Over the course of the 2013/14 concert season I wrote several columns about the challenge that choirs face when programming new music: how to get audiences to risk the price of a ticket on repertoire that is not tried and true, safe and familiar.

One final observation to sum up this theme, before the summer break: most new music for choral ensembles that is not strictly popular falls into the category of “extended tonality.” What exactly is extended tonality?

Twentieth-century music can be viewed as a kind of pitched battle between composers whose work dispensed with the idea that music ought to have a key centre that could help orient the listener and composers who kept elements of traditional harmony and melody even when they were venturing into more experimental territory. The so-called “Second Viennese School” – Schoenberg, Berg, Webern – who began writing what is confusedly known as atonal music and later composers that built on their work, such as Babbitt, Boulez and Stockhausen, are examples of the former, Stravinsky, Britten and Shostakovich, of the latter.

There were many other categories, sub-genres and trends, but very broadly, these were the two opposing camps of musical endeavour that emerged out of the European classical tradition.

Extended tonality won.

1909 Choral

It won in the sense that younger composers generally did not pick up on the atonal experiment in music, and this musical strain now appears to be going the way of cool jazz and the songs of the German meistersingers – intellectually-driven styles that ran aground and seem to have little current appeal to revivalists. Late 20th-century composers did not want to leave behind rock, jazz and world music, influences that operate almost entirely in a tonal framework. Their insistence on integrating these influences in their music placed them firmly in the tradition of earlier composers who had  integrated various types of popular music into their sophisticated compositions.

What does this mean for listeners? Looking at this year’s new composition programming in retrospect, I can state that none of it was music that ought to have sent anyone but the most timid listeners screaming for the exit. So, are you willing to take a chance on something new, knowing that it is not likely to be that weird?

Speaking as someone who will order fish and chips for lunch, dinner or breakfast if possible, I hesitate to be overly judgemental about anyone’s musical menu choices. But it’s time to recognize that we’re living in an era in which composers are reaching out to listeners with alacrity as well as skill and insight. We’re well past the point at which we should be thinking of new music with hostility. So I hope you’ll give some of it a chance this summer, and in the new season as well. Below is a selection of concerts taking place from June to August.

The Ontario Youth Choir was founded in 1971 by the choral organization Choirs Ontario. TheOYC quickly became a vital instrument for generating enthusiasm for choral music among young singers, and for providing an important bridge between children’s choirs and adult ensembles. Each summer 40 talented young singers are auditioned and selected to take part in two weeks of rehearsals, masterclasses and voice lessons, culminating in a short three-city cross-Ontario tour and several concerts. The ensemble is conducted by a different Ontario director each summer. This year Guelph University’s Dr. Marta McCarthy leads the OYC in concerts in Toronto and Midland.

The Open Ears Festival is a great event to attend for those interested in new music – it’s one of my favourite new music festivals around, in part because it always conveys a sense of fun and irreverence in its programming. The Da Capo Chamber Choir will be taking part in the festival with concerts on June 7 and 8. For more information about the festival in general, see openears.ca.          

On June 8 and 14 the Kokoro Singers will be performing inGuelph and Dundas, respectively. Their concert “Celebration of Canadian Composers” features several composers – Mark Sirett, Donald Patriquin and Stephen Chatman among them – who are the most listener-friendly in the country. If you’re looking to ease your way into new music, this is a very good place to start.

On June 11 the Hamilton Children’s Choir performs “Together as One”; the concert is in support of the choir’s tour to Korea.

On June 20 the Adelphi Vocal Ensemble performs“Music for St. John’s Eve,” a concert of English choral music that includes Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor, as well as selections by Tallis and early-20th century composers Harwood and Naylor. The Vaughan Williams mass is an appealing and historically important work that is always worth hearing live.

Speaking of historically significant, this summer Ontarians have two chances to hear the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge. This ensemble dates as far back as the 14th century and has past associations with important composers and conductors. The choir will be performing at the Elora Festival on July 13 and at the Westben Arts Festival on July 19.

On June 7 and 8 the University of Waterloo’s Conrad Grebel University College choirs will perform “Sound in the Land: Music and the Environment: Kalahari Journey,” a choral initiative that is part of a larger environmental project to understand the nature of the earth through the medium of sound. The event involves workshops, lectures and events as well as concerts. More information can be found at uwaterloo.ca/grebel/sound-land-2014/about. 

Finally, check out the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound for performances of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers by the Elora Festival Singers on July 29 and of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by the Elmer Isler Singers on August 10. The Elora Festival Singers will also be performing several exciting-sounding concerts at their own festival, notably David Fanshawe’s celebrated African Sanctus on July 12. 

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

1909 OnOperaWe think of opera season ending with the end of May, but this is by no means the case this year. Three important opera productions take place in June and operatic events occur throughout Ontario in July and August.

First up June 3 to 8 is the world premiere of Airline Icarus by Brian Current to a libretto by Anton Piatigorsky. Icarus is one of the figures in Greek mythology whose story is an example of humanity’s overweening pride. His father Daedalus fashioned waxen wings for himself and his son to escape the labyrinth Daedalus designed. While Daedalus took the moderate path halfway between the sun and the sea, Icarus attempted to fly as high as he could; the sun melted his wings and he plunged into the sea.

In referencing the story, Piatigorsky means to “impart a mythic dimension to the mundane experience of contemporary air travel.” The action is set on board a plane bound for Cleveland and explores the inner thoughts of the passengers and crew on their journey. The cast includes Dawn Bailey, Vania Chan, Sean Clark, Alexander Dobson, Larissa Koniuk, David Roth, Zorana Sadiq, Geoffrey Sirett, Krisztina Szabó, Jennifer Taverner and Graham Thomson. The composer conducts and Tim Albery, best known for his staging of the COC’s Götterdämmerung, directs. The opera runs from June 3 to 8 at Daniels Spectrum. See soundstreams.ca for more information.

From June 12 to 15 is the Toronto premiere of another new opera, Shelter by Juliet Palmer to a libretto by Julie Salverson. A coproduction between Tapestry Opera and Edmonton Opera, Shelter had been scheduled to open last year in Toronto after its world premiere in Edmonton in November 2012. Of the opera, a depiction of a nuclear family in the Atomic Age, Salverson says, “I’ve always been attracted to catastrophic events. Joseph Campbell says to ‘follow your bliss,’ and while most people go after love or fulfillment, I’m drawn to tragedy and the fault lines in the psyche of a culture – the secrets that fester in families, leak quietly into communities and eventually, sometimes, explode. Such is the story of Shelter.” Toronto audiences will remember New Zealand-born Palmer as the composer of the a cappella sewing-machine opera Stitch in 2008 and the women’s boxing opera Voice-Box in 2010. Palmer’s music for Shelter is described as combining the influences of Brahms, big band, funk and the post-apocalyptic sounds of 1990s Japanese punk. The cast includes Christine Duncan, Teiya Kasahara, Andrea Ludwig, Keith Klassen and Peter McGillivray. Leslie Dala conducts and Keith Turnbull directs.

