Beat by Beat | In With the New The Soaring Female Voice WENDALYN BARTLEY As things go, the sweet sounds of summer are winding down as we gear up for the beginning of a new concert season. Three highlights of the summer for me personally were joining with 1000 other performers as a choir member in R. Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis, singing with the Element Choir backing up the mindblowing Tanya Tagaq at Nathan Philips Square and experiencing the purely delightful piece DIVE, featuring singer Fides Krucker and the music of Nik Beason. In all three, the voice was a predominant player. As I looked over the listings for this coming month, I couldn’t help observing the number of concerts and events featuring music by women composers and leading performers. One can question whether a point should be made about this, but given the long struggle for gender equality in both composition and conducting, it is worth noting that something is shifting. One element that appears in common among several of these events is the presence of the female voice. Monk Feldman and Caitlin Smith: On September 29 Arraymusic is collaborating with the Canadian Opera Company to present the works of two women composers – Barbara Monk Feldman and Linda Caitlin Smith – for the free noon hour series at the COC’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. Monk Feldman’s piece, Love Shards of Sappho, originally commissioned by Arraymusic in 2001, is being presented in celebration of the COC’s premiere in late October of her opera Pyramus and Thisbe. The piece is built around texts written by the Greek lyric poet Sappho, who lived during the 600s BC on the Greek island of Lesbos. Renowned during her time, only a few fragments of Sappho’s writings remain. The texts used by Monk Feldman are clear and full of musicality. The words begin: Harmony clear voiced/I shall go/Clear voice I go/ Clear voice/Garlanded/Adorned/ Delightful choir. Feldman’s music has been described as quiet and full of an intense intimacy. One can easily imagine the inspiring pairing these words and musical style will create, particularly in the hands of soprano Ilana Zarankin. The other work on the program is Hieroglyphs, written in 1998 by Linda Caitlin Smith. Smith’s music is characterized by great attention to the sensuous qualities of sound OBJECTS ON A TABLE SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2015, 8 PM PERFORMERS: RICHARD ANDREW BURROWS, KATHRYN LADANO, ISABELLA STEFANESCU PERIMETER INSTITUTE 31 CAROLINE ST. N., WATERLOO, ON general | senior/arts worker | students | eyeGO perimeterinstitute.ca/pushingperimeter 20 | Sept 1 - Oct 7, 2015 thewholenote.com
and is a perfect concert Thierry Tidrow companion in this program. Hieroglyphs consists of definitions of nine words drawn from dictionaries dating from 1859, 1906 and 1939. The list of words and definitions was assembled by Elissa Poole and Linda C. Smith and will be sung by Danielle MacMillan. The Arraymusic ensemble accompanies both works. Hannigan conducts: In the February issue of TheWholeNote, I interviewed soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan regarding her upcoming vocal performances in the TSO’s New Creations Festival. During the interview, Barbara spoke about breaking new ground as a conductor, another field predominantly occupied by men. Part of her own unique twist on taking up this new professional path was to do away with the traditional conductor attire and wear clothing that allowed her to be fully expressive with her bare arms as she conducts. On October 7 and 8, she returns to Toronto to conduct the Toronto Symphony in a program of works that span from Mozart and Haydn to Stravinsky and Ligeti. She will begin the program by singing Luigi Nono’s Djamila Boupacha before turning to the orchestra to conduct Haydn’s Symphony No. 49 “La Passione.” Lorca to Lludgar: Another Canadian soprano who has been making international waves with her “impeccably pure and iridescent” voice is also returning to Toronto to perform in Soundstreams first concert of the season on September 29. In “Beyond the Aria,” Adrianne Pieczonka will take the stage along with Toronto-based mezzosoprano Krisztina Szabó to perform a collection of works, including one of my personal favourites, George Crumb’s virtuosic Ancient Voices of Children, composed in 1970. Drawing on the evocative poetry of Federico García Lorca, the piece uses a variety of sonic techniques, such as the soprano singing into the piano strings, and incorporates temple bells, musical saw and toy piano to convey Crumb’s essential vision: a request to God to “give me back my ancient soul of a child.” Other pieces on the program include selections from Crumb’s American Songbook, Luciano Berio’s arrangements of songs by Lennon and McCartney and a world premiere by Argentinian-Canadian composer Analia Llugdar. A Jules Léger Prize winner in 2008, Llugdar’s works frequently incorporate singing and speaking voices while pursuing her aesthetic vision of a search for “the core of the sound.” Her piece in this program, Romance de la luna, luna is inspired by the Lorca poem of the same name. Soundstreams’ press release is in sync with the theme of this month’s column: “a concert celebrating the soaring voices and talents of Pieczonka, Szabó and Lludgar, three exceptional musical women.” Companion events: At a companion event to the September 29 concert, Soundstreams will present one of their popular Salon evenings on September 18 further exploring the poetry of Lorca as interpreted by poet Beatriz Hausner. Krisztina Szabó will perform new compositions by Anna Atkinson, Juliet Palmer, James Rolfe and Christopher Thornborrow, each of which was written using the same Lorca excerpt. Other events that offer insight into the concerts mentioned above include a discussion of the sources that inspired Barbara Monk Feldman’s opera on September 24 at U of T’s Faculty of Music. Arraymusic will present a talk on Linda Smith’s Heiroglyphs Introductions @ 7:15 Concerts @ 8:00 Subscriptions: 416.961.9594 www.NewMusicConcerts.com new music concerts 2015~2016 Robert Aitken artistic director SAT. OCT. 17, 2015 | TURNING POINT ENSEMBLE TPE performs works by Morlock, Sokolovic, Chang, LC Smith and Louie • Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis St. SUN. NOV. 8, 2015 | R. MURRAY SCHAFER: LOVING/TOI Preview of NMC’s latest CD (non-subscription event) • Gallery 345, 345 Sorauren Ave. RESERVATIONS 416.961.9594 SUN. DEC. 6, 2015 | A PORTRAIT OF PHILIPPE LEROUX Music by Leroux, Grisey, Rubin and Carter • Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis St. THURS. JAN. 14, 2016 | JACK STRING QUARTET NMC + Music Toronto present works by Adams, Otto, Zorn and Xenakis • Jane Mallett Theatre, 27 Front St. E. TICKETS 416.366.7723 MON. FEB. 15, 2016 | BOULEZ AND BASHAW Honouring Pierre Boulez in his 90 th year plus a premiere by Howard Bashaw • Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis St. SUN. MAR. 13, 2016 | QUASAR SAXOPHONE QUARTET Recent Canadian works composed for the virtuoso Montréal ensemble • The Music Gallery, 197 John St. SUN. APR. 3, 2016 | VIVA ELECTRONICA Premieres by Tan, Hamel, Ahn and Steenhuisen • Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis St. SUN. APR. 24, 2016 I FLUTES GALORE ! Programmes subject to change without notice ➲ ➲ ➲ ➲ ➲ ➲ ➲ ➲ Music for 24 flutes by Aitken, Pauk, Mather and Butterfield • Saint Luke’s United Church, 353 Sherbourne St. thewholenote.com Sept 1 - Oct 7, 2015 | 21
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