MUSICAL LIFE: JUST THE SPOT The Space and its Place in the Music: ArrayMusic Studio ANDREW TIMAR Over the past few months I have looked at several local venues presenting concerts listed in The WholeNote. These spaces range from the venerable Music Gallery, whose motto “Toronto’s centre for creative music” has taken it into its 38th season, to the Aga Khan Museum’s world music-rich concert series, now in its fourth month. Their stories encompass their venue’s architecture and the public geographies they inhabit and serve. For example, the Music Gallery’s office and primary downtown venue, a block north of Queen Street West, is the modestly sized St. George the Martyr Anglican Church, its Gothic revival bell tower dating to 1844. The church site looks onto Grange Park and the 105-year old University Settlement social service centre. At the other end of the park sits the near 200-year-old former grand brick home called The Grange and its heir, the AGO. When viewed in the context of its historic urban geography, it strikes me that even though much of its music programming inhabits the experimental edge, the Music Gallery’s site echoes with distinctively old- Toronto tones. On the other hand the Aga Khan Museum’s state-of-the art 380-seat hall is nested in a gleaming fractal stone-clad building. It opened just last September in a commercial swath of suburban Don Mills within earshot of the Don Valley Parkway. Conceived by the award-winning Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, its setting, adjacent to the gleaming Ismaili Centre, imbues the entire site with an international latemodernist outlook. ArrayMusic Ensemble and its Studio In this issue we will explore another seminal venue, the ArrayMusic Studio in terms of its various mandates and geographies, as filtered through the lens of two recent concerts held at it’s new studio space on Walnut Avenue. Before it managed a concert venue, Array was an avant-garde music ensemble dedicated to commissioning and programming “full spectrum multimedia works, electronic events, group improvisations, music and dance collaborations.” Launched April 20, 1972 by a cohort of University of Toronto composition students in a concert presented at Walter Hall, it is still going strong today. By the early 1980s the group’s growth required a dedicated rehearsal facility. It found one in a furbished garage on Albany Avenue in the upper Annex. (I recall parties there were a bit drafty in the winter, but then cold breezes just inflame the resolve of the young.) Then, for some two decades Arraymusic rented a multifunctional space consisting of a studio and offices at the Liberty Village Artspace building. The large brick structure had served as a winery back in the day. During Artscape’s 1991-2012 tenure, its tenants infused the neighbourhood with energy and played a “catalytic role in the reinvention of Liberty Village from a campus of under-utilized industrial buildings to an important cluster of creative sector employment.” So observed architect Stephanie Calvet in her 2013 article on UrbanToronto.ca. I spent many hours there rehearsing with the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan and several other groups, as well as attending numerous workshops and concerts. An era came to an end when Artscape’s lease was terminated November 30, 2012. Luckily Arraymusic artistic director Rick Sacks had located a suitable new Arraymusic location in another weathered brick industrial building, this time at 144 Walnut Ave. Even though the second floor space was in a raw state, Sacks saw plenty of potential. After installing a new floor, partitions and fixtures were added. The renovated space is now organised into two areas. The main room, the Studio, is a 1,200 sq. ft. rehearsal and performance space with a capacity of 60; the second area houses six rental offices, one of which Arraymusic occupies. The Arraymusic Studio opened for business in 2013, yet only a brief year later blogTO ranked it among the top five “experimental music” venues in Toronto. What are the neighbours like? Zooming out on the map we see that Arraymusic’s space is located in a mixed commercial-residential zone just south of the busy retail and arts hub of Queen Street West and just north of Adelaide Street. In a newer concrete block adjacent building, Toronto’s largest distributor of packaged ice, ice machines and ice sculptures busily serves the GTA’s frozen potable water needs. Outside, about 30 metres to the south side of Adelaide, lies the pleasantly green northern end of Stanley Park. Residential houses, town homes and low-rise apartments are the backbone of the neighbourhood, but its texture is liberally infused with commercial pockets housing several art galleries and stationary and printing studios. A womenswear studio, model agency and TV production company are a few short blocks away. A collaborative workspace centre with 153 members, comprised of small startup teams and social entrepreneurs, is a recent neighbourhood addition, perhaps a harbinger of future trends. While the shifting dynamic of the neighbourhood around the Studio augurs well for a dynamic organization always shifting shape, it’s what happens inside that tells the story of where Array is heading. So over the past month or so I dropped in on two quite different events taking place there. Sound Dreaming: The first, “Sound Dreaming: Music by Wendalyn Bartley” took place on December 5, 2014. One interpretation of the Toronto composer, vocalist and sound energy practitioner Wendalyn Bartley’s voicecentric explorations is that they directly aim to connect ancient and contemporary sound energies. Her Array presentation centred on expeditions she Wendalyn Bartley undertook with her voice 48 | February 1 - March 7, 2015 thewholenote.com
