Blue Pages

Read Profile

Reaching Out Through Music was founded in 2007 with the goal of providing free, high-quality music education to the children and youth of St. James Town, a dense, underserved community that is home to thousands of ethnically diverse, low-income newcomers to Canada. Over the years, hundreds of children have participated in a variety of free arts programs including choir, piano, violin, guitar, ukulele, voice and, most recently, drama. Professional artists provide sensitive, child-centred instruction, and the children receive free instruments, as needed. The St. James Town Children’s Choir remains at the heart of the organization. Our recent name change from Reaching Out Through Music to St. James Town Community Arts (SJTCA) was prompted by the desire to highlight the community that we serve and to acknowledge our expansion into other artistic domains. The SJTCA team consists of dedicated professionals and volunteers who contribute their talent and passion with the shared belief that every child should reap the benefits of arts education and engagement regardless of their financial means. Visit us on our website and follow us @sjtca.

Read Profile

Music at Metropolitan has a long history of presenting a variety of choral and instrumental concerts and special events. During this time, we are planning online events; please visit our website and watch for Wholenote listings. Our planning includes “Friday Noon at Met” livestreamed concerts featuring our Casavant pipe organ - the largest in Canada - as well as our various singers and instrumentalists. Stay tuned! And please stay safe and well.

Read Profile

With over 150 singers, Mississauga Festival Choir is the largest and most spirited community choir in our city. We first came together in 1984 to celebrate Mississauga's 10th anniversary, and we stayed together to celebrate the joy of singing in a choral community like no other. Our spirited singing springs from our no-audition policy. Everyone who loves to sing is welcome to join us, and audiences hear the joy in every song.

Under the leadership of David Ambrose, MFC performs many concerts, raises money for local charities, records professional CDs, holds an annual choral competition and tours the world.

Read Profile

In its 47th season, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society is one of Canada’s busiest presenters of chamber music concerts with over 60 concerts per year, ranging from solo recitals to octets. Programs range from medieval to contemporary; most feature both classics and recent music. Almost all of our concerts take place at our Music Room, 57 Young St. W., Waterloo, in a private home - it holds a maximum of about 85 people. A superb Steinway piano, good acoustics, a supportive audience and an intimate but informal atmosphere make for great concert experiences. Notable performers have included pianists Janina Fialkowska, Till Fellner, André LaPlante, Sofya Gulyak, and many more; the Penderecki, New Orford, Alcan, and many other quartets; the AYR and Andromeda trios and many more.

This year we complete our “Beethoven String Quartets” series featuring the Penderecki String Quartet, with four remaining concerts at First United Church, December 16 and 18 and February 3 and 5. We hope to present three to four concerts per month, all at the church unless the pandemic ends and we can resume in our Music Room.

Read Profile

Counterpoint Community Orchestra has been operating as a community orchestra in downtown Toronto for 34 years. Formed in 1984, it was the first lesbian/gay/gay-positive orchestra in Canada and in the world. Counterpoint is a full symphony orchestra, and the programming is drawn from Baroque through contemporary orchestral repertoire. Rehearsals are at the 519 Community Centre on Church Street. The other pages in the ‘About Us’ section of our website give a more detailed history and description of Counterpoint Community Orchestra.

Counterpoint Community Orchestra performs three concerts during the season in December, March and June and participates in “Nuit Rose”.

Read Profile

Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra is a volunteer community orchestra that has been based in Scarborough since 1986. The orchestra presents seven concerts each season, including a subscription series of five concerts.

Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra brings to life some of the greatest musical masterpieces, presents internationally-acclaimed performers, and helps introduce some of Canada’s rising stars in their debut performances with a symphony orchestra.  Looking for an orchestra to play in? Send your inquiries to us via email.

Read Profile

The Canzona Chamber Players concert series is a volunteer community group, founded in 2002 by Jacob Stoller and Jonathan Krehm. Prior to COVID-19, live concerts were produced for St. Andrew by the Lake church, on Toronto Island by Roger Sharp and Jonathan Krehm, and beginning in 2012 for venues in downtown Toronto, most recently the St. George the Martyr church. Many of the live concerts were documented by Alison Gray (video) and John Gray (audio) and are available to watch on Canzona's YouTube Channel or on our website.

Since the onset of the pandemic, Canzona Chamber Players have been safely broadcasting recitals, recorded to the highest standard, made possible by technical wizardry of Evan Mitchell (video), and John Gray (audio). These performances can be viewed on our youtube channel. The concerts are free to view, and Canzona Chamber Players asks for any amount to be made to the St. Michael's Hospital Foundation COVID-19 Courage Fund at http://smh.convio.net/couragefund.

Read Profile

Based in Toronto, the Canadian Opera Company is the largest producer of opera in Canada and one of the largest in North America. The company enjoys an international reputation for artistic excellence and creative innovation. The company typically presents six fully-staged productions at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts annually. In light of current health guidelines around the spread of COVID-19, the company has created "Opera Everywhere" - a new slate of digital opera experiences that can be shared and enjoyed safely. The COC’s repertoire spans the history of opera from the Baroque to the 21st-century and includes several commissioned works and Canadian premieres. The COC engages professional opera artists from all over the world, including a significant number of Canadian singers, directors, conductors and designers. The company performs with its own professional chorus and orchestra. The company also fosters emerging Canadian talent through its Ensemble Studio, Orchestra Academy and company-in-residence programs.

Read Profile

Renowned concert pianist Andrew Burashko formed Art of Time Ensemble in 1998 by inviting a group of like-minded musicians and prominent figures in dance, theatre and other art forms to perform one-off concerts in Toronto. The company has gone on to become a leader in Toronto’s vibrant performing arts scene, through its subscription season at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre, regular appearances at Koerner Hall, album releases, performances with leading Canadian orchestras, and tours of its unique offerings to dozens of cities throughout Canada and the United States.

Exploring the relationship between classical music and other genres such as jazz, pop, electronica, rock, folk, electroacoustic, gospel and others, Art of Time seeks to reveal the qualities that lie at the heart of all great music.

The ranks of Art of Time Ensemble’s artists are deep and their talents unmatched; featured collaborators include authors Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, jazz legend Branford Marsalis, vocalists Madeleine Peyroux, Sarah Slean, Hawksley Workman and Tony Award-winner Brent Carver, composers such as Gavin Bryars and Jonathan Goldsmith, and many more.

Read Profile

Robert Missen, the Burlington-based proprietor of The Bobolink Agency, celebrates 35 years representing some of Canada's most distinguished classical and jazz performing artists, ensembles and attractions. His two artist management companies, Robert Missen Artists (1990 to 2005) and The Bobolink Agency (2010 to present), have arranged and promoted tours of such artists as Ben Heppner, Maureen Forrester, Veronica Tennant, Sylvia Tyson, Michael Burgess, Elmer Iseler Singers and The Men of the Deeps.

In the upcoming seasons Bobolink will be undertaking tours with RH Thomson (A Christmas Carol), Heather Bambrick and The Canadian Jazz All Stars, and musical theatre star Chilina Kennedy among others. Black Artists Matter, a special new roster, will feature attractions celebrating such esteemed Black Canadian artists as Joe Sealy and Jackie Richardson (“Africville Stories”), Thom Allison in “Unforgettable - The Nat King Cole Story”, Diana Braithwaite and Chris Whiteley in “Sugar and Gold - The Underground Railroad Story”, and special programs from the Nathaniel Dett Chorale and Toronto Mass Choir.

Stay tuned for a new Toronto venture entitled “Words and Music”, which celebrates cabaret, Bach cantatas, and art song recitals.