Volume 5 Issue 1 - September 1999

Revelry and reflection

Revelry and reflection dominate the Toronto Sinfonietta's 1999/2000 season as this brilliant professional ensemble lends jubilant voice to the musical masterpieces of our past and spirited expression to the creative visions for our future. Internationally acclaimed soloists, young emerging talents plus an unprec­ Jaskiewicz edented multitude of voices join the orchestra as it explores a vast repertoire punctuated by poetic romance, comic antics and majestic fanfares. Season highlights include world premiere performances of commissioned works by Canadian composers Ronald Royer and Alexander Rapoport; a Chopin tribute concert and CD recording featuring celebrated pianist Valerie Tryon; a massive Millennium Fanfare concert with 350-voice festival choir; a flawlessly zany operatic revue with famed comic soprano Nathalie Choquette and foil Stuart Hamilton; plus renowned jazz pianist Adam Makowicz on the glory of Gershwin. It's an explosive concert season of musical fireworks, and a tradition of great performance continues. Seize the new century with the Toronto Sinfonietta. ' Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir Address: 23 Ladies College Dr. Whitby ON L 1 N 6H 1 Phone: 905-668-0388 Publicity: Selwyn Jones Web stie: www.twmvc.org • €-mail: stjones@home.com Upco"'ing Events.: . •• Saturday September 25, 1999, 7:30pm: Benefit Concert, Dewi Sant United Church, Toronto. Saturday October 23, 1999, 7:30 pm: Arts Etobicoke Concert, Islington United Church. Saturday October 30, 1999, 7:30 pm: Concert, St. James Presbyterian Church, Stouffville. Saturday November 27, 1999, 7:30 pm: Concert, Pickering. New members are always welcome. If you like to sing and are interested in becoming a member we rehearse each Wednesday evening at 7:45 pm in Dewi Sant Welsh United Church, 33 Melrose Ave., Toronto. University Settlement Music & Arts School Address: 23 Grange Rd. Toronto ON M5T 1 C3 Phone: 41 6-598-3444 Fax: 41 6-598-4401 Director/Contact: Annette Sanger Since 1921, University Settlement Music & Arts School has been providing affordable, quality programs to children, teens, adults and seniors. Over 600 students a year enroll in our varied programs which include private lessons on 17 instruments and voice (in styles ranging from classical to pop), as well as group classes such as kinder music, creative dance, chamber music, strings group, ballroom and Latin dance, drawing, and Cantonese Opera. We believe that quality arts programs should be available to everyone, and offer financial assistance to children and adults from low-income families. We have studios with pianos free of charge for student practice, and other instruments for loan or rent. Any interested musicians may rent our studios for a small hourly fee. We present regular concerts and cultural events by our students, faculty and guests, and print our own newsletter, Tune-In, each term. For information and registration please call Annette or Julie at 598- 3444. Women's Musical Club of Toronto Artistic Director: Mary VanderVennen 1 255 Bay St., Suite 202, Toronto ON M5R 2A9 Tel (416) 923-7052 Fax (41 6) 923-2863 The Women's Musical Club of Toronto is in its 102nd year of presenting chamber music concerts through its annual Music in the Afternoon concert series. Musicians on the threshold of international recognition, as well as established artists and ensembles, are presented in concerts open to the public. Concerts are held on five Thursday afternoons at I :30 pm in Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queen's Park. The series of five concerts is available for ; individual tickets for each are available at the door. Tuning Your Mind, a free pre-concert, brown bag lecture series, is presented in partnership with the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. Coordinated by ProfessOr Timothy McGee, each lecture is presented by a member of the faculty on a topic related to the day's concert. The WMCT is proud to assist exceptional young Canadian musicians with its Career Development Award, scholarships, and performance opportunities. York Symphony Address: PO. Box 355 Richmond Hill ON L4C 4Y6 Phone: 41.6-41 0-0860 President: David Frieberg The York Symphony celebrates its 38th season of music making in York region with a series of exciting concerts that celebrate the end of our Century and the dawn of a new millennium. The 1999-2000 season will include some of the greatest music composed in the twentieth century - the inspiring London Symphony of Vaughan Williams, and the passionate El Amor Brujo of De Falla, Respighi's tuneful Ancient Airs and Dances, and Prokofiev's delightful score to the film Lieutenant Kije. In the year 2000 the orchestra celebrates the IOOth anniversary of the renowned Aaron Copland with performances of his operatic suite The Tender Land and the Fanfare for the Common Man. Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony, the Brahms Violin Concerto, the thrilling Capriccio Espagnole and Chinese Erhu Virtuoso George Gao are also part of a season designed to appeal to all musical tastes.

