Where, What,
Where, What, and Why Is The WholeNote’s Who’s Who? Look under the tab WHO’S WHO at THEWHOLENOTE.COM and you’ll find detailed profiles for everything listed below. Traditionally we have published an annual print supplement for each of our directories, but during these extraordinary and changeable times it’s more useful to keep things up-to-date. Entries are being added and updated all the time. You can view this page in our online magazine where you’ll find that each organisation’s web address is conveniently linked to their home page. So for some inspiring and hopeful finger-tip window shopping visit kiosk.thewholenote.com and turn to page 32! GREEN PAGES 2021 Summer Music Festivals and Series CANARY PAGES 2021/2022 Directory of Choirs ● Brott Music Festival July 15 to August 8, 2021 Hamilton, ON www.brottmusic.com ● Collingwood Summer Music Festival July 10 to 16, 2021 Collingwood, ON www.collingwoodfestival.com ● Domaine Forget International Festival July 29 to August 5, 2021 St-Irénée, QC www.domaineforget.com/en/ international-festival ● Humbercrest Summer Concert Series July 7 to August 18, 2021 Toronto, ON www.humbercrest.ca ● Markham Village Virtual Music Festival June 18 to 19, 2021 Markham, ON (online) www.markhamfestival.com ● Music Mondays June 7 to September 6, 2021 Toronto, ON www.musicmondays.ca ● CAMMAC CAMMAC Music Centre, Harrington, QB June 26 to August 22 (TBC) cammac.ca ● Creative Strings Workshop Online Virtual Every 7 weeks thru 2021 www.christianhowes.com/csw_online6 ● Domaine Forget de Charlevoix International Music and Dance Academy 5, rang Saint-Antoine, C.P. 672, QB May 31 to August 22 www.domaineforget.com/en/academy ● Interprovincial Music Camp Camp Manitou, Parry Sound, ON August 22 to 27 and August 28 to September 5 www.campimc.ca ● Lake Field Music Lakefield College School, Lakefield, ON August 8 to 15 www.lakefieldmusic.ca ● No Strings Theatre - Many Voices Many Stories July 29 to August 5, 2021 Online www.nostringstheatre.com ● Something Else! Festival July to October, 2021 Hamilton, ON www.somethingelsefestival.com ● Stratford Summer Music August 5 to 29, 2021 Stratford, ON www.stratfordsummermusic.ca ● SweetWater Music Festival September 16 to September 19, 2021 Owen Sound and Meaford, ON www.sweetwatermusicfestival.ca ● Symphony in the Barn July 30 to August 1, 2021 Durham, ON www.symphonyinthebarn.com ● TD Niagara Jazz Festival July to October 2021 St. Catharines, ON (Online) www.niagarajazzfestival.com SUMMER MUSIC EDUCATION 2021 ● No Strings Theatre - Teen Summer Music Theatre Intensive Online August 16 to 20 www.nostringstheatre.com ● Orchestra North UX Ontario (Online) July 12 to 16 www.orchestranorth.com ● Stratford Summer Music Vocal Academy Stratford, ON August 9 to 17 and August 20 to 26 www.stratfordsummermusic.ca/ education/vocal-academy ● Summer@Eastman Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY June 28 to August 6 summer.esm.rochester.edu ● Tuckamore Festival Young Artist Program St. John’s NL, online, or a combination August 9 to 22 www.tuckamorefestival.ca ● Achill Choral Society www.achill.ca ● Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto www.amadeuschoir.com ● Annex Singers www.annexsingers.com ● Bel Canto Singers www.belcantosingers.ca ● Canadian Celtic Choir www.celticchoir.ca ● Cantabile Chamber Singers www.cantabilechambersingers.com ● Chorus Niagara www.chorusniagara.org ● Chorus York www.chorusyork.ca ● City Choir www.citychoir.ca ● Cummer Avenue United Church Choir www.cummeravenueuc.ca ● Echo Women’s Choir www.echowomenschoir.ca ● Ensemble vocal Les voix du coeur www.lesvoixducoeur.com ● Etobicoke Centennial Choir www.etobicokecentennialchoir.ca ● Exultate Chamber Singers www.exultate.net ● Georgetown Choral Society www.georgetownchoral.ca ● Harbourfront Chorus www.facebook.com/harbourfrontchorus ● Jubilate Singers www.jubilatesingers.ca ● King Edward Choir www.kingedwardchoir.ca ● Leaside United Church Choirs www.leasideunited.org ● Men of Note www.menofnote.com ● Milton Choristers www.miltonchoristers.com ● Mississauga Chamber Singers www.mississaugachambersingers.ca ● Novi Singers Toronto www.novisingerstoronto.ca ● Oasis Vocal Jazz www.oasisvocaljazz.com ● Oriana Choir www.orianachoir.com ● Pax Christi Chorale www.paxchristichorale.org ● Peterborough Singers www.peterboroughsingers.com ● Serenata Singers www.serenatasingers.ca ● Society of Singers www.societyofsingers.ca ● Tempus Choral Society www.tempuschoralsociety.com ● Toronto Chamber Choir www.torontochamberchoir.ca ● Toronto Children’s Chorus www.torontochildrenschorus.com ● Toronto Classical Singers www.torontoclassicalsingers.ca ● Toronto Concert Choir www.torontoconcertchoir.ca ● Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir www.welshchoir.ca ● Upper Canada Choristers www.uppercanadachoristers.org ● Vesnivka Choir www.vesnivka.com ● Village Voices Community Choir www.villagevoices.ca ● VIVA Singers Toronto www.vivayouthsingers.com ● VOCA Chorus of Toronto www.vocachorus.ca ● West Toronto Community Choir www.facebook.com/groups/ westtorontocommunitychoir ● Windsor Classic Choral www.windsorclassicchorale.org 32 | July and August 2021 thewholenote.com
