Volume 5 Issue 9 - June 2000

MUSICIANS IN OUR MIDST

MUSICIANS IN OUR MIDST PROFILES BY ALLAN PULKER Jim Tenney & uren Pratt Monday Octob.er 2, 2000, 8:00 PM Jane Mallett Theatre ~tn/ee 62f; Yk r9/6ana Howard Cable, Guest Conductor Tuesday November 7, 2000, 8:00 PM ' part of the Massey Hall New Music Festival 62UanYQ~ a co-production with, The Esprit Orchestra Alex Pauk, Guest Conductor Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2000, 7:.go PM Metropolitan United Church r!/ouma Yk ~! a _co-production with the Amadeus Choir Lydia Adams, Guest Conductor Sunday, March 11, 2001; 3:00 PM Jane Mallett Theatre ~~ea;ro ~ (9/6~ Michael Reason, Guest Conductor Sunday, May 20, 2_001, 3:00 PM Jane Mallett Theatre ~tntua/ ID tfw r9/6one Stephen Bulla, Guest Conductor · This summer we will lose two prominent members of our musical community. Composer, teacher, pianjst and conductor, James Tenney, a professor of theory and composition at York · University for the past twentyfour years, takes up similar duties in Valencia, California. With him will go his wife, Lauren Pratt, a !inch-pin of the new music community, and manager of artists such as Eve Egoyan, the duo of Marc Sabat and Stephen Clarke, and 40 Fingers Saxophon~ Quartet. A classic case of braindrain? Not really. Tenney turns sixty-five this year, so that's it for York. It used to be that retirement could be postponed up to five years, he explains,. but four years ago, after 55 days on strike, the faculty accepted a contract making r!!tirement at 65 . mandatory -part of the university's strategy to deal with "common sense" reductions in universjty funding. But at almost exactly the same time as he received word that hi~ request to continue past 65 had bee_n denied, he heard, PHOTO: ARY RA~· · USll quite by chance about a job opening at Cal Arts (the . . California Institute for the Arts), where he taught for five years in the 1970s. ' And at his interview for .the position he was informed that the serendipity was mutual -- the search committee, in putting together the job description, had already decided that what they were looking for was . "someone like Jim Tenney!" So, what sort of teacher is Cal Arts getting? "I learned most, of what I know about teaching from my own teachers" Tenney told me, "particularly Lionel Nowak at Bennington College." What he learned from Nowak's , example was an ideal - that the teacher"s function is to try to figure out what the stildent wants to do in a piece of music and to help in the achievement of that aim, . without imposing an aesthetic ideal. "That, and contagious enthusiasm will take you a long way .as a teacher." , Crucially for Tenney, teaching has allowed him to stay continues " , ·sine nomtne ensemble for .Medieval Mu~ic A group of talented and versatile musicians passionate about the music of the Middle Ages and about bringing it to life for contemporary audiences. For Subscriptions, call the St. Lawrence Centre Box office at ( 416) 366~ 7723 Adults .00, Seniors and Students r ..J. -- For information on our .zooo-i.001 season, call 416-638-9445-, or visit our website at www.chass.utoronto.ca/sinenomine/

HE TOR9NTO CQNSOR! 2000 I 2001 Season A Rich Tapestry of Early Music TORONTO PHILHARMONI'A Toronto's Uptown Symphony George Weston Recital Hall 2000-2001 season The Toronto Philharmonia has created an exciting and entertaining season of recognizable cla5sics under the baton of our dynamic Maestro Kerry Stratton. Magnificent Monteverdi September 29 & 30, 2000 Monteverdi's ballets presented with the Ken Pierce Dance Company anc:I a 17th-century orchestra of strings a1~d continua. "New .Strawberries, New Mulberries" \ November 3, 2000 The Orlando Consort, an a capella vocal ensemble is this year's guest group P.erforming a program of music from medieval and renaissance Europe, The Little Barley-Corne December _8 & 9, 2000 This year's Christmas celebration featuring many of our recent CD's hits with guests David yreenberg, Ben Grossman and Katherine Hill. From Medieval to Millennial January· 12 & 13, 2001 This concert combines music by Hildegard of Bingen with modern dance by Jessica Runge, and a new work from Christos Hatzis combining medieval organum with Inuit throat singing . . In Search of the Black Madonna: The Journey to Montserrat April 6 & 7, ZOOl Montreal's La Nef will join the Consort in an exploration of medieval Spain featuring cantigas and dances performed with lutes, vielles, rebecs, recorders, organetto, percussion and voices, For Information and Tickets call (416) 964,6337 • Subscribe to all eleven concerts in our season. • Subscribe to our three Pops Concerts. • Select any six that appeal to you. Master Works ·Series September 21 - GILBERT & SULLIVAN An outstanding sing-along with great soloists October 26 - ELEGANCE AT ITS BEST CellistJiri Hanosek plays Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations, Plus Rossini, Larsson and Dvorak November 9 - UNE SOIREE SUISSE Jean Piguet, Concertmaster of I.:Orchestre de,la Suisse Romande January 18 - WINTER PALACE Maestro Saul!s Sondeckis of the St. Petersburg Camerata February 15 - ALL BEETHOVEN Elden Ng, Piano March 22 - STRING SERENADE Mozart, Wiren, Mahler, Debussy April 26 - ALL TCHAIKOVSKY Robert Silverman, Piano May 16 - ROMANTIC .HEIGHTS Trombone Concerto with soloist Patrick Brown Pop S_eries September 21 - GILBERT & SULLIVAN (see above) October 21 - PERCUSSION POPS soloist John Browning and the Toronto Percussion Ensemble January 27 - UPTOWN MANHATTAN Kern, Porter, Gershwin, with soloist Anna Romain For a subscription brochure, call 416-499-2204 or 416-489-3131