and audio recorder to “sonic portals,” including 11 ancient ritual spaces in Greece, Crete and Malta. One of the works, Soundlines, featured video footage by Jacky Sawatzsky of the storm-ravaged old-growth groves of Stanley Park, the soul of urban Vancouver – yet another kind of natural sacred space. Its score is, however, rooted in the archaic Mediterranean. Bartley’s exploratory vocalise was originally recorded at the megalithic temple complex of Mnajdra in Malta, a 5,500-year-old UNESCO World Heritage Site and later transcribed for two women’s voices sung live at the concert. Once at the ancient sites, Bartley chose to attune herself to the “architectural stone structures, female figurines, fertility sculptures, spiral carvings,” with the intent to “align my voice with ancestral wisdom and through the primordial language of Sound, [and thus] dream my way into connection with the sacred life-force energy.” Improvisation plays a key role in this process. Seeking tones and vocal gestures which resonated with her surroundings, she later mixed the results in a recording studio with environmental and instrumental sounds to “create a series of pieces or Oracle Songs, guiding listeners along their personal interior journeys.” As for contemporary technology, Bartley furnished Array’s cozy hall with a 5.1 surround sound PA. Over it she diffused pre-recorded sounds made with her voice at the Mediterranean spaces plus those sourced elsewhere, all carefully edited, mixed and layered in the studio. The often meditative music shifted slowly between five independent speakers located around the room’s periphery. Sitting strategically near the centre of the speaker array, I experienced a richly spacialized sound palette in which a large part of the musical drama was enacted though the movement of the sounds travelling or hovering in the volume of the room. I imagine it was meant to evoke the psycho-acoustics of the caves, temples and palaces Bartley had originally explored, transporting “you and your ears [to] the centre of a larger acoustic space – as if you were present in a different environment, a different sonic world.” While Bartley’s compositional practice is grounded in late 20th century contemporary chamber and electroacoustic music, what resonated most of all for me was the use of her own voice as the vehicle for her personal journey into musical terrains linking the past and present. The Array Studio’s warm, somewhat dry acoustic assisted in the clear presentation of her journey. Schotzko: Spanning Tree is a new hour-long work composed by Michael Oesterle, for solo percussion. I revisited Array on Saturday, January 17, 2015 for its inaugural (and virtuoso) performance by percussionist David Schotzko. As I arrived the Studio seats appeared almost full, and I saw the performance area set with six stations, each composed of a David Schotzko different array of percussion (and a few non-precision) instruments. Black music stands bristled around each station, each stand holding a single oversized page of the six-page score. Listening to the work, it became increasingly clear that each page of the score and each percussion station represented a separate musical section. They were not only separated by space but significantly distinguished by the varied timbres, pitches and tonal and performance techniques of the selected instruments and by the individual approaches embedded in Oesterle’s carefully crafted score. It was masterfully mediated for us by Schotzko’s committed performance. The score traces the metaphoric tree’s development “distilled into a simple format – balancing sounds that are long and sustain effortlessly with sounds that are short and have minimal sustainability.” It’s quite a useful blueprint for a solo percussion work lasting nearly an hour. Oesterle observes in the program that his six movements “outline musical tableaux which are presented to the performer in the form of six maze-like graphs.” While the composer clearly imbued the score with depth of thought and musical detail, he also gifted the performer with considerable leeway, leaving the ordering of the parts, the choice of the instruments and their combination up to the player’s discretion. A counterpoint to the work’s intellectual rigour and epic length is its sonic delicacy and expansive space where the dry short sounds speak clearly and the sustaining ones ring unencumbered. This sense of space was well served by the Studio’s quiet, intimate ambience. Both these recent concerts at the Array Studio featured a single composer’s work, with the spotlight trained on one star performer, yet each highlights a different facet of the array of musical possibilities this venue offers. Yes, both offered contemporary concert music, but their approaches were strikingly different, and moreover appeared to appeal to diverse audiences, judging from those who attended. It augurs well for Array, both as a presenter and as a flexible rental venue for performers