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Volume 17 Issue 6 - March 2012

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • Jazz
  • Theatre
  • April
  • Arts
  • Musical
  • Orchestra
  • Choir
  • Symphony
  • Violin

who 1605.indd 11/24/11

who 1605.indd 11/24/11 3:41:14 PMSUMMER MUSIC EDUCATIONWHERE ARETHEY NOW?TS FinalistsLook to Summerand BeyondIn our february 2011 issue, The WholeNote’s publisher DavidPerlman interviewed, for our cover story, the seven winners ofthe 2011 Toronto Sinfonietta Concerto Competition. These talentedteenagers had a variety of musical backgrounds, but shareda common focus, drive and passion for performing classical music.A year later, the aforementioned publisher found himself wonderingwhat happens over the course of a typical year in the life ofa musical whiz kid. So, right in the middle of my annual task ofassembling profiles for this issue’s Summer Education special section(see pages 62–67), I was given the job of checking in with as manyof these intrepid musicians as I could reach, to see what they havebeen up to and to get some insight into the paths they are now on.Almost exactly a year after these seven talents performed with theToronto Sinfonietta, in the Isabel Bader Theatre concert that wasthe focus of last year’s story,I was able to reach five of theseven — Leslie Ashworth, LilyChapnik, Daniel Hass, NicoleLi and Annie Zhou — andasked them just that!An interesting fact right offthe top: two of these youngmusicians, Hass and Li, wereToronto Sinfonietta competitionwinners again this year,an indication that the competition,and its attendant galaconcert, remain a worthwhilespringboard for young starsin the Toronto music world.(Rounding out the winners atthis year’s February 18 BaderTheatre Gala were Sophia Anna Sjokolay, violin, Tony Yang, piano,and Andrew Seto, oboe.) Li and Hass were also winners of thisyear’s Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra Competition and Li wasthe grand prize winner of the National Finals of the Canadian MusicCompetition in Montreal.Amongst the group’s other accomplishments this past year wasan array of further competition successes, both within Canadaand abroad. Pianist Zhou’s 2011 successes included an invitationby Festival Assisi nel Mondo, a UNESCO-sponsored internationalmusic festival, to perform in Italy (for the third time, no less!).Zhou went on to compete in the Minnesota International Piano-e-Competition, an event that required learning nearly two hours ofrepertoire and comprised four separate rounds! She made it into thefinals to play with the Minnesota Orchestra and, at age 14, was thecontinued on page 6010 thewholenote.com March 1 – April 7, 2012

Beat by Beat / Art of SongROY THOMSON HALL PRESENTSSongs and CyclesDAVID PERLMANIf you were quick off the mark picking up this month’s magazine orone of the smart/lucky ones who have registered on our website toreceive a “heads-up” when the online facsimile edition is up (usually24–48 hours ahead of the print edition) then you still have time tomake it down to the St. Lawrence Centre for mezzo Wallis Giunta’sRufus Wainwright.March 1 recital, with very busy collaborativepianist Steven Philcox at thekeys. The Music Toronto DiscoveriesSeries concert was originally billed as“a recital of English language songs,”but a very interesting turn of events hastechnically made a liar out of Giunta.As reported in this column last month,half of the programme will now consistof a song cycle, All Days Are Nights:Songs for Lulu, by Rufus Wainwright.It should be an intriguing evening.Wainwright performed the cycle himselfat the Winter Garden Theatre twosummers ago, as part of the lead-in to the North American premiereof his opera, Prima Donna, at that year’s Luminato festival. Theaudience that night consisted, to a very large extent, of legions oflongtime Wainwright fans who were baffled and frustrated by therequest to refrain from applauding between the individual songs.Hearing it sung through will provide an opportunity to hear it as atrue song cycle, a single work with a compelling emotional arc to it,THE ART OF SONGSCHADE & PISARONItenorJustus Zeyen pianoFri Mar 30, 8pmSupported bybass-baritoneFor Tickets call 416.872.4255Online roythomson.comMarch 1 – April 7, 2012thewholenote.com 11

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