June gives us not only new operas but older operas presented in new ways. That is what the inventive company Against the Grain Theatre intends with its production of Debussy’s 1902 masterpiece Pelléas et Mélisande. Continuing its mission of performing opera in unconventional places – La Bohème in a pub, The Marriage of Figaro at the AGO – AtG plans to stage Pelléas outdoors in the Max Tanenbaum Courtyard Gardens of the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre at 227 Front St. E. on June 19, 21, 23 and 25. 

Sung in French with English surtitles, Pelléas et Mélisande features an outstanding Canadian cast comprising baritone Étienne Dupuis making his role debut as Pelléas, soprano Miriam Khalil as Mélisande, baritone Gregory Dahl as Golaud, bass Alain Coulombe as Arkel, mezzo-soprano Megan Latham as Geneviève and soprano Andrea Núñez as Yniold. Guest music director Julien LeBlanc provides piano accompaniment, and the same creative team that created AtG’s much lauded 2012 production of The Turn of the Screw is reunited with direction by Joel Ivany, set design by Camellia Koo and lighting design by Jason Hand. 

On June 15, the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener is presenting an opera marathon. First on the bill is the one-person opera Love Songs by Ana Sokolović sung by Kristin Hoff. Next is a series of contemporary opera excerpts from the Bicycle Opera Project (see below). And last is a triple bill of new Canadian operas presented by Essential Opera. Premiered just in April this year, the three are Etiquette by Monica Pearce, Regina by Elisha Denburg and Heather by Chris Thornborrow. Also at Open Ears on June 11 and 12 is the multimedia chamber opera Mirror for soprano and visual artist from Inter Arts Matrix and on June 12 L’Homme et le cielfrom Fawn Opera. 

July: Those with a taste for old operas done in period style should head over to the Westben Arts Festival in Campbellford, a town about midway between Toronto and Ottawa on the Trent-Severn Waterway. There from July 4 to 6, Toronto Masque Theatre will perform Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Toronto Masque Theatre Chamber Orchestra and Chorus and members of the Westben Festival Chorus under the direction of Larry Beckwith.

1909 OnOpera2Late July and early August: Summer Opera Lyric Theatre has been a favourite refuge for operagoers in Toronto. This year all of SOLT’s performances fall in August. First to open is The Magic Flute playing on August 1, 3, 6 and 9 with Nicole Bellamy as pianist and music director. Next is Madame Butterfly playing on August 2, 5, 7 and 9 with Narmina Afadiyeva as pianist and music director. And last is a rare chance to see Samuel Barber’s opera Vanessa (1958) playing on August 2, 6, 8 and 10 with Raisa Nakhmanovich as pianist and music director. The operas are performed by singers who have joined SOLT to hone their skills and develop their careers. This year’s stellar faculty includes Derek Bate, Kevin Mallon, Marshall Pynkoski, Wayne Gooding, Kathy Domoney, Henry Ingram, Stuart Hamilton, Catherine Robbin, Diane Loeb and Guillermo Silva-Marin.

Farther afield in Haliburton there are performances of the Highlands Opera Studio run by Richard Margison and Valerie Kuinka. On August 13 and 15 HOS presents a double bill of two comic rarities, Donizetti’s Rita (1841) and William Walton’s The Bear (1967). On August 22, 24, 26 and 28 it presents Puccini’s Tosca. One reason Rita is obscure is that the Opéra Comique for whom he wrote it rejected it and plans for performances in Naples fell through. Rita finally received its posthumous premiere in 1860, ironically at the Opéra Comique. It was only in 2009 that a new critical edition of the score was published.

This summer marks the third anniversary of the innovative Bicycle Opera Project that aims to bring contemporary Canadian opera to communities across Ontario that might otherwise not have the opportunity to hear it. According to its website, “The project focuses on operatic repertoire that deals with contemporary issues relevant to all audiences.” The singers and musicians travel from place to place by bicycle along with two trailers full of props, costumes and instruments. In so doing BOP aims to demythologize old ideas of what opera and what opera singers are like.

Their itinerary for this summer includes a stop on June 15 at the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener; July 12 and 13 at the Westben Arts Festival; July 25 to 27 at Stratford Summer Music; August 7 and 8 at the Toronto Summer Music Festival; and stops in between in Kingston, Prince Edward County, Belleville, Hamilton, Bayfield, London, Brantford, Waterloo and Guelph.

BOP’s 2014 repertory features short operas A little rain must fall by Chris Thornborrow, Bianchi: A Five Minute Bicycle Opera by Tobin Stokes written especially for the company, (What rhymes with) Azimuth? by Ivan Barbotin and Rosa by James Rolfe as well as opera excerpts from The Brothers Grimm by Dean Burry, Airline Icarus by Brian Current (see above) and L’Homme et le ciel by Adam Scime. The company includes Liza Balkan, stage director; Wesley Shen, music director; Geoffrey Sirett, baritone; Chris Enns, tenor; Stephanie Tritchew, mezzo; and Larissa Koniuk, Artistic Director and soprano.

Have an enjoyable summer!

Christopher Hoile is a Toronto-based writer on opera and theatre. He can be contacted at opera@thewholenote.com.

1909 BandStandAs most readers will have observed by now, summer has finally arrived. I’m torn between duty and the desire for pleasure. The editor tells me that my deadline was yesterday, but my brain tells me that the vista of a cloudless sky has more appeal than the computer screen in front of me. However, it is time to reflect on a few of the musical happenings of the past month. For many in the band world it has been spring concert season, time to display to their audiences the fruits of their musical labours over the past dreary months. This year, for me it has been more as an audience member than as a band member.

The first of my visiting forays took me to Oshawa and a concert by the Clarington Concert Band and their guests, the County Town Singers. After an absence of a few years, this band is once again in the capable hands of Mr. Barrie Hodgins as director. The feature of the evening was a performance of a work composed and conducted by renowned Canadian composer Howard Cable. As an introduction to this work, Howard explained to the audience how he came to write it. During a visit to Alberta, he had been challenged by a rancher about many of his works with an “Eastern Canada” theme. Too much about Quebec, Newfoundland and other aspects of the East. Where were his compositions about the ranches and other features of the West? The result was McIntyre Ranch Country. For our pleasure it was conducted by the composer himself. As for other Canadian content, the band played an excellent arrangement by Eddie Graf of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, and the County Town Singers gave us Lydia Adams’ arrangement of We Rise Again.

 My next outing couldn’t have been more different. After a visit to a rehearsal of The East York Concert Band, I attended their Spring concert. What a contrast to any other band concert that I have ever attended. The concert was in the large, beautifully appointed hall of Saint Clement of Ohrid Macedonian Orthodox Cathedral in Toronto. When we arrived there were already a large number of people seated at tables at the rear of the hall enjoying food and drink prior to the concert. We sat near the front in a section without tables. Apparently, as part of the cooperation between the band and the cathedral, the ladies’ auxiliary of the cathedral do the catering for a broad spectrum of delicacies for the audience to enjoy with the music. In case you were wondering, there was a wide selection of drinks available with the food. Yes, beer, wine and other alcoholic beverages were being served and consumed in a church on Sunday. It certainly did not detract in any way from the imaginative program, titled “Once Upon a Tune.”

