"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!
Do we repeat ourselves? Very well, then, we repeat ourselves. The way we work around here, our individual columnists usually function pretty autonomously within their beats. They seldom have access, in deciding what to cover, to information about what other writers have also decided to cover. Editorially we attempt to avoid complete trainwrecks (i.e. such as when writers’ individual trains of thought go barrelling down exactly the same track from opposite directions). But more often than not, our reasoning is that if two writers covering different beats find themselves interested in the same story, that’s something of value for our readers to know, because it suggests that the musical item in question has escaped the pigeonhole one might normally consign it to. Andrew Timar in his World View column this month, for example, talks about something he calls “hybridity” – which I understand to be a rigorous and ethical alternative to cultural appropriation. David Dacks, artistic director of the Music Gallery explains the distinction succinctly in Timar’s column: “If one is attempting to join culture A to culture B in a coherent musical statement, one must be really attuned to power relationships, comparative structures/forms/tuning/language, your own personal experience and other points of connection or difference between musical ingredients one is working with.” Is something of the same force at work when beat writers, normally overlapping very little in their interests, find themselves drawn from different directions, like moths, to the same musical candle? Academy Concert Series 43 Acclarion Records 67 Adam Sherkin 35 ArtsMedia Projects 60 ATMA 5, 67 Aurora Cultural Centre 39, 42, 50 Bach Children’s Chorus 24 Beth Anne Cole 37 Cantemus Singers 25 Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra 39 Choirs Ontario 39 Christ Church Deer Park Jazz Vespers 55 City of St. Catharines 54 Claude Watson Secondary Arts Program 21, 51 Don Wright Fac Mus/ Western U 53 Eglinton St. George’s United Church 51 Elizabeth Krehm Memorial Concert 40 Ellen Waterman 67 Elmer Iseler Singers 48 Esprit Orchestra 15, 40 Exultate Chamber Singers 48 INDEX OF ADVERTISERS Galen Weston / The Rose Room 31, 45 Greater Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra 44 Group of 27 36 Horizon Tax 60 Jubilate Singers 47 Kira Braun 42 Lark Ensemble 35 Liz Parker 60 Long & McQuade 30 Massey Hall/RTH 38, 46, 80 MasterPerforming 60 Masterworks of Oakville Chorus & Orchestra 42 McGill Symphony Orchestra 13 Mississauga Festival Choir 49 Mississauga Symphony 43 Mozart Project 41 Music at Metropolitan 36 Music Gallery 18 Music Toronto 9, 35, 38, 45 Musicians in Ordinary 45 Nagata Shachu 29, 46 Naxos 63, 75 Neapolitan Connection 47 New Music Concerts 37, 51 Watch for the tendency as you read. Chances are, something special’s going on! Examples? Watch how David Virelles’ Gnosis shows up in Timar’s column and in Wende Bartley’s In with the New. And how Timar’s reference to Jane Bunnett in the context of discussing Bunnett’s role in Virelles’ musical lif resonates with Ori Dagan’s story “Jane’s Day, Jane’s Way,” which charts some of the reasons that Bunnett is this year’s worthy winner of the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. Congratulations, Jane. Masterpiece means what? As a Facebook RRRR (relatively recent regular reader) it still intrigues me to see which posted topics push people’s buttons enough to get them to comment. One such recent thread came from a musician/ teacher I have a particular interest in, wondering out loud how to explain to her students what a “masterpiece” is. It elicited a large volume of responses, most of which took the form of naming particular works which, in the opinion of the commenter, were worthy of the designation. In my way of thinking that is analogous to responding to the question “what is a forest?” by rhyming off the names, or even individual locations of a whole bunch of trees. My own response was along the lines that a masterpiece is a work where if you don’t get it, the problem is more likely to be with you than with it. What do you think? I can be disgreed with, or enlightened, at publisher@thewholenote.com Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation 37 NUMUS Concerts 18 Ontario Christian Music Assembly 49 Ontario Philharmonic 43 ORIANA Women’s Choir 44 Ottawa Bach Choir 39 OUR Recordings 63 Pasquale Bros. 59 Pax Christi Chorale 23, 50, 62 Peter Hum 75 Poculi Ludisque Societas 36 Remenyi House of Music 17 Royal Conservatory 44, 79 Scarborough Philharmonnic 46 Show One Productions 4, 49 Sound Post, The 31 Soundstreams 11 St. James’ Cathedral 19, 50 St. Michael’s Choir School 49 St. Olave’s Church 47 St. Philip’s Jazz Vespers 34, 55 Steinway Piano Gallery 10 Sultans of String 75 Tafelmusik 2, 3, 36, 48 Tallis Choir 47 Tapestry Opera 41 That Choir 25, 38 Toronto Classical Singers 50 Toronto Concert Orchestra 46 Toronto Consort 11, 27, 39 Toronto Mendelssohn Choir 24, 44 Toronto Symphony 38, 41, 77 Toy Piano Composers 43 Trio Arkel 38 U of T Faculty of Music 41, 42 Unitarian Congregation in Mississauga 44 Village Voices 25 Windermere String Quartet 40 Women’s Musical Club of TO 41 Wychwood Clarinet Choir 51 Yorkminster Park Baptist Church 20, 49 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 2015/16 seasons. Printed in October WITH UPDATES IN THIS ISSUE and year-round at thewholenote.com. Inquiries to members@thewholenote.com THE CANARY PAGES The WholeNote’s annual guide to the extraordinary choral diversity of Southern Ontario. Find yourself the right choir anytime! Printed every year in May but searchable online year-round. Inquiries to canary@thewholenote.com THE GREEN PAGES GUIDE TO SUMMER MUSIC Our 2015 enhanced coverage remains online for year-round browsing and dreaming of next summer. Updated and printed in our Summer (June, July, and August, 2016) edition. Inquiries to summer@thewholenote.com Musical guides online, all the time thewholenote.com/ resources thewholenote.com Nov 1 - Dec 7, 2015 | 7
