12:30 p.m. on
12:30 p.m. on January 17, the Toronto · Tabla Ensemble performs at the Du Maurier Theatre Centre on January 26 and 27 and there will be a performance of ,drumming and dancing from Guinea in West Africa at Hammerson Hall in Mississauga on January 28. BRASS Brass instruments have a celebratory sound that suits the Advent season particularly well. The Trillium Brass Quintet will join the organ and the choir of St. Clement's Church on Duplex Avenue, in a celebration of the season on December 1. Concerts at St.' George's will bring together the Toronto Brass and the Amarilli Singerse on December 3. On December 8 the choirs of the University of Toronto will add a brass quintet to their ranks for a concert of music for the season, and on December 9 the Hannaford Street Silver Band will join the Yorkminster Songsters and Citadel Musicians for a Christmas concert. Also on December 9 the brass section of the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra will · be featured in a joint concert with the Bell'Arte Singers, and on December 10 the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir will perform with a brass ensemble. Slide Rule, a trombone choir, will fill the resonant acoustics of the Trinity College Chapel at the University of Toronto on December 12, the True North Brass will join the Toronto Children's Chorus for their concert on December 16, the same day the Page Brass Septet joins forces with the Bach. Elgar Choir and the Hamilton Children's Chorus for their concert in Hamilton and a brass quintet will join VocalPoint Chamber Choir for their concert at Grace Church on-the Hill, also on the sixteenth. On December 17 a brass ensemble will join the choirs of St. Simon's Church for their service of Nine Lessons and · Carols arid the Ontario Christian Music Assembly has added a brass quintet to its choir concerts on December 19 and 23. Also on December i9 the Canadian Brass will present its annual concert at Roy Thomson Hall, joined this year by the TafelIIiusik Choir, and on December 22 the Tower Brass will join the Toronto Children's Chorus for-a performance at Toronto City Hall. CONCERT NoTEs •!• NEW Music are quite conservative by today's standards. "The Gift" by Canadian composer, . being premiered by Opera Buffa on December 1 & 2 and 15 & 16 appears to be one of these. David Kyle. Called an "outstanding work" by its presenters, it offers a "rollicking beat, memorable melodies and rich lyrics" · The Alliance for Canadian New Music Projects' Contemporary Showcase, which has done so much for new music i.n Canada will present a · concert on December 3 of the highlights of its November competition in Toronto of performances of new music. Also on December 3 Contact Contemporary Music Ensemble and University Settlement House Music School pre?sent a concert of music, including two world premieres, by three contemporary Canadian composers. Special guest performers will be pianist, Eve Egoyan, composer, Ting Hong and the Sunrise Quartet~ At a time when most choirs are doing Christmas musk, the Penthella Singers are courageously presentillg a concert of music for women's choir by 20th Century and contemporary composers, including Schafer, Persichetti, Porpora, Durufle and Toronto's Ruth Watson Henderson. This concert will take place on December 3 at Rosedale Presbyterian Church. Artword Theatre is now offering a series of concerts of improvised music on Sunday evenings. Sunday December 3, as part of tl;lat series, an array of singers, guitarists, percussionists and reed: players will make Artword a very interesting place to be. Did you know that there is an entry in The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music for Toronto composer, Udo Kasemets? Of his work it says "Since the ~arly 1960s he has been involved with post-Cageian_ experimental music; ·some words involve audience participation ... others have indeterminate numbers of performers or tape elements." His composition, STIME, which will be presented on December 5 by con.Takt New Art Ensemble, "utilizes the ambience space as part of the experience for both audience and per- . former." Part of the experience will be hearing two versions of the work, one for · solo piano (Stephen Clarke) and one for HEAR AND NOW: an ensemble cons,isting of vibes, NEW MUSIC marimba, harp and piano. Not just November but every month is ' On December 6 Autumn Leaf new music festival time in T.O. as this Performance is co-presenting with whirlwind tour of December and January Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall 14 will show. Remembered, an ambitious "contempo- Some contemporary· compositions rary requiem in memory of the fourteen 10 Whole note DECEMBER 1, 2000 - JANUARY 31, 2001 women slain al L'Ecole polytechnique, the tragedy history calls the Montreal Massacre", composed and directed by Ahmed Hassan. Dance, choreographed by Peggy Baker, will be an integr~l part of the work. Among the singers will be Maryem Hassan Tollar, who performed · recently in Christos B:atsis' Constantinople. On December 13 the Amadeus Choir and the Hannaford Street Silver Band get together at Metropolitan l]nited Church for a concert called "Sound the Trumpet" which will inch1de two world premieres, John Burge's Variations on The Trumpet and Charles Gray's transcription for brass and choir of Harry Somers' A Thousand Ages. On December 15 a new piano trio, The Rothko Trio, will present the first in its series of three concerts of contem- . porary classics. This concert, called "Eurocentricity" will consist of music by Michael Finnissy, Michael Nyman, Henri Dutilleux and Arnold Schoenberg, the last, a transcription by Edward Steuetmann of Schoenberg's late romantic masterpiece, Transfigured Night. The final concert of new music in December as far as we can ascertain will be The Art of Time Ensemble's program of Alfred Schnittke's music at the Glenn Gould Studio on December 17 .. Looking now at January, the Talisker Players have a very interesting concert on January 22, with soprano soloists, Barbara Hannigan (pictured on our cover) and Heidi Kann and tenor, Colin Ainsworth. Two of the four works on the program are of our time, Virgil Thomson's Stabat Mater for soprano and string quartet and Canadian composer, · Andrew Ager's The Winter Stairs, for soprano, string quartet and English horn. And the month ends with thre~ major new music concerts: On January 25 Music TORONTO presents The , Modern Quartet in a program of music composed in the 199o's by four composers, one from Germany, one from Ireland and two from Canada. On January 27 the Esprit Orchestra presents "Songs of Heaven and Earth", music for a wide range of instrumental and vocal combinations. On January 28 New Music Concerts will present '.'Music Speaks" atthe Neilson Park Creative Centre in Etobicoke, with cellist, David Hetherington performing and discussing selections from the solo cello repertoire of the 20th Century. Concert Notes continues
· MASSEY HALL CHRISTMAS CONCERTS Great FamiJy Entertainment for all Ages Experience the vocal talent of 340 choirboys who sing together daily and have entertained audiences throughout the world. This concert has been an integral part of the holiday season in Toronto for 61 years. DON'T MISS THIS SPECTACULAR CELEBRATION OF VOICES. World-renol!lned 3 4 o-bf!Y St. Michael's Choir School CELEBRATES THE SEASON'S JOY SAT. DEC. 16 and . · SUN. DEC. 17 ~ooo, 8 PM Ticket Price , , Some service charges appJy Box office: (416) 872-4255 Visit us at www.SMCS.on.ca VICTORIA SCHOLARS MEN'S· CHORAL ENSEMBLE JERZY CICHOCKI music director WILLIAM O' MEARA accompanist Celebrat.e the joys of the Season with the Victoria Scholars and their_ special guests, mezzosoprano Norine Burgess and soprano Monica Whicher in a spirited and festive programme of favourite carols old and nen·, arranged by composer,s from Canada and around the world. DECEMBER 1, 2000 - JANUARY 31, 2001 Wholenote '11