The atmosphere of the evening reminded me very much of cabaret-style concerts offered many years ago by the York Regional Symphony under the direction of the late Clifford Poole. These, billed as “Wine and Cheese Concerts,” were performed in several small communities throughout the York Region. Admission for a couple included a bottle of wine. There were cheese and crackers on each table. At each large round table, two seats were to be left vacant. There were a number of intermissions where orchestra members would go into the audience and occupy these empty chairs. The inevitable “what instrument do you play” was frequently followed by such comments as “what does it look like.” After each intermission these audience members would locate the instruments in the orchestra, and be more aware of the role each played. It was a great way to get the audience and players involved.

New Horizons: During the past month I had the opportunity to learn more of New Horizons’ activities in this part of the country. First it was off to Peterborough to experience a day in their lives. What a day, even as an observer without playing a note, it was almost non-stop. In the morning there were two large distinct bands preparing for concerts in two parts of the building. After an hour lunch break it was back observing two different, more senior, groups in rehearsal. Every once in a while, someone would get up from a seat in the band and move to the other room, pick up a baton and conduct that other band. All of this was in preparation for their final concert on May 30.

My hat, which I rarely wear, must go off to Dan Kapp of the Toronto group for his energy and commitment. From that beginning single small group, he has guided the organization, taught and conducted to the present situation with 160 members in seven band classes. He is looking forward to the next group of prospective members with this year’s “Instrument Exploration Workshop” scheduled for the evening of Friday, September 12.

One of the most impressive aspects of both of these New Horizons groups that I visited was the open door inclusion of many who would never ordinarily have the opportunity to play music in a group. Canes, walkers and wheelchairs are a common sight. Two people in particular are worthy of special mention. Randal Pilson of the Toronto band and Devon Wilkins in Peterborough are totally blind. Of all of the instruments that he might have chosen, Randal plays the bass trombone, while Devon plays flute. In Devon’s case, her guide dog, Vestor, lies quietly by her side throughout the performance. Devon also serves on the board of the band. When you see that in a musical group, you know that there is complete inclusion and acceptance. 

Just down the road: Then there is the NABBSS. The North American Brass Band Summer School is a new venture jointly supported by the Royal Nova Scotia Tattoo Society and the Buffet Group. The summer school is based on well-established models in Britain. Participants will receive tuition from a team of Buffet soloists on the traditional British all-brass band style, and will explore some of the newest brass band repertoire in a series of workshops and rehearsals. Although participants will not be doing any marching, they will be dressed in uniform and perform on the tattoo stage together with the massed bands. For those not familiar with it, the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo has been an annual event in Halifax for 35 years and is billed as the “World’s Largest Annual Indoor Show.”

The camp will be under the direction of noted conductor Dr. Robert Childs, supported by a group of clinicians on all of the instruments of a traditional brass band. Among the instructors will be euphonium soloist David Childs, son of Dr. Childs, who was the featured soloist with the Hannaford Street Silver band a couple of years ago. It all takes place in Halifax from June 28 to July 8. Our household is already signed up and plans are well developed to get ourselves and our instruments ready for what promises to be an interesting new approach to our music making.

Looking ahead: Toronto is to have a new community band. To be located in the west end of the city, the Toronto Concert Band will rehearse Tuesday evenings in John G. Althouse Middle School, starting in September. With its tag line, “We Love to Play,” the Toronto Concert Band’s stated mission is “to create a positive and supportive environment in which to cultivate musicianship.” In short, TCB promises an enriched musical experience for its members. Everyone is welcome to join, including amateur community players, post-secondary students and professionals who want to play in the community. The founding conductors are Ken Hazlett and Les Dobbin, both with long careers in music education. For more information visit their website:
torontoconcertband.com.

Steve Fuller: It is with sadness and a sense of loss that we announce the passing of Steve Fuller, another longtime member of the band community in Toronto. A retired high school biology teacher, Steve’s life was focused around music. After open heart surgery some years ago, he worked hard at recovery and began active playing again. Then, about a year ago, he was back in hospital for some weeks. Shortly after his release, I was speaking with him and he was back playing and talking about reactivating his beloved saxophone quartet. I hadn’t heard from him for a while and was going to call when I received the news of his passing.

Definition Department

 This month’s lesser known musical term is: col legno: An indication to cellists to hold on tight with their lower extremities. We invite submissions from readers. Let’s hear your daffynitions.

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

1909 JazzNotesOnce a year WholeNote puts out an issue that covers more than one month and this edition is the lucky or unlucky one depending on your point of view. On this occasion I thought I would take the opportunity to write a few words about a musician with whom I recently spent time in Vienna, Austria.

At a time when the dream of most young guitar players was to become proficient at playing three chords enabling them to play the blues and so call themselves musicians, there were a few who set their sights a little higher. One of them was a young man in Huntington Beach, Southern California. His name? Howard Alden, destined to become one of the finest jazz guitarists of his or any other generation.

The beginnings are familiar – a piano at home on which by age five he was picking out tunes and an old banjo gathering dust – a four-string model which set him on his destined path.

Those of you who are not dyed-in-the-wool fans may not recognize his name, but if Woody Allen is one of your favourites, you would have certainly heard him on one of his soundtracks. An early influence was Roy Clark on Hee Haw and his playing certainly took a change in direction when he was exposed to the music of Goodman and Basie.

A phone call from Allen in the late 90s opened yet another door for Howard when the director asked him if he would be willing to coach the principal actor for his upcoming movie Sweet and Lowdown, whose role required him to play the guitar.

The actor was Sean Penn and what Howard assumed would take a few weeks turned into six months of intensive work during which time he and Sean developed a warm relationship.

If you would like to hear the real thing in person, Howard will be in town for one night, Thursday, October 30, at the Old Mill Toronto.

Have a happy summer and spend some of it listening to live jazz. 

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

1908-InWithTheNew-WeiweiLanSomething new is coming to town in May – a festival of music unlike any other. Aptly named 21C, this 21st century music festival produced by the Royal Conservatory spotlights new creation across the musical spectrum. The brainchild of Mervon Mehta, executive director of performing arts at the RC, the festival offers eight concerts over five nights, with 20 premieres, and runs from May 21 to 25. I sat down with festival composer-consultant Brian Current to get a first-hand overview of what awaits the listener and why this festival is so unique. Put simply, he describes it as a festival of “beauty and courage.” The combination of concerts offers an opportunity for the people of Toronto to come and listen to who we are musically, and to hear our city proudly reflected back. It’s a celebration of what’s alive and vibrant in our collective lives at this time.

Many of the performers and composers involved in the festival are people whom Mehta has brought in to perform inside the acoustical wonders of Koerner Hall, which opened its doors in 2009. Mehta approached many of these artists to either write something new for the festival or to come as guest performers. His vision is to reach out to many different musical communities and in so doing, offer each audience the opportunity to hear something familiar and something unexpected. Thanks to its main benefactor, Michael Koerner, the festival is scheduled for a five-year run and over that time will be an extraordinary opportunity to build trust with the listeners of Toronto. The concerts will also be live-streamed online so it also offers an opportunity to generate an international audience.

