It’s time for the September column already. Normally, at this time of year, I would try to focus on coming events. However, if there are interesting events in the band world coming in September, nobody has told us about them! There are a few anniversaries to comment on, though, starting with my own!

With this issue I am starting my 11th season writing this Bandstand column. It seems like just a few weeks ago when I sat with David Perlman discussing that first column for September 2006. On looking over that first column one event stands out. It was the announcement that: “As part of the opening ceremonies for the new Rose Theatre Brampton, on Sunday September 10, 2006 at 8pm The City of Brampton Concert Band will present 'A Tribute to Howard Cable.' As Guest Conductor, Dr. Howard Cable OC will conduct a new work commissioned for the occasion.”

Nine years and 11 months later, the major event in our band world one month ago was a “Howard Cable Memorial Celebration.” Toronto’s St. James Cathedral was packed to hear tributes from family members and many who had worked with Cable over his long, illustrious career. Some came from as far away as Halifax to participate in the tribute. A 50-member Howard Cable Tribute Band, composed of professional and semi-professional musicians performed a number of Cable’s compositions for band. Many then gathered at the nearby Moss Park Armoury for a reception.

Newmarket’s Good News: It’s always a pleasure to report on good news, and that certainly came to the Newmarket Citizens Band recently. Eleven years ago their longtime home at the Lions Club was destroyed by fire. The work of arsonists destroyed the building. However, much of the band’s library, stored in steel filing cabinets, survived along with some instruments and archival material. After 11 years as nomads rehearsing in a number of school music rooms, various clubhouses and church facilities they now have a true home. In early August the band held its first rehearsal in their room in Newmarket’s Ray Twinney recreation complex. They now have an excellent large rehearsal space complete with private storage for music and instruments immediately adjacent. At the first rehearsal in their new home, band members surveyed a few items which survived the fire that are now looking for homes. A very smoky bass drum with the band’s still visible art work may very well have become a coffee table since time of writing this!

Two WU-linked anniversaries: On the anniversary front there are two quite different ones to report on. However, they both have at least some of their roots stemming from the Western University. The first of these groups is Brassroots, a ten-member brass ensemble from London, Ontario. They are celebrating their 30th anniversary with the release of a CD titled Passion for Brass which is reviewed elsewhere in this issue. All members, except one, are WU graduates and all except one are music educators.

The other anniversary is that of Steffan Brunette who is retiring after 25 years as conductor of the Uxbridge Community Concert Band (UCCB). In the first summer after his graduation from high school, he wanted to continue with a band but couldn’t find one near home so he started this band. As a music student at WU he revived the band each summer. When he graduated and became a high school music teacher in the area, he kept the band running each summer.

When the band was first formed it served as a means for members to continue playing during the summer when school bands do not operate. Now, with many members returning year after year, members are no longer primarily students on their summer break. Now, members range from teenagers to a good many retirees.

Each year, after their final concert, band members vote on one selection from the season’s repertoire to be included in the next year’s programming. That, in turn, leads to the choice of the next season’s theme. The number chosen from last year was the music from the Disney movie Pirates of the Caribbean. Hence, the theme for this season was to be music associated in one way or another with the sea. With a bit of a play on words the band then went “Sailing the High C’s” this summer. From Handel’s Water Music, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Songs, H.M.S. Pinafore and Pirates of Penzance to the Petty Harbour Bait Skiff, it was all about sailing musically. To bring the audiences into the present, the concerts featured a fine new work, By the River, composed by band member Kristie Hunter.

To celebrate their conductor’s 25 years of dedication, the band had a great BBQ and pool party after their concert in Palmer Park in Port Perry. Some band members even dressed as pirates with colourful artificial tattoos and even a parrot on the shoulder. Now that Brunette is retiring from the band at least for one season, members of the band are forming a “What do we do now?” committee.

New Horizons: Over the past six years there have been numerous mentions in this column of the growth of the New Horizons Band movement in our area. A few months ago we mentioned the airing on TVO of a documentary on the development and growth of the Toronto New Horizons Bands. Dan Kapp, director of the Toronto NH bands has just informed me that, as a direct result of that program, there are already 36 confirmed registrations for the next new band to start in September. There were also dozens of phone and email inquiries which will certainly lead to more new members joining. For anyone interested, the New Horizons Bands will have their annual “Instrument Exploration Workshop” at the Long & McQuade Bloor St. store Friday, September 9 at 7pm.

To the museum: On a number of occasions in the past I have also written about the great collection of vintage brass instruments amassed by Professor Henry Meredith at the Western University and the hope for the establishment of a proper museum to house and display this collection. On looking over my own collection of instruments which haven’t been played in years, I have decided that some of these deserve to be in that collection. As soon as we can arrange it, two trombones will be moving to their new home. The first is a Toronto-made Whaley Royce instrument dating back to the early 1900s. The other is my very first trombone. This Manhattan model by Selmer is the one which I played in a boys’ band all through university and six nights a week at a dance pavilion. There hasn’t been a sound from it in over 60 years. It deserves a decent retirement.

Community Bands: Periodically, in this column we ask that our community bands let us know what they are doing. In the past few months, since the last issue of The WholeNote, we have not heard a word from any band about their activities. Community bands should do more to promote themselves. Otherwise, how do we know what you are doing? Please keep us informed.

Anthem Butchery Cup: A few months ago we established the Anthem Butchery Cup (ABC) (a handsome Spode Thundermug)to award those people who choose to display their talents (or lack thereof) by modifying our national anthem to suit their particular level of musical talent. In the past it has always been a solo performer who has distorted the melody. A few weeks ago at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game a new benchmark was established. One member of a quartet of tenors, without telling the others, decided to substantially change the lyrics of Canada’s national anthem. Remigio Pereira stunned his three cohorts and his audience with his new words. The last we heard, the four Tenors had morphed into the three Tenors. Mr. Pereira succeeds Nellie Furtado as ABC title holder.

Roland Hill: We were sad to learn of the passing of Roland Hill just shy of his 74th birthday, on July 2, 2016. He had served for 32 years as music director of the Whitby Brass Band until 2012. He will be missed.

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

Toronto musicians have been cutting their teeth at Free Times Cafe for 35 years. That’s how long owner Judy Perly, a local hero to Toronto musicians and audiences alike, has been booking: since the early 1980s, over 12,000 evenings of music, more than 400 poetry readings, 500 nights of comedy and improv, 100 original art shows and nearly 1000 concerts of klezmer and Yiddish music.

Located just seconds from Kensington Market at 320 College Street, Free Times is a casual, inviting, warm restaurant and music venue. The live music is presented in the cozy back room, seating approximately 50. According to Perly, the much buzzed-about “Bella, Did Ya Eat?” Sunday brunch literally keeps her business alive. “It’s not unusual that we will do in sales more at the brunch than in the back room the entire week. The brunch averages 100 to 200 people a week. The reason it works is because there is nothing else like it – in the world!” Indeed this might be the only place on earth that has weekly klezmer and Yiddish music accompanied by an all-you-can-eat buffet, serving 50 items from smoked salmon and potato latkes to gefilte fish and blintzes. Bella’s Bistro, the front room where the Brunch is served, is sentimentally decorated with a variety of art including a large portrait of Perly’s mother, painted by Judy herself.

