uilding atrium afterwards, to rehydrate and let a few words fly. Certainlyit was in the spirit of the upcoming event.We made a bit of a motley crew: Pia Kleber and Ron Davis, whomreaders have already met in the story; our “cover boys” Billy Iannaciand Andrew Testa (more about them in a moment); choreographer/director Clarence Ford who arrived too late for the photo shoot, butstayed anyway, revealing off the record a wonderful idea for his performancethat I promised not to spoil; and rounding out the picture,Lorne Tulk, Gould’s recording engineer who, as the story has it, andas Tulk will corroborate, was the closest thing Gould had to a brother,and was the only one of our gathering one with a direct connection tothe man behind the ever-evolving myth.IANNACI AND TESTA will perform at GGV as two members of a threesome,with DJ Sam Pereira (who spins under the name LRS, and is offbackpacking in India so couldn’t join us for the shoot, but he and I communicatedlater). Their piece is called “Gould’s DNA” and, especiallyin the context of the fact that they have never worked with each otherbefore, it’s interesting to hear them describe the piece they are workingon. “What makes us powerful and creative is that we each bringunique talents to the table,” says Pereira. “Billy is a talented producer(dissecting and breaking down Gould’s music into Midi). Andrew isa talented musician (drummer and composer). I am a DJ/conductorkeeping our performance on time, while providing contemporary elementsof the DJ (mixing, scratching and EQ-ing). We are still workingon our performance. I’d say the most ‘Gouldian’ thing about it will bethat we’re composing three different songs that will be themed aroundhis ideas on music and technology.”Pereira cheerfully confesses to knowing next to nothing about Gouldbefore the project, “a generation thing, you know.” But his bio also statesthat he has performed all over the world and currently maintains thewidest syndicated live-to-air broadcast in Canada, with weekly listenershipthat ranges between 500,000 and 1,000,000. So the “generationthing” cuts two ways.Iannaci began his musical career as a singer/songwriter, and has sincegravitated much more strongly to the production side. Testa works bothas a drummer and on the production/engineering side. Both are evidentlygetting a huge kick out of the process they find themselves in,in preparing for the event, not least in the evident camaraderie theyare developing with Tulk. “This whole thing,” Testa says, “has openedour ears to classical music and has challenged us to work on somethinga bit out of our element and we plan to dissect artists like Gouldin future projects.”“Our other goal,” Iannaci adds “is to have people know more aboutmodern composition technology, the things that most likely Gould himselfwould have been doing if the technology was available to him–whatwe call the “chopping” of audio ... it would be the splicing of audio, andwe’re going to use that to kind of create completely new compositions.Also, the other thing that we want to be highlighting is the programMelodyne, which is going to be able to read Glenn’s performances, andwe’ll be able to apply those performances to modern instruments, aswell as add our own little compositional flavours into it ... so for instancewe’ve been able to take Gould’s playing and apply it to 8-bit (8-bit islike the Nintendo sounds) — just creative things like that.”Tulk is smiling as they speak. “I am just sort of laughing at what theywere saying, about how they were able to do w what they were able toaccomplish ... it’s a magnificent program, Melodyne. That’s what Glennwould appreciate, the creativity, the freedom ... you’re free to create asyou wish. I always loved the phrase that Glenn had more than 88 keysin him. He just had so ... there were so many other aspects of him otherthan the piano.”“Maybe he’d never have touched a piano again if he’d had these tools,”I say. “What do you think? Do you think he’d have been swept awayby all of this?”