Volume 30 Issue 3 | December 2024 & January 2025

TAM LAN TRUONGto present

TAM LAN TRUONGto present excitingmusic before an audienceand let it passover them. That’s allyou can ever do.”There’s also beena lot of talk latelyabout organizationsand individualsrefusing donationsfrom corporationsthey consider problematic,I suggest.Would you object tocorporate donations?“I’m not so lucky!”says Cherwin. “AreSimon Rivard you going to vet aprivate donor? I can’task a private donor, who are you supporting with your money. I’m notinterested in going down that path. And we’ll never have the luxury todo that, even if we wanted to.”His priority, he says, is accessing sufficient funding so he cansupport the artists he is working with. Artists are top priority. “A lot ofthe money comes from the same places anyway, whether or not you’reacknowledging it. And I mean, how different is it to get funding fromBMO than from the Canadian government? I don’t necessarily agreewith all the decisions our governments make, but that’s life.”If the choice is, use the money to make what hopefully is really goodwork – or not use the money – there is no dilemma, he says. “It oftenis that simple. We don’t have much money, we need to work. Maybedown the road when we have a five million dollar budget, I can refusesome money from someone.”A change of topic: Who goes to the Happenstancers concerts, whoare their audiences? I ask. “We’ve come a long way from ‘friends andfamily’ type audience,” he says. “The hardest people to get are peoplethat I know, musicians who go to things all the time. Our audiencesare people we don’t know.”It helps a lot that Cherwin, a talented visual artist, still does theensemble’s visual materials, branding and promotion. “I can crankout the ads for social media in no time. We are able to put our stuff outthere to a young-ish audience in a very low cost way.” He will, foreseeably,remain the visual art director, and not only because of the costs:the visual and the musical interact in Happenstancers’ programmingin significant ways.“I have fun doing that. If we were to hire an artist to do it, it wouldbe expensive. And it should be expensive. But when I do it, it’s free.One of these days, I’ll pay myself for it, but not yet,” he laughs.His enthusiasm is contagious, nowhere more so than when he talksabout working with Simon Rivard, the conductor whom he met whenthey both attended Barbara Hannigan’s EQ program in 2021. “I thinkhe is the best young Canadian conductor in the world today,” saysCherwin of the Music Director of Edmonton Opera who will conductthis year’s WEMMF. As happenstance would have it (see what I didthere), while in the EQ program, Cherwin was looking for a conductorfor Pierrot Lunaire, and the rest is history.Is this it, did the Happenstancers find a permanent baton? “I’d bethrilled.” Cherwin says. “I don’t schedule things that need a conductoruntil I know Simon is available. He’s that good.”Happenstancers present “Revelations”, the West End Micro MusicFestival 2024, November 22-23 and 29-30. Works by CassandraMiller, Caroline Shaw, Luciano Berio, Thomas Tallis, Claude Vivier,Hildegard von Bingen, Sofia Gubaidulina, Kati Agocs. SimonRivard conducts.Lydia Perović is a freelance writer in Toronto.She is a book columnist for The Hub and writes Long Play,an arts and culture newsletter on Substack.MUSIC THEATREPERENNIALS, PANTO,OLD FAVOURITES ANDMODERN TAKESHIGHLIGHT THIS YEAR’S HOLIDAY FAREJENNIFER PARRThe holiday season’s musical shows run a wonderfulgamut: perennial holiday fare; more modern takeson the holiday; year-round family favourites; and, ofcourse, pantomime.Among the perennials this year are such shows as the NationalBallet’s Nutcracker, the Shaw Festival’s A Christmas Carol, andCanadian Contemporary Dance Theatre’s Wintersong compilation ofdance pieces celebrating the winter solstice, while the more moderntakes include a musical version of the 1983 movie A ChristmasStory about to take the stage at Theatre Aquarius directed by ArtisticDirector Mary Frances Moore. And headlining the year-round familyfavourites are My Fair Lady, also at the Shaw Festival, and The Soundof Music at The Grand Theatre London, both of which run right intothe waning days of December.Pantos soar on stage at theatres across the province at this timeof year, usually combining contemporary comedy with songs in thetelling of traditional fairy tales or equally well-known magical tales.This year’s crop includes Sleeping Beauty…A Fairy’s Tale at TheatreOrangeville and what seems to be a panto-oriented Christmas Carolat Tweed & Company’s stages in Bancroft and Tweed. Even RossPetty’s madly modern yet traditional panto, The Wizard of Oz: TheToto-ly Awesome Family Musical, is back, at the Elgin WintergardenTheatre Dec 6 to Jan 5. It is now under the banner of Canadian Stagebut with many of the former creative team in place. Written by MattMurray, it will be directed by Ted Dykstra with music directed by MarkCamilleri, and stars audience favourites Dan Chameroy (Plumbun)and Eddie Glen (The Scarecrow), along with multi-Dora-AwardwiningVanessa Sears as the Wicked Witch.16 | December 2024 & January 2025 thewholenote.com

