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Volume 25 Issue 3 - November 2019

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  • November
On the slim chance you might not have already heard the news, Estonian Canadian composing giant Udo Kasemets was born the same year that Leo Thermin invented the theremin --1919. Which means this is the centenary year for both of them, and both are being celebrated in style, as Andrew Timar and MJ Buell respectively explain. And that's just a taste of a bustling November, with enough coverage of music of both the delectably substantial and delightfully silly on hand to satisfy one and all.

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an Ontario government agency The WholeNote VOLUME 25 NO 3 | NOVEMBER 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, Paul Ennis, Jack MacQuarrie, Jennifer Parr, David Perlman, Lydia Perović, Colin Story, Menaka Swaminathan, Steve Wallace, Matthew Whitfield Features MJ Buell, Robert Harris, David Jaeger, David Perlman, Andrew Timar CD Reviewers Stuart Broomer, Max Christie, Daniel Foley, Raul da Gama, Janos Gardonyi, Tiina Kiik, Kati Kiilaspea, Roger Knox, Barry Livingston, Lesley Mitchell-Clarke, David Olds, Ted Parkinson, Terry Robbins, Adam Scime, Michael Schulman, Andrew Scott, Sharna Searle, Adam Sherkin, Colin Story, Bruce Surtees, Andrew Timar, Ken Waxman, Matthew Whitfield Proofreading Sara Constant, Paul Ennis, Danial Jazaeri, John Sharpe Listings Team Ruth Atwood, Tilly Kooyman, John Sharpe, Gary Heard, 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, James Harris, Micah Herzog, Jeff Hogben, Bob Jerome, Chris Malcolm, Luna Walker-Malcolm, Sheila McCoy, Lorna Nevison, Garry Page, Andrew Schaefer, Tom Sepp, Julia Tait, Dave Taylor BEAT BY BEAT 22 Art of Song | LYDIA PEROVIĆ 24 Classical & Beyond | PAUL ENNIS 28 Choral Scene | MENAKA SWAMINATHAN 34 Music Theatre | JENNIFER PARR 36 In with the New | WENDALYN BARTLEY 38 Early Music | MATTHEW WHITFIELD 40 On Opera | DAVID PERLMAN 42 Jazz Notes | STEVE WALLACE 44 Bandstand | JACK MACQUARRIE 69 Mainly Clubs, Mostly Jazz | COLIN STORY LISTINGS 46 A | Concerts in the GTA 62 B | Concerts Beyond the GTA 66 C | Music Theatre 68 D | In the Clubs (Mostly Jazz) 71 E | The ETCeteras DISCOVERIES: RECORDINGS REVIEWED 74 Editor’s Corner | DAVID OLDS 76 Strings Attached | TERRY ROBBINS 78 Keyed In | ROGER KNOX, SHARNA SEARLE, ANDREW SCOTT, ADAM SHERKIN, 80 Vocal 81 Classical and Beyond 82 Modern and Contemporary 85 Jazz and Improvised Music 89 Pot Pourri 90 Something in the Air | KEN WAXMAN 92 Old Wine, New Bottles | BRUCE SURTEES MORE 6 Contact Information 7 Upcoming dates and deadlines 72 Classified Ads 35 un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario an Ontario government agency un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario 6 | November 2019 thewholenote.com

