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Volume 9 Issue 10 - July/August 2004

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  • Festival
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  • August
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AF estival Tour, Part II

AF estival Tour, Part II by Allan Pulker In the June issue (still available online at www.thewholenote.com) we "visited" the Montreal Baroque Festival, Grand River Baroque Festival, the Toronto International Chamber Music Festival, the· Great Canadian Town Band Festival, Music at Sharon, the Brott Summer Festival, the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, Festival de Lanaudiere, the Westben Festival, the Elora Festival and the Festival of the Sound. While some of these will have already taken place by the time you rend this, the last seven will be continuing well into the summer, so make sure to consult our festival listings, commencing onpage 47, for the many events that they have to offer. Stratford Summer Music tival: the Axelrod, the Molinari, Our summer festival "tour" be- the St. Lawrence, the Creaking gins with one of the newer arrivals Tree and the Festival's own resion the scene, Stratford Summer dent "Festival Quartet." Music, founded in 2001 by its The Axelrod Quartet which incurrent "artistic producer," John eludes two Canadians, violist Ste- Miller, a former executive director ven Dann and violinist Marc Deaf the Canadian Music Centre and strube will perform, in four conoutgoing administrator of the certs, all of Beethoven's early Glenn Gould Foundation. In its quartets, on four Stradivarius inthree short years of existence, the struments donated to the Srnithsofestival has grown to the point that nian Institution by American pubit now offers two weeks packed lisher and philanthropist, Herbert with an amazing variety of con- Axelrod · certs by some of the best musi- Miller has cleverly woven in cians from Canada and abroad. two related elements. First, the I asked Miller the "secret" of Festival String Quartet will per~ his festival's phenomenal growth. form Felix Mendelssohn's Double In part, he acknowledged, it is be- Quartet/Octet with·the Axelrod cause. of the Festival's location in Quartet's fourth concert, also on a Stratford, where the Stratford The- set of instruments made by one atre Festival draws 40,000 visitors luthier, Xiaodong Guan, who a week during the summer and learned his craft in China but now shares its formidable box-0ffice lives and works in Stratford. The service and marketing clout with bows used for this concert will be his festival. He mentioned that he Yamaha Music's highly regarded was just finishing the planning for carbon fibre bows. Second, Monhis 2005 festival so that it would treal's Molinari Quartet will per- · be ready for inclusion in the Strat- form all eight quartets by Canadian ford Festival visitors' guide, a mil- composer R. Murray Schafer, lion copies of which will be print- providing a counterpoint to the ed and distributed, and that 40,000 Axelrod's focus on Beethoven and copies of his brochure are inserted sending a message to living Canain theatre festival programs. dian composers of the benefit of Perhaps the more important in- creating a body of work in a pargredient, however, is that the pro- ticular genre, which, Miller pointgramming of his festivals is inno- ed out, gives a composer "status vative, organically although not and credibility." obsessively thematic, and strongly Other highlights of the festival anchored in the local community. will be the Organ Academy Master This summer one of the Festi- classes given by John Longhurst, val' s prevailing themes is music . senior organist a the Mormon Tabfor stringed instruments. Canadian emacle in Salt Lake City, the After violin virtuosos, James Ehnes and Theatre Cabarets, the Mexican folk Andrew Chung, will give the two music group, Son de Madera, the "Maureen Forrester Canadian Art- Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus, the ist Concerts" on July 21 and July Perth County Pipe Band and the 28 respectively, while Canadian Harry Somers Lecture, which will virtuoso fiddler, Ashley Mclsaac, be given by COC opera house arwith his band and "Steerage," an chitect, A.J. Diamond with soensemble of Celtic rockers, will prano, Leslie Fagan. perfqrm the evening of Monday Returning for a moment to the July 26. A virtual cornucopia of 'subject of locally produced string quartets will be a major stringed instruments, a recent com- drawing card of this summer's fes- 12 WWW. THEWHO LENOTE.COM munication from the Sweetwater Festival - September 24-26 in Owen Sound - drew attention to the fact that instruments.made by luthiers living in Grey and Bruce Counties will be used in that festival. In recent years a number of highly skilled luthiers has settled in that part of the province, having established reputations and connections with their markets in the major urban centres where professional musicians work and teach, and are making instruments that are good enough for professional players but more affordable than the Mill-Race Festival of Traditional Folk Music The Mill-Race Festival is unique among Ontario music festivals. The core of the programming is the folk mush; and dance traditions of the British Isles but a good number of other elements are worked in as well. Artistic Director, Brad McEwan, has travelled a lot in the United Kingdom and attended a good many local festivals. "I like the fesJivals there," he told me, "the way they.are integrated into the communities and make use of the resources that are available, such as town squares for performance venues." Similarly the Mill­ Race Festival will present its musicians in downtown Cambridge's civic square, its fanners' market (one of the oldest in the province) and the ruins of an old mill which Molinari Quartet instruments of the great 17th and 18th century Italian makers. The Sweetwater Festival is one of two we'll look at more closely in September. The other is the Colours of Music Festival in Barrie (www.coloursofrnusic.ca.), Sept 24 to Oct 9. Its 36 concerts feature some remarkable musicians, some local, like the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Penderecki Quartet, some, from Great Britain and Europe making their first Canadian performance - names like The Onyx Brass Quintet, Johannes Unger, and Vento Chiaro. make a natural stone amphitheatre. Among the various living folk music·traditions represented at the festival will be from the north of England, which will be represented by Brian Peters. Other traditions that can be experienced at the Mill-Race Festival are from Cuba, China, the Peruvian Andes, Cajun and Aboriginal. While patrons are invited to make cash contributions, there are no tickets or price of admission. Music at Port Milford Three of Ontario's summer music festivals are summer music schools located on the shores of two of the Great Lakes. Faculty perform for the benefit of their students arid an audience drawn from the local community and the readership of Jul Y 1 - S EPT 7 2004

