Volume 20 Issue 9 - Summer 2015

FOR OPENERS | DAVID

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN THE FESTIVAL WE ARE The Toronto Mayor’s Arts Lunch took place on May 28 at the Arcadian Court with almost 400 people in attendance. It’s not arranged by the Mayor. This annual event is put on by the Toronto Arts Foundation, the 20-year-old sister organization of the 41-yearold Toronto Arts Council. The event celebrates the annual Toronto Arts Foundation Awards which are announced and handed out there. Most of the nominees attend and the range of nominees is always a lovely portrait of the ever-changing face of the arts in this town – the old who persevere, the young who are handed (or grab) the torch to carry it forward, and the rest of us somewhere in between, debating whether we should have dessert, or should have said no to that second glass of wine. Perhaps it’s called the Mayor’s Arts Lunch because the organizers hope that mayors will be more likely to attend if it’s named for them. Although for the previous four years, one could be forgiven for thinking it was because the mayor, conspicuous by his absence, was the event’s main roast. This year’s host was actor Allan Hawco (of Republic of Doyle Canadian TV fame), his Newfoundland brogue getting more and more conspicuous as the event went along. He got things off to a hilariously irreverent flying start by “proposing marriage, on behalf of the city’s arts community, to the city’s powers that be: government, corporations and all that.” Make the relationship legit, was the gist of it. After all, we’re smart, funny, entertaining, sexy, and you’ve got the financial means to keep us in style. You’ve been screwing with us for years, after all, so why not make an honest community of us? The biggest difference this year from the past few was that not only was the new mayor, John Tory , conspicuously present, but he actually took his turn at the microphone and had some encouraging and thoughtful things to say about the role of the arts in making a city great. It’s a fact, he informed us, that the quality of the arts in a city has been proven to attract investors. And as if responding directly to Hawco’s semi-decent proposal, he said (twice) that the arts community would find in the city under his aegis a partner that was “steady, reliable and ambitious.” It’s the “ambitious” part of the utterance that makes me uneasy, because of another bandwagon the mayor seems to have been on ever since he visited Austin, Texas, which boasts possibly the world’s largest music festival (and where people wear T-shirts saying “Keep Austin Weird”). Tory’s go-to phrase these days is about turning Toronto into “Music City.” It’s a laudable thought, so whence the unease? Because it sounds as if he’s talking about making something from scratch. Absent is any sense that he realizes what we have, and what we are, already. If, to borrow a phrase, what he wants to do is turn Hogtown into a musical silk purse, he should know he already has a live-and-kicking shiny silk sow – something that the Toronto Arts Foundation (and in its own way this little publication) has been celebrating for the past 20 years. He should keep in mind that a healthy sow, well cared-for, will produce lots of musical little piggys. And that’s the way to bring home the bacon. We are already an astounding musical city, Mayor Tory. Build on that. But if the mayor thinks turning Toronto into “Music City” requires some top-down exercise in reinvention, it’s an exercise that is probably doomed from the start. Consider the upcoming Pan Am Games, which will be deemed a failure if measured by the attendance by people who have bought into the rhetoric of “it’s only worthy of our attention if we’re the very best.” There’s a great risk that Toronto will The WholeNote VOLUME 20 NO 9| JUNE 1, 2015 – SEPTEMBER 7, 2015 Centre for Social Innovation 720 Bathurst St., Suite 503, Toronto ON M5S 2R4 PHONE 416-323-2232 | FAX 416-603-4791 Publisher/Editor In Chief | David Perlman publisher@thewholenote.com Chairman of the Board | Allan Pulker directors@thewholenote.com EDITORIAL Managing Editor | Paul Ennis editorial@thewholenote.com Recordings Editor | David Olds discoveries@thewholenote.com Social Media Editor | Sara Constant editorial@thewholenote.com Listings Editor | David Perlman (acting) listings@thewholenote.com Club Listings Editor | Bob Ben jazz@thewholenote.com SALES, MARKETING & MEMBERSHIP Concerts & Events/Membership | Karen Ages members@thewholenote.com Record Industry Sales/Marketing | Thom McKercher thom@thewholenote.com Directory Sales and Services | Adrienne Surtees adrienne@thewholenote.com Advertising/Production Support/Operations Jack Buell | adart@thewholenote.com Classified Ads | classad@thewholenote.com Website/Systems | Bryson Winchester systems@thewholenote.com Website/Systems Support | Kevin King kevin@thewholenote.com Circulation/Subscriptions | Chris Malcolm circulation@thewholenote.com SUBSCRIPTIONS per year + HST (9 issues) THANKS TO THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS Beat Columnists Hans de Groot, Jack MacQuarrie, Benjamin Stein, Paul Ennis, David Olds, David Podgorski, Ori Dagan, Wendalyn Bartley, Bob Ben mJ buell, Christopher Hoile, Andrew Timar Features Sara Constant, David Jaeger, David Perlman CD Reviewers Stuart Broomer, Hans de Groot, Daniel Foley, Janos Gardonyi, Richard Haskell, Tiina Kiik, Pamela Margles, Alison Melville, Lesley Mitchell- Clarke, Ivana Popovic, Allan Pulker, Cathy Riches, Michael Schwartz, Bruce Surtees, Robert Tomas, Ken Waxman Proofreading John Sharpe, Paul Ennis, Sara Constant, Jennifer Liu, Kevin