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Volume 27 Issue 6 | April 15 - May 27, 2022

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Vol 27 No. 6. Here’s some of it: “Growing up in a house full of riches” – the Kanneh-Masons; “As if the music knows what it is doing” – J.S. Bach; “Better experienced than described” – Women from Space; “Stories set in prehistoric times are notoriously difficult to pull off without invoking nervous laughter” – Orphan Song; “To this day when I look at an audience, there’s some part of me that sees a whole bunch of friendly teddy bears wearing bow-ties” – Boris Brott. …. etc

The WholeNote VOLUME

The WholeNote VOLUME 27 NO 6 APRIL 15 - MAY 27, 2022 IN THIS EDITION STORIES AND INTERVIEWS Stuart Broomer, Paul Ennis, Jennifer Parr, David Perlman, Colin Story, Matthew Whitfield CD Reviewers Larry Beckwith, Stuart Broomer, Max Christie, Sam Dickinson, Raul da Gama, Janos Gardonyi, Richard Haskell, Scott Irvine, Fraser Jackson, Tiina Kiik, Kati Kiilaspea, Lesley Mitchell-Clarke, David Olds, Ted Parkinson, Ivana Popovic, Terry Robbins, Michael Schulman, Michael Schwartz, Adam Scime, Melissa Scott, Andrew Scott, Sharna Searle, Bruce Surtees, Andrew Timar, Yoshi Maclear Wall, Ken Waxman, Matthew Whitfield Proofreading Paul Ennis, John Sharpe Listings Team John Sharpe, Gary Heard, Colin Story Design Team Kevin King, Susan Sinclair Circulation Team Wende Bartley, Jack Buell, Sharon Clark, Carl Finkle, James Harris, Bob Jerome, Kayla Leahy, Chris Malcolm, Sheila McCoy, Lorna Nevison, Tom Sepp, Dave Taylor. UPCOMING DATES AND DEADLINES Weekly Online Listings Updates 6pm every Tuesday for weekend posting Volume 27 No. 7, May 20 - June 30, 2022 Publication Dates Tuesday, May 17 (digital) Friday, May 20 (print) Print edition listings deadline 6pm Tuesday May 3, 2022 Print advertising, reservation deadline 6pm Tuesday, May 3, 2022 Classifieds deadline 6pm Saturday May 7, 2022 STORIES & INTERVIEWS 21 MUSIC THEATRE | Music Shines Transformative Light on Three Kinds of Thematic Darkness | JENNIFER PARR 22 CHORAL SCENE | As the Songbirds Return | DAVID PERLMAN 24 MAINLY CLUBS, MOSTLY JAZZ | Serious Bandleading and DROM’s Safe Journey | COLIN STORY 62 BACK IN FOCUS | Previously covered, topical again | MJ BUELL LISTINGS 26 Events by date Live or Live Streamed April 15 to May 27, 2022 34 In the Clubs (mostly Jazz) 35 Who’s Who Onlne Directories Index 37 Classified Ads 34 DISCOVERIES: RECORDINGS REVIEWED 38 Editor’s Corner | DAVID OLDS 41 Strings Attached | TERRY ROBBINS 43 Vocal 45 Classical and Beyond 48 Modern and Contemporary 52 Jazz and Improvised Music 57 Pot Pourri 58 Something in the Air | KEN WAXMAN 60 Old Wine, New Bottles | BRUCE SURTEES 61 Another Fine Vintage 61 New in the Listening Room, INDEX Printed in Canada Couto Printing & Publishing Services Circulation Statement - March 4, 2022 8,000 printed & distributed Canadian Publication Product Sales Agreement 1263846 ISSN 14888-8785 WHOLENOTE Publications Mail Agreement #40026682 WholeNote Media Inc. accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported on or advertised in this issue. COPYRIGHT © 2022 WHOLENOTE MEDIA INC 6 | April 15 - May 27, 2022 thewholenote.com

FOR OPENERS Here’s some of what we are looking forward to Playoff basketball and baseball back in town: The chance just to be unabashed fans of the game, bleacher creatures cheering whenever we goddamn well feel like it – leaving the game exhilarated enough, win or lose, to grab a couple of gloves and toss a ball around, or shoot some hoops ourselves, dreaming “nothing but net” as the ball, oh so close!, clunks off the rim. Bringing some of the same engagement and freedom of expression back to the concert hall: maybe even a distinction, like the one emerging between full capacity concerts for the damnthe-torpedoes” maskless and the “is it safe to come out?” masked – between “You should know that if you clap after the third movement of Tchaik 6 the program says I am allowed to kill you” versus the “whoohoo!” outbursts of some baseball-loving jazz fan. And in either case, leaving the hall exhilarated enough to open the piano lid or dusty instrument case as we plunk or pick or blow away. ACD2 2811 Viola Borealis showcases the spellbinding talent of violist Marina Thibeault, joined by Orchestre de l’Agora under Nicolas Ellis. This album explores musical links between several northern cultures: Latvian composer Peteris Vasks; Anishinaabe composer Melody McKiver; and includes the very first viola concerto by Telemann. JUST RELEASED! Clarity: it’s not altogether clear to me what our provincial government’s medical talking heads mean these days when they say they are “still following the science”: now that my beloved flip phone has bitten the digital dust, I can smartly inform you that a google search for “science of elections” (in quotes) yields 344,000 results in .64 seconds. Music on street corners and the resumption of “Cafe TO” (street-encroachment for patios from spring to fall): not just as a pandemic-related exception to the rule but (our older and wiser sister-city Montreal has known this for decades) as part of how northern cities need to breathe in and out depending on the weather. Not throwing the virtual baby out with the pandemic bathwater: yes, embracing the return of live musical encounters, planned and spontaneous, indoor and outdoor, intimate and spectacular, on porches and street corners and grassy banks, in backyards and parks and festivals. Using all the virtual skills we’ve acquired over the past couple of years, but not just to reach the temporarily locked-down audiences who already knew us. Instead, once music makers are throwing sounds through real air to live audiences (no matter how large or small), to simultaneously make it possible for audiences we don’t yet know (shut in, far away, unaware, without the wherewithal) to see the backs of our heads as we listen. And to feel right there. Trust me on this: I would sacrifice a dozen fancy cross-fades, even audio quality, for the pleasure of seeing the back of a head in the frame, even the shiny back of the head of an oldie like me – just for the pleasure of proof that what I am watching is live. Exception to the rule (still on the topic of shiny backs of heads): Unless of course I recognized it as the back of the head of the gent in front of me who, at a big event the other night, stiffened so visibly I heard his spine crack when the person asked to “do the land acknowledgment” (I could already see his eyes rolling, right through the back of his head) uttered the words “stolen land.” Funny how we recognize it when it’s happening in the present, right before our eyes but far away. Yet we won’t look back in time that way, especially if it’s home truth. I am looking forward to the day when we embrace the act of acknowledging the land as effortlessly as we accept giving thanks for food around a table. publisher@thewholenote.com ACD2 2813 Richard Strauss / Arvo Pärt is ATMA Classique’s first recording project with I Musici de Montréal and the ensemble’s first album in ten years; also our first album directed by Jean-Marie Zeitouni. RELEASED ON APRIL 29, 2022! G R I G O R I A N . C O M thewholenote.com April 15 - May 27, 2022 | 7

Volumes 26-30 (2020- )

Volumes 21-25 (2015-2020)

Volumes 16-20 (2010-2015)

Volumes 11-15 (2004-2010)

Volumes 6 - 10 (2000 - 2006)

Volumes 1-5 (1994-2000)