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The Royal Canadian College of Organists is the oldest organization of musicians in Canada, dedicated to supporting our country's organists and promoting the organ and its music to a broad audience. The College publishes the quarterly journal Organ Canada, offers examinations for organists from beginner to professional levels, and holds a major organ convention every second summer. The Toronto Centre has approximately 200 members in the city and GTA, and is led by a vibrant executive committee that meets monthly to coordinate and plan short- and long-term events. Our events this season will be in a hybrid online and in-person format, featuring guest recitalists, our popular "Phantoms of the Organ" concert, and the return of our annual "Bach Walk"; please see our website or Facebook page for the most up-to-date information.

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The Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall is “the greatest venue in this city” and “magnificent in its acoustics, as much as in its design” (Toronto Star). This concert season, you can enjoy more than 90 jazz, classical, world, and roots music performances - in the concert hall or live online - by extraordinary international and Canadian artists, including the annual 21C Music Festival. We look forward to sharing uplifting and inspiring live music with you!

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Nocturnes In the City’s 21st season presented three virtual lectures on Czech operas by Iain Scott. Excerpts from Rusalka and The Devil and Kate by Antonín Dvořák, Bartered Bride by Bedřich Smetana, The Greek Passion by Bohuslav Martinů, and Jenůfa, Káťa Kabanová and The Makropulos Affair by Leoš Janáček were admired by a few hundred Zoom listeners.

The upcoming 22nd season is presenting international star violinist Ivan Ženatý from Prague with pianist David Kalhoun in October 2021, multitalented Radim Zenkl (mandolin, guitar, flute, fujara) from California in November, second Czech dixieland band in December, and pianist Radka Hanáková, tenor John Holland, and jazzman George Grosman in spring 2022. Most concerts take place in Czech community center at St. Wenceslaus church on Gladstone Avenue.

Previous 20 season artists such as singers Eva Urbanová, Zdeněk Plech, Gustáv Beláček, John Holland, pianists Antonín Kubálek, Boris Krajný, ‎Jan Novotný and Slávka Vernerová-Pěchočová, clarinetist Joaquin Valdepeñas, as well as Panocha, Pražák, Kocian and Zemlinsky quartets were presented.

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Trio Arkel is a chamber music ensemble presenting classical music in the heart of Toronto. Leading musicians Marie Bérard, Rémi Pelletier and Winona Zelenka collaborate with renowned guest artists in three eclectic programs each season, performing both favourites and lesser-known works in concerts that fascinate and delight.

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Vesnivka Choir is an award-winning women’s ensemble established in 1965 by founding artistic director Halyna Kvitka Kondracki. The choir has delighted audiences with its rich repertoire of Ukrainian classical, sacred and traditional folk music. Vesnivka Choir, together with its partner, the Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir, are often joined in concert by area musicians and professional soloists. Despite the challenges of these uncertain times, the choirs have continued to meet and rehearse on Zoom and in person following protocols as advised by Public Health. We are cautiously optimistic that we will be able to present a three-concert series in the new year, starting with a Ukrainian Christmas concert on January 9, 2022, followed by “Kobzar: Celebrating Taras Shevchenko” on March 6, 2022, and “A Tribute to Lesia Ukrainka” on May 1, 2022. We are working towards presenting live performances safely and following all Public Health guidelines and hope you will be able to join us when we return to in-person concerts. Our plans remain fluid pending Public Health developments. We encourage you to visit our website for updates.

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Tapestry Opera is an award-winning Toronto-based company that is dedicated to creating, developing and performing original Canadian opera. Tapestry is passionate about uniquely Canadian stories, told in innovative settings, unforgettably interpreted by world class singers and musicians. Tapestry supports emerging artists, develops new audiences and brings Canadian opera to the world stage. Founded in 1979, Tapestry is the voice of original contemporary Canadian opera.

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“…chamber music at its evocative best!” – WholeNote 2020 review.

Pioneering tour-de-force Ensemble Vivant's innovative, genre-diverse programming is rich with passionate, deeply communicative playing that touches the hearts and souls of listeners of all ages. EV are Opening Day recording artists with 14 internationally acclaimed CDs.

“…the highest-level chamber music-making. No matter the genre, there is magic in EV's music-making.” - Jazz legend/composer Rick Wilkins, C.M.

“…beautiful, poised performances...capture the passion and verve…Wilson’s piano gives this music unerring drive and plenty of sparkle.” - Toronto Star

EV: Catherine Wilson, piano/artistic director; Corey Gemmell, violin; Norman Hathaway, viola; Tom Mueller, cello; George Koller, bass. Collaborators: Kevin Turcotte, trumpet; Mike Murley, sax; Juan Carlos Medrano, percussion; and many others.

EV’s live and virtual invaluable educational/performance programs for children (endorsed by the scientific community) are conducted through the not-for-profit registered charity Euterpe: Music Is The Key (musicisthekey.org). Euterpe’s vitally important work was awarded a 3-year Ontario Trillium grant (2020) and a Canada Council Grant (2021).

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The Canadian Opera Company is Canada’s largest opera company, known for its artistic excellence and innovation, as well as attracting some of the world’s best opera performers. The company performs with its own acclaimed COC Orchestra and COC Chorus., and its spectacular home base at the Four Seasons Centre for Performing Arts in Toronto serves not only as a national stage but local hub for diverse musical artists and creators that reflect the city’s wide-ranging cultural influences. General director Perryn Leech joined the company in 2021, forming a leadership team with music director Johannes Debus and deputy general director Christie Darville.

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SINE NOMINE was formed in Toronto in 1991 to research and perform music from before 1500, and has given concerts in Canada, the United States, and the UK. The members have varied backgrounds in vocal and instrumental performance (wind instruments, fiddles, lutes, and percussion), musicology, medieval history, language, literature, liturgy, and manuscript studies. In preparing repertoire, we draw on all of these specialties, and experiment with improvisation and ornamentation, as well as medieval pronunciations and tuning systems, hoping to create performances which are intelligible and enjoyable to modern audiences – and which would not have been wholly foreign to medieval listeners! We blend vocal and instrumental music from medieval courts and churches with readings, and occasionally drama, liturgy, or dance, to provide insight into the artistic and intellectual culture of the Middle Ages.

Details of our 2021/22 Toronto season remain fluid, pending public health developments, and will be announced at a later date. Our current project is a detailed exploration of a 14th-century Italian manuscript with an unusually rich combination of vocal music and instrumental dances.

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The 24-voice DaCapo Chamber Choir was founded in 1998 in Kitchener-Waterloo under the direction of Leonard Enns. The mission of the choir is to identify, study, rehearse and present outstanding choral chamber works of the past 100 years and to champion music of Canadian and local composers. Although there is still much uncertainty ahead, we are moving forward with a (tentative) 2021/22 concert season.

In November, we will complete the “Road to Refuge”, and introduce the year's environmental theme. The concert will begin with several reflective works, as we acknowledge ongoing global challenges and remember the personal and general losses of the past two years. In March, the focus will be on nature - particularly on our avian friends. In May, we will cap off the environmental theme with a new commission by Nicholas Ryan Kelly. Guest artists include Catherine Robertson, Miriam Stewart Kroeker, and Jennifer Enns Modolo.

During our "hiatus," we released archival concert recordings and "Garage Choir" recordings on our YouTube channel. And our NewWorks CD is available to stream on all major platforms (read the review of this CD in the April 2019 issue of The WholeNote.) Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @DaCapoChoir!