Beat Columns (Live Music)

DECEMBER: With minutes to spare, I pick up my ticket for Seussical at Young People’s Theatre (YPT) on Front St. and dash to my seat. The matinée audience of primary school students squeals and squirms with excitement, their eyes darting intermittently to the red and white striped hat that sits in the middle of the stage. I read a programme note in which Allen MacInnis, director and choreographer of the production (who also happens to be the artistic director of YPT), expresses his own excitement at remounting the show which was eminently successful in 2006 when he first directed it for the same theatre. Questions about why he is redoing it so soon are immediately answered: “I wanted to revisit the musical adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s stories because it is a perfect fit for a season of plays that are thematically linked by the power of change.”

How coincidental, I think: my late arrival at YPT resulted from a traffic snarl on King St. E. where the Occupy Toronto protest had swollen across the borders of St. James Park in response to a City eviction notice. More than seasonal change is in the air, a fact evident in much of the musical theatre on view during the next two months, in and beyond the GTA.

Settling into my chair to watch Seussical, a shortened version of the show by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty that premiered on Broadway in 2000, I didn’t have to wait long to recognize its relevance to the idea of change that permeates our current social climate. “A person’s a person, no matter how small,” Horton the Elephant introduces in the rallying cry in his very first song, Horton Hears a Who!, also the title of one of the stories by Theodor Geisel (Doctor Seuss) that the musical incorporates into its book. Although Horton is unable to see a Who, he can hear one, namely Jo-jo, a resident of the tiny world of Whoville who cries for help from her perch atop a speck of dust precariously caught on a clover leaf. Unable to convince anyone in the Jungle of Nool, where he lives, that Jo-jo exists, Horton becomes a subject of ridicule, suffering humiliating indignities that increase after Mayzie LaBird leaves him to guard an egg that she subsequently abandons. Captured by a team of mischievous monkeys, Horton is put on display in a circus where, despite his outcast status, he continues to protect Mayzie’s egg and strives to rescue Jo-jo and the citizens of Whoville in whatever way he can.

For director MacInnis, Seussical is “a good fit” for YPT for a number of reasons. “I’m obsessed with the ways in which kids come into their own power,” he explains in an interview, “how they learn to give and take it.” Power, he suggests, is as much a sensation as a force: one senses it internally and externally, and not just in relation to physical prowess. Horton has power because he believes in himself — in what he alone can hear. Because he senses the capacity of his belief to change things, no matter how small, his power strengthens and begins to affect others. MacInnis likens Horton’s belief to imagination, which is one of the reasons he includes a musical in every YPT season. “Musicals make the audience work — they give them room to fill in the gaps and make connections, to use their imagination in ways that naturalism doesn’t allow.” This makes them ideal for young people, especially those who let their imaginations run wild.

Seussical is a terrific show, and not just for kids. The physical skills of the cast, as much as their musical talents, maintain its snappy pace and help to elevate its simple staging to a sophisticated style that is as clever as Ahrens and Flaherty’s eclectic score which covers a range from rap to rhythm ‘n’ blues and even includes a lullaby. George Masswhol brings a melancholy resolve to his performance of Horton (along with a voice like an angel) that grounds the production with sincerity and compassion to which the rest of the cast play with confidence. His real-life partner, Sharron Matthews, essays a mesmerizing Mayzie, especially when she vamps her way through How Lucky You Are. Running until December 30, Seussical offers family fare that is as timely as it is tuneful. There’s no better gift for the holidays than this wise and winning tale.

JANUARY: When I undertook to interview Mitchell Marcus, artistic producer of Acting Up Stage Company (AUSC), about Caroline, or Change, the American musical that receives its Canadian premiere on January 21 at the Berkeley Street Theatre (downstairs), I didn’t consider that Seussical might make a useful comparison. After all, what possible connection could exist between a musical compilation of Dr. Seuss’s fantastical parables and a character-driven study of an African-American maid working for a Jewish family in Louisiana in 1963? The answer is obvious to me now: change.

With a book and lyrics by playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America), Caroline, or Change arrives in Toronto with a string of awards but limited commercial success. This alone provides a parallel, of sorts, to Seussical which, in its original Broadway incarnation, failed to win popular success or critical approbation. In retrospect, both shows suffered from unrealistic expectations and bloated production values. Only after Seussical was down-sized to a 90-minute version (which subsequently was further condensed to the 70-minute show on view at YPT), did it appeal to critics and audiences alike. While Caroline, or Change won critical success on Broadway in 2004, and in London in 2006, it failed to generate enough interest to garner subsequent productions of note, or to tour—the prime requisite for musical theatre longevity. For Marcus, this marks it as “an underdog musical,” and qualifies it as a perfect choice for production by AUSC.

Marcus defines an underdog musical as one “that was so successful in a not-for-profit run that it usually has some momentum beyond its original production, even though it’s not gone on to become a big commercial hit …” Invariably, such shows — he cites The Light in the Piazza (book by Craig Lucas, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel) as an example — “redefine our expectations of musical theatre,” a central goal of AUSC which, Marcus explains, “seeks to produce thought-provoking, contemporary, intelligent musical theatre pieces, and to bridge the commercial side of musical theatre — the large entertainment spectacle musical — with the theatre scene in Toronto which I associate with provocative plays in intimate spaces, with great cast members.”

Even a cryptic description of Caroline, or Change indicates how the piece fits AUSC’s mandate. Completely sung-through, the book chronicles the relationship between Caroline Thibodeaux, a black maid and single mother, and Noah Gellman, the eight-year-old son of her Jewish employer. After the death of his mother from cancer, Noah increasingly relies on Caroline for guidance, especially when his new stepmother, Rose, convinces the maid to teach Noah a lesson about leaving change in his trouser pockets by asking her to keep the money she finds. Loathe to take money from a child, Caroline needs it for her own children, so she co-operates. Soon, Noah, deliberately, is leaving her change, fantasizing that Caroline’s family acknowledges and appreciates his beneficence. The situation grows complicated when a $20 bill goes missing …

“From a book perspective, it’s more a long piece of poetry than a forward-moving drama,” Marcus suggests. “The audience has to be willing to accept the poetic journey that Kushner takes it on, which does move forward, but not as quickly as most people expect. This is a musical about feelings. This is a musical about people … being …”

The change in form that the producer identifies finds a corollary in the music composed by Jeanine Tesori, best known for her scores for Thoroughly Modern Millie and Shrek, the Musical, which, Marcus is quick to point out, differ considerably from Caroline.

Although fully sung-through, Caroline doesn’t have a single song you can isolate. It’s really like récit in opera, with all these different musical forms thrown together. Spirituals, blues, classical music, Motown, Jewish klezmer, folk music: the style shifts whenever a new character enters. The musical palette sounds like a radio in 1963, with someone changing the station every few minutes …”

The book further emphasizes change by setting Caroline’s situation against a sweeping historical backdrop that includes the assassination of President Kennedy, conflicts over the Vietnam war and the struggles of the Civil Rights movement. “It’s interesting to see a musical that focuses on the way an individual reacts when the community is changing around her. Artistically, the show pushes boundaries; socially, it offers so many opportunities for discussion …”

To produce Caroline, or Change, AUSC is partnering with Obsidian Theatre, whose mandate stresses its dedication “to the exploration, development, and production of the Black voice.” Partnering, by increasing production budgets, allows companies to mount larger, more ambitious productions (such as Parade, which AUSC co-produced with Studio 180 last year). It also enables them to cast performers they otherwise couldn’t afford. Caroline stars Arlene Duncan, a regular on CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie, as well as seasoned professionals like Deborah Hay who played Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady at the Shaw Festival last summer. But the move is more than just practical, as Marcus points out. “By building relationships with other independent theatre companies, we can pool our audiences,” a move essential for the evolution of musical theatre and the development of Toronto audiences. “We are being entrusted to push the boundaries of this genre and, at the same time, to develop new audiences for it, to open their minds to the possibilities of the musical form.”

Pushing boundaries, opening minds. As I hurry home from my interview with Marcus in the cool autumn air, I recall MacInnis’ comments about imagination and power, which lead me to wonder about musical theatre as an instrument of change. Seussical begins when the red and white striped hat in the middle of the stage begins to slide across the floor, all by itself — or so it seems to the audience. For the children at YPT, the moment equalled sheer magic. Unaware of the “smoke and mirrors” of stage-craft, they watched in amazement as an inanimate object moved on its own — or so they thought. What will the Toronto audience think of Caroline, or Change, a piece that conflates life’s tumultuous changes with the change in a person’s pocket?

At the end of Kushner’s script, Caroline returns to her employer’s basement to wash the laundry, resigned to her lot in life even as she curses God. Change, it would seem, is beyond her.

What would Horton say to her, I wonder? “A person’s a person, no matter how … what?”

Robert Wallace is a Toronto-based, retired university professor who writes about theatre and performance. He can be contacted at musictheatre@thewholenote.com.

Theatrical Treats for Your Musical Sweet Tooth

Music theatre is as prevalent as candy canes at this time of year, in and beyond the GTA. If traditional treats satisfy your sweet tooth, check out A Christmas Carol – the Musical at Brampton’s Rose Theatre that runs from December 15 to 18. This popular version of Dickens’ haunting of Ebenezer Scrooge benefits from a melodic score by Alan Mencken that strikes all the right notes. If the dates don’t fit, Runnymede United Church presents a dramatic reading of the poem on which it’s based on December 4, with holiday music performed by Ben Heppner, accompanied by a string trio and two choirs. Soulpepper Theatre offers a longer run of the yuletide treat, but without the musical icing, in Michael Shamata’s stage adaptation that opens on December 6 in the Distillery District, with Joe Ziegler heading an all-star cast.