· cian in Our Mi Margaret Gay interviewed by Allan Pulker Of contemporary music's challenges to the listener, she commented that there are many musical languages these days and it is impossible for a music-lover to keep abreast of them all. She considers it unrealistic for people to expect to enjoy a concert of contemporary music for which they have not done some preparation. She recommends doing some research to find out which contemporary music appeals to you - an afternoon at the Canadian Music Centre Library, for example - and then focusing on the areas you find most interesting. She thinks composers should present their own concerts, both as a practical way of getting performed and as a way of developing an audience for their work. (Interestingly, this is exactly what Nick Peros, our cover story, is doing this month. Toronto audiences will have two opportunities to hear Margaret Gay over the next few weeks, the first, a concert by the Modem Quartet at the Music Gallery on September 26, the second, the Baroque Music Beside the Grange concert on October 3 at St. George the Martyr Church. Musician in Our Midst is photographed by Michael Shaw, Ashley & Crippen, Photographers 200 Davenport Rd. 416 925-2222 If you read the WholeNote's listings regularly, Margaret Gay's name will be familiar to you. Hardly a month has gone by in the four year's of our magazine's existence when her name has not appeared at least once. Then of course there are the concerts in which she performs but where the performers' names are not listed. For example, in this issue she is one of the instrumental musicians whose names are omitted from the listing for Baroque Music Beside the Grange on October 2 and she is also a member of the Modem Quartet, which will be performing at the Music Gallery on September 26. As a highly successful freelance cellist, primarily an ensemble player, she is constantly busy with the rehearsals and performances, which are the warp and weft of her life. She is a member of two contemporary music ensembles, The Burdocks and The Modem Quartet, artistic director of the Rodman Hall concert series in St. Catharines, a member of the Mississsauga Sinfonia and has played in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the National Ballet Orchestra. We at WholeNote were interested that so much of what she does seems to be either contemporary or baroque music, which appears, at least to the C!lsual observer and unlikely combination - after all, who has heard Christina Mahler performing a contemporary composition recently? For Margaret this really got started during her undergraduate years at Boston University, where she played in the baroque music ensemble for four years under the inspirational coaching of Mark Croat. But during those same·four years she was also a member of the contemporary music ensemble, where she developed a taste for exploring new territory. "You never know what you will find" she told me, "when you find something really new and unusual it is really fantastic." What both genres have in common for a performer, she pointed out, much as Jeanne Lamon said when I spoke to her last February, is that there are no precedents to limit a performer. You are really free to decide how you want to play something. It's good for a certain type of player, "people who want to think about what they are doing!" t~ Etobicoke Conservatory of Music ~ "Where Learning is Fun!" - Piano -Saxophone - Flute -Clarinet - GtJitar - Drums ·- Jazz Improvisation 4746A Dundas Street West Etobicoke Ont. M9A 1A9 (416) 232-1245 The Conservatory Piano Store Sales - Rebuilding - Tuning - Repairs RIEGER-KLOSS - STEINWAY- YAMAHA Grand Opening September '99 4746 Dundas Street West Toronto Ontario (416) 232-2667