“I wanted to do something for my mother after she passed away. And the more connected I got with my mother, the better things got. My mother would always get the right ingredients – she worked very hard all the time. People say I work hard, but I say she worked way harder. She had a husband and three children.”

Growing up, the Perly family’s record collection contained everything from the blues and reggae to folk icons like Ian and Sylvia, Joan Baez and Buffy Sainte-Marie, as well as classic jazz from Holiday to Sinatra.

“The other connection I have to jazz is that late in their lives, my parents started following Dixieland jazz. My mother even made up this crazy dance! (laughs). In fact Jim Galloway played for free at my parents’ 32nd anniversary because he loved them so much …”

I pause to tell Judy about Galloway’s work for The WholeNote and his support for the Toronto jazz community, and she reminisces about the great jazz musicians that walked through her doors, especially in the early days.

“I would say the music started on a regular basis in 1982. The very first time was a year earlier, at an art opening. I was going out with a man who was a part-time bass player [in the] Sam Miya Trio – Sam and Roy Miya who were Japanese Canadians – and I was going with Sam. He played bass and Roy played piano. Then Sam’s nephew was studying at York University and he asked me, ‘Can we play on Saturday night?’ We had a very small room in the back in those days. So he started on Saturdays, and we gave him some food, and then other people asked. So many great musicians.

“If you scrape the surface of the Toronto music scene you will find a lot of people who started out at Free Times. We didn’t even have a stage. It was a lot of folk singers at that time. Tex Konig, Mose Scarlet. Ian Tamblyn, who is coming back here in September, he’s from Ottawa. Sneezy Waters is another icon. David Rea who played guitar with Ian and Sylvia. And then I hired a gentleman by the name of Michael Katz who used to bring all these musicians from the great folk festivals. Soon we were packed every night. We were one of the only places as there weren’t a lot of clubs like ours. George Koller was here all the time. Micah Barnes, Fern Lindzon, Brian Katz, Rob Piltch. We had a poetry series with major poets …

“But I have to tell you, the economics of jazz are hard. This is a small room and jazz audiences don’t spend a lot of money. They sit on a drink, it’s not a party night, it’s a little bit more serious, right? So I never really sought it out, but of course I always welcomed it, and the first time we had music it was jazz.”

But it wasn’t always easy, to say the least:

“It was a real struggle. And the downside to all of this where the music was concerned was that for quite a few years – five years I would say – I didn’t even enjoy the music. I just wished that it would go away! I was mean, I was nasty, I never was here at night. After I started the brunch I realized I could do $2000 to $3000 in five hours and the whole night of live music was $300. From a business point of view sometimes it feels like banging your head against the wall. But I didn’t have a choice – I tried to kill it and it wouldn’t die! (laughs) Isn’t that interesting that it just wouldn’t die. And of course, it’s because of the music that I’ve been able to go on, because as you know music is a healer. It makes you feel so good about everything, and you have those moments. Like any relationship there are the ups and the downs … and I realized that I had to change my attitude. I had to go through a spiritual evolution in order to do this because things weren’t going to go my way, and I had to deal with it. I’m happy that I was able to get out of that.”

Speaking of healing music, one of the series that Perly is most excited about presenting these days happens on the third Wednesday of every month called “Where Have All the Folk Songs Gone” hosted by folk duo Sue and Dwight. Covering classics by Dylan, Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary and many more, this is a popular series in its fourth year that often sells out.

“People are practically in tears and they keep coming back! A lot of my brunch customers heard about it on the newsletter and once they come once, they are hooked!”

After all these years of hard work and determination, does she consider herself a success?

“I’ve lasted. I guess I’m sort of successful now, but I worked for nothing for years, and I cried for ten years straight! (laughs). Nobody helped me. They’d say, too bad, so sorry! I used to want to quit every day, then it was every week, then monthly and now it’s maybe once a year.

The thing is with me that I’m not coming at this with an agenda. That’s why the club has lasted. I’m a conduit – I allow other people to do things. My agenda is keeping my business going.”

Meet Judy Perly in person at the Ashkenaz Festival where she will be a featured guest, speaking on Saturday September 3 at 6pm on the Fressers Summit and a not-to-be-missed special demonstration of her potato latke-making on Monday September 5 at 2pm, including latkes! 

Ori Dagan is a Toronto-based jazz musician, writer and educator who can be reached at oridagan.com.

On March 26, 2009, during a live radio broadcast and webcast from the Rolston Recital Hall of the Banff Centre in the Alberta Rockies, the young Canadian composer Andrew Staniland became a double winner. The jury in the CBC/Radio-Canada Evolution competition for young Canadian composers named him the winner of both the National Grand Prize ($20,000) and the Prix de l’Orchestre de la Francophonie Canadienne ($5,000) for his composition Devolution, a work composed during a month-long residency (along with his co-finalist composers, David Adamcyk, Vincent Ho, Geof Holbrook and Gordon Williamson at the Banff Centre). The live audience and the online listeners voted too and, accordingly, the People’s Choice award ($5,000) went to Vincent Ho.

CBC/Radio-Canada’s Evolution Composers Competition was a unique event. It followed in the footsteps of the earlier CBC/Radio-Canada National Radio Competition for Young Composers, which had been the principal means by which the national music departments of both CBC Radio and Radio-Canada (with the collaboration of the Canada Council for the Arts) identified and developed emerging young Canadian composers. I served as English Radio coordinator of that competition, which ran from 1974 to 2003.

It had been a productive investment in talent development; its laureates, collectively, form a Who’s Who of Canadian composers of the present, people such as Denys Bouliane, Brian Current, Chris Paul Harman, Melissa Hui, Kelly Marie Murphy, Michael Oesterle, James Rolfe and Ana Sokolovic. The Grand Prize winner of what turned out to be its final edition, in 2003, was Analia Llugdar.

Following that 2003 competition, when we would have begun planning the next edition of the project, my Radio-Canada co-coordinator and I were advised that a new direction would be required for any future competition. A small group of producers from both CBC and Radio-Canada was formed, and we drafted a number of proposals that addressed several criteria, especially a desire for the inclusion of a much greater new media component. The process of discussing, debating the details of the proposals and persuading all the various authorities in both networks proved to be a very long one. Eventually, the CBC/Radio-Canada Evolution competition launched in 2008.

Canadian composers under the age of 35 were invited to submit samples of their work to a pre-selection jury. There were 150 entries, and five composers were selected by the jury as finalists to advance to the second round, which was held at the Banff Centre. Each finalist composer received a $5,000 grant as recognition of their selection.

In March of 2009, the five finalists arrived in Banff and participated in a draw to determine the final details of the orchestration of the competition pieces they would write during their month-long residency. While at Banff, the composers also produced blogs describing the experience of composing competitively. A team of videographers documented the residency. The blogs, videos and other assets were posted online, providing the public a window into the finalists’ experiences as they composed their competition pieces.

The Ensemble contemporaine de Montréal (ECM+) and their artistic director, Véronique Lacroix, were chosen as the performing entity for the final phase of Evolution, due in part to their demonstrated commitment to the mission of encouraging emerging composers. The members of ECM+ arrived in Banff at the end of the composition process, rehearsed the newly composed works and then performed the five compositions in a live broadcast/webcast in the presence of the final-round jury. Andrew Staniland and Vincent Ho prevailed as winners; all five composers gained valuable experience and international visibility, not to mention the performances and broadcasts on both radio networks.

