115 T HA N N I V E R S A R Y S E A S O N1213MUSIC IN THEAFT E R NOONW O M E N ’ S M U S I C A L C L U B O F T O R O N T OOCTOBER 18, 2012 | 1.30 PMPAU LLEWISpianoARTISTIC DIRECTOR, SIMON FRYERWalter Hall, Edward Johnson Building, Museum SubwayTORONTODEBUTNOVEMBER 29, 2012 | 1.30 PMD U OCONCERTANTENancy Dahn, violin; Timothy Steeves, pianoBeat by Beat | In With the NewMusicalIntersectionsDAVID PERLMANLet me say at the outset that it has been a great pleasure to havehad custodianship of this column for the past season, not leastbecause it has drawn me out to a considerably broader range ofmusical events than I would, by default, have tended toward. I thinkthis is because human nature is both inherently spiritual and verytimid. Most of us, individually, hunger musically for some highly personalmixture of continuity and change — enough of the former so thatwe itch for the latter; enough of the latter to able to listen fresh, overand over again, to the tried and true.STEVE RUTTANFEBRUARY 14, 2013 | 1.30 PMT H E D U K EPIANO TRIOMark Fewer, violin; Thomas Wiebe, cello;Peter Longworth, pianoMARCH 28, 2013 | 1.30 PMT I P P E T TQUARTETJohn Mills, violin; Jeremy Isaac, violin;Julia O’Riordan, viola; Bozidar Vukotic, celloMAY 2, 2013 | 1.30 PM 115TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT AT KOERNER HALLJAMES RUSSELL CAROLYNEHNES BRAUN MAULEviolin baritone pianoKoerner Hall, TELUS Centre for Performance and LearningThe Royal Conservatory of Music, 273 Bloor Street WestArtist's sponsor for James EhnesSun Life FinancialCommission sponsor of new workby John Estacio: Roger D. MooreConcert Sponsor:WMCT FoundationCANADIANDEBUTFive Concerts for 5To subscribe call 416-923-7052Single tickets for the May 2, 2013, concert will be available for sale after September 1, 2012,through the RCM box-office, 416 408-0208.All artists, dates, and programmes are subject to change without notice.Support of the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Toronto through the Toronto ArtsCouncil is gratefully acknowledged.PRESENTED BYwmct@wmct.on.ca www.wmct.on.ca 416-923-7052From left to right, Josh Grossman,Tamara Bernstein and Rick Sack’s Music Garden.I had an interesting chat, June 20, for The WholeNote’s video seriesConversations@thewholenote.com, with Josh Grossman, whose ownmusical practices and pursuits are an interesting amalgam. He is, asyou may know, the artistic director of Toronto Downtown Jazz, longtimepresenter of the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, and the founder/artisticdirector of the Toronto Jazz Orchestra. (And the video chat is mostlyabout these aspects of what he does.) But he has also been for fiveyears or so, involved administratively with Continuum ContemporaryMusic, one of the city’s most consistently innovative new music ensembles,and as far from his jazz roots, at least at first glance, as youmight imagine. In the last five or six minutes of our conversation, hetalked a bit about where the two passions intersect. Jazz, his first andabiding musical love, gives him a frame of reference (albeit not necessarilythe “right one”) for listening to a genre that for him is lessvisceral and immediate. But his work in new music has given hima much stronger perspective on where the two musics most clearlyintersect, in the realm of improvisation. And, more mundane but noless important, he is better able to see how jazz and new music bothmust struggle endlessly upward on mainstream music’s relentlessdown escalator. Consequently, he can see ways for the them to collaborateon a whole range of sensible topics, such as space sharing andbuilding various common resources. Have a listen to the chat. It is oneof a number of such conversations with musically interesting peopleaccruing on our YouTube site (youtube.com/thewholenote).Still on the topic of intersections is the annual new music festival/event that actually goes by that name. It’s awfully early to be talkingabout it now (it takes place in and around the September 1 weekend).But if I don’t give it a decent plug now, it will fall through the14 thewholenote.com July 1 – September 7, 2012
cracks of this column. Intersections is an annual event, brainchildof Contact Contemporary Music’s Jerry Pergolesi, that centres, firstSaturday of September, on Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto’s mother ofall intersections.For a venue that thrives on such mass spectacles as rock band singersbeing crowd-surfed in hamsterballs by screaming fans lined upin the tens of thousands, a new music marathon requiring a certainamount of focused listening seems a bit of a stretch. But in the interplaybetween people’s usual expectations for the venue, and whatIntersections brings to the place, the sparks can fly. Well-supportedby Toronto’s New Music presenters and fellow travellers such asThe WholeNote, there’s much in the event to see and hear, onstage andin the temporary new music marketplace that will dot the square.And since we are on the subject of outdoorvenues, a tip of the hat to Tamara Bernstein,mentioned also in our cover story, whocurates another of Toronto’s signatureoutdoor series namely Harbourfront’sSummer Music in the Garden, at thefoot of Spadina Avenue. “By now youshould have received Harbourfront’smedia release about this year’sSummer Music in the Garden,” shewrites. “I just wanted to follow upwith a more focussed list of the newmusic on this summer’s roster, as it’sa very rich season in thatregard, with performancesranging from Rick Sacks’playful “En Bateau,” toa new work from LindaC. Smith inspired by thebaroque tune “La Folia”(“madness”) and music byDavid Mott inspired by theToronto skyline, to worldpremieres by Norbert Palej,and Carina Reeves, andworks by Michael Oesterle(two works!), KatiaTiutiunnik, Eric km Clark(b. 1981), Emily Doolittle(b. 1972) and Kevin Lau.”What Bernstein has observed,and indeed helpedto inspire, is the extent towhich the summer itselfencourages performersand audiences alike, tomodify their usual balanceof continuity andchange, to indulge the unexpected, to linger longer at unfamiliar intersectionsof sound. Consult the GTA Listings in this issue (Thursdaysand Sundays) for Bernstein’s intriguing take on where the familiar andthe new best intersect when summer’s spirit of adventure is in the air.You may recall that last month I talked about New Adventures inSound Art as an organization walking a compositional and artistictightrope, somewhere at the intersection between music and noise.No coincidence that the summer is one of their favourite seasons. Toolate for our listings, but too good to overlook came word of this summer’sNAISA activities. So I recommend that you visit www.naisa.cafor a comprehensive overview of their doings, including their annualToronto Island installation, this year featuring a piece calledSynthecycltron by Barry Prophet, their Sound Travels Festival ofSound Art August 4 to 31, 2012, and this year including the TorontoElectroacoustic Symposium (August 13 to 18).David Perlman has been, for this past season, thepatroller of The WholeNote’s new music beat. He canbe contacted at publisher@thewholenote.com.VISIT OUR EXPANDED& REVITALIZED2200 SQUARE FEETof PRINT MUSIC,WOODWIND/BRASS/STRINGINSTRUMENTS &ACCESSORIES, ANDTHE ALL NEWSCHOOL MUSICEDUCATOR’SRESOURCE CENTRE.STEVE’S MUSIC -WHERE THERE’SMORE TO PLAY andLESS TO PAY!415 Queen Street West, Toronto(corner of Queen & Spadina)educational@stevesmusic.comstore: (416) 593-8888 www.stevesmusic.comJuly 1 – September 7, 2012thewholenote.com 15
