Volume 24 Issue 6 - March 2019

an Ontario government

an Ontario government agency The WholeNote VOLUME 24 NO 6 | MARCH 2019 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 Digital Media Editor | Sara Constant editorial@thewholenote.com Social Media Editor | Danial Jazaeri dan@thewholenote.com Listings Editor | John Sharpe listings@thewholenote.com jazz@thewholenote.com SALES, MARKETING & MEMBERSHIP Concert & Event Advertising / Membership | Karen Ages members@thewholenote.com Advertising Art /Production Support / Operations Jack Buell | adart@thewholenote.com Classified Ads | classad@thewholenote.com Website/Systems Support | Kevin King systems@thewholenote.com Circulation/Subscriptions | Chris Malcolm circulation@thewholenote.com SUBSCRIPTIONS per year + HST (9 issues)* *international subscriptions: additional postage applies THANKS TO THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS Beat Columnists Wendalyn Bartley, Sophie Bisson, Brian Chang, Paul Ennis, Jack MacQuarrie, Jennifer Parr, Colin Story, Andrew Timar, Steve Wallace, Matthew Whitfield Features Robert Harris, David Jaeger, David Perlman, Colin Story CD Reviewers Alex Baran, Stuart Broomer, Raul da Gama, Richard Haskell, Janos Gardonyi, Tiina Kiik, Kati Killaspea, Roger Knox, David Olds, Ted Parkinson, Allan Pulker, Cathy Riches, Terry Robbins, Andrew Scott, Michael Schulman, Colin Story, Bruce Surtees, Andrew Timar, Ken Waxman Proofreading Sara Constant, Paul Ennis, Danial Jazaeri, John Sharpe Listings Team Ruth Atwood, Tilly Kooyman, John Sharpe, Colin Story, Katie White Design Team Kevin King, Susan Sinclair Circulation Team Lori Sandra Aginian, Wende Bartley, Beth Bartley / Mark Clifford, Jack Buell, Sharon Clark, Manuel Couto, Paul Ennis, Robert Faulkner, Terry Gaeeni, Gero Hajek, James Harris, Micah Herzog, Jeff Hogben, Bob Jerome, Chris Malcolm, Luna Walker-Malcolm, Sheila McCoy, Lorna Nevison, Garry Page, Andrew Schaefer, Tom Sepp, Dagmar Sullivan, Julia Tait, Dave Taylor, Randy Weir BEAT BY BEAT 18 On Opera | SOPHIE BISSON 20 In with the New | WENDALYN BARTLEY 23 Classical & Beyond | PAUL ENNIS 26 World View | ANDREW TIMAR 28 Music Theatre | JENNIFER PARR 31 Choral Scene | BRIAN CHANG 34 Early Music | MATTHEW WHITFIELD 36 Jazz Notes | STEVE WALLACE 38 Bandstand | JACK MACQUARRIE 57 Mainly Clubs, Mostly Jazz | COLIN STORY LISTINGS 40 A | Concerts in the GTA 52 B | Concerts Beyond the GTA 55 C | Music Theatre 56 D | In the Clubs (Mostly Jazz) 60 E | The ETCeteras 2019 SPECIAL FOCUS SUMMER MUSIC EDUCATION 67 un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario DISCOVERIES: RECORDINGS REVIEWED 74 Editor’s Corner | DAVID OLDS 75 Strings Attached | TERRY ROBBINS 77 Keyed In | ALEX BARAN 79 Vocal 81 Classical and Beyond 82 Modern and Contemporary 85 Jazz and Improvised Music 89 Pot Pourri 90 Something in the Air | KEN WAXMAN 91 Old Wine, New Bottles | BRUCE SURTEES MORE 6 Contact Information 7 Upcoming dates and deadlines 61 Classified Ads SPECIAL SECTION 67 IN THIS ISSUE | SPECIAL FOCUS SUMMER MUSIC EDUCATION Summer music-making for all ages and abilities – the big picture. UPCOMING SPECIAL SECTIONS IN APRIL 2019 | THE CANARY PAGES Everything you need to know about all things choral in southern Ontario! FOR INFO: canaries@thewholenote.com 6 | March 2019 thewholenote.com

