Beat Columns (Live Music)

Summer is theseason when everybody wants to be somewhere else. This includes those searching for live music — people who live in cities travel to villages and barns, lakesides and country churches; those who live in rural settings perhaps find the opportunity to make their way to city venues. This column is dedicated to helping you find your way to some of the wonderful early music events going on in “other” Southern Ontario places during the summer months.

Summer is a good time to be in Ottawa; with this city’s two music festivals, there’s a healthy offering of early music. The first of these, Music and Beyond (July 4 to 15), presents no less than 80 concerts; among them you can find such treasures as all six Bach motets performed by the Ottawa Bach Choir and its director, Lisette Canton (July 7). In a Coffee Concert titled “Four Centuries of Bach,” you can hear Bach chamber music performed by acclaimed baroque violinist Adrian Butterfield and several other respected period musicians (July 5). You can experience Handel’s Water Music played on a barge which travels up and down the Rideau Canal, with the London Handel Players and the Theatre of Early Music (July 8). Or you can attend a “Baroque Opera Soirée,” presented by The Theatre of Early Music, actor Megan Follows and five well-known singers: sopranos Karina Gauvin and Nancy Argenta, countertenor Daniel Taylor, tenor Charles Daniels and baritone James Westman (also July 8).

At the Ottawa Chamberfest (July 26 to August 9) there are further treasures to be found: renowned American lutenist Paul O’Dette presents a program of Anonymous, Bacheler and Dowland (August 9). The internationally recognized Gesualdo Consort Amsterdam presents “Sweelinck and Gesualdo: Masters of the Madrigal from North and South” (August 5). British cellist Colin Carr performs all six of Bach’s unaccompanied cello suites in two concerts (August 1). Les Voix Baroques present “Da Venezia,” a choral celebration on the 400th anniversary of the death of Giovanni Gabrieli (August 3). And on the same day, the Eybler Quartet gives their program “I’m Mozart,Too!” which features quartets by three composers (Bologne, Arriaga, Kraus) whose short lives and colossal talents were often likened to Mozart’s.

In the city of Stratford, Stratford Summer Music (July 16 to August 26) offers a myriad of interesting events, among them a celebration of the organ and a celebration of Bach. From July 26 to 29 there’s a “Young Canadian Organist and Heritage Organ” series (subtitled, “A Salute to Glenn Gould and the Organ”), during which portions of Bach’s The Art of Fugue, and other Bach works, will be performed by organists Andrew Adair, Sarah Svendsen and Ryan Jackson. The series concludes with an exploration of the hymn tradition as revealed in so many of Bach’s works, with organist Christopher Dawes leading a vocal and instrumental ensemble. On August 1, American pianist Simone Dinnerstein plays a program of Bach keyboard suites and partitas. Dinnerstein has an outstanding international reputation particularly for her Bach playing; she has been described by the New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.” On August 15, you can hear another mightily accomplished pianist, Canadian David Jalbert, who performs Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, with countertenor Daniel Taylor and baritone Tyler Duncan, give two performances of Bach — cantatas either complete or excerpted, plus other music — on August 18 and 19.

In the township of Uxbridge lies an imposing building: the Thomas Foster Memorial temple was built in 1936 as a family legacy by this former MP and Mayor of Toronto from 1925 to 1927. It was inspired by the Taj Mahal and Byzantine architecture, and features solid bronze doors, hand-painted and fired stained glass windows, and terrazzo and marble floors. Music is performed there every Friday night, and from all reports the acoustics are ideal for early instruments. Two concerts will be of special interest to the early music afficionado: On August 3, The York Consort of Viols — a quartet of musicians from Toronto and Buffalo — presents “Heart’s Ease,” a program of music of the late Renaissance including pieces by Caurroy, Byrd, Farina, Tomkins, Gibbons, Holborne and others. On August 31, the Shimoda Family Ensemble presents a concert of baroque music for recorders and harpsichord.

“Perched on the edge of a spectacular gorge and nestled along the banks of the Grand and Irvine Rivers lies the enchanting village of Elora …” begins the promotional blurb for the place that is home each summer to the Elora Festival (July 13 to August 5). On July 26, you can hear a cappella music from the Renaissance sung in a church setting, by the men’s vocal quartet New York Polyphony. On July 29, Purcell’s opera “Dido and Aeneas” will be presented in the Gambrel Barn, with the Elora Festival Singers, Festival Baroque Players and Noel Edison, conductor.

The above-mentioned New York Polyphony will go on to Niagara-on-the-Lake’s festival Music Niagara (July 13 to August 11), performing a vocal feast of chant, polyphony and renaissance and modern harmonies on July 28.

Another idyllic place to hear music in the summertime is Parry Sound on Georgian Bay, with its Festival of the Sound now in its 33rd season. Here you can attend two concerts of baroque music on the same day, July 31, as Bach and Handel concertos, sonatas and other pieces are performed by soprano Leslie Fagan, flutist Suzanne Shulman, oboist James Mason, violinist Julie Baumgartel and others.

In Toronto:The Gladstone Hotel on Queen St. W. is the venue for Volcano Theatre/Opera Underground’s production of A Synonym for Love. A detailed description of this opera/cantata can be found in Chris Hoile’s On Opera column this issue; I’ll simply say that it’s based on a forgotten Handel cantata Clori, Tirsi e Fileno, composed in 1707 and thought lost until the score was discovered 250 years later. It features three singers and a live baroque orchestra playing period instruments, and runs from August 20 to 31.

The Toronto Music Garden’s Summer Music in the Gardenseries is a cornucopia of interesting performers, sometimes by artists we’d rarely have a chance to hear otherwise. I have fond memories of past concerts: the Italian singer of frottole, Viva BiancaLuna Biffi, who sang her tales while accompanying herself on the vielle; also the tenor Kevin Skelton, a Canadian who lives and works mostly in Europe, with his lovely singing of sacred works by Telemann and Schütz. Three upcoming concerts will interest the early music seeker: August 9, Arcadian Visions: Montreal violist Pemi Paull performs visionary music from the 17th century to the 21st, including music by Biber and others; August 19, Nymphs, Masques and Madness: From Montreal, Les Amusements de la Chambre performs music from 17th-century Italy and England, interspersed with new music inspired by baroque forms by Canadian composers; September 6, “Bach at Dusk”: Baroque cellist Kate Haynes continues her cycle of Bach’s suites for solo cello with the exquisitely dark Suite No.2 in D Minor.

And finally, a delight:The winner of the 2012 Canadian Music Competition’s biennial Stepping Stone competition is Vincent Lauzer, a young recorder player from Quebec, who plays his instrument with amazing virtuosity and style and is already a multi-award winner. You might have heard him as a member of the electrifying recorder ensemble Flûte Alors! His CMC win ensures that he’ll be invited to play at the Gala concert on July 6, at the MacMillan Theatre, U of T Faculty of Music. You might see me there!

And so, whether or not you go “somewhere else” to find it, I wish you all a happy summer full of music. 

Simone Desilets is a long-time contributor to The WholeNote in several capacities who plays the viola da gamba.  She can be contacted at earlymusic@thewholenote.com.

Many choirs are typically on hiatus during the summer. Below are some choral concerts taking place in July and August.