“Mervon had never programmed anything between Christmas and New Year’s,but the tremendous success of our first two Sondheims inspired him to try it”– Sondheim’s Follies, presented as a staged concert at Koerner Hall in 2021.LISA SAKULENSKYBeyond the tried and true, I also like to keep my eye open duringthe holiday season not just for new shows but for unusual takes onwell-known repertoire. Last year’s hit “Hallmark movie as a holidaymusical» Chris Mrs, by married Canadian duo Matthew Stodolak andKatie Kerr, comes to mind: they have just put out an album of the show,and various singles that can be found here: www.chrismrs.com/music.And this year what particularly caught my eye and interest wasone of my favourite Sondheim musicals, Into the Woods, coming toan unusual venue for a musical – the Royal Conservatory’s KoernerHall, for four performances only (Dec. 28-31). Directed by RichardOuzounian and featuring some of Canada’s top musical theatre talentsuch as Sara Farb (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Tess Benger(Sunday in the Park with George), Heeyun Park (Natasha Pierreand the Great Comet of 1812), along with Mike Nadajewski (DamnYankees) and Gabi Epstein (Funny Girl) as the Baker and his Wife, andtheatre luminaries Fiona Reid and and Eric Peterson as Jack’s Motherand the Narrator respectively.Back in 2021, Richard Ouzounian and producer Mervon Mehtamade Canadian theatrical history at Koerner, with a wonderful stagedconcert version of Sondheim’s Follies, with generations of Canadianstars in the cast. This Into the Woods promises to be equally theatricaland fun for the whole family,I reached out to the director to ask how and why this productioncame about:WholeNote: Why did you and producer Mervon Mehta chooseInto the Woods for your third Sondheim outing, and why during thewinter holiday season?Richard Ouzounian: Mervon had never programmed anythingbetween Christmas and New Year’s, but the tremendous successof our first two Sondheims inspired him to try it. I thought that thefamily appeal of Into the Woods made it a logical choice for that timeof year. It’s one of the most produced musicals by high schools everyyear in North America.Why do you think audiences respond so viscerally to Sondheim’swork, and to this musical in particular?His musicianship and lyrical skills are both superb, but he alsofinds a way to touch on deep human truths we can all relate to, andthe parent-child relationships at the heart of Into the Woods madethis one a bonanza for the emotions.What makes this format – staged concert – so enjoyable for audiences?Because it puts the emphasis on the material and the performers,which is always a good idea. And it allows us the ability to hire anassortment of star talent who couldn’t be available for the monthsRaised as a boy by her father, and tornbetween her love for a woman and theState’s demand for an heir, Queen Christineof Sweden was a monarch like no other—whose life has now inspired a thrilling newchapter in Canadian operatic storytelling.Bilodeau and Bouchard’s trailblazing operaabout the queen who navigated a coursebetween faith and knowledge, passion andduty appears at Toronto’s Four SeasonsCentre for the Performing Arts fromJanuary 31 to February 15.Enjoy 20% off tickets with promo-codeSOVEREIGN20Buy online today at coc.ca/ReineOffer excludes Opera Under 30, Grand Ring, Ring 5Middle, and tickets, and is not applicable topreviously made purchases or other mainstage operas.thewholenote.com December 2024 & January 2025 | 17Date: Nov 18, 2024Filename_ Version#COC240330_STC_WN_December_FNLClient: COC Don Pasquale Creative: JF