The Evolution competition was praised as a resounding success. The new format, combining both new media and conventional broadcasting, appeared to achieve the goal of encouraging emerging young Canadian composers, while providing audiences unprecedented access to and involvement in the various stages of the competition. In fact, the members of the organizing team, producers Sandy Thacker at CBC, Pascale Labrie at Radio-Canada and I were awarded a CBC President’s Award later in 2009 for our efforts. Unfortunately, major structural and budgetary changes were under way at both CBC and Radio-Canada that gradually reduced their capacity to produce original content; despite efforts to continue and develop the young composers’ competition, it was to be no more.

For the participating young composers, however, the Evolution experience proved to be a watershed moment.  Looking back, Andrew Staniland makes the following observations: “In retrospect, 2009 was a turning point for me ... On the positive side, it was a year of winning the National Grand Prize at the CBC's Evolution Composers Competition, and the year I was offered an amazing job at Memorial University, a place I am proud to call home. On the negative side, it was the last year of the CBC Young Composers Program. I was one of the last young composers to enjoy the mentorship and visibility that the CBC had so richly offered to previous generations. While I am grateful for the support I received and the relationships made, I know that composers coming after me will have a harder go of it.

“I remember the final night of the Competition in March 2009. It was a capstone event preceded by a wonderful month surrounded by creativity, amazing colleagues and the natural splendours that Banff is well known for. I was stunned when they called my name as the grand prize winner. Stunned not only for the honour, but by the palpable contrast in the room. Many of the CBC crew working that night were given notice that very evening that their jobs were gone. On the stage, a prize bestowed; in the control room, layoffs and the final dismantling of new music at the CBC. That last CBC young composers competition was a very bright light in a very dark time.”

A dark time indeed. The years between 2007 and 2010 marked the cessation of the various projects that had supported the development of  Canadian composers at CBC Radio, including the CBC Radio Orchestra, CBC Radio’s participation in the International Rostrum of Composers, the CBC Records label, CBC commissions, CBC composition competitions and the network contemporary music program Two New Hours. In spite of this, young composers who had enjoyed earlier support from CBC Radio continued to develop and flourish. For example, Andrew Staniland’s requiem for the AIDS pandemic, Dark Star Requiem (words by Jill Battson, commissioned by Tapestry New Opera) was a highlight of the 2010 Luminato Festival. Our CBC Radio recording of this major work has recently been leased by the Centrediscs record label and is now available to the public. The release of Dark Star Requiem will receive special notice this fall as we approach World AIDS Day on December 1.

The long legacy of CBC Radio’s development of Canadian composers was a proud one, inspired by The Broadcasting Act and marked by the creation of significant works by distinctive Canadian artists. I was pleased to play a role, along with many gifted colleagues, in that history. Whether the road ahead offers similar promise for future generations of emerging Canadian composers remains to be seen.

David Jaeger is a Toronto-based composer, producer and broadcaster

Volume 3 Number 10. August 10, 2016

BASSOON OUT LOUD

Launching Monday August 15, Nadina Mackie Jackson’s new concert series puts bassoon in the spotlight

“I believe in creating opportunities for myself and for other people,” says bassoonist Nadina Mackie Jackson, in conversation at The WholeNote office. With a new 12-concert series in Toronto slotted for this season—plus a potential bassoon-themed summer festival in the making—it seems like she’s doing just that.

Bassoon Out Loud is Jackson’s latest project: a season of more-or-less-monthly chamber concerts, all at Yorkville’s Heliconian Hall. Jackson will perform at each concert, sticking to a regimen of at least one bassoon concerto per show. But apart from this, she has dispensed with the typical ‘soloist + accompaniment’ recital formula, instead opting for monthly collaborations with local guest instrumentalists, singers, writers and storytellers, each of whom will also bring their own latest projects—including solo repertoire of their own—to the concert hall.

The launch for the series is this Monday, August 15. Titled “The Company You Keep,” it features Jackson alongside local writer and storyteller Leslie Magowan, who will read excerpts from her book What I Learned in School. Jackson will also be joined onstage by a small ‘string section’—Ema Nikolovska on violin, Rory MacLeod on viola, and Bryan Lu on cello—for the chamber-music portion of the show.

For Jackson, a major motivation for the series is to revitalize the bassoon as an instrument—and build long-lasting musical relationships around the discovery of what the bassoon can do. “People always say that there is nothing for bassoon,” Jackson says. “Not only is there an enormous amount, there is more written every day. But if people don’t hear it, they think there’s nothing—and that’s not true.”

While Jackson herself has a busy performing and teaching schedule, she couldn’t help feeling that the bassoon deserved more time in the limelight. And in an industry where large-scale classical concerts can require years of planning and a lot of red tape, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

“I know so many fascinating people,” says Jackson. “I know so much great music. And I’m tired of waiting.”

Bassoon Out Loud opens on Monday, August 15, 7pm at Heliconian Hall. For details on the show, plus descriptions of other concerts in this series, visit www.nadinamackiejackson.com.

TOP 30, T.O.

Where to find CBC’s Top 30 Under 30 in the city this season

Last week, CBC Music released its 2016 “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30”—the latest edition of its annual shortlist of promising local musicians. As always, the list boasts an impressive range, both in age (from 29-year old working professionals to 10-year-old pianist Janaya Lo) and geographically, with featured performers from across the country. And as one might expect, a number of those performers have upcoming concert dates in Toronto this season—concert dates that, considering the CBC’s reliable track record for predicting up-and-coming Canadian talent, are worth taking note of.

If you’re looking to hear the CBC’s “30-under-30” musicians, the Canadian Opera Company seems a likely place to start. Four of CBC’s under-30s this year have upcoming appearances at the Four Seasons Centre this season. 23-year-old mezzo-soprano Lauren Eberwein appears with the COC this winter, to sing Wellgunde in its February 2017 production of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, and 21-year-old Toronto native Emily d’Angelo—a recent graduate of U of T’s voice program—will sing the role of Zweite Dame in the COC’s January/February 2017 production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In addition to her role with the COC, d’Angelo will also sing at Koerner Hall on November 11, in concert with four other young award-winning artists in a Royal Conservatory show titled “Generation Next.” Also performing at the COC this season are 25-year-old soprano Chelsea Rus, who will be featured in a free noontime recital on December 1, and 28-year-old horn player Mikhail Babiak, who can be found throughout the season in the orchestra pit.

In the contemporary music world, CBC-favoured groups to watch include Continuum Contemporary Music (possibly including 26-year-old bassoonist Darren Hicks), as well as Toy Piano Composers and Caution Tape Sound Collective, both of which are home to local composer Bekah Simms. Other dates to mark down are November 13—where pianist Matt Poon will perform a recital at U of T’s Hart House as winner of the 2016 Eckhardt-Gramatté Competition for Canadian contemporary music—and January 31, 2017, where 23-year-old accordionist Michael Bridge will play a program of new works with percussionist Michael Murphy, as part of U of T’s annual new music festival. Under-30s lists aside, local school venues like U of T (as well as York University, the Royal Conservatory, and numerous other institutions throughout southern Ontario) have busy year-round concert schedules, and are surefire places to hear young Canadian talent.

You can find the complete list of the CBC’s “Top 30 under 30,” with bios of all of the featured musicians, here on their website. Kudos to all those featured—and here’s to a promising season ahead!

