Volume 30 Issue 2 | October & November 2024

BLUE PAGES

BLUE PAGES 2024/25 ● Mississauga Chamber Singers The Mississauga Chamber Singers bring clarity and intimacy to great choral masterpieces from a wide range of A Capella works to timeless works for choir and orchestra. Led by Artistic Director, Mervin William Fick, the choir presents dynamic within a widening scope of the classical choral repertoire. The Mississauga Chamber Singers performs a diverse season of extensive community engagement events, multi-generational musical education programming and ticketed concerts in a variety of performance spaces within the city. Come and hear the difference! Jen Crawford 647-549-4524 jcrawford@mcsociety.ca www.mcsingers.ca www.facebook.com/mcsingersssocial www.youtube.com/@ mississaugachambersingers ● Mooredale Concerts Our 2024/25 season showcases a celebrated soloist, an exciting ensemble, and wonderful duos. We will present programs with an eclectic mix of world classical works from all Brahms and Debussy events to Wiancko, Gershwin and Nino Rota. Classical guitar combined with violin adds extra dimension to the season. The Players: Benedetto Lupo, piano, Aeolus String Quartet, Andrew Wan, violin & Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano, Duo Sonidos, and Stéphane Tétreault, cello & Olivier Hébert-Bouchard, piano. Five-concert subscriptions are 0/5 adult/senior and 5 under age 30. Concerts are Sundays 3:15pm, Walter Hall (UofT) - general admission seating. MUSIC & TRUFFLES KIDS – Give your child their first taste of classical music! Artists featured in our mainstage events also perform a one-hour mini-concert for young people ages 6-11 and their parents, grandparents, friends at 1:15pm. Subscriptions are 0 and include a Lindt chocolate truffle for everyone at the end of each concert. Wonny Song, Artistic and Executive Director of Orford Music, mentored by Anton Kuerti, is our Artistic Director. Christina Cavanagh, Managing Director 416-922-3714, x103 marketing@mooredaleconcerts.com www.mooredaleconcerts.com www.facebook.com/ MooredaleConcerts www.twitter.com/mooredaleconcrt www.instagram.com/ mooredaleconcerts ● Music at St. Andrew’s Since its 2011 launch, Music at St. Andrew’s has gained a reputation for delivering great music at affordable prices. We’re delighted to welcome audiences to enjoy the superb acoustics of our spacious sanctuary in the heart of Toronto’s entertainment district. St. Andrew’s magnificent Bösendorfer Imperial Grand piano, which inspired the launch of our music program, is used extensively in our free, mostly classical Friday Noontime Recitals. Now in its eleventh year of fall and winter/spring recitals, this popular series features graduate students and professors from U of T’s Music Department, established performers and rising young stars. Join us on October 4 as we welcome back pianist Irina Bazik. And watch later this season for returning favourites such as Jean-Luc Therrien and Tristan Savella. Following the success of last year’s Ceilidh Christmas concert, we’ve invited St. Andrew’s renowned professional choir to take stage again.at “Come Home for Christmas” on Friday, December 6. Pay-What-You-Can (PWYC). Donations will be accepted for church’s Refugee Support program. Daniel Bickle 416-593-5600, x220 info@standrewstoronto.org www.standrewstoronto.org www.facebook.com/ Music-at-St-Andrews ● Music In the Afternoon Through its “Music in the Afternoon” concert series, the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto (WMCT) presents chamber music concerts featuring musicians on the threshold of international recognition, as well as established artists and ensembles. Concerts are held Thursday afternoons at 1:30pm at Walter Hall, University of Toronto, Faculty of Music, Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queen’s Park. Illuminating pre-concert lectures at 12:15pm are free to all concert-attendees. Our exciting 127th season (2024/25) includes Campbell Fagan Park Trio (October 3, 2024); Julian Rachlin, violin & Friends: Sarah McElravy, viola; Karen Ouzounian, cello; and Sheng Cai, piano (November 14, 2024); Marmen Quartet (March 13, 2025); Midori Marsh, soprano; with Frances Armstrong, piano; Laura Chambers, flute; and Alex