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Volume 30 Issue 4 | December 2024 & January 2025

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • Orchestra
  • Theatre
  • February
  • Symphony
  • Violin
  • Jazz
  • Arts
  • Conductor
  • Faculty
TMChoir's Jean-Sébastien Vallée on large-choir community exchange; Vania Chan on Music and Mindfulness; "From Up Here" looks at Classical Life in "Zone 10"; Jazz jam etiquette; Esprit has you on the edge of your seat; Women from Space; a full slate of record reviews; all this and more.

MUSIC THEATRECo-creators

MUSIC THEATRECo-creators Raha Javanfarand Hailey Gillis (l-r)Ladies ofthe Canyon atSoulpepperWORDS & MUSICINTERWEAVEJENNIFER PARROne of my favourite things at Soulpepper is theirconcert series. Under the leadership originally ofcreator and music director Mike Ross and nowunder Frank Cox-O’Connell, each concert explores a newtheme, artist or group of artists, interweaving words andmusic in a uniquely satisfying way particular to the storyor stories that emerge.Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of theCanyon (Reprise Records 1970)This March will see a newconcert, Ladies of the Canyon:Joni and the California Scenecreated by and starring multitalentedCanadian music theatreartists Hailey Gillis and RahaJavanfar, both of whom havebeen part of the series in the past.The title refers to Canadian folkmusic star Joni Mitchell’s iconicalbum of the same name, writtenwhile she was part of the famousmusic community in LaurelCanyon just outside Los Angelesin the 1970s.I spoke with Raha Javanfarto find out more about the upcoming concert and what it is aboutthe Soulpepper concert formula that keeps bringing her back as aco-creator and performer.WN: Why this show and why now? Where did the ideacome from?RJ: Actually, this was an idea that director Frank Cox O’Connellbrought to us. He was struck by what seems to be a constantrenewed interest in the zeitgeist about Joni Mitchell, and he waskeen on us exploring this time in her life. Although this is a placein the United States, there were Canadian artists who were part ofthat community, Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, for example, and Joniwrote her famous album Ladies of the Canyon while she was there.We asked “If we take that title Ladies of the Canyon where wouldthat guide us?” It actually feels now that we are telling a broaderstory about Laurel Canyon through a lens of Joni, exploring that veryparticular time when so much interesting music was happeningand these artists had this beautiful isolated haven where they couldjust create and be so far away from the world while at the same timebeing only a five minute drive away from downtown LA.One of the things I love about the concerts is how they weavestories with both music and words.We have a bit of a formula with these concerts now. The text andthe arrangement of the song need to go hand in hand and be doingsomething together—not repeating the same thing but more likefinishing each other’s sentences. With a lot of the concerts we comeat the material from a documentary angle which can sometimes bevery historical, factual, scientific even. I think that angle gets insidethe intellect of the audience and the music angle is what gets insidethe heart. To me that’s where the magic happens, where those twoarrows can collide if they are aimed correctly.So in the process do you explore different things or do you have aregular method?It really varies. This concert is about Laurel Canyon and that isa very specific music-related topic about a place and a time whenspecific bands, music and artists existed, so it makes a lot of senseto start with a set list that might interest us, and then think aboutstories that also interest us, then start to fit the puzzle piecestogether; and of course, it’s not the kind of puzzle that just comes outof a box and is perfect. Sometimes that set list might not be the rightone; the song choice might have helped to get us to a certain storythat we want to tell but then we realize this might not be the rightsong for it so we have to go back and find the one that fits.The arrangement of the song is going to have a lot to do with it too;we love our medleys and our mashups in these concerts – bringingtogether pieces of music that maybe you never would have thoughtcould work well together before. We’re deep in that middle processright now confirming whether or not each song is really, truly, theright one for that moment or if we want to consider something else.Is it that combination of the stories and music in the format thatpulls you back to being part of these concerts?To me these concerts are unique, very different from the typicalreview or tribute concert that you might go to. I think that comesDAHLIA KATZ18 | February & March 2025 thewholenote.com