JUST IN: CORRECTED AND NEW LISTINGS

THE ASHKENAZ FESTIVAL RETURNS TO TORONTO: August 30-September 5

Ashkenaz, the biennial festival of global Jewish culture, returns to Harbourfront this summer on August 5, boasting an impressive musical lineup. Headliners include The Klezmatics and “Jewish-funk supergroup” Abraham Inc., as well as appearances by such Canadian folk music staples as the Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra and Lemon Bucket Orkestra—perfect music for one last end-of-summer party. For details on the festival, visit www.ashkenaz.ca.

Other new/corrected August concert listings added online since our last print issue include:

Thursday August 11

8:30: Hugh's Room. Qristina and Quinn. 2261 Dundas St. W. 416-531-6604. $22.50(adv)/$25(door).

Friday August 12

8:30: Hugh's Room. Alfie Zappacosta. 2261 Dundas St. W. 416-531-6604. $40(adv)/$45(door).

Friday August 12 to Sunday August 14

Batuki Music Society. Habari Africa Festival. Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W. 416-973-4000. Free.

Sunday August 14

12:30: TorontoJazzBuzz.com/Vintage & Swing Concerts. Retro Concert Hall Thrills for Vintage-Wearing Swing Fans. Capital Focus Jazz Band. Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Ave. 416-923-8137. $20 (cash only at the door). Doors open at noon. Vintage attire not mandatory but welcomed!

Monday August 15

7:00: Nadina Mackie Jackson. Bassoon Out Loud: The Company You Keep. Works by Telemann, Scarlatti, Braun, Lussier and Mignone. Leslie Magowan, writer and storyteller; Nadina Mackie Jackson, solo bassoon; and others. Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave. 416-453-7607. $30; $20(sr/st).

Saturday August 20

7:30: Choirs Ontario. Ontario Youth Choir: Fresh Voices. Allan Bevan: Full fathom Five; Jeff Enns: Hear My Prayer; Grete Pedersen: Norwegian Wedding March; Claudio Monteverdi: Si, ch'io vorrei morire; Eriks Esenvalds: Stars. Robert Cooper, conductor; Edward Moroney, piano. All Saints' Anglican Church (Peterborough), 235 Rubidge St.,Peterborough. 416-923-1144. $25; $20(sr/st).

Sunday August 21

3:00: Choirs Ontario. Ontario Youth Choir: Fresh Voices. Allan Bevan: Full fathom Five; Jeff Enns: Hear My Prayer; Grete Pedersen: Norwegian Wedding March; Claudio Monteverdi: Si, ch'io vorrei morire; Eriks Esenvalds: Stars. Robert Cooper, conductor; Edward Moroney, piano. Grace Church on-the-Hill, 300 Lonsdale Rd. 416-923-1144. $25; $20(sr/st).

Saturday August 27

9:30am: Ontario Shape Note Singers. Central Ontario All-Day Sacred Harp Singing. A traditional all-day singing from The Sacred Harp, 1991 edition (the “Denson Book”). Singers and listeners alike are welcome to attend, and can stay for all or any part of the day. Detweiler Meetinghouse, 3445 Roseville Rd., Ayr. 647-838-8764. PWYC.

8:00: Small World Music. Moonlight over the Maghrib. Original compositions and improvisations by Richard Robeson and Shahriyar Jamshidi. Richard Robeson, guitar/ukulele; Shahriyar Jamshidi, kamanche; Sina Khosravi, percussion. Small World Music Centre, Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw St. 416-536-5439. $20; $15(st).

THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING

Volume 22 (!) of The WholeNote kicks off next month, with our September 2016 issue. Pick up a copy on the stands starting September 1!

Please contact halftones@thewholenote.com with any HalfTones inquiries.

Sara Constant is social media editor at The WholeNote and studies musicology at the University of Amsterdam. She can be contacted at editorial@thewholenote.com.

HalfTones
Vol 3 No 11: July 4, 2016

YEAR IN REVIEW: And the award goes to…

At the annual Dora Awards last Monday, music productions both large and small triumphed, with big wins in both indie and grand-scale arenas.

The Doras, named after Canadian theatre visionary Dora Mavor Moore, have been running since 1978, with the aim of recognizing local productions of theatre, music theatre, opera and dance. Like any annual awards ceremony, the Dora awards provide a nice way of looking back at some of the season’s standouts--and with an emphasis on local theatre, giving due credit to some of the key players in the Toronto scene.

The COC was a favourite on Monday, with a staggering eight wins--five of which were for their production of Wagner’s Siegfried last winter. The Siegfried team was awarded Outstanding Production in the opera division, as well as prizes for direction, musical direction, scenic design and lighting design. Baritone Quinn Kelsey (Germont) and soprano Ekaterina Siurina (Violetta) both won Doras for their performances in the COC’s La traviata, which also won for Best Costume Design.

Homegrown operas also took home prizes this year, with Tapestry Opera winning Best New Musical for John Harris and Marjorie Chan’s new work M’dea Undone and Against the Grain winning Outstanding Performance - Ensemble for their “barefoot, costumed, choreographed” version of Handel’s Messiah.

To hear more from Tapestry, you may have to wait until 2016/17--but Against the Grain will be co-producing Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia as part of the Toronto Summer Music Festival on July 22. Details on the show here -- and if you’re looking for a pair of tickets, look no further than our contest in this issue of our newsletter!

In other news, this year’s list of Order of Canada appointments has just been released, with a number of familiar musicians on the roster. 2016 appointments include jazz saxophonist P.J. Perry, pianist and musicologist Elaine Keillor--who is currently on faculty at Carleton University--and soprano Barbara Hannigan, fresh off the heels of a January appearance in Toronto with the TSO.

All in all, a lot of well-deserved attention this past week for Canadian musical talent both local and internationally-based. A huge congrats to all winners, appointments and nominees this year. Onto the next!

TICKET GIVEAWAY: THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA AT TSMF

Win tickets to a one-night-only production of Britten’s opera The Rape of Lucretia at Toronto Summer Music. Click here to enter!

SILK ROAD ONSCREEN

Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble hits the big screen

Last September, Roy Thomson Hall played host to the Silk Road Ensemble--renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma’s global music project almost 20 years in the making. Their appearance coincided with the world premiere at TIFF of The Music of Strangers, a new documentary about Yo-Yo Ma’s vision behind the group.

Now, the film is back, with screenings at Hot Docs Bloor Cinema July 8 to 14. Directed by Morgan Neville--who was also behind Oscar-winning music documentary 20 Feet from Stardom--The Music of Strangers promises an in-depth look at the Silk Road project, from its inception in 2000 as an attempt to bring together folk musics from across the globe to its prominent status today.

Details on the Hot Docs screenings next week can be found here. Watch the trailer of the movie below:

Incidentally, The WholeNote featured one member of the Silk Road Ensemble--pipa virtuoso Wu Man--on the cover of our September 2015 issue, and another--Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh--in our April issue of HalfTones, when he collaborated with the Toronto Symphony on a recording to welcome recent Syrian refugees to Canada. At that time in April, the latter had a tentative Toronto date in his calendar, for a June solo appearance with the TSO. Turns out that concert was postponed--meaning, hopefully, that he’ll still be back, to follow up his last-minute partnership with the orchestra this April with a full-length concert. We’ll keep you updated as details emerge. In the meantime, here’s the video of Azmeh’s composition November 22nd, which he recorded in Toronto during his April visit.

