issue 9 - June 1999

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • Festival
  • Theatre
  • Jazz
  • Symphony
  • Choir
  • Musical
  • Orchestra
  • Concerts
  • August

hn 1 ·e9 7 '99

hn 1 ·e9 7 '99 'MholeDQte= www.beachesjazz.com NiAGARA INTERNA,.. TiONAl ChAMbER Music FEsTivAl, formerly The Muskoka Lakes Festival, is an offshoot ofTSO violinist Atis Bankas' International School for Musical Arts swruner music academy. Program information was unavailable at press time: e-mail music@chamberconcerts.com, or visit www.chamberconcerts.com LiGhThousE FEsTivAl ThEATRE, Haldimand­ Norfolk's Swruner Theatre in Port Dover on Lake Erie, presents three musical offerings as part of its 20th anniversary stage season. Summer Garden is a romantic evening of comedy, dance, and music from the 20s through the 60s (June 8-26). The musical comedy Bye Bye Broadway shows the pitfalls of a troupe of actors frantically trying to get their new musical ready for opening night (July 21-Aug 7). And a comedy about teaching the world how to sing, I Can Sing, Can't/? runs August 31 to September 4. For more information call 519 583- 2221. lkE ShAw FEsTivAl in Niagara-on-the-Lake presents the musical A Foggy Day. Making a return run after last year's sold out season, this musical is based on P.G. Wodehouse's novel A Damsel in Distress as reworked by Canadian playwright Norm Foster, and features songs written by George and Ira Gershwin. Runs until October 31. Call the box office at .1-800-511-7429 or visit shawfest.sympatico.ca TkE STRATfoRd FEsTivAl stages musical offerings amidst the Shakespeare. Richard Ouzounian directs his new musical adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with music by Marek Norman. Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story stars "Miss Saigon" Ma-Anne Dionisio and "Tommy" Tyley Ross, under the direction of Kelly Robinson. Glenn by David Young, while not a musical, is a portrait of pianist Glenn Gould. There is also the music of the Festival Fringe, including the Niagara Vocal Ensemble (July 5), members of Puirt a Baroque (Aug 9), and El Sabor jazz quartet (Aug 23). Call the box office at 1 BOO 567-1600, or visit www.stratford-festival. on.ca. TkE ThoRNhill ChAM,.. hER Music INsTiTUTE, held at the Toronto Waldorf School in Thornhill, presents public performances in addition to its intensive study programs. This year there's a very special Cape Breton Heritage Concert with fiddlers Donald MacLellan and David Greenberg, and pianist Doug MacPhee (July 23), as well as two Faculty Concerts: "Homage to Nature," which includes Cassado's Green Devils Dance and Beethoven's Kakadu Trio (July 21 ); and "Passions & Pleasures," including Mozart's Kegelstadt Trio and Kodaly's Solo Sonata for Cello (July 28). Students perform a Final Gala Concert July 30. For information call Artistic Director Gretchen Anner at 905 764-1924. AshkENAZ FEsTivAl of NEw Yiddish CulTURE returns to Harbourfront for its third biennial display of music, theatre, dance, film, visual art, literature, food, and pageantry, from August 30 to Sept 6. Music performances include the New Yiddish Chorale from New York who perform Love and Struggle: The Musical Legacy of the Jewish Labor Bund, a cultural history of Jewish social activism; the Ashkenaz Orchestra Project, which unites twenty Yiddish musicians in an exploration of Yiddish music interwoven with Middle Eastern, African­ American, Roma and New Music in six new works (Sept I and 2). Moroccan cantor Emil Zrihan and his 9-piece ensemble demonstrate the Sephardic