The Elora Festival, built around the Elora Festival Singers, is always a rich source of choral music in the summer. Taking place July 13 to August 5, choral highlights include Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Britten’s rare 1937 opera composed for radio performance, The Company of Heaven, Paul Halley’s celebrated Missa Gaia, and a concert devoted to the music of American composer Eric Whitacre.

The Nathaniel Dett Chorale performs at the Westben Arts Festival Theatre — the Barn — on July 15.

The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir sings at the Ashkenaz Festival, which takes place August 28 to September 3.

The Ontario Youth Choir, a group that has fostered excellent singers over many years, performs in Kingston on August 24 and in Toronto, August 26.

In May, I wrote about a colleague who passed away suddenly, and about the bonds, loyalties and joys of singing that draw the choral community together. This month, I address an aspect of choirs that can be awkward, contentious, even divisive —the issue of singing choral music for money.

As a young singer who fell in love with choral music, I was in awe of the musicians who were part of professional choral ensembles. To get paid to do something that was so much fun seemed astonishing to me. When I began singing for these groups myself, I was gratified to be paid, but I quickly learned that this could not be my only source of income, and that I would have to find other work to put food on the table.

Looking back, what I find odd is that this simple truth — choral singing won’t pay the bills, and you will need more than classical vocal training to generate income through music — was never openly discussed, not by singers, conductors, arts administrators or vocal teachers. The subject remains a delicate one. Why is this the case?

Perhaps in a well-meaning attempt to encourage and foster passion for and commitment to the arts, or perhaps because open discussion about money is often considered taboo, musicians avoid informing their students about the often difficult economic realities of a career in music. Myself, I would never have become anything but a musician — the ability to count to four and a vague awareness of pitch are about the only skills that I possess — but being armed with the some hard economic facts about the musician’s life might have led me to make more strategic, or at least more informed, choices.

My own experience has made me stubbornly determined to be open with younger musicians regarding money issues — not to stomp on their dreams, but to help them go into their chosen profession armed with some practical knowledge about the different elements at play.

In the specific case of choral pay, one of the likely reasons for the lack of discussion may be the awkward fact that it lags behind pay for other musicians. The choral ensembles, churches and synagogues in the Southern Ontario region that pay choral singers generally do so at the rate of $20–$30/hr. Most professional ensembles are in the $24–$28/hr range. By contrast, unionized opera choruses pays between $31–$38/hr. The minimum rate of pay for instrumentalists of all kinds, according the Toronto Musicians’ Association, is $42/hr for a minimum two-hour rehearsal call, and $50/hr for a minimum three-hour performance call.

Whether instrumentalists always get this minimum rate is another question entirely. The point for this discussion is that  our most accomplished choral ensembles often pay a significant amount less per hour than the minimum rate of pay for an orchestral instrumentalist or unionized opera chorus singer. An experienced choral singer performing a two hours-plus Messiahconcert filled with grueling choruses will get paid half of what the trumpeter and percussionist, fresh out of school, get paid for playing in three or four movements comprising 12 to 14 minutes of music.

Still, is this discrepancy truly a problem? With so many singers ready, willing and eager to sing for free, shouldn’t hired singers be grateful for whatever they can get? There are parts of the world in which the idea of a paid choral singer is unheard of.

My own opinion in this matter — tiresomely obvious to anyone who spends more than ten minutes in my presence — matters less than yours, and anyone else’s involved or interested in choral singing. But since you ask, my belief is that choral singing in Ontario — so accomplished in so many ways — could certainly stand to take a professional leap forward. Why should choral singing not be a skilled and specialized métier, a viable career choice, rather than a very poor second to soloist work?

Open, public discussion of this question might offer some creative solutions. What follows are a few statements and suggestions for dialogue , debate and possible action for those involved in choral training and performance.

Organizations that hire choral singers have a ethical responsibility to pay them equitably. This is easier said than done, of course — in many cases it would require some groups to extensively revise their business model. But choirs regularly manage to pay market prices for instrumentalists, venue rental, advertising, administrative needs, technical needs and other expenses; should they not do the same with the employees whose work defines the very nature of the organization?

At the same time, singers should become more exacting in the two ways that count most for a professional musician: being at an engagement promptly, and being able to execute music accurately and stylishly in the shortest amount of time. Choral musicians often come up dismayingly short in these areas. One cannot demand a professional rate of pay if the service delivered is not up to the best professional standard. And speaking of professional standards, strong choral skills — sight-reading, chiefly — could be much more emphasized in voice training than they are currently, if singers are going to be able to solicit paid chorus work.

Music teachers, universities, colleges and conservatories ought to be very clear about what options and opportunities truly exist for the singers that they graduate every year. Voice students should be learning skills and techniques that will broaden their knowledge base beyond a narrow focus on vocal technique and classical music, to encompass other skills that help them find work in a variety of professional areas.

Grants bodies and unions can raise awareness of this issue, by noting the hourly rate or general compensation parameters of other performers, and by helping to promote and foster the idea of parity for choral singers.

Audience members can raise this issue with arts organizations, grants bodies and governments. Individual and corporate donors can insist that the amount of money given will be dependent on a certain amount of it going directly to singers’ compensation.

More than anything, all parties involved may start talking and sharing information, to begin to come up with their own solutions. Now and then, choral singers have been known to complain about the organizations they work for. For all I know, those who run these organizations are griping about their hired singers as well. Isn’t it time to turn from private complaint to open discussion? It can only help the growth of skill, excellence and artistry within the Canadian choral scene.

If you would like to be part of what I hope will be a creative, good-humoured and energetic discussion, feel free to email me at choralscene@thewholenote.com. All emails will be held in strict confidence. In coming months, look for a choral blog in which open dialogue can take place. 

Ben Stein is a Toronto tenor and theorbist. He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website at benjaminstein.ca.

Well, the TD Toronto Jazz Festival has come and gone for another year and musicians have had a chance to “strut their stuff” and demonstrate their onstage personas. But one of this year’s daytime features was a series of interviews with some of the featured performers held on the main outdoor stage under the aegis of the Ken Page Memorial Trust.

This column is being written before the fact, but I hope these were well attended because they were an opportunity to learn some things about what makes the musicians tick, something about individual philosophies, likes and dislikes, and get a glimpse into, as the series’ title suggests, The Inside Track.

I shared the hosting of the series with artistic director Josh Grossman and one of my interviews was with veteran tenor player Houston Person.

Less known to the younger generation than say, Joshua Redman,Houstonbrings a wealth of experience to his music and the same sort of approach as big-toned tenor players like Gene Ammons, Arnett Cobb and Buddy Tate. He has carved a special niche for himself with his distinctive sassy sound and his expressive style. But to hear him put into words the same sort of things he says through his playing is an entertaining education.

I mentioned Arnett Cobb and Buddy Tate as being two of the great big-toned tenor players. They were also visitors to Toronto and both played at Bourbon Street, the Queen St. club, and one of four clubs operated by Doug Cole, who passed away in June at the age of 87.

Doug was an ex-policeman whose love of jazz was one of the best things that ever happened for the jazz community in Toronto. His first foray into the world of the jazz impresario was in 1956 when he opened George’s Spaghetti House in downtown Toronto. Why George’s Spaghetti House? Simple. That was the name of the business operating there before Doug took it over and he didn’t have enough ready cash to change the sign! It wasn’t an immediate roaring success but Doug kept the faith and eventually it paid off and George’s became a showplace for a Who’s Who of Toronto talent and, on occasion, a visiting out-of-towner. On weekends the music ran an hour later than other clubs in town so musicians could catch the last set on a Friday or Saturday. Regulars would phone in their orders, and their drinks would be waiting for them when they arrived at the club.