JESSICA HAYESFrank Cox O’ConnellCharlotte Cornfieldfrom the arrangements, in that we try not to play the song the waythe audience knows it. Really shaking up the arrangement can helpus to hear the lyrics in a new way and that’s a big part of what reallyinterests me. It’s also that we are not just learning “covers” of thesongs but talking about a life, a mixing of the story and the music.The combining of the intellect and the heart is also my own personalnorth star that I need to come back to in the process, always askingmyself “am I always doing that in the moment?” It’s also always anamazing group of people and always fun.Who else is involved with you and Hailey in creating andperforming this concert?Frank Cox O’Connell is directing, and we have Charlotte Cornfield,a singer-songwriter who is also an amazing musician and drummer.The other two members of the cast are actually both graduates of themost recent round of the Soulpepper Academy which harks back tothe series’ earliest concerts created by Mike Ross and Sarah Wilsonwho were recent Academy graduates at the time.Are you music directing as well?Hailey and I are working very collaboratively, so the creationprocess is very much both of us “all hands on deck;” but for our ownbrains we’ve delegated Hailey as the writer and me as the musicdirector, although our worlds overlap quite a bit in the process.Are you creating visuals as you often do for these concerts?We’re not doing projections this time because we will be in theMichael Young Theatre and we want to really lean into the intimacyof that space. It makes a lot of sense for the style of the show, thefolkiness of that era and that music. I think there’s going to besomething very intimate about this concert which will hopefullybe magical.Are there any specific songs you’d like to mention without givinganything away?I think we can definitely say that there will be music by the artiststhat people would expect for a show like this like Joni Mitchell andNeil Young and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, but hopefully therewill also be a few surprises.Anything else you would like to mention?Yes, a very big shout out to Gary and Donna Slaight who havebeen funding these concerts for a really long time at Soulpepper.We wouldn’t be able to do it without them.Ladies of the Canyon: Joni and the California Scene runs fromMarch 13 to 23 at Soulpepper’s Michael Young Theatre.https://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/ladiesofthecanyonJennifer Parr is a Toronto-based director, dramaturge, fightdirector and acting coach, brought up from a young age on a richmix of musicals, Shakespeare and new Canadian plays.BRITTANY CARMICHAELTWO OTHER SHOWS TO WATCH FORThe first, The Wolf in the Voice, comes courtesyof Tarragon Theatre and Nightswimming.originated with Nightswimming, previews inearly February, then opens mid-February fora ten-day run. As Nightswimming’s ArtisticDirector Brian Quirt explains, the “wolf”is the vocal break in every singer’s voice,between registers. “Typically a vulnerablespot?” we ask.Brian Quirt“Yes, that is the sense we are using for the ‘wolf’,” Quirt says.“The vocal break and the “ahh-whoo” break’ in a wolf howl. Ibumped into the phrase in an Icelandic crime novel many yearsago in relation to a teenager whose voice breaks during a concertperformance!”Flip side of the “wolf” as a symbol of exposure is the show’sexploration of how, when a vocal ensemble runs as a pack, theycan cover each other’s vocal vulnerabilities, creating soaringlyseamless moments.(On the Tarragon website the cast, Neema Bickersteth, JaneMiller and Taurian Teelucksingh talk intriguingly about thejourney of discovery they are finding themselves on as the showcomes together.)Inside American Pie, brainchild of Soulpepper concert seriesfounders Mike Ross and Sarah Wilson, brings our story fullcircle. The show is described as “a docu-musical that decodes themysteries of Don McLean’s iconic song” – a fitting extension ofRoss and Wilson’s fascination with the interstices between storyand song. The show takes over the CAA Theatre from March 12 to 30,as part of Mirvish Productions’ Off Mirvish series.www.mirvish.com/shows/inside-american-pieNATIVEEARTH.CAthewholenote.com February & March 2025 | 19

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Volumes 6 - 10 (2000 - 2006)

Volumes 1-5 (1994-2000)