WholeNote. One of these is Music at Port Milford, which is located on a bay in Prince Edward County, south-east of Picton. On . four Friday evenings - July 16, 23 30 and August 13 - this swnm~r school/festival will present ' four different string quartets, the Madawaska, the Chiara, the Kirby · and the Festival's own quartet in recital. All of these will be well worth the 2 1/2 hour drive from Toronto, but to make it really pleasurable, leave after lunch or earlier, have dinner at a restaurant in Belleville or Picton and stay overnight somewhere. Music at Port Milford also presents its students in concert on Saturday evenings and provides music for services in some of the local churches on Sundays. Kincardine Summer Festival The second of our swnmer music school/festivals is the Kincardine Summer Festival on the shores of Lake Huron about midway between Samia and Tobermory. It is two weeks long, running from August 2 to 14. The first week of the school is completely focused on jazz education, with a list of faculty members that reads like a who's who in jazz in Canada. Each night different faculty members, alone or in groups, take to the stage. ' The classical music program, under the direction of cellist, Simon Fryer, runs from Saturday August 7 to August 14, with concerts given by faculty members most evenings and a grand finale student concert on Saturday, August 14. The string faculty is especially strong, so you can look forward to some fine string music including some of the repertoire for larger string ensembles such as Johannes Brahms' Sextet for Strings Op.36 in G major and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet for Strings K516 in G minor. juLY 1 - SEPT 7 2004 Niagara International Chamber Music Festival Penderecki String _Quartet The third summer school/festival combination is in Niagara on the Lake, home of the Shaw Theatre Festival, directly across Lake Ontario from downtown Toronto - has anyone thought of starting ferry service? The school, called the "International School for Musical Arts" offers instruction in piano, strings and guitar, for everyone from talented children to young professionals. The teaching staff is drawn from the ranks of professional music school faculty mem- . bers from across Canada and the . United States. Over the 24 days of the festival there will be 31 concerts - 5 free - in the churches, wineries and Court House of Niagara-on-the­ Lake, everything from Bach to Weill, church to cabaret, including perfonnarices by the Penderecki String Quartet, bass Gary Relyea, and pianists Peter Tiefenbach, Vadim Serebryany and Robert Silverman. A very interesting oppor- · tunity offered by this festival is the open rehearsals and master classes. Muskoka Lakes Music Festival The month-long (July 13-August ' 11) Muskoka Lakes Music Festival in Port Carling in the heart of Muskoka cottage country has some of the most diverse programming to be found at any festival this swnmer. Among its nineteen concerts are a saxophone/guitar duo (how oft\:n do you get to hear that combination), vocaljazz,ajazz group from Israel, a big band, a solo violinist, a flute-viola-harp trio, a folk singer and an erhu virtuoso. If stretching your musical horizons is on your agenda I would certainly recommend that you "organize" an invitation to a friend's Muskoka cottage, spend your days in and near the water CONTINUES ON PAGE 14 THE Artistic Director Douglas Nadler COLLINGWOOD MUSIC FESTIVAL 2004 season Anton Kuerti July 12, 8pm, AND Schubert Impromptus & B flat Sonata · Coenraad Bloemendal,cello & Valerie Tryon, piano July 16, 8pm . . the COiTiplete B~~~hoven Sonatas , ./ · The Nylons Juiy ll;·.Jpm - a capella! July 13, 3pm Brian Katz & Martin Van de. Ven July 22, 8pm · Klezmer·and Beyond The Westminster Ensemble July 23, 8pm · ~~yel~ Faure .· · ]~hn Arpin July 30, 8pm · · ·· .. .. R~gtime '.Master Quartetto Gelato July 31, 7pm · · . A musical journey across Europe - The Orient Express! '·· ... Pavlo August 6, 8pm Mediterranean Pas is on .. Call I 888 283 1712 www.collingwoodmusicfestival.com Audrey Matheson ~- Muskoka Lakes Music Festival 8th Season July 13-August 14, 2004 Port Carling, Ontario (705) 765-1048 1-888-311-ARTS www.artsinmuskoka.com info@artsinmuskoka.com . Classical Tuesdays Moshe Hammer & Michael Troester, Violin & Guitar - Paul Brodie & Michael Troester, Sax & Guitar - Trio Lyra, Harp, Viola & Flute -·Jasper Wood, Violin - George Gao, Erhu Jazz Wednesdays Skylark, Vocal Trio - Adi Braun, Vocalist - Richard Underhill, Sax - Whitney Smith Big Steam Band, Big Band - Tommy , Ambrose & the Toronto All-Star Big Band, Songs S,inatra Taught Me Variety Thursdays Piche Family, Celtic - Seeds of Sun, Israeli Jazz - Beverlie Robertson, Folk, Blues, etc. - Pavlo, Mediterrranean Guitar Cruise Tuesdays Swing de Paris, Acoustic Swing - Bourbon Street Buskers, Dixieland Swing - Swing Noir, Swing Band - Kory Livingston, Tribute to Nat "King" Cole - Moodswings, Jazz Ensemble Special Event Jeff Healey's Jazz Wizards, Saturday, August 14 Regular Tickets - Special Event - Cruise Tickets - Season Pass 5 - Double Pass 0 WWW.THEWHOLENOTE .COM 13

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