FOR OPENERS | DAVID PERLMAN Just the Spot One of the things that the following random clutch of upcoming event listings have in common is that each of them was picked up as noteworthy by one or another of our writers this month. In chronological order: Loose Tea Music Theatre’s “Singing Softly” evening of Anne Frank Diary-based opera (Nov 2) was picked up by yours truly (still subbing for globe-trotting Christopher Hoile) in On Opera; soprano Maureen Batt’s “Crossing Borders: Traversía Latinoamericana” (Nov 5), featuring Batt and tenor Fabián Arciniegas in an evening of contemporary Canadian and Colombian repertoire, is the main subject of Lydia Perović’s regular Art of Song column; Hedgehog Concerts’ Pamelia Stickney recital of theremin sonatas by Alexander Rapoport (Nov 16) is the subject of a somewhat-off-theusual-beaten-track feature by regular “We Are All Music’s Children” writer MJ Buell; Confluence’s “Evening with Marion Newman” (Nov 26 and 27) is our cover story; and Syrinx Concerts’ seasonopening Schumann/Haydn/Mendelssohn piano trio recital (Dec 1) is the coda to Paul Ennis’ Classical and Beyond column. The other interesting thing these five wide-ranging presentations have in common is that they all take place in the same venue; for each of these five presenters – along with at least half a dozen others – Heliconian Hall (out of the more than 1,800 venues in The WholeNote listings database) was just the spot, this month, for a particular labour of artistic love. The venue database: One of the many advantages of managing our concert listings through a database, as we have been doing for the past nine or ten years, is the resulting accretion of searchable data on the musical life of our region, just waiting to be mined by musicologists and consultants on this and that (so drop me a line if you’re interested). At a more practical level, it has resulted in a dramatic reduction of wear and tear on the wrists and fingers of our listings team (Santa Tecla be praised), not having to retype the names and addresses of concert venues every time, or re-search the postal codes that are an indispensable geocoding tool. As for the “more than 1,800” venues in our database that I just cited, the actual number, as of 3pm Oct 27 2019, was 2,133 places that have been used at least once, in our catchment area, for a public concert of one kind or another, over the years since we started the database. My 1,800 lowball estimate is because some of them are phantoms at this point – crushed under the heel of condos, drowned in the tide of out-of-control land costs and taxes, or left high and dry by dwindling religious congregations in the host of faith-arts hybrid centres that are a crucial component of the performing arts infrastructure. Or they have simply changed names as they go, in the endless naming-rights quest for private sector sponsorships (from O’Keefe to Hummingbird to Sony to Meridian, for example). But it’s still a fine long list, reflective of how the human hunger to congregate counterbalances digital life’s invitations to physical isolation. Heliconian Hall: Back in January 2011 (around the same time our data-driven listings system was kicking in), we launched an occasional series of articles in this magazine, called Just the Spot, in which we invited community musicians whose work we feature in the magazine to write about some venue that was particularly resonant (literally or figuratively) for them. In March 2011, recorder and Heliconian Hall period flute virtuoso Alison Melville, co-founder of Baroque Music Beside the Grange contributed the following: “Part of rural Toronto when it was built in 1875, the Heliconian Hall is located near the south end of Hazelton Avenue, situated amongst galleries, upscale offices and private homes in what’s now known as Yorkville. It’s the home of the Heliconian Club, an organization founded in 1909 for professional women in the arts and one of the oldest associations of its kind in Canada.” (At the time, BMBG was in search of an occasional venue, after losing predictable access to their previous regular spot at the Church of St. George the Martyr, once the Music Gallery amped up its multifaceted activities there.) “For me, the Heliconian is a delightful and unpretentious little oasis in a surrounding sea of consumer excess, and an intimate concert hall which I have known since I was a kid,” she continued. “I played my first ‘non-compulsory’ solo recital there, blissfully free from the pressure of university grading, and have made music there many more times since … But perhaps what makes the Heliconian most appealing to musicians is its stellar acoustic and its intimate feel. With every seat occupied there’s room for 120, and the stage rises just a foot above the main floor, so there’s little chance of establishing that ‘us versus them’ feeling that many performance venues still seem to evoke. It’s a great place for chamber music, and it’s easy to get to, ... available for anyone to rent, at a very reasonable rate.” They all sound like resonant reasons to me. How many other Heliconian Halls are out there, I wonder? publisher@thewholenote.com Upcoming Dates & Deadlines for our combined December & January 2019/20 edition Free Event Listings Deadline Midnight, Friday November 8 Display Ad Reservations Deadline 6pm Friday November 15 Advertising Materials Due 6pm Monday November 18 Classifieds Deadline 6pm Saturday November 23 Publication Date Tuesday November 26 (online) Thursday November 28 (print edition) DOUBLE ISSUE! Volume 25 No 4 “December & January 2019/20” will list events December 1, 2019 to February 7, 2020 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 2019 24,000 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 November 2019| 7

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