“No. No, no” is Lorne’s reply. His mind was too active for that. Hismind would have gone with the times. He was a digital man with ananalog skin, yeah, no question. And no, I don’t think he would havegotten swept away, he would have been part of the era. He was veryquick at filling in the blanks.”For an expanded version of this article visit thewholenote.com.BEHIND THE SCENESNina Draganic,“Lobbyist”BY REBECCA CHUAAnight at the opera is often burnished into memory as somehowgrander, more glamorous and opulent than any othernight. Soaring melodies, impressive sets, ingenious costumes:the sheer spectacle tends to obscure the hundreds of hours of beaveringand, more accurately, the years of preparation that made it all possible.Everyone conspires to make the magic happen. So in that moment wheneverything falls into place, it all somehow seems inevitable and werarely, while caught up in the moment,stop to question it: to wonder about thescience behind the magic, to speculatewhat might have happened instead, toask “what if?” These are questions for thelobby after the curtain has fallen.This month, our spotlight falls on anindividual whose life is bound up withwatering and feeding the beast that isopera, almost always out of the limelightand behind the scenes, indeedmore often in the lobby than in the hallitself! But in terms of life’s twists andturns, for Nina Draganic, who is amongother things the curator of the CanadianOpera Company’s lobby concert series,one could also ask “what if?”When we look at the choices we makein life, how do we distinguish betweenthe pivotal and the merely sequential?Certainly, little Nina Draganic had a verydifferent idea in mind when, at the ripeold age of eleven, she persuaded her parents to bring her home a piano.And when the precocious teenager set off to Queen’s University, shehad her sights set on a performing career, and was soon well on herway to achieving it.Then an injury to her hand derailed her hopes, but her love of languagesbeckoned, taking her to Florence, Vienna, Leningrad and Berlin.It was a heady time to be in Europe, particularly during the fall of theBerlin Wall. But it was her experiences, both personal and professional(including a stint at the Berlin Film Festival) that were to equip her forher return to Canada.If she had any inkling, from the very beginning, that the CanadianOpera Company was the eventual home for her, she certainly could nothave foreseen the role she would play, or the path she would take to getthere. When she became general manager of the Canadian Children’sOpera Company (then the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, a smallautonomous organization with close ties to the COC) she found herselfimmersed in every aspect of administration, staffing, finance, production,touring, publicity and fundraising, experiences that were to standher in good stead when she became executive assistant to the generalmanager at the Canadian Opera. Yet anyone who might have thoughtthe position was akin to that of a personal secretary obviously did notreckon with the force of nature that was Richard Bradshaw.“Richard Bradshaw was a man who didn’t sleep much at night, he wastoo busy concocting things,” Draganic remembers with a smile. “AndRichard had a passion for emerging artists on the cusp.” When he floatedthe idea of a free concert series that would showcase performers of allgenres at all levels, she says, “My face lit up like a 400-watt light bulb!”Those were tumultuous days. After 40 years, the COC was finally in thethroes of constructing an opera house of its very own, and preparationsKAREN REEVES10 thewholenote.com September 1 – October 7, 2012
RCM_WHOLENOTE_4c_fullpage_Sept 12-08-17 11:32 AM Page 1KOERNER HALL IS:“As Good as it Gets! ”TORONTO STARSUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2012 7:30PMMAZZOLENI CONCERT HALLDavid LouiecelebratesBach & GouldHarpsichordist David Louie performs anall-Bach program with Alison Melville,traverso; Kathleen Kajioka, violin; StevenDann, viola; and Margaret Jordan-Gay,cello, in celebration of a great composerand the Canadian musical icon whochampioned his works.MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 7PMKOERNER HALLGlenn Gould’sBirthday BACHanaliaWe celebrate Gould’s birthday with Bach likeyou have never heard it – on a harp, a harmonica,a capella, as bluegrass, as the blues, and withGould “himself”! Join Mark O’Connor, HowardLevy, Trichy Sankaran, Autorickshaw, Retrocity,Sylvain Blassel, the Dave Young Trio, and others,as they serve up a feast of Johann Sebastian Bachin honour of Glenn Gould. Tickets start at SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012 7PM - 7AM FREE EVENTThe Royal Conservatory’sScotiabank Nuit BlancheSylvain Blassel will play the complete Goldberg Variations by Bach on harp,and Small Wooden Shoe “Reads Difficult Plays and Sings Simple Songs.” Toronto’saudacious Lemon Bucket Orkestra will perform, John Coburn and other visual artistswill create new works live, students from The Glenn Gould School will play musicall night long, and you are invited to come and make visual art with us!THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2012 8PMKOERNER HALLHong KongSinfoniettaconducted byYip Wing-sieThe Sinfonietta makes its Toronto debutwith a program of Prokofiev, Stravinsky,and a new work for orchestra and sheng.FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2012 8PMKOERNER HALLRoyalConservatoryOrchestraconducted byUri MayerMaestro Uri Mayer, harp soloist SophieBaird-Daniel, and the RCO performGershwin’s Cuban Overture, Ginastera’sHarp Concerto, and Brahms Symphony No. 4.SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2012 2PMMAZZOLENI CONCERT HALLBarry Shiffman& FriendsBarry Shiffman will be joined byTimothy Ying on the violin, cellistAndrés Díaz, pianist Jean Saulnie, andGlenn Gould School students andalumni in a program of Arvo Pärt andJohannes Brahms.273 BLOOR STREET WEST(BLOOR & AVENUE RD.)TORONTOON SALE NOW! 416.408.0208rcmusic.ca
Arraymusic, the Music Gallery and Native Women in the Arts join for a mini-festival celebrating the work of composer, performer and installation artist Raven Chacon; Music and Health looks at the role of Healing Arts Ontario in supporting concerts in care facilities; Kingston-based composer Marjan Mozetich's life and work are celebrated in film; "Forest Bathing" recontextualizes Schumann, Shostakovich and Hindemith; in Judy Loman's hands, the harp can sing; Mahler's Resurrection bursts the bounds of symphonic form; Ed Bickert, guitar master remembered. All this and more in our April issue, now online in flip-through here, and on stands commencing Friday March 29.
Something Old, Something New! The Ide(a)s of March are Upon Us! Rob Harris's Rear View Mirror looks forward to a tonal revival; Tafelmusik expands their chronological envelope in two directions, Esprit makes wave after wave; Pax Christi's new oratorio by Barbara Croall catches the attention of our choral and new music columnists; and summer music education is our special focus, right when warm days are once again possible to imagine. All this and more in our March 2019 edition, available in flipthrough here, and on the stands starting Thursday Feb 28.
In this issue: A prize that brings lustre to its laureates (and a laureate who brings lustre to the prize); Edwin Huizinga on the journey of Opera Atelier's "The Angel Speaks" from Versailles to the ROM; Danny Driver on playing piano in the moment; Remembering Neil Crory (a different kind of genius)' Year of the Boar, Indigeneity and Opera; all this and more in Volume 24 #5. Online in flip through, HERE and on the stands commencing Thursday Jan 31.
When is a trumpet like a motorcycle in a dressage event? How many Brunhilde's does it take to change an Elektra? Just two of the many questions you've been dying to ask, to which you will find answers in a 24th annual combined December/January issue – in which our 11 beat columnists sift through what's on offer in the upcoming holiday month, and what they're already circling in their calendars for 2019. Oh, and features too: a klezmer violinist breathing new life into a very old film; two New Music festivals in January, 200 metres apart; a Music & Health story on the restorative powers of a grassroots exercise in collective music-making; even a good reason to go to Winnipeg in the dead of winter. All this and more in Vol 24 No 4, now available in flipthrough format here.
Reluctant arranger! National Ballet Orchestra percussionist Kris Maddigan on creating the JUNO and BAFTA award-winning smash hit Cuphead video game soundtrack; Evergreen by name and by nature, quintessentially Canadian gamelan (Andrew Timar explains); violinist Angèle Dubeau on 20 years and 60 million streams; two children’s choirs where this month remembrance and living history must intersect. And much more, online in our kiosk now, and on the street commencing Thursday November 1.