White Christmas, a musical based on the 1954 film starring Bing Crosby with music by Irving Berlin, has grown in popularity since it premiered in San Francisco in 2004. Toronto’s Civic Light Opera presents the melody-fest from November 30 to December 17 at the Fairview Library Theatre, in a production designed and directed by Joe Cascone. The Berlin show’s iconic songs are unlikely to grace Angelwalk Theatre’s Off Broadway On Stage, a musical journey of a different sort that opens for one week on December 7 at the Studio Theatre in the Toronto Centre for the Arts. Conceived by Brian Goldenberg, with musical direction by Anthony Bastianon, the show includes songs from The Fantasticks, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living In Paris and Altar Boyz, productions that succeeded in small venues without marquee stars.

For less traditional treats, look no further than Like an Old Tale: An East Scarborough Retelling of The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare. The score of this Jumblies Theatre production, composed by Juliet Palmer, showcases the remarkable soprano of Neema Bickersteth, who plays Hermione; it also incorporates traditional Tamil singing by Sarada K. Eswar, and First Nations singing by Rosary Spence. Presented at 793 Pharmacy Ave., the production runs from December 8 to 18. Another retelling of a traditional tale finds a wonderful setting in Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works when Theatre Columbus presents The Story, a new version of the nativity by Martha Ross, featuring rotating corps of local choirs and drummers under the direction of John Millard. The show opens December 13 and runs to the end of the month.

To usher in the new year, Toronto Operetta Theatre offers an unusual delight: The Gypsy Princess, a comic opera by Hungarian composer Imre Kálmán starring soprano, Lara Ciekiewicz, opens at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, on December 28 for ten performances. Other notable January fare, while less seasonal, is tasty nevertheless. Cabaret, Kander and Ebb’s popular musical based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood, receives a student production at Hart House Theatre that is sure to attract a crowd. Under the direction of Adam Brazier, it opens on January 13 for two weeks. Further afield (geographically, at least), the Kingston Symphony presents musical theatre works by Andrew Lloyd Webber and others in an evening titled “Music of the Night” at the Grand Theatre on January 20. Michelle Todd, soprano, and Michael Hope, baritone, are featured.

Finally, on February 2nd and 3rd, Soundstreams presents The Sealed Angel, a musical drama by Russian composer, Rodion Shchedrin, that integrates the Amadeus Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers with the ProArteDanza dance company in a liturgically-themed, multi-disciplinary work. With musical direction by Lydia Adams and choreography by Lars Scheibner, this ambitious production plays for two nights at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall. Festive treats, it seems, are not limited to the holidays.

— Robert Wallace

Tallis Choir

The year is 1725, the night is Christmas Eve. In the colonial city of Quebec it is crisp and clear; snow upon snow has fallen and tonight lies in vast expanses, sparkling under the stars. Life is not easy — in no small measure because of the extreme cold — ah, but inside the church this night there is warmth and a sense of wonder at the holiness of this yearly ritual. And there is wonderful music: a marvellous Messe de Minuit pour Noël by the late French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier is being performed. Brought over from France, it’s filled with delightful melodies of French carols. Its sections are surrounded and interspersed with other Christmas music too, noëls and motets by composers both from the French court of King Louis XIV and from the New World; a carol in an aboriginal language; also lovely organ music from a book recently brought over from France by the new organist of Notre-Dame parish. For the sophisticated congregation of Quebec, it truly is a glorious feast of music.

Every year, the Tallis Choir presents a concert programme, built around an imagined but possible historical event such as the above, with music that was performed in the period. They do this with obvious joy in the extensive research involved in the preparation, by people such as choir member Douglas Cowling and director Peter Mahon. On December 10 at St. Patrick’s Church, you can hear this season’s offering as the Tallis Choir, the Talisker Players, organist Philip Fournier and director Peter Mahon recreate a high mass for Christmas Eve as it might have been celebrated in colonial Quebec city, “Midnight Mass for New France, 1725.”

Messiahs

There’s no dearth of annual Messiahs in the offing, each one special in its own way. Here’s a sampling of some which offer a particularly unique approach:

Georgetown Bach Chorale takes an historical approach in terms of location and musical presentation. Director Ronald Greidanus waxes enthusiastic about the venues: “The buildings are as incredible as the music, Acton’s Old Town Hall being very similar to the theatre Handel would have performed his Dublin premiere in; the second location (east of Georgetown) even more breathtaking — an isolated wooden Catholic church situated in the middle of a field, lit by candles, decorated by incredible byzantinian icons. Listeners will be bemused by a beautiful chorale sound (complete with 22-member choir, two harpsichords, baroque chamber organ, baroque strings and brass) in an intimate church that seats only 180 — it truly is like going back in time, it’s like the best kept secret!” December 3 in Acton, December 4 in Brampton.

Pax Christi Chorale’s performance, under the direction of Stephanie Martin, acknowledges children. “The Children’s’ Messiah” is designed especially for youngsters, in a condensed version with narration and a casual, child-friendly setting. December 10 at Church of St. Mary Magdalene.

Aradia Ensemble’s “The Dublin Messiah” recreates the first performance of Handel’s famous work using the original version of the score, as presented in Dublin on April 13, 1742. And there’s a nod to the dress code of the day: as in the original performance, they request that, “The Ladies who honour this Performance with their Presence would be pleased to come without hoops (hoop framed skirts), as it will greatly increase the Charity by making room for more company.” December 17 at Glenn Gould Studio.

Tafelmusik’s “Sing-Along Messiah,” celebrating its 25th anniversary, is directed by none other than Handel himself (aka Ivars Taurins). Taurins received a Gemini Award nomination this year for the film version; his immersion in his character is based on painstaking research — from Handel’s ruddy complexion (he was fond of drink) to the type of starch (not powder!) Handel used in his wig. As their press release says: “Does the audience notice these subtle distinctions? Maybe not, but they completely buy into the illusion that Handel has come back after 270 years to conduct them in this three-hour annual ritual.” December 18 at Massey Hall.

A Host Of Others To See Out The Old And Welcome In The New:

• December 8: The Tallis Scholars appear at Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall, in a programme that features diverse composers’ settings of the Magnificat — glorious choral music from 15th century John Taverner all the way to late 20th century Arvo Pärt.

• December 9, 10, 11: Toronto Consort celebrates “A Spanish Christmas” — Christmas with a Latin flavour as it might have been experienced by the Spanish-speaking nations of the world on both sides of the Atlantic in renaissance and baroque-period times. This is a world the Consort revisits every two years; this year’s presentation includes solemn motets, lively villançicos, pieces in native languages and dialects, some in African rhythmic inflections. Music of “irrepressible spirit, flashing rhythms and soulful sonorities.”

• December 10: I Furiosi Baroque Ensemble presents “Hell Hath No Fury” …  like I Furiosi scorned! “Not your average Christmas concert” so be prepared to be surprised.

• December 16: Sine Nomine Ensemble for Medieval Music presents “Puer natus est nobis: A 14th-century Mass for Christmas Day,” a musical reconstruction of a nativity mass from Avignon. This year the ensemble celebrates 20 years of inventive programming, combining vocal and instrumental music from medieval courts and churches with readings, drama, and liturgical action, to provide insight into the fascinating artistic and intellectual culture of the Middle Ages.

• January 1 and 2: Musicians In Ordinary’s annual New Year’s Day concerts offer an elegant alternative to the traditional New Year’s fare, with cantatas by Vivaldi and Alessandro Scarlatti, a trio sonata by Corelli and music for solo archlute by Zamboni. Soprano Hallie Fishel and lutenist John Edwards are joined by violinists Edwin Huizinga and Christopher Verrette, and others.

• January 15: Toronto Early Music Centre’s “Musically Speaking” series resumes at its new location of St. David’s Anglican Church, 49 Donlands Ave. Music by Guillemain, Leclair and Telemann is performed by Alison Melville, recorders/traverso; Elyssa Lefurgey-Smyth, violin; Justin Haynes, viola da gamba; and Sara-Anne Churchill, harpsichord.

• January 19 to 22: What a way to celebrate your 30th anniversary! Jeanne Lamon’s “gift” to herself is to direct Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, along with spectacular guest soloists, in a semi-staged performance of Handel’s rarely performed music drama Hercules — a dramatic story “seething with the destructive power of sexual jealousy” inspired by a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles more than 2500 years ago.

• January 27: In Kingston, the Melos Choir and Chamber Orchestra presents “The Italian Connection: Gabrielli to Vivaldi,” welcoming guest guitarists Jeff Hanlon and Chad Yacobucci.

• January 27 and 28: Perhaps you’ve heard him singing with Tafelmusik: the passionate evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion, the tenor soloist in the B Minor Mass, or the tenor voice in Purcell’s opera King Arthur. Or with the Toronto Consort, in the Monteverdi Vespers or the opera Orfeo. If so, you’ll not have forgotten the remarkable agility of his voice, or the intensity of his commitment to the text. Now the Toronto Consort presents the English tenor Charles Daniels in recital, in “It was a lover and his lass,” a concert of exquisite lute songs from the English and French Renaissance. He’ll be accompanied by lutenist David Miller, in works by Morley, Danyels, Campian and Moulinié.

