Volume 21 Issue 9 - Summer 2016

FOR OPENERS | DAVID

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN On Music Making In Particular Places Perspectives by incongruity 1 In this particular version of an ancient allegory, the Editor-In-Chief summons two scribes to his lofty perch and says, “Go forth and ascertain the health of the operatic art form in our realm during the months when shorts are shortest and the sun is at its highest in the sky.” So off they go, and in due course they return and the one scribe steps forward and says: “A peculiar thing happens each year around mid-May in this, the largest, busiest city of Canada: Toronto opera life all but shuts down, give or take an intrepid indie daring a short, early-June run. And the season stays shut until the latter half of September.” “Aha!” says the Editor-In-Chief. “Thank you!” Then the other scribe steps forward and says: “It used to be that, come June, Ontarians had to leave the province to seek opera performances elsewhere. That’s not the case this summer, which is surprisingly filled with opera, especially with new ones.” “Aha!” says the Editor-In-Chief. “Thank you!” At this point, the Managing Editor, who has been observing all this with an almost imperceptible frown, steps forward: “They can’t both of them be ‘Aha!’” the Managing Editor says. (And the Senior Proofreader, who has also been observing all this, nods in almost imperceptible agreement.) “Aha!!” says the Editor-In-Chief. “Thank you!” Perspectives by incongruity 2 When Luminato first burst onto the Toronto scene a little over a decade ago, (as, among other things, a civic vaccine for SARS), their mission statement/slogan was “Bringing the World to Toronto,” and I remember feeling a grudging admiration for the sneakily clever ambiguity of it all. “Way to hedge your bets,” I thought at the time. If the global public does come to see how wonderfully cultural we are, mission accomplished. If, on the other hand, those of us who can’t afford plane and concert tickets get to take in some of the great art and culture of our time right here in our own backyard, then mission still accomplished! (That being said, I will forever remain grateful for the opportunity to take in the Ex Machina/Robert Lepage production of Lip Sync at the Bluma Appel Theatre in 2009. It was worth every penny, at a time when pennies were still worth something.) I’m quite sure, though, that this ambiguity of mission has not served Luminato very well over the years. “And if they still don’t get that it doesn’t serve them well, then it serves them right,” is what I would have said, right up until a few months ago. But methinks, as Andrew Timar intimates in his World View column this issue, there may be some hope on the eastern horizon. The decision to tie Luminato’s fortunes to a single location – the decommissioned Hearn Generating Station in the eastern portlands represents for me, the recognition, finally, that the stated goal of attempting to turn the whole of downtown Toronto into a ten-day cultural wonder of the world has been as much of an exercise in futility as it would have been be to try to turn the outfield at the Rogers Centre into a world-class rose garden. The WholeNote VOLUME 21 NO 9| JUNE 1 -SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 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 | John Sharpe 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 Paul Ennis, Wendalyn Bartley, Brian Chang, Christopher Hoile, David Podgorski, Hans de Groot, Andrew Timar, Jack MacQuarrie, Bob Ben, mJ buell Features David Perlman, Ori Dagan, David Jaeger, Sara Constant, Lydia Perovic CD Reviewers Alex Baran, John Beckwith, Stuart Broomer, Max Christie, Raul da Gama, Hans De Groot, Daniel Foley, Janos Gardonyi, Tiina Kiik, Roger Knox, Alison Melville, Lesley Mitchell-Clarke, David Olds, Ivana Popovic, Ted Quinlan, Cathy Riches, Cathy Riches, Terry Robbins, Sharna Searle, Bruce Surtees, Robert Tomas, Ken Waxman, Dianne Wells, Vanessa Wells, Elliot Wright Proofreading Vanessa Wells, Jennifer Liu, John Sharpe, Paul Ennis, Sara Constant Listings John Sharpe, Bob Ben,Tilly Kooyman, Ruth Atwood, Simone Desilets, Jennifer Liu, Katie White Circulation Team Abram Bergen, Beth Bartley / Mark Clifford, Bob Jerome, Dagmar Sullivan, Dave Taylor, Garry Page, Gero Hajek, Jack Buell, James Harris, John Dodington, Jeff Hogben, Jonathan Spencer, Lorna Nevison, Manuel Couto, Micah Herzog, Patrick Slimmon, Paul Ennis, Robert Faulkner, Sharon Clark, Tiffany Johnson, Tom Sepp, Vanita Butrsingkorn, Wende Bartley Layout & Design Bryson Winchester, Susan Sinclair an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario Upcoming Dates & Deadlines Free Event Listings Deadline 6pm Monday August 8 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Monday August 15 Classifieds Deadline 6pm Thursday August 25 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Thursday August 18 Publication Date Tuesday August 30 (Online) Thursday September 1 (Print) Volume 22 No 1 covers September 1 - October 7, 2016 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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I don't know enough about the inner workings at Luminato to know whether this decision is a final virtuosic flourish from outgoing artistic director Jörn Weisbrodt. But bravo to someone for what is simultaneously an act of humility and outrageous grandiosity. “Hey guys, we’ve decided to think global and act local. So let’s go score us the biggest honking locale we can!” How they go about getting us locals to go there in droves (so we’re eventually worth some global gawking at, while we play) is another question. But, I say this year, give them the benefit of the doubt. Go experience the potential of the place – imagine, for example, what a remount of Apocalypsis would have been like at the Hearn instead of the Sony Centre! Lessons learned: Here’s to Brian Barlow’s Jazz Van during the PEC JazzFest careening around the county, stopping to unload sounds of brass into the Quinte roadside air! Here’s to the visionary individuals in places like Elora, Parry Sound, Clear Lake, Indian Springs, Stratford, the Beaches, and yes, even downtown Toronto, who looked at some particular place, thought of some particular time, imagined the music that belonged there, and did something about it. Here’s to all our future musical places yet to discover! Here’s to open air music in all our downtowns, little and large. Here’s to getting to recharge our musical batteries over the summer so we come back in the fall with fresh ears! Last print issue till September We are done in print now until the beginning of September. So now’s the time to register, on the front page of our website, for our e-letter, HalfTones, which will publish June 15, July 4 and August 10, bringing you news, updated listings, contests and links to newly posted videos, audios, concert reports and more! publisher@thewholenote.com Ask LUDWIG! LUDWIG enables you, the reader, to better search our live concert listings. On our website you can search for specific text (like a performer’s or composer’s name). You can also refine your search to geographic zones or genres or date range. LUDWIG online! is brand new and still in what we call a "Beta" trial. This means there may be some bugs or errors that we are not yet aware of. We thank you for helping us "kick the tires" on this new service and apologize in advance for any problems you may encounter. Find what you like online at TheWholeNote.com/Ask-Ludwig INDEX OF ADVERTISERS Adelphi Vocal Ensemble 52 Aga Khan Museum 25 All Saints Kingsway Anglican Church 30 Amadeus Choir 48, 66 Analekta 73, 79 Artists’ Garden Cooperative 35 ArtsMediaProjects 69 ATMA 5, 75, 76, 77 Bach Children's Chorus 66 Barrie Concert Band 58 Beaches International Jazz Festival G10 Blue Griffin Recording Inc 75 Canadian Children’s Opera Company 49 Cantemus Singers 50 Cathedral Bluffs 34 Christ Church Deer Park - Jazz Vespers 61 Classical Unbound Festival 9 Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival 35 CONTACT Contemporary Music 23, 51, 67 Elmer Iseler Singers 31 Elora Festival 3, 36 Estonian National Opera Boys’ Choir 52 Festival of the Sound 37 Florian Hoefner 79 Flute Street 47 Follk Camp 66 Grace Church on-the-Hill 65 Highlands Opera Studio 38, 39 Horizon Tax Services 68 I Furiosi 52 Inga Filippova 52 Kindred Spirits Orchestra 21, 53 Lark Ensemble 50 Living Music 71 LizPR 68 Long & McQuade 67 Master Performing 69 Mississauga Symphony 21 Moonaura 48 Mooredale Concerts 20 MOSAIC Canadian Vocal Ensemble 66 Music and Beyond 4, 40 Music at Metropolitan 31, 55 Music at Metropolitan / Noon at Met 47 Music Mondays 48, 53, 55, 56 Music Picnic 55 Music Toronto 11 National Youth Orchestra of Canada 41, 56, 58, 91 Naxos 73, 75 New Horizons Bands 33 New Music Concerts 51 No Strings Theatre 55 Off Centre Music Salon 17 Off Centre/Deranger 49 Opera Atelier 65 Orpheus Choir 68 Pasquale Bros. Downtown 66 Prince Edward County Classical Music Festival 41 Remenyi House of Music 15 Rhodes Electric Piano 69 Royal Conservatory School 68 Ryan Choi 71 Sam Broverman 77 Sari Kessler 77 Schubert Now 49 St Philip’s - Jazz Vespers 64 St. Olave’s Church 50 St. Stephen in-the-Fields Anglican Church 48 Steinway Piano Gallery, Toronto 13 Stratford Summer Music 41, 90 Summer Opera Lyric Theatre 61 Tafelmusik 2 Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute 48, 49, 51 TD Sunfest ‘16 (London) 42 TD Toronto Jazz Festival 43, 63 Toronto Children’s Chorus 67 Toronto Operetta Theatre 14, 27 Toronto Summer Music Festival 44, 94, G10 Toronto Symphony 93 Universal Music Canada 73, 79 VegasNorth Entertainment 69 Viva! Youth Singers of Toronto 46 Voicebox: Opera in Concert 29 Walden Chamber Players 77 Westben Arts Festival Theatre 45 Women’s Musical Club of Toronto 19 Yorkminster Park Baptist Church 34, 48 thewholenote.com June 1, 2016 - September 7, 2016 | 7