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NOTE: All times are Eastern Time unless otherwise noted.
THIS WEEK (JULY 31-AUG 6)
NEW!! Array Music. Living Room Talk #13: Christina Volpini. This week we're talking with Hamilton, ON-based composer Christina Volpini about her 2018 Array Ensemble commission On the Formation of Waves. Along the way we discuss baking during quarantine, composer day jobs, and embarrassing accidents in front of your idols. It's a lot of fun - enjoy! Visit here.
Music Gallery at Home. Summer Reruns featuring Bandcamp watch-parties on Fridays at 7pm and talks on Mondays at 7pm.
Aug 7 - Bandcamp Watch Party: SlowPitchSound (MG Remixed, 2016) + co-presented with IF: Improvisation Festival.
Aug 10 - Forward Together (X Avant Festival 2019). Moderated by Del Cowie, with Cheryl Duvall (Thin Edge New Music Collective), Ange Loft (YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN), Chelsea McBride (Socialist Night School) and Keysha Freshh (The Sorority).
NEW!! Music Mondays. Virtual Concerts: DG3 Presents 3 Traditions. Aug 3 at 12:15pm. Deep Ganguly, bansuri; William Beauvais, guitar, and Ali Massoud, percussion. A program of music drawn from three musical traditions: Indian, Persian, and Western Art Music. This program will be a presentation of collaborative music, created by the three musicians together with respect and grace. It will offer a glimpse of the best of three worlds, from medieval to the present; embracing sweet sorrow, joyful prayer and buoyant dance rhythms. The stream and full details will be available here.
NEW!! SweetWater Musical Festival. Next Wave Virtual Showcase. Starting July 24 at 12:00 noon. Discover tomorrow's talents today during SweetWater's second annual showcase of young, aspiring musicians. This year the event has gone virtual and features performances by eight acts. SweetWater Artistic Director Edwin Huizinga has selected two vocalists, four pianists, a tubist, and a clarinetist. Each will be given a spotlight over two weeks from July 24 to August 7. Visit here.
Toronto Botanical Gardens. Music in the Garden Series. The first concert will launch on Thursday, July 16 at 7 p.m. with a new performance released every Thursday at 7 p.m. until Labour Day. All concerts can be viewed via the Toronto Botanical Garden's website here. More concerts to be released later this summer. Virtual performances and further information can be found here.
Aug 6: Digging Roots. Juno-winning First Nations roots-rockers Shoshona Kish and Raven Kanatakta, a unique musical marriage of unvarnished truth and unconditional love.
Aug 13: Amai Kuda and Y Josephine. A tantalizing Afro-Soul combo of folk, roots, desert blues and African continental music that is about healing the earth, our ancestors and ourselves.
Toronto Summer Music is delighted to announce its first-ever online festival! Save the dates: July 16 – August 1, 2020. Since the announcement that we had to cancel our in-person Beethoven Unleashed Festival, we have been working diligently to create a new digital Festival during this unique summer. Thanks to our generous supporters, we have a fabulous lineup of artists and concerts to present, all in high-quality audio and video – from emerging artists to international stars, Kids Concerts to multidisciplinary productions -- there will be something for everyone! We will be announcing full details in early July. Stay tuned by visiting here.
NEW!! Toronto Operetta Theatre. Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss. Dr. Falke has shown up at a very inopportune time to exact revenge on his friend Eisenstein for leaving him in a compromising position after a costume party. Eisenstein, Rosalinda (his wife), Alfred (her former lover), and their maid Adele all find themselves attending a lavish party thrown by the Russian Prince of ennui himself: Orlofsky. The video is from TOT's performance in December 2018/January 2019. Mistaken identities, botched seductions, and borrowed gowns bring about some seriously silly hijinx. Watch the video here.
NEW!! VOICEBOX|Opera in Concert. Archival Video Project: Werther by Jules Massenet. Highlights from our 2018 production of Massenet's heart-wrenching opera based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, the story of a young German poet who is in love with a married woman, Charlotte. Tragically, Charlotte admits her love for him too late. Enjoy the video here.
