Volume 6 Issue 3 - November 2000

tinuum; Esprit

tinuum; Esprit Orchestra, New Music'Concerts, and Music Gallery, among others. Students simply show their CHEAPSEATS pass to the respective box office 20 minutes before the concert in order to receive the special price. Do not delay - get your CHEAPSEATS pass today! ·coMPOS.ER COMPANIONS- Bewildered by new music? COMPOSER COMPANIONS is an exciting programme that is helping to demystify contemporary music and build audiences for new.music in Toronto. Audience members are paired at concerts with professional composers, who serve as personal guides. Patrons meet with their COMPOSER COMP ANION at the theatre just before the performance and discuss the programme to follow. They are · then seated together and the composer guides the listener · through the concert. Audiences are clearly enthusiastic about their experiences. "It is clear that Canadian music is alive and well and sitting right beside you," stated one local piano teacher. "Most audience meribers are in· a more passive role. This program allows for a greater understanding or'the process - how music gets to the stage when you actually hear it." "It does provide you With a window that you do not normally have an opportunity to access," commented a chartered accountant. COM­ POSERCOMP ANIONS is av11ilable to audience members at no cost by the Canadian Music Centre and the participating new music presenters. To book your COMPOSER COMPANION, contact Sheldon Grabke at the Canadian Music Centre at 416-691-6601 ext. 207 or by email at ontario@musiccentre.ca CONCERT NOTES •!• HEAR & Now NEW Music 1) AMS Conference and Baker, Ronda Rindone on eluded in their November 7 Massey Hall New Music November 5, Salon des program are works by contem- Festival Refuses, with works by five porary Canadian composers The American Musicological young· Toronto composers, on . Glenn Buhr and Harry Freed- Society conference and the November 5, Ensemble Noir on man. The same night the Massey Hall New Music November 8, John Farah on Kronos Quartet will be at Roy Festival have a great many November 9, presenting work Thomson Hall performing concerts between them during composed during his residency Philip Gl~ss's original music the first ten days of November, last summer at Gibraltar Point for the 1931 Dracula, with a although they are far froin on Tororito Island, Dave Clarke simultaneous screening of the being the only shows in town. and the Woodchoppers film. On November 17 New lt is the nature of new Association on November 12, Music Concerts presents music that when it really is new Les Amis, with music by Winter Diary, a "Radiophonic it is primarily a local phenom- Michael Pepa and others on . soundscape composition" by R.- enon. Thus the AMS Confer- . November 17, "Autobiomusics" Murray Schafer iii collaboraence new music concerts are of Udo Kasemets (who, tion with Claude Schryer and particularly welcome as they incidentally is now listed in · Gallery one20ne. On Novemparachute into our local scene Groves), on November 19, ' her- 25 the Esprit Orchestra will the new music scene from "Sonatas Ancient and Mod- present a concert entitled other communities. ern", with music by Andrew Exquisite Fires, with music by If there is an unspoken Ager at Calvin Presbyterian Bouchard, Harman, Jeths & theme tothe Ma~sey Hall Church on November 19, music Numan, with guest soloist, Festival it must be co-opera- by Jason Hammer at Artword violist, Rivka Golani. The tion and collaboration: twelve Theatre on November 19, the concert lJands of the U ofT Canadian university choirs Canadian Electronic Ensemble Faculty of Music in their combining under the direction on December 1 and Contact December 2 concert will of a Swedish conductor; then Contemporary Music Ensem- perform a newly c:ommissioned Evergreen Club Gamelan ble presenting "Music by _work by Canadian composer, Ensemble joining forces with Living Canadian Composers" Lothar Klein. Two very interthe Elmer Isel.er Singers; Esprit on December 3. esting events occur right at the Orchestra and the Hannaford 5) Larger Ensembles: ~nd ~f ~he time fra~e we cover Street Silver Band; and New Les Acceptes m this ISsue. On December 6 Music Concerts' bringing us The month begins with A~tumn Leaf Performance .. the Ensemble Contemporain ArrayMusic's series of per- p esents 14 Remem~ber~d , a de Montreal. So, not only is the . formances of Robert W. contemporary reqmem m music new, but the combina- Stevenson's musical theatre memory o~the fo~Arteen tions of perlormers are as well. piece Nostalgia a show you women sl~m at L Ecole . Let the music begin. won't have to mi~s because of P?lytechmque, the tragedy 3) The U.niversities Student coII].posers from York University will present their work on campus on November 1 and at St. George the Martyr Church on November 3. Then, on November 4 York's music department and U. ofT.'s Faculty of Music join forces to put on concert of John Cage's music. 3) The Local Scene: Les Refuses and more More and more composers, it seems, are taking on the challenge of getting their music performed, either by performing it themselves or organizing concerts with other performers. It is a constructive and healthy approach to the problem of getting new music performed and at the same time has moved us away from our musical culture being exdusively a "museum culture". So look for toneART Ensemble on November 4, featuring the work of Rob 16 Whole note NOVEMBER 1, 2000 - DECEMBER 7, 2000 / all the other things going on history ca,~ls The Montreal because it has a four-night run. Massacre by Ahmed Hassan,_ The Talisker Players a collec- and on December 7 N~w Music tive of string players' who . i Concerts and. the Music Gallery organized themselves origi- co-pr~sent ,..,znfo.weaver~ nally just to accompany choirs desc~ibed