Doug opened another room, Castle George, on the floor above, with a house trio, then in 1971 he opened Bourbon Street which presented a steady flow of American artists usually fronting a local rhythm section.

The booking policy at Bourbon Street helped, I believe, to create an awareness of just how good were many of our own Toronto players. A second floor club called Basin Street also showcased jazz on a less regular basis and it is no understatement to say that Doug Cole’s love of jazz helped greatly to maintain Toronto as a leading jazz city after the demise of the Colonial and Town Taverns.

We could certainly use another Doug Cole today.

There may not be a lot going on jazz-wise in Toronto but August is a busy month for out of town festivals.

August 16 to 19 are the dates of the 14th annual Markham Jazz Festival.

Among the featured musicians are pianist Bill Charlap and vocalist Gretchen Parlato, Tara Davidson, Samba Squad, Three Metre Day with Hugh Marsh, Michelle Willis and Don Rooke, Jeff Coffin and The Mu’tet, and Kellylee Evans.

Entering its 18th year is the Oakville Jazz Festival, August 10 to 12, and the program will include Peter Appleyard, Joey DeFrancesco, Holly Cole and Tierney Sutton.

August 15 to 19 are the dates for the Prince Edward County Jazz Festival with Emilie-Claire Barlow, the Louis Hayes “Cannonball” Legacy Band, Tribute to George Shearing with Don Thompson, Reg Schwager, Neil Swainson, Bernie Senensky and Terry Clarke, and a Boss Brass Reunion concert.

I’ll close out with one of my favourite anecdotes from George’s.The story isn’t really meant as a reflection on the chef. He may not have been an escoffier, who would have been out of place anyway in an Italian restaurant, but generally speaking the food wasn’t bad and sometimes it did hit the spot, as the saying goes. But culinary mishaps can happen and this story does revolve around a steak dinner.

I was playing the club one week and two friends, Alastair and Vivien Lawrie, came in. Alastair’s name will be familiar to those of you who remember his jazz reviews in the Globe and Mail. Anyway, Viv ordered a steak. Now, granted the knives and forks weren’t exactly sterling silver, but her fork actually bent on the steak. So, Alastair called the waiter over and politely explained what had happened. The waiter apologized profusely, left the table and came back with another fork!

And no, we did not play All That Meat And No Potatoes.

This being a two-month issue, I’ll wish you an august summer and see you in September.

Happy Listening! 

Jim Galloway is a saxophonist, band leader and former artistic director of Toronto Downtown Jazz. He can be contacted at jazznotes@thewholenote.com.

While most of us might appreciate some structure in our lives, there’s certainly something to be said for having a little boundary-defying ambiguity in it, too. Take this column, for example: I’ve been at it for almost a year, and each month I grapple, still, with the “and beyond” part of its name. One of my first questions when I took on the beat was, of course, “beyond what?” The answer has been an ongoing, ever-evolving work in progress.

With that, I thought it would be interesting — and fun — to explore the “beyondness” available at some of the classical-music-based summer festivals and other events, in July and August. The programmers, curators and artistic directors of these events wrestled, no doubt, with the balancing act of staying connected (and true) to the classical music at the core of their mandates, while, at the same time, providing some “outside of the music box” programming, in order to attract festival-goers of all ilks. Looking through our daily and alphabetical festival listings, it’s clear they have triumphed: we have a summer exploding with boundary busting “beyonds.”

Beyond the Basics: Bach on the Banjo, and Tchaikovsky gets Uked up

Works by J.S. Bach have been heard in practically every setting imaginable, refashioned into musical genres too numerous (and, in some cases, too painful) to mention, and performed on just about every instrument invented. But I bet you haven’t heard much Bach played on the banjo! In its late-July, weekend exploration of the “dramatically different aural landscapes created by string instruments from across the world,” Harbourfront Centre’s “Classical IV: Strings” is giving us a chance to hear a five-string rendition of the Allemande from Bach’s French Suite No.6 in E Major BWV817, by Canadian banjo virtuoso Jayme Stone, on July 29, 2pm.This two-time JUNO winner (who recently performed at Luminato), is known for taking his audiences on a “genre-blurring” musical journey, bridging folk, jazz, chamber and world music. So, fasten your seatbelts, and enjoy not only the Bach but also a Trinidadian Calypso, Malian melodies and Stone’s own “tiny symphonies!” Along for the ride will be the stellar ensemble of Kevin Turcotte on trumpet, bassist Joe Phillips and Nick Fraser, percussion.

Incidentally, if your appetite is already whetted and you’d like to begin your “journey with Jayme” earlier, he’s at Summer Music in the Garden on July 19. And if gardens are your thing, Stone and gang perform at the Toronto Botanical Garden, July 26; (torontobotanicalgarden.ca/news/the-edwards-summer-music-series).

OK. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture?” Canons? A Bugs Bunny cartoon? Ukuleles? UKULELES?? That last thought clearly crossed the minds of the creative, curatorial trio behind “Classical IV: Strings.” As a result, Caroline Hollway, Tara Brady and Dalton Higgins have dreamt up the “Ukulele Project.” And the idea? To have a critical mass of ukulele players converge upon Harbourfront Centre’s Redpath Stage and, together, play one of classical music’s best-known pieces. Here’s their fun pitch:

“Dust off that uke and bring it down with pride to Harbourfront Centre as we attempt to bring as many ukulele players as possible together to play a resounding, uplifting and downright fantastic version of the ‘1812 Overture.’ Haven’t played for years? Have only just started? No worries, brush up sessions will be available on site and projected chording will keep everyone strumming straight. You know you want to!”

I know I do. The ingathering begins at 4pm on July 29.

Beyond the Concert Hall: Bunkers, Barges and Barns, Oh My!

And the award for the most inspired summer music festival venue goes to … Ottawa’s Music and Beyond. They’ve got an event happening in the Diefenbunker, for heaven’s sake! Not only that: they’ve called it “Beyond the Bomb: Music of the Cold War,” and the Moscow String Quartet will be performing (along with a few others), as you stroll through the entrance tunnel, the decontamination cubicles, the emergency radio broadcast centre and other areas of the complex. Now that’s “beyond the beyond” and I think it’s terrific! Music of the Cold War played by Russian-born musicians, in Canada’s Cold War Museum — surely it’s got to be the hottest ticket at the festival! Gear up for 18:00 hours, July 11.

Before hitting the bunker, you can travel up the Rideau Canal on a barge, along with the London Handel Players and Theatre of Early Music, as they serenade you with Handel’s Water Music, starting at 9:30am on July 8. Indeed, it’s Handel’s masterpiece performed as it was intended to be heard, and just like it was originally performed in July of 1717 — on a barge travelling along the River Thames, accompanying King George as he listened from the comfort of the Royal Barge.

Not to be outdone, Stratford Summer Music hosts an entire series on the MusicBarge, a floating stage docked at the bank of the Avon River. Between July 19 and August 26, at 12:30pm and/or 3pm, “BargeMusic” offers up an amazing array of music and musicians, including the Métis Fiddler Quartet (July 19 to 21), the Canadian Guitar Quartet (August 2 to 4) and the Heavyweights Brass Band, who graced our June cover last summer (August 23 to 25). Seating is BYOLCOB: bring your own lawn chair or blanket.