JUST IN: CORRECTED AND NEW LISTINGS

FEATURED LISTING: JULY JAZZ AT HUGH’S ROOM

It may be the end of the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, but jazz life in the clubs continues this month, with a host of listings at such local music hotspots as Hugh’s Room on Dundas St. W. In the coming weeks, Hugh’s Room hosts Ten Strings and a Goat Skin (July 7), Fathead (July 23), Kevin Breit & Rebecca Jenkins with the Upper York Mandolin Quartet (July 29), Matt Molloy, John Carty & Arty McGlynn (August 2), and Kiran Ahluwalia (August 6)--plus a weekly jazz night hosted by JAZZ.FM91 every Monday in July. Details at hughsroom.com.

Other new/corrected July concert listings added online since our last print issue are as follows:

Festivals/Series

One quick note on the topic of summer series: our summer festival listings at thewholenote.com are now searchable! Sort through festival offerings according to your interest and availability, to find the concerts you want to see. Try it out here.

Other summer series omitted from our last print issue include:

June 4-September 24, 11:00am-1:30. City of St. Catharines. Music in the Square. Market Square, 91 King St., St. Catharines. Free. Visit www.stcatharines.ca for details.

June 17-September 2, 6:30/8:00. Roy Thomson Hall/Sunfest. Live on the Patio. Days and performers vary. Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe St. 416-593-4822. Free. Food and drinks available. Two sets; doors open at 5pm.

June 28-August 30, 12:00 noon. Play the Parks. Dance Inspiring Fusion of the Americas. Trinity Square Park. Days and performers vary. Free. Visit www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/ for details.

June 29-July 20, 6:00. City of St. Catharines. Summer Concert Series. Montebello Park, St. Catharines. Free. Visit stcatharines.ca for details.

July 6-September 7, 12:00 noon. Play the Parks. Shapeshifting Classical. Mackenzie House,  82 Bond St. Days and performers vary. Free. Visit www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/ for details.

July 7-July 28, 7:00/9:00. #ClassyAF. La Rev, 2848 Dundas St. W. Days and performers vary. $15-$20. Visit www.classyafshow.com for details.

July 7-September 8, 12:00 noon. Play the Parks. Funky Lunchtime Soul. College Park Courtyard. Days and performers vary. Free. Visit www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/ for details.

July 7-September 18. Play the Parks. Festive Summer Streets. McGill Granby Parkette. Days, times and performers vary. Free. Visit www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/ for details.

July 8-10. Harbourfront Centre. Future Routes. Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W. Times and performers vary. Free. Visit harbourfrontcentre.com for details.

Individual Listings

Monday July 11

9:00: The Burdock. Isabel (Fryszberg) and The Uncommons w/ Freeman Dre & The Kitchen Party. 1184 Bloor St. W. 416-546-4033. $8(adv); $10(door). Doors open at 8:30pm.

Tuesday July 12

8:00: Gallery 345. Stanislav Pronin, violin and Alex Seredenko, piano. Work by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Piazzolla/Gubaidulina. 345 Sorauren Ave. 416-822-9781. $25; $10(st).

Friday July 15

8:00: Gallery 345. The Art of the Piano: David Virelles. 345 Sorauren Ave. 416-822-9781. $25; $10(st).

Saturday July 23

11:00am: South Coast Jazz. David Sanbiorn with the Galen Weston Band. David Sanborn; Galen Weston Band; David Restivo; June Garber; Juliann Kuchocki; Shuffle Demons. Port Dover and Area Arena, 809 St. George St., Port Dover. 519-774-2787. $20-$70. Details at www.southcoastjazz.com.

Thursday July 28

8:00: Randolph Academy. Footloose. Music by Tom Snow; Lyrics by Dean Pitchford. Stage adaptation by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie. Randolph Theatre, 736 Bathurst St. 1-855-985-2787. $22. Also July 29-30 and August 4-6(8pm), and July 30 and August 6(2pm).

THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING

The current print issue of The WholeNote is a SPECIAL SUMMER ISSUE, covering June 1-September 7-- but HalfTones continues throughout the summer!

Vol 3 No 12: Wednesday, August 10

Please contact halftones@thewholenote.com with any HalfTones inquiries.

SUMMER SPACES

The summer music scene in Toronto is alive and well. It’s just not happening in the places where we usually look.

One emerging theme in recent musical years has been the genre-bending and border-crossing that goes along with putting familiar music in alternative spaces. This summer the trend continues, with two upcoming concert series that make a point of using venues that take the city’s musical life out of the concert hall, and into a more public sphere.

Play the Parks, now entering its fourth season, is a summer concert initiative from the Downtown Yonge BIA. This year’s series, running June 22 to September 18 and curated by Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall, promises concerts all summer long in four of Toronto’s downtown green spaces: Trinity Square Park will host concerts of dance music from across the Americas; the College Park courtyard, jazz, funk and soul; the McGill Granby Parkette, a variety of world music; and Mackenzie House, classical.

Between the four venues, the series is slated to present at least 1-2 free shows per week, all summer long. The series opener is one week from today on June 22 (5pm) and features the Massey Hall Band--a promising start to a summer of free music. For series details, visit http://www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/.

New this year and worth adding to your calendar is ClassyAF, a project from sisters Talisa and Naomi Blackman that bills itself as “a way to eat tacos while also listening to great music.” All jokes aside, the Blackman sisters have programmed a promising four-concert series, all of which will take place at Mexican restaurant La Rev on Dundas St. W. Concert headliners include violinist Rebecca MacLeod, an alumna of Carnegie Mellon, The Glenn Gould School and U of T (July 7); cello duo VC2 (July 14); pianists Indira Nanavati-Cadeña and Tom King alongside percussionist Daniel Morphy (July 21); and cellist Sarah Steeves in a program of Rachmaninoff, Lau and Piazzolla (July 28). Talisa Blackman herself also joins in as a piano accompanist for three of the four shows.

The series offers a fresh take on some classical favourites, and the taco suggestion is admittedly persuasive. Details at http://www.classyafshow.com/.

NEW IN REVIEWS

In light of maritime band Ten Strings and a Goat Skin’s upcoming Ontario tour, WholeNote reviewer Ivana Popovic takes a look at their latest album.

Auprès du Poêle

Ten Strings and a Goat Skin

Independent (tenstringsandagoatskin.com)

Woodstoves, community, dancing, good cheer, fire in the heart – such is the atmosphere on this album, and the aura of this music. It brought dance to my feet and the love of life to my mind, in no particular order.

This is the third CD released by the acoustic trio from Prince Edward Island. Rowen Gallant

(fiddle, viola, tenor banjo, vocals), Jesse Périard (guitar, pump organ, backing vocals) and Caleb Gallant (bodhràn, foot percussion, snare, cajón, clawhammer banjo, vocals) may be young but each is a very accomplished musician in his own right.

While rooted in Acadian and Scottish roots and their love for traditional maritime music, Ten

Strings and a Goat Skin were able to expand on this album into truly original interpretations and add unique compositional voices of their own, spicing it with indie and world music flavours. Thus this album comprises of a curious mix of original and traditional tunes and features an array of guest musicians, including Leonard Podolak (also producer of this album) and the members of Les Poules à Colin.