Read more: 21C – Beauty and Courage

The sometime commercial music category and now broad notion I call world musics is manifest in many, ever-varied ways. It also appears to be spreading geographically to ever more communities in Southern Ontario. Concert presenters are a major vector for this diffusion. It’s notable that aspects of the world’s musics this month and next appear in programs by presenters as different as supper clubs, conservatories of music, classical new music producers, colleges and universities, as well as not-for-profit societies and venues. Yet they all claim to be presenting world music. Some of these presenters have a specific music genre, geographic or cultural construct as a focus, while others a much broader mandate, challenging received ideas of mono-ethnicity embedded in neighbourhood and community by encouraging hybrid exchanges.

I’ve explored in depth individual presenters such as Small World Music in previous columns. This time I thought it would be both fun and instructive to explore four disparate presenters for commonalities and differences, each promoting their event as a festival. Let’s see what Lulaworld 2014, the Mateca Arts Festival, Royal Conservatory of Music’s 21C Music Festival – all in Toronto – plus Conrad Grebel University College’s Sound in the Land in Waterloo have in store for our adventurous ears.

1908-WorldViewLulaworld 2014: Running from May 18 to June 7 Lulaworld 2014, the ninth such annual festival presented by the Lula Music and Arts Centre, showcases Toronto’s top world, jazz and Latin musicians, often performing alongside celebrated international colleagues. In a telephone conversation with Tracy Jenkins, Lula’s co-artistic director, she underscored this year’s theme. “In anticipation of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, Lulaworld will focus on artists with cultural roots in Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Trinidad, Guadaloupe and Brazil.” She added that musicians with other musical influences, those “from Angola, Israel, Portugal, Turkey and Italy” also have a place on this year’s roster. In addition, for “the very first time, the festival will conclude with a day of free outdoor programming as part of the Dundas [Street] West Fest on June 7.”

I counted 19 separate concerts in Lulaworld. On one date alone, the free Dundas West Fest where the street is closed to traffic, eight groups have been programmed to play on the al fresco stage. I can therefore only touch on a few of the concerts here. The opener on Sunday May 18 kicks off with the Montreal-based singer, pianist and composer Malika Tirolien. Born in Guadaloupe, she soulfully mashes up Antillean, funk, jazz and gospel musical influences. Then the Juno-nominated Toronto group Kobo Town takes the Lula stage with their alternative take on the venerable Trini calypsonian tradition.

There are two shows on May 30. At 7pm the outstanding keyboardist, Grammy-nominated, Juno Award-winning Hilario Duran takes over Lula’s piano for a rare solo concert in his home repertoire of original works, Cuban and jazz standards. At 10pm the Turkish Latin vocalist Zeynep Ozbilen appears with Roberto Linares Brown, among Canada’s most respected salsa bandleaders and composers, plus a nine-piece band. Ozbilen brings a new project, developed with Brown, which she evocatively describes as “Latin with Mediterranean spices.”

In the last in-venue concert on June 6, headliners Jimmy Bosch and Ralph Irizarry with The Lula All Stars demonstrate an important aspect of Lulaworld’s programing: mentorship of local musicians by international stars. Lula co-artistic director Jenkins pointed out that “Jimmy Bosch, a fiery exponent of the progressive sound he calls ‘salsa dura’ (hard salsa) is New York’s most sought after [Latin music] trombonist. And NYC timbalero Ralph Irizarry [aka] the ‘Godfather of Lula’ is a legend of salsa percussion.” They’re both making repeat visits to Lula and will lead workshops and share stage time with our city’s All Stars. You’re encouraged to come for the tropical fusion dinner, take abeginner salsa lesson and stay afterward to dance salsa, merengue, bachata and top 40 to the post-show DJs.

Mateca Arts Festival: In contrast to Lulaworld’s well-seasoned operation, this is the first edition of the Mateca Arts Festival. This “Community Multi-Arts Celebration,” notes its press release, is “inspired by the riches of Latin American culture … honouring the diversity of the city of Toronto. Approximately 15 countries will be represented: Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Spain, USA and Brazil amongst others.”

The festival takes place in Burwash Quad, Victoria College, University of Toronto on June 7 and 8. This an all-inclusive type of cultural gathering, the kind that Harbourfront Centre has popularized over the years, replete with musicians, dancers, visual artists, arts and crafts, food vendors, karaoke, workshops and yoga. Even “motivational speeches” are listed.

For world music fans however perhaps the outstanding event is the trio concert led by the Argentinean singer Beatriz Pichi Malen. With a thriving international concert and recording career, Malen draws on her deep-rooted native Mapuche (indigenous people of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina) heritage. Her trio performs songs, some inter-generationally passed on, dominated by themes from the natural world and by the Mapuche worldview centred on its intimate and harmonious relationship with Mother Earth. Among the indigenous instruments the group plays to accompany their songs are the kashkawilla (bell rattles),kultrung (drum), trompe (jews harp), and truutruka (valveless horn). The native Quechua dancer Lucho Cruz adds to the concert’s Andean flavour with her choreography illustrating what the press release poetically calls “passages of sacred moments in an open and arid geography, splashed by the southern wind.”

21C Music Festival:The venerable Royal Conservatory, with its Koerner and other halls, is certainly no newcomer to presenting a sweeping variety of music, though admittedly until the 21st century it was mostly of the Euro-American classical variety. The RC’s five-year-old Koerner world music series offerings on the other hand have often been mentioned in this column.

The 21C Music Festival, running from May 21 through 25 is a brand new RC project hosting seven ensembles and numerous soloists, most of them Canadian. The media kit reflects one artistic inspiration for the event. Philanthropist Michael Koerner first quotes composer Charles Ives and then remarks that “21C Music Festival is … about ear stretching.” One of the ear stretching elements evidently is music outside the Euro-American classical mainstream. Let’s call it world music for the lack of a better term.

Of all the individual works and non-orchestral instruments in the festival which could claim world music provenance I’d like to focus on the concert on May 23. Titled “After Hours #1,” the event begins late, approximately at 10pm, at the Conservatory Theatre. It features the compositions and performances of two drummer-composers, Trichy Sankaran and Gurpreet Chana, respectively representatives of the South Asian “classical” Carnatic and Hindustani musical traditions.

The internationally renowned Indian-Canadian percussion virtuoso and York University music professor Sankaran has been a prominent performer on the Toronto scene since the early 1970s. He has been commissioned by the RC to compose a new work for this occasion. His Hamsa (2014) for the 21C Ensemble consisting of violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet and Sankaran on the mrdangam (Carnatic barrel-shaped drum) will receive its world premiere at the concert. New music by Sankaran is in itself cause for celebration.

Gurpreet Chana grew up in Canada and studied Indian tabla (double drum) in the Punjab gharana (school/style). He also presents a world premiere, TABLIX, for solo tabla and electronics. In his notes, Chana states that TABLIX is the “product of four years of meticulous research and development … explor[ing] technology’s impact on the untapped melodic potential of the tabla.” Chana’s early experiences as a second-generation South Asian immigrant in Canada echo many other musicians’ experiences, “characterized by interactions with every type of musician.” It is an environment that instils an openness that echoes clearly throughout TABLIX which invites the listener to experience and communicate with contemporary music culture through the eyes of the tabla player.