Back to the Canadian Guitar Quartet for a minute. Before they “take up residence” on the barge, the CGQ — currently in residence at the University of Ottawa — will be playing in a barn. On July 7, at 2pm, instead of your standard oinks, moos and baas, The Barn — primary venue for Westben’s Concerts at the Barn series in Campbellford (July 1 to August 5) — will be alive with the sounds of Rossini, Gabrielli, Roux and original compositions performed by the CGQ. (And once they’ve braved the barn and the barge, CGQ members Julien Bisaillon, Philip Candelaria, Bruno Roussel and Louis Trépanier will perform in the relative safety of the Church of St. John the Evangelist, at Ottawa Chamberfest, August 8.)

Additional barn alert: there’ll be Beethoven in The Barn, along with Mozart, on July 17; concerts held at Festival Alexandria’s Festival Barn (July 8, 15 and 22 — see Beyond GTA listings) featuring works by Debussy, Gershwin, Corigliano, Delibes and others; and the Music in the Barns Chamber Ensemble performing works by Oesterle, Godin and Mozart at Artscape Wychwood Barns Main Space, July 5.

Beyond the Blackboard: not your typical
classroom music lessons

I began by applauding the creativity of the “Classical IV: Strings” curatorial team, and that’s where I’m going to end. This time they’ve moved from the ridiculous — the “good” kind, of Bach-friendly banjos and unifying ukuleles — to the sublime: The Hammer Band — From Violence to Violins (THB).

Renowned Canadian violinist Moshe Hammer, the driving force behind THB, told the Globe and Mail last month that it “started with Toronto’s ‘Summer of the Gun’ in 2005, when it seemed like dozens of kids were shooting each other almost every day. I was losing sleep thinking about the young teens carrying weapons around. Then I thought of the fact that ‘violence’ and ‘violins’ sound almost the same.”

And from that “crazy idea,” THB was born. Knowing music’s power to change lives and develop one’s sensitivity, self-esteem, sense of accomplishment, and appreciation of community, Hammer and a dedicated staff have been providing free music lessons to at-risk kids from a diversity of backgrounds since 2007. Starting with two schools and 40 students, THB now teaches about 300 students in 15 Toronto public schools; it also provides the free violins. And while the program initially offered only violin lessons, it now includes cello classes, a summer music program and masterclasses!

We’ll have the pleasure and privilege of experiencing the fruits of this extraordinary labour of love and commitment when THB students, joined by Cuban-born violinist Yosvani Castaneda, perform at Harbourfront Centre on July 29 from 4pm to 6pm.

Curators Hollway, Brady and Higgins offer a thoughtful approach to the weekend: “Be prepared to open your ears, drop your misconceptions and discover new and ancient heartwarming resonances.” What could be more inviting?

So take time in July and August to explore the mountains of music happening beyond the comfort zone of the concert hall. May you have a truly ear-opening, “Classical and Beyond” summer.

Sharna Searle trained as a musician and lawyer, practised a lot more piano than law and is listings editor at The WholeNote. She can be contacted at classicalbeyond@thewholenote.com.

Let me say at the outset that it has been a great pleasure to have had custodianship of this column for the past season, not least because it has drawn me out to a considerably broader range of musical events than I would, by default, have tended toward. I think this is because human nature is both inherently spiritual and very timid. Most of us, individually, hunger musically for some highly personal mixture of continuity and change — enough of the former so that we itch for the latter; enough of the latter to able to listen fresh, over and over again, to the tried and true.

I had an interesting chat, June 20, for The WholeNote’s video series Conversations@thewholenote.com, with Josh Grossman, whose own musical practices and pursuits are an interesting amalgam. He is, as you may know, the artistic director of Toronto Downtown Jazz, long-time presenter of the TD Toronto Jazz Festival, and the founder/artistic director of the Toronto Jazz Orchestra. (And the video chat is mostly about these aspects of what he does.) But he has also been for five years or so, involved administratively with Continuum Contemporary Music, one of the city’s most consistently innovative new music ensembles, and as far from his jazz roots, at least at first glance, as you might imagine. In the last five or six minutes of our conversation, he talked a bit about where the two passions intersect. Jazz, his first and abiding musical love, gives him a frame of reference (albeit not necessarily the “right one”) for listening to a genre that for him is less visceral and immediate. But his work in new music has given him a much stronger perspective on where the two musics most clearly intersect, in the realm of improvisation. And, more mundane but no less important, he is better able to see how jazz and new music both must struggle endlessly upward on mainstream music’s relentless down escalator. Consequently, he can see ways for the them to collaborate on a whole range of sensible topics, such as space sharing and building various common resources. Have a listen to the chat. It is one of a number of such conversations with musically interesting people accruing on our YouTube site (youtube.com/thewholenote).

Still on the topic of intersections is the annual new music festival/event that actually goes by that name. It’s awfully early to be talking about it now (it takes place in and around the September 1 weekend). But if I don’t give it a decent plug now, it will fall through the cracks of this column. Intersectionsis an annual event, brainchild of Contact Contemporary Music’s Jerry Pergolesi, that centres, first Saturday of September, on Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto’s mother of all intersections.

For a venue that thrives on such mass spectacles as rock band singers being crowd-surfed in hamsterballs by screaming fans lined up in the tens of thousands, a new music marathon requiring a certain amount of focused listening seems a bit of a stretch. But in the interplay between people’s usual expectations for the venue, and what Intersections brings to the place, the sparks can fly. Well-supported by Toronto’s New Music presenters and fellow travellers such as The WholeNote, there’s much in the event to see and hear, onstage and in the temporary new music marketplace that will dot the square.

And since we are on the subject of outdoor venues, a tip of the hat to Tamara Bernstein, mentioned also in our cover story, who curates another of Toronto’s signature outdoor series namely Harbourfront’s Summer Music in the Garden, at the foot of Spadina Avenue. “By now you should have received Harbourfront’s media release about this year’s Summer Music in the Garden,” she writes. “I just wanted to follow up with a more focussed list of the new music on this summer’s roster, as it’s a very rich season in that regard, with performances ranging from Rick Sacks’ playful “En Bateau,” to a new work from Linda C. Smith inspired by the baroque tune “La Folia” (“madness”) and music by David Mott inspired by the Toronto skyline, to world premieres by Norbert Palej, and Carina Reeves, and works by Michael Oesterle (two works!), Katia Tiutiunnik, Eric km Clark (b. 1981), Emily Doolittle (b. 1972) and Kevin Lau.”

What Bernstein has observed, and indeed helped to inspire, is the extent to which the summer itself encourages performers and audiences alike, to modify their usual balance of continuity and change, to indulge the unexpected, to linger longer at unfamiliar intersections of sound. Consult the GTA Listings in this issue (Thursdays and Sundays) for Bernstein’s intriguing take on where the familiar and the new best intersect when summer’s spirit of adventure is in the air.

You may recall that last month I talked about New Adventures in Sound Art as an organization walking a compositional and artistic tightrope, somewhere at the intersection between music and noise. No coincidence that the summer is one of their favourite seasons. Too late for our listings, but too good to overlook came word of this summer’s NAISA activities. So I recommend that you visit www.naisa.ca for a comprehensive overview of their doings, including their annual Toronto Island installation, this year featuring a piece called Synthecycltron by Barry Prophet, their Sound Travels Festival of Sound Art August 4 to 31, 2012, and this year including the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium (August 13 to 18). 