The title track, Auprès du Poêle, moves along with elegance and drive, and features a lovely scat voice/violin duet towards the end. Among many engaging tunes, my favourite were tracks 4, 5 and 6. When First I Came To Caledonia is a beautifully arranged traditional Cape Breton ballad – the dark viola timbre and the mellow voice add the melancholy touch. Shoot the Moon, one of the original tunes, has a few world music twists and a beautiful fiddle/percussion episode. Finally, Maluron Lurette, starts with a solitary melody that continues through progression of instruments and voices.

Sizzling fiddles, dynamic guitars and banjos and ever driving percussion – this album promises and delivers good times.

Ivana Popovic

Concert Note: Ten Strings and a Goat Skin’s busy summer schedule includes three stops in Ontario – July 7 at Hugh’s Room in Toronto, July 8 at the Almonte Celtfest in Almonte and July 9-10 at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia.

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JUST IN: CORRECTED AND NEW LISTINGS

FEATURED LISTING: Music in the Square & Summer Concert Series

Summer is the perfect time of year for a road trip--and if southern Ontario features prominently in your travel plans, the city of St. Catharines has just sweetened the deal, with two free concert series in public spaces this year. The first, Music in the Square, promises free midday performances at the city’s weekly farmers markets, June 4 to September 24; the second is a free summer concert series, on various dates from June 29 to July 20 in St. Catharines’ Montebello Park. If you’ve been thinking of visiting St. Catharines lately, one of their concert dates this summer would make for a good time. Details below in our HalfTones listings.

Other new/corrected summer concert listings added online since our last print issue are as follows:

Series

June 2-July 24. Lower Ossington Theatre. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice. The Lower Ossington Theatre, 100A Ossington Ave. 416-915-6747. $49.99-$59.99. Days and times vary. Visit www.gogogojoseph.com for details.

June 4-September 24, 11:00am-1:30. City of St. Catharines. Music in the Square. Market Square, 91 King St., St. Catharines. Free. Visit http://www.stcatharines.ca/en/experiencein/MarketEvents.asp?_mid_=10054 for details.

June 28-August 30, 12:00 noon. Play the Parks. Dance Inspiring Fusion of the Americas. Trinity Square Park. Days and performers vary. Free. Visit www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/ for details.

June 29-July 20, 6:00. City of St. Catharines. Summer Concert Series. Montebello Park, St. Catharines. Free. Visit http://www.stcatharines.ca/en/experiencein/SummerConcertSeries.asp for details.

July 6-September 7, 12:00 noon. Play the Parks. Shapeshifting Classical. Mackenzie House,  82 Bond St. Days and performers vary. Free. Visit www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/ for details.

July 7-July 28, 7:00/9:00. #ClassyAF. La Rev, 2848 Dundas St. W. Days and performers vary. $15-$20. Visit www.classyafshow.com for details.

July 7-September 8, 12:00 noon. Play the Parks. Funky Lunchtime Soul. College Park Courtyard. Days and performers vary. Free. Visit www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/ for details.

July 7-September 18. Play the Parks. Festive Summer Streets. McGill Granby Parkette. Days, times and performers vary. Free. Visit www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/ for details.

Individual Listings

Wednesday June 22

5:00. Play the Parks. Play the Parks Launch Event. The Massey Hall Band. Trinity Square Park. Free. Visit www.downtownyonge.com/playtheparks/ for details.

Friday June 24

8:00: Toronto Creative Music Lab. Final Concert. Premieres by emerging composers and performers. 918 Bathurst Centre, 918 Bathurst St. 416-417-4469. $10. Doors open at 7pm.

Wednesday June 29

7:00: TD Toronto Jazz Festival/Lula Music and Arts Centre. Monica Chapman. Monica Chapman, vocals; Dave Restivo, piano; Alex Coleman, bass; Chris Wallace, drums; Nathan Hiltz, guitar; Rebecca Hennessy, trumpet. Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St. W. 416-588-0307. $15; $12(adv). Reservations recommended.

Friday July 1

1:00: University of Toronto. Canada Day Carillon Recital. Original carillon compositions, classical arrangements, folksongs and other festive Canadiana. Roy Lee, carillonneur; Joan Shaw, carillonneur-in-training; and Elisa Tersigni, carillonneur-in-training. Soldiers’ Tower War Memorial, 7 Hart House Cir. 416-978-348. Free. Commemorating the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

Sunday July 3

8:30: Hugh's Room. Harpeth Rising. "Chamberfolk" featuring violin, cello and banjo. 2261 Dundas St. W. 416-531-6604. $22.50(adv); $25(door).

Thursday July 7

8:30: Hugh's Room. Ten Strings and a Goat Skin: Album Launch. Album launch for Auprès du Poêle. PEI traditional music. 2261 Dundas St. W. 416-531-6604. $22.50(adv); $25(door).

Tuesday July 12

9:00: Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. Jazz Series: Julie McGregor Quintet. Featuring Perry White, sax; Kieran Overs, bass; Kevin Dempsey, drums; Matt Newton, piano. 10268 Yonge St., Richmond Hill. 905-787-8811. Free.

Thursday July 14

12:30: St. Paul's Bloor Street. Choral Concert. Works by Stanford, Elgar, Vierne and others. Downing College Choir, Cambridge, UK; William Mason, Director of Music. 227 Bloor St. E. 416-961-8116. Free.

NEW ON OUR WEBSITE

Watch the video of our latest interview with Douglas McNabney, on his final year as AD with Toronto Summer Music:

THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING

The current print issue of The WholeNote is a SPECIAL SUMMER ISSUE, covering June 1-September 7-- but HalfTones continues throughout the summer!

Vol 3 No 11: Monday, July 4

Vol 3 No 12: Wednesday, August 10

Please contact halftones@thewholenote.com with any HalfTones inquiries.

Douglas McNabney was one of the first guests we interviewed for Conversations@theWholeNote.com back in summer 2012. Last month (May 2016), on the eve of his final summer as artistic director of Toronto Summer Music, he dropped by our WholeNote office studio for a final chat – in this role at least -- with publisher David Perlman, ranging from the nuances of this year’s theme (Music IN Great Britain), to reflections on violists as artistic directors, to news of his appointed successor, TSO concertmaster Jonathan Crow ... and a whole lot more. Watch the video below:

Perspectives by incongruity 1

In this particular version of an ancient allegory, the Editor-In-Chief summons two scribes to his lofty perch and says, “Go forth and ascertain the health of the operatic art form in our realm during the months when shorts are shortest and the sun is at its highest in the sky.”

So off they go, and in due course they return and the one scribe steps forward and says:

“A peculiar thing happens each year around mid-May in this, the largest, busiest city of Canada: Toronto opera life all but shuts down, give or take an intrepid indie daring a short, early-June run. And the season stays shut until the latter half of September.”

“Aha!” says the Editor-In-Chief. “Thank you!”

Then the other scribe steps forward and says:

“It used to be that, come June, Ontarians had to leave the province to seek opera performances elsewhere. That’s not the case this summer, which is surprisingly filled with opera, especially with new ones.”

“Aha!” says the Editor-In-Chief. “Thank you!”

At this point, the Managing Editor, who has been observing all this with an almost imperceptible frown, steps forward: “They can’t both of them be ‘Aha!’” the Managing Editor says. (And the Senior Proofreader, who has also been observing all this, nods in almost imperceptible agreement.)