Hetherington, mezzo-soprano (April 3, 2025); Asitha Tennekoon, tenor; with Steven Philcox, piano (May 8, 2025). Artists and programs are subject to change. Visit our website for regular season news and updates. Shannon Perreault 416-923-7052 wmct@wmct.on.ca www.wmct.on.ca www.facebook.com/ WomensMusicalClubofToronto www.twitter.com/WMCT120 www.instagram.com/wmct. musicintheafternoon ● Music Toronto Experience great chamber music with Music TORONTO, a presenter of the finest ensembles, pianists and vocalists from home and abroad. We enrich our community through chamber music by supporting artistic development, producing community engagement and education initiatives, and, of course, by producing concerts. Artistic and Executive Director Roman Borys invites you to our 2024/25 season at the Jane Mallett Theatre at the St Lawrence Centre for the Arts. Our season opens with the return of Quartetto di Cremona, followed by the Miró, JACK and Isidore Quartets, and the Gryphon Trio with violinist Lara St. John and vocalist Aviva Chernick. The piano series features iconic Canadian pianists Marc-André Hamelin and Janina Fialkowska, soprano and pianist Rachel Fenlon, and Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko. We are pleased to welcome music commentator Rob Kapilow, who will be joining forces with the Cheng² Duo and the Gryphon Trio for two “What Makes it Great?” ® presentations at the George Weston Recital Hall. Join us for concerts, both traditional and groundbreaking, and experience the transformative power of live music– enlightening, entertaining, enriching, and deeply engaging. Roman Borys 416-214-1660 info@music-toronto.com www.music-toronto.com www.facebook.com/MusicToronto www.twitter.com/Music_Toronto www.instagram.com/music. toronto.concerts www.youtube.com/ watch?v=uEiSOtJsGDY ● Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation marks its 31st anniversary this season under the continuing leadership of artistic director Eric Robertson. Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation has presented a rich variety of concerts for Toronto audiences, including its popular weekly recital series, as well as international groups such as King’s College Cambridge Choir, Clare College Singers and St. John’s College Choir. It has also featured Canadian artists, including Erica Goodman, David Hetherington, Colin Fox, John McDermott, Sharlene Wallace, Anne Lindsay, Neil Swainson, John Johnson, Guido Basso, Guy Few, Heather Bambrick, the True North Brass, the Gryphon Trio, and percussion ensemble NEXUS. Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation is also involved in the City Carol Sing, a large annual charity event that raises money for food banks across Canada. Nine Sparrows Arts Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to bringing the best in 58 | October & November 2024 thewholenote.com

inspirational arts programming. It is governed by an elected volunteer board of directors and operates with the assistance of advisors from a variety of backgrounds, including event management, promotions, finance and business. All of our concerts are “admission free – donations welcome” Colleen Burns 416-241-1298 9sparrows.arts@gmail.com www.9sparrowsarts.org www.facebook.com/NineSparrowsArts ● Nocturnes In the City Nocturnes In the City started producing concerts for the Czech community in 2001 in Scarborough. Presently, the concerts are held at the Czech Community Centre at 496 Gladstone Avenue (in St. Wenceslaus Church by the Bloor and Dufferin subway station). In the past, we have presented individual artists such as singers Eva Urbanová, John Holland, Zdeněk Plech and Gustáv Beláček, pianists Antonín Kubálek, David Kalhous and Boris Krajný, violinist Ivan Ženatý, clarinetists Peter Stoll, Joaquin Valdepenas and others. We’ve presented famous quartets from Prague – the Panocha, Zemlinsky, Kocian, Epoch, and others, as well as music lectures with video presentations on opera’s famous conductors, such as Karel Ančerl. This season we have co-presented Antonín Dvořák’s opera Jakobín with the Canadian Institute of Czech Music in September. In October, we present Petr Holman, viola with Marie Hasoňová, violin, and Olga Šroubková, violin with Miroslav Sekera, piano. December 1 is our “Czech-Slovak Dixieland” New Orleans evening led by trombonist Miro Letko. And in spring pianist Adam Piotr Żukiewicz will join us, with other concerts of the highest professional quality to follow. Dr. Milos Krajny 416-499-2716 mkrajn1057@rogers.com ● North Wind Concerts North Wind Concerts is a Toronto-based, notfor-profit organization created to celebrate and encourage the enjoyment of chamber music of many kinds, and with a soft focus on music for wind instruments. NWC offers concerts of early, Classical and contemporary chamber music, as well as our ongoing “Encircling the World” series, which brings musicians who play similar instruments from different cultures and backgrounds together for solo performances, Q&A with the audience, and improvisation. NWC also presents musical workshops, and school shows. Our 2024/25 season includes “Acquiescent: The French Baroque In China”; a pop-up ‘pot pourri’ of 18th- and 20th-century music; a chamber program for clarinet, cello and piano featuring the Brahms Trio; “Vice & Virtue”, a collaboration with MUSIC AT ST. ANDREW’S Capella Intima and the Gallery Players of Niagara; and “Encircling the World” programs focusing on drums, single reeds, and harps. “Music is life itself. What would this world be without good music? No matter what kind it is.” - Louis Armstrong Alison Melville 416-588-4301 northwindconcerts@gmail.com www.northwindconcerts.com https://www.facebook.com/ northwindconcerts ● Opera Atelier Opera Atelier is an opera/ballet company committed to creating historically-informed productions that are realized as complete artistic statements – always built from the ground up with equal attention given to music, dancing, acting, and design. All of our productions are performed on period instruments. For Opera Atelier, the pivotal aspect of period production lies in the in-depth examination of the original intentions of composers, choreographers and librettists in order to find new ways to challenge ourselves as artists in the 21st century. A period production is not a museum piece; it is a new creation and takes its own place in history. The core repertoire extends from Monteverdi to Mozart, and also explores productions of later repertoire. In doing so, OA keeps pace with the finest international ensembles and conductors who are performing productions of Beethoven, Massenet and Debussy on period instruments in major venues to great acclaim. Opera Atelier’s productions are performed in partnership with Tafelmusik, Canada’s internationally-acclaimed period-instrument orchestra. The Nathaniel Dett Chorale is also often featured in OA productions. Zack Grosh 416-703-3767 opera.atelier@operaatelier.com www.operaatelier.com https://www.facebook. com/OperaAtelier https://twitter.com/OperaAtelier https://www.instagram. com/operaatelier ● Pax Christi Chorale Pax Christi Chorale is a vibrant and dynamic 100-voice community choir dedicated to celebrating the beauty of choral music. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Elaine Choi, our passionate singers bring to life a diverse range of repertoire that includes both timeless oratorio masterpieces and fresh, newly commissioned works. Drawing on a broad base from across the Greater Toronto Area, the choir has built a loyal following and continues to broaden its community and deepen its impact as a leading arts organization in the city. We value partnerships and connections to enhance our knowledge, expand our reach, and strengthen relationships within the choral community. Our overarching aim is to create a welcoming space for the development of choral skills and to share meaningful musical experiences with a wider audience. Cynthia Hawkins executivedirector@ paxchristichorale.org www.paxchristichorale.org www.facebook.com/paxchristichorale www.twitter.com/paxchristichorale www.instagram.com/paxchristichorale ●The Peterborough Singers Originally formed as the Peterborough Symphony singers in 1990, the Peterborough Singers (PS) became a stand-alone entity in 1993. This highly regarded choir boasts upwards of 130 members under the direction of Sydney Birrell. Each season the choir presents four concerts, incorporating a thewholenote.com October & November 2024 | 59