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9 years ago

Volume 4 Issue 6 - March 1999

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  • Toronto
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nl/l/1 • the"-~m US I C l/ 1111111 MARCH 1999 GO WEAST TUESDAY MARCH 2 THROUGH SUNDAY MARCH 7 SEVEN PERFORMANCES SPIRITUAl ALIGNMENT THURSDAY MARCH 11. EROSONIC FRIDAY MARCH 12 TAlES OF SONIC WONDER II SATURDAY MARCH 13 REINIER VAN HOUDT WEDNESDAY MARCH 17 lAISSEZ lES BON TEMPS ROUlEZ! - CANADIAN ELECTRONIC ENSEMBlE SATURDAY MARCH 20 RING CYCLE THURSDAY MARCH 25 MUSICAL CURRENCY, MUSICAl EXCHANGE: EXPERIMENTAL IMPROVISATION FROM YORK UNIVERSITY FRIDAY MARCH 26 NU? SATURDAY MARCH 27 www.interlog.com/ - musicgal 179 RICHMOND STREET WEST•WEST OF UNIVERSITY AVENUE• ALL PERFORMANCES BEGIN ·AT 8PM UNLESS INDICATED OTHERWISE•FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION CALL 416.204.1080 MAR• I I 1 '99 Hear & Now continued from page 11 AMI raising pitfalls and vocal risks contained in the score. As NOW Magazine stated last year, '' ... with its minimalist, apocalyptic sets, cool 5-man guitar orchestra and bloody Gothic subtext, Down Here On Earth revitalize[ s] opera." Fow1ded in 1971, the Canadian Electronic Ensemble has pioneered a unique medium - live electronic music perfonnance - for more than two decades. The original trio (David Jaeger, Larry Lake, Jim Montgomery), plus recent additions (Michael Dobinson, Paul Stillw!;!ll) continue to explore new directions, often incorporating guest artists - composers and performers- from around the globe. For their concert on March 20, the ensemble will be joined by a new colleague, Toronto-based composer Rose Bolton.· This ~ONCERT r•NOTES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 second tmique interdisciplinary event of the season, Lavabo, brainchild of artistic director Pa.ul Jrunes Dwyer. It will feature mezzo Estelle Mago:wru1, some ofToronto's best musicians perfonning music by Frru1ce, Braluns, Chopin, Scl1ubert and Wagner/Liszt, atld simultaneous drama/dance. $I 5, (stt:dents and seniors} 416-323-0023 (Visaaccepted} progrrumne resurrects some 'historical' electronic equipment dating from the group's early years, which will be blended with the latest in computerized technologies. "It promises to be a wonderful evening of craziness!~> says founding member Lake. The CEE also has three discs on the market - "Catbird Seat," "The Canadiru1 Electronic Ensemble LIVE," and "SuperTrio" (with French exponents Trio Collectit). Don't touch that dial! h1stead, get down to the Music Gallery for an engaging evening of both composed and semi-improvised live electroacoustics. David G.H. Parsons is Ontario Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre Chalmers House 20 St. Joseph Street Toronto, OntarioM4Y 119 Tel: (416) 961-4057 Fax: (416) 961-7198 E-mail: cmcont@interlog.com Website: A ssoCIATES of the Estelle Magowan T ORONTO SYMPHONY O RCHESTRA Ensembles of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra. MARCH 2 9 7=30 P.M. TRINITY ST. PAu L's CHuRCH 427 BLOOR ST. w TORONTO's ONLY COMPREHENSIVE Cl./ISSICAL & CONTEMPORARY CONCERT LISTING SOURCE