musical tradition which has made him a breakthrough artist on the world music scene (Sept 6). New York jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas (Down Beat's 1998 Jazz Artist of the Year) and his group Charms of the Night Sky premiere a new work in homage to clarinetist Dave Tarras (Sept I and 2 ). The Klezmer Conservatory Band plays Aug 30. New York's Brave Old World and David Krakaur's Klezmer Madness are also featured (Sep 4). Beloved Canadian mainstays The Flying Bulgar Band are taking their music in new directions with the release of their fourth CD Tsirkus at the Festival on September 5. New York's Frank London and Greg Wall's Hasidic New Wave, and Marty Ehrlich's Darkwoods Ensemble will present the "edgy" side ofNew Yiddish Music. For tickets call 416 9 7 3-4000, or e-mai/ashkenaz@echo-on.net The Niagara Peninsula's ShowboAT FEsTivAl ThEATRE presents two musicals this swruner. All Grown Up uses popular songs of the day to present the experiences of three women growing up in Vancouver from the 50s through the 70s. June 30 to July 11. Blue Suede Shoes is a revue set to the music of Elvis Presley and devised by Artistic Director Burton Lancaster. August 25 to SeptemberS. Held at The Roselawn Complex, Port Co/borne ON. Call 905 834-0833 or 1-888-870-8181, fax 905 834-4225, or visit www.roselawncomplex.com FuR TilER AfiEld Ontario ThE Orr AWA ChAM,.. hER Music FEsTivAl, weighing in at 84 concerts, is now North America's largest chamber music festival. This year's Festival begins with worldrenowned violinist Cho-Liang Lin (July 24), and boasts the first Ottawa perfonnance by cham pi- ons of new music The Kronos Quartet (July 25). Other highlights are Angela Hewitt, Amanda Forsyth, Martin Beaver, Anton Kuerti, and a new group of Andrew Dawes (Orford Quartet), The O'Riley, Dawes, Katz Trio. Piano Six is a unique event that the Festival is particularly proud of. Six top Canadian pianists (Jon Kimura Parker, Angela Hewitt, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Janina Fialkowska, Andre Laplante, and Angela Cheng) will play a special fundraising concert for the Festival itself. The Tokyo String Quartet concludes the Festival on August 7 with flutist Joanna G'froerer. Fans ofShelagh Rogers and Take Five listeners may wish to take advantage of the contest run in conjunction with the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. Listeners are asked to write to Shelagh to say which piece of chamber music is, in their opinion, the greatest in the· world. Contest winners receive airfare, accommodation, and Festival passes, and Shelagh will read out the best entries on a special broadcast on July 16. Listen to · CBC Radio Two for details. For full schedule information 613 234-8008; fax 613 234- 7692; e-mail: ocmf@cyberus.ca; www.chamberfest.com FEsTivAl AlEXANdRiA holds a series of Sunday afternoon "Chamber Music in the · Barn" concerts from June 20 to . August I. Held in a century-old barn in the second concession of Kenyon, just south of Alexandria in eastern Ontario, these informal concerts allow artists and patrons to mix aflerwards over lemonade and cookies. June 20 vocalists Shannon Mercer and Teresa Vanderhoeven perform Handel and Luzzasci, accompanied by harpsichordist Christopher Jackson; June 27 violinist Linda Rosenthal and pianist Lauretta Altman play Copland, Foss and Franck. Other concerts feature the Canadian premiere of the Florey Sonata for unaccompanied cello, a series of "novel" 18th century works, and "Fun with the Tuba." Contact Laurie Altman at 514 484-9076.

