Beat Columns (Live Music)

The writer Nick Hornby is, to the members of Generation X and the millennials, the leading authority on the art of the mix tape, and in his novel High Fidelity, he defined the poetic frustration of creating a playlist for someone, now rendered irrelevant in our current era of iTunes playlists and YouTube channels: “To me, making a tape is like writing a letter— there’s a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with “Got to Get You Off My Mind,” but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you’ve got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch...” Anyone who’s ever made a mix tape knows this feeling. There’s a sense of curatorial omnipotence that making a mix tape confers on its maker: I may not play in a band, I may not know how to write any songs, but damn it, I’ve got taste!

If you thought mix tapes were a generational flash in the pan, you’d be wrong. Long before the compact disc and cassette tape, music nerds were compiling playlists of their favourite songs and sharing them, except these geeks were either composers or performers of music and were perfectly capable of making music of their own. There’s a substantial amount of evidence that Brahms, Beethoven and Mendelssohn were passionate music collectors who wanted to share their discoveries, but one composer stands above all other connoisseurs and arbiters of good taste as an obsessive hoarder, cultural pack rat, and literal all-out, all-time violator of copyright – none other than Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach’s reputation for near-autistic complexity and perfect detail as a contrapuntalist is well-known and I won’t bore you by repeating it here. Less appreciated, though, is the obsession he had with collecting music – either for personal consumption or to share with friends and colleagues. In the last 40 or so years of Bach scholarship, scholars have focused less on Bach the immortal master of counterpoint and more on Bach the music collector, virtually to the point where every composition and theme of Bach was thought to be originally written by another composer or else was derivative of some other style of music. It’s gotten a bit out of hand, and there isn’t a whole lot of direct cause and effect linking Bach’s musical taste with what he composed.

Bach’s St. Mark’s Mix: It’s for this reason that we are very fortunate to have actual evidence of a real playlist of songs that Bach collected, assembled into a concert program and had performed for a live audience. A particular version of the St. Mark Passion was one of a few concerts that Bach had performed while employed as the Thomaskantor in Leipzig; Bach not only thought highly enough of the music to have performed it three different times in his career, but reworked the concert order, cut arias and added new pieces by different composers, with just as much care (and possibly frustration) as Nick Hornby described as being part of the process of making a good mix tape. The final cut, completed just three years before he died, included songs by Handel (the leading composer of Bach’s day) and a composer lost to history but whom Bach evidently liked – known only as Kaiser.

The man responsible for bringing this mix of Bach’s to the Canadian concert stage is none other than Kenneth Hull, the director of the Spiritus Ensemble, and he will be leading a performance of the Bach compilation at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church in Kitchener on March 30. When I ask him about some of the great composer’s favourites, Hull is able to provide me with some clues. “Up to now we’ve known very little of what Bach had actually performed besides his own music,” Hull explains. “We know for sure that J.S. Bach performed music by his second cousin, Johann Ludwig Bach, and music composed by his relatives. Bach came from a very musical family and he had inherited a lot of family connections to good composers.” Besides the advantage of promoting family members, Bach had to select composers that were easier than his own music for the musicians at his church to perform, and playing the “Kaiser” St. Mark Passion is certainly easier than playing Bach, Hull admits.

Hull is also quick to mention that he is in fact giving this Passion its Canadian premiere – and that this is just the second time this St. Mark is being performed in North America. “The Bach Society of Houston was able to obtain a copy of the St. Mark Passion because they are the sister city of Leipzig,” he says. “I’m fortunate enough to have a close connection with the Bach Society and was able to hear about this discovery.”

I Furiosi, Biber, Lent: If you aren’t interested in Bach’s favourite composers, or if you can’t make it to Kitchener for a concert, consider checking out a few Toronto-based ensembles instead. I Furiosi, still the best classical band you can hear for ten dollars (if you’re a student, senior or just plain broke), will be joined by organist Stephanie Martin and mezzo-soprano Vicki St. Pierre to perform Giovanni Battista’ Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater on March 22 at Windermere United Church. It will be well worth it to hear this work be performed by an ensemble that can play with verve, and well, fury.

This is your last chance to catch Chris Verrette and Musicians in Ordinary play Biber’s Mystery Sonatas on March 14 at St. Michael’s College’s Madden Hall. They’ll be playing the sonatas based on the Sorrowful Mysteries, so if you’re an observant Christian, this is an excellent program for Lent – if not, be prepared to hear something sad.

Speaking of Lent, on March 1 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, the Toronto Consort will perform music leading up to the 40 days’ fast with a program devoted to the Venetian Carnival represented by Italian composers Monteverdi, Banchieri and Vecchi.

Finally, Tafelmusik has a couple of programs well worth hearing: Alison McKay’s audience favourite “The Four Seasons: A Cycle of the Sun,” featuring music by Antonio Vivaldi and Mychael Danna, at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre on March 6 to 9, 11 and 12. Tafelmusik will be doing another program later in March –“A Night in Paris” – on March 27 to 30 also at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. This concert will feature superb music by Telemann and Leclair as well as Vivaldi’s violin concerto “Tempeste di Mare.”

David Podgorski is a Toronto-based harpsichordist, music teacher and a founding member of Rezonance. He can be contacted at
earlymusic@thewholenote.com.

Back in the December 2013 issue of The WholeNote, I wrote about the developing collaboration amongst new music presenters in Toronto.  This desire to build community and mutual support gets a big boost in early April when the Music Gallery, Continuum Contemporary Music and Arraymusic team up to present “Gaudeamus: Deconstructed and Reconstructed.”  To understand more about the significance of this Dutch-Canadian contemporary music summit, it’s important to look at the legacy of the Gaudeamus Music Week in Holland.  

Right after World War II in 1945, a yearly festival and competition for new music was held in a village called Bilthoven, located near Utrecht. Imagining what Holland must have been like emerging out of the war, I find it remarkable that not only was a festival created to promote Dutch composers in such a climate, but that also it was named “gaudeamus” – from the Latin phrase gaudeamus igitur, meaning “Therefore let us rejoice.” The title of a popular academic song performed at university graduation ceremonies in many European countries since the early 18th century, the phrase is in the same spirit as carpe diem (seize the day) with its exhortation to enjoy life.  So the Gaudeamus festival is a celebration, an invitation for hope, renewal and rejuvenation, an antidote to the fear and terror of the war years. The Gaudeamus Music Week eventually opened up to include international composers and has now become one of the premiere forums for presenting the latest developments in the global contemporary music scene. The prestigious Gaudeamus competition is open to composers under 30 with the prize money going towards a commission for a new work. 

And now this spirit makes its way to Toronto bringing together members from the Continuum and Arraymusic ensembles with several Dutch musicians to present two nights of concerts at the Music Gallery.  On April 3, Gaudeamus will be “Deconstructed” during two sets of improvised music featuring both Canadian and Dutch improvisers.  Part of the evening will feature three comprovised works by Holland’s Michiel van Dijk and Koen Kaptijn, along with Canada’s Allison Cameron.   And in case you aren’t familiar with the term “comprovise,” it refers to a mixture of composed and improvised material and is the name of an American music series in the Boston and New York areas that aims to avoid or shatter genre barriers and explore the boundaries between composition and improvisation. Sounds like a perfect goal for a night of deconstruction.

Then on April 4, Gaudeamus is “Reconstructed” again with composed works by composers who have either won the Gaudemus award or had pieces selected to be performed at the festival.  The lineup includes Louis Andriessen and Yannis Kyriakides from Holland and eldritch priest and Michael Oesterle from Canada. Louis Andriessen who turns 75 this coming April, is one of Holland’s most celebrated composers.   Back in the 1970s, he turned minimalism upside down with his radical musical responses to American experimentalists Reich, Riley and Glass. He challenged these composers’ trance-like states with a European sense of edginess and angularity, creating powerful and aggressive results. Toronto audiences will be able to hear his high-voltage piece Hout, a work that embodies his trademark style of combining the rigours of complex chromaticism with rhythms derived from jazz and pop.  The “reconstruction” continues with Cyprus-born composer and sound artist Yannis Kyriakides’ piece Tinkling, which is based on Thelonius Monk’s Trinkle Tinkle.  Kyriakides left his native Cyprus to live in Holland and study with Andriessen and no doubt was influenced by Andriessen’s embracing of jazz influences. Kyriakides is also drawn to interdisciplinary combinations of musical forms and digital media, as is Canadian Michael Oesterle who will present a newly commissioned work.  Rounding out the evening will be a piece by Canadian composer, sound artist and author eldritch priest whose interests lie in sonic culture and experimental aesthetics.

