Blue Pages

Read Profile

The Etobicoke Community Concert Band is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2020. Unfortunately, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, we have been unable to present our 25th Gala at this time. The band consists of approximately 45 to 50 members, ranging from amateur to semi-profession status. We play four formal concerts each year at Etobicoke Collegiate, 86 Montgomery Rd., with a wide variety of musical themes such as broadway, Hollywood, international music, patriotic themes, Big Band and conventional concert band music. There are two offshoots of the concert band, the Etobicoke Jazz Ensemble, which plays music from Latin jazz to traditional Big Band tunes, and we also have a great Woodwind Quintet.

The mission of the band is to enliven the spirit of the people of Etobicoke by providing high quality musical entertainment. The mission is accomplished by: providing an opportunity for musicians from the community to practice and perform in a challenging and supportive ensemble environment with a goal of developing and enhancing the musical skills of individuals. Meeting the needs of the community through public performances which present repertoire with wide appeal that take place at a variety of locations throughout the community.

Read Profile

Founded in 1983 by music director and conductor Alex Pauk, Esprit Orchestra’s commitment to commissioning and advancing contemporary music has set it apart as one of the few organizations of its kind on a global scale. Esprit consistently collaborates with outstanding composers, and performs with first-class soloists and ensembles from Canada and abroad. Each concert season, Esprit Orchestra commissions, promotes and performs the work of Canadian composers, and features Canadian premieres of music by leading international composers. With a dynamic annual subscription concert series, this skilled orchestra presents music that is otherwise unavailable in Canada, always performed to the highest standards in the acoustically acclaimed Koerner Hall at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning.

Read Profile

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. Our 2020/21 season has been postponed, but we hope to present the concluding concert of our three-year “Road to Refuge” series (cancelled this past May) as soon as it is safe to gather in 2021. “Illimitably Earth” will be a full-on celebration of renewal – it will be a shout of joy (on so many levels!). We will include two extended works for choir and piano, with guest pianist Catherine Robertson: Srul Irving Glick’s celebrative “Triumph of the Spirit” and Thomas Nazziola’s “Another Spring,” a work that is absolutely on point as the conclusion of our three-year Road to Refuge project.

In the meantime, we are releasing archival concert 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!

Read Profile

Since 2006, Concerts in Care Ontario has presented programming that makes a significant impact in a range of seniors’ care communities across Ontario. Anchored at the intersection of artistic excellence and research about music and the brain, we curate series of turnkey concerts in seniors’ facilities, performed by top-calibre professional musicians. Concerts in Care Ontario knows that music can unlock the healing power to transform. Our concerts provide a focal point for building bridges between elders, caregivers and loved ones, while engaging powerful emotions which can activate memory and improve mood for seniors in care who may be isolated and withdrawn. As soon as Ontario went into lockdown in mid-March, we immediately transformed our musical services into digital musical content in two distinct forms to connect with seniors effectively:

• Live 30-min concert videos that bring specially trained professional musicians to thousands of isolated seniors through high quality productions framed in an informal and personal approach.
• Interactive Zoom Concert Calls including highest quality performances, plus live Q&As and conversations with the musicians.
• And Music Outside plus Concertmobile with Tapestry Opera.

Read Profile

Fine music is central to life at the Church of St. Peter and St. Simon-the-Apostle. Whether it is our own choir that sings services in the Anglican prayer book tradition – and whose calibre is such that it has twice been invited to sing services in cathedrals in Britain, most recently at Gloucester and Chichester in the summer of 2019 – or the many visiting ensembles and choirs choosing us for their concerts. The church seats 300 for a concert and has an adjacent hall, also with superb acoustics, seating 175 for a smaller concert.

Our 1883 Jacobean Arts and Crafts building (with exquisite windows, a beautiful sanctuary, and a cloister-style courtyard) sits in one of the most intensely interesting neighborhoods in the city. At 525 Bloor St. E. (close to subway), between Sherbourne and Parliament, it has old Rosedale to the north, multi-faceted St. Jamestown to the south, and a fever of new condo developments to the east and west. It exists as an oasis in the midst of this, providing space as well for local youth choral programs and music teachers. Please join us for services, or consider our space for your next musical event.