King Listings David Perlman, Bob Ben, Tilly Kooyman, JennieLea McLeish, Ruth Atwood, Simone Desilets Circulation Team Abram Bergen, Andrew Schaefer, Beth Bartley, Bob Jerome, Dagmar Sullivan, Dave Taylor, Garry Page, Gero Hajek, Jack Buell, Jeff Hogben, Joan Andrews, John Dodington, Lorna Nevison, Mark Clifford, Micah Herzog, Niamh Malcolm, Patrick Slimmon, Paul Ennis, Randy Weir, Robert Faulkner, Sharon Clark, Tiffany Johnson, Tom Sepp, Vicki Stainton, Wende Bartley Layout & Design Bryson Winchester an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario Upcoming Dates & Deadlines Free Event Listings Deadline 6pm Saturday August 8 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Saturday August 15 Classifieds Deadline 6pm Friday August 21 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Tuesday August 18 Publication Date Tuesday September 1 (Online) Thursday September 3 (Print) Volume 21 No 1 covers September 1, 2015 to October 7, 2015 WholeNote Media Inc. accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported on or advertised in this issue. 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SEAN HOWARD turn its back on the Pan Am Games as a kind of second class Olympics. If only the rhetorical bar had not been set so high. If only local grass roots participation in healthy physical culture and sports could manifest ordinary bums in those worldclass seats. This selfdefeating aspect of our city’s psyche is at risk of being perpetuated and reinforced right in the very moments when it could all so easily begin to change. It’s more a question of timing than anything else that Panamania, billed as this summer’s leading cultural event, actually has very little presence in this edition of our magazine, which covers a wealth of events from June 1 through September 7. After all, what we celebrate in every issue of The WholeNote is not so much any particular festival that gets staged, but the ongoing festival that the city is, year in, year out – an ongoing buzz and roar of the human spirit – expressed through music and the lively arts, day after day after day. Adelphi Ensemble 58 Artists Garden Cooperative 32 Arts Media Project 72 ATMA 5 Beaches International Jazz Festival 35 Bloor Street United Church 72 Brookside Music37. 42 Brott Festival 40, 42 Canadian Children’s Opera Company 70 Canadian Flute Convention 42 Canadian Opera Company 29 Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra 18 Centrediscs 76 Christ Church Deer Park Jazz Vespers 34 Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival 43 Contact Contemporary Ensemble 68 Dr. Réa Beaumont 76 Toronto Arts Foundation Award Winners. (from left) Chris Eben and Holly Knowlman from The Working Group, Paul Read, Drex Jancar and Gavin Sheppard from The Remix Project, Emilie LeBel, Scott Miller Berry. Eliza Pope 79 Elora Festival 38, 44 Esprit Orchestra 27 HanVoice 56 I FURIOSI Baroque Ensemble 54 Jazz Bistro 72 Kindred Spirits Orchestra 57, 59, 71 King Music Collective 58 Lightwork Hypnosis 69 Lisa Chisholm 72 LizPR 72 Long & Mcquade 68 Lulaworld 52 Luminato 93 Mississauga Symphony Orchestra 18 Mooredale Concerts 19 Music at Metropolitan 19 Music at Metropolitan - Summer Carillon Series 53, 60 Music at Port Milford 47 Music Gallery 25 Music Toronto 9 Nagata Shachu 25 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS To those of you who are summer visitors to our diverse and welcoming city, and just happened to pick up this magazine, a hearty hello!! We hope you will be able to use The WholeNote to guide you along the main highways plotted out for you by your hosts, but also along our side streets and in our neighbourhoods. This great city and its environs are truly a crossroads, not just of the Americas but also of the wider world, expressing itself in music and song all year round. Come back – any time. publisher@thewholenote.com National Youth Orchestra of Canada 21, 47, 60 New Horizons Bands 73 No Strings Theatre 61 Norm Pulker 72 Off Centre Music Salon 54 ORGANIX 13 Orillia Wind Ensemble 68 Orpheus Choir 70 Pasquale Bros 68 Peter Mahon 26 Prince Edward County Jazz Festival 49 Prince Edward County Music Festival 39 Remenyi House of Music 23 Royal Conservatory 11 Royal Conservatory School 69 Samantha Chang 72 Schola Magdalena 55 Sound Post The 26 St. Olave’s Church 62 St. Philips’ Jazz Vespers 35 Steinway Piano Gallery 20 Stratford Summer Music 3, 50, 50 Summer Opera Lyric Theatre 35 Tafelmusik 2, 54, 55, 56, 57 TD London Sunfest 39 Toronto Centre for the Arts 4, 57 Toronto Centre for the Arts/ TSO 55 Toronto Consort 31 Toronto Jazz Festival 33, 58 Toronto Mendelssohn Choir 28, 71 Toronto Summer Music 20, 51, 94 Toronto Symphony Orchestra 56, 91 Universal Music 79 Village Voices 70 Westben 39, 52 Western University 64 Women’s Musical Club of Toronto 17 Yorkminster Park Baptist Church 57 16 BLUE TH Annual PAGES DON’T EVER STOP MUSIC IS FOR LIFE THE BLUE PAGES A rich resource for musicians and all lovers of live music, with detailed profiles of Southern Ontario’s live music makers and their current seasons. Printed in October’s edition of The WholeNote and up-to-date year-round on our website. THE CANARY PAGES The WholeNote’s annual guide to the extraordinary choral diversity of Southern Ontario. Printed in May’s edition of The WholeNote and searchable online year-round. THE GREEN PAGES GUIDE TO SUMMER MUSIC 2015 So much great music to enjoy! Keep a copy of the Green Pages at hand and don’t miss a note. Printed in this edition with enhanced coverage online. Musical guides online, all the time thewholenote.com/ resources thewholenote.com June | July | August, 2015 | 7