Sound in the Land 2014 Festival: As illustrated in my last column, world music concerts have also taken root in Waterloo, Ontario. Presented by Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo, the Sound in the Land 2014: Music and the Environment Festival, June 5 to 8, consists of a series of concerts plus a conference. Several of the Mennonite-centred, musical and ecologically themed concerts have world music threads as well as mainstream Euro-American ones. On the June 5 “Mennofolk Concert” the Buffleheads, a trio, perform what is intriguingly described as “Afro-grass” repertoire, a new (sub)genre to me. June 6 at the University of Waterloo’s Humanities Theatre in the concert titled “Sonic Convergences: Orchestra and Multimedia,” the Korean composer and media artist Cecilia Heejeong Kim stages her engaging multimedia piece Earth Songs(2009), for Korean instrumentsand Korean vocals.

Then at the Saturday matinee on June 7 the Grebel Gamelan directed by Maisie Sum plays Balinese instrumental music on the  Grebel Chapel’s patio (in keeping with the open-air presentation typical of performances in the music’s tropical homeland).

Weaving together Lulaworld’s Latin and Luso core with Mateca Arts Festival’s South and Central American community multi-arts celebration, then adding the 21C Music Festival’s embrace of performer-composers outside the received classical composer matrix and finally the multi-hued threads of Conrad Grebel’s Afro-grass, Korean ecological theatre, Balinese gamelan and choral kecak, it becomes clear that these and other such presenters are key actors defining the practice and transmission of world music in our time.

Andrew Timar is a Toronto musician and music writer. He can be contacted at worldmusic@thewholenote.com.

1908-ClassicalSometimes it’s not only what you know but who you know. Show One Productions’ founder Svetlana Dvoretsky came to Canada from St. Petersburg in 1998. Culture was a huge part of her upbringing – her mother, after a brief career as a concert pianist, taught piano – and Dvoretsky wanted to be an arts administrator here, having studied management in show business. So she looked for a job in the arts when she arrived but only volunteer positions were available. Instead she worked in retail – “the immigrant school of learning” – then in the corporate world before scratching her “itch” and launching Show One.

It had taken five years, but she was ready. When violinist-conductor Vladimir Spivakov came to Toronto for a concert she sought him out – he and her mother had been students together – and fortune smiled. She buttonholed him on an elevator from floors one to three, just enough time to garner an invitation to meet his management in New York City. She flew south and returned with Spivakov’s endorsement that she bring him to Toronto for his next concert here. “It was a lot of trust on his part,” she admitted. Show One piggybacked onto Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi’s 25th Anniversary World Tour with their concert October 30, 2004 at George Weston Recital Hall.

Working with Spivakov’s charitable education foundation, she launched “Young Stars of the Young Century,” a showcase for the crème de la crème of talent from the vast reaches of the countries of the former Soviet Union, alongside a dollop of young Canadians. Five more concerts followed, ending in September of 2009. Dvoretsky was clearly doing something right.

In between the first two “Young Stars” events, she got her feet wet with two popular vocal concerts, Mikhail Turetsky’s Men’s Choir and a second featuring Svetlana Portnyansky and Yevgeni Shapovalov fronting O. Burman’s jazz quartet. The Moscow Chamber Orchestra with soprano Galina Gorchakova and a memorable performance by the legendary Borodin String Quartet firmly established her presence. Not even 13 months had passed since Show One’s debut.

Dvoretsky broadened her reach by linking into Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica’s Tenth Anniversary Tour in the spring of 2007 and then conquering Roy Thomson Hall with Russian superstar baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky backed by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra that fall. When Spivakov returned with the Moscow Virtuosi and pianist Olga Kern on their 30th Anniversary Tour, Dvoretsky booked them into RTH. She did the same for premier violist-conductor Yuri Bashmet and the Moscow Soloists the following winter. Two months later, Spivakov was back at RTH, this time with his other regular gig, the National Philharmonic of Russia, featuring Siberian-born piano phenom Denis Matsuev (who would return twice under the Show One banner in solo recitals at Koerner Hall).

Less than a year later she paired Dmitri Hvorostovsky with the fast-rising young soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in RTH. Meanwhile she branched out to Montreal, presenting Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra with Matsuev, and then native son Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic with violinist Victoria Mullova as soloist. She would bring Gergiev back twice more and widen her terrain to include Ottawa, Hamilton and Vancouver.

Over the last ten years she’s presented 30 classical Toronto concerts, 32 pop and dance events and 15 theatrical engagements, the latter exclusively in the Russian language.

She brought Michel Legrand, John Malkovich and Placido Domingo to us as well as cellist Mischa Maisky for the first time since 1976 (with Yuri Bashmet in a superb program commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra, then last fall in a recital at Koerner Hall).

Dvoretsky will celebrate Show One’s tenth anniversary with two world-class concerts: Spivakov, clearly her backbone, returns for the sixth time, May 9 at RTH with the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra’s 35th Anniversary Tour; Hvorostovsky is back for the third time, June 1, in recital at Koerner Hall with pianist Ivari Ilja. May 9 everyone is invited to a post-concert lobby performance and reception at RTH featuring Canadian-Italian Daniela Nardi’s jazz world project Espresso Manifesto. It’s been quite a first decade. What will the second bring?

Recent Events

The unpredictability of events is certainly a boon to the Ontario Lottery Corporation (among others) but when it smiles unexpectedly (as it did on me a few weeks ago) and reveals its serendipitous side it’s capable of bestowing a big gift.

Richard Goode, in Toronto for appearances with the TSO, was scheduled to give three masterclasses at RCM. Circumstances dictated that I was able to attend only one, Friday afternoon, April 4. The first thing that struck me as I picked up the information sheet at the entrance to Mazzoleni Hall was that there was only one piece on the agenda, Mozart’s Piano Concert No.22 in E-flat Major, K482. The name of Goode’s student for the masterclass, Jan Lisiecki, evoked recognition and disbelief in equal measure: Canada’s own wunderkind, Gramophone award winner, with two DG CDs already under his belt, several summer music festival appearances scheduled, and on the horizon this upcoming November, TSO concerts dedicated to Beethoven’s final three piano concertos.

Lisiecki had just turned 19, Goode was well into his 71st year (he made his TSO debut in 1963). Lisiecki began to play, a 750 ml bottle of San Pellegrino on the floor, his tone steely, the notes tight and crisp. Goode characterized Lisiecki’s playing as “very beautiful, natural, satisfying.” Goode offered a few words: “Feel the force of the passage go all the way through.” Pointing to the bottom of a page, Lisiecki asked what Goode thought of “those two bars.”

“I liked it,” Goode answered.

Goode followed the second movement’s dark melody intently, looking at the score, writing something in pencil (he wrote nothing during the first movement). Suddenly, Lisiecki, who has joy, youth and polka dot socks on his side, leapt up to turn the page of the accompanying pianist’s score before returning to his own piano without missing a beat. For his part, Goode had much to offer at the movement’s conclusion. “I think this is a delicate andante,” he pointed out. “It comes down to which notes to stress and which you want to be less important.” He played the five-bar phrase: “The most important thing is to think of the voices as moving not vertical.” And he added that just because Mozart doesn’t write elaborate dynamics, it doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have played them.