“Aha!!” says the Editor-In-Chief. “Thank you!”

Perspectives by incongruity 2

“Way to hedge your bets,” I thought at the time. If the global public does come to see how wonderfully cultural we are, mission accomplished. If, on the other hand, those of us who can’t afford plane and concert tickets get to take in some of the great art and culture of our time right here in our own backyard, then mission still accomplished!

(That being said, I will forever remain grateful for the opportunity to take in the Ex Machina/Robert Lepage production of Lip Sync at the Bluma Appel Theatre in 2009. It was worth every penny, at a time when pennies were still worth something.)  

I’m quite sure, though, that this ambiguity of mission has not served Luminato very well over the years. “And if they still don’t get that it doesn’t serve them well, then it serves them right,” is what I would have said, right up until a few months ago. But methinks, as Andrew Timar intimates in his World View column this issue, there may be some hope on the eastern horizon. 

The decision to tie Luminato’s fortunes to a single location – the decommissioned Hearn Generating Station in the eastern portlands represents for me, the recognition, finally, that the stated goal of attempting to turn the whole of downtown Toronto into a ten-day cultural wonder of the world has been as much of an exercise in futility as it would have been be to try to turn the outfield at the Rogers Centre into a world-class rose garden.

I don't know enough about the inner workings at Luminato to know whether this decision is a final virtuosic flourish from outgoing artistic director Jörn Weisbrodt. But bravo to someone for what is  simultaneously an act of humility and outrageous grandiosity. “Hey guys, we’ve decided to think global and act local. So let’s go score us the biggest honking locale we can!”

How they go about getting us locals to go there in droves (so we’re eventually worth some global gawking at, while we play) is another question. But, I say this year, give them the benefit of the doubt. Go experience the potential of the place – imagine, for example,  what a remount of Apocalypsis would have been like at the Hearn instead of the Sony Centre! 

Lessons learned:

Here’s to Brian Barlow’s Jazz Van during the PEC JazzFest careening around the county, stopping to unload sounds of brass into the Quinte roadside air!

Here’s to the visionary individuals in places like Elora, Parry Sound, Clear Lake, Indian Springs, Stratford, the Beaches, and yes, even downtown Toronto, who looked at some particular place, thought of some particular time, imagined the music that belonged there, and did something about it.

Here’s to all our future musical places yet to discover!

Here’s to open air music in all our downtowns, little and large.

Here’s to getting to recharge our musical batteries over the summer so we come back in the fall with fresh ears!

Last print issue till September

We are done in print now until the beginning of September. So now’s the time to register, on the front page of our website, for our e-letter, HalfTones, which will publish June 15, July 4 and August 10, bringing you news, updated listings, contests and links to newly posted videos, audios, concert reports and more!

publisher@thewholenote.com 

These boys of summer are members of Toronto’s Lemon Bucket Orkestra. They have lots of exciting reasons to blow their own horns, and no difficulty getting audiences to dance to their beat.

LBO began in 2010 as a four-person street busking band consisting of Mark Marczyk, violin and vocals, Oskar Lambarri, drum and vocals, Tangi Ropars, button accordion, and Alex Nahirny, guitar. In 2016, it’s now a band of 16-plus, rolling merrily into its sixth summer and gathering members as it goes, the way a rolling  ball of burdock gathers more burdock: vocals, strings, winds, brass, percussion, including a range of world/folk instruments. The music is every bit as vigorous as “Balkan-klezmer-gypsy-party-punk-super band” suggests, and so is their schedule.

Counting Sheep: A Guerrilla Folk Opera is LBO’s current performance project. It’s an interactive video-music-dinner-theatre play about the Maidan Revolution, which will be performed August 5 to 29 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival following its May 26 to June 5 Toronto run at Broadview Place. The Ukrainian polyphonic choral music, exuberant performances and powerful visuals offer a visceral experience of living with present-day revolution. Based on the 2014 Kyiv experiences of band-members Mark Marczyk and Marichka Kudriavtseva, the show includes the audience alongside the ensemble members in stylized white sheep masks – there is food and music and dancing for everyone, blurring the line between what is theatre and real life.

But before Lemon Bucket Orkestra takes off for Edinburgh they’ll be shaking things up here in Canada. They have Toronto concerts at Roy Thomson Hall (“Live on the Patio” series, June 23) and at the Opera House, with Romanian band Fanfare Ciocarlia (TD Toronto Jazz Festival, June 29) followed by appearances at eight Canadian festivals including the Hillside Festival (July 24, in Guelph), Ottawa Chamberfest (July 28), and then another concert at Toronto’s Mel Lastman Square (July 29).

Lemon Bucket’s newest recording Moorka, nominated for a 2016 JUNO Award, has just won a Canadian Folk Music Award – “World Group of the Year.” It includes folk songs the band learned on their last European tour from local musicians in Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, and Macedonia, but these are spiked and shaken up into the stirring musical mix LBO audiences now hunger for in Canada and around the world. By all accounts, no matter where the band is playing, people find themselves irresistibly drawn in – weirdly at home with and involved in music that is simultaneously exotic and familiar. This includes the passengers on a delayed Air Canada flight from Toronto to Frankfurt in 2012 who were treated to an impromptu concert while Lemon Bucket waited to take off for their “Balkan Station Romania Tour.”

It’s no secret that summer, as far as the classical music scene goes, is Toronto’s off-season. As Lydia Perovic points out in her take on this year’s summer opera scene, though (see page 12), Toronto’s musical off-season tends to be a lot longer than most. If they haven’t already, most of our local music presenters are now wrapping up the last of their 2015/16 shows—which leaves a good three months of limbo until the beginning of 2016/17 in the fall.

Of course, that implies that the city falls silent for most of June, July and August—which is far from the case. Summer music festivals abound, including local giants like Luminato, TD Toronto Jazz Festival and Toronto Summer Music. International artists often schedule Toronto into their summer tours and festival circuits, and local music-makers, who jump from gig to gig all year long, finally have the gift of much-needed time—to relax, or to plan projects of their own. And while the length of Toronto’s musical break might attest to the relative youth of our music scene, it makes these long summer months the perfect moment to look beyond business as usual, towards something new.

TCML: “Something new” pretty much sums up the motivation behind at least one of the musical projects in town this month. New this year, the Toronto Creative Music Lab (TCML) is a one-week workshop for early-career music-makers (June 19 to 24), where performers and composers are formed into small groups to collaborate on new works. Designed with the spirit of peer-to-peer collaboration in mind, the workshop focuses on building a community for early-career artists that is rich in opportunities for professional development. Full disclosure: I’m one of the participants this year. But – biased though I may be – during a time when the usual music scene is taking a breather, this program is just the thing to fill in some of the gaps, and build potentially fruitful musical relationships.

Composer Jason Doell and saxophonist Olivia Shortt, who are organizing the workshop alongside William Callaghan and Anastasia Tchernikova (Musica Reflecta) and Matthew Fava (Canadian Music Centre), are hopeful about what this project will do for emerging artists. “For me, peer-mentoring is essential for early-career artists and there is an opportunity in the Toronto contemporary music scene to facilitate these relationships,” says Doell. “While technical development in any discipline may be aided by the guidance of recognized experts, most professional relationships and opportunities arise within a peer group. Also…who knows more about being an early-career artist than those directly involved in being early-career artists? Peer-mentoring is a fantastic way to access the knowledge of people who are facing similar issues and obstacles to the ones you are facing today.”