• January 28: The years 1788 to 89 were incredibly creative ones for Mozart; he was then at the height of his powers. Academy Concert Series performs three of his major chamber works written during that time, in “Mozart: A Year In Vienna.”

• February 4: Fellow columnist, lutenist Benjamin Stein, makes the point that “Improvisation was a natural part of Bach’s musical milieu, and this skill, neglected in much classical music training, is one that has reappeared as an essential aspect of training in early music.” In Music at Metropolitan’s “BachFest II: Jam Sessions with Bach,” performances of works by Bach and other German composers are combined with improvisations on baroque dance forms and hymn tunes. Taking part are four talented musicians: Benjamin Stein, theorbo/lute; Sara-Anne Churchill, keyboard; Daniel Rubinoff, saxophone; Elyssa Lefurgey-Smith, violin.

• February 4: In “Pergolesi’s Inspiring Stabat Mater,” Barrie Concerts brings internationally renowned musicians to their stage: soprano Dame Emma Kirkby, countertenor Daniel Taylor and the Theatre of Early Music will surely inspire with their performance. The series is sold by subscription only and is virtually sold out; lucky are those who already have their tickets.

Finally, a correction to last month’s column: it’s not often I mistake Schubert for Gounod. Granted, they both wrote Ave Marias, but only one of these is based on Bach’s Prelude No.1 from the Well Tempered Clavier Book I, and it definitely wasn’t the Schubert as I stated in the print version of last month’s issue. I guess The Well-tempered Sleeper finally awoke … Better late than never!

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.

The modern holiday that we understand as Christmas is a construct that arises from many different sources: a combination of pre-Christian winter solstice iconography; appropriated and re-interpreted prophetic Hebrew texts; various writers’ telling and retelling of the life and deeds of the mysterious, charismatic public speaker and teacher Joshua Ben Joseph (later more familiarly known as Jesus Christ); and the sung and spoken sacred texts of hundreds of millions of Christians around the world.

Complicating the “modern” Christmas still further is the North American figure of Santa Claus, a benevolent gift-giver very loosely based on the third century Greek bishop Nicholas of Myra. Mercurial, harsh and irascible, the historical Saint Nick would have been a poor front-man for the vendors desperate to lure us to the shopping malls. He’d have been more likely to smite busy shoppers than to invite their children to sit upon his knee, wish list in hand.

It is not hard to imagine both Joshua and Nicholas together in some extra-worldly sphere, watching our frantic salterello of cards, gifts, parties and food with bemusement and despair in varied measure.

In the midst of this singular historical stew, music holds a special place in Christmas celebration. For many the pleasures of hearing and singing seasonal songs and carols is a welcome antidote to Christmas’ confused blend of commercialism, celebration, spirituality and dogma. The marvels and portents that accompany the birth of Christ reflect our joy, fear and incomprehension when confronted with one of the two most primal aspects of life–its beginning. Christmas music at its best combines joy with contemplation, the earth-bound with the marvellous.

The performative nature of Christmas concerts makes them simultaneous celebrations of, and comments on, the phenomenon of Christmas. Below are some concerts of note for the coming season.

On December 10, the Tallis Choir recreates a Christmas Eve mass as it would have been heard in Quebec in 1725. The concert includes Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit and carols by baroque composers from Quebec and France.

Between December 13 and 30, Theatre Columbus reinterprets the Nativity story, in an outdoor theatre presentation at the historic Evergreen Brick Works. The audience is advised to dress warmly. Theatre Columbus is a creative workshop of a theatre company, and this version of the Nativity story clearly falls refreshingly into the irreverent/revisionist category. A different choir will provide musical accompaniment for every performance.

The Magnificat, or the Song of Mary, is a text taken from the Gospel of Luke. It is an attempt to see the events of the Nativity from Mary’s point of view. Women who have experienced giving birth in difficult circumstances might have their own opinions about how well it succeeds. In any case, it has been set by many composers, and on December 8, English visitors, the Tallis Scholars, one of the world’s eminent chamber choirs, will be performing several of these diverse settings. Toronto Choral Society also looks to Europe, if somewhat further east, performing “An Eastern European Christmas” on December 14. As well as including Eastern European carols, the concert provides an opportunity to hear a Franz Liszt setting of the mass text, the Missa Choralis.

Two great writers, Dylan Thomas and Charles Dickens, wrote very differently enchanting commentaries on the nature of Christmas. Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales is rooted in the real and physical, the tangible sensory understanding of a special event seen through the primal senses of a child: All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find …

Dickens’ A Christmas Carol combined his central theme of the struggle between greed and charity with a vastly entertaining ghost story that has made the character of Ebenezer Scrooge almost as significant as Santa in the complex modern North American Christmas iconography.

Two choirs combine music with each of these literary works:

Annex Singers combine A Child’s Christmas in Wales with works by Sweelinck, Joubert, Walton and Lauridsen on December 10. Then on December 18, Guelph’s Dublin Street United Church includes the work in “A Victorian Christmas,” with the Trillium Brass as guests. For those whose appetite for Welsh-ness is not satisfied by Dylan Thomas alone, the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir performs “A Welsh Christmas” on December 7 and 11.

Generosity is the theme of A Christmas Carol, which appears in two upcoming benefit performances. On December 4 the Nathaniel Dett Chorale teams up with the Choir of St. Timothy’s Anglican Church to sing in support of the Senior’s Health Centre of the North York General Hospital. On the same night, the Runnymede United Church Choir performs their Dickens-themed concert, which includes an appearance by tenor Ben Heppner, in support of the The Stop Community Food Centre.

Special church pageants and carol services are also an integral part of this season. The Church of the Holy Trinity’s nativity pageant, a popular draw, runs between December 9 and 24. Eglinton St. George United Church’s December 11 carol service includes Benjamin Britten’s iconic Ceremony of Carols. Peruse the choral listings for other carol concerts — you will find inventive musical choices and choral groups that you might have previously missed.

In the multicultural GTA, some choirs acknowledge and explore the mid-winter festivals that take place in non-Christian cultures, such as Hindu Diwali, the African-American Kwanzaa and Chanukah, the Hebrew festival of lights and gifts.

On December 14 the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir’s free “Chanukah Concert Live” includes songs in Yiddish, Hebrew, Ladino and English. North York’s Alexander Singers and Players combine Christmas and Chanukah music at “A Festive Concert” on December 10.

Hart House Singers and Echo Women’s Choir present interesting programmes of world music on December 4 and 11 respectively. These types of concerts are a welcome antidote to the seasonal saturation of familiar songs and carols that, while beautiful, lose some of their appeal after the 1000th hearing.

And of course, no December choral column would be complete without a mention of what has become Christmas’ most emblematic choral work, Handel’s Messiah.

So there, I’ve mentioned it. Let’s move on now. It’s always interesting to investigate the varied programmes that choirs messiah choose during the Christmas season. Drawing on the vast repertoire Messiah of music from different times and locations Messiah allows choirs MESSIAH to create unusual MESSIAH MESSIAH.

Oh, all right. Can’t you Handelians take a joke? It’s a great composition. I love it! So quit spamming my website and hacking my documents. I promise to venerate Handel’s Messiah until the end of my days. And tell that strange alto from Kitchener she can take down her aria recording, Ben is Despised, from YouTube.

Part of the fun of hearing such a well-known work is experiencing the varied interpretations that different soloists, conductors and choirs come up with. Increasingly, musicians are bringing a creative disrespect to this piece, toying with orchestration, interpretation and even improvisatory aspects of it, to keep it fresh and interesting. Yet a simple, straightforward performance, well executed, allows the brilliance of its construction to shine through as well. My recommendation is to attend a Messiah performance by a choir unfamiliar to you. So many groups are performing this work — take the opportunity to acquaint yourself with a choir that you have not yet seen perform, and expand your knowledge of the GTA choral scene. We have even appended a handy “Messiah QuickPicks” to this column (see next page) to guide you in your search.

Finally, one final concert reminds us that even Christmas’ familiar calendar date is not an agreed-upon fact. On January 8 the Vesnivka Choir and Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir present “A Ukrainian Christmas Concert.” Eastern European Christmas culture can be wonderfully rich and mystical, and is a link to Christianity’s oldest roots. Could it be that this concert — presented at a time at which the rest of us are glumly contemplating our credit card statements — is the only one here that would have made any kind of cultural sense to the historical Saint Nicholas?

Christmas can be a very difficult time for people, as they attempt to reconcile the Apollonian ideal of the holiday with life’s often disappointing realities. But as I hope I’ve made clear above, a monolithic Christmas tradition does not in fact exist, and never did. Accordingly, we are free to define this holiday in a way that makes sense to each of us. Relieved of the obligation to enact an ideal version of Christmas, one can instead pick and choose, discard and redefine — as history itself has done — which elements combine together to create your own understanding of the season.

LOOKING AHEAD TO JANUARY: After the December revels comes the new year’s hangover. The only solution, of course, is musical “hair of the dog” — i.e. more sybaritic choral excess. The January and February concerts mentioned below can feed this entirely healthy addiction.