Another feature of the Gaudeamus summit will be a roundtable conversation during the late afternoon of each evening’s performance to discuss whether there is still such a thing as a local sound identity, given that we can all be so instantly connected in the wired world.  These conversations will include a collection of musicians, composers, programmers and a sociologist to weigh in on the topic. And finally, if you’d like an opportunity to play with some of the visiting Dutch improvisers, a free workshop with members of Trio 7090 will be happening at the Music Gallery on April 5, from 10am to 1pm.

New Opera:  There is a new voice for contemporary opera arising on the scene, and its name is FAWN. Collaborating with emerging composers to create contemporary chamber operas, the opera and new music collective will be presenting excerpts of two of their produced operas by David Foley and Adam Scime, along with a new work by composer Cecilia Livingston on March 14.  This concert is part of the Emergents Series at the Music Galley curated by saxophonist Chelsea Shanoff. Adding to the experience of FAWN’s repetoire will be a selection of compositions by Michael Vincent, who is also writing an opera for FAWN’s upcoming season. One characteristic of this new company’s vision is to foster and support emerging musical and visual Canadian artists. Their “Synesthesia” concerts offer previews of new works in local art galleries. 

And then there is Tapestry which has been championing new Canadian opera for over 30 years. On April 4 and 5, they will be collaborating with Volcano Theatre in a showcase of work titled “Explorations” combining theatre, opera and dance.  Volcano is known for their physical energy and vision of creating work that explores identity, politics, history, and the contemporary human condition.  With both FAWN and Tapestry, we are witnessing another example of genre expansion through the fusion of opera with other artistic sensibilities and forms. 

Arditti String Quartet:  New Music Concerts and Music Toronto present the Arditti String Quartet on March 20.  Well-known for their spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and earlier 20th century music, the contemporary string quartet repertoire would be unimaginable without them. The program includes works by some of the most venerable composers of our times, Elliott Carter, Hilda Paredes, Brian Ferneyhough and Helmut Lachenmann, each of which is part of their standard repertoire.  Carter’s String Quartet No. 5 is a perfect example of his signature technique of metric modulation, which can be described simply as a change in pulse rate or tempo where each of the two tempos have a shared relationship, rather than a sudden shift.   Hilda Paredes, originally from Mexico, wrote her second quartet “Cuerdas del Destino” in 2007-08, dedicating it to the Arditti Quartet.  Brian Ferneyhough, the master of the “new complexity,” wrote his Dum Transisset Quartet in 2006-07; it has been widely performed and recorded by the quartet. 

Additional Noteworthy Concerts (see Listings for Details) :

March 3: Wendalyn Bartley and Tina Pearson:  Tales from the Sonic Labiatory, Musideum.

March 6: AIM Toronto, Musideum.

March 7: Canadian Art Song Project CD launch, with works by Derek Holman. Canadian Music Centre.

March 16 and 18: Talisker Players: “Creature to Creature: A 21st-Century Bestiary.”

March 19: Les Amis: Duo X[iksa] from Japan.

March 19: University of Waterloo: Music by Carol Ann Weaver with Rebecca Campbell.

March 20: University of Guelph:  Time and Space in Time. Slowpitch (turntablism and visual aesthetics). 

April 5: Essential Opera:  Trio of new Canadian works. 

Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto based composer and electro-vocal sound artist. sounddreaming@gmail.com

In this column I’ve often showcased concerts produced or presented by the Small World Music Society, the feisty Toronto institution dedicated to showcasing world music in its ever-evolving flavours. On February 8, 2014 Small World took a decisive new step in its 15-year evolution. It opened the doors of the Small World Music Centre (SWMC) to the public with a sold-out concert by Gustavo Santaolalla and Quiquie Escamilla. Located in Artscape’s new Youngplace building, Small World’s evolution also resonates in the building’s bricks and mortar too. Artscape’s transformation of the former school into Youngplace was completed last year just prior to the building’s centenary. It’s billed as a “community cultural hub” with spaces for individual artists and small organizations, as well as major ones like the Luminato Festival.

SWMC’s Alan Davis: Seeking insight into SWMC’s design and what its presence will mean for Toronto’s world music performers and fans, I called Alan Davis, Small World’s founder and executive director. Davis began the interview by describing the new space as “a world music hub, featuring professional quality sound, staging, lighting, flexible seating and recording capability.” A full lighting system with wrap-around draping “helps create the perfect acoustic environment for both amplified and acoustic presentations,” Davis adds. It’s also the right size “to host intimate concerts, workshops, incubator residencies and multimedia productions to engage a diverse range of artists and cultural communities.” SWMC aims to service Small World’s “diverse partners, from performers in all genres to community groups as well as our new [Queen West] neighbourhood.”

Davis enthusiastically described a key feature of the new facility: the “virtual concert hall.” This consists of a “suite of high-quality video and audio capture technology, enabling what takes place in the SWMC to be experienced beyond its four walls,” potentially by international audiences. With all the technology in place, “performances, workshops, lectures and more can be fully documented and edited into finished video content.”

Another important aspect of the SWMC’s programming is what he calls its “incubator function ... an intentional mixing of musical cultures, a result of perhaps four or five artists [from different traditions] in a residency,” sharing common musical idioms and perhaps differences too, and designed to allow for “opportunities to create new fusions and to collaborate.”

His hope is that having a permanent presentation space will lend continuity to staging of global musical genres, and will “spell some relief to the presenter’s constant roller coaster ride.” Some world music performance genres’ preferred venues are experiencing a geographic shift to the 905, he explains; others are experiencingt a general decline in audience; while yet others, emerging or still attracting large audiences, are now represented by several competitive presenters.

To close, he offers some modestly realistic circumspection: “As to the future of the Small World Music Centre, we’ll certainly learn as we go,” he says.

Nana Mouskouri: you can hear her on a Wednesday: April 2, Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall present “Nana Mouskouri: The Happy Birthday Tour.” With her trademark black-framed glasses, proud Greek island roots, ringing mezzo-soprano and multinational popular song repertoire, the internationally top-selling singer has racked up impressive numbers. For beginners she’s recorded some 1,500 songs and sold several hundred million records over her more than five-decade long career.

From her professional start in the late 1950s Mouskouri chose to add various types of songs to her repertoire including folk song and other popular styles. For a time she sang jazz standards in Athens nightclubs, leaning toward Ella Fitzgerald’s repertoire. Then in 1957 she recorded her first single, Fascination, in both Greek and English. She quickly became identified with performing songs in multiple languages, thereby appealing to several national commercial record and concert hall markets. Her repertoire likewise draws on varied regional and national sources.

These features taken together, it strikes me that an argument could be made for Mouskouri as a prototypical world music singer before the term became an academic or commercial tag.

She sang on German and French film soundtracks. Impressed with what he heard on her early albums, Quincy Jones brought her to NYC to record a jazz album The Girl from Greece Sings (1962), while the American singer Harry Belafonte, then best known as the “King of Calypso,” included her on his 1966 tour and teamed with her for a duo album. A perennially prolific recording artist, her MTV entry claims that “globally speaking, Nana Mouskouri is the biggest-selling female artist of all time. Her fluency in multiple languages (Greek, French, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, plus nine more in her albums)  enabled her to reach audiences all over Europe, the Americas and even Asia.”

Well into a very successful singing career and with a punishing touring schedule which connected to fans worldwide, Mouskouri translated her fame into politics, sustained social activism and pacifism. It’s a move few singers have negotiated with grace. She served as a member of the European Parliament (1994 to1999) and is a longtime UNICEF ambassador. A recipient of many European honours, she was recently awarded two in Canada. In 2013 the distinguished National Order of Québec, as well as the Doctor of Letters degree from McGill University were conferred.

