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Volume 22 Issue 2 - October 2016

  • Text
  • October
  • Toronto
  • Choir
  • Jazz
  • Orchestra
  • Symphony
  • Concerts
  • Arts
  • November
  • Musical
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!

FOR OPENERS | DAVID

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN Concerted Listening With summer chilling down, and with the Toronto International Film Festival safely caged in its Lightbox again, we hardcore live-music lovers can get down to the serious, year-round business of enjoying ourselves! Well, almost. For myself, I’ll only be able to start doing that once this October issue is safely to bed. Which means I have to get this last little bit of writing done as usefully as possible in the next two hours. So that I can decide which of the Blue Jays/Yankees game or the first of the U.S. presidential debates to watch, and which to record. (It’s not a question of which will be more enjoyable live. It’s a matter of which will be unendurable without the ability to fast-forward.) To be quite honest, I’d likely have finished this yesterday (Sunday), if I hadn’t decided to play hooky from the office in the afternoon in order to slip downstairs for a couple of hours to listen to a highly entertaining concert (if concert’s the right word) in “The Garage.” The Garage, as my legions of faithful readers both know, is the back end of the endlessly malleable ground-floor amenity space in the Centre for Social Innovation, here at 720 Bathurst St. (The WholeNote offices are on the fifth floor.) Yesterday afternoon’s little concert was by an as-yet lesser known Baroque ensemble in town called Rezonance. (If the name rings a bell, it’s likely because our early music columnist regularly notes his affiliation to the group, as their harpsichordist, at the end of his column. I’m very glad I went. First half consisted of the Bach Coffee Cantata, second half, a Brandenburg. Both were played to an audience of what looked like well over a hundred people, most of whom looked as though they were there because they were already familiar with the group, and found their way, via the ensemble’s instructions, to an unfamiliar (and somewhat unorthodox) venue. But there were others there, I am sure: people who work in the building and heard something musical but unfamiliar drifting up the freight elevator shaft. And some who just happened to be on the street, passing by, and felt entitled to come in. It was a comfortable setting to just walk into. Straight back chairs were arranged higgledy piggledy in rough concert hall formation about halfway down the room. Most were occupied. Other people stood, or lounged elsewhere in the large room, as close to or far removed from the music as they chose to be. Footsteps could be heard creaking on the second floor above. Sporadically, the city sang like a siren choir outside, as emergency vehicles passed on Bathurst St. Every so often a streetcar driver, who cared a bit more than some others do, blared an indignant horn at a motorist failing to stop behind the rear doors for passengers alighting from the northbound car at the Leonard St. stop just north of the building. People at the far edges of the room talked quietly but comfortably (no hissy stage whispers!). Conversely, the closer one moved toward the music, the more one became aware of a certain something in the air. I am not sure I have the words for it, but at some level it represents the best hope for live music of the kinds I care most about, so I’ll give it a try. As best as I can describe it, it was like moving, layer by layer, into a consensual circle of active listening – a bubble within which, by some unspoken agreement, everyone there was simply attending on the music being offered. No-one shushing or tutting anyone else. Active listening rather than demanded or orchestrated silence; something biostatic (like a good old-fashioned wooden cutting board, rather than The WholeNote VOLUME 22 NO 2| OCTOBER 1 - NOVEMBER 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 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, Christopher Hoile, David Podgorski, Hans de Groot, Andrew Timar, Jack MacQuarrie, Ori Dagan, mJ buell, Bob Ben Features David Perlman, Sara Constant, Allan Pulker, David Jaeger CD Reviewers Alex Baran, Alison Melville, Bruce Surtees, David Olds, Hans de Groot, Ivana Popovic, Jack MacQuarrie, Ken Waxman, Lesley Mitchell-Clarke, Max Christie, Michael Schulman, Raul da Gama, Roger Knox, Stuart Broomer, Terry Robbins, Tiina Kiik, Vanessa Wells Proofreading Vanessa Wells, Jennifer Liu, John Sharpe, Paul Ennis, Sara Constant, Karen Ages, Kevin King 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 an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario Upcoming Dates & Deadlines Free Event Listings Deadline 6pm Saturday October 8 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Saturday October 15 Classifieds Deadline 6pm Sunday October 23 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Tuesday October 18 Publication Date Wednesday October 26 (Online) Friday October 28 (Print) Volume 22 No 3 covers November 1 - December 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. Printed in Canada Couto Printing & Publishing Services Circulation Statement October 2016: 30,000 printed & distributed Canadian Publication Product Sales Agreement 1263846 ISSN 14888-8785 WHOLENOTE Publications Mail Agreement #40026682 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: WholeNote Media Inc. Centre for Social Innovation 503–720 Bathurst Street Toronto ON M5S 2R4 COPYRIGHT © 2016 WHOLENOTE MEDIA INC thewholenote.com 6 | October 1, 2016 - November 7, 2016 thewholenote.com