Goode then demonstrated his own consummate pianism, showing off his musicianship in phrasing that emphasized the important passages.

Goode interrupted the joyous third movement several times, acting like a conductor, standing, rolling from side to side, commenting, singing his instructions which seemed a more comfortable way for him to communicate his thoughts (Tellingly, he did verbalize one piece of advice, asking Lisiecki to play a little slower “but with the same pizazz.”) Following Lisiecki’s effortless passagework and an admonition not to “upset the serenity of it,” Goode announced to the audience of 20 or so that “Jan will play some Chopin for you.”

The half dozen Preludes were like ice cream on the afternoon’s cake. Lisiecki displayed a more rounded tone than in the Mozart and Goode offered some salient bon mots. It goes without saying that Lisiecki is a brilliant talent; the trick is to tamp down the brilliance when appropriate. The afternoon saw him being schooled by the old school.

Eight days later, Goode brought his consummate skills to the public in a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.17, K453 with the TSO under Peter Oundjian. The notes of the first movement melted into the keyboard like butter. Goode gave them a liquid quality but with much definition, well-paced, relaxed, unrushed. The pianist quietly underlined the shape of the arpeggios behind the orchestra, his playing emotionally restrained but tonally lush, practising what he had preached in the masterclass by not emphasizing every note, letting many fall in service of the phrasing.

The darkly capricious second movement gained nobility as Goode displayed a brighter tone in the cadenza while the bright finale showed the classicist at work and play.

The following week I was privileged to sit in on a rehearsal of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 with soloist Hélène Grimaud and Andrey Boreyko guest-conducting the TSO. It was fascinating to hear the concert the next day and notice how the orchestra had faithfully followed the conductor’s instructions; for example, Boreyko had wanted exact articulation in the opening of the first movement. “It is not a question of loudness,” he pointed out. The French horn solo on the other hand, was equally gorgeous in casual dress and in tails.

As for the remarkable Ms.Grimaud, her piano playing was strong and convincing in the rehearsal, each chord struck purposefully, each note sounding lyrically. In the concert she displayed a much greater dynamic range adding rounded pianissimos in particular to expand the music’s range. Her intimate pianism exposed the intrinsic beauty of the slow movement written “for Clara,” Schumann’s wife with whom Brahms was enamoured. (In the rehearsal, before taking up the second movement, Boreyko reminded the orchestra that the concerto was Brahms’ emotional reaction to his friend Schumann’s suicide attempt.) And Grimaud entered fully into the passion of the third movement with its rhapsodic cadenza spurring the audience into an immediate standing ovation.

Mozart in a Day

Violinist Jacques Israelievitch and pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico will play the complete Mozart violin sonatas Sunday, May 4 at Gallery 345. The opportunity to hear all 28 sonatas performed live in one day is likely a first for Toronto audiences. The marathon will be divided into four concerts beginning at 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm, with only short breaks in between. 

“Playing the sonatas in one day allows the listener to hear the evolution of the form as the composer goes from featuring mostly the piano to making the violin gradually the equal of the piano,” Israelievitch says. “The earlier sonatas are generally simpler, as Mozart honed his craft. They evolve into works of greater complexity and depth. The performance itself requires a lot of stamina. I am fortunate in having a piano partner who is up to the task.”  

In preparation, the two musicians are doing a lot of stretching exercises.

Quick Picks

Less than two weeks after his Mozart marathon, Israelievitch joins Benjamin Smith, piano, and Jihyun Ahn, cello, in a trio of trios by Beethoven, Shostakovich and Schumann May 16 at Gallery 345.

Sondra Radvanovsky continues her productive sojourn in our city with a performance of Richard Strauss’ exquisite Four Last Songs June 5 and 7 at RTH with the TSO conducted by Shalom Bard.

One of the many standout concerts presented by the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society in the coming weeks is by Trio Arkel (Marie Berard, violin, Teng Li, viola, and Winona Zelenka, cello) May 12. Another is the first concert in QuartetFest 2014 by the Penderecki String Quartet June 1. An intriguing follow-up in the same series finds the Chiara Quartet performing their program of Haydn, Bartok and Brahms entirely by memory. More details on this latest incarnation of QuartetFest can be found on the k-wcms website.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony led by Edwin Outwater attractively pairs Aaron Copland’s Suite from Billy the Kid with Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story May 2 to 4; on May 30 and 31, Karen Gomyo is the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D in a program that also features Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Sokolovic’s Ringelspiel.

Paul Ennis is managing editor of The WholeNote.

Shortly after I finished university in Montreal, I got a job in the classical department of a record store. Occasionally customers would come in and ask me for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s recordings of Beethoven conducted by Bruno Weil and I would direct them to an album that Weil had made with Tafelmusik earlier that year.

1908-EarlyBruno Weil has never made an album with the Toronto Symphony, but to my customers at the record store, Tafelmusik and the TSO were one and the same, and I never saw the point in correcting them. Throughout its 35-year history, Tafelmusik has gone from a group of competent musicians representing early music in Canada to the biggest and best-selling early music group in the country, as well as an internationally renowned orchestra. If Montrealers think Tafelmusik is the TSO, I can’t blame them, and I’m sure Weil and everyone else who has ever appeared on a Tafelmusik album should consider the confusion a compliment.

Tafelmusik’s success is due in a large part to the leadership of Jeanne Lamon and the direction she charted for the group when she took it over in 1981. Tafelmusik’s guest artists are deeply impressed by the band’s near-military precision in following Lamon; in contrast to some early-music orchestras who function as oversize chamber groups, Lamon’s band is a disciplined unit with a clear sense of hierarchy. If you’re listening to Tafelmusik in concert or recorded, you’re listening to a sound Jeanne Lamon created.

This month marks the end of an era for early music in Canada, as Lamon will be performing her last concert series with Tafelmusik as concertmaster and artistic director. It’s still anyone’s guess as to which direction the orchestra will go after Lamon departs, but this is Toronto’s last chance to hear (officially, as I’m sure Lamon will return to play) the work of an artist who has left a profound influence on classical music in this country. The orchestra will be doing a mixed program of Lamon’s favourites, including Vivaldi, Handel, Rameau, and Bach, and members of Tafelmusik have composed a set of variations on Purcell dedicated to their boss, so I’m willing to bet the final concert will be an emotional evening. It all happens at Trinity St-Paul’s Centre on May 8 to 11 and 14 (with an additional concert at George Weston Recital Hall, May 13). I defy anyone looking forward to retiring this year to throw a better retirement party.

Elixir: Given how often musicians improvise in jazz and rock music, it’s kind of disappointing that classical musicians don’t make anything up very much. Obviously, when the music is written down for you, improvisation becomes superfluous, but making up a great solo remains one of the best ways for musicians to show off. This wasn’t always the case in classical music. Composers and musicians in the Renaissance used to jam over ground bass lines in much the same way that rock musicians do today, and famous composers from Bach through to Liszt were raised in a tradition of improvisation that was a foundation for their fame as composers. In Bach’s case, his admirers pointed to the fact that he could improvise any counterpoint right up to a six-part fugue and Liszt’s claim to fame was the ability to instantly compose endless and technically brilliant piano variations on any theme selected at random by members of the audience at his concerts.

