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BLUE PAGES 2020/21 SECTION I: PRESENTERS & PERFORMERS ● The Azrieli Foundation MARIE ISABELLE ROCHON Keiko Devaux, Montreal, one of 3 Azrieli Music Prize winners for 2020 ● 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. Visit our website for the most up-to-date information on programs and events at the Museum. Rachel Pryce 416-992-8741 rachel.pryce@akdn.org www.agakhanmuseum.org/ www.facebook.com/ agakhanmuseumtoronto/ twitter.com/AgaKhanMuseum ● Amadeus Choir of Great Toronto Enlivening Toronto’s arts community for 47 years, the award-winning Amadeus Choir is a semi-professional choir of auditioned voices from Toronto and the surrounding areas. The Choir champions the best of choral music and premieres works of Canadian and international composers through a self-produced Toronto concert series, guest performances, and special events. Known well beyond Toronto through tours, festivals, recordings, and national and international radio broadcasts, the Choir collaborates with many professional performing arts organizations in the GTA. In 2019, after celebrating the 35-year leadership of Lydia Adams, the Choir welcomed Kathleen Allan as artistic director and conductor. We are delighted to announce our 2020/21 season: re:Vision - Choral creation in a new age. As the world rushes into an unexpected era, we present a vision for the future of choral music, leaning on the ways in which choral music strengthens the bonds that make us human. Our theme is “vision” in all its forms: envisioning and innovating the future of our art form, seeing through the eyes of diverse artistic creators, and a hopeful vision for a future where all people can raise their voices in song together. Allison Luff 416-446-0188 managingdirector@amadeuschoir.com www.amadeuschoir.com www.facebook.com/amadeusGTA twitter.com/AmadeusChoirGTA ● The Annex Singers The Annex Singers of Toronto, now in its 41st season, is a spirited 60-voice auditioned choir with an eclectic repertoire spanning seven centuries. Under the dynamic and creative leadership of artistic director Maria Case, the choir performs three programs each season, collaborating with an exciting array of professional soloists and ensembles. Recent performances include Poulenc’s Gloria, Dobrogosz’s Jazz Mass, Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor, and the acclaimed original choral drama December Diaries. The Annex Chamber Choir, a smaller ensemble drawn from the main choir, is dedicated to presenting gems from the chamber repertoire. We offer choral development workshops led by some of Toronto’s most innovative clinicians, engage in community outreach, and encourage young singers with a sponsorship program. In the 2020/21 season, we will present a virtual seasonal concert on Saturday, December 12, and continue our tradition of creative programming in the spring of 2021. Fall rehearsals will take place on Monday evenings over Zoom. We welcome experienced singers - please visit our website to arrange an audition. Joanne Eidinger 416-458-4434 joeidinger@gmail.com www.annexsingers.com The Azrieli Foundation improves the lives of present and future generations by focusing its funding in education, research, healthcare and the arts. In addition to strategic philanthropic investments, the foundation operates a number of programs including the Azrieli Prize in Architecture, the Azrieli Fellows Program, the Azrieli Science Grants Program, the Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program and the Azrieli Music Prizes. Established in 2014, the biennial Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) offer opportunities for the discovery, creation, performance and celebration of excellence in concert music composition. Two international prizes focus on new Jewish music; a third celebrates creating new Canadian music. Submissions are accepted from composers of all faiths, ages, backgrounds and affiliations and evaluated by two expert AMP juries. All three winning composers receive a ,000 CAD cash prize and are invited to participate in: the rehearsals and performance of their winning works at the AMP Gala Concert; subsequent international premieres; and the recording of their work for a future commercial release. Jason van Eyk 416-322-5928 x326 music@azrielifoundation.org azrielifoundation.org/our-priorities/ music-arts www.facebook.com/Azrielimusic twitter.com/azrielimusic ● Canadian Children’s Opera Company Now over 50 years old, the CCOC consists of six chorus divisions of children and youth from junior kindergarten to grade 12, and is the only permanent children’s opera company in Canada to regularly commission and produce operas for children. Opera is simply storytelling with music, and those are two things that kids and youth love! A unique experience, the CCOC offers members unparalleled performance opportunities and life skills through age-appropriate vocal and dramatic training. This year programming will be predominantly online, with the occasional gathering in person when safe and appropriate. Auditions are held April to June and occasionally during the year. A non-auditioned in- and afterschool workshop program was launched in 2008 as part of the OPERAtion KIDS outreach arm of the CCOC. Maureen Callaghan 905-464-7302 maureen@canadianchildrensopera.com www.canadianchildrensopera. com www.facebook.com/ canadianchildrensopera/?ref=hl 34 | theWholeNote 2020/21 PRESENTER PROFILES
