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Volume 18 Issue 4 - December 2012

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • December
  • Theatre
  • Jazz
  • January
  • February
  • Arts
  • Symphony
  • Choir
  • Concerts

and Louis Simao’s show

and Louis Simao’s show “Fado, the Soul of Portugal” at the Green DoorCabaret will do the trick on December 1. On the other hand AmandaMartinez, our own Latin-Canadian singer-songwriter, might be theticket to lifting your spirits at Koerner Hall on the same night.At noon on December 5 at the Four Seasons Centre for thePerforming Arts, four of Toronto’s finest gigging world musicianstroll the season’s more whimsical global side in an all-ages concerttitled “GrimmFest: Fairy Tales from Faraway Lands.” The musiciansare vocalist Maryem Tollar, Roula Said, vocals/dance/percussion, percussionistNaghmeh Farahmand, and Waleed Abdulhamid on bass/percussion/vocals. Also at the Four Seasons Centre on December 13the Jeng Yi Korean Drum and Dance Ensemble, featuring Joo HyungKim on Korean zither, perform a program with the enticing label“Drums, Strings and Ribbons.” If West Africa is where you’d rather bemid-December, then be there in spirit at the Dande Music Showcase’sCD release concert of Bongozozo, an Afro-Jazz band with Zimbabweanroots, at the May Café on the 15th.Buika.As much as December is about reflection, January and the New Yearmeans new beginnings for many of us. The month starts slowly, but byJanuary 18 it is in full swing with the concert by the groups SoledadBarrio, Noche Flamenca and the Jorge Miguel Flamenco Ensembleat the Royal Conservatory of Music. More flamenco, this time witha decidedly jazz-infused flavour served up by Buika, graces KoernerHall on January 25. Ending the month on the afternoon of the 27this Soundstreams’ adventurous production of “The Three Faces ofJerusalem,” including music and poetry exploring the shared heritagesof Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Torontonian composer JamesRolfe’s as yet unnamed new work will be unveiled. On the traditionalside of the program: Sephardic songs, Arabic instrumental and vocalworks, as well as Lauda Jerusalem, by the great Italian renaissancecomposer Monteverdi. I think it’s a fittingly optimistic way to greetthe New Year. May yours be peaceful and filled with music.Andrew Timar is a Toronto musician and music writer.He can be contacted at worldmusic@thewholenote.com.Visions: Rhapsodies & FantasiasPiano music by Constantine CaravassilisBeat by Beat | In With the NewAll Roads Lead To... ?David PERLMANour cover story bypasses all of December to focus on aJanuary 21 event. So I thought I’d push the envelope a dayfurther and start by calling your attention to an event happeningon January 22! On that day, at Glenn Gould Studio, pianistChristina Petrowska Quilico launches a two-CD Centrediscs recording,Visions: Rhapsodies & Fantasias, consisting of composer ConstantinCaravassilis’ books of rhapsodies and fantasias for solo piano. “Visionsin sound, transcending lyricism to become a dramatic opera for thekeyboard,” is how Petrowska Quilico describes the works, a descriptionwhich sounds considerably less flowery and vague when onenotes that composer Caravassilis, like Sibelius, Rimsky-Korsakovand, some would say, Mozart before him is a “synaesthete,” someonewhose perception of sound is inextricably linked to colourand movement.Petrowska Quilico, a visual artist in her own right, entered into theworld of Caravassilis’ sound palette so completely that she renderedthe works into nearly 100 paintings before committing them to disc.Some of these paintings will be projected at the concert, and displayedat a Canadian Music Centre-hosted reception in the lobby afterwards.This project’s road to fulfilment has passed through the CanadianMusic Centre, in more ways than one: it started out when Caravassilisand Petrowska Quilico were named recipients of the CMCadministeredinaugural Harry Freedman Award back in 2010; and“View From Pluto,” one of the works on the CD, was performed byPetrowska Quilico, along with a portion of Ann Southam’s Rivers onOctober 30, as part of the official launch of the CMC’s new 50-seat,intimate performing and recording space.Tucked in behind the reception desk on the ground floor ofChalmers house, the new venue occupies the part of the building formerlytaken up by the CMC’s score library and a nest of offices. Italready looks as if it has always been there. I almost couldn’t rememberhow it looked before till I closed my eyes and rememberedPetrowska Quilico seated in the corner of the score library, sometimelast year, somehow coaxing from composer John Weinzweig’s reluctantold upright piano some of the astonishingly nuanced harmonicsof Southam’s “Rivers.”The new space, in contrast, is anchored by a superb Steingraebergrand piano and a more than adequate adjacent reception area, andhas already built an impressive list of users.As far back as September 23, 13-year-old pianist Anastasia Rizikov(already a poised and accomplished performer) and composer/pianistAdam Sherkin gave the new Steingreber its first real workout the dayit was moved in, in an event that served as a kind of after-party to the“Renegades, Dreamers and Visionaries” Glenn Gould at 80 event thatwas our September cover story. Sherkin, who is a CMC associate composerplayed some of his own works from an upcoming CentrediscsPIANOin concert launching world premiere 2-CD Centrediscs recordingTuesday, January 22, 2013, 7:30 pmGlenn Gould Studio, 250 Front Street W, TorontoTickets at Roy Thomson Hall Box Officeroythomson.com • 416-872-4255petrowskaquilico.compresented by Summers International • sumarts.com24 thewholenote.com December 1 – February 7, 2013