One Toronto musician who is trying to revive the practice is lutenist (and fellow WholeNote columnist) Benjamin Stein. Stein has made Renaissance “standard” tunes a special project of his for some time now, and he’s finally trying out his experiment on the concertgoing public this month. Stein will be joined by the Elixir Baroque Ensemble in a concert of improvised and composed music featuring tunes by Uccellini, Vivaldi, Byrd, Castaldi and Collard. Stein and Elixir will add to the mix by improvising their own solos in the style of each composer on every tune they play. This is a very ambitious project and it will be exciting to see what happens – it may even revive the lost art of improvisation among classical musicians if Stein’s project gains a following in the Toronto music scene (although that may be a few years away). You can catch Ben Stein and Elixir Baroque at Metropolitan United Church on May 10 at 7:30pm.

The Toronto Continuo Collective is back and their latest concert, “Psyche: The Immortal Soul,” is a musical exploration of the myth of Psyche and Cupid, told through the music of French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and his English contemporary Matthew Locke. The myth of Psyche is a story of love, duty and betrayal, and was adapted by Molière from the Roman story by Apuleius. Lully in turn adapted Molière’s play into an opera, after which Locke adapted Lully’s opera into his own opera/ballet. The point being that by the time Locke’s version rolled out, audiences would be fortunate to recognize anything from the original myth. The TCC is avoiding any confusion by playing only excerpts from Lully and Locke, and they will be joined by Montreal sopranos Andréanne Brisson-Paquin and Ghislaine Deschambault, as well as local singers Luke Arnason (countertenor), Bud Roach (tenor) and David Roth (bass). They will be presenting it at York University on May 8 at the McLean Performance Studio in York’s Accolade Building at 7pm. It’s also a rare chance to hear any opera originally intended to be performed in English (English opera was basically a canonical no-man’s land from the beginning of the 18th century until Britten) so that reason alone should make this concert a must-see for opera buffs.

Toronto Masque Theatre And speaking of Restoration-era English operas, another Toronto group based on the English tradition of music in the 17th century, the Toronto Masque Theatre, is venturing outside the GTA to perform a classic English opera (thus depleting the entire repertoire of English opera in the space of two concerts). TMT will be performing Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas as part of the Westben Arts Festival in Campbellford.Dido and Aeneas is based on the founding myth of Britain in Roman mythology, Virgil’s Aeneid. It’s a short but tragic tale that remains, even after 300 years, a classic opera, and I sincerely hope it’s a hit in Campbellford. The performances aren’t until July 5 and 6, but on May 23 at 7pm you can catch TMT artistic director Larry Beckwith in a discussion at Westben about the operatic classic, featuring excerpts from their upcoming production. Campbellford is just up Highway 30 off the 401, before Quinte – if you’re interested in a weekend outside of the city (or if you live in the Peterborough area and feel like a night out), be sure to check out the talk, and to mark July 5 and 6 on your calendar.

Finally, there’s one more Tafelmusik concert early next month that’s worth checking out. The orchestra and choir will be performing a special noon-hour program on June 1 that features members of the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute faculty. It happens at 12:30 in Walter Hall in the Edward Johnson building on the U of T campus. No word on the program yet, but it’s a chance to hear Tafelmusik for free. Skip off work or take a long lunch and check it out.

David Podgorski is a Toronto-based harpsichordist, music teacher and a founding member of Rezonance. He can be contacted at earlymusic@thewholenote.com.

1908-OperaThis May opera companies are presenting several works new to Toronto audiences.  One of the operas, East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon, is a world premiere, but the others are works from the early part of the 20th century making a very belated first appearance.

The first work of note is The Cousin from Nowhere by Eduard Künneke (1885-1953) receiving its Canadian premiere from May 1 to 4 by Toronto Operetta Theatre. The curious title is one of two English versions of the original German title Der Vetter aus Dingsda.  After the operetta’s great success first in Berlin in 1921, then Vienna, and then all over German-speaking Europe, it opened in London in 1923 under the title The Cousin from Nowhere.  In 2000 when the Ohio Light Opera revived it and later recorded it, the company used the title The Cousin from Batavia.  The problem is that the word “Dingsda” just can’t be translated compactly into English.  Just as we say “whatshisname” when we can’t think of a the name of a person, Germans say “Dingsda” when they can’t think of the name of a place. 

What is certain is that The Cousin from Nowhere is one of the most delightful works from the Silver Age of operetta.  You need only listen to the excerpts on iTunes from the recording with the Kölner Rundfunkorchester to understand why the operetta was such a big hit.  Try the operetta standard for tenor “Ich bin nur ein armer Wandergesell” or the operetta standard for soprano “Strahlender Mond” to have a sense of Künneke’s gentle romantic side.  Then try “Sieben Jahr lebt’ ich in Batavia” for an idea of his clever satirical side.

The action is set in a small castle in Holland.  Julia (Lucia Cesaroni), heir to the castle but who has not yet come of age, is chafing under the rule of her aunt (Elizabeth Beeler) and uncle (Michael Nyby) who are her guardians.  She still dreams of her beloved cousin Roderich de Weert, who has been away in the Dutch colony of Batavia (in what is now Indonesia) for seven years.  Although she has sworn to be true to him, her aunt and uncle say she can’t wait any longer for Roderich.  Her uncle wants her to marry his nephew and a family friend wants her to marry his son.  One evening a mysterious traveller (Christopher Mayell) turns up looking for a place to stay.

Eventually, Julia begins to wonder if this traveller may actually be Roderich who has returned quite changed from the time spent in the Far East.  The traveller, however, denies it.  The next day, Julia’s best friend Hannchen (Charlotte Knight) arrives with a man who tells her that he is Roderich de Weert.  Who is the real Roderich and who is the impostor?  And what about Julia’s vow now that she has fallen in love with the traveller?  Those are the mysteries that the operetta poses and quite skilfully sorts out.

In Europe there have been five new productions of Der Vetter aus Dingsda since 2012.  The TOT production will be the first new production in North America since the revival of the extremely popular Ohio Light Opera staging in 2002.  As someone who has seen this charming work twice before, I urge operetta-lovers and anyone who loves the kind of 1920s dance music made popular by Max Raabe and his Palastorchester definitely not to miss it.  With Cousin, Jurgen Petrenko makes his TOT conducting debut and Guillermo Silva-Marin directs.

Bat-ta-clan postponed: In On Opera for April, I mentioned that from May 1 to 3 Opera 5 intended to present a pair of French operetta rarities in the form of Ba-ta-clan (1855) by Jacques Offenbach and L’Île du rêve (1898) by Reynaldo Hahn.  The performances were to inaugurate the new Alliance Française de Toronto Centre Culturel at 24 Spadina Road.  Unfortunately, the performance hall will not be ready in time, so Opera 5 has postponed the production until September.  Still on May 3 it will provide a preview of this unusual double bill at a party it is holding at Alliance Française at 8pm.  Teiya Kasahara and Adrian Kramer will sing accompanied by Maika’i Nash.