“Toronto is abundant in programs for composers and performers seeking out more traditional styles of music and art practices but there isn’t as much for those seeking workshops that offer an approach to more current music,” adds Shortt. “Especially as a saxophonist, Toronto doesn’t offer much in the way of workshops and opportunities to network as a classical/new music performer. I’ve often had to seek these opportunities in other cities.”

A project like TCML couldn’t come at a better time of year for people like me. Taking place at the end of June means that TCML can create these opportunities in Toronto, for participants, who at any other time would be busy at work, schools or conservatories all over the world. And for both organizers, June offers a moment to reflect on the rest of the year, and put their observations into action.

“[TCML] fits in well with my day-to-day life,” explains Doell. “I’m a full-time composer and I also create music educator programs, so a lot of what we are trying to accomplish at TCML is in the front of my mind regularly.” And for Shortt, an incoming masters student at the University of Toronto, being on the giving rather than the receiving end of a summer workshop has so far been a valuable experience. “This is one of the first projects for me that hasn’t been something I’m organizing for myself, like a recital or a tour,” she says. “And there’s a lot that school couldn’t teach me, so this has been the most practical educational opportunity that I’ve been a part of.”

For my part, the workshop will be a refreshing break from my rest-of-the-year schoolwork, and a welcome challenge after some time away from my instrument. It will be, in other words, the perfect summer vocation.

The final concert of TCML, featuring all of the premieres workshopped during the week’s rehearsals, takes place on June 24 at the 918 Bathurst Centre; details at tcml.ca.

Of course, Shortt and Doell aren’t the only ones with exciting musical plans in the works for the next three months. After speaking with them, we were inspired to get in touch with other local musicians to ask them this one thing:

How do you make use of Toronto’s long musical summer to recharge your musical batteries  for the season ahead?

Here are some of their responses.

Name: Gordon Mansell

Instrument: Organ

How you might know him: Organist and music director at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church; executive producer of ORGANIX CONCERTS

Summer Vocation: “I recharge by pushing my musical limits, by going to Europe to perform organ concerts in massive medieval cathedrals. The tour this coming August will be the result of my third invitation to perform in Poland (2012, 2015, 2016)...I am often the only Canadian in a festival of European organists and of course, it is an honour that I do not take for granted.

I am energized by learning and preparing new music for my concerts. For me, it is not a rest at all but a change and an opportunity to experience baroque instruments and the occasional example of the continuing vibrancy of the North German organ-building craft first-hand. By the end of this coming tour, I will have performed concerts on 11 different organs, including one museum organ dating back to 1653 in its original state. Overall, these concert tours are exhilarating opportunities for musical and personal growth.

My itinerary for this summer includes the first concert in Słupsk (August 11) followed by a very special performance as part of the Fiftieth International Organ Music Festival at St. Mary’s Cathedral (August 12 – Koszalin) and the Cathedral Basilica of St. James the Apostle (August 13 – Szczecin). After these concerts, my wife and I will then vacation in Germany and plan to visit Bach’s hometown and church, and play the famous Bach organ.”

Hear him this summer: Before Mansell departs for his tour, he plays a noontime organ recital on July 20, at All Saints Kingsway. Details in our GTA listings and at allsaintskingsway.ca.

Name: Aimée Butcher

Instrument: Jazz vocalist

How you might know her: Performer at The Rex and Jazz Bistro; Singer-songwriter on debut 2015 CD The World Is Alright

Summer Vocation: “What I am looking forward to most about my summer vacation is a chance to create new musical memories. I have my first festival gig ever on July 31 at the TD Newmarket Jazz+ Festival, which I am very excited about, and plan to schedule a few house concerts up in northern Ontario around that date. I also plan to do a little bit of recording with a couple of bands that I am a part of, which is something that we had to wait to do until summer because all of us have been very busy throughout 2016. In addition to singing for some enjoyable gigs, I am looking forward to a reduced teaching schedule so that I may enjoy some time with family and friends over the summer, as well as taking some time to myself so that I may do some songwriting and planning for 2017.”

Hear her this summer: Butcher’s performs at the TD Newmarket Jazz+ Festival as part of the Sunday, July 31 lineup, at 3:30pm, in a set featuring songs from her debut album. Flip to our Green Pages (pages G1 to G10) in this issue to read up on what this festival, as well as 40 others, have planned for the summer ahead.

Name: Julia Wedman

Instrument: Baroque violin

How you might know her: Violinist with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, I FURIOSI and the Eybler Quartet

Summer Vocation: “Since I travel a lot and play so many concerts during the year, I like to have a little time away from that in the summer!

I love to recharge by filling my soul with beauty. I go to art galleries, gardens, beaches and parks. I look after the flowers and plants on my little terrace. I play music that I love but don’t have to play in a concert any time soon. I spend time with all of the people I love but don’t get to see enough during the concert season. A perfect summer day includes a little art, a little Bach, a lot of kids, a beautiful blue sky and a big long table in my backyard with way too much food on it, surrounded by beloved friends and family.”

Hear her this summer: The Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival runs from June 6 to 18, and features four free concerts by Tafelmusik musicians alongside students of the orchestra’s annual summer institute (TBSI). Details in our listings and at tafelmusik.org.

Name:Ryan Scott

Instrument: Percussion

How you might know him: Artistic Director of Continuum Contemporary Music; percussionist with Soundstreams Canada, New Music Concerts, Esprit Orchestra and the COC

Summer Vocation: “Summertime is very special to me and I clear my schedule as much as possible for several weeks. My overwhelming priority is to spend meaningful quality time every day with my three children (11, 9 and 5) and my wife, harpist Sanya Eng. In addition to many excursions and activities, we’ll spend over two weeks camping on the shores of Lake Huron at The Pinery. I find it is absolutely necessary to stop performing like this every year so that I can recharge – as former Nexus member John Wyre once said “the less music I do, the better I play.” In the background, I will slowly prepare a new concerto, some newly commissioned recital repertoire and convert my doctoral dissertation on the emergence of the marimba in Tokyo to a book. I will also return to the faculty of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada to coach the chamber music program – I always leave feeling inspired. Of course, the work at Continuum never really slows down, but thanks to new technologies, one can get quite a bit of work done while waiting for the fish to bite!”

Hear him this summer: The National Youth Orchestra of Canada will present a festival of chamber music in collaboration with Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, from June 22 to July 15. The festival will feature concerts by both faculty and youth orchestra members; entry for faculty concerts is by donation and entry to student concerts is free. Details in our listings and at nyoc.org.

Off-season though it may be, this summer offers no shortage of musical opportunities, for performers and concert-goers alike. Be sure to check thewholenote.com throughout the break, where, in addition to blog posts, concert reviews and news, we’ll continue to feature local musicians’ stories about how they’re spending their own summer vocations. And if you are a musician and want to share your own summer vocation plans, get in touch with us at 
editorial@thewholenote.com (attach photos if you like). The coming months are starting to sound a lot more refreshing, already.

Sara Constant is social media editor at The WholeNote and studies musicology at the University of Amsterdam. She can be contacted at editorial@thewholenote.com.