David Perlman has been, for this past season, the patroller of The WholeNote’s new music beat. He can be contacted at publisher@thewholenote.com.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when Toronto in the summer was a cultural desert and if one wanted to see or hear anything, one had to go to the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-theLake or to Stratford for either the Stratford Shakespeare Festival or Stratford Summer Music. That changed when Soulpepper began its summer season and when the Toronto Summer Music Festival opened. This year the festival will present two outstanding singers: the bass-baritone Gerald Finley and the tenor Colin Ainsworth.

Finley has sung in opera and in concert in many cities: he is especially well known as a Mozart singer, particularly in the role of Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and the title role in Don Giovanni, both of which he has performed in many of the world’s leading opera houses. He has also sungthe title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Hans Sachs in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger at Glyndebourne. As a recitalist he is especially well known for his performance of Schumann’s Dichterliebe. In recent years he performed in Toronto twice: in May 2010 he gave a recital with the pianist Julius Drake (Schumann, Ravel, Barber, Ives) and last February he took part in the Aldeburgh Connection’s 30th anniversary gala. Finley’s recital for this year’s Toronto Summer Music is on July 18 at 7:30pm (Koerner Hall, Royal Conservatory) when he and pianist Stephen Ralls will perform a recital that begins with Carl Loewe and ends with Benjamin Britten. Finley will also give a masterclass (July 19 at 10am, Walter Hall, U of T Faculty of Music). He will sing baritone arias at Westben in Campbellford on July 22 at 2pm. He has made a number of CDs and DVDs. I would particularly recommend the DVD of the Helsinki production of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin. This opera was done by the COC last season (the baritone part was taken by Russell Braun). Although musically the Toronto performance was also very good, it was hampered by too busy a production; by contrast the Helsinki production by Peter Sellars was much sparer and that brought out the tragic quality of the story much better. Finley will be back in Toronto in May 2013 to sing in Brahms’ German Requiem with the Toronto Symphony.

In last month’s column I speculated that many bands in our area would have a wide variety of events for the summer months. Nothing like the way it was,of course, when I started playing in a band many years ago, shortly after the dinosaurs had departed from the local scene. For us back then it was all about band tattoos in towns throughout Southwestern Ontario. There were the boys bands and the company bands (both now almost extinct) and the town bands. I remember well the Pressey Transport Company band, the Chatham Kiltie band and, most impressive of all, the White Rose Oil Company band from Petrolia, Ontario, in their elegant white uniforms. At the end of the summer it was, more often than not, the long bus trip to the Canadian National Exhibition to compete with other bands on the old North Bandstand. Local town band tattoos are now very rare, and the CNE no longer hosts such band events, but I had an inkling it would be a summer of relative plenty. So I sent a brief survey questionnaire to a number of bands located within an hour’s drive of Toronto. Are they travelling far afield for special events or are they hosting concerts on home territory?

Initially there was little response. So little, in fact that I started a “Plan B” column about a couple of events in which I was involved since last month’s column was written. The first of these was the York University Concert Band Festival. A series of individual workshops in the morning was followed by band workshops with coaching from a York University professor. This was followed by a reception where keynote speaker Bobby Herriot regaled the participants in his inimitable style. His very appropriate topic: Benefits of Being Involved in a Community Band. During the evening each of the participating bands performed short concerts with members of the other bands in the audience. The entire event was organized by York University music graduate students. Let’s hope that this will be the first of many such events.

The second event was a concert entitled “The Beat Goes On and on …” by the Toronto New Horizons Bands. Started in September 2010 with one daytime band, the local New Horizons program now has grown to two daytime and two evening bands. For their end of season event they returned to the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio. In the formative stages I watched many people checking out various instruments to determine which should become their musical soul mate. Now, with over 80 members in the four groups, the spectrum of required instrumentation is well covered. Yes, they even have oboe, bassoon and bass clarinet, but alas the tuba has been neglected. So, you guessed it, yours truly was invited to participate as a guest. What an experience to play with each of the four groups individually, and then with all 80-plus members on stage. I didn’t see an empty seat in the hall. There were a lot of very proud family members in the audience that night.

So, what do our community bands do during the summer months?

Just as I was about to give up, the flood gates opened. From a new band less than a year old to one celebrating 140 continuous years of serving its community, they responded. Rather than risk any suggestion of favouritism, here is a synopsis in alphabetical order.

The Aurora Community Band, still in its first year of operation, has performances slated for the Aurora Farmer’s Market and a more formal concert at Trinity Church, Aurora.

The Brampton Concert Band and their companion Jazz Mechanics group have a host of special events in and around Brampton in addition to their regular Thursday Night Concert Series in Gage Park. As well as the regular concert series, the Jazz Mechanics Big Band will be playing at The Rex in Toronto and at the 24th annual Beaches International Jazz Festival. The Brampton Concert Band will also be hosting the Rocky Mountain Concert Band from Calgary. One of their last concerts will be entitled “O Canada: A Memoir” featuring the Pipes and Drums of the Lorne Scots.

The Clarington Concert Band has announced appearances in Port Hope, Orono and Bowmanville, so far.

The Columbus Centre Concert Band, now completing its second year, will be at Vaughan City Hall for Heritage Month on June 2, and then off to the Waupoos Winery in Prince Edward County for a wine and cheese celebration the following day. In July they will present a series of outdoor concerts at Villa Colombo in Toronto.

The Festival Wind Orchestra will present the final concert of its 15th anniversary season on Sunday, June 17, at the Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis St., Toronto. We have not heard of any other events for the balance of the summer. The program, titled “Then to Now: Celebrating 15 Years of Music,” is a trip back and forth through time, featuring music that was relevant from 1997 and 1998, the orchestra’s first full season, up to the present day.

Grand River New Horizons Music is another New Horizons group serving Kitchener-Waterloo and the surrounding area. They have far too many events to list here, but a few highlights deserve special mention. Saturday, June 23 is the Teddy Bear Parade in Listowel where they will play at the park as the teddy bears are marched up the street toward the park. Everyone is invited to join the parade with their teddy bears. Canada Day sees them at Doon Heritage Village dressed as an 1914 costume band with players wearing straw boater hats. Men will be in long sleeved blue and white striped shirts and baggy trousers. Women will be wearing white middy tops with blue trim and long blue skirts. The band will also be in 1914 costume in Palmerston for that town’s 100th anniversary of its Pedestrian Bridge.

The Markham Concert Band will be going to the Orillia Aqua Theatre once again this summer and also will be traveling to Fenelon Falls for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Fest. Last year, this band introduced a series of afternoon concerts on Markham’s Main Street with duties shared by several visiting community bands. This year there will be a similar series but they will shifted from the inflatable bandshell on Markham’s Main Street to the Unionville Millennium Bandstand.

The Milton Concert Band is gearing up for a busy June and July with several performances planned for both the concert band and their swing ensemble; Then the band will take a rest for the month of August. In addition to their free summer concert series at Victoria Park Gazebo in Milton, they will be appearing in the Burlington Sound of Music Festival at the Burlington Art Centre. On July 5, they play host to the Rocky Mountain Concert Band of Calgary, Alberta.