BEHIND THE SCENES BY DAWN LYONS Maybe all the world's a stage, but not all the men and women are merely players. Some are stagehands-in the wings, at the control panels, in, the sound booths, and just behind the curtain, setting up the stage, turning on lights, opening the curtain and making the magic happen. Around here, they often belong to the ~temational Association of Theatrical and Stage Employ~ (JATSE) Local 58. I'm sitting in the control booth at the back of the George Weston Recital Hall in the Ford Centre for the Performing Arts. The intermission is just ending and a disembodied contralto voice 1 wonders, "Latecomers all in?" Head Technician Bill Nalepka replies into a telephone handset: "We're finished here." The unseen voice seems content. "OK. House half. Stage full." Bill reaches across his panel (there are approximately threequarters of a million little black and red switches on it) and, like magic, it happens. The theatre goes dark, the stage blazes up 1 Karen Kimes, Director, Concert Operations -- see "Behind the Scenes " December 97 BILL NALEPKA: HEAD TECHNICIAN, FORD CENTRE like the first sullrise, the audience breaks into applause and Garrick Ohlsson strides across to the Steinway like Paul Bunyan stepping up to his next tree. The program, The Romatuic Piano, Liszt and Schubert, is one of the "reclaimed" Ford Centre concerts. Me: Hi, Bill, what was tonight s set-up like? Bill: Not much really. There was a pre-concert lecture at 7:00, so I was here at 6:30. We had rolled the piano onto the stage on Friday so all I had to do tonight was mike and light for the speaker. Out in the hall, Garrick Ohlsson is reducing Liebesbotschaft to kindling. Me: This hall has variable -~coustics, doesn ~ it? Do you actually change them for each show, or is there one all-purpose configuration? Bill: We adjust for every show. For the piano tonight we need a fairly dry hall, not too much reverb. Last night we had the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra, 50 wind and brass, so we needed the driest hall possible. All the panels (he gestures at the trademark golden squares that back the stage) were turned to the cloth side, and the curtains around the hall (he points above the mezzanine) were closed. Me: Sometimes you have a lot of stagehands here, sometimes its just you. How does that work? ::> u z w 0 0 t­ o ~ " Bill: Depending on the requirements of the show, we might need lighting techs, sound techs, guys to move stuff. This is a recital hall; we mostly do concerts, not full staging, so our lighting and sound is minimal. Me: So you wouldn ~have props or scenery either? Bill: "Sometimes- once we built a skyline of Toronto for a corporate meeting Ford was having here, but usually it's risers, chairs and music stands. Me: 1The Ford Centre is a union house. What does that mean? Do you work for the union or the Ford Centre? BEHIND THE ScENES CONTINUES ON PAGE 36 .. Quebec and Maritimes. M~NTREAl C~AMI>ER Music FEsTivAl Montreal PQ Canada - June3-131999_ Info Phone_· 514-489-7444 T~E LAMEQUE INTERNA ... TiONAL BAROQUE Music fEsTivAl on Lameque Island in northeastern New Brunswick has quietly grown over the past three decades. Between July 29 and August 3 the festival presents La Mission Saint-Charles with an evening of Bach's Brandenbi.lrg Concertos I and V and the Cantata Wachet auf(July 29 and 30), harpsichordist Rinaldo Alessandrini playing a program ofFrescobaldi, Rossi, and Bach (July 31), and the Arion Ensem- ' ble playing Vivaldi motets and concertos (Aug 1 ). Call 1-800-320-2276 or visit www. intellis. net/ FestivaiBaroqueLameque/ english/home. h tml fEsTivAl ORfoRd- Centre d'Arts, Orford. Quebec, July2 to August 14). 1-888-310- 3665; 819 843-9871; www3. sympa tico. ca/arts. orford FEsTivAL iNTERNA ... TiONAL du DoMAiNE foRGET (Jw1e II and after); 418 452-3535 X 876; www. cite. ne t/dforget FEsTivAl dE MusiouE dE dtAM bRE de Ia Baie des (;haleurs, Dalhousie and Benjamin River, New Brunswick. July 8 to 11 l-888-414-5111 MoNTREAL JAzz 'FEs ... TivAll FEsTivAL IN ... TERNATiONAl dE JAZZ dE MoNTREAL is a fitting final entry to our list. It is the largest jazz festival in Canada, now celebrating its twentieth rumiversary (July I to 10). Montreal hosts Mark Ishrun's homage to Miles Davis (July I); Buddy Guy ru1d Jimmy Vaughan (July I); pianist/vocalist Diana Krall fronting a 30-piece orchestra (July 2); Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan (July 3); the Branford Marsalis Quartet and special guests Sam Newsome and Global Unity (July 3); Jan Garbarek with the Hilliard Ensemble (July 4); the Dave Brubeck Quartet, and Dave Brubeck with Big Band Diva (July 5); Oliver Jones playing four nights at the Theatre du Nouveau Monde, once with the Stephen Barry Band{July 7-10); tl1e Art Ensemble of Chicago (July 9); and local fave Karen Young's homage to Ella Fitzgerald with Renee Lee and tl1e Vic Vogel Big Band (July 10). For information call 514 871-1881 or visit www. mon trealjazzfestcom

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