DISCOVERIES | RECORDINGS REVIEWED The challenge of keeping up with all that solitary reflection DAVID OLDS One of the greatest challenges of editing DISCoveries is always how to do justice to as many of the fine recordings that come our way as we can. Never more so than this past pandemic year, when more artists have focused on recordings in the absence of live performance opportunities. Although we have been able to increase the number of reviews in each edition, there is still a wealth of material we could not get to, with “truckloads [more] arriving daily” to borrow an advertising slogan from the now defunct Knob Hill Farms supermarket chain. As Stuart Broomer notes further on in these pages, “Though it’s no exchange that one might choose, the COVID-19 lockdown has often replaced the social and convivial elements of music with the depth of solitary reflection.” This has certainly been the case for me, and likely also explains the number of solo projects that have crossed my desk in recent months. You will find them scattered throughout the DISCoveries section, but I have set aside a few of them for this column. One of the most ambitious is cellist Matt Haimovitz’s PRIMAVERA PROJECT, the first volume of which is now available: PRIMAVERA I: the wind (PentaTone Oxingale Series PTC 5186286 theprimaveraproject.com). THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT was inspired by the “multi-layered musicality” of German- American artist Charline von Heyl, her “whimsical imagination intertwined with literary and historical references,” and by Sandro Botticelli’s famous painting Primavera. The project’s co-founders, Haimovitz and Dr. Jeffrianne Young, asked von Heyl if she would ever consider reimagining the Botticelli painting for the 21st century, and discussion about the idea of commissioning new cello works inspired by the artwork began. Less than two months later, days before the pandemic lockdown, von Heyl had completed her Primavera 2020. Haimovitz says “The musical commissions of THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT celebrate our golden age of musical diversity and richness. Each new piece – like the blossoming flowers, figures, and symbols of von Heyl’s and Botticelli’s Primaveras – has been a ray of light, offering us hope for renewal of the human spirit.” There are 81 commissioned works, all based on the paintings, and this first volume includes 14 of these. With influences from the world of jazz and Latin music, Vivaldi and Scriabin, the music runs the gamut of contemporary styles. Highlights for me include inti figgis-vizueta’s the motion between three worlds, a rhythmic piece reflecting the composer’s Andean and Irish roots, Vijay Iyer’s reflective Equal night which includes an occasional nod to Bach’s iconic cello suites, the dramatic Chloris & Zephyrus by Roberto Sierra and Lisa Bielawa’s otherworldly Missa Primavera; but all of the tracks have something to recommend them. Haimovitz is in top form no matter how many challenges the music throws at him. PRIMAVERA II is scheduled to be released this fall. For more details about the project and upcoming in-person and virtual performances visit the website. Canadian cellist Arlen Hlusko has taken a different approach on her latest release with Nineteen Movements for Unaccompanied Cello all written by the same composer, Scott Ordway (Acis APL85895 acisproductions.com). Ordway sees the unaccompanied solo recital as “a kind of high-wire act with no parallel in musical performance tradition.” He says the work recorded here “pushes – sometimes gently, sometimes more forcefully – on the boundaries of this convention. […] The music is sometimes fast, aggressive, and reckless. More often, though, it is quiet and contemplative. […] Each movement is a reflection on one of four ‘images’ related to the themes of solitude and wilderness: walking, singing, wind, and waves.” Most of the movements have “twins” that appear later in the cycle, reworking the material; there are seven instances of wind, six of singing, four of waves but only two of walking, the short pizzicato opening movement and the protracted bowed finale using the same motif, where only the final four notes are plucked. Although Ordway does reference existing solo cello repertoire in places, particularly Bach and Britten, I don’t find the work at all derivative. The set dates from 2018 and was commissioned by Hlusko when she and Ordway were colleagues at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Lasting most of an hour, as the composer says, Nineteen What we're listening to this month: New to the Listening Room this issue Transformations Elizabeth Chang Territorial Songs: Works for Recorder by Sunleif Rasmussen Michala Petri and others Metamorphosis Zachary Carrettin Dialogo John-Henry Crawford Distance The Choir of the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul; Jean-Sébastien Vallée Prelude To Dawn Bruce Levingston Paul Hindemith: Chamber Music for Horn Louis-Philippe Marsolais; Louis-Pierre Bergeron; Xavier Fortin; Simon Bourget, horn David Jalbert; Pentaèdre Giga Concerto Eric Lyon/String Noise Resistance/Resonance 113 Composers Collective/Duo Gelland Tulpa New Focus Recordings Scott Wollschleger: Dark Days Karl Larson Ocelot Ocelot Genealogy CODE Quartet Ain't Got Long Art of Time Ensemble This Land Theo Bleckman & The Westerlies The Music of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra Read them here or or visit thewholenote.com/listening thewholenote.com July and August 2021 | 33