Presenters, start your engines! With TIFF and "back-to-work" out of the way, the regular concert season rumbles to life, and, if our Editor's Opener can be trusted, "Seeking Synergies" seems to be the name of the game. Denise Williams' constantly evolving "Walk Together Children" touching down at the Toronto Centre for the Arts; the second annual Festival of Arabic Music and Arts expanding its range; a lesson in Jazz Survival with Steve Wallace; the 150 presenter and performer profiles in our 19th annual Blue Pages directory... this is an issue that is definitely more than the sum of its parts.
In this issue: The WholeNote's 7th Annual TIFF TIPS guide to festival films with musical clout; soprano Erin Wall in conversation with Art of Song columnist Lydia Perovic, about more than the art of song; a summer's worth of recordings reviewed; Toronto Chamber Choir at 50 (is a few close friends all it takes?); and much more, as the 2018/19 season gets under way.
PLANTING NOT PAVING! In this JUNE / JULY /AUGUST combined issue: Farewell interviews with TSO's Peter Oundjian and Stratford Summer Music's John Miller, along with "going places" chats with Luminato's Josephine Ridge, TD Jazz's Josh Grossman and Charm of Finches' Terry Lim. ) Plus a summer's worth of fruitful festival inquiry, in the city and on the road, in a feast of stories and our annual GREEN PAGES summer Directory.
In this issue: our sixteenth annual Choral Canary Pages; coverage of 21C, Estonian Music Week and the 3rd Toronto Bach Festival (three festivals that aren’t waiting for summer!); and features galore: “Final Finales” for Larry Beckwith’s Toronto Masque Theatre and for David Fallis as artistic director of Toronto Consort; four conductors on the challenges of choral conducting; operatic Hockey Noir; violinist Stephen Sitarski’s perspective on addressing depression; remembering bandleader, composer and saxophonist Paul Cram. These and other stories, in our May 2018 edition of the magazine.
In this issue: we talk with jazz pianist Thompson Egbo-Egbo about growing up in Toronto, building a musical career, and being adaptive to change; pianist Eve Egoyan prepares for her upcoming Luminato project and for the next stage in her long-term collaborative relationship with Spanish-German composer Maria de Alvear; jazz violinist Aline Homzy, halfway through preparing for a concert featuring standout women bandleaders, talks about social equity in the world of improvised music; and the local choral community celebrates the life and work of choral conductor Elmer Iseler, 20 years after his passing.
In this issue: Canadian Stage, Tapestry Opera and Vancouver Opera collaborate to take Gogol’s short story The Overcoat to the operatic stage; Montreal-based Sam Shalabi brings his ensemble Land of Kush, and his newest composition, to Toronto; Five Canadian composers, each with a different CBC connection, are nominated for JUNOs; and The WholeNote team presents its annual Summer Music Education Directory, a directory of summer music camps, programs and courses across the province and beyond.
In this issue: composer Nicole Lizée talks about her love for analogue equipment, and the music that “glitching” evokes; Richard Rose, artistic director at the Tarragon Theatre, gives us insights into their a rock-and-roll Hamlet, now entering production; Toronto prepares for a mini-revival of Schoenberg’s music, with three upcoming shows at New Music Concerts; and the local music theatre community remembers and celebrates the life and work of Mi’kmaq playwright and performer Cathy Elliott . These and other stories, in our double-issue December/January edition of the magazine.
In this issue: conversations (of one kind or another) galore! Daniela Nardi on taking the reins at "best-kept secret" venue, 918 Bathurst; composer Jeff Ryan on his "Afghanistan" Requiem for a Generation" partnership with war poet, Susan Steele; lutenist Ben Stein on seventeenth century jazz; collaborative pianist Philip Chiu on going solo; Barbara Hannigan on her upcoming Viennese "Second School" recital at Koerner; Tina Pearson on Pauline Oliveros; and as always a whole lot more!