Between January 18 and 22, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs Mozart’s d minor Requiem, his final, unfinished work before his untimely death.

Brahms then takes over on February 4. Two concerts to choose from are a concert by the Larkin Singers that includes Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer, and Kitchener’s Grand Philharmonic Choir performing Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and Arvo Pärt’s Credo and Cantus in Memoriam.

Finally, on February 2 and 3, Soundstreams presents the Amadeus Choir and Elmer Iseler Singers in an intriguing presentation of The Sealed Angel by Rodion Shchedrin. Shchedrin is a living piece of history, a Russian composer who lived through the Soviet era and who continues to work today. The staged performance includes the participation of ProArteDanza dance company.

He can be contacted at choralscene@thewholenote.com. Visit his website at http://benjaminstein.ca/.

If you’re looking for something in the realm of classical music in December — and I mean “classical” as in not baroque or renaissance music — you’re in luck … sort of. I say “sort of” because while there are indeed December offerings that don’t involve one adaptation or another of Handel’s baroque masterpiece, Messiah, or lovely renaissance-themed Christmas concerts, the pickings are slimmer than usual. However, the “luck” part lies in the fact that, at least for December, you will not be completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of “Classical & Beyond” (C&B) concerts from which to have to choose. (Let’s face it, that is usually the case with this beat, covering as it must everything from Haydn to Bartók, from solo recitals to orchestras.) So, amid the hustle and bustle of the season, hop on and enjoy the “less is more” C&B sleigh ride for December while you rest up for January!

TAKING STOCK: Any readers inclined to contest my thesis of December’s “less is more” vs. January’s “abundance,” should work their way through the listings as I did, taking stock. They will find 27 concerts in December that fall within C&B’s purview, 42 in January, and 11 in the first seven days of February. They will also doubtless find other interesting patterns emerging. They may notice as I did that of the 27 December concerts, seven offer Mozart, as do 12 in January and one in February. That translates into over 25% of December/January/first-week-of February C&B concerts that have some Mozart in their programmes. Not an insignificant number.

I also noticed six concerts specifically geared to the “younger set”; while not a huge number, the concerts are, nonetheless, pleasing and varied. And I spotted four concerts featuring a Viennese theme, two each in the GTA and beyond the GTA, with one very interesting connection surfacing: two concerts — one GTA, one beyond — actually have “Vienna” in the concert title and both are holding matinees on New Year’s Day. So, armed with all of the above info and analysis, let’s dive into the details.

DECEMBER’S DELIGHTS: Toronto’s Counterpoint Community Orchestra, the “first lesbian/gay/gay-positive orchestra in the world,” celebrates the opening of its 28th season in grand fashion, with a performance of Mozart’s Symphony No.41, the “Jupiter,” on December 3. Directed by Terry Kowalczuk, the CCO’s programme also includes works by Khachaturian, Shostakovich, Schubert, Sousa and von Suppé’s Light Cavalry Overture. St. Luke’s United Church on Sherbourne is the venue. (And if you’re itching for a second dose of the “Jupiter,” you’ll have your chance when the Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs it (twice) in January — details below.)

On December 4, both the Kawartha Youth Orchestra and Orchestra Toronto have matinee performances that are “youth/family friendly.” An even more striking coincidence: each is performing Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No.2, with 16-year old soloists! The KYO features Claire Motyer on violin; Clarisse Schneider does the honours with OT. (Schneider is the winner of OT’s first Concerto Competition: Marta Hidy prize). The KYO also performs works by Sibelius and — you guessed it — Mozart. You’ll find them at Market Hall Theatre in Peterborough at 3pm. Also starting at 3pm, OT’s concert, titled “The Musician Storyteller,” includes Berlioz’s March to the Scaffold and Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel overture, as well as works by Khachaturian and Villa-Lobos. All OT’s concerts are at the George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts.

Staying with youth-oriented fare for a moment, Mooredale Concerts, which operates a youth orchestras programme (in addition to its two other established series), presents three levels of orchestras comprising 100 players (ages 6 to 18) on December 11, 3pm, at Rosedale Heights School of the Arts. The Junior Orchestra, under William Rowson, performs Handel’s Gavotte in A, Pichl’s Pastorella and Menuett in G by (“Mr. 25%”) Mozart. Rowson also conducts the Senior Orchestra and it performs Elgar’s Serenade for Strings Op.20 and — yes, indeed — Mozart’s Divertimento in D Major K136. The Intermediate Orchestra will play Handel’s Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.4, Clare Carberry conducting.

Kudos to Mooredale Concerts for exposing so many youth to the riches of the orchestral repertoire. In its “Music and Truffles” series, an adjunct to its regular concert series, Mooredale shares the wealth of chamber music with young people, ages 5 to 15. At 1:15pm, on January 15, for example, you can take the munchkins in your life to hear music by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Piazzolla; the “adult” concert starts at 3:15pm the same day, featuring the same repertoire played in full.

Returning to our “less is more” December theme, in a concert titled “Holiday Charms,” December 9 at Glenn Gould Studio, Sinfonia Toronto performs Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.1 under guest conductor Robert Bokor and violinist Sanghee Cheong. The programme also includes Wolf-Ferrari’s String Serenade, Corelli’s Concerto Grosso Op.6 No.8 “Christmas Concerto,” and Ricercare by Buhr. (ST offers more Mozart on January 20, in its concert titled “Black and White”: Clarinet Quintet K581, orchestral version, with James Campbell, clarinet; and Divertimento K137; this January concert also features the orchestral version of Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, with Dmitriy Gordin, piano.)

Mozart is also on offer when the Junction Trio presents its “Celebrating the Season with Sound” concert on December 15, 7pm, at the North York Central Library auditorium. The trio also performs works by Bach and Handel. The concert is free, but we are asked to give them a call to register.

Continuing our fine-combing of the listings, it’s not often we get the chance to attend a “Doctoral Recital in Orchestral Conducting,” for free, no less. At 1:15pm at Walter Hall (University of Toronto Faculty of Music) Kerim S. Anwar will conduct Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and works by Stravinsky and Schoenberg. Good luck Mr. soon-to-be-Dr. Anwar! And since we’re at the U of T, the Faculty of Music’s free, three-day “PianoFest” happens December 12, 14 and 16, at 7:30pm each night, featuring the advanced students of the piano department.

Just two more December concerts and then I’ll move on to January. Amici Chamber Ensemble presents “Critics Choice: What do they really want to hear?” on December 16 at 8pm. Sounds like fun, especially since they’ve invited critics John Vandriel, Colin Eatock and John Terauds as their guests, along with Yehonatan Berick and Min-Jeong Koh, violin and Barry Shiffman, viola. Hopefully, everyone attending will enjoy hearing the programme of works by Beethoven, Poulenc and Elgar. (What? No Mozart?)

Syrinx Sunday Salons presents a splendid afternoon of works by Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, Alexander Levkovich, Dmitri Levkovich and others. Pianist/composer Dmitri Levkovich and pianist Anzhelika Fuks will also perform a piece dear to my heart, Schubert’s Fantasie for Four Hands in F Minor Op.103 D940, a copy of which sits atop my piano, at the ready, should someone drop by who can handle the secondo part; I always play the primo. A young friend of mine in Vancouver and I have valiantly attempted to make our way through it many times, over many years; she is my primo secondo! I’m excited to hear these two young and dynamic players do it justice on December 11, 3pm, at Heliconian Hall!

JANUARY’S JEWELS: With over 40 concerts, there’s much from which to choose, making the decision of who and what to include (and exclude) that much more challenging, As a solution, I’m simply going to “rattle off” as many as I can, allowing for as many concerts — and presenters — as possible to get some print:

Let’s start with the New Year’s Day “double-header in Vienna,” I alluded to earlier. Attila Glatz Concert Productions’ “Salute to Vienna” features the Strauss Symphony of Canada, András Deák, conductor, with Renee Schüttengruber, soprano, Wolfgang Gratschmaier, tenor and dancers from the Kiev-Aniko Ballet of Ukraine, at Roy Thomson Hall, 2pm. An hour later, the Guelph Symphony Orchestra presents its “Tour the World Series: Dreams of Vienna” with arias, duets, waltzes, polkas and marches. Judith Yan conducts, with Mark Dubois, tenor and Corinne Lynch, soprano, at the River Run Centre in Guelph.

Music Toronto has two fine and wonderfully varied offerings: on January 12, 8pm, at the Jane Mallett Theatre, flutist Leslie Newman and harpist Erica Goodman perform traditional South American folk songs and music by Ravi Shankar, alongside works by Bach, Saint-Saëns, Doppler/Zamara and others, for MT’s “Discovery Series.” And a week later, on January 19, (same time/same place), we are treated to a concert by the divine Lafayette Quartet performing Wolf’s Italian Serenade, Shostakovich’s String Quartet No.2 in A Major Op.68 and the String Quartet in C Minor Op.51 No.1 by Brahms.

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra prevails, hands down, however, in the “Much Mozart” department. Mozart@256 Festival, the TSO’s eighth annual celebration of the composer’s birthday, offers no fewer than eight concerts in which to immerse yourself, including two for kids; all but one is at Roy Thomson Hall. Mozart@256 runs January 11 to January 22. Some of the highlights include: the Concerto for Three Pianos and Orchestra K242 (with Stewart Goodyear, Katherine Jacobson Fleisher and Leon Fleisher doing the honours); the aforementioned Symphony No.41 K551 “Jupiter”; a “Young People’s Concerts: Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage,” featuring 23 excerpts from Mozart’s works; astonishing young Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki in the Piano Concerto No.20 K466; and the Requiem K626 with a luminous cast. Phew! For all the details, see the listings.