The Toronto New Horizons Band, after its successful concert at the Glenn Gould Studio will be gearing down somewhat. After one concert at Ryerson University, and a band party, there will be a few sporadic performances at retirement residences with ad hoc rehearsals as required. The band is already receiving calls from potential members wanting to know when the next new band will be starting. The beat does go on.

The Newmarket Citizens’ Band started this season off early with a parade for the opening of the local baseball season. As in past years, it will be participating in a variety parades and festivals and will make their appearance again at the Orillia Aqua Theatre. Early in June the band will be leading a “Stroll” down Newmarket’s Main Street to the town museum to herald the opening of an exhibit featuring the Band’s 140 years in the town. More anniversary events have yet to be finalized. In the meantime, if you are near Newmarket, drop around and have a look at the band’s 140 year history at the Elman W. Campbell Museum located at 134 Main St. S., Newmarket; hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to noon and 1pm to 4pm and admission is free; call 905-953-5314 for more information.

The Northdale Concert Band reports only two major out of town commitments, so far, for the summer: an evening performance at the Orillia Aqua Theatre and a Sunday afternoon concert at the Stratford Outdoor Theatre.

The Pickering Community Concert Band, with many members away for most of the summer, has chosen to close down for the summer with no performances after July 8.

The Richmond Hill Concert Band will be at a Canada Day celebration for Richmond Hill at Richmond Green Park, and at the Markham Summer Concert Series at Unionville Bandstand.

The Scarborough Concert Band has told us of performances at the Scarborough Civic Centre and at a festival in Port Union.

The Thornhill Community Band will be performing at The Taste of Asia Festival, in the Markham Summer Concert Series at Unionville Bandstand and at Mel Lastman Square.

The Uxbridge Community Concert Band, now in its 21st season, is a summertime only band and they have just had their first rehearsal. As in past years their first performance will on Decoration Day at Uxbridge Cemetery with subsequent concerts at Palmer Park in Port Perry and at Trinity United Church in Uxbridge.

Definition Department

This month’s lesser known musical term is Tempo Tantrum: what an elementary school band is having when it’s not following the conductor. We invite submissions from readers. Let’s hear your daffynitions.

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

Last month i wrote about three cities, New Orleans, Vienna and London. This month I’ll add two more, Norwich in England and Odessa, Texas, as different as chalk and cheese except for one thing they have in common: a Jazz Party.

Around the 5th century, Anglo Saxons had a settlement on the site of present-day Norwich. By the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London. This year it was announced that Norwich would become England’s first UNESCO City of Literature. It is also home to the Norwich Jazz Party which was held on the first weekend of May and featured a line-up of prominent mainstream jazz musicians, including Harry Allen, Houston Person, Bucky Pizzarelli, Rossano Sportiello and Warren Vaché.

One of the welcome aspects of the jazz party is that musicians can make suggestions about what they would like to do. For example, Alan Barnes, a wonderful British reed player, presented a set of Ellington compositions arranged for 14 musicians; Ken Peplowski gave us a program of Benny Carter’s music, arranged for four reeds and rhythm; trumpeter Enrico Tomasso organised a tribute to Billy Butterfield; and I acknowledged the music of a lesser-known trumpeter, Al Fairweather, with a set of his original compositions. All of that plus the usual casual jam sessions made for a very special three days of jazz.

By contrast, Odessa, Texas was founded in 1881 as a water stop and cattle shipping point. Right beside it is Midland — with an airport separating the two towns — originally founded as the midway point between Fort Worth and El Paso on the Texas and Pacific Railroad in 1881. The discovery of oil in the early 1920s transformed the area and Odessa was a boom town. Things turned sour when the price of oil didn’t justify keeping the rigs going and the area fell on hard times.

But that has all changed with the price of oil now around $100 a barrel, bringing with it wealth and a major influx of workers. It has also brought with it a huge shortage of accommodation, so serious that there are even some workers making very good money but sleeping in their cars or trucks! No amount of money can pay for housing that doesn’t exist.

However, for some jazz musicians the raison d’etre for Odessa/Midland is a Jazz Party. The First Annual Odessa Jazz Party was held in 1967. Then in 1977 a group of Midland jazz enthusiasts formed the Midland Jazz Association and their Jazz Classic was born. In 1998 the two jazz parties merged under the umbrella of the West Texas Jazz Society and this year marks the 46th Annual Jazz Party. Held in May, it is now the longest-running jazz party in the United States and this year featured among others — yes, Harry Allen, Houston Person, Bucky Pizzarelli, Rossano Sportiello and Warren Vaché, as well as your resident scribe. Over the years they have presented a veritable Who’s Who of jazz musicians — Vic Dickenson, Herb Ellis, Milt Hinton, Flip Phillips, Ralph Sutton, Joe Venuti, Teddy Wilson, Kai Winding, and on and on.

Incidentally, film buffs might be interested to know that part of the Coen Brothers’ Oscar-winning film No Country For Old Men is set in Odessa. Midland/Odessa is also the home of the Commemorative Air Force, formerly called the Confederate Air Force until it was decided that the word Confederate was politically incorrect. Its home used to be in Harlingen, Texas, and I remember one year when I was playing at the Jazz Party, a couple of friends from Toronto, Joy and Billy Ray Blackwood, talked me into going off to the  annual C.A.F. air show, after the party. So we took off, literally, for Harlingen and the air show. Well, as a certain Scottish poet wrote, “The best laid schemes … gang aft agley,” — come unstuck — for when we got there the air show had already started and we couldn’t land! So we saw fragments of the air show, but from above! (I did get to see the planes on the ground another time, and it really is an impressive collection of WW2 aircraft, mostly American, but also R.A.F., Japanese and German Luftwaffe craft. And you can find them in Midland/Odessa — as well as a great jazz party.

So there you have it: two somewhat unlikely places 5,000 miles apart in which to find great jazz once a year.

And speaking of planes in general, and WW2 aircraft in particular, I have another story or two from the Norwich weekend.

Train travel to London for my trip home had been arranged giving lots of time to make the 6pm flight, the last Air Canada flight of the day. About a half-hour into the journey we stopped at a little town calles Diss — no jokes please about diss and dere — and that’s when the day took a nosedive. A disembodied voice, (no pun intended), on the intercom informed us that the train ahead had mechanical trouble and we all had to get off, taking our luggage with us because they had to move our train out of the way so that a rescue engine could come up from Norwich to move the disabled one.

An hour and a half later we were still standing on the platform and I was beginning to worry about that 6pm flight; we were still a two hour train ride from London, never mind Heathrow.

To cut a long story short, what started out as a comfortable train trip from Norwich ended up as a taxi ride from Diss to Heathrow at a cost of the equivalent of $240!

Here’s where the story gets interesting. The driver, whose name is Barry, was very friendly and talkative. He mentioned that he quite often drove a lady who had been Winston Churchill’s secretary. I immediately knew who he was talking about and responded by saying, “Her first name is Chips, isn’t it?” The driver looked at me in the rear mirror with a look of surprise. “And her last name is Bunch,” I continued. “How do you know?” “Because her husband was John Bunch who was a wonderful pianist and he and I were friends.” A small world.

There is another twist to the story, though. During the Second World War, John was a bombardier in B17 bombers. On his 17th mission he was shot down and miraculously survived but spent the remainder of the war as a P.O.W. Fast forward many years. John and Chips inherited their house near Norwich and the first time they used Barry’s taxi service they drove past Duxford Air Museum. John asked Barry if there was a B17 in the collection. In fact they had two of them and he said he’d really like to see them some day. Well, for the next ten years he said the same thing! Finally Barry said, “All these years you keep saying you want to go to Duxford and it never happens. Let’s do it!”