Robert Aitken, artistic directorSunday December 9, 2012 • 2:30 pmKOREAN MUSIC PROJECTBetty Oliphant Theatre | 404 Jarvis St.Traditional Korean music and newworks for traditional instruments byKlaus Huber ❆(Switzerland) andInwon Kang ❆(S. Korea)presented with the assistance of:Sunday December 9, 2012 • 8 pmTHE KOREAN STORYSukhi Kang and his ClassBetty Oliphant Theatre | 404 Jarvis St.New Music Concerts EnsembleRobert Aitken, directionCanadian and World premieres by:Sukhi Kang ❆(S.Korea)Shinuh Lee ❆(S. Korea)So Jeong Ahn ❂ N (S. Korea/Canada)Jongwoo Yim ❆(S. Korea)Unsuk Chin ❆(S. Korea)Saturday January 19, 2013 • 8 pmENSEMBLE SURPLUSMusic from Germany & CanadaThe Music Gallery | 197 John St.Cornelius Schwehr ❆(Germany)Dieter Mack ❆(Germany)Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf ❆(Germany)Dániel Péter Biró ❂(Hungary/Canada)Sunday February 3, 2013 • 8 pmPAST, PRESENT AND FUTURECanadian Music, Then and NowBetty Oliphant Theatre | 404 Jarvis St.New Music Concerts EnsembleRobert Aitken, directionmusic by:John Weinzweig N (Canada)R. Murray Schafer (Canada)Adam Scime ❂ N (Canada)Brian Cherney (Canada)Brian Harman ❂ N (Canada)Saturday April 27, 2012 • 8 pmLE JARDIN MUSICALA Tribute to Gilles Tremblaywith Louise Bessette, solo pianoGallery 345 | 345 Sorauren Ave.music by:Serge Arcuri (Canada)Gilles Tremblay (Canada)Olivier Messiaen (France)François Dompierre (Canada)presented with the assistance of:Saturday April 6, 2013 • 8 pm (Special Benefit Concert)SIX HUNDRED YEAR ANNIVERSARIESGallery 345 | 345 Sorauren Ave.Music by Six Centennarians:John Cage (USA 1912-1992) Barbara Pentland (Canada 1912-2000)Conlon Nancarrow (USA 1912-1997) John Weinzweig (Canada 1913-2006)Witold Lutosławski (Poland 1913-1994) Henry Brant (Canada/USA 1913-2008)❆ Canadian premiere |❂ World premiere | N New Music Concerts commissionPick 3 (or more) each reg | $18 snr/arts | students Korean Concerts (2 events) reg | snr/arts | studentsIndividual Tickets regular | seniors / arts workers | students Call NMC @ 416.961.9594Introductions @ 7:15pm | Concerts @ 8:00pm | Full details and PDF subscription form atwww.NewMusicConcerts.com

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