In this issue: several local artists reflect on the memory of composer Claude Vivier, as they prepare to perform his music; Vancouver gets ready to host international festival ISCM World New Music Days, which is coming to Canada for the second time since its inception in 1923; one of the founders of Artword Artbar, one of Hamilton’s staple music venues, on the eve of the 5th annual Steel City Jazz Festival, muses on keeping urban music venues alive; and a conversation with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, as he prepares for an ambitious recital in Toronto. These and other stories, in our October 2017 issue of the magazine.
In this issue: a look at why musicians experience stage fright, and how to combat it; an inside look at the second Kensington Market Jazz Festival, which zeros in on one of Toronto’s true ‘music villages’; an in-depth interview with Elisa Citterio, new music director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; and The WholeNote’s guide to TIFF, with suggestions for the 20 most musical films at this year’s festival. These and other stories, in our September 2017 issue of the magazine!
CBC Radio's Lost Horizon; Pinocchio as Po-Mo Operatic Poster Boy; Meet the Curators (Crow, Bernstein, Ridge); a Global Music Orchestra is born; and festivals, festivals, festivals in our 13th annual summer music Green Pages. All this and more in our three-month June-through August summer special issue, now available in flipthrough HERE and on the stands commencing Thursday June 1.
From science fact in "Integral Man: Music and the Movies," to science fiction in the editor's opener; from World Fiddle Day at the Aga Khan Museum to three Canadians at the Cliburn; from wanting to sashay across the 401 to Chamberfest in Montreal to exploring the Continuum of Jumblies Theatre's 20-year commitment to the Community Play (there's a pun in there somewhere!).
In this issue: Our podcast ramps up with interviews in March with fight director Jenny Parr, countertenor Daniel Taylor, and baritone Russell Braun; two views of composer John Beckwith at 90; how music’s connection to memory can assist with the care of patients with Alzheimer’s; musical celebrations in film and jazz, at National Canadian Film Day and Jazz Day; and a preview of Louis Riel, which opens this month at the COC. These and other stories, in our April 2017 issue of the magazine!
On our cover: Owen Pallett's musical palette on display at New Creations. Spring brings thoughts of summer music education! (It's never too late.). For Marc-Andre Hamelin the score is king. Ella at 100 has the tributes happening. All; this and more.
In this issue: an interview with composer/vocalist Jeremy Dutcher, on his upcoming debut album and unique compositional voice; a conversation with Boston Symphony hornist James Sommerville, as as the BSO gets ready to come to his hometown; Stuart Hamilton, fondly remembered; and an inside look at Hugh’s Room, as it enters a complicated chapter in the story of its life in the complex fabric of our musical city. These and other stories, as we celebrate the past and look forward to the rest of 2016/17, the first glimpses of 2017/18, and beyond!
In this issue: a conversation with pianist Stewart Goodyear, in advance of his upcoming show at Koerner Hall; a preview of the annual New Year’s phenomenon that is Bravissimo!/Salute to Vienna; an inside look at music performance in Toronto’s health-care centres; and a reflection on the incredible life and lasting influence of the late Pauline Oliveros. These and more, in a special December/January combined issue!
In this issue: David Jaeger and Alex Pauk’s most memorable R. Murray Schafer collabs, in this month’s installment of Jaeger’s CBC Radio Two: The Living Legacy; an interview with flutist Claire Chase, who brings new music and mindset to Toronto this month; an investigation into the strange coincidence of three simultaneous Mendelssohn Elijahs this Nov 5; and of course, our annual Blue Pages, a who’s who of southern Ontario’s live music scene- a community as prolific and multifaceted as ever. These and more, as we move full-force into the 2016/17 concert season- all aboard!
Music lover's TIFF (our fifth annual guide to the Toronto International Film Festival); Aix Marks the Spot (how Brexit could impact on operatic co-production); The Unstoppable Howard Cable (an affectionate memoir of a late chapter in the life of of a great Canadian arranger; Kensington Jazz Story (the newest kid on the festival block flexes its muscles). These stories and much more as we say a lingering goodbye to summer and turn to the task, for the 22nd season, of covering the live and recorded music that make Southern Ontario tick.