At an age when most divas have long hung up their flowing concert gowns Mouskouri’s fan power is such that retirement is not in the cards. She tried. From 2005 through 2008 she conducted an extended intercontinental farewell concert tour. That retirement didn’t last long, however. She kicked off a new world tour in Athens last fall. Toronto audiences at the Roy Thomson Hall concert, billed “The Happy Birthday Tour,” can expect a selection of Mouskouri’s hits performed in a richly textured voice, distinctively accented with her native Greek. Still ringing with passion, today it’s a voice lacquered with the patina of some 60 years of experience of life lived, of concert arenas and intimate stages, of life on the international road.

Other picks:

March 5, at the Lula Lounge, you will find Sierra Maestra, called “guardians of the Cuban son music tradition.” Named after the eastern Cuban mountain range where son originated, Sierra Maestra has avidly preserved this ancestor of salsa, playing at clubs and festivals around the world. The Guardian observed that the band at its heart is revivalist, yet unafraid of “constantly changing styles, from 50s pop to 40s big-band and 30s jazz styles, through to percussive, African-influenced songs from the last century.” Sierra Maestra has played a prominent role in the recent re-popularity of Cuban music. Juan de Marcos González, its ex-leader, was a key player in the creation of the Buena Vista Social Club. That’s the group, a certified mega-phenomenon, which brought mid-century son and its veteran soneros to international fame via its eponymous 1997 album.

March 7 the Small World Music scene moves to the Baltic Avenue Dance Club, 875 Bloor St. W. with “Electro East: Mahmood Schricker & DOORJA.” Touted as a “party with Electro World Musicians,” the sets commence with the Toronto-based DOORJA producing pulsing electronica with live percussion and vocals. Also local are Mahmood Schricker and his band, with Reza Moghaddas (keyboard, programming), Oriana Barbato Guerrero (bass) and guest vocalists performing “electronic music influenced by Persian sounds.” In every promotional photo I’ve seen Schricker is holding a setar, one of Iran’s iconic lutes, a clear badge of his cultural roots.

March 15 Nagata Shachu presents Alcvin Ryuzen Ramos at the Brigantine Room, Harbourfront. BC-based Ramos, the guest soloist in the concert, is a leading North American performer of the shakuhachi, the end-blown Japanese bamboo flute. A multi-instrumentalist, composer and shakuhachi craftsman, Ramos is collaborating with the group Nagata Shachu and its leader Kiyoshi Nagata. The program includes new works, improvisations, traditional Japanese folk songs and physically demanding ensemble drumming for which Nagata Shachu is justly acclaimed.

April 5 Amanda Martinez and her band perform at the Winter Garden Theatre. Mexican and South African roots are mashed up with flamenco soul in Toronto-based singer/songwriter Martinez’s music. Her solo CDs have resulted in several Latin Jazz Performer of the Year nominations. No longer a Canadian secret, she’s appeared internationally too, headlining at the NYC Blue Note jazz club, the 2010 FIFA World Cup festivities in South Africa and at the 2011 Pan American Games in Mexico.

Also April 5, Small World Music, in conjunction with Roy Thomson Hall, presents “Zakir Hussain and The Masters of Percussion.” A rare drummer-celebrity in his native India, Zakir Hussain has arguably become the world’s best-known performer of the Hindustani tabla. I attended a previous concert of his touring group a few years ago. I came away impressed with the program’s variety and high performance level, as well as with the boldness of Hussain’s fusion experiments and showmanship.

This visit Hussain has invited a new cadre of outstanding percussionists to join him on stage. While the full lineup was not available at press time, two Hindustani string instrumentalists will provide melodic content on sarangi and sitar. On the other hand two other drummers, each representing differing cultures, have been given billing. V. Selvaganesh, Hussain’s fellow member of the fusion group Remember Shakti is one. He’s a virtuoso Indian percussionist based in the Carnatic tradition playing the ghatam (clay pot drum), kanjira (small frame drum) and the mridangam (barrel drum). Kit drummer Steve Smith, formerly of the top-charting rock group Journey, is a respected member of the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. Smith represents drumming prowess in Western popular music and jazz within Zakir Hussain’s spicy Indian rhythm masala.

Andrew Timar is a Toronto musician and music writer. He can be contacted at worldmusic@thewholenote.com

As I sit down to the keyboard to write this month’s column, there is one matter first and foremost in my mind. When will IT end? Having just come into the house after a liberal application of salt to the ice-coated sidewalk which followed several days of snow shovelling, I’m looking for an end to wintry blasts and white mountains of snow. I have been assured that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that it is not the light of an oncoming train.

International Horn Day: While the weatherman isn’t very reassuring, there certainly are many signs of spring in the musical world. The brightest musical light on the near horizon is the Toronto International Horn Day on Sunday, March 30. Founded in 2006 by Joan Watson and Gloria Ratcliffe, this year’s event will be held at Humber College, 3199 Lakeshore Blvd W, Toronto.

The inaugural International Horn Day event was held in Toronto in November of 2006. Since then, this has grown into a major annual event bringing together professional, amateur and student horn players to share their love and enthusiasm for the majesty of the horn. This year it will be an all-day event starting at 9am and continuing until the final concert from 4:30 to 6:30. For horn aficionados of all levels this is a must-attend event. Artistic director Ron George will be ably assisted by artistic advisors Joan Watson, James MacDonald and George Lloyd.

The day will begin with a Morning Warm-Up. Ron George, who is horn professor at the University of Western Ontario, will lead everyone through his daily maintenance routine which explores all aspects of horn playing. Then, from 11am to noon there will be Jazz Horn with James MacDonald, for all levels from beginners to seasoned jazz performers to learn the basic 12-bar blues form and the basics of improvisation.

A Mock Audition will be conducted from 10:30am to noon followed by a Feedback Session from 2pm to 3:30. This will have participants performing a mixture of operatic and symphonic excerpts, plus a solo piece. There will also be a masterclass with guest clinician, Chris Gongos, a student horn ensemble with Gary Pattison, principal horn of the National Ballet Orchestra plus several options to perform in the concert and/or the grand finale.

The principal attraction for me would be the “Wagner Tuba Petting Zoo.” Scott Wevers and Bardhyl Gjevori from the Canadian Opera Company will be on hand to demonstrate the instrument and show some basics of how to play it.

There are simply too many opportunities for participants in this one-day event to detail here. For complete details visit the website at  hornday.ca.

Clarinet Day March 2: Not to be outdone by the brass folks, the woodwinds are having their special day as well. Sunday March 2 will be Clarinet Day at Walter Hall in the Edward Johnson Building of the University of Toronto. The day will start at 10am with clarinet workshops conducted by a number of clarinet clinicians. At 1:45pm there will be coaching sessions with James Campbell, the U of T Clarinet Ensemble and the Wychwood Clarinet Choir. At 7:30pm there will be a concert by the two combined ensembles. This time almost all of the many members of the clarinet family will be heard in performance. If you’re not familiar with the sounds of a contrabass clarinet or any of its small relatives, attend the concert for an unusual treat. As an added plus there is no charge for any event. The Edward Johnson Building is at 80 Queens Park Crescent. Visit wychwoodclarinetchoir.com for more details.

Having learned that Long and McQuade were having an Instrument Exploration Workshop to acquaint potential recruits for yet another New Horizons beginners’ band in Toronto, it was imperative that I pay a visit. When I arrived with camera in hand, I soon learned that mine was not the only camera there. The sizable group of prospects exploring potential instrumental companions was being filmed for TV. Filmmaker and journalist Sarah Keenlyside of Inkblot Media was there with her crew filming the action and interviewing band prospects for a proposed one-hour documentary on the Toronto New Horizons groups. The final production is slated to be aired on TV Ontario next fall. We discussed the evolution of these bands from the original beginners group to level 2 and level 3 groups and wondered how many group levels there might be. Sarah posed an interesting question: “Is there such a thing as graduation?” Good point!