COMING SOON
Canadian Opera Company. The Hadrian Watch Party. Aug 10 at 6:30pm. For the first time ever, audiences around the world will have a special opportunity to watch the Canadian Opera Company’s 2018 world premiere production of Hadrian, in full, online. In partnership with Montréal Pride Festival, the COC is hosting a free, one-night-only digital stream of the modern grand opera. The Hadrian Watch Party will feature a live Q&A session with both the composer and celebrated singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor, a giant in Canadian theatre. The opera's all-star cast includes American baritone Thomas Hampson as Hadrian, Canadian tenor Isaiah Bell as Antinous, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila as Plotina, and Canadian soprano Ambur Braid as Sabina. Director Peter Hinton is joined by an accomplished Canadian creative team. The evening’s streamed performance will feature cinematic, multi-camera footage, bringing audiences closer than ever to the production’s blockbuster soloists, the renowned COC Orchestra, led by COC Music Director Johannes Debus, and the COC Chorus, led by Price Family Chorus Master Sandra Horst. This digital event is free but requires advance registration here. Throughout the performance, audience members can tweet questions for the live Q&A to follow, using the hashtag #HadrianWatchParty. Hadrian is sung in English and Latin and will be streamed by the COC with English subtitles.
International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. IF 2020. Aug 8 at 8pm. An all-night, online celebration of improvisational arts that will feature video performances from 150+ artists from 15+ countries. This 24-hour festival is free to attend and will feature a dynamic array of improvisational artists, including musicians, spoken word poets, dancers, and theatre practitioners. Visit here for more information.
Kincardine Summer Music Virtual Festival 2020. All virtual concerts start at 7pm and are free, safe and easy to access at home.
Aug 10: Mike Downes, bass and Larnell Lewis, drums - Jazz
Aug 11: Hear•Say: Dakota Martin, flute; Phil Chiu, piano; Thomas Beard, cello
Aug 12: Jimmy Bowskill songwriter/guitar and Carlos del Junco, virtuoso harmonica - Blues
Aug 13: Caroline Léonardelli - Classical harp
Aug 14: Drew Jurecka, violin and Nathan Hilts, guitar
For details about these wonderful artists, please visit the website here and click on the dropdown menu “FREE VIRTUAL CONCERTS 2020”. After each concert has launched, it will be available for unlimited replays. These concerts are all free!
TD Toronto Jazz Festival. Summer Concert Series: A Live-to-Air Weekly Series on JAZZ.FM91. Running from July 3 to August 28, each weekly performance will air live on JAZZ.FM91, every Friday from 5 pm to 6 pm. From now until the spring of next year, the Festival will be offering a variety of ways to support musicians, and for the public to experience live music, through efforts such as the Summer Concert Series, because we know there is nothing better than live music.
The lineup for the TD Toronto Jazz Festival Summer Concert Series:
Aug 7: Alexander Brown Quartet
Aug 14: Joy Lapps Project
Aug 21: Kirk MacDonald Generations Quartet feat. Virginia MacDonald
Aug 28: Donnybrook
NEW!! A Temple Sinai Program. Musical Mondays Hosted by David Eisner. Aug 3 at 2:00pm. Musical and artistic creativity have been integral parts of the Temple Sinai experience since the beginning. This series gives our members an opportunity to meet some of the talented artists from our Temple family who have contributed in the past and will join us for a new Musical Mondays tradition! Join us for a Musical Mondays interview with guitarist and vocalist Danny Markswith. For more information visit us online here, email us here or call the Temple Office at 416-487-4161.
Toronto Concert Orchestra. Symphony in Your Garden. All concerts at 7:30pm. Visit here.
Aug 11 - Songs Under the Stars
Aug 25 - Grand Finale: Tribute to Kerry
NEW!! Tuckamore Music Festival. Free Prelude Concert. Aug 7 at 11:00am (Toronto time). Each year, our Prelude Concert celebrates some of our most accomplished Young Artist Program alumni. Join pianists Tabitha Payzant and Shane Tetford for an afternoon of virtual solo and four-hand repertoire in this year's Free Online Prelude Concert! Visit here to enjoy the concert. Other performances on Aug 10 through 19. For more info visit here or here. NOTE: This festival is being streamed from Newfoundland so please allow for the time difference.
University of Toronto, Faculty of Music. Summer Thursdays at Noon. All online performances are hosted by Korin Thomas-Smith.