antiseptic steeling quiet, where the slightest sound infects the whole room. The point? Simply this. We tend to think of the word “concert,” in musical terms, as the thing itself - an event that music makers or presenters arrange for audiences that dutifully arrive at the appointed time, occupy some designated spot for the appointed duration, and respond in ways time-honoured, or prescribed, or enforced with a glare or a sidelong glance. But what if “in concert” routinely meant something more like the thing I’ve been describing for the past eight or nine paragraphs? Not so much the name of an event, but rather more a description of how people are, together, when they actively choose to listen to what they came there to hear? Blue Pages: I’d be remiss not to do a shout-out here for the 17th Annual WholeNote Blue Pages, tidily tucked inside this issue of the printed magazine (and maintained online, year-round). In an odd way, the 155 presenter and venue profiles in this annual directory amount to something a bit like the “In Concert” moment I’ve just finished describing. For one thing, they’re certainly not “everyone in the room” when it comes to the ever-changing map of presenters and venues in our catchment area. Every year brings new presenters to the scene, with dreams, plans, new energy, new ideas how best to get the word out as to what they do. But these 155, whose profiles you can read, do represent a kind of heightened engagement with what we do. They tend to get us their free listings more systematically, to buy advertising when they can, to keep us in the loop about what they are doing. They are certainly not the only music makers we write about! But they are proof that there is a living musical community out there, worthy of our, and your attention. As always, in its scope and variety, it’s a compendium well worth dipping into. May it lead you into a season of concerted listening, some of it entirely unexpected! 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 5 at the First Chamber Music Series 49 Aaron Jensen 59 Adam Sherkin 36, 45 All Saints Kingsway Anglican Church 20, 35 Art of Time Ensemble 46 ArtsMedia 55 ATMA 5 Attila Glatz Concert Productions 41 Aurora Cultural Centre 47 Bridge Records 59, 61 Canadian Art Song Project 28 Canadian Opera Company 36, 39, 46, 73 Cantabile Chamber Singers 41 Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra 19 Celebrity Symphony Orchestra 40 Christ Church Deer Park Jazz Vespers 21 Chronograph Records 61 Elmer Iseler Singers 39 Elora Singers 49 Ensemble Vivant 13 Esprit Orchestra 42, 76 Exultate Chamber Singers 17, 44 Gallery 345 36 Hannaford Street Silver Band 13, 39 Haven on the Queensway 41 Horizon Tax 55 I Furiosi Baroque Ensemble 40 International Resource Centre for Performing Artists 23 Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts 3 Kindred Spirits Orchestra 44 Kristina Bijelic 42 Lawrence Park Community Church 20 Living Arts Centre 31 Metropolitan United Church 44, 51 Metropolitan United Church - Noon at Met 37 Mississauga Symphony 38 Mooredale Concerts 47 Music Gallery 30 Music Toronto 9, 19, 37, 43 Nadina Mackie Jackson / Bassoon Out Loud 43 Nagata Shachu 32, 47 Naxos 63 New Music Concerts 29, 45 Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation 46 Opera Atelier 40, 50 Opera York 23 Orchestra Toronto 42 Pasquale Bros. Downtown 54 Pax Christi Chorale 10, 47 Platinum Concerts International 15 Quattor Bozzini 63 Reaching Out Through Music 25 Remenyi House of Music 12 Rhodes Piano 55 Roy Thomson Hall 2, 43, 44 Royal Conservatory 11, 40, 42 Shen Yun 16, 41 Show One Productions 38 Sony Centre 43 Soundstreams 37 Southern Ontario Chapter of the Hymn Society 45 St. Andrew’s Presbyterian. Church 39 St. Jude’s Celebration of the Arts 36 Stand Up Guy 55 Steinway Piano Gallery 31 Tafelmusik 4, 36, 45, 72 Talisker Players 26, 43 Tallis Choir 38 Teo Milea 41 That Choir 14 Toronto Chamber Choir 45 Toronto Children’s Chorus 41 Toronto Consort 27 Toronto Mendelssohn Choir 17, 39 Toronto Operetta Theatre 24 Toronto Symphony 37, 45, 75 Universal Music 59, 61, 63 Voicebox - Opera in Concert 24 Windermere String Quartet 35 Women’s Musical Club of TO 36 Yorkminster Park Baptist Church 15, 38, 42 thewholenote.com October 1, 2016 - November 7, 2016 | 7

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