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN Something in the Water Back in the day, I remember a particular WholeNote cover, of maple leafs floating downstream – them autumn leaves of red and gold, you might say – and floating among them four or five standard black and white artist headshots of established and rising singers, Canadians all! “Something in the Water?” the headline asked, as Jean Stilwell, Stephanie Piercey, Richard Margison, Russell Braun and Measha Brueggergosman sailed gently down the stream. It was October 2000, and the cover story, by WholeNote founding publisher, Allan Pulker, was about the seemingly neverending stream of Canadian singers on the world stage. Among his prescient examples: Brueggergosman, Isabel Bayrakdarian, James Westman, Barbara Hannigan … “Soprano Adrianne Pieczonka,” he says at some moment, “recently made her La Scala debut, drawing not a ripple of attention here.” “I could go on and on,” he concludes, “but the point is clear: this country has produced in recent years a significant number of singers who are among the best in the world. As someone said (from the Met and therefore definitely an expert, eh?) ‘Why are so many great singers coming from Canada these days? Is it something in the water?’” That was then. This story is about something in the air! I sensed it at a Toronto Consort concert, “Love Remixed,” in early February listening to James Rolfe’s spellbinding 2011 composition Breathe which sets words by 12th-century composer Hildegard von Bingen and accomplished contemporary Canadian librettist Anna Chatterton to music for period instruments. “Medieval music in the right hands,” Rolfe says in his program note, “comes alive, as fresh and relevant to our modern ears as the day it was created … with its clarity of expression and purity of line … a living and breathing organism.” He goes on to say that his “great fortune” in getting to work with ensembles such as Toronto Consort has been “to experience just how much early musicians love their music … they have access to many shades of just intonation, with its pure intervals which resonate in our bodies and souls.” I sensed the same thing again a couple of nights ago, in the bizarrely appropriate setting of the atrium, at the Royal Ontario Museum, that links the ROM’s old and new buildings. Surrounded by dinosaur skeletons, Opera Atelier showcased the latest iteration, titled The Angel Speaks, of a work by violinist Edwin Huizinga and dancer Tyler Gledhill which marries the vocabulary of Baroque music and ballet with a compelling contemporary syntax and sensibility. Commissioned originally by the Royal Chapel at Versailles, where Opera Atelier is now a regular visitor, the work is evolving, literally and figuratively, by leaps and bounds. Let’s see, with fresh wind in its sails, where it travels next. And, once again, the topic of old meeting new so that each can inform the other hung in the air when I sat recently to talk to Tafelmusik’s Elisa Citterio a couple of weeks ago about her vision for the ensemble, a season-and-a-half into her appointment as the orchestra’s artistic director. That story comes next in this issue (if you’re reading this in print, that is). Jessye Norman’s Visit Revisited Highlight of the gala concert, Wednesday February 20 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, to celebrate Jessye Norman’s acceptance of the 12th Glenn Gould Prize was when Norman herself, at the close of it all, supported vocally by her chosen protégé, jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, sang the Bernstein/Sondheim song “Somewhere” from West Side Story, with a quiet flame, even more so in contrast to the star-studded operatic highlight reel that preceded it. The words “There’s a place for us” as hard-won manifesto took on a meaning richer and deeper than the song’s creators could ever have imagined. As to whether there was a dry eye in the house, I couldn’t really see at that moment, for some reason. It was, however, Norman’s presence at an exhausting range of other activities during the ten-day visit that will resonate most deeply; none more so than the three-hour masterclass she gave to young singers at the U of T’s Walter Hall, in front of a packed audience. (You can read Paul Ennis’ blog account of the event on our website.) And the moment that summed it up, for WholeNote reader Carol Ann Davidson was when Norman, “in response to a question about singers being vocally categorized, swiftly responded: ‘Do not allow someone else to place your voice. Know your voice and where it is most comfortable. You are a singer, not a category.’” Even “singer,” as a category, does not do justice to Norman’s life and work. Unpicking the “seamstress” story Speaking of categorization, I must thank another reader, Peter Feldman, for calling me to account in regard to something I wrote last issue in my Jessye Norman story where I described Norman’s participation in the White House ceremony awarding “Alabama seamstress Rosa Parks” the Congressional Medal of Honor. “Re: Rosa Parks,” Feldman wrote, “ I think you’ll find that Rosa Parks was much, much more than just a ‘seamstress’. [She] was a seasoned freedom fighter who had grown up in a family that supported Marcus Garvey, and who married an activist for the Scottsboro boys. She joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP in 1943, becoming branch secretary. She spent the next decade pushing for voter registration, seeking justice for black victims of white brutality and sexual violence, supporting wrongfully accused black men, and pressing for desegregation of schools and public spaces. Committed to both the power of organized nonviolent direct action and the moral right of self defence, she called Malcolm X her personal hero.” A healthy reminder. publisher@thewholenote.com Upcoming Dates & Deadlines for our April 2019 edition Free Event Listings Deadline Midnight, Friday March 8, 2019 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Friday March 15 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Monday March 18 Classifieds Deadline 6pm Saturday March 23 Publication Date Tuesday March 26 (online) Thursday March 28 (print edition) Volume 24 No 7 “APRIL” will list events April 1 through May 7, 2019 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 FEBRUARY 2019 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 © 2019 WHOLENOTE MEDIA INC thewholenote.com thewholenote.com March 2019 | 7