It's combined June/July/August summer issue time with, we hope, enough between the covers to keep you dipping into it all through the coming lazy, hazy days. From Jazz Vans racing round "The Island" delivering pop-up brass breakouts at the roadside, to Bach flute ambushes strolling "The Grove, " to dozens of reasons to stay in the city. May yours be a summer where you find undiscovered musical treasures, and, better still, when, unexpectedly, the music finds you.
INSIDE: The Canaries Are Here! 116 choirs to choose from, so take the plunge! The Nylons hit the road after one last SING! Fling. Jazz writer Steve Wallace wonders "Watts Goode" rather than "what's new?" Paul Ennis has the musical picks of the HotDocs crop. David Jaeger's CBC Radio continues golden for a little while yet. Douglas McNabney is Music's Child. Leipzig meets Damascus in Alison Mackay's fertile imagination. And "C" is for KRONOS in Wende Bartley's koverage of the third annual 21C Festival. All this and as usual much much more. Enjoy.
From 30 camp profiles to spark thoughts of being your summer musical best, to testing LUDWIG as you while away the rest of so-called winter; from Scottish Opera and the Danish Midtvest, to a first Toronto recital appearance by violin superstar Maxim Vengerov; from musings on New Creations and new creation, to the boy who made a habit of crying Beowulf; it's a month of merry meetings and rousing recordings reviewed, all here to discover in The WholeNote.
2016 is off to a flying start! We chronicle the Artful Times of Andrew Burashko, the violistic versatility of Teng Li, the ageless ebullience of jazz pianist Gene DiNovi and the ninetieth birthday of trumpeter Johnny Cowell. Jaeger remembers Boulez; Waxman recalls Bley's influence, and Olds finds Bowie haunting Editor's Corner. Oh, and did we mention there's all that music? Hello (and goodbye) to the February blues, and here's to swinging through the musical vines of the Year of the Monkey.
What's a vinyl renaissance? What happens when Handel's Messiah runs afoul of the rumba rhythm setting on a (gasp!) Hammond organ? What work does Marc-Andre Hamelin say he would be content to have on every recital program he plays? What are Steve Wallace's favourite fifty Christmas recordings? Why is violinist Daniel Hope celebrating Yehudi Menuhin's 100th birthday at Koerner Hall January 28? Answers to all these questions (and a whole lot more) in the Dec/Jan issue of The WholeNote.
"Come" seems to be the verb that knits this month's issue together. Sondra Radvanovsky comes to Koerner, William Norris comes to Tafel as their new GM, opera comes to Canadian Stage; and (a long time coming!) Jane Bunnett's musicianship and mentorship are honoured with the Premier's award for excellence; plus David Jaeger's ongoing series on the golden years of CBC Radio Two, Andrew Timar on hybridity, a bumper crop of record reviews and much much more. Come on in!
Vol 21 No 2 is now available for your viewing pleasure, and it's a bumper crop, right at the harvest moon. First ever Canadian opera on the Four Seasons Centre main stage gets double coverage with Wende Bartley interviewing Pyramus and Thisbe composer Barbara Monk Feldman and Chris Hoile connecting with director Christopher Alden; Paul Ennis digs into the musical mind of pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, and pianist Eve Egoyan is "On the Record" in conversation with publisher David Perlman ahead of the Oct release concert for her tenth recording. And at the heart of it all the 16th edition of our annual BLUE PAGES directory of presenters profile the season now well and truly under way.
Paul Ennis's annual TIFF TIPS (27 festival films of potential particular musical interest); Wu Man, Yo-Yo Ma and Jeffrey Beecher on the Silk Road; David Jaeger on CBC Radio Music in the days it was committed to commissioning; the LISTENING ROOM continues to grow on line; DISCoveries is back, bigger than ever; and Mary Lou Fallis says Trinity-St. Paul's is Just the Spot (especially this coming Sept 25!).