While on the subject of New Horizons bands, I received an interesting phone call a few days ago. It was from a member of one of the Toronto bands who is contemplating a move to Peterborough. Could I put her in touch with the folks in Peterborough? Playing in a band is now an important part of her life and she doesn’t want to give that up if she moves.

As announced in last month’s column, the Canadian Band Association (Ontario) formally announced their campaign to promote public awareness of the activities of wind bands in Ontario. The campaign was officially launched by the Honourable Brad Duguid, the local MPP and Ontario Minister for Training, Colleges and Universities. Supporting Mr. Duguid at the event were noted composer and conductor Howard Cable and Mr. Jack Long of Long and McQuade Music. So far we don’t have any details on events proposed for this campaign, but look forward to receiving them in the coming weeks.

In a recent conversation with Chris Butcher, leader of the Heavyweights Brass Band, he told me of an interesting event taking place this month. They are inviting anyone who plays brass instruments or saxophones to join in a Street Brass performance on Thursday March 6 at 6:pm. By the time this issue is off the press there will have already been one rehearsal, with a second one scheduled for Saturday March 1. Rehearsals and the performance will all be at Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St. W. If interested in joining in the fun, email Chris at chris@chrisbutchermusic.com for details.

Al Cheslo. It is with deep sorrow that I must report the passing of another stalwart from the community band scene. As is so frequently the case in the band world, I can’t recall when I first met Al Cheslo. When one joins a group it usually takes some time to get to know those other members who don’t play in one’s section. I just know that Al had been in many groups that I have been associated with for over 25 years. In both big “swing bands” and concert bands Al was a regular member. The last time that I spoke with him he mentioned that he was downsizing from a house to an apartment and would miss the following week ’s rehearsal. Rather than see him at our rehearsal in two weeks’ time, I attended his funeral service. We miss him.

Definition Department. This month’s lesser known musical term is: An Achoired Taste: An appreciation of choral music. We invite submissions from readers. Let’s hear your daffynitions.

Jack MacQuarrie plays several brass instruments and has performed in many community ensembles. He can be contacted at bandstand@thewholenote.com.

Lisa Particelli’s commitment to what she does week after week since January of 2005 is inspiring to anyone who has ever hosted a jazz jam. In her newsletter, the creator and host of the Wednesday night Girls Night Out (where gentlemen are welcome too) at Chalkers thanks her audience for supporting live music and living musicians.

“Live music improves the quality of our lives,” she writes. “Whether we choose to simply listen or to participate in the creation of live music, we wire our brains to pay attention, we create social connections and best of all, we truly experience the full range of human emotion.”

With that in mind, before I get to an exciting story at Chalkers, I’d like to single out a group that WholeNote readers might remember from our 2011 summer double issue cover story (and if you haven’t read it yet — no worries, it’s googleable).

Heavyweights: In just a few years, the Heavyweights Brass Band has fused traditional and contemporary jazz into a sound all its own. Their first album introduced listeners to a group both light-hearted and hard-working: Christopher Butcher (trombone); Paul Metcalfe (saxophone); Jon Challoner (trumpet); Lowell Whitty (drums); and Rob Teehan (sousaphone). Don't Bring Me Down certainly brought these five young guys way up, with festival appearances across the country and a sold-out show at Koerner Hall with Grammy-winning percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo. Now the group releases Brasstronomical, their sophomore release on the new Lulaworld label, which features several surprises, including the addition of a sixth member.

“Our original trumpet player Jon Challoner was back and forth between Toronto and NYC to study at Juilliard,” says Heavyweight trombonist, composer, arranger Christopher Butcher. “We had long-time friend and fellow former Winnipegger John Pittman filling in for Challoner while he was away. Then we had a couple big gigs where we could fly Challoner up and we decided to ask both trumpets to join us. One more trumpet makes a huge difference and they really complement each other while making our sound bigger, thicker, more intricate and well, heavier. I would say all those adjectives could be used to describe Brasstronomical. It sounds bigger and is bolder than our first record. We also experimented with some production techniques. Paul brought the baritone saxophone into our arsenal and there are points where you may even hear two Christopher Butchers.”

The group is increasingly innovative, but firmly steeped in the jazz tradition. Brasstronomical features guest appearances by Giovanni Hidalgo and Jane Bunnett. Just what did the band learn from performing with these masters?

“Working with two international artists on the level of Giovanni Hidalgo and Jane Bunnett has been a dream come true,” asserts Butcher. “Our concert at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall was the highlight of our career. There aren’t words to describe how it feels to share the stage with the pre-eminent percussionist of all time. Someone who has played with not only jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Art Blakey but with Tito Puente, Paul Simon, Phish and D’Angelo brought something out of our music and pushed us to new heights. When he agreed to play on our record and be part of Brasstronomical we were elated! Jane is a national treasure and a true inspiration to all of us in the group. She has constantly taken chances throughout her career and her playing is similar, it always sounds fresh. She is likely the most important musician after Dizzy Gillespie in fusing elements from Afro-Cuban music with jazz. This cultural collaboration is really interesting to us.”

The Brasstronomical CD release concert takes place at Lula Lounge on Thursday March 6.

Back to Chalkers Pub and Lisa Particelli, who is excited to be presenting NYC-based jazz master Sheila Jordan for the second time. Jordan has called herself a late bloomer; inspired by Charlie “Bird” Parker, she sang throughout her teens but recorded her first album at the age of 32. It wasn’t until she was 58 that she quit her day job. An underground sensation, she continued to record throughout the 1970s and 80s and today has over 25 albums to her credit. Since the 1990s, Jordan’s career has really picked up and she has toured this earth many times over. Now 85, this sweet and brilliant little woman is a wonder of the jazz world.

The two evening concerts at Chalkers will find Jordan in fine musical company: Don Thompson on piano and Neil Swainson on bass.

“I have worked with Don and Neil before and it’s a real joy to be able to sing with them again.  Don is a fantastic accompanist, and being a lover of the bass I am thrilled to be singing with Neil.  Great guys who put their heart and soul into the music. How lucky can I get?”

Recently named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment of the Arts for her contributions as a performer and educator, Jordan has been teaching jazz since the 1970s. She will be giving a Sunday afternoon vocal jazz workshop for singers of all levels; there are limited spots to participate but ample seating for auditors.

“I was first able to observe Sheila teach during an Art  of Jazz workshop and was impressed at her warmth and insights as she carefully listened to each student participate,” recalls Particelli. “She handled every singer with warmth, gentle care and keen observations coupled with super advice. This woman’s wisdom, heart, positive attitude, great ears and genuine passion to spread the message of jazz is contagious. Sheila sings from the heart, and she teaches from there, too.”

Don’t be surprised if Jordan drops by the Wednesday night jazz jam at Chalkers on March 19 — she sings GNO’s praises:

“I am so happy that Lisa’s jam session is still happening,” says Jordan. “I believe that jam sessions are the most important part of the jazz tradition. Singers can learn all these wonderful tunes from their teachers but if you don’t have a place to try out what you’ve learned and a place to take chances what does it all mean? We need places to try out tunes; even if we fall on our faces we can pick ourselves up and start all over again like the song says! With jam sessions like this one, all of this is possible. We need more Lisa Particellis on the jazz scene.”

Sheila Jordan appears at Chalkers Friday March 21, 7-10pm, Saturday March 22, 6-9pm and the workshop is Sunday March 23 from 2-6pm. Tickets are available at TicketWeb.ca.

Ori Dagan is a Toronto-based jazz vocalist, voice actor and entertainment journalist. He can be contacted at jazz@thewholenote.com

There are awesome concerts on the horizon for February and March, and I will try to give shoutout space to as many of them as possible. Please check out the listings for the ones I miss – there are great choices for every taste.

First, though, as part of this year’s continuing exploration of new choral music, this column will look back at several Toronto events that took place in January – a rare retrospective angle for a listings column, but one that points to engaging developments and possibilities in the Toronto choral scene; choral aficionados, take note.

On January 17, as part of their celebration of 60 years of professional choral singing, Soundstreams programmed a salon night entitled, “New Directions in Choral Music.” Soundstreams’ Salon 21 is a monthly performance and lecture event, inventively curated by Kyle Brenders, with a wide variety of performers and composers. It is free of charge, and you can sit with a glass of wine as the discussion takes place.

This evening brought together two groups that on the face of it, seem wildly disparate. As the evening progressed, interesting connections emerged.

Choir! Choir! Choir! is the brainchild of two easygoing but skilled musicians, Nobu Adilman and Daveed Goldman. For three years they have been meeting interested participants, usually in a bar, handing out song sheets and then creating fun and inventive arrangements of pop and rock songs, sometimes on the spot.

The initiative has been wildly successful, and has led to recordings and media appearances. At the Soundstreams event the audience watched a video of Choir! Choir! Choir! performing Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. a club number which was one of last year’s catchier guitar riffs.

The night’s other group, the Element Choir, is a different phenomenon altogether. This ensemble works entirely in improvised form. The conductor and founder of the Element Choir, Christine Duncan, has a two-page lexicon of gestures that have specific sonic meaning, and as the piece progresses, she improvises its shape and structure by combining different sounds and letting their combinations grow and develop organically.

The performance was only several minutes long, but often the pieces become extended soundscapes that can last as long as an hour. It is certainly not the usual paradigm that one expects from a choral concert, but it is an absolutely arresting experience.

The singers in the ensemble improvise fearlessly, and one hears clicks, wooshing, yelps, growls and hums as well as melodic fragments and timbres that evoke classical, jazz and folk singing techniques.  The Element Choir works more like an orchestral ensemble than a traditional choir, as the skills of individual members of the ensemble are employed to create solo lines that blend into the larger soundscape.

The aspect of each group that represented the clearest challenge to the traditional choral model is that neither ensemble used sheet music – a tool that most choirs cannot do without. Choir! Choir! Choir! uses lyric sheets, but presumably can dispense with these once parts have been learned.

Choir! Choir! Choir!’s arrangements of pop songs use repeated syncopation, as is stylistically appropriate. These type of rhythms, so common throughout the last century, often represents a challenge for classically trained choirs. While Choir! Choir! Choir!’s syncopations are not wildly difficult to hear or replicate, some of them would look awkward and confusing when notated with traditional sheet music, and would likely cause a few stutters for classically trained musicians.

Choir! Choir! Choir! relies instead on their singers’ ears, and is accompanied by guitar rather than the ubiquitous rehearsal piano. I noticed that both the syncopations and the tuning of this group had a lively quality that piano-trained choirs often lack.

The Element Choir, meanwhile, dispenses almost entirely with the division of labour that most choirs embody – a composition, usually created by one individual, that the conductor and singers must attempt to execute. Instead, the conductor and singers are co-creators, blending their skills and ideas in an improvised process that will never be repeated in the same manner.

The work of these two groups has its own inherent value, of course – but as I listened to the performances, I couldn’t help thinking what a shot in the arm the techniques employed in these ensembles would be to more standard classical choral training as well.  The ability to execute complex rhythms, improvise and experiment with extended performance techniques without a musical score in hand, is of course an integral part of music training. But how often are these skills called on in choirs?

Imagine entire university courses devoted to either of these choral paradigms. How much more confident young singers would be in a variety of musical situations, many of which they will encounter in the working world, in which they have to think – and sing – on their feet.

Daring to Dream: Moving on to another choral event – on January 20, the American holiday celebrating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., the Culchahworks Arts Collective presented We Still Dare To Dream, a new oratorio written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech.

The work was conceived by Andrew Craig, an astonishingly talented composer, producer and performer who has also worked as a radio personality for the CBC. The oratorio grew out of a promise that Craig made to his mother that he would somehow mark this occasion with a new musical work, even if he had to stand outside and play it on the street on January 20.

Craig had originally hoped to use the text of the actual speech, but when this proved impossible, he simply decided to write his own libretto and set it to music. He enlisted the support of the Faith Chorale and the University of Toronto Gospel Choir, as well as assembling a third choral ensemble, band and violin soloist (Andréa Tyniec).

We Still Dare To Dream is a sprawling and ambitious mixture of solos, choruses and spoken recitations that seeks to bring the ideas and challenges posed by King’s oration into a new century of conflict and challenge.

I was unfortunately not in Toronto during the performance, but I attended the dress rehearsal in an effort to get a sense of some aspects of the work.

I wonder how effective the spoken word facet of the oratorio ultimately was. Dramatic recitation is an incredibly difficult technique to make work; even with musical underscoring, it can too easily slip into earnestness or portentousness.

But the musical sections of the piece were superb. The choral writing generally supported the vocal solos, which were executed by four virtuoso Toronto singers from Jewish, Muslim, East Indian and American gospel traditions: David Wall, Waleed Abdulhamid, Suba Sankaran and Sharon Riley.

There was also a delightful section in which a group of young Toronto primary and secondary school students came out and sang, danced, executed martial arts moves and engaged in a call-and-response rap with Craig.

Craig is a master of gospel composition, but he did not limit himself to that genre, instead executing convincing and catchy compositional riffs on ragas and middle eastern vocal techniques from religious traditions that often find themselves at war. The syncretic aspects of the music reflected the composition’s essential theme, which was reconciliation, unity, peace and activism.

I can see this work having a life beyond this particular anniversary occasion. The American Paul Winter Consort spent years travelling to different cities, performing the Missa Gaia. The experienced musicians of the ensemble often combined with local choirs, especially youth and children’s groups. Craig’s work has the potential to be a Canadian version of this performance model. I hope other ensembles have a future chance to engage with this music – it certainly deserves a repeat performance and a wider audience in Toronto and other parts of the country.

On to this month’s concerts. To get the month started, in Kingston the Melos Choir and Chamber Orchestra perform an early music program, Eros and Agape: Love’s Longing and Laments on February 9. The concert includes works by Hildegard von Bingen, Victoria, Palestrina, Machaut, Dufay and others. Guillaume de Machaut, wrote in 14th century France, and is one of the earliest composers from whom we have comprehensive musical scores. It is always fascinating to hear his music live.

For more early music choices (mixed with a little Beatles) the Annex Singers perform works by Josquin and Palestrina on February 22.

In a later vein, the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir performs Handel’s Saul on February 21 to 23. Saul explores the themes of jealousy, love and ambition that characterize the rivalry between the biblical Saul, king of Israel, and the young, charismatic shepherd and musician David, who will ultimately usurp the Israelite throne. David’s loving relationship with Saul’s son, the doomed young warrior Jonathan, adds the final element through which internecine conflict becomes tragedy. It is one of the most dramatic stories of the Hebrew scriptures, and one that is beautifully suited to Handelian choruses and solos of ferocity, triumph and lament.

Richard III was the last Plantagenet king of England before the rise of the Tudor dynasty. He was killed in battle in 1485 at the end of the War of the Roses. These guys basically spent centuries killing each other back and forth, which ought to put Prince Harry’s naughty Las Vegas adventures in a bit of perspective. On March 1 the Tallis Choir sings a Requiem for Richard III, a recreation of a requiem mass as it might have been celebrated at the end of the 15th century. The music will include medieval carols and some of the the stunning late English Renaissance choral works of the Chapel Royal of Richard’s Tudor usurper, Henry VII. Which is kind of rubbing it in.

In Hamilton on February 28 and March 2the Bach Elgar Choir perform two midsize masterworks of the classical repertoire, Fauré’s Requiem and Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G. The Fauré work in particular is a small miracle of orchestration and melodic and harmonic invention. It’s a piece every fan of choral music ought to know, and every choral singer must perform at least once.

In Kitchener on February 22, the Grand Philharmonic Choir also performs theVaughan Williams work, as part of an anglophile program entitled Glorious England.

Also in the classical vein, on March 2 the Toronto Classical Singers perform Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum and Haydn’s Mass in the Time of War (In Haydn’s original autograph, the Missa in tempore belli.) Haydn’s mass was first performed in 1796 Vienna, during the turbulent and violent era of upheaval following the French Revolution and prior to the rise of Napoleon. Anyone who asserts that the works of classical composers are ivory tower art, divorced from the political realities that buffet us all, would be advised to listen to this mass, which contains dramatic moments that approach savagery.

Benjamin Stein is a Toronto tenor and lutenist. He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website at benjaminstein.ca.

The most acclaimed British pianist of his generation, the remarkable Stephen Hough, makes his Koerner Hall debut March 2, his first solo recital in Toronto since his Music Toronto appearance seven years ago. A few weeks earlier his 21-year-old countryman Benjamin Grosvenor, who’s been not so quietly building a burgeoning career of his own appears on Music Toronto’s Jane Mallet stage February 11, following that up February 14 and 15 as piano soloist with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony in Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No.2 (which Grosvenor plays with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic on his latest Decca CD).

Grosvenor: In one so young – he’s only 21 – we expect the notes and hope for the music; in this case there are good reasons to be hopeful. The Times said of Grosvenor’s first recording (which included Chopin’s Four Scherzi and Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit) that “he jumps inside the music’s soul.”

Just who is this pianist upon whom the venerable magazine Gramophone bestowed its “Young Artist of the Year” and “Instrumental Award” in 2012?

At 11, Grosvenor’s exceptional talent was revealed when he won the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year. At 19, shortly after becoming the first British pianist since the legendary Clifford Curzon to be signed by Decca, he became the youngest soloist to perform at the First Night of the Proms.

The youngest of five brothers, his piano teacher mother shaped his early musical thinking. He divulged in a 2011 video that he decided at ten he would be a concert pianist and wasn’t fazed at all by playing on the BBC shortly thereafter. Only when he became more self-aware at 13 or 14 did he suffer some anxious moments. On the video, a piano excerpt from Leonard Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety follows, the musical core of which he expresses beautifully both literally and figuratively, before adding: “The pieces you play the best are the ones you respond to emotionally.”

In a May 2013 YouTube webcam chat in advance of a return engagement in Singapore, he spoke of his musical taste. From the beginning he was attracted to Chopin but over the years hearing Schnabel for the first time led to an attraction to Beethoven and hearing Samuel Feinberg opened his ears to Bach. He’s a bit of an old soul in that he has a great interest in recordings by pianists like Moriz Rosenthal, Ignaz Friedman, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Shura Cherkassky and Vladimir Horowitz made in the early half of the 20th century. “Their primary concern was in imitating the voice especially in romantic repertoire,” he explained. “Horowitz was obsessed with the voice. They were the masters of that asynchronization of the hands.”

In a profile in The Guardian three years ago when Grosvenor was 18, Tom Service wrote that he “talked of his early years as if he’s a seasoned professional looking back on the sins of his youth. But he’s talking about 2004.”

“Listening back to the Chopin D-Flat Major Nocturne I did when I was 12 -- I think it’s really interesting, some of the expressive things I do, like the asynchronization of the hands.” Asynchronization, Service went on to explain, is “a technique where the left hand plays a microsecond before the right, something associated with pianists of an earlier age ... and frowned on by today’s virtuosos.”

Grosvenor continued: “I don’t really know where that came from; I hadn’t heard any of those early 20th-century recordings by then ... If you compare the way people perform Mozart now with, say, Lili Kraus’ recordings, or Schnabel’s Beethoven with today’s players – today, things are so much blander and more boring. They were each so unique back then ... Maybe it’s because of recording and the pressure to make things note perfect, or the influence of competitions, but we’ve lost touch with that tradition of playing, with its imagination and expression.”

The Independent has described Grosvenor’s sound as “poetic and gently ironic, brilliant yet clear-minded, intelligent but not without humour, all translated through a beautifully clear and singing touch.” After his Wigmore Hall recital last fall, which contained much of what he will be playing in Toronto, International Piano compared Grosvenor to a young Krystian Zimerman. I’m looking forward to it.

Hough: It had been eight years since Stephen Hough became the first classical musician to receive the MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called “genius award,” so it was only fitting for him to be named by The Economist in 2009 as one of 20 polymaths the magazine determined to excel in diverse fields (in Hough’s case: pianist, poet, composer, writer on religion – this was before his first solo exhibit of paintings in the fall of 2012 at London’s Broadbent Gallery).

In the last two years Hough has been profiled and/or interviewed in Le Monde, Classical Music, the Houston Chronicle, Sunday Times, New York Times and London Evening Standard, all of which are available on his well-ordered website. There you can also link to the blog he writes for The Telegraph, where you may read his highly literate, well-argued thoughts, insights and reminiscences on everything from religion (he’s a sceptical Catholic) to the death of Lou Reed:

“In my teenage bedroom – dark purple ceiling, light purple walls, joss sticks a-burning – I used to listen to Lou Reed: ‘Take a walk on the wild side’ he suggested with that ironic, sing-song, cooler-than-cool voice. I didn’t take his advice in the end and went back to Beethoven, despite years of neglecting the piano and neglecting to do my homework. But in those voice-breaking years as I lounged around in my flared jeans covering my (purple) platform shoes, and as the LP, scratched and coarse, spun lazy circles in the smoke, I did feel a certain coming of age. I felt maturity arriving as if a shoot in a plant pot pushing out of the brown soil (no, not that plant). I was wrong; I was still a kid; it was a false Spring. But writing this in night-time New York, realizing that such a force of nature as Lou Reed is now a dead leaf beyond the Autumn of life, is strange and poignant.”

And he tweets, which is where you’ll find him showing his cheeky side, diaristically sharing choice words on whatever catches his fanciful fancy, revealing his peccadilloes (he loves shoes) or offering insights on the news of the day. An example, this tweet from the day  Claudio Abbado died:

“I did a German tour w/@londonsymphony & #Abbado in the mid 80s. ‘I’m Claudio’: my youthful nerves instantly removed RIP”

Or these:

“My weird, wonderful life: solo on stage for 2000 people ... then 20 mins later solo slice of pizza @UnionStation_DC”

“Frank Sinatra on the speakers in the restaurant: comforting sounds before comforting food. That masterly swoop with its agogic accent. [continued] I think piano students can learn more from Frank Sinatra about phrasing and rubato than from most classical instrumentalists.”

Indeed. By the nature of the medium, the musical insights on twitter may outnumber those onstage or in recordings. In any case, they’re a most welcome way to keep up with this uncommon musician whose live appearances here are all too rare a gift. On March 3, Hough will give a masterclass at RCM. I was fortunate to attend a similar event at RCM’s temporary home in 2007. It buoyed me for weeks while providing invaluable insights into my own modest world of piano playing. I’m looking forward to being reinvigorated.

The Year of the Horse: Celebrate the Chinese New Year February 3 with the TSO and an all-star lineup of guests including conductor Long Lu, the scintillating pianist Yuja Wang (playing Rachmaninov), the soulful violinist Cho-Liang Lin (in a Dvorak Romance) and Deutsche Grammophon recording artist Yian Wang (performing Tchaikovsky’s delightful Variations on a Rococo Theme) plus popstar Song Zuying (a household name in China) and a new work by Tan Dun (incorporating music from his best-known film scores).

Double Duty: Cellist Winona Zelenka brings her singing tone to Bach, Haydn and Beethoven in the Associates of the TSO concert February 10 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre and then wears her Trio Arkel hat as part of Chamber Music Mississauga’s Belated Valentine concert February 22 in The Great Hall of The Unitarian Congregation of Mississauga.

Not To Be Missed: The Attacca Quartet’s foray into the complete string quartets of Haydn presented by the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society continues February 7, 8 and 9 in Waterloo with four concerts, each one including an early, middle and late quartet, and two introduced by a talk by violist Luke Fleming. For more information on the Haydn 68 series see my article in WholeNote’s November 2013 issue.

Paul Ennis is the managing editor of The WholeNote.

It has now been one year since I wrote my first In With The New column for WholeNote, and in looking back over the past 12 months, I’ve made a short list of what I’ve observed as the leading edge of the new in our local music scene: the continual blurring of lines between musical genres (or the rise of “genreless music”); improvisation anchoring itself as a respected artistic voice and creative process; the role of community building and the creation of composer collectives; the movement out of the concert hall into new listening spaces and environments.

During this reflection process, a memory image came to mind from one of the first new music concerts I ever attended. It was back in the early 70s in Walter Hall at U of T’s Faculty of Music. The concert stage was full of percussion instruments, the lights were dim and candles lined the stage front. A bearded man dressed in white (John Wyre) along with some of his students moved as if in a dance amongst the assembled gongs, bowls, drums and no doubt all sorts of instruments from around the world. The mesmerizing cornucopia of sounds they invoked opened up a new world of possibilities in my imagination. I heard sounds that previously had existed only at the edges of my awareness. I was hooked. Determined to experience more, I immediately signed myself up to attend New Music Concerts, thereby exposing myself to the wild and adventurous sound experiments taking place both here in Canada and internationally.

New Music Concerts: And now 40 years later, New Music Concerts continues to bring these cutting-edge sonic visions honed by composers and performers to its audience members. The program they are presenting on March 2 represents the creative interests of many composers active in the 1970s. It will feature the multi-talented percussionist, improviser and composer Jean-Pierre Drouet playing works by some of these international composers that NMC introduced to Toronto audiences in its early days: the likes of Kagel, Rzewski, Aperghis and Globokar.

Threads common among these composers include the intersection between music and theatre, the use of improvisation and extended techniques, and (the thread I’ll focus on in this month’s column) the practice of creating music that reflects upon socio-political issues.

On the program, two solos from Kagel’s Exotica will be performed. It’s one of his first pieces to focus on musical and political history, and tiptoes that elusive edge that exists between the West and the world beyond. Scored for an array of non-European instruments, Exotica reflects on the issue of what makes the music exotic. Is it because the sounds have been shaped by the pen of a Western composer, or rather is it because with the sounds of these instruments, it’s not possible to produce music with typical Western features? It’s a provocative topic to reflect upon all these years later, especially given the high interest amongst composers steeped in western musical traditions in using  an ever-expanding range of instruments and sound sources. Even my own initiatory experience of new music is implicated in this matter.

Continuing, Globokar’s work Toucher, based on scenes from Bertolt Brecht’s play Life of Galileo raises issues of being silenced by structures of power (the church, government, and tyrannical ideologies). Rzewski, renowned for works that exhibit a deep political conscience, is represented with To The Earth, which stands in solidarity with the growing consciousness of the environmental movement. Drawn to the combination of music and text, Aperghis’ Le corps à corps narrates the thrills of a car racing event from multiple perspectives using both sound and spoken word. It portrays the composer’s practice of transporting everyday events to a poetic, often absurd and satirical world. Rounding out the program is Il libro celibe by Giorgio Battistelli, a composer fascinated by alchemy, psychology and the ideas of Marcel Duchamp.

New Creations Festival: What is compelling about the approach of the composers presented by New Music Concerts is their dialogue with cultural and historical references. It’s fascinating to note that this practice is also evident in many of the works being programmed at this year’s New Creations Festival, the Toronto Symphony’s annual celebration of contemporary orchestral works running March 1 to 7.  Each of the three pieces by featured composer John Adams engages in a conversation with either political/social history or the history of music. Renowned for his post-minimalist style, Adams’ music is full of contrasts and tends to be more directional and climactic than what we usually associate with minimalist music.  His Doctor Atomic Symphony (March 1) is based on orchestral music from his opera Doctor Atomic. With a libretto created by Peter Sellars from a variety of sources (interviews, scientific manuals and poetry), the story centres around the final hours leading up to the first atomic bomb explosion at the Alamagordo test site in New Mexico in June, 1945. The music conveys the epic struggle and moral dilemma surrounding the impact of the force about to be unleashed into the world, which in hindsight, ushered in the atomic age.

Adams’ two other works—Slonimsky’s Earbox (March 5) and Absolute Jest (March 7)—are dialogues with some of the great names of musical history. Nicolas Slonimsky was a witty Russian author whose output included several books on music, including the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. Adams makes use of this compendium of modes in his Earbox piece, which arose out of his admiration for another Russian creator—Igor Stravinsky—and the use of modal scales in Stravinsky’s The Song of the Nightingale. And finally, Absolute Jest is an adaptation of the light and energetic style found in Beethoven’s late quartet scherzos composed as a concerto for string quartet and orchestra. Expect to hear a warped sense of time and harmony in this fast-paced dance.

Three other works in the festival also engage in a conversation with musical history. Canadian Vincent Ho’s City Suite (March 7) is inspired by author Eric Siblin’s book The Cello Suites which outlines the history of J.S. Bach’s works for solo cello. In Finnish composer and pianist Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No.2 (March 1), originally written for the virtuosic capabilities of festival guest performer Yefim Bronfman, we witness his tussle with the complexity of pianistic history. Former Los Angeles Philharmonic conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen took on a similar challenge during the composing of his Violin Concerto (March  5). His solution was to create a deeply personal narrative summing up everything he had learned and experienced in his life as a musician.

More-than-Human Communication: And when it comes to the exchange of ideas, what could be more cutting edge (or to be more historically accurate, steeped in ancient traditions), than inter-species communication? Back in the spring of 2013, the Music Gallery offered audiences an opportunity to listen to two recordings of humpback whale song in combination with electronics that had been released on their Music Gallery Editions label back in the 1970s. As a continuation of that initiative, the Gallery will be presenting an event on February 22 that combines both lecture and music. Bioacoustics researcher Katherine Payne will team up with recording artist Daniela Gesundheit and a group of Toronto-based singers and instrumentalists to create a unique sonic exchange with Payne’s recordings of humpback whales and African elephants.

Improvisation: As mentioned in the opening paragraph, one of the major trends I’ve noticed over the past year is the presence of improvisation as a force to contend with. Improvisation relies on cultivating a listening presence, which is at the heart of all true communication and dialogue. From February 21 to 23 at the Tranzac, the Somewhere There Creative Music Festival offers a full schedule of concerts and lectures by performers and thinkers that reflect the vitality and diversity of what’s happening on the improv scene in the Toronto area. The two festival lectures reflect on the history of experimental music in Canada and the roots of Toronto musical improvisation. Two other improvisation-focused events this month include “The Array Sessions,” a concert of Toronto-based improvisers on February 6 at the Arraymusic studio and the Music Gallery’s Jazz Avant event February 8 featuring the saxophone and electronic improvisations of L.A. based musician Anenon.

Additional Concerts:

Feb. 6: A Soldier’s Tale - a dance theatre work with music by John Gzowski, COC.

Feb. 8: New works created for the Toy Piano Composers ensemble by Doelle, Dupuis, Murphy-King, Versluis, Taylor, Heliconian Hall.

Feb. 13: ∆TENT New Music Ensemble presents works inspired by remembrances of childhood by composers Tsurumoto and Southam, CMC.

Feb. 18: “Women in the Power House” – works by leading female composers, COC.

Feb. 19: Reverb Brass presents works by Ruo, Ridenour, Golijov, Carter, Maimets, Hillborg, Agnas, Lutoslawski, Gallery 345.

Feb. 21: Thin Edge New Music Collective presents new works by Anna Pidgorna (for two violins and antique wooden door) and Anna Höstman, along with performances of compositions by Ana Sokolović and Brian Harman, Gallery 345.

Mar. 2: Orpheus Choir presents the premiere of a new composition by Charles Cozens entitled Tres Bailes Latinos, influenced by the composer’s relationship with Cuban musicians, Grace Church-on-the-Hill.

Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto-based composer and electro-vocal sound artist. sounddreaming@gmail.com

Despite the fact that musicians are some of the most dedicated of professionals, no one really pays sufficient attention to the fact that we are also incredibly strange. I mean it. Musicians are some of the weirdest people you are ever likely to encounter socially, and I like to think it helps. Toronto hero Glenn Gould famously had an obsessive fear of illness which drove him to dress in sweaters and coats in mid-summer, and an equally obsessive desire to hear every possible melody line in a piece of music which led him to record some of the most original recordings of Bach of the 20th century. Obsessive behaviour comes with the artistic territory – if you’re going to devote your life to mastering an instrument, a long-dead composer, or an artistic tradition that’s been lost for several hundred years, it kind of helps if you don’t worry about looking like a bit of a nut socially, or indeed not having much of a social life at all.

Bud Roach: One Toronto-based artist who has let his obsession run wild is Bud Roach, who to the best of my knowledge possesses all of the social graces one needs (like I would know), but is nevertheless very, very dedicated to Italian vocal music circa 1600. I caught up with Roach one evening in January to discuss his next concert with Capella Intima, a re-creation of Marco da Gagliano’s Dafne, which ranked as one of the most avant-garde musical art works of its time when it was premiered in 1608. Dafne, you see, was written in a musical form that da Gagliano’s Italian contemporaries couldn’t understand, and they called the work a favola in musica (a musical fable). Later generations of Italians, like music-lovers elsewhere in Europe, would later find a new name for this sung fable: an opera.

“Marco da Gagliano has all the traits of a composer of the Florentine camerata,” Roach explains, referencing the artistic movement that advocated for a new, dramatic form of vocal music in 17th-century Italy. “His music has long, singing recitatives and focuses on emphasizing the text. His music is really as much about poetry as it is about singing.” Dafne was one of the first operas ever written, but da Gagliano didn’t take that particular prize: he was beaten out by Jacopo Peri, who wrote Eurydice just eight years earlier in 1600.

On January 15 the Canadian Opera Company announced its 2014/15 season. In contrast to the current season that features three company premieres, the 2014/15 season revives three famous productions from the past – Madama Butterfly, Die Walküre and Bluebeard’s Castle/Erwartung – and has no company premieres. Instead, there will be three new productions of standard repertory – Falstaff, Don Giovanni and The Barber of Seville. Patrons who have been happy to see the company exploring new repertoire are bound to be disappointed. Even more disappointing is the fact that the COC is presenting only six productions, not the seven it has presented ever since it moved into the Four Seasons Centre in 2006.

At first glance one fewer production might not seem important. Yet, anyone who attended the late Richard Bradshaw’s press conferences leading up to the opening of the new opera house will know that it is. Bradshaw always mentioned to the press that it was impossible for the COC to present a balanced season with only six productions. He said he therefore had to program operas with a view to achieving balance over several seasons. The reason why the COC added a seventh production once it moved into the Four Seasons Centre was part of a larger plan to increase that number eventually to at least eight in order to match the number of productions presented by the most important American opera houses after the Met – like the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera. To return to six productions looks like the postponement of that dream.

In fact, the last time the COC presented only six productions was in the 2000/01 season and before that in the 1994/95 season. It presented six or fewer from its founding to the 1982/83 season, then somehow managed eight operas from the 1983/84 season to 1992/93.

Before the 2009/10 season, the COC gave the Ensemble Studio its own production which made six operas into seven. Granted, these were on a smaller scale, but this allowed the COC to delve into smaller works outside the standard repertory with rarities by Gazzaniga, Walton, Sartorio, Cavalli and Ullmann. This slot also allowed the COC to present new Canadian works such as Swoon (2006) by James Rolfe or Red Emma (1995) by Gary Kulesha without the expense and risk of a mainstage production. If the company must move back to six operas, perhaps it should give the Ensemble Studio its own production again to offer more variety in programming and give cause once more for the Studio members’ work to be reviewed in a context less contrained than the one-night Ensemble production of a current mainstage production such as the current production of Cosí.

Frankly, the retreat to six productions might be less troubling if it were not so clearly dictated by financial considerations. In his entry on June 18, 2013, in his blog Musical Toronto (musicaltoronto.org), music critic John Terauds remarked that the COC was trying to put a positive spin on bad fiscal news. He noted that “Since the 2009/10 season, the Canadian Opera Company’s net ticket revenues have fallen by 23.5 percent, while overall attendance has dropped by 16.7 percent.” He concluded that “Our city’s musical bounty sits perched on a knife’s edge.”  On June 17, 2013, Arthur Kaptainis of the National Post  after reviewing the same information went further and ventured an outright prediction, which now has come to pass. He said, “The downward turn at the COC is troubling. My crystal ball says the 2014/15 season will contract from seven productions to six. I believe you read it here first.”

Both Terauds and Kaptainis note that the COC gave 67 performances in the 2011/12 season but only 61 in the 2012/13 season. In the present season there are only 58 performances. While the administration touts the fact that attendance at the COC has been 90 percent or above since it moved into the new opera house, that figure is meaningless if the number of performances is reduced every year. For 2011/12 attendance reached 125,238, but for 2012/13 it was 114,133 – a drop of 11,105 in one year. It should be obvious that in shrinking from 67 performances to 58, the company has lost the equivalent of nine performances which equal one full opera production. It should therefore not be surprising that the company has decided to drop one production.

What has caused such a precipitous drop in such a short time? Kaptainis mentions that L’Opéra de Montréal, experiencing a similar decline, puts the blame on the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD cinema broadcasts whose original goal was to increase attendance at the Met. Kaptainis however points the finger on COC general director Alexander Neef’s penchant for Regietheater.

Now Regietheater, or opera productions guided by a directorial concept, can be either good or bad. The three famous COC productions to be revived in 2014/15 are all examples of Regietheater at its best, where a directorial concept illuminates an opera. Unfortunately, the COC has recently presented several examples, in my opinion, of Regietheater at its worst. One thinks of Christopher Alden’s Die Fledermaus and La Clemenza di Tito in the 2012/13 season or Zhang Huan’s Semele in 2011/12. Here the directors rather than illuminating the operas deliberately subverted their stories.

The plan to move back to a six-opera season was known before January 15. Neef first revealed it in the Fall 2013 edition of the COC’s magazine, Prelude, citing the burden that seven operas places on the company without ever mentioning declining attendance. He stated, “Since 2007 we’ve forced the seven-opera model to function, but at a cost of too many compromises – artistically, financially, and from a patron and staffing perspective.” With the six-opera season, he said, “We’ll have more financial flexibility to produce more grand operas, and contemplate some new productions.” Speaking of the 2014/15 season, he predicted, “Starting next season, you’ll see more varied repertoire, including the potential for one grand and/or new opera per season.”

Unfortunately, the announced 2014/15 season contradicts this prediction. Not only has Bradshaw’s goal been set aside but so, it seems, have goals of Neef’s. In 2010 when Neef announced the first season solely chosen by him, he said that he wanted to fill in gaps in standard repertory that the COC had never done, such as Parsifal and Nabucco. He also pledged to present one contemporary opera per season. Following this, he gave us Nixon in China in 2010/11 and L’Amour de loin in 2011/12. Neither of these goals is evident in the 2014/15 season. Bluebeard’s Castle (1918) and Erwartung (written 1909) can hardly be considered “contemporary” and the three new productions are of operas the COC has often done before.  

Looking at the figures, the problem does not seem to lie with the seven-opera model per se, as Neef claims, but with a decline in attendance that makes seven operas impracticable. Ultimately, the COC needs to be more open about these difficulties. If a company is having problems, people will help. If it claims that all is well, people will not. Why is attendance now lower than the 117,700 at the Hummingbird Centre in 2004/05? The COC needs to identify why it is losing patrons – especially now that Toronto finally has one of the finest opera houses in the world and can attract the finest talent in the world.

The most positive side to the 2014/15 announcement (and there is a positive side!) is that COC audiences will indeed be seeing so much of opera’s finest talent next season. Appearing will be such stars as Christine Goerke, Patricia Racette, Jane Archibald, Russell Braun, Gerald Finley, Clifton Forbis, Ekaterina Gubanova, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, John Relyea, Michael Schade, Lauren Segal and Krisztina Szabó. Let’s hope that next season represents a period of adjustment while the COC finds out how to win back those it lost. To inquire about subscriptions, visit coc.ca.  

Christopher Hoile is a Toronto-based writer on opera and theatre. He can be contacted at opera@thewholenote.com.