Bass Showcase: In its seventh and final opera of the 2013/14 season – and its last seven-opera season, for now – the COC is presenting Don Quichotte (1910) by Jules Massenet (1842-1912) for the first time.  The COC has staged only two of Massenet’s 28 extant operas – Manon in 1952 and Werther in 1981 and 1992.  Massenet wrote the opera with the great Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin in mind for the title role.  The work has since become a showcase role for a bass with Ferruccio Furlanetto, who will sing it in Toronto, as one of the opera’s premier proponents.  Quinn Kelsey, who won praise here in 2011 for his Rigoletto, will sing the aged knight’s trusty companion Sancho Panza and Anita Rachvelishvili will sing the role of Dulcinée, the lusty wench whom the knight imagines to be a fair damsel.  The colourfully whimsical production, set among gigantic books, comes from Seattle Opera and will be directed by Linda Brovsky, who directed it there.  COC Music Director Johannes Debus conducts.

East of The Sun: May concludes with the world premiere of East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon, a new children’s opera commissioned by the Canadian Children’s Opera Company. Based on the Norwegian folktale, the 70-minute-long opera is composed by Norbert Palej to a libretto by K.T. Bryski and has public performances May 30 to June 1.  Palej, originally from Cracow, Poland, is currently an associate professor of composition at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.  K.T. Bryski is a fantasy novelist living in Toronto, best known for her novel Hapax (2012).  

The folk tale was one of those collected by the Brothers Grimm of Norway, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, who published their collections of Norwegian folk tales and fairy tales between 1841 and 1871.  English speakers will likely best know the story from its translation by Sir George Webbe Dasent who gave its title to his 1910 translation of tales by Asbjørnsen and Moe.  

The plot, a variation on Beauty and the Beast, concerns a young farm girl who saves her starving family by befriending a mysterious white bear, who promises to make her father rich if he gives him his daughter.  The girl knows the bear changes his form at night but it is too dark to see him.  One night she brings a candle and discovers that he is really a young prince condemned to take on animal form during the day.  Unfortunately, the girl’s lack of trust in him means he must now go to his wicked stepmother, the evil queen of the trolls who cursed him in the first place, and marry her daughter, a troll princess.  The young girl now must seek the palace of the queen of the trolls that lies “east of the sun and west of the moon” to rescue the prince.  CCOC artistic director Ann Cooper Gay will conduct a chamber orchestra and Joel Ivany, founder of Against the Grain Theatre, will direct.

 

Christopher Hoile is a Toronto-based writer on opera and theatre. He can be contacted at opera@thewholenote.com.

1908-ArtofSongRachel Andrist, the co-director of Recitals at Rosedale (held at Rosedale Presbyterian Church), tells me that when it was first suggested to her that she might start a new recital series she was only lukewarm to the idea. She got more enthusiastic when she heard that the recitals of the Aldeburgh Connection would soon be no more. At the same time she realized that it would not be a good idea simply to repeat the kind of programs that the Aldeburgh Connection had always mounted: they tended to concentrate on a particular composer or on a particular milieu and they were elaborately documented through the use of letters and diaries.

By contrast, the programs at Rosedale have been wide ranging and they have been unified by a common theme. The 2013-14 season began with “The Seven Virtues” and will, in the season’s final concert, May 25, end with its logical complement, “The Seven Deadly Sins.” All the Sins will be represented, from Lust (the Don Quichotte songs by Ibert) to Sloth (Lob der Faulheit by Haydn). The singers will be Lindsay Barrett and Ambur Braid, soprano, Michael Colvin, tenor, and Robert Gleadow, bass. Besides Ibert and Haydn, they will perform solo songs and duets by Schubert, Verdi, Mahler, Poulenc, Barber, Porter and Somers. Three concerts are planned for next season: “A Walk on the Dark Side: Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales” with Leslie Ann Bradley, soprano, Allyson McHardy, mezzo, and Geoffrey Sirett, baritone, on November 9 (song cycles by Zemlinsky, Szymanowski and Heggie; songs and ballads by Wolf, Schumann, Finzi and others); “Serenades: Forgotten and Found” on March 8, 2015, with Gillian Keith, soprano, Michèle Bogdanowicz, mezzo, and Charles Sy, tenor (song cycles by Raum, a world premiere, and Palej, selections from the Debussy Vasnier album, songs and duets by Gounod, Rossini, Schubert, Strauss and others); “Wanderlust: There and Back Again” with Lucia Cesaroni, soprano, Emily D’Angelo, mezzo, and Anthony Cleverton, baritone, on May 3, 2015 (the Mignon Harper songs by Schumann as well as works by Fauré, Duparc, Wolf, Schubert, Vaughan Williams and others).

Topi Lehtipuu is a Finnish tenor who is acclaimed for his work in Baroque music (Monteverdi, Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau) and in Mozart’s operas (Belmonte, Ferrando, Tamino). But he has also performed a great deal of Romantic and modern music. His debut was at the Savonlinna Festival in Britten’s Albert Herring; he has sung (and recorded) the part of David in Glyndebourne’s production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg as well as, also at Glyndebourne, that of Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. This month he will be singing contemporary music at Carnegie Hall in New York with the ACJW Ensemble and he will return to New York in October to sing the tenor arias in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle. The Canadian Friends of Finland are sponsoring Lehtipuu’s debut performances in Ottawa (May 20 at the First Unitarian Church) and in Toronto at the Agricola Finnish Lutheran Church May 22. The recital will begin with Schumann’s Dichterliebe and will also include arias by Vivaldi and Mozart as well as songs by Duparc and Fauré. Finnish music will be represented by two songs by Sibelius and by The Forest Maid (Siniipika) by Toivo Kuula, Sibelius’ pupil. The recital will end with music by Gershwin. The pianist is Christophe Larrieu.

Wallis Giunta, mezzo, will be the soloist in Anaïs Nin, a monodrama by the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. The work is based on Nin’s Journals; it was first presented in Siena in 2010 and the Toronto performance at Koerner Hall, May 22, constitutes its Canadian premiere

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, the Russian baritone, became well-known in the West in 1989, when he won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, beating out the bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, who had to settle for the Lieder Prize. Hvorostovsky is especially known for his performances of Russian opera and song, but not exclusively. In April he sang the role of Germont in La Traviata at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and will return to London next season to sing Renato in Un ballo in maschera. In September he sang Iago in Otello at the Wiener Staatsoper and he will again sing in Vienna next season, as Germont and as Rodrigo in Don Carlos. On June 1 he will be in Toronto at Koerner Hall to perform a recital with Ivari Ilja, which will include music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Medtner and Liszt.

Richard Bradshaw: As always, many of the most interesting recitals will take place at noon at the Richard Bradshaw Auditorium in the Four Seasons Centre: on May 6 the mezzo Allyson McHardy, with pianist Liz Upchurch, tenor Andrew Haji and violist Keith Hamm, will perform Two Songs for Alto, Viola and Piano, Op.91, by Brahms, the second Canticle (Abraham and Isaac) by Britten and The Confession Stone by Robert Fleming; on May 13 the baritone Russell Braun will perform Dover Beach by Samuel Barber and La bonne chanson by Fauré (with Marie Bérard, violin, and other members of the COