Volume 30 Issue 3 | December 2024 & January 2025

Last year's edition!

Last year's edition! Registration now open for Monday May 5, 2025UNDATED EVENTS & ETCETERASAPPLICATIONS● MUSIC MONDAY has opened registrationfor their 2025 program. The 2025 anthem willbe announced early in the new year. Registrationis free and provides access to teacherresources, numerous audio and video recordings,arrangements, lyric sheets, sing-alongvideo and an Artist Guide & Learning Guide.Register now at www.musicmonday.ca, Info:www.coalitioncanada.caONGOING EVENTS● Encore Symphonic Concert Band. MonthlyConcert Band Concert. The first Thursday ofevery month at 11am. 35-piece concert bandperforming band concert music, pop tunes,jazz standards (2 singers) and the occasionalmarch. Trinity Presbyterian Church York Mills,2737 Bayview Ave. www.encoreband.ca. .● Trinity College, University of Toronto.Evensong. Traditional Anglican choral music.Trinity College Chapel Choir; Thomas Bell, directorof music; Peter Bayer, organ scholar.Trinity College Chapel, University of Toronto,6 Hoskin Ave. 416-978-2522 or Trinity College.Free. Evensong is sung every Wednesday at5:15pm in the beautiful Trinity College chapelduring term time.ONLINE EVENTS● Arts@Home. A vibrant hub connectingTorontonians to arts and culture. Designed tostrengthen personal and societal resiliencethrough the arts. www.artsathome.ca.● North Toronto Community Band. Openingsfor clarinet, trumpet, trombone, tuba andauxiliary percussion. Rehearsals held at WillowdalePresbyterian Church 38 Ellerslie Ave.(just north of Mel Lastman Square). Mondayevenings 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Contact ntcband@gmail.com.● Recollectiv. For anyone living with cognitivechallenges from Alzheimer’s, dementia, traumaticbrain injury, stroke or PTSD. The groupmeets weekly to rediscover the joy of makingmusic. Community members and music studentsare welcome to this fun, rewarding andinter-generational experience. Sessions takeplace from 2 to 3pm (with sound checks andsocializing at 1:30pm). No summer sessionsafter Jun 22. Weekly sessions resume onSep 7. Please contact recollectiv@gmail.comfor more information.REHEARSAL & PERFORMANCEOPPORTUNITIES● A new community Baroque orchestra isbeing launched in Toronto! All instruments(particularly violin and oboe) and all levels ofplaying accommodated. Interested? Pleasecontact me, Jane Ubertino, at lucindabell56@hotmail.com● The Choralairs is a non-audition, adult choirthat welcomes new members in Septemberand January. Rehearsals are on Tuesday6:45-8-45pm at Edithvale C.C. 131 Finch Ave. W,Toronto. Please contact Elaine at choralairs.delighted.720@silomails.com to RSVP. Checkout our new website at www.Choralairs.com.● Columbus Concert Band. Rehearsals:Tuesdays 7:30-9:30pm at Villa Colombo,40 Playfair Ave., Toronto. Openings for flute,clarinet, tenor sax, and trumpet; however, allwho are in search of being a part of a greatband are welcome. Our members are warmand welcoming. For more information, contactccbtoronto@gmail.com or visit ourwebsite at www.columbusconcertband.com.● Etobicoke Community Concert Band. Fullrehearsals every Wednesday night at 7:30pm.309 Horner Ave. Open to all who are lookingfor a great band to join. Text Rob Hunter at416-878-1730.● Harmony Singers of Etobicoke. The womenof The Harmony Singers survived COVID andare regrouping for 2024! If you’d like to sing anexciting repertoire of pop, jazz, folk and lightclassics, the group will give you a warm welcome!Rehearsals start in January on Wednesdaynights from 7:15 to 9:30 p.m. at RichviewUnited Church in Etobicoke. Contact ConductorHarvey Patterson at: theharmonysingers@ca.comor call 416-239-5821.● New Horizons Band of Toronto. All levelsfrom beginners to advanced for brass, woodwind,and percussion instruments. Weeklyclasses led by professional music teachers.Loaner instrument provided to each newregistrant in the beginners’ program. Visitwww.newhorizonsbandtoronto.ca.● North Toronto Community Band. Openingsfor drums, clarinets, trumpets, trombones,French horns. Rehearsals held at WillowdalePresbyterian Church 38 Ellerslie Ave.(just north of Mel Lastman Square). Mondayevenings 7:30-9:30 pm. Contact ntcband@gmail.com.● Quinte Regional Youth Chorus. This is anew group based in Belleville, Ontario, forsingers aged 6-16. St. Thomas AnglicanChurch, Parish Centre, 201 Church St., Belleville.Call 613-962-3636 for information.● Serenata Singers. Do you love the joy ofsinging and the camaraderie it brings? Jointhe Serenata Singers is a 55-voice adult SATBcommunity choir, bringing together seniorsingers (current age range 55 to 97) underchoral director Michael Morgan. Performancesduring the year at seniors’ residencesand two spring concerts in May. Rehearsalsat Scarborough Bluffs United Church,3739 Kingston Rd, every Wednesday from10:30am to 12:30pm. Two free trial rehearsals.Check us out at our website at www.serenatasingers.caor call Charlotte at 416-449-4053!15% off your 1st cleanDO YOU DRIVE?Do you love The WholeNote?Share the love and earn a little money!Join our circulation team, and deliver6 times a year. Currently seekinga circulation associate for theU of T downtown campus.Interested?Contact:circulation@thewholenote.com● String Orchestra TO is a new string orchestrain Toronto for amateur intermediate andadvanced string players. No auditions. Ourseason runs from Sep 11, 2024 to May 28, 2025.Wed rehearsals: 7:15-9:15 pm at St. BarnabasChurch, 361 Danforth Ave.. Visit www.sites.google.com/view/stringorchestrato/home oremail us at StringOrchestraTO@gmail.com.● Strings Attached Orchestra, North York. Allstring players (especially viola, cello, bass) arewelcome. Mondays 7 to 9 p.m. from Sep to Jun.Email us first at info.stringsattached@gmail.com to receive music and other details or visitour website at www.stringsattachedorchestra.com for more information.● Toronto Shape Note Singers. SacredHarp Singing. Shape note selections fromthe Sacred Harp tunebook.Singing is participatory,not a performance. No experiencenecessary. All are welcome and there arebooks to borrow. Monthly on the third Wednesdayfrom Feb 21 to Dec 8, 2024. FriendsHouse, 60 Lowther Ave. 647-838-8764. Paywhat you can. Nov 20 & Dec 18.● VOCA Chorus of Toronto. Openings forexperienced tenors and basses. VOCA is anauditioned ensemble. On May 10, 2025, we’llbe performing “Carmina Burana”, featuringspecial guest, Andrew Haji, tenor. Rehearsalsare held at Eastminster, 310 Danforth Ave.(Chester subway) on Monday evenings. ContactJenny Crober at crober.best@gmail.comfor more info.A vacationfor your dog!Barker Avenue Boardingin East Yorkcall or text 416-574-5250If you can read this,thank a music teacher.MosePianoForAll.comBUSINESSCLASSIFIEDSEconomical and visible!Promote your services& products to ourmusically engaged readers,in print and on-line.BOOKING DEADLINE: FRIDAY JANUARY 10classad@thewholenote.com42 | December 2024 & January 2025 thewholenote.com

DISCOVERIES | RECORDINGS REVIEWEDDAVID OLDSI recently received Louise Bessette’s latest,Port of Call: New England with music byCharles Ives and Edward MacDowell (ATMAACD2 2902 atmaclassique.com/en/product/port-of-call-new-england). The Ives is theextraordinary Piano Sonata No.2 “Concord,Mass 1840-1860” which he worked on formost of the first half of the 20th century,and the MacDowell is New England IdylsOp.62, a set of ten vignettes composed in1902. I first heard the celebrated Montreal pianist in the early 1990s atGeorge Weston Recital Hall at what is now the Meridian Centre for theArts where she performed Olivier Messiaen’s stunning Vingt Regardssur l’enfant Jésus from memory. I was enthralled. At the concert, Ipicked up her CBC Musica Viva recording of selections from the VingtRegards and to my delight it also included Ives’ Concord Sonata. Thatwas recorded live in concert back in 1987 and now, some 37 years latershe has produced a studio recording of the Ives, “one of her all-timefavourite works.” It’s one of mine too.The Concord Sonata is a work that was very special to me in myformative years. I have spoken before in these pages about how mydiscovery of the Bartók string quartet cycle provided one of my earliestentries into the world of “contemporary” music, a kind of epiphanyfor me. Another revelatory experience was a lecture/demonstration atthe U of T Faculty of Music in November 1974 by German pianist PeterRoggenkamp, whose examination and elucidation of the complexand freewheeling score of the Concord