usician in om· Midst Ben Grossman . ~ It is a Sunday afternoon in late February at the Church ofSt. George the Martyr just south of the Art Gallery of Ontario. The occasion is a concert, one of the Baroque Music Beside the Grange series, but the sounds that come from the six musicians sitting on the platform in a semi-circle are decidedly un-baroque! Unfamiliarly modal melodies blend with the exotic twang of a qanun, a plucked multi-stringed Arab cross between a harp and a guitar, and the supportive rhythms of a small drum. The music, from the Spanish Llibre Vemie/1, predates the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach by about two hundred years. After the next piece the percussionist puts down his drum and picks up and plays an oud, an Arab instrument.that looks rather like a large lut.e. On the floor next to him is another stringed instrument, a Turkish saz and half a dozen .drums of various shapes and sizes. TI1e percussionist/oud/saz player is twenty-seven year old Ben Grossman, whose versatility goes beyond playing different middleeastem instruments. h1 mid February he joined Cajun/Celtic fiddler, Oliver Schroer's band, Stewed Tomatoes, to accompany singer-songwriter, James Keelaghan. On March 13 he will be at the Music Gallery to play music by composer-inventor, Barry Prophet, with the com~ poser, and on March 14 will be perfonning medieval, renaissance and contemporary folk music at the Royal Ontario Musemn. How did Ben become a multi-faceted musician? To start with, he grew up in a musical home, with a guitarist mother and an uncle who was a blues guitarist. At seven he began experimentii1g, by himself, with the guitar, and, as a teenager, studied double bass with Boris Kurstig, who, after the official lesson was over, would always have a score of music by Stravinsky or Bartok for his precocious student to play. He also became interested in the music of minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass, surviving the high school waste land by escaping to the Metro Reference Library where he absorbed Glass's operal practice. "While 1love looking to the past and to other cultures for ideas and infonnation, ultimately what one does must be satisfying." hl the final analysis, it is the late 20th century sensibility that prevails, not the 13th or 14th century sensibility. · And, speaking of such things, Ben recently composed a work for a high school percussion ensemble, which has sparked his interest in doing more writing. With the resources literally at his finger tips, medieval, contemporary, Arab, Turkish and Balkan musical traditions, what he comes up with is sure to be interesting. Upcoming concerts with Ben Grossman: March.6 at the Transac Club, March 13 at the Music Gallery, March 14 at the ROM. · Musicians in our Midst is photographed by Michael Shaw, Ashley & Crippen, Photographers 200 Davenport Road, Toronto (416) 925-2222 tlil .... cJ1.'lu.,te.-s W.-ae ... All the King's Voices recently perfonned with the Mohawk Singers, a Food Bank Benefit Concert of Traditional Carols in Mohawk and English, at Her Majesty's Royal Chapel on the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory east of Belleville. We hope to retum to help celebrate "TI1e 1 Concentus Arts announces the winners of their Christmas Raffie. They were: 1. Beatrice Verch, Eganville Ont.; 2. Rick Nishumura, Toronto; 3. Suzanne McClennan, Toronto. WE EXTEND A WARM WHOLENOTE WELCOME to five additional new members: Landing" and for workshops with the Mohawk Singers. The Academy Concert Series; Einstein on the Beach, Canadian Great Music at St. Annes; Colin McPhee's book on the Esprit 0 rchestra' s Marilyn Gilbert Artists Management; Patrons of Wisdom; Gamelan, and the music of the Toward a Living Art is an American composer/percussion- audience education/outreach and the Trillium Brass Quintet. ist/inventQr, Harry Partsch. programme fostering lifelong Guitar playing, odd meters and interest in the art of music, with OMITTED IN ERROR the creation of music by building free admission to Toward a from the November 1998 edition up layers of rhythmic patterns Living Art concerts, workshops the following ]998-99 profile were among his musical inquiries and special events. TI1is benefits The CHOIRS OF GRACE at this time. students and cotnmm1ity mem~ CHURCH on-the-HILL A little later he met Barry hers who ordinarily would not be Address: 300 Lonsdale Road, Prophet, who introduced him to exposed to new music events. Toronto, M4V IX4 the Balinese gamelai1 and to Call416-815-7887. Phone: 416-488-7884 Indian and African music, as a University Settlement Music Director: Melva Treffmger result of which he became Music & Arts School offers a. Graham; Organist: Douglas Shalin interested in tm1ings other tlmn · vibrant chamber music program Eighty choristers sing in t11e 3 the equal temperament commonly for student/amateur musicians of choirs of Grace Church on-theused in traditional westem music. all ages and instruments, coached Hill, an Anglican parish: When he became interested in by qualified instructors. TI1e next Gentlemen and Boys; Girls; and medieval music, Toronto session begins the second week Women's. The choirs sing two musician Judith Cohen advised of April. Registration deadline: Sm1day services, evensongs, him to leam Arabic music, Wednesday, March 24. Fee: / special services and concerts. A because most of what modem session. Annette or Julie at 598- member of the Royal School of medieval perfonnance practice 3444 or at 23 Grange Road. Church Music (UK), the Choir of draws on is Arabic and Balkan music. Her suggestion led to Gentlemen and Boys is one of The Canadian Child ' 0 Ch only eight in Canada. Four CDs studies wit!! George Sawa. About ren S pera orus have been produced recently. TI!e a year ago with the help of a is proud to be named among the Choirs tour in Canada, the US Canada Council study grant he many acc

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