Volume 29 Issue 5 | April & May 2024

ROB GOWAN Where does

ROB GOWAN Where does music live? Of the 81 orchestras in Ontario that I found, only a very few have primary or sole occupancy of a “concert hall.” A handful more have shared tenancy at one of the regional or municipal “performing arts centres.” The further north you go, the wider the variety of spaces you see orchestras using: schools, community centres, historical buildings, union halls, cultural centres. An overwhelming number of orchestras use churches too, in some capacity. As the conversation continues to evolve about “who belongs” - in the orchestra, composing for the orchestra and in the audience – we need to recognize that how we choose the spaces we use is a big part of the picture. Churches may be ideal rehearsal spaces, and acoustically good for orchestral music. But while the event you are hosting may be inclusive, and while your organization may have clearly outlined policies on Reconciliation, human rights, diversity and inclusion, it’s important to ask yourself whether the space actually lives up to those standards. At the very minimum it’s worth asking for the venue’s own written policies before you invite an audience into the space – so you spend your hard-earned venue money on spaces that are actively trying to make everyone feel safe. And no matter what the policies say, the question remains as to whether people with various lived experiences are ever going to feel safe enough to surrender to the magic of what is being created in a space where they are surrounded by religious iconography and text. A whole other issue needs to be considered when you think about church and faith-based spaces as homes for orchestral music: the issue of aging and often dwindling congregations. Back down in Zone 1 (Toronto, this magazine’s birthplace), there are examples of solutions to this concern: in some cases music can become the thing that revitalizes a church that is committed to inclusivity (like Metropolitan Community Church, or Trinity-St. Paul’s). Or when a congregation is eventually faced with closing up altogether, you end up, sometimes The Harmony Centre in Owen Sound and The (new!) Hugh’s Room, in Toronto. years later, with spaces like the new digs for Hugh’s Room, or as you head north, other examples like the Harmony Centre in Owen Sound. Moving toward reconciliation As we head back towards Zone 10, I have to admit that as a southern Ontario-raised person, Thunder Bay was a city which largely existed in my consciousness because of “bad news.” Now, of all of the orchestras in my zone, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra seems to be the one putting Reconciliation most at the forefront in a way that is based in action and focused on creating dialogue that helps us start chipping away at these complicated questions. Their final concert of the season, May 3, is a free concert at Fort William Historical Park that has been an annual tradition since at least 2018. This year’s edition of the concert, titled Noondaagotoon, features the Thunder Mountain Singers, Juno nominated cellist and composer Cris Derksen and guitarist Lewis Chapman. TBSO’s website says: “Noondaagotoon means play it (so it makes a sound) in Ojibway. If you’ve been to a Noondaagotoon concert, you know this to be true. This annual collaboration between the TBSO and Indigenous performers has become one of the highlights of our season. It is an exciting opportunity to strengthen long-standing relationships – and establish new ones – while creating space for musical reconciliation with Fort William First Nation.” Seems like a good precedent for presenters and performers everywhere. The Thunder Mountain Singers Back home… In my own community, the dedicated board at Grace United Church decided to disband and give up their home in their 100-year-old church, right downtown off the main intersection. The board was deliberate and careful as they wound down operations, in considering what they hoped the space would turn into, what kinds of other needs it could fill in the community, and what kind of legacy they wanted to leave in our township. They started by donating the grand piano to the public school. They also worked alongside Amanda Drury, a lifelong community member, and gave her the time and support in her goal of purchasing the space as a home for Rise - a community holistic wellness centre. “The goal” Drury says, “is to provide services to help youth, adults and seniors connect, heal and grow in their own community.” She envisions a space where all feel valued and feel a sense of belonging and connection with others. “The arts, specifically music, have the power to do just that. One of the best ways to gather and connect people is through the arts, through feeling and expressing ourselves through different mediums.” She is already making the space available to musicians, artists and other community-based practitioners. The sanctuary remains a beautiful acoustic space. It’s small, on the scale of church sanctuaries, and a whole symphony orchestra might be a bit of a squeeze. But the next time one of our northern organizations (or any other symphony) decides to send a chamber group on the road, our community is a bit more ready to give the music another home. Sophia Perlman grew up bouncing around the jazz, opera, theatre and community arts scene in Toronto. She now eagerly awaits the arrival of her monthly WholeNote to Hornepayne, Ontario, where she uses it to armchair-travel and inform her Internet video consumption. 32 | April & May 2024 thewholenote.com RICK JACOBSON

BEAT BY BEAT PART ONE: theDownBeat THE COC’S PERRYN LEECH IN CONVERSATION compiled and edited by MICHAEL ZARATHUS-COOK The design team of Renaud Doucet & André Barbe hatched their concept for Scottish Opera’s Don Pasquale among the cats of Rome in 2014. KK DUNDAS GAETZ PHOTOGRAPHY “It’s a story that you could say has an old, overused plot that’s not relevant. It’s about an older man who believes he’s irresistible to women. This is a different take on that story, but he’s not going to take no for an answer. He wants to be able to conquer and have his conquests.” Perryn Leech Perryn Leech – General Director of the Canadian Opera Company – is speaking here about Don Pasquale, one of the three final shows of the current Canadian Opera Company’s season, in an interview that ranged from from his mission to support new operas to the opportunities and implications of sharing a venue with the National Ballet of Canada (NBoC). After a season of staples of the canon, the COC is closing strong with a trio of seldom-staged works, including the world premiere of a COC-commissioned work. “The good thing is that it’s done in a very funny way,” continues Leech on the topic of Pasquale. “The season is quite heavy, so I think having some levity in there will be welcomed by our cast.” In contrast to that levity is Luigi Cherubini’s Medea, which follows Don Pasquale in May. It’s an opera that lives or dies based on the soprano singing the title role. When asked what he’s looking forward to the most in Sondra Radvanovsky’s take, Leech responds in his characteristically colourful way: “It’s a bit like asking, ‘What are you most looking forward to in a LeBron James performance?’ This is a world superstar who can sing anything and I will be entranced. She was the one that approached me and said, ‘I really want to sing Medea. Are you interested in doing that?’ The reason it’s rarely done is not the quality of the music, but the fact that it’s so impossible to cast. So when Sondra comes to you with an idea like that, ‘Yes, let’s see how we can make that work.’” Leech began his role at the COC amidst the roiling waves of the pandemic, tasked with preparing the company to keep the programming momentum going during the lockdowns, and preparing for live performances when the opportunity arose. In the interview he looks back on his first time visiting the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts to attend a COC production. “I walked up from Union Station and knew it was just past the Hilton Hotel. There’s a slight bend in the road on University from Union Station, and I saw this hive of activity. The foyer was lit up, and there were people inside. It looked like such a welcoming space, which is different from some theatres where you just see the sign of the show. This was clearly a communal meeting place to share art. It was wildly exciting to see it for the first time and know that I was going to be part of a 2,000-person audience that night.” thewholenote.com April & May 2024 | 33