Sonata was another earopener.I was already enamoured of John Kirkpatrick’s 1968 Columbiarecording of the work, but having it dissected under Roggenkamp’smicroscope really brought home the intricacies and idiosyncrasies ofIves’ writing and left a lasting impression.In the first 20 seconds of the sonata, we hear Beethoven’s “fate”theme, the first four notes of the Fifth Symphony, which willreappear in myriad forms and guises throughout the four movements.As was his wont, Ives also incorporates/interpolates dozens of hymntunes, marches, popular songs, fiddle tunes and his own brand ofragtime melodies into the classical piano sonata form. It is at times anextremely wild ride, but this is juxtaposed with gentle, almost transcendentalsections. And transcendental is a key word here becauseWhat we're listening to this month:Ives conceived the sonata as a depiction of figures of 19th-centuryAmerican Transcendentalism, designating the movements Emerson,Hawthorne, The Alcotts and Thoreau.To paraphrase the late Robert Fulford, publishing is a “necessaryevil” that sadly stops the editing process. This was not the casefor Ives, who worked on this sonata for 45 years beginning aroundthe time of the First World War. After a decade of tinkering, he selfpublisheda first edition in 1920 and sent out several hundred copiesto performers, libraries, critics and anyone he could think of whomight be interested. Few were, and he continued to revise Concorduntil 1947 when he published a supposedly definitive second editionafter a decade of collaboration with Kirkpatrick who had given thefirst public performance of the complete sonata in 1937 and would goon to record it in 1948.But the evolution of the sonata did not stop there, with scholarslike Kirkpatrick and later Jay Gottlieb, with whom Bessette worked,continuing to make “improvements” based on Ives’ innumerablesketches and notebooks. Most contemporary performances use the1947 edition, but Kirkpatrick’s own second recording (1968) has craggiermoments including, notably, Ives’ dissonant treatment of HailColumbia, Gem of the Ocean in the latter portion of the piece. Wecan assume that through Gottlieb, Bessette also had access to Ives’unpublished manuscripts. It’s a very special performance, muscularwhen Ives demands it – and demand it he does! – and calm, in facttender as a breeze over Walden Pond, in the final moments. In thatlast movement we briefly hear the return of what Ives referred to asthe “human-faith-melody” motif, this time played on the flute (JeffreyStonehouse). The brief addition of the flute is marked optional in thescore, as is a quiet passage on the viola (Isaac Chalk) in the openingmovement. Of the ten or so recordings I have in my collection, this isjust the second to include these instruments, adding another elementto the pleasure I found here.After the raucous boisterousness of much of the Ives, it’s as ifMacDowell’s New England is on another astral plane, although thequietude of Thoreau does lead nicely into the Idyls. With titles such asAn Old Garden, In Deep Woods, Indian Idyl and From a Log Cabin,the brief pastoral portraits harken back to a gentler time, in contrast toIves’ forward-looking approach. It is a bit funny though to hear a quietecho of the Beethoven “fate” theme appear in the movement calledthewholenote.com/listeningHello! How Are You?Caity GyorgyJuno Award Winning Canadianjazz singer Caity Gyorgydelivers most her assured andsophisticated songwriting andarranging yet with her fifth studioalbumAlikenessMark Fewer, Aiyun Huang, DeanthaEdmunds, and NewfoundlandSymphony Orchestra SinfoniaAn album celebrating human learningand collaboration, inviting listeners todiscover their "alikenesses" within themusic and foster deeper connectionswith one another.Break of Day, Songs For ColinSandy Bell"Heartfelt, heart-wrenching andgripping” – UbuntuFM "A strongnew album” – Billboard "As sadand bittersweet as it gets" –RecordWorld International "VeryImpressive record” – Corby’s OrbitDialoguesNoémie Raymondand Zhenni Li-CohenThe monumental sonatas by SergeiRachmaninoff and Rebecca Clarkebridge universes through "Dialogues"between composers, instruments,musicians, and audiences.thewholenote.com December 2024 & January 2025 | 43