So they got to the base and there sat a B17 in all its glory, with a film crew around it. They were making a documentary about the plane and our faithful taxi driver called one of the crew over and said, “Do you realise that this gentleman with me was a B17 bombardier during the war?” End result? John was interviewed and included in the documentary.

By the way, good old Barry made it to Heathrow by shortly after 4pm, giving ample time to check-in. And that was when I found out that the flight was late and there would be a two hour delay!

Some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed.

Don’t forget that the TD Toronto Jazz Festival kicks off on June 22 and the celebration goes on until July 1, Canada Day. Lots of programming information can be found in this issue.

Enjoy your jazz and make some of it a live experience.

Jim Galloway is a saxophonist, band leader and former artistic director of Toronto Downtown Jazz. He can be contacted at jazznotes@thewholenote.com.

Anniversaries are great occasions to celebrate success. Fittingly, then, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival presents The Pirates of Penzance, one of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular operettas, to help mark its 60th season. The festival has a long tradition of Savoyard successes, beginning with Tyrone Guthrie’s groundbreaking HMS Pinafore in the 1960s. During the 1980s and 1990s, the company’s innovative productions of G&S classics attracted a huge following, especially those directed by Brian MacDonald, the visionary Canadian choreographer who toured his Stratford production of The Mikado to London, New York, and across Canada to showcase the festival’s achievement. “Now once again we’re taking a fresh approach to this beloved repertoire,” says Antoni Cimolino, the festival’s general director, “one that will surely inspire a whole new generation of G&S fans.” Judging by the production that I saw in preview last month, he may be right.

There’s nothing quite like a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, of which there are 14, all written in the late 19th century for the ambitious producer, Richard D’Oyly Carte who, in 1881, built the Savoy Theatre in London specifically to accommodate their presentation. Although the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company closed in the 1980s, replications of its productions still appear world-wide, as do updated versions that reinterpret the originals to meet the tastes of contemporary audiences. At their core, no matter what style of presentation, all depict a comic view of human folly in nonsensical narratives that use satire, parody, slapstick and exaggeration in the service of an energetic romp. A pre-cursor to musical comedy, the shows rely less on dialogue and more on music to construct characterization and propel plot — scores adroitly composed by Andrew Sullivan to complement the witty librettos of W.S. Gilbert. Talking about Stratford’s Pirates, Franklin Brasz, its musical director, is quick to point out that “those witty lyrics are inextricably tied to memorable melodies.” He adds, “I derive great pleasure from Arthur Sullivan’s wonderfully crafted music: solo arias with gorgeous melody, rich choral writing, deceptively clever rhythmic playfulness … ”

Stratford’s Pirates provides an excellent introduction to the world of G&S by setting the show backstage at the Savoy Theatre where the audience can view the mechanics of staging as well as its effects — the rigging, for example, that facilitates a flying kite, or the moving flats that simulate a roiling sea. Ethan McSweeny, director of the show, and Anna Louizos, the set designer, incorporate concepts from the contemporary “Steampunk” movement into a design inspired by backstage images of Victorian theatre. “I was thrilled to learn more about these retro-futurists,” McSweeny explains of the Steampunks, “[and] their glorious expression of neo-Victoriana through the lens of Jules Verne. I think an important aspect of Steampunk is its effort to render our increasingly invisible and virtual world into ostensible and visible machines.”

The approach works well, allowing for a stage within a stage that deconstructs the technology of theatrical illusion even as it creates moments of high humour and memorable beauty. The ironies of the approach suit the improbable story of Frederic, an upright young man who, as a child, mistakenly is indentured to a band of pirates that later is revealed to be more (or less) than it seems. About to turn 21, Frederic believes he finally has fulfilled his obligations to his criminal comrades, and vows to seek their downfall, only to discover that, through a preposterous technicality, he must remain their ward for 63 more years. Simultaneously, he falls in love with Mabel, the comely daughter of Major-General Stanley. Bound by his sense of duty, he convinces Mabel to wait for him faithfully … until, well, it’s best that you find out what happens for yourself.

McSweeny hews closely to Gilbert’s book and libretto, noting that “I have even gone back to some passages that were in earlier drafts.” Brasz takes more liberties, using new orchestrations (by Michael Starobin) “that are respectful of the core G&S orchestral sound but add new flavours by incorporating Irish whistles, bodhran drum, accordion, mandolin, even banjo.” A few costumed musicians join the actors onstage but, for the most part, the 20-piece orchestra performs from its traditional location under the stage — the orchestra pit. As for the singing, Brasz confesses that “the vocal challenges are, well … operatic. With few book scenes, the cast is singing throughout the show. There is antiphonal chorus writing, layered themes, demanding patter sections (and not just famously for the I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General), coloratura, and cadenzas. The vocal forces are massive and demanding but satisfying to perform; and we’ve assembled an extraordinary cast …”

Indeed, Stratford’s The Pirates of Penzance is a crowd-pleaser that deserves all the accolades it is bound to receive — a show “respectful of tradition but absolutely contemporary at the same time,” to quote McSweeny. Something of the same could be said about 42nd Street, the other musical offering that I saw in preview at Stratford last month, albeit for different reasons. There’s a symmetry between the two shows that becomes especially evident when one views them back-to-back, a connection that suggests a possible reason for their being programmed together in an anniversary season. Each depicts theatre from a back-stage perspective that allows the audience to see the process of making a show. Whereas McSweeny chose the approach to help conceptualize his innovative staging of Pirates, Gary Griffin, the director of 42nd Street, had no choice in the matter: the book for the musical begins and ends on-stage.

42nd Street originated as a novel, written by Bradford Ropes in the early 1930s. Better remembered is the 1933 film version that ushered in the career of Ruby Keeler and introduced choreographer Busby Berkeley to the song-writing talents of Harry Warren (composer) and Al Dubin (lyricist). The stage version of the story that premiered on Broadway in 1980 under the direction of choreographer Gower Champion primarily uses the movie as its source, which possibly accounts for the flimsiness of the book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble. This quintessential back-stage narrative in which an unknown chorine saves the show on opening night after its leading lady breaks an ankle, has inspired so many imitations that its original impact has been lost to cliché — except for the tap dancing.

“There’s an old saying that when the characters in musical theatre can’t speak any more, they sing; and when they can’t sing any more, they dance.” So writes Gary Griffin in his notes for Stratford’s production of 42nd Street . “There’s a real desperation behind [the characters’] dance; they need to get a job in order to survive.” Indeed, the mood of the Great Depression gives the whole production an ironic, if not bitter, edge. When rehearsing “Pretty Lady,” the show they are about to open, the chorus dresses in various shades of brown. For the show itself, they switch to costumes of black, silver and gold — flashing more lamé and glitter than I would have thought possible outside Las Vegas. Literally dancing on coins in the number We’re in the Money, their tap routines become increasingly frenetic, a performance of urgency in which the sound of synchronized shoes is nerve-wrackingly loud. While the effect highlights the dancers’ polish and precision, it also demystifies the genre: this is an exercise in show business, with tap-dancing its tendentious technology.