Read Profile

Steeped in musical heritage and assisted by a generous acoustic, St. Mary Magdalene offers a music program strongly rooted in the tradition established by Healey Willan. Every Sunday at 11am: Solemn Mass - the Gallery Choir sings a mass and motet from the west gallery, while the Ritual Choir sings the Gregorian propers from the east end. Both choirs rehearse on Thursdays. At the 9:30am Sung Mass, the SMM Singers sing a motet and lead congregational singing. Membership is informal: rehearsals are at 9am directly before the service; regular attendance is not mandatory.

One Sunday per month at 4:30pm, the meditative Solemn Evensong and Benediction is sung, preceded by an organ recital at 4pm. 

For information, please contact the director of music, Andrew Adair.

Read Profile

Enlivening Toronto’s arts community for 47 years, the award-winning Amadeus Choir is a semi-professional choir of auditioned voices from Toronto and the surrounding areas. The Choir champions the best of choral music and premieres works of Canadian and international composers through a self-produced Toronto concert series, guest performances, and special events. Known well beyond Toronto through tours, festivals, recordings, and national and international radio broadcasts, the Choir collaborates with many professional performing arts organizations in the GTA. In 2019, after celebrating the 35-year leadership of Lydia Adams, the Choir welcomed Kathleen Allan as artistic director and conductor.

We are delighted to announce our 2020/21 season: re:Vision - Choral creation in a new age. As the world rushes into an unexpected era, we present a vision for the future of choral music, leaning on the ways in which choral music strengthens the bonds that make us human. Our theme is “vision” in all its forms: envisioning and innovating the future of our art form, seeing through the eyes of diverse artistic creators, and a hopeful vision for a future where all people can raise their voices in song together.

Read Profile

The Aga Khan Museum explores and celebrates cross-cultural dialogue through the arts. A centre for innovation and creativity, the Museum offers unique insights and new perspectives into the potential of art and culture to act as a catalyst for intercultural dialogue, engaged global citizenship, and social change. Visit our website for the most up-to-date information on programs and events at the Museum.

Read Profile

The Kindred Spirits Orchestra has been performing to great acclaim, sold-out audiences, and standing ovations at the Flato Markham Theatre and at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts, as well as at the CBC Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. Highlights of the 2020/21 concert season include Bruckner’s First, Shostakovich’s Fourteenth, Prokofiev’s Fifth and Scriabin’s Second symphonies, as well as Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony and Wagner’s Symphony in C Major. We are thrilled to welcome back Michael Berkovsky in Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Andrew Ascenzo in Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1, and Christina Petrowska-Quilico in Tan Dun’s Piano Concerto “The Fire”. Ludmil Angelov will make his début with the KSO in Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Gregory Vandikas in Scriabin’s Piano Concerto. In June 2021, the KSO and Markham Contemporary Music Festival will return to Cornell Recital Hall for a series of concerts presenting pieces by Pärt and Górecki as well as Symphony No. 14 by Shostakovich, featuring soprano Stephanie de Ciantis and bass-baritone John Holland. The concert season will conclude with a performance at the CBC Glenn Gould Theatre and a Canada Day celebration at Unionville Millennium Theatre.

Read Profile

The Azrieli Foundation improves the lives of present and future generations by focusing its funding in education, research, healthcare and the arts. In addition to strategic philanthropic investments, the foundation operates a number of programs including the Azrieli Prize in Architecture, the Azrieli Fellows Program, the Azrieli Science Grants Program, the Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program and the Azrieli Music Prizes.

Established in 2014, the biennial Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) offer opportunities for the discovery, creation, performance and celebration of excellence in concert music composition. Two international prizes focus on new Jewish music; a third celebrates creating new Canadian music. Submissions are accepted from composers of all faiths, ages, backgrounds and affiliations and evaluated by two expert AMP juries.

All three winning composers receive a $50,000 CAD cash prize and are invited to participate in: the rehearsals and performance of their winning works at the AMP Gala Concert; subsequent international premieres; and the recording of their work for a future commercial release.