of similarly adventurous experimental mind. Andrew Timar is a Toronto musician and music writer. Galas and Fundraisers ●●Feb 07 7:30: Cellar Singers. The Cellar Singers Got Talent Fundraiser - Let the Sunshine In Cabaret. Featuring Cellar Singers and friends along with delectable desserts, refreshments and cash bar. St. James’ Anglican Church, 58 Peter St. North, Orillia. Reservations: 705-325-3722; www.TheCellarSingers.com $20. ●●Feb 08 5:00: Sinfonia Toronto. Love Songs and Serenades. Evening of chats with Maestro Nurhan Arman; live music by Sinfonia Toronto musicians; fine dining; intriguing games; art display; silent auction. Social Suite, The Lexington, 45 Carlton St. 416-499- 0403; sinfoniatoronto.com per person ( tax receipt). ●●Feb 14 2:00 – 5:00: King Music Collective. Valentine’s Day Celebration. Performers include John Sherwood on piano, jazz bassist Steve Wallace and Terry Clarke on drums; vocalist/composer Michele Mele; vocalist/pianist Cynthia Tauro. Sip champagne and indulge in hand-made chocolates and light snacks. KMC members and all arts and music lovers invited. Home of Michele Mele & Luciano Tauro, 15785 8th Concession, King Township. www.brownpapertickets.com A limited number of tickets will be available at the door. ; $20 (st). Ticket includes beverage and snack. D. The ETCeteras PASQUALE BROTHERS PURVEYORS OF FINE FOOD ●●Feb 14 7:00: Palais Royale. Valentine’s Big Band Dance. Bring your valentine and dance to the big band classics of Sinatra, Bobby Darrin, Peggy Lee, The Andrews Sisters, Glenn Miller, Nelson Riddle, Count Basie and the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra. Featuring the vocal stylings of Glenn Chipkar and the 18 piece Swing Shift Big Band Orchestra; special guest vocalists Larisa Renee, Trio Bella and Vivianna Castell plus DJ Ralph & Theresa Yuan. Palais Royale, 1601 Lake Shore Blvd. West. 1-888-222-6608; www.ticketweb.ca. (general admission); 0 (VIP, includes reserved seating, romantic songs and dinner). ●●Feb 23 6:30: Soundstreams. 2015 Fundraising Gala. An experiential evening to stimulate your five senses created to celebrate our Canadian premiere of The Whisper Opera. Performances by artists from the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) and the Accordes String Quartet. The Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen Street West. 416-408-0208; soundstreams.ca. 5-0. ●●Feb 27 7:30: Queen’s University, School of Music. Fundraising Event: “A Night at the PROMS….then off to the Music Hall”. Students, faculty and alumni from the School of Music perform Proms favourites by Gilbert and Sullivan, Noel Coward, and classics such as Jerusalem, Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory. The Isabel Bader Centre for the CATERING (416) 364-7397 WWW.PASQUALEBROS.COM thewholenote.com February 1 - March 7, 2015 | 49
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Choral Scene: Uncharted territory: three choirs finding paths forward; Music Theatre: Loose Tea on the boil with Alaina Viau’s Dead Reckoning; In with the New: what happens to soundart when climate change meets COVID-19; Call to action: diversity, accountability, and reform in post-secondary jazz studies; 9th Annual TIFF Tips: a filmfest like no other; Remembering: Leon Fleisher; DISCoveries: a NY state of mind; 25th anniversary stroll-through; and more. Online in flip through here, and on stands commencing Tues SEP 1.
Following the Goldberg trail from Gould to Lang Lang; Measha Brueggergosman and Edwin Huizinga on face to face collaboration in strange times; diggings into dance as FFDN keeps live alive; "Classical unicorn?" - Luke Welch reflects on life as a Black classical pianist; Debashis Sinha's adventures in sound art; choral lessons from Skagit Valley; and the 21st annual WholeNote Blue Pages (part 1 of 3) in print and online. Here now. And, yes, still in print, with distribution starting Thursday October 1.
Alanis Obomsawin's art of life; fifteen Exquisite Departures; UnCovered re(dis)covered; jazz in the kitchen; three takes on managing record releases in times of plague; baroque for babies; presenter directory (blue pages) part two; and, here at the WholeNote, work in progress on four brick walls (or is it five?). All this and more available in flipthrough HERE, and in print Tuesday Nov 3.
In this issue: Beautiful Exceptions, Sing-Alone Messiahs, Livingston’s Vocal Pleasures, Chamber Beethoven, Online Opera (Plexiglass & All), Playlist for the Winter of our Discontent, The Oud & the Fuzz, Who is Alex Trebek? All this and more available in flipthrough HERE, and in print Friday December 4.
July/August issue is now available in flipthrough HERE, bringing to a close 25 seasons of doing what we do (and plan to continue doing), and on stands early in the week of July 5. Not the usual bucolic parade of music in the summer sun, but lots, we hope, to pass the time: links to online and virtual music; a full slate of record reviews; plenty new in the Listening Room; and a full slate of stories – the future of opera, the plight of small venues, the challenge facing orchestras, the barriers to resumption of choral life, the challenges of isolation for real-time music; the steps some festivals are taking to keep the spirit and substance of what they do alive. And intersecting with all of it, responses to the urgent call for anti-racist action and systemic change.