Griffin calls 42nd Street a “noisy” musical, one that has “a certain brash energy that befits its subject matter.” Alex Sanchez, choreographer for the show, explains, “Gary and I were also interested in making it a sexier and grittier production, much like the film.” His biggest concern was the floor of the Festival Theatre which “after the show, is taken apart and replaced by the floor for the next production. I didn’t know what to expect as far as the kind of material they used and how the taps would sound. The staff and crew of the Festival … created a great sounding deck aided by floor microphones.”

Microphones also are on view in the orchestra loft that Griffin has integrated into the set design. “I wanted the audience to see and feel the presence of the musicians,” he explains; “it was important to me to put the musicians into the world of the play.” Michael Barber, musical director for the show, agrees with the decision: “I think it adds an excitement to the show not felt when the band is hidden from view. It’s also important because people see the musicians play — it reminds them that there is a live band — and that’s what it takes to make a show sound great.” The orchestrations by Philip Lang, written for the 1980 version, are reminiscent of the 1930s, he suggests, but “reimagined through the lens of 1980s Broadway. The effect is more glamorous and showy than trying to go period …”

For all its glitz and glamour, this production of 42nd Street is memorable more for its dancing than anything else. Peppered with popular standards like Lullaby of Broadway, Shuffle off to Buffalo and the eponymous 42nd Street, the score is as familiar as the narrative is known. What feels contemporary, even as it remains traditional, is the sight and sound of tap dancers filling the Festival Stage … and the reasons for their deployment.

Based in Toronto, Robert Wallace writes about theatre and performance. He can be contacted at musictheatre@thewholenote.com.

Perhaps it is the beautiful weather outside, but I cannot get my head around a way to thematically link this month’s concerts together in my usual artful, elegant, insightful manner. Forget it, I give up. Here instead are some column topics at various levels of quarrel-picking provocativeness. I invite you to use them as your own argument-starters with family, friends and colleagues. (No amount of bribes or flattery will induce me to reveal which, if any, of the following statements I actually agree with, though readers are certainly welcome to try.)

– Very few choirs should ever attempt to sing Bach.

– Choirs should rarely — actually, never — use a piano in rehearsal when singing a cappella music. Even when pianos are in tune, they’re not in tune. Pianos are to choirs as that big wooden horse was to Troy.

– Music died with Brahms. Pretty much everything composed in the 20th century should be avoided.

– On the other hand, most choral music written before 1700 is completely boring. Program it and watch attendance drop at both concerts and religious services.

– Why bother programming Canadian music? There’s tons of superior American and British stuff out there.

– Choral diction is a contradiction in terms. In this region you may as well stick with German/French/Italian repertoire, because no one understands what you’re singing anyhow. Seriously, what’s the point of drilling consonants on something like “She’s like the swallow that flies so high” when all the audience is going to hear is “cheese bites, marshmallow and Lysol pie”?

– The discrepancy between the quality of the awesome films produced in Quebec and those from the rest of Canada is so vast that it should make all non-Quebecois hang our heads with shame. (I know that this has nothing to do with choral music, but it needs to be pointed out wherever possible.)

– No choir should sing gospel music unless they can memorize their scores, clap on the off-beat and sway in rhythm. Kids, please remember — friends don’t let friends clap on one and three.

– The reason that none of the really good English music composed after Purcell and before Britten ever gets performed is because there isn’t any.

– Choral arrangements of music theatre songs are partially responsible for global warming.

– Choral arrangements of rock songs have been proven to cause cancer in rats.

– Choral arrangements of jazz standards are like bumper cars — a gag version of the real thing.

– The previous three statements are clearly written by a madman. In the 21st century, the benchmark for a good choir will be how well it can execute an accurate version of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder will be a distant memory. Actually, it sort of is that already.

– Choral singing in the Ontario region is not even close to reaching its full potential. The performance of one composition, and one composition alone, can achieve this. Tune in to next month’s column for what this piece is, and how performing it will achieve this goal.

Are you sufficiently provoked or outraged? Excellent. Just keep passing that good vibe on to all you meet, and my work here is done. The WholeNote takes no responsibility for the opinions expressed above, so don’t blame them.

Now, on to the concerts. There are a number of groups listed below that have either flown under my radar, are relatively new, or simply have not previously given their information to The WholeNote listings that are the source for choral news. In any case, my apologies for any former neglect on my part, and welcome to the column.

A number of these ensembles are based outside of Toronto, so if your choral experience is a Toronto-centric one — mine certainly is - time to get out of the city and get to know some of the groups outside your urban comfort zone. Incidentally, some of these choirs have the most awesome names I’ve ever seen.

I was intrigued and mystified by a group called That Choir. Googling that one was an interesting experience. It turns out that That Choir is an a cappella group based in Toronto, founded in 2008 and comprised primarily of actor/singers. Their June 4 concert launches their first CD, and features music by Rachmaninoff, Whitacre and Lauridsen. Information about them can be found at www.thatchoir.com.

Another prize in the naming department goes to the Sound Investment Choir, which sounds like a group of very cool singing accountants. Based out of Collingwood, their mandate is to foster choral music-making in the Georgian Triangle, the group of communities surrounding the south end of Georgian Bay. On June 1 and 2 in Collingwood, the Sound Investment Choir performs “Bernstein & Broadway,” a concert that includes Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.

Owen Sound’s Shoreline Chorus is another group from the Georgian. They perform hymns and gospel songs for their two “The Gospel Truth” concerts on June 9.

Ancaster’s Harlequin Singers specialize in musical theatre and other popular music. Their “45 Years of Broadway” on June 1 will be presented, cabaret-style, with the ability to buy a drink and listen. This is entirely civilized, and is something other choirs might consider taking up regularly.

Another similar ensemble is Barrie’s Bravado Show Choir, a group that is strongly theatrical in nature. As well as performing two shows per year, they also do community outreach work, and have a youth education component. They perform “Bravado Rocks!” on June 1.

The Ispiravoce Vocal Ensemble is a chamber group of 10 to 12 female voices based out of Mississauga. In the show-choir style that is increasing in popularity, they use movement and costumes to augment their music-making. On June 2, they perform “Voyage!,” music apparently inspired by the tango, flamenco, sacred spaces, secular vices and Lord of the Rings. I confess myself intrigued by the “secular vices” aspect of this program. Further information can be found at www.ispiravoce.ca.

On June 2 another west end youth group, the Mississauga Children’s Choir, perform “City Scapes,” a concert that addresses the experience of the modern city. The concert features a new work by the excellent Toronto choral composer Michael Coghlan.

This month it was a pleasure to discover a previously unknown local youth choir, the children’s ensemble from the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. The oratory is located in the west end of Toronto, and has a lively music program. The Oratory Children’s Choir performs music by Legrenzi, Charpentier, Schein, Schutz, Bach and others at a free concert on June 23.

At the other end of the city, the Cantemus Singers are based in Toronto’s east end Beaches region. This choir steps outside its usual focus on early music for “My Spirit Sang All Day!,” a concert of Victorian and Edwardian songs and anthems, including works by Elgar, Willan and Finzi. I confess myself a complete fan of parlour songs from this era — My Old Shako — is a personal mantra — and urge other concert-goers to sample the delights of this beguiling and sometimes quirky repertoire. The group performs on June 16 and 17.

Ben Stein is a Toronto tenor and theorbist.  He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website at benjaminstein.ca.