ROUNDUP: CLASSICAL AND
ROUNDUP: CLASSICAL AND BEYOND continued PRINCESS PRODUCTION.CA to muster for this annual event, which this year supports Artscan Circle helping youth in remote Indigenous communities, using the power of the arts. Yvonne Ng, artistic director of Tiger Princess Dance Projects, September 12-14 in Toronto. NEW Sep 12,13,14: Tiger Princess Dance Projects. All That Is Between is a contemporary dance piece by Yvonne Ng with music by Nick Storring “exploring the intricate dynamics of collective identity and the experience of isolation.” Ng describes herself as “one of the archetypes of a Canadian immigrant from South East Asia, fluent in English and conversant in four Chinese dialects, a little Malay and a little French [but] in my childhood, we were taught not to raise our heads or voices [and] schooled to emulate western culture and ways of behaviour. The central proposition of the work is the exploration of the tensions, strengths and paradoxes between disorder (wordless story in bodies) and connections (power of collective identity) … collective identity and collective isolation. – what lies under or within our container”. Toronto-based composer/curator Nick Storring’s body of musical work ranges from chamber compositions to meticulously constructed recordings consisting solely of Storring’s own overdubbed instrumental performances. It’s an output that he describes as “reflecting my eclecticism as a listener – juxtaposing the familiar and the abstract to conjure moments of hallucinatory reminiscence.” Aki Studio, 585 Dundas St. E. where the concerts will take place, and a Sessional Lecturer in organ at the University of Toronto. September 14’s concert is titled Bach the Young Virtuoso; October 5 is Bach goes to school. The fifth box? Daytime aficionados will have to bend their rules a little: concerts start at 7:30. Elsewhere there’s no shortage of daytime organ music: Sep 29 2:30, St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica (Toronto) presents An Organ Extravaganza featuring works by Saint-Saëns, Bach, Angela Kraft-Cross, ournemire, and Howells; and four organists: Philip J. Fillion, John Paul Farahat, Paul Jenkins and Christopher Ku. Also, Sep 10 St. James Cathedral resumes its regular Tuesday Organ Recitals. First up, Joshua Duncan Lee, then Jan Noordzij, David Alexander Simon, and Andre Knevel. SWEETWATER Sweetwater Music Festival in Leith, Ontario is a reminder that summer isn’t over just because the interminable back-to-school ad campaigns have ended. And it remains true to the ethos of other summer festivals, building on the ensemble principle that you figure out who the musicians are going to be, then build concerts around Zombie Blizzard was the final concert at Stratford Summer Music in August, with Measha Brueggergosman-Lee and David Pell on bass trombone; Denis Jiron, trombone; Jessie Brooks, horn; Mike Feyshyn, trumpet; Brian O’Kane, trumpet, composer Aaron Davis, piano; George Koller, bass; and Mark Mariash, drums. Coming to Sweetwater Music Festival, Sept 14. AT THE CMC Two upcoming shows at the Canadian Music Centre on St. Joseph Street, reflect the broadening of musical reach that the creation of the Chalmers Performance Space has given the CMC, both for its core constituency – living Canadian composers – and for others seeking an intimate performing space in a conducive environment. Oct 5, at 3pm pianist Luke Welch holds an event to release his recording, Northern Magnolias – works by Robert Nathaniel Dett, Canadian-American composer, organist, pianist, choral director, and music professor, born and raised in Canada until the age of 11, and long celebrated in Toronto through the work of Brainerd Blyden-Taylor’s Nathaniel Dett Chorale. And the week prior, September 25, in a concert titled From Sea to Sky violin/piano duo Gillian Smith/Jennifer King perform works by a coterie of composers (Amy Brandon, Derek Charke, Emily Doolittle, Adam V. Clarke, John Plant, and others) who share, perhaps among other characteristics, the distinction of being Nova Scotia-born and/or raised. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE UP TO 40%! TERRY MANZO ORGAN For people needing to get their fix of live music during the day, the city’s numerous regular organ concerts are a haven. Even more when there is a sense of continuity from one to the next – a regular day of the week, a particular venue, a favourite organist or instrument, or a sense of curated continuity from one concert to the next. Starting September 14 and continuing October 5 and beyond, organist Aaron James dives into a project that could check off four of these five boxes! – the complete organ works of J.S. Bach. James is the Director of Music at the Toronto Oratory of St Philip Neri, 24/25 26 | September 2024 thewholenote.com
the chemistry that can be generated within that assemblage of talent. This year, for example, the presence of vocalist Measha Brueggergosman-Lee is the catalyst for three or four of the festival’s regular 7pm concerts. But it’s her late night show (9:30 is defined as late in Leith) that will, we predict, take Sweetwater’s regular audience to places they are not accustomed to going – Zombie Blizzard which sets poems by Margaret Atwood to remarkable music by composer Aaron Davis. Commissioned by Hannaford Street Silver Band for a full ten-horn brass ensemble, backed by Davis’s own jazz quartet, the road-show version boils the ten horns down to five, all still drawn from the core of the Hannaford ensemble. ORCHESTRAS Orchestras, like large choirs, are notorious late starters in the fall, but from mid-September through early October, the full spectrum of orchestral music-making will be on display. Sep 15, Niagara Symphony Orchestra has a concert titled Parker Plays Grieg. Sep 20, the unquenchable Mandle Philharmonic brings Mahler No.4 & Beethoven No.5 to Koerner Hall. Sep 21, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra offers up Kahane Conducts Grieg & Sibelius. Starting Sep 25 Toronto Symphony Orchestra has Pictures at an Exhibition (but not the way you’re used to hearing it), followed Oct 04,5,6 by Spirited Overtures. And finally, rounding things out, Sep 28 Stratford Symphony Orchestra titles their concert Beethoven’s 5th (that’ll get them through the door) but also offers Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite and Weber’s Bassoon Concerto in F. Two, check out the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts proposed season on their website. Just a taste: Sep 8 has Deantha Edwards With The New Orford String Quartet with selections from Pillorikput Inuit: Inuktitut Arias for All Seasons, performed by Edwards, the Orfords and Sylvia Cloutier & Nancy Nike, throat singers. It doesn’t hurt that Kingston has the mid-sized concert hall with the best acoustic in Canada to offer visiting musicians. Three, if chamber music is your “thing” please check out the following, chamber music stalwarts all, in the daily listings, either here or on our website where you can use the “Just Ask” tab to type in the presenters names to find out, and keep up with, what they are doing. Sep 28 Sinfonia Toronto. Mozart & Masquerade/The Stars Align; Sep 22 The Jeffery Concerts (London). Timothy Chooi, Violin and Arthur Rowe, piano; and Oct 03: Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. Music in the Afternoon: Campbell Fagan Park Trio. AND FINALLY Returning to the subject of artful juxtaposition, take a look at the program Emanuel Ax has put together for his Oct 6 recital at Koerner Hall. Enough said. Emanuel Ax DEANTHA.CA Deantha Edwards, September 8 in Kingston. CHAMBER PLUS Too much to do justice to in this perennially inventive niche, so just a few thoughts and highlights. One, we’re delighted to see that Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society is back, even though the question of venue remains unsettled. They’ve announced concerts for Sep 7,15,29 and Oct 5 already. AMIR AMIRI ENSEMBLE A R T SEPTEMBER 27, 8 PM THÉÂTRE SPADINA thewholenote.com September 2024 | 27