And if after all that you still crave more Mozart, you’re in luck. In my October column I referred to a certain all-Mozart programme, adding that you’d have to wait for it. Well, it’s here! On January 25, Toronto Philharmonia Orchestra, in its first concert with Uri Mayer as artistic director and principal conductor, presents “Celebrating Mozart” at its home in the George Weston Recital Hall. The programme? Mozart’s Serenade No.6 in D Major K239 “Serenata notturna,” Piano Concerto in C Major K467 “Elvira Madigan” and Symphony No.40 in G Minor K550. The pianist is André Laplante.

In winding up, I want to mention Trio Bravo’s February 5 recital at All Saints Kingsway Anglican Church at 2pm. The trio’s November 6 concert was cancelled due to the ill-health of one of its members. It’s nice to see that they’re back on track with a robust programme of works by Bach, Beethoven, Bruch and Schubert. Bravo, Bravo!

Wishing you all sustained good health, a festive, music-infused holiday season and a soul-nourishing New Year and beyond!

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.

Like many in the global village, I have become a fan of the Metropolitan Opera’s LIVE from the Met in movie houses, combining as it does all the lazy pleasures of movie going (a director telling you where to look, a soundtrack telling you what to feel) with an almost voyeuristic immediacy. I am behind the scenes of one of the world’s great opera houses, or face to face with the four feet tall tonsils of the world’s greatest bass-baritone, as the case may be. Add to this usual movie stuff the additional thrill, usually reserved for NASCAR or other such blood sports, of knowing that the whole thing might crash and burn right before my eyes, but almost never does, and I am hooked. Why? Because it’s LIVE!

Except that it isn’t. It’s “live from,” but not live at. At, in this case, is the Queensway Cineplex Odeon, TimBits, mint tea and all. Even the Met’s celebrity greeters acknowledge as much. One of them always comes on screen during one or the other intermission, backstage, to remind us, the TimBits audience, that watching this way isn’t the real thing, and that to fully experience the magic of opera we should pop down to New York, or [tiny pause] go out and support our local opera company. My most recent foray to the Odeon was for an enormously satisfying production of Phillip Glass’s Satyagraha, during which bass baritone Eric Owens (Alberich in the Met’s current Ring Cycle) appeared during the intermission to do the mandatory “live opera is real magic” speech. Even in his sonorous tones it came off stilted and, dare we say it, just a titch insincere.

More’s the pity, because it’s the absolute bottom-line truth. There is an innate, unmatchable theatricality in congregating live for music. It cannot be matched or emulated in other media, no matter how grand. And nowhere is this more evident than in the performance of new music.

Ironically, the first performance I want to draw to your attention, as an example of theatrical spectatorship, seems to negate that principle, because, to a significant extent, it takes place in the pitch dark. I heard about it from composer Brian Current, director of the New Music Ensemble of the Glenn Gould School. The work is Austrian spectral composer Georg Haas’ monumental In Vain, for 24 musicians and lighting (2000) Thursday December 8, 7:30pm and Friday December 9, 2:30pm, in the Conservatory Theatre of the Royal Conservatory.

“It’s a 70 minute piece, really a spectral wonder, a beautiful and substantial work, based almost entirely on musical colour,” Current says. “Sometimes they play in the pitch black, other times there are ghostly flashes of light.” They will be blocking the windows out on the Conservatory Theatre to get complete darkness. “The ensemble is all graduate students and they have been working hard on this difficult material, even memorizing the portions in the dark. We are also very fortunate that GF Haas is also coming in for these shows from Austria, just to work with us and to deliver a talk at 6pm before the Saturday performance.”

As it happens, the two In Vain performances fall slap bang right in the middle of what is undoubtedly December’s new music main event (the Vinko Globokar invasion, November 29 to December 11) so here’s hoping it won’t be overlooked. After all, somewhere in the tranformation of noises in the night to sounds in the dark, the truly theatrical nature of music has its beginnings.

By contrast, Queen of Puddings Music Theatre’s presentation of Galgenlieder à 3 (Gallows Songs) by Sofia Gubaidulina affirms its theatricality quite explicitly, billing itself as “a concert drama.” Queen of Puddings has always had an aesthetic of physical, singing theatre, going all the way back to their first production, “Mad for All Reasons” in 1996, which was built around Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King. Part of that aesthetic is curatorial, latching onto music that has an intrinsic theatricality rather than adding visual cheap tricks to jazz up the musically ordinary.

Gubaidulina’s Galgenlieder fits the bill. “It’s a 15-song cycle — sung in the original German — featuring the text of German poet Christian Morgenstern (1871–1914)” says Dáirine Ní Mheadra, QoP co-founder and director. “Gubaidulina’s stature in the world of contemporary music is enormous — she is one of the pre-eminent composers alive today. Her music is dramatic and intense.”

Born in Christopol in the Tatar Republic of the Soviet Union in 1931, Gubaidulina’s music was an escape from the terrifying socio-political atmosphere of Soviet Russia, Ní Mheadra says. “For this reason, she associated music with human transcendence and mystical spiritualism. Bringing these qualities plus a wicked sense of humour to her settings of Morgenstern is a knockout combination. And to have a star singer like Betty Allison singing this Galgenlieder is sumptuous. Betty’s sound has voluptuousness and an emotional depth to it that is profoundly moving.”

From Ladysmith, BC, by way of the Canadian Opera Company ensemble, Allison has been exercising her new music “chops,” coming to town hot off the title role in the Pacific Opera premiere of Mary’s Wedding (music Andrew P. MacDonald, libretto Stephen Massicotte.) In Galgenlieder she shares the stage with Ryan Scott, percussion, and Joseph Phillips, double bass, both accustomed to swimming outside of the mainstream as well as in.

Phillips, a former student of “tune ’em in fifths” bass virtuoso Joel Quarrington, has made frequent appearances with Art of Time Ensemble and is a member of Hotland Trio, a moody Balkan/Canadian trio (with violinist Aleksandar Gajic and accordionist Milos Popovic) that brings serious classical muscle to moody, driven, strongly rhythmic repertoire.

And Ryan Scott is one of the most versatile, accomplished (and busy) percussionists in this or any other town. Case in point, he will take the stage for Galgenlieder a week after a scorching performance of 20th century Japanese percussion titan Maki Ishii’s South-Fire-Summer for Esprit Orchestra at Koerner Hall November 30 — a work of extraordinary complexity requiring a percussion array the size of (and better stocked than) the average kitchen. And just one day later, December 9, it will be out of the proverbial frying pan into the improvational fire for Scott, as he anchors the second half of the first of the two Vingko Globokar concerts to which I referred briefly at the beginning of this column and to which I now return.

Vinko Globokar, French avant-garde composer and trombonist, returns to Toronto at the invitation of New Music Concerts’ artistic director Robert Aitken, almost forty years (1972) after Aitken brought him here in the first place.

He’s been back in between, but this is a 12-day Vinko-fest, culminating Sunday December 11, at Betty Oliphant Theatre, 8pm, in an NMC presentation of works spanning four decades, ranging from Fluide (1967) for brass and (very extended) percussion through Eppure si Muove (2003) for solo trombone (Globokar) and an ensemble of 11 disparate instruments including cimbalom, accordion, saxophone, synthesizer and electric guitar, without conductor. In between are Discours VII (1987) for brass quintet, which “attacks problems posed by spatialisation of sound, mobility of sound sources and different degrees of communication between five people,” and Eisenberg (1990) for four groups of four: brass instruments ad libitum (such as Tibetan horn, Moroccan nafir, conch), melodic instruments, harmony instruments and musicians who work with noises (unspecified percussion).

Even this mere recitation of ideas and instrumentation gives a tiny taste of the infinite variety, and jest, of this pioneer of modern trombone technique. Quite simply this is an individual who never repeats himself compositionally or artistically, challenging audiences and players (be warned, they are not always entirely distinct!) anew with every new outing and every new work.

Events in his visit will already be under way by the time this issue hits the street: at the University of Toronto, where Globokar is the Michael and Sonja Koerner Distinguished Visitor in Composition — improvisation workshops, forums, lecture, and a Globokar Colloquium at the Robert Gill Theatre. The following week Globokar will work extensively with the musicians of the New Music Concerts Ensemble and give masterclasses and improvisation workshops through the auspices of the Music Gallery. Some of the results of all this activity will be on display at the Music Gallery, Friday December 9, in the first half of the concert, titled “Back to Back.” The second half of that concert is an extended music/theatre piece Terres brulées, ensuite … co-presented by Toronto New Music Projects and Continuum, which bring me back to percussionist Ryan Scott.

Earlier, you may recall, I mentioned that, for Scott, going from Galgenlieder on December 8 to Globokar at the Music Gallery the next day would be like going from frying pan to fire. Here’s how he described it (in the Continuum Contemporary Music November newsletter).

