Volume 30 Issue 2 | October & November 2024

BLUE PAGES

BLUE PAGES 2024/25 believe in engaging in cultural diversity through our programming and promoting music written by living and young composers of the present. We have come together for several reasons: for the love of music and the joy we can bring to others through the music we make, while helping to bring awareness to causes that impact society. Keeping with its mission and vision of community outreach and social justice issues, Cantabile is a not-for-profit organization where its members believe that music can help bring awareness to social issues such as climate and environment, discrimination and illness. We hope to enrich the lives of those to come to our concerts, and more importantly, those who benefit from them. Cheryll Chung 416-828-1506 cantabilechambersingers@gmail.com www.cantabilechambersingers.com www.facebook.com/ CantabileChamberSingers www.x.com/cantabileTO www.instagram.com/ cantabilechambersingers www.youtube.com/@ CantabileTO/featured ● Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra is passionate about the power of live orchestral music and the community-building impact it has on local performance. Founded in 1985 by violinist Neil Blair and legendary Toronto musician Maestro Clifford Poole, the orchestra has been serving the local Scarborough and Greater Toronto communities by bringing to life some of the greatest musical works, presenting internationally acclaimed performers and introducing some of Canada’s rising stars in their debut performances with a symphony orchestra. Cathedral Bluffs presents a yearly six-concert subscription series performed in the PC Ho Theatre at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto. This large venue provides comfortable and accessible patron facilities and exceptional acoustics. The orchestra has been directed by nationally recognized Toronto-based conductor Martin MacDonald since 2022. Martin MacDonald is one of Canada’s most dynamic and outstanding conductors and has been awarded both the Heinz Unger Award and the Jean-Marie Beaudet Award for orchestral conducting. Martin has guest conducted extensively across Canada having worked with the orchestras of Toronto, National Arts Centre, Vancouver, Edmonton and more. Joel Toews 416-879-5566 joel_toews@cathedralbluffs.com www.cathedralbluffs.com www.facebook.com/ CathedralBluffsSymphonyOrchestra www.instagram.com/ cathedralbluffsorchestra ● Church Of St. Mary Magdalene Gallery Choir An all-volunteer choir at the Church of St Mary Magdalene, Toronto, singing every Sunday morning, specializing in works of Renaissance polyphony, the music of Healey Willan (Director of Music here for most of his life), and modern works by Canadian composers, especially women. Elisabeth Beattie 416-531-7955, x2 office@stmarymagdalene.ca www.stmarymagdalene.ca www.facebook.com/ StMaryMagdaleneToronto ● Confluence Concerts Confluence Concerts presents joyous, daring and thought-provoking musical experiences within a warm atmosphere of intimacy and discovery. We are a company of diverse creative artists dedicated to personal, thought-provoking, and moving presentations. This season our artistic team Larry Beckwith, Andrew Downing, Teiya Kasahara 笠 原 貞 野 , Aidan McConnell, Suba Sankaran, Patricia O’Callaghan has created seven lovingly-prepared programs performed by supremely talented artists in the warm surroundings of the Heliconian Hall. Each program has a different theme and tells a different story. We’ll experience and learn about the wide scope of influence of the great Scottish bard Robert Burns; we’ll focus on love as expressed by Canadian composers, songwriters and poets; we’ll celebrate the extraordinary work of the great German-American composer Kurt Weill and much, much more. Each concert this season features an entertaining and informative pre-show event 45 minutes before the concert start time, and a lively post-show reception at which you can mingle with the performers. Join us for one concert, or the whole season. We’d love to see you. Jennifer Collins 416-786-2509 manager@confluenceconcerts.ca www.confluenceconcerts.ca www.facebook.com/confluenceconcerts www.instagram.com/confluconcerts https://www.youtube.com/@ confluenceconcerts ● DaCapo Chamber Choir The DaCapo Chamber Choir was founded in 1998 in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario under the direction of Leonard Enns. In November 2023, the choir celebrated 25 years of “giving ideas voice.” The mission of the choir is to promote the best of contemporary choral music through public performance and recordings, including the intentional championing of music of Canadian and local composers. The choir’s national NewWorks choral competition, which held its final season last year, was critical in establishing a vibrant and vital presence for recent and emerging Canadian choral music. DaCapo will continue to profile and support Canadian composers through premieres and commissioning. The choir has released three CDs: NewWorks (2019); the award-winning ShadowLand (winner of the 2010 ACCC’s National Choral Recording of the Year award, including the Juno-nominated Nocturne by Leonard Enns); and Still (2004). Upcoming season: November 9 and 10, “Word Over All” - featuring oboist James Mason, cellist Miriam Stewart Kroeker, and a string quintet March 1 and 2, “Starry Night” May 10 and 11, “Sing Us Home” - featuring piano Sara Martin 519-725-7549 info@dacapochamberchoir.ca www.dacapochamberchoir.ca www.facebook.com/DaCapoChoir www.twitter.com/DaCapoChoir www.instagram.com/ DaCapoChamberChoir www.youtube.com/@ dacapochamberchoir8973/videos ● Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western University in London, Ontario is situated in a researchintensive university on a campus that is inviting and striking. It is a supportive environment that enables students to grow artistically and academically, with a family-like atmosphere and strong focus on community. Our students are among 600 of the brightest and most talented young artist scholars, who come to study in one of our many undergraduate and graduate programs. In the 2024/25 season, we are excited to share our music with the community and experience the incredible diversity of musical styles and genres our students, faculty and our invited world-class guest artists have to offer. From student ensemble performances (including choirs, fully staged opera performances, orchestra, concert bands, jazz, percussion, contemporary and early music), new pop and salsa bands, showcase events by popular music studies students, faculty concerts, and our signature “Fridays@12:30” series, we are pleased to bring performances to you in person, and select options at home via livestream. Rachel Condie 519-661-3767 musicevents@uwo.ca www.music.uwo.ca/events www.facebook.com/westernuMusic www.twitter.com/westernuMusic www.instagram.com/westernuMusic 54 | October & November 2024 thewholenote.com

