Volume 24 Issue 2 - October 2018

BLUE PAGES

BLUE PAGES 2018/19 SECTION I: PRESENTERS & PERFORMERS 19th ANNUAL DIRECTORY OF MUSIC MAKERS Welcome to the Blue Pages - the 19th annual directory of GTA and Southern Ontario musical life presented by The WholeNote. This 150-profile montage of musical happenings is divided into two sections: the first section (pages B1 to B26) contains the lion’s share of profiles: presenters and performers (choirs, orchestras, chamber ensembles, opera companies offering a diverse range of live music); the second (pages B27 to B28) is new this year, and features individuals and organizations involved in arts services. Taken together they offer a glimpse of the extraordinary energy driving the musical life of this region in 2018/19. An extraordinary amount of time, love, and just plain hard work goes into the programs and events presented by our member organizations. It’s our opportunity to recognize the dedication and creativity of the organisations whose unselfish support as members plays an active role in sustaining The WholeNote’s mission year-round, not only in their behalf, but in support of the music community as a whole. Presenters and organizers who missed the deadline for this print issue of the magazine still have the opportunity to be a part of this directory, which lives online at www.thewholenote.com/blue. So check back for updates as the season unfolds. BLUE PAGES TEAM 2018/19 PROJECT MANAGER: Karen Ages PROJECT EDITOR: Kevin King PROOFREADING: David Perlman and Danial Jazaeri LAYOUT AND DESIGN: Susan Sinclair WEBSITE: Kevin King For more information on the benefits of WholeNote membership, contact Karen Ages at members@thewholenote.com or 416-323-2232 x26. On the cover: The Royal Conservatory of Music ●● Academy Concert Series Celebrating its 27th season, the Academy Concert Series offers innovative and intimate chamber music concerts on period instruments. The three-concert series brings to audiences the musical riches and spirit of improvisation of the 17th and 18th centuries, and the passion and sonorous colour palette of the 19th and early 20th centuries all with historical performance practices. The programs are thematic and deliberately crafted to highlight a specific time, place and/or composer. The three concerts presented this season by artistic director Kerri McGonigle are: November 10, 2018 – “A Complicated Friendship: Brahms and Schumann”: a violin sonata and two piano quartets composed by these remarkable men highlighting their complicated friendship. Featuring violinist Sheila Jaffé and pianist Jeanie Chung; February 16, 2019 – “Inspired by Italy: Corelli, Vivaldi and Handel”: a delightful Baroque programme featuring soprano Nathalie Paulin and harpsichordist Christopher Bagan; May 4, 2019 – “A Poe Cabaret”: a program co-created by Tom Allen and Lori Gemmell with music by Debussy, Caplet and Alexina Louie woven together through storytelling, narration and poetry. Concerts are at 7:30pm, at Eastminster United Church (310 Danforth Ave). Kerri McGonigle 416-629-3716 kerrifm@gmail.com www.academyconcertseries.com ●● Aga Khan Museum The Aga Khan Museum explores and celebrates cross-cultural dialogue through the arts. A centre for innovation and creativity, the Museum offers unique insights and new perspectives into the potential of art and culture to act as a catalyst for intercultural dialogue, engaged global citizenship, and social change. The Aga Khan Museum presents some of the finest live music, dance and film from around the world in extraordinary settings: from a state-of-the-art auditorium to an open-air courtyard, a Persianinspired salon, and a variety of spaces shared by exhibitions and educational programming. Please visit www.agakhanmuseum.org for a full calendar of performances and film screenings. Sahar Bhaloo 416-646-4677 info@agakhanmuseum.org www.agakhanmuseum.org ●●All Saints Kingsway Anglican Church All Saints Kingsway Anglican Church is a vibrant hub for music in Toronto’s west end. The All Saints Kingsway choir, in addition to providing musical leadership for worship services, sings a range of concerts, requiems and oratorios throughout the year. Recent performances have included: Fauré’s Requiem, Duruflé’s Requiem, Samuel Coleridge- Taylor’s The Atonement and Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols. The choir is made up of paid section leads and volunteers, and invites new singers throughout the year. We partner with ORGANIX Concerts to host the Kingsway Organ Series of lunchtime organ recitals, which take place every second Wednesday from September through July. We also co-host monthly jazz vespers, along with St. Philip’s Anglican Church. This Etobicoke Jazz Vespers series of twice-monthly services runs from September through June. In addition to these musical offerings, All Saints Kingsway regularly acts as a concert venue for choirs and musical ensembles, such as the Nathaniel Dett Chorale and the Kingsway Conservatory of Music. Our space is available for rental as a concert or workshop venue. Brainerd Blyden-Taylor 416-233-1125 x5 music@allsaintskingsway.ca www.allsaintskingsway.ca ●●Alliance Française Toronto Alliance Française Toronto provides a cultural immersion experience through over 100 events every year, including concerts (classical, jazz, world music, pop, folk), theatre productions, art exhibitions, lectures, book launches, kids events, movie screenings, French classes for all ages and many other social events. Events take place in our art galleries, 150-seat theatre, 65 classrooms and at the Mosaïque, the only French bookstore in Toronto. Laetitia Delemarre 416-922-2014 x35 laetitia@alliance-francaise.ca www.alliance-francaise.ca/en ●●Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto Led by conductor and artistic director Lydia Adams since 1985, the award-winning Amadeus Choir performs the best of choral music, and premières works of Canadian and international B2 | theWholeNote 2018/19 PRESENTER PROFILES