“After intermission is the epic Terres brulées, ensuite … (Burned Lands, Then …). Prepare for global annihilation! This trio for saxophone, piano and percussion featuring Wallace Halladay, Stephen Clarke (piano) and myself, is of legendary proportions and is rather difficult to describe: 6 saxophones, a prepared (and lightly abused) piano, over 70 percussion instruments (e.g. #43 “plank”) spread around the stage in 7 stations, 115 performance instructions (e.g. #21 Saw the plank and hammer in a nail), … live electronics … What else? Hmmm … a motet … a foghorn … oh, and explosions with fire (well, we’re working on that).”

There’s a wonderful interview with Globokar by British composer John Palmer available on the website of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community. For the curious it’s a great place to start.

What I got from it was the sense of energetic decades of musical inquiry, endlessly parsing and reparsing the relationships between music and speech, and rendering into music the theatricality of relationship. Part of his secret, I suspect, is a thick skin, the ability not to judge his own work in terms of success or failure. As he puts it:

“What is sure is that a musical work is a document which will remain. It’s a document that testifies certain things that happened at a certain time in society. This is an historical truth which cannot be denied. In one hundred years people will say, ‘This music reflects certain events that happened in those years.’ … L’art pour l’art as such does not interest me, at all.”

AND ALL TOO BRIEFLY

“Beyond Sound,” the 2012 iteration of the annual New Music Festival at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, coordinated by composer Norbert Palej, features Swedish composer Anders Hillborg as the Roger D. Moore Distinguished Visitor in Composition and runs from January 22 to February 5. It’s billed as an exploration of “the diverse scientific and artistic interests that form the musical landscape of the 21st century,” with a focus on Hillborg’s work. It’s an event warranting much more of a mention than this. Happily, it’s well covered in our concert listings, and in “The ETCeteras” (page 67), our regular compilation of musical workshops, forums, lectures, etc. It is also very well described on the Faculty’s own website under “Events.”

ERNESTO Cervini

Deeply musical and infectiously energetic drummer and composer Ernesto Cervini is keeping very busy these days: leading his own quartet, playing in the Myriad Trio with pianist Chris Donnelly and bassist Dan Fortin, as well as playing frequently as a sideman. Cervini only recently relocated to Toronto after attending the graduate performance program at the Manhattan School of Music.

“Manhattan was kinda perfect for me in terms of timing. I went there straight after U of T; I was pretty young and very immature. When I got out of U of T I felt that I was a pretty good drummer. Then I got to New York and realized that I really wasn’t! At Manhattan School, I learned how to practise and realized that I had a lot of work to do. That’s where I learned how to make music my life and my career, where I took it to the next level … I realized that this has to be a part of everything in my life.”

In the last issue of The WholeNote, Geoff Chapman reviewed Cervini’s new recording, There, calling it “an album that has to be one of 2011’s best.” In support of the recording, Cervini’s quartet recently came back from a ten-city European tour. The quartet features two New York City-based players: Dan Loomis on bass and Joel Frahm on tenor saxophone, rounded out by fellow Torontonian and recent JUNO nominee Adrean Farrugia on piano. I asked Cervini about playing with this particular band and what the highlight of the tour was for him.

“This band has now gone on three tours together, they are all such good people, which makes it easy and so much fun to tour. No attitude, no divas, they are amazing musicians and amazing people … the tour was really, really great — the audiences were pretty packed and very receptive — we got an encore at every show … 
The highlight? Hmmm. The first gig was very memorable because it was surprising. It was in this artist woodworking workshop, with big tables and saws on them, it was a bit weird, I have to say. In the corner of the room there was a piano and a sketchy-looking drumset, so we were just like ‘whatever, we’ll see how it goes,’ [laughs] we weren’t expecting it to be a great gig. So we went out to dinner with the owner of the place and when we got back it was completely packed and the audience was really into it. It was a really nice surprise.”

The quartet will be touring Canada this month, including three stops in Toronto: at the Rex on November 6 and 7, and at a new jazz venue that Ernesto himself has recently started booking, the Cherry Street Restaurant (275 Cherry St.) on November 24, presenting live jazz every Thursday night.

“It’s tricky in the sense that it’s not on a main street the way the Rex is … but at the same time, it’s a good room, and I am hoping that people will check it out. I think it’s important as musicians that we support it. We all cry that there aren’t more clubs, but we really need to be a part of the promotion, because there isn’t really a huge amount of money in it for the clubs.”

Specializing in pulled pork, smoked brisket and baby back ribs, here’s hoping that Cherry Street’s Thursday night live music series will also attract some listeners hungry for great jazz.

Victor Lewis

Like Cervini, meaty-toned saxophonist Ryan Oliver also got his masters south of the border, graduating from New Jersey’s Rutgers University in 2009. While there, he met and studied with a variety of jazz legends, including drummer Victor Lewis.

“Getting to know Victor Lewis was certainly a highlight,” says Oliver. “Victor is the drum teacher at Rutgers, and I was already very familiar with his work as he’s the drummer on a lot of my favourite records — Stan Getz’s Anniversary, Dexter Gordon’s Sophisticated Giant, just to name a few.” In addition to his stints with Getz and Gordon, Lewis, a professional since his teens, has appeared on dozens of notable jazz recordings, including ones by Chet Baker, Kenny Barron, J.J. Johnson, Carla Bley and Mike Stern. As an educator, his generosity of spirit had a profound influence on Oliver’s music.

“I was fortunate to get the opportunity to play drum/sax duets with Victor at his rehearsal space in New York on a weekly basis for about a year. It was an amazing experience. We would play through tunes, and I learned so much about phrasing, time and making musical statements, just from being around Victor and hearing him play and talk. He’s also a gifted composer, and we would play through some of his originals during the sessions … one thing that struck me the most was that Victor’s drumming would be so rhythmically strong and melodically clear that you wouldn’t need bass or chords to make these tunes sound. You can hear this depth every time he plays. When I left New York to return to Toronto, one of my goals was to bring Victor up here to play. I’m very excited to bring a musician of his stature to the city. These days it’s not happening as much, and I hope folks will take advantage of the opportunity to hear a real jazz legend. We’ll be playing some standards, some of my original compositions and some of Victor’s tunes as well.”

Catch the Ryan Oliver Trio with special guest Victor Lewis on drums, November 18 at the Trane Studio and November 19 and 20 at the Rex.

Ori Dagan is a Toronto-based jazz vocalist, voice actor and entertainment journalist. He can be contacted at jazz@thewholenote.com.

When contemplating this month’s column I had intended to dive right into reporting on the gathering storm of performances by community musical groups for the coming fall and winter season. However, four random recent events, each with some form of musical connection, have conspired to remind me just how pervasive musical influences are in my life, and to derail me from my appointed task.

The first of these was a paper recently published in the Journal of The American Psychological Association which compared the performance of a variety of tasks by musicians and non-musicians. Having been a volunteer subject over the past few years for this study at the Rotman Research Institute of the Baycrest Centre and the Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, I waded through the academic jargon. One phrase stood out: “Despite the scant data on aging and musicianship, the picture emerging is that lifelong musicianship mitigates age-related decline in cognitive tasks …” In short, making music is good for you.

I could have told them that: One year ago, I wrote about how the New Horizons Band established at Long and McQuade had grown to 24 members by its third week. It’s now a daytime group and an evening group with total memberships of 42, and a new beginners’ daytime group of 22 is under way with another slated to begin in January.

In these startup groups the social rewards of playing in some form of musical ensemble have quickly come to the fore. As we see from the academic studies, making music with friends has many rewards beyond the pleasure of creating music. If you are not musically involved now, get on the bandwagon; it’s never too late.

Second sidetrack, the ultimate in serendipity, happened a couple of weeks ago on my way home from a rehearsal. Like so many Toronto streets at this time of year, my route was undergoing major repairs. To cut a long story somewhat shorter, as I stepped out of the car to locate the source of the clanking, a gentleman walking a dog called out “it’s your tailpipe.” Soon, in his driveway around the corner, he had supplied wire and tools and had my tailpipe secured for my trip home. At some point during his mission of mercy he spotted my instrument case and said “do you play trombone?” I asked how he had recognized the case, he informed me that he played guitar and cello, and naturally the conversation shifted to music. He is from Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island, where he also sings and his wife directs a local choir. When I pulled out my wallet to buy a CD of his wife’s choir singing some of her original compositions, we had another jolt. On seeing the name Jack MacQuarrie, my name, he asked “How do you know him?” It just so happens that another Jack MacQuarrie (a distant relative whom I met many years ago) is a friend and publisher of the local Gore Bay newspaper. The beginnings of another musical friendship?

Third distraction along the way this month was hearing about a musical study by two meteorologists at Oxford and Reading Universities who traced prevailing weather phenomena in different parts of the world over the years and concluded that the content and style of many works of the classical repertoire could be directly linked to the prevailing weather in the region where the composers lived. With the help of my research assistant Mr. Google, I located not only that study, but an extensive, if less scholarly, article titled “Weather in Classical Music” by Richard Nilsen in the Arizona Republic. It is an extensive compendium of compositions catalogued by composer and title according to the seasons and various weather phenomena. Gives a whole new spin to the excuse of “being under the weather.”

Fourth and final digression? I was presented with an unusual opportunity to make music — the grand opening of a new municipal parking lot in a community north of Toronto. My musical zenith had arrived, I thought, and I would wait to tell you about it. I arrived in the area only to find an array of “Do Not Enter” and “No Parking” signs. You guessed it — there was no place to park. I arrived too late to play for this great event.

So, what is happening in the local music scene?