● Canadian Sinfonietta Founded in 1998, the Canadian Sinfonietta (CS) is a chamber orchestra led by artistic director and founder, Tak-Ng Lai, in partnership with concertmaster Joyce Lai. The orchestra is composed of 14-25 professional musicians who perform a series of concerts annually as a large ensemble, as well as a number of chamber concerts in various intimate settings throughout the GTA and Ontario. The mission of CS is to reintroduce live chamber music to the growing GTA communities, producing a new generation of concert-goers by presenting concerts that are traditional with a twist. The programs are innovative and often feature world premiere works both Canadian and international, multicultural music, non-western instruments, and highlight diverse Canadian artists. CS is a community-conscious group and plays an active role through the partnership with local community organizations in promoting the appreciation of music across various cultures; mentoring young artists, and using music as a language to engage and link people of all ages and status within the community. CS believes that “chamber music is for everyone.” In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CS now also has an online presence, with virtual projects, as well as outdoor concerts. Joyce Lai 647-223-2286 canadiansinfonietta@gmail.com www.canadiansinfonietta.com ● Chorus Niagara Worth the drive to Niagara! Chorus Niagara, The Power of 100, is Niagara’s premier 100-voice auditioned ensemble. Conducted by artistic director Robert Cooper (celebrating 31 years with Chorus Niagara), Chorus Niagara has been entertaining and enlightening audiences for 58 years. Chorus Niagara performs traditional choral masterpieces, modern and seldom-heard works, new commissions and provides a showcase for emerging Canadian talent. Attracting singers of all ages through its various programs: the Chorus Niagara Children’s Choir, Side-by-Side High School Chorale, Robert Cooper Choral Scholars program, and Conductor Apprenticeship, Chorus Niagara provides opportunities for everyone to experience the joy of live choral performance. All concerts are performed at the stunning FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in revitalized downtown St. Catharines. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Chorus Niagara will be engaging our singers and audience members with online presentations, and a few smaller sized live events if circumstances allow. Stay well everyone and we’ll see you in-person very soon! Diana McAdorey 905-934-5575 cnadmin@becon.org www.chorusniagara.org Canadian Children’s Opera Company The Monkiest King www.facebook.com/ChorusNiagara twitter.com/chorusniagara ● Church of St. Mary Magdalene Steeped in musical heritage and assisted by a generous acoustic, St. Mary Magdalene’s offers a music programme strongly rooted in the tradition established by Healey Willan. Every Sunday at the 11am Solemn Mass the Gallery Choir sings a mass and motet from the west gallery, while the Ritual Choir sings the Gregorian propers from the east end. Both choirs rehearse on Thursdays. At the 9:30am Sung Mass, the SMM Singers sing a motet and lead congregational singing. Membership is informal: rehearsals are at 9am directly before the service; regular attendance is not mandatory. One Sunday per month at 4:30pm, the meditative Solemn Evensong and Benediction is sung, preceded by an organ recital at 4pm. For information, please contact the director of music, Andrew Adair. Andrew Adair 416-531-7955 andrew.timothy.adair@gmail.com www.stmarymagdalene.ca ● Church of St. Peter and St. Simon-the-Apostle Fine music is central to life at the Church of St. Peter and St. Simon-the-Apostle. Whether it is our own choir that sings services in the Anglican prayer book tradition - and whose calibre is such that it has twice been invited to sing services in cathedrals in Britain, most recently at Gloucester and Chichester in the summer of 2019 - or the many visiting ensembles and choirs choosing us for their concerts. The church seats 300 for a concert and has an adjacent hall, also with superb acoustics, seating 175 for a smaller concert. Our 1883 Jacobean Arts and Crafts building (with exquisite windows, a beautiful sanctuary, and a cloister-style courtyard) sits in one of the most intensely interesting neighbourhoods in the city. At 525 Bloor St. E. (close to subway), between Sherbourne and Parliament, it has old Rosedale to the north, multi-faceted St. Jamestown to the south, and a fever of new condo developments to the east and west. It exists as an oasis in the midst of this, providing space as well for local youth choral programs and music teachers. Please join us for services, or consider our space for your next musical event. Rosemary Hendra, parish administrator 416-923-8714 x201 Music Program Information: music@ stpeterstsimon.ca Rental Information: office@ stpeterstsimon.ca www.stpeterstsimon.ca facebook.com/stpeterstsimons twitter.com/SPSSAnglican ● DaCapo Chamber Choir The 24-voice DaCapo Chamber Choir was founded in 1998 in Kitchener-Waterloo under the direction of Leonard Enns. The mission of the choir is to identify, study, rehearse and present outstanding choral chamber works of the past 100 years and to champion music of Canadian and local composers. Our 2020/21 season has been postponed, but we hope to present the concluding concert of our three-year “Road to Refuge” series (cancelled this past May) as soon as it is safe to gather in 2021. “Illimitably Earth” will be a full-on celebration of renewal - it will be a shout of joy (on so many levels!). We will include two extended works for choir and piano, with guest pianist Catherine Robertson: Srul Irving Glick’s celebrative Triumph of the Spirit and Thomas Nazziola’s Another Spring, a work that is absolutely on point as the conclusion of our three-year Road to Refuge project. In the meantime, we are releasing archival KEN HALL theWholeNote 2020/21 PRESENTER PROFILES | 35