"COVID's Metamorphoses"? "There's Always Time (Until Suddenly There Isn't)"? "The Writing on the Wall"? It's hard to know WHAT to call this latest chapter in the extraordinary story we are all of a sudden characters in. By whatever name we call it, the MAY/JUNE combined issue of The WholeNote is now available, HERE in flip through format, in print commencing Wednesday May 6, and, in fully interactive form, online at thewholenote.com. Our 18th Annual Choral Canary Pages, scheduled for publication in print and flip through in September is already well underway with the first 50 choirs home to roost and more being added every week online. Community Voices, our cover story, brings to you the thoughts of 30 musical community members, all going through what we are going through (and with many more to come as the feature gets amplified online over the course of the coming months). And our regular writers bring their personal thoughts to the mix. Finally, a full-fledged DISCoveries review section offers cues and clues to recorded music for your solitary solace!
After some doubt that we would be allowed to go to press, in respect to wide-ranging Ontario business closures relating to COVID-19, The WholeNote magazine for April 2020 is now on press, and print distribution – modified to respect community-wide closures and the need for appropriate distancing – starts Monday March 30. Meanwhile the full magazine is right here, digitally, so if you value us PLEASE SHARE THIS LINK AS WIDELY AS YOU CAN. It's the safest way for us to reach the widest possible audience at this time!
FEATURED: Music & Health writer Vivien Fellegi explores music, blindness & the plasticity of perception; David Jaeger digs into Gustavo Gimeno's plans for new music in his upcoming first season as music director at TSO; pianist James Rhodes, here for an early March recital, speaks his mind in a Q&A with Paul Ennis; and Lydia Perovic talks music and more with rising Turkish-Canadian mezzo Beste Kalender. Also, among our columns, Peggy Baker Dance Projects headlines Wende Bartley's In with the New; Steve Wallace's Jazz Notes rushes in definitionally where many fear to tread; ... and more.
Visions of 2020! Sampling from back to front for a change: in Rearview Mirror, Robert Harris on the Beethoven he loves (and loves to hate!); Errol Gay, a most musical life remembered; Luna Pearl Woolf in focus in recordings editor David Olds' "Editor's Corner" and in Jenny Parr's preview of "Jacqueline"; Speranza Scappucci explains how not to reinvent Rossini; The Indigo Project, where "each piece of cloth tells a story"; and, leading it all off, Jully Black makes a giant leap in "Caroline, or Change." And as always, much more. Now online in flip-through format here and on stands starting Thurs Jan 30.
Welcome to our December/January issue as we turn the annual calendar page, halfway through our season for the 25th time, juggling as always, secular stuff, the spirit of the season, new year resolve and winter journeys! Why is Mozart's Handel's Messiah's trumpet a trombone? Why when Laurie Anderson offers to fly you to the moon you should take her up on the invitation. Why messing with Winterreisse can (sometimes) be a very good thing! And a bumper crop of record reviews for your reading (and sometimes listening) pleasure. Available in flipthrough here right now, and on stands commencing Thursday Nov 28. See you on the other side!
On the slim chance you might not have already heard the news, Estonian Canadian composing giant Udo Kasemets was born the same year that Leo Thermin invented the theremin --1919. Which means this is the centenary year for both of them, and both are being celebrated in style, as Andrew Timar and MJ Buell respectively explain. And that's just a taste of a bustling November, with enough coverage of music of both the delectably substantial and delightfully silly on hand to satisfy one and all.
Long promised, Vivian Fellegi takes a look at Relaxed Performance practice and how it is bringing concert-going barriers down across the spectrum; Andrew Timar looks at curatorial changes afoot at the Music Gallery; David Jaeger investigates the trumpets of October; the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution (and the 20th Anniversary of our October Blue Pages Presenter profiles) in our Editor's Opener; the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir at 125; Tapestry at 40 and Against the Grain at 10; ringing in the changing season across our features and columns; all this and more, now available in Flip Through format here, and on the stands commencing this coming Friday September 27, 2019. Enjoy.
Vol 1 of our 25th season is now here! And speaking of 25, that's how many films in the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival editor Paul Ennis, in our Eighth Annual TIFF TIPS, has chosen to highlight for their particular musical interest. Also inside: Rob Harris looks through the Rear View Mirror at past and present prognostications about the imminent death of classical music; Mysterious Barricades and Systemic Barriers are Lydia Perović's preoccupations in Art of Song; Andrew Timar reflects on the evolving priorities of the Polaris Prize; and elsewhere, it's chocks away as yet another season creaks or roars (depending on the beat) into motion. Welcome back.
What a range of stuff! A profile of Liz Upchurch, the COC ensemble studio's vocal mentor extraordinaire; a backgrounder on win-win faith/arts centre partnerships and ways of exploring the possibilities; an interview with St. Petersburg-based Eifman Ballet's Boris Eifman; Ana Sokolovic's violin concert Evta finally coming to town; a Love Letter to YouTube, and much more. Plus our 17th annual Canary Pages Choral directory if all you want to do is sing! sing! sing!
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!).