For starters, Silverthorn Symphonic Winds (SSW) kicks off their 2011/2012 season with a free public music clinic, presented in conjunction with the Westmount Music Department and Arts Westmount Music. Led by 2010/2011 artist-in-residence Peter Stoll, clarinetist, “From Practice Room to Concert Hall” will provide tips on how to practise effectively and how to improve your ensemble playing. Not just for clarinetists, the clinic is geared toward high school instrumentalists and adult amateur musicians. For details, see this month’s Etcetera listings under “lectures.”(For the coming season, SSW has announced that its 2011/2012 artist-in-residence will be one of Canada’s most respected horn players, Christopher Gongos. In 1998, Gongos joined the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, where he holds the position of associate principal horn.)

To start their season this year, the Hannaford Street Silver Band once again joins forces with the Amadeus Choir under the baton of Lydia Adams for a performance of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace by the Welsh composer Karl Jenkins. The work is a reflection on war and peace in a multi-cultural, global society. It draws its text from classical poets, biblical verses and traditional mass, as well as from Muslim, Hindu and Japanese sources. In the other portion of the programme on November 12, the band will be under the direction of Gillian MacKay. The HSSB will perform Kevin Lau’s Great North Overture and Barbara Croall’s remarkable Gi-Giiwe Na?, an allegory for brass and percussion inspired by Native soldiers. The men of the Amadeus Choir will join the HSSB to perform Harry Somers’ A Thousand Ages and Stephen Chatman’s hauntingly beautiful Reconciliation.

Definition Department

This month’s lesser known musical term is Articulosis: a chronic disability leading to fuzzy attempts at staccato playing.

We invite submissions from readers. Let’s hear your daffynitions.

Coming Events

Please see the listings for full details.

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

A topic i haven’t touched on in this column is the relationship between jazz and ships. As I write this, Guido Basso is about to take a band for an eleven day cruise on the “Seven Seas Navigator.” I’ll be doing the same later this month with my Echoes Of Swing band on Holland America’s “Noordam.” And we are certainly not the only ones sailing off into the sunset; there are jazz cruises galore all over the world taking jazz fans and musicians out on the deep blue sea.

This led me to doing some research into the early days of jazz and the riverboats which cruised the Mississippi. The first steamboat to cruise the entire length of the lower Mississippi was the “New Orleans” in December 1811 and steamboats, as a feasible means of transportation, lasted until the early part of the 20th century.

So where does jazz come into the picture? Enter a pianist named Fate Marable, because the story of jazz on the Mississippi steamboats can’t be told without him. Many of the bands had been integrated, but not the passengers, and Marable, hired by the Streckfus Line had led a mixed band in 1916. He subsequently organised a band of black musicians to play on one of the excursion boats–not ragtime players, but jazz musicians. The year was 1919 and the band included drummer Baby Dodds and an 18 years old Louis Armstrong! Other musicians who were, at one time or another, members of Marable’s band included Henry “Red” Allen, saxophonist Tab Smith, who subsequently played with Count Basie, Gene Sedric, who later joined “Fats” Waller and bass player Jimmy Blanton who was destined to find fame with Duke Ellington. According to trumpeter Bill Coleman, Jelly Roll Morton was hired for a short time by Marable and it is perhaps worth noting that one of Morton’s compositions was called Steamboat Stomp.

Marable was not always easy to get along with and was a stern taskmaster, demanding a high level of professional conduct from his musicians. Woe betide any player who screwed up on the bandstand and if it happened too often he was fired. Sometimes Fate delivered the bad news by placing a fire axe on the offender’s bunk!

But there is no doubt that Fate Marable was an important figure in the spread of jazz from New Orleans, and river boats helped to float the careers of many a musician.

On a smaller scale I can remember the “Jazz On The Lake” cruises in the 60s right here in Toronto when hundreds of fans would descend on the waterfront and crowd onto one of the Toronto Island ferries for an evening of jazz when more than the water was flowing.

Many of the cruises in Toronto were presented by a promoter called Ron Arnold and in the course of digging for some information, I came across the following, from Pro Tem, then the student weekly of York University, and dated October l5, 1965:

“JAZZ CANADIANA with the Nimmons ‘n’ Nine orchestra has begun its 1965-66 season on CBC radio. One of the few jazz programmes broadcast on the AM band, Nimmons ‘n’ Nine welcomes an audience at the CBC studio, 509 Parliament Street. Doors open at 8:00pm and the performance goes from 8:30 to 9:30pm.

“NO TICKETS ARE REQUIRED — all you do is walk in. As a bonus, the management offers door prizes of Phil Nimmons’ latest LP. Concert dates for the next two months are October 15 and 29, November 12 and 26.

“Ron Arnold, Toronto jazz entrepreneur is bringing the second annual Canadian Jazz Festival back to Casa Loma, much to the delight and interest of this writer. Once again seven bands will be playing in the medieval cloisters of the dungeon, library and great hall of the castle, and the concert masters will be Dave Caplan, Toronto Star’s Man About Jazz, and CKFH announcer Phil Mackellar.

“The feature attraction is going to be a panel discussion at seven o’clock. This should be of particular significance since it will set traditional against mainstream when Pat Scott of the Globe is met in public by his archrival, Phil Mackellar. Frank Kennedy of the Star and John Norris of CODA magazine round out the panel which will be augmented by guest composer and teacher Gord Delamont.”

Note: The featured bands at the 1965 Casa Loma event mentioned here were Moe Koffman, Rob McConnell (big band), Rob McConnell (sextet), Don Thompson, Paul Hoffert, Jim McHarg and Jim Scott. I find it interesting that the writer of the article described a panel discussion as being the feature attraction of a jazz evening that featured so many important musicians!

Back to the present: the November meeting of the Duke Ellington Society will be held on Friday November 18 at the Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St. The evening will be titled “The Duke in Canada” and I’ll be there with a quartet playing the music of Ellington and Strayhorn. You don’t have to be a member to attend and admission is free.

Earlier the same week on Tuesday, November 15, from 6pm to 9pm, there will be a “Jazz Party” at Quotes Bar & Grill, 220 King St. W., Toronto, with an all-star line-up of musicians and it is sure to be a memorable evening. Regular readers may remember that three months ago I wrote about Kate Weich who passed away June 16 of this year. The event is a celebration of her life and there will be a $20 cover charge at the door, all of which will go towards a bursary to be established in her name at York University

As always, 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.

Let us take a moment to celebrate, or perhaps curse, the memory of misheard lyrics, the finding of which is great fun, and is one of the great time-wasting joys of the internet. Mishearing “breaking rocks in the hot sun” as “a grape skin rots in the hot sun” in the Clash’s I fought the Law’s is a good one. But the serene phrase from Psalm 23, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” heard as “Surely good Mrs Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life,” is my long-time personal favourite.

Iselers at the Distillery: The latter quote — the correct one, I mean — is from the King James Bible, a translation of various Christian and Hebrew scriptures, and was for centuries the central document through which these texts were disseminated in the English-speaking world. Truly beautiful though it is, it contains many inaccuracies and misreadings, particularly of Hebrew scripture, which have been corrected or re-translated by later scholars. But for those who grew up with the King James version, these reinterpretations often seem to lack richness and resonance. Never mind that any western translation of a several thousand year-old text from the Middle East is likely to miss the original point by a wide, almost unbridgeable inter-cultural gap; our fallible memories create orthodoxies that lead us to strongly resist the unfamiliar and new, especially when the old is so much more singable.

While one can challenge its accuracy, no one can deny the poetic majesty of the King James Bible, which has been a source of inspiration to many great composers. Various musical settings of King James-derived material can be enjoyed at a concert on 25 November by the Elmer Iseler Singers, titled “King James and Shakespeare.” (The birth of the King James Bible 400 years ago coincides with Shakespeare’s latter years.) The concert takes place in an unusual venue for the Iselers — the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District. Jazzmen Gene DiNovi and Dave Young guest and Soulpepper Theatre’s Albert Schulz narrates.

The Mendelssohn’s Brahms: Johannes Brahms was a composer with an acute sense of cultural memory. Conscious of his place in musical history, and highly respectful of his mentor Robert Schumann, he had a sense of responsibility towards understanding and furthering the musical traditions to which he was heir.

His famous feud with Wagner — or rather, the feud between fans and advocates of the two composers — centred around the question of memory. Wagner’s aesthetic demanded a sweeping away of the old, including old musical forms. Brahms felt that older forms could be imbued with new ideas.

Nowadays it is possible to hear elements of both innovation and musical tradition in Brahms. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir presents an all-Brahms programme on November 9. The Alto Rhapsody and Deutsches Requiem are among Brahms’ greatest choral works, but the evening is notable for two lesser known works as well, Nänie and the Gesang der Parzen (Song of the Fates). Brahms’ choral works are imbued with his knowledge of baroque contrapuntal part-writing, and are consistently innovative in terms of timbres and techniques. They are notably more interesting than Wagner’s choral writing. Oops, was that my outside voice?

Incidentally, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is programming some intriguing choral read-throughs and conducting workshops in the weeks and months ahead. These are excellent resources for choral singers and conductors, and are well worth checking out. Go to the TMC’s website and look under “education and outreach.”

