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Volume 19 Issue 7 - April 2014

  • Text
  • April
  • Toronto
  • Jazz
  • Theatre
  • Arts
  • Choir
  • Musical
  • Symphony
  • Ossington
  • Bloor

among others.On

among others.On April 12 Islington United Church’s Youth Choir and Junior Choirpresent a joint concert entitled “A Place in the Choir: Youthful Voices.”Free for children and youth.On May 4 the ASLAN Boys Choir of Toronto kicks out against thecity’s inland status in a concert with nautical themes entitled “Pirates,Landlubbers and the High Seas.” Repertoire includes traditional shantiesand songs about life on the ocean.AnniversariesTwo choirs celebrate 25-year anniversaries in May. In Toronto, theCantores Celestes Women’s Choir performs works by Monteverdi,Canadian composer Stephen Hatfield, Paul Halley’s catchy FreedomTrilogy and Wade Hemsworth’s iconic Canadian song, Log Driver’sWaltz. Part of the proceeds from the concert will go to the HubanCradle of Hope Children’s Home orphanage in Kenya. May 3.Also May 3, Markham’s Village Voices choir performs “SilverStars: 25th Anniversary Concert.” Alumni and past accompanistswill join the choir for music by Handel, Mozart, opera and musictheatre choruses.Good Friday ConcertsAll of the following concerts take place on Good Friday, April 18:Cantabile Chorale of York Region “Good Friday Charity BenefitConcert.” Admission with freewill offering; proceeds to selected socialservice agencies in York Region.The Choir of Lawrence Park Community Church performs popularEnglish composer John Rutter’s Requiem.Bach and Good Friday go together like hip-hop and beatbox.Bach’s St. John Passion can be heard in Kitchener with the GrandPhilharmonic Choir, and in Toronto performed by the MetropolitanFestival Choir and Orchestra. Both concerts feature outstandingvocal soloists.Bach’s Mass In B minor also gets a reading that same evening, bythe combined forces of the Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto andthe Elmer Iseler Singers. All three Bach concerts feature outstandingvocal soloists.That’s it for this month. If any choir director is still pondering theadvisability of incorporating Lorde and beatboxing into their choralbag of tricks, I say: “Go for it.” Bach and beatbox are a good deal moresimilar than you might think, and any technique that gets choralsingers thinking about rhythm can only be a good thing!Benjamin Stein is a Toronto tenor and lutenist. He can be contactedat choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website atbenjaminstein.ca.Geoffrey Butler, ConductorWednesday, May 14, 2014 7:30 p.m.Eastminster United Church310 Danforth Ave.(one block west of Chester Station)Tickets in advancewww.torontochoralsociety.orgor by phone 416-410-3509 at the doorTHE CANARIES ARE COMINGTHE CANARIES ARE COMING!A sure sign of spring! Canaries from all over Ontario arealready flocking to sign up for our 12th annual choraldirectory – profiles of choirs Ontario-wide, for all ages andlevels of ability. In print in the May edition The Canary Pagesis searchable online all year round.Don’t miss a note – the deadline is April 11. If your choir hasnot yet been contacted by The WholeNote, inquire tocanary@thewholenote.com.22 | April 1 – May 7, 2014 thewholenote.com

Beat by Beat | Art of SongAmateur Choirs,ProfessionalSoloistsHANS DE GROOTOne of the mainproblems for eventhe most talentedyoung singer is howto get his or her careerstarted. There are manyplaces where a solidtraining is given: theGlenn Gould School atthe Royal Conservatoryor the music facultiesor departments at ourUniversities, such asToronto and McGill, Yorkand Western Ontario.Then there are opportunitiesfor furthertraining through thementorship program atToronto Summer Musicor the Opera Divisionat the University ofToronto Faculty of Music,the Ensemble Studioof the Canadian OperaKasia KonstantyCompany or the Atelierlyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal.In a number of cases such participation has led to important professionalengagements. This season, for instance, we were able to hearseveral recent graduates of the Ensemble Studio in major roles at theCOC: Ileana Montalbetti sang Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes, SimoneOsborne performed Musetta in La bohème and Oscar in Un ballo inmaschera. In the recent Tafelmusik performances of Handel’s Saul,the part of Saul’s daughter Michal was sung by Sherezade Panthaki,an alumna of the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. And thereare always competitions: the North York Concert Orchestra (NYCO)recently announced the winners of the 2013/14 Mozart Competition:Leigh-Ann Allen and Natalya Matyusheva, soprano, Lauren Phillips,mezzo, and Keith Kam, baritone. They will sing with NYCO on May 31.Chances like those do not come easily, though. One way of gettingstarted, employed by many singers, is to perform as soloists withamateur choirs. For the last two years I have been singing with theOakham House Choir of Ryerson University and one of the pleasuresof doing so has been getting to hear a number of fine young soloists.In the first concert that I sang we did Mozart’s Coronation Mass. Thetenor was Andrew Haji, whom I had just heard at the annual competitionfor the COC Ensemble Studio, in which he won Second Prize.At the dress rehearsal of our concert I approached Haji and said whata privilege it was for our choir to sing with such fine soloists. He didnot miss a beat and replied that it was a privilege for them to singwith such a fine choir. I wondered then how literally I should takehis answer but I decided in the end that it was a courteous commentfrom a man with a very quick mind. This spring’s concert by theOakham House Choir on April 26 at the Calvin Presbyterian Churchfeatures the soprano Kasia Konstanty in Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’sDay and Karl Jenkins’ Gloria; accompanying the choir, MatthewJaskiewicz conducts the Toronto Sinfonietta. Konstanty studied musicat McMaster University and then as a graduate student at Western.She has sung as a soloist in a number of concerts, many of themfor Polish-Canadian organizations. You can preview her luminoussoprano on YouTube, where she sings “Je veux vivre” from Roméo etJuliette by Gounod.There are similar opportunities with other choirs: on April 5, theEtobicoke Centennial Choir will perform a varied program (Franck,Mozart, Schumann, madrigals), in which the soloists are Jo-AnnDawson, soprano, Olga Tylman, alto, Keenan Viau, tenor, andChristopher van Wyck, baritone at the Humber Valley United Church,Etobicoke.Other Events in the GTA: In a free noontime concert on April 3Claire de Sévigné, soprano, Charlotte Burrage, mezzo, AndrewHaji, tenor, and Gordon Bintner, bass-baritone, will sing Brahms’Liebeslieder Walzer. The pianists are Liz Upchurch and MichaelShannon; at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.In 1726 Handel was much inconvenienced by the rivalry betweenhis leading sopranos, Francesca Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni. OnApril 9, 10, 12 and 13 Isabel Bayrakdarian will present music sungby both of the rival queens. The program will include not only musicby Handel but also arias by Hasse and Bononcini as well as worksby Telemann and Zelenka. Bayrakdarian will be accompanied byTafelmusik, directed by Jeanne Lamon at Koerner Hall.On April 11 a concert jointly organized by Opera by Request and thethewholenote.com April 1 – May 7, 2014 | 23

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