●The Edison Singers The Edison Singers is a fully professional chamber choir led by internationally-acclaimed Artistic Director and Conductor, Dr. Noel Edison. We produce concert series in communities across southwestern Ontario becoming an integral part of the musical life of each. We bookend our 2024/25 with programs featuring composers whom we call “choral mystics.” The leading Canadian exponent of this is Timothy Corlis. His music is transparent, lush, evocative, energetic and deeply spiritual. We will record a selection of his works in the Fall for the recording label Naxos. You can attend a preview concert of this recording at the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Guelph on September 29 in a program entitled “Missa Pax: Choral Works by Timothy Corlis”. It’s hard to believe that Handel wrote his towering Messiah in only 21 days in 1741. His spectacular musical journey is one that has become a Christmas tradition for so many of us. Another December treat our concert of carols, songs and readings entitled “O Hear the Angel Voices”. On Good Friday 2025, we perform one of J.S Bach’s premiere works, The St. John Passion, with full orchestra. For our last concert, we are back to our mystical theme with “Choral Mystics: Ancient & Modern Reflections”. Esther Farrell 226-384-3100 executivedirector@ theedisonsingers.com www.theedisonsingers.com www.facebook.com/TheEdisonSingers ●The Elmer Iseler Singers The Elmer Iseler Singers (EIS) are a 20-voice professional chamber choir based in Toronto and founded by the late Dr. Elmer Iseler in 1979. Directed by the acclaimed Lydia Adams, C.M., the Singers are known for tonal beauty and interpretive range, and valued for their contributions to masterclasses and workshops with schools and community choirs. Experience three glorious Toronto concerts, as EIS present their 46th concert season series, “A Bouquet of Voices!”, featuring a major world premiere by Canadian mystical composer, Peter Togni, an acclaimed performance of Handel’s Messiah, and a Spring flourish of voices, featuring the moving new creation of Canadian composer Norbert Palej, as EIS welcome renowned choirs to their singing table of guests: the University of Toronto Faculty of Music MacMillan Singers and instrumental ensemble, Jamie Hillman, conductor; The Elora Singers, Mark Vuorinen, Artistic Director; the VIVA Chamber Singers, Carol Ratzlaff, Artistic Director and the Amadeus Choir, Lydia Adams, Interim Artistic Director. Series subscriptions and individual concert tickets are available on their website, along with news about tours, guest appearances and workshops. CATHEDRAL BLUFFS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Jessie Iseler 416-217-0537 info@elmeriselersingers.com www.elmeriselersingers.com https://www.facebook.com/elmeriseler https://www.twitter.com/ElmerIseler https://www.instagram. com/elmeriseler ● Ensemble Vivant Pioneering tour-de-force Ensemble Vivant’s innovative genre-diverse classical/jazz programming is rich with passionate, deeply communicative playing that touches the hearts and souls of listeners of all ages. EV has 15 internationally acclaimed CDs heard on radio worldwide. Of EV’s album iFUGUE ~ A World of Fugues, U.S.A. magazines Fanfare & American Record Guide respectively wrote: “Smokin…Fugues shouldn’t be this much fun!”; “Lively readings of fugues by all sorts of composers. A few are presented in original form, such as Bach’s Prelude & Fugue 9 (WTC I), played beautifully by pianist Catherine Wilson.” More praise: “…highest-level chamber music-making. No matter the genre, there is magic in EV’s musicmaking.” - Jazz Icon Rick Wilkins, C.M. “Chamber music at its evocative best!” – The WholeNote “…beautiful, poised performances...capture the passion and verve…Wilson’s piano gives this music unerring drive and plenty of sparkle.” - Toronto Star EV’s invaluable live and video programs for underserved communities (endorsed by neuroscientists on music and the mind) are conducted through Euterpe (musicisthekey.org). Awards include Ontario Trillium Foundation; Canada Council; Levante Foundation; Ross Mitchell Foundation and more. Catherine Wilson 416-768-8856 cwpianist@me.com www.ensemblevivant.com https://www.facebook. com/EnsembleVivant https://www.twitter.com/ EnsembleVivant https://www.instagram. com/ensemblevivant ● Esprit Orchestra Esprit Orchestra is Canada’s only full-sized, professional orchestra devoted to performing and presenting new music. Founded in 1983 by Music Director and Conductor, Alex Pauk, Esprit’s commitment to commissioning and advancing contemporary music has set it apart as one of the few organisations of its kind on a global scale. Esprit consistently collaborates with outstanding composers and performs with first-class soloists and ensembles from Canada and abroad. With a dynamic annual subscription concert series, this skilled orchestra presents music that is otherwise unavailable in Canada. Esprit performances are regularly recorded and many can be viewed online in full. In the 2024/25 “Edge of Your Seat” season, Esprit will present two “prelude” concerts, followed by the first iteration of a new International New Music Festival, welcoming to Toronto such esteemed guests as: violinist Akiko Suwanai, soprano Sophia Burgos and composers Andrew Norman, Lisa Streich and Vito Žuraj. Numerous Canadian, North American and world premieres will be heard throughout the season and featured soloists include: accordionist Michael Bridge, violinist Mark Fewer, pianist Kevin Ahfat, harpsichordist Wesley Shen and harpist Erica Goodman. Concerts will be presented at Koerner Hall and Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. Cameron Dube 416-815-7887 info@espritorchestra.com thewholenote.com October & November 2024 | 55