25th solstice: A choir’s own past can also be the occasion for celebration. On December 3, Jenny Crober’s East York Choir celebrates its 25th year of existence with “Winter Solstice,” a concert that includes a premiere of a work by veteran Canadian composer Stephen Hatfield. The EYC has always been open to folk and popular elements in choral music, and has consistently programmed works both substantive and entertaining.

And speaking of the solstice, the Christmas choral celebration, fast upon us, can be a particularly contentious arena. Often one hears the seasonal plea, in part a reaction to the commercialization of the holiday, to “keep Christ in Christmas.” And yet many of the most familiar tropes of Christmas — holly, trees, gifts, the midwinter date of the celebration — are borrowed and appropriated from pre-Christian pantheistic worship, popularly known as paganism.

One might reasonably argue that many of the apparently non-religious aspects of Christmas that are often deplored — the saturnalia of gift-giving, decoration, parties and indulgence in food and drink — have actually returned Christmas to its pre-Christian roots, a mid-winter solstice celebration of companionship and warmth in the midst of cold and darkness. Muse on this when next you hear the great carol, The Holly and the Ivy, redolent with pagan imagery.

The above is only one of many great carols, and one of the delights of this time of year is the chance to indulge in many concerts and hear the many and varied approaches to carols, songs and extended Christmas-themed works. I am told that a measure of eggnog can add to this delight, though this column takes no responsibility for the health or safety of those who over-indulge in either carols or festive drinks.

Finally, some upcoming seasonal concerts of note

The Kyiv Chamber Choir, on tour of Canada from the Ukraine, sings in Waterloo, St. Catherines and Toronto between November 25 and 27.

The Mohawk College Community Choir includes Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio in a concert on December 3.

On the same night, Cantores Celestes performs Canadian choral icon Derek Holman’s Sir Christemas in a concert that benefits, in part, the Assaulted Women’s Helpline.

In Guelph on November 26, the Guelph Chamber Choir performs “Voices of Light: An Advent Festival of Music and Poetry,” including English-born Canadian Paul Halley’s Voices of Light and works by American choral composers Daniel Pinkham and Eric Whitacre.

I am always advocating for Benjamin Britten’s St. Nicholas to evolve into a seasonal favourite on par with Messiah, Christmas Oratorio, etc. The Pax Christi Chorale performs this wonderful work on December 3 and 4.

Also on December 3, the Toronto Choral Society performs in a Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra concert with the intriguing title of “Howard Cable’s Cowboy Christmas.” Composer Cable, a genuine Canadian institution, hosts and conducts.

For those who are not quite ready to embrace the winter choral season in all its frosty exuberance, Isabel Bernaus’ Jubilate Singers performs “Music of the Mediterranean” on November 26. A concert that focuses on music from warmer climes might be just the thing to feed the spirit as the cold weather descends and the autumn recedes into memory?

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

What does Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love have in common with a song by 18th century composer Jean Paul Martini? Or the musical Kismet with Alexander Borodin? Or Gounod's Ave Maria with Bach? If you know the answers, you’ve already tapped into a musical phenomenon that stretches in a long continuum back to ancient times: out of existing music emerges new music — which is to say that throughout musical history, composers have seized upon a good tune when they’ve heard one and known how to capitalize on it in ways appropriate to their time and purpose. This is one of November’s themes.

Scaramella: Scaramella’s upcoming concert “Hit and Run” is built upon this well-known and widespread practice, taking some of the baroque era’s “good tunes,” beloved and popular in their day, and revealing how 16th century composers have transformed them into new pieces. Artistic director Joëlle Morton explains: “In some rare instances, the new pieces were spoofs — making fun of the original tunes. But in most situations, the new composers referenced the older pieces in a respectful way by quoting the text, resetting an old melody or bass line with completely new parts, composing additional lines that could be added to the older work or creating elaborate virtuosic showpieces out of one or more of the original lines.”

Thus you’ll be able to hear Diego Ortiz’s gamba-inspired flights of invention on the melancholy song Doulce Memoire, by earlier composer Pierre Sandrin, as well as how a ciacona (or chaconne) has been treated in three ways: the first two in 15th and 16th century settings, the third by contemporary composer (and recorder virtuoso) Matthias Maute — a recently completed tribute to the late wife of a dearly-respected man.

Running concurrently with the musical presentation is another delight: a clown, who will dramatize the texts involved, in the manner of the commedia dell’arte movement, which was so popular at the time.

“Hit and Run” takes place on November 26 at Scaramella’s usual gracious venue, Victoria College Chapel.

Ensemble Chaconne: A related theme, seen in several concerts this month, is that of the interrelationships between music, words and drama. In Shakespeare’s England these were well and flourishing, as popular tunes, both their melodies and text, were so familiar that musicians used them as the basis for sets of variations; also, poets set new verses to known tunes, often based on news of the day. The Bard himself assiduously incorporated well known songs into his plays and wrote poems for new songs. And many composers from Shakespeare’s own time — Thomas Morley, for example — and from every era since, have contributed music for specific use in his plays.

A group which is perhaps not well known to Southern Ontario audiences brings a colourful programme entitled “Measure for Measure — the Music of Shakespeare’s Plays” to our area this month. Ensemble Chaconne is dedicated to vivid, historically informed performance of renaissance and baroque music on period instruments. Based in the Boston area, it has a 25 year history and has concertized widely. Its core ensemble is a trio, whose distinguished members play renaissance/baroque flutes, viola da gamba and lutes/theorbo/early guitars; for the upcoming pair of concerts, so replete with song, they’ve added mezzo-soprano voice.

If you’re in the Kitchener-Waterloo area on November 17, you can hear them at the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society concert; if you’re in Hamilton on November 18, you’ll find them performing at McMaster University.

Academy Concert Series: The Academy Concert Series’ season opener features interwoven themes of music and drama too. Its centrepiece is a love story, which unfolds in a trilogy of Vivaldi chamber cantatas (one having only recently been discovered in Vienna) collectively known as L‘Amore per Elvira. We witness the declaration of love, the lover’s sad news that he must go away, the return amid fears and hopes and finally, the lovers’ reuniting — all poignantly expressed in both words and music.

Along with this is another parallel but modern day love story, placed in Vienna, woven throughout the performance and enacted by actor Vanessa AvRuskin. And interspersed between the cantatas are chamber pieces by Vivaldi that highlight the violin — the instrument on which he was known for his excellent playing.

The evolution of what might be called a musical love story is the story of the Academy Concert Series itself. Founded over 20 years ago, it has been constant in its mission to bring historically informed chamber performances to Toronto’s audiences. After a 16 year run as artistic director, multi-instrumentalist Nicolai Tarasov has now decided to largely hand over the reins to talented cellist/baroque cellist Kerri McGonigle — a passionate and accomplished musician, who I’ll bet will bring fresh life to an already lively series.

“Vivaldi Visits Vienna” takes place on November 12 at Eastminster Church.

A diversity of others

• November 13: In Kitchener, Classics At The Registry presents “Guitarra Barroca: A tour of baroque music for the guitar,” featuring a guitarist known for his musicianship and versatility, Kevin Ramessar, in collaboration with Larry Larson, trumpet and Graham Hargrove, percussion. (Note: This information arrived too late to make it into the printed listings; see the online listing at www.thewholenote.com. Click on “Just In,” and see New Listings–Beyond the GTA or go to the searchable Concert Listings and click “Concerts Beyond the GTA”);

• November 18: In Kingston, the Melos Choir and Chamber Orchestra presents a concert for St. Cecilia’s Day and celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of William Boyce. Programme includes Purcell’s Cecilian ode Welcome to all the Pleasures, Te Deum and Jubilate by Boyce, and other lovely music;

• November 19: “Glory – Sounds of Baroque Exultation” is the aptly-chosen title of a concert by the Larkin Singers, featuring Handel’s sacred motet Nisi Dominus as well as Vivaldi’s Gloria and Bach’s cantata Wachet Auf.

• November 19 and 20: In Toronto and Hamilton, Capella Intima presents “Venice and Beyond,” highlighting composers of the Venetian school who left Venice later in their careers: Grandi, Merula, Agostini, Sances, Valentini and Milanuzzi. Music for tenor and baritone voice, baroque guitar, organ, harpsichord and gamba.

• November 23: “In the Shadow of the Volcano,” traditional music of southern Italy including the villanelle, tarantella, fronna and tammurriata, is presented by the Vesuvius Ensemble as part of the Canadian Opera Company’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre series.

• November 25: In the first of four concerts honouring Bach, spread throughout the season, Music at Metropolitan presents “BachFest I: Christmas Oratorio, Parts 1–3.”

• November 26 and 27: The 16-voice a cappella choir Cantemus Singers presents their annual Christmas celebration, “Nowell Sing We,” with carols and motets from the renaissance and baroque periods, Giovanni Gabrieli’s Hodie Christus Natus Est for double choir, Telemann’s Deutsches Magnificat in G for choir, soloists and orchestra, and other works.

• November 27: In Kitchener, there’s a treat of two wonderful Bach cantatas (Wie schöen leuchtet der Morgenstern and Lobet den Herrn), in Spiritus Ensemble’s programme “Bach Vespers for Advent.”

• December 1 to 4: Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is joined by guest director and oboist, Alfredo Bernardini, to present “Baroque Splendour – The Golden Age of Dresden,” with stunning and virtuosic music created for Dresden’s remarkable court orchestra by Zelenka, Fasch, Pisendel, Telemann and Vivaldi.

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.