The Aperture Room is the crown jewel of a beautifully preserved building at 340 Yonge St., a couple of blocks north of Yonge and Dundas, designed and built in 1922 for the Thornton-Smith Company – an antique furniture and interior design firm.
COSE concerts all take place from 4pm to 6pm on Saturday afternoons, with the sun (if there is any) streaming in through the three recessed skylights that give the room its name. “The broad range of music, time of day, and the room aesthetic all contribute to the series’ popularity,” says Music Toronto’s Roman Borys.
With the music at COSE events being primarily acoustic, it makes sense to centre the performers on the long uninterrupted north wall of the room, with the audience radiating out in a semi-circle around them. “Not the exact centre though,” says Ken Rutherford, who supplied the photo, pointing toward the bar at the Yonge St windows end of the building. “It’s that wide open space opposite the elevator and stairs as people come in that defines the central purpose of the space – a room designed for people to engage,” he says.
The building has been in Rutherford’s family for over half a century, with his own involvement increasing over time. It’s no accident, for example, that he could come up with a photograph from a previous Music Toronto COSE event right away, when we asked, because he attends every event. “People like to meet the owner,” he says.
There are, consequently, only as many events in the space as he is willing to be there for. “Around twenty a year,” he says. “Well maybe 25.” And the events that happen there tend to reflect his own, broadly eclectic interests. He rhymes off a few: an S&P Global conference on sustainable development; a UHN [University Health Network] staff appreciation party; Club Canadien de Toronto; a PETA fundraiser; Rotary Wintergrow; Impact AI [artificial intelligence discussion]; Future Skills; Music Toronto’s COSE series: and (the event I first met him at) a gathering to hear a progress report on how consultations are going about programming Sankofa Square just down the street.
True to his “meet the owner” mantra, he was stationed between the elevator and the door to the stairwell, and the event illustrated his observation about the room’s design being conducive to interpersonal engagement: around 160 attendees able to move freely around or cluster as they chose; a comfortable feeling. And then plenty of room, once attention was asked for, to cluster, standing or seated, in the aforementioned semi-circle around the (not-quite) centre of the north wall.
Music Toronto’s COSE formula suits the room well; three concerts about four weeks apart, one each in April, May, and June; always two hours long, always from 4-6pm; always on a Saturday; and always two 45-minute sets, by contrasting ensembles, with a break in between.
This year’s COSE dates (third season!) are April 5, May 3, and June 7, and the pairings are as creative as ever. Check them out in our listings.
“The artists enjoy the challenge of putting together a 45-minute set” says Roman Borys. “It captures the spirit of the salon – as much social as it is discovery.”
A gem of a series in a jewel of a room.
Noteworthy
On April 9 and 11 Ron Korb (featured on pages 16-17) will perform in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Japanese-themed concert “Kimko’s Pearl and Romantic Treasures,” playing the Shinobue, a Japanese transverse flute, providing an entr’acte, between Takemitsu’s Requiem for Strings and the premiere of Kevin Lau’s Kimiko’s Pearl Symphonic Suite.
The TSO really has something for everybody in April and May: there are ten different programs, from masterworks to pops. There’s a performance on April 26 by the TSYO, a young people’s concert on May 4, and on May 28 you can hear a TSO Chamber soloists concert at 6:45pm, if you have a ticket to the 8pm masterworks concert “Beethoven’s Eroica.”
Orchestras: If you’re looking for orchestral fare on a different scale or outside of downtown Toronto, consider this: a quick search of our online listings at thewholenote.com/justask offered 21 different programs by 19 individual orchestras in Brampton, Burlington, Hamilton, North York, Oakville, Scarborough, Milton, Mississauga, Niagara, Stratford and Sudbury. Most of these are included in this print magazine, but new concerts are listed online every week. So you might like to sign up to get our weekly updates by email. thewholenote.com/newsletter
Below: Music From Earth and Beyond: Tom Allen and Friends Gallery Players of Niagara. Tom Allen, story teller; Sheila Jaffé, violin; Lori Gemmell, harp & guitar, in St. Catharines, May 11.
Chamber: Prefer a smaller ensemble? Chamber music is a very busy scene at this time of year. 5 at the First Chamber Concerts in Hamilton has three different concerts upcoming (Apr 12, May 17, Jun 7). The Gallery Players of Niagara have events in St Catharines (April 13 and May 11), with an adaptive performance (May 31). The Alliance Francaise de Toronto (Apr 24, Apr 26, May 3, Jun 7) has four interesting programs coming up. Have a look at Amici Chamber Ensemble (Apr 13); Confluence Concerts (May 2/3); Arkel Chamber Concerts (May 18); Friends of Music at St. Thomas’s (Apr 26 and May 9); Mooredale concerts (May 4); and Music in the Afternoon (Apr 3 and May 8).
Or select “chamber” for a search of our online listings at thewholenote.com/justask
The 2025 JUNO Awards were announced March 31, and celebrate some remarkable classical performances and artists that you’ll want to hear, or hear again
Classical Composition of the Year: “Angmalukisaa” by Inuk classical singer Dorothea Edwards. The title means “round” in Inuktut. It’s a personal composition about human connections, and you can hear it on a recording called Alikeness which features the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra Sinfonia directed by Mark Fewer. (Reviewed by David Olds in Dec 2024/Jan 2025 edition, and included in our online Listening Room) Leaf Music LM296
Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble): Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie. This recording by The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Gustavo Gimeno features pianist Marc-André Hamelin and ondes Martenot specialist Nathalie Forget (Reviewed by Daniel Foley in our April/May 2024 edition) Harmonia Mundi HMM905336
Classical Album of the Year (Small Ensemble): Rituæls (Reviewed on page 60 of this edition) by the Montreal-based string ensemble collectif9. This recording brings together music dating from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. originally performed as a live artistic and spiritual experience, and then a film-concert (released in 2021). Analekta. AN955
Classical Album of the Year (Solo Artist): Freezing. Mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo’s second solo recording includes 17 songs spanning five centuries: folk and art song, John Dowland to Philip Glass, and recent works by Randy Newman, Cecilia Livingston, and US band Ween. Deutsche Grammophon 4866571
David Perlman can be reached at publisher@thewholenote.com