composers through a self-produced Toronto concert series, guest performances and special events. Through touring, recordings and radio broadcasts, the choir is known well beyond Toronto. The Amadeus Choir collaborates with many professional performing arts organizations in the GTA. The choir also engages in educational and community outreach through choral workshops for students, music educators, composers and conductors. A part of Toronto’s cultural community for 45 years, the choir comprises members from across the GTA. Annual auditions are held in May and June. Phone or email us for more information! Lydia Adams, conductor & artistic director Shawn Grenke, associate conductor & accompanist Mary Gray, president Meghan McCracken, managing director 416-446-0188 info@amadeuschoir.com www.amadeuschoir.com ●●Amici Chamber Ensemble Amici Chamber Ensemble celebrates 31 years as one of Canada’s finest and most distinguished chamber music ensembles. Artistic directors clarinetist Joaquin Valdepeñas, cellist David Hetherington and pianist Serouj Kradjian invite some of the finest musicians to join them in innovative and eclectic programming, celebrating friendship through music. Amici Chamber Ensemble’s annual concert series has featured world-renowned musicians as frequent guests. Alongside numerous broadcasts of their concerts on national radio, Amici Chamber Ensemble’s recordings have placed them firmly among the world’s best chamber musicians and garnered the ensemble two JUNO awards. 2018/19 Season includes 5 concerts: September 25, 2018 at 6:30pm “L’invitation Au Chateau”; November 18, 2018 at 3pm “Convivencia”; February 10, 2019 at 3pm “Mozart’s Party”; March 31, 2019 “Mystical and the Macabre”; April 28, 2019 “Beethoven’s Best” . Visit our website for more information. Kaija Corlazzoli 416-871-4275 www.amiciensemble.com ●●Annex Singers The Annex Singers of Toronto is a vibrant and accomplished community choir under the dynamic and creative leadership of artistic director Maria Case. Now in its 39th season, the 60-voice auditioned choir performs four programs each season, collaborating with professional vocalists, instrumentalists and ensembles. Recent performances include Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and the acclaimed original choral drama December Diaries. We offer choral development workshops ART OF TIME ENSEMBLE led by some of Toronto’s most innovative musical coaches and clinicians, and engage in community outreach. In the 2018/19 season, we present Poulenc’s Gloria (December 15); “Camerata: A Day in Song,” an eclectic solo concert by the 24-voice Annex Chamber Choir, with guest artist Raffi Altounian, guitar (February 23); Mozart’s magnificent Great Mass in C minor, accompanied by The Talisker Players (April 6); and “Underneath the Stars,” a cabaret concert of jazz standards and popular songs (June 1). We rehearse Monday evenings at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church (383 Huron St.) and perform at Grace Church on-the- Hill and St. Andrew’s United Church. Experienced singers who wish to audition, please contact our membership coordinator. Joanne Eidinger 416-458-4434 joeidinger@gmail.com www.annexsingers.com ●●Arraymusic Arraymusic’s mission is to ignite and sustain a passion for contemporary Canadian musical art within an international, interdisciplinary context. Three interrelated programs define what Array does, why we do it and how we realize our artistic, organizational, and community-based goals: 1) Array’s Contemporary Music Program produces, presents and supports work on the cutting edges of current musical/sound art practice; 2) Array’s Creative Music Hub utilizes The Array Space to foster a thriving contemporary music and art scene; and 3) Array For All engages diverse audiences through innovative programs. Array believes that experiencing art can give rise to real change; when we engage fully with art, subtle but profound positive transformations can take place which impact our communities and enhance our quality of life. Arraymusic is devoted to co-creating and to presenting music that creates more questions than answers. Through rentals of Array’s space and sharing music involved in explorations which find wonder in the discovery of the unexpected, we stimulate the imagination, and encourage alternative ways of thinking. Sandra Bell 416-532-3019 admin@arraymusic.com www.arraymusic.ca ●●Art of Time Ensemble Renowned concert pianist Andrew Burashko formed Art of Time Ensemble in 1998 by inviting a group of like-minded musicians and prominent figures in dance, theatre and other art forms to perform one-off concerts in Toronto. The company has gone on to become a leader in Toronto’s vibrant performing arts scene, through its subscription season at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre, regular appearances at Koerner Hall, album releases, performances with leading Canadian orchestras, and tours of its unique offerings to dozens of cities throughout Canada and the United States. Exploring the relationship between classical music and other genres such as jazz, pop, electronica, rock, folk, electroacoustic, gospel and others, Art of Time seeks to reveal the qualities that lie at the heart of all great music. The ranks of Art of Time Ensemble’s artists are deep and their talents unmatched; featured collaborators include authors Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, jazz legend Branford Marsalis, vocalists Madeleine Peyroux, Sarah Slean, Hawksley Workman and Tony Awardwinner Brent Carver, composers Gavin Bryars and Jonathan Goldsmith, and many more. The 18/19 Concert Season is Art of Time Ensemble’s 20th Anniversary. Kate Bangay 647-344-2254 info@artoftimeensemble.com www.artoftimeensemble.com theWholeNote 2018/19 PRESENTER PROFILES | B3