Aug 6. Russell Braun & Carolyn Maule. Renowned for his luminous voice, baritone Russell Braun rightfully claims his place on the concert, opera and recital stages of the world. Braun is a lecturer in Opera and Resident Operatic Performance Specialist at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Carolyn Maule is much in demand as a vocal accompanist. She has performed as accompanist in London's Wigmore Hall, New York's Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu, the National Arts Centre, and Roy Thomson Hall. Program: Chanson à boire by Ravel. Free. Register here.
Daniel Vnukowski, Piano. On The World's Longest Piano Fazioli F308. Aug 8, 15, 22 at 3pm. Inspired by Yo-Yo-Ma’s Songs of Comfort project, this special house concert series brings together comforting piano music each Saturday at 12pm Pacific/3pm Eastern. Each concert uses high-end, professional, audio-visual gear in order to capture the nuances and dynamics of the music. Featuring classical masterworks, lectures, special guests and the occasional improvisation. Visit here.
ONGOING
Arts@Home. A vibrant hub connecting Torontonians to arts and culture. Designed to strengthen personal and societal resilience through the arts. Features resources for educators and people of all ages in several diverse and broad-based categories: Art, Dance, Music, Theatre, Media, and More. Subsections include Film and Photography, as well as offerings from Indigenous arts organizations. All tools and activities are free of charge, and available to everyone. Created and curated by representatives from the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada’s National Ballet School, Harbourfront Centre, the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, Prologue Performing Arts, The Royal Conservatory of Music, TO Live, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Young People’s Theatre, with the support of the City of Toronto, and in consultation with arts educators from various school boards. Visit here to learn more about this exciting collaborative initiative.
Kevin Barrett. Live from Lockdown. Every Friday Kevin Barrett does a live-streamed set of solo guitar tunes, coming directly from lockdown in his studio in Kensington Market, Toronto. The show is timed so that West Coast residents can sit in for a late lunch (1pm PDT), people in Toronto/Ottawa/NYC can join in the late afternoon (4pm EDT) and friends in Edinburgh and throughout the UK can kick off their Friday night (9pm BST/UTC+1; later in Europe ...). Watch for special requests and dedications, birthday shout-outs, and a few opinions. But, mostly, lots of music! Tune in to Kevin's Facebook page on Friday here If you can't join live, the video will be available afterwards on Kevin's page. And each week's episode is archived on his YouTube channel here.
Canadian Brass: welcomes friends around their virtual fireplace for learning and laughs. All events take place here.
Classical Jukebox Founded as a response to the days of COVID-19 social separation, this site is designed to provide you the ability to sing and perform your favorite classical pieces from the comfort of your own home, with accompaniments by organ and piano accompanist, Matthew Larkin. In addition, Classical Jukebox offers another service - assisting with the creation of Virtual Choirs and virtual choir videos for those missing that collaborative and artistic outlet in their lives. Further information can be found here.
Collingwood Summer Music Festival. Virtual Concerts. Artistic Director Daniel Vnukowski is running a series of FREE virtual concerts throughout the summer months. For information: 705-300-2405 or collingwoodfestival.com. Visit here for information about the virtual concerts.
Esprit Orchestra. Soundbites Series: James O’Callaghan. Featuring an excerpt from the World Premiere performance of Not non-other. Conducted by Alex Pauk and performed by Esprit Orchestra in Koerner Hall on Feb 26, 2020. Watch the video here. Watch the composer in conversation with Alex Pauk on Soundbites Insights here.
Harbourfront Centre. Summer Music in the Garden at Home. Starts July 5, every Sunday at 4pm and Thursday at 7pm. Just as our gardens come to life again, so too does the music of Toronto. Harbourfront Centre’s Summer Music in the Garden series is virtual this year, bringing the sounds of the Toronto Music Garden right to your home. Featuring artists from Ontario, Quebec and around the world. Music by Bach, Ravel, Borodin and Telemann are accompanied by meditative raags and ancient lute techniques. Sign up for reminders at harbourfront.live to remain up to date on concerts and even a few surprises. For information 905-973-4000 or visit here.
Kingston Symphony. Finale of Beethoven’s Third Symphony (Eroica). Forty members of the orchestra perform the finale of the Eroica, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 while in isolation in their homes. To view the virtual performance, please click here. For more information on the Kingston Symphony, please visit here.
Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. Friday Night with the KWS. Online broadcasts of archival concerts every Friday at 8pm. Select broadcasts will feature video and others will be audio-only. Content for each concert will be announced each week via KWS social media platforms. Visit here and here.
Koerner Hall. Concerts from Home.There are more than 25 classical, jazz, and roots music concerts currently available online. Check out the available items here.
Danny Michel. Live From Lockdown Sundays. A weekly live, interactive online concert on Sundays at 3pm, on ZOOM from his studio in the woods. Unlike Facebook live, fans can see each other, interact, chat, play along & be a part of the show. Buy a ticket for $7.00, get a private link in your email and join the party on Zoom (free download available) here.
New Music Concerts. NMC Media Archives. Available now. A NMC performance on Apr 12, 1987, of Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale) at the Premiere Dance Theatre with renowned puppeteer Bil Baird's marionettes. Max Ferguson, narrator; Bill Baird's Marionettes directed by Peter Baird; Stanley McCartney, clarinet; Peter Lutek, bassoon; James Spragg, cornet; Robert Aitken, conductor. Follow along with the score here and visit here for the video.
Opera Revue. Isolation Series. Comic operatic duo Danie Friesen and Claire Harris film and record operatic parodies as well as legit opera and art song for a weekly release. Join us every Saturday. For info visit here.
Orchestre Métropolitain. Live stream of Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1-8. On the websites of Orchestre Métropolitain and Bourgie Hall over the course of the summer of 2020. Visit here and here.
Ottawa Chamberfest. Chamber Chats: At Home / Chez vous. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2pm. Hosted by celebrated broadcaster/writer Eric Friesen. Interactive episodes combine chat with pre-recorded and live performances and feature guest artists and lecturers from all over the world. For information: 613-234-8008. Visit the website here.
Recollectiv: Currently holding on-line meetings. A unique musical group made up of people affected by memory challenges caused by illness (such as dementia) or brain injury (stroke, PTSD, etc.) and their care partners. Volunteers of all ages also form part of the band, making this a positive intergenerational experience for all. Participation is free with pre-registration. Contact info@recollectiv.ca for meeting times, information and registration. recollectiv.ca
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. a•P•art {of} performance series, every Thursday at 7:30pm here.
Small World Music. Bollywood Monster Mashup. Presented by MonstrARTity and TD Bank. July 24 & 25. Visit the Facebook page here.
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir. Tafelmusik at Home is a new online concert featuring solo and duo performances. If you can't come to them, they will bring the concert experience to you! Hosted by Tafelmusik musicians from their homes, each program lasts about an hour and combines works that may be new to your ears with music you know and love. Be sure to stay until the end for live Q&A sessions with featured musicians. These concerts are $5, $10, $20 Choose-What-You-Pay, allowing you to pay what you feel is the value of the concert. Join them for this new way to experience the beauty of Tafelmusik here.
Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir. Throughout the summer, we will continue to gather virtually with you to share beauty and comfort through music of the past. We invite you to participate by following our social media channels or our blog, and using the hashtag #TafelmusikTogether. Visit the blog here.
Toronto Consort. Explorer: Discovering the World of Early Music. Explorer is a blog for the curious; a place of learning, sharing, and community. This all-new offering will present an assortment of curated content in a range of formats, like original short- or long-form articles, original video and audio recordings, and educational content on relevant topics relating to Early Music, history, and world music, as they relate our beloved repertoire. Visit here for further information.
Toronto Operetta Theatre. Video Series: The Rather UNIQUE Voice Lesson from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II. From our most recent production of Johann Strauss II's masterpiece here we have Alfredo (Cian Horrobin) passing his time in jail by giving his bumbling jailer Frosch (Guillermo Silva-Marin) a rather UNIQUE voice lesson. Performed at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Dec 2018/Jan 2019. Enjoy it here!
VOICEBOX | Opera in Concert. Archival Video Project: The World Premiere Performance of Isis and Osiris: Gods of Egypt. By Peter-Anthony Togni, Composer and Sharon Singer, Book Writer and Librettist. Watch the video here. Stay tuned for more and be on the lookout for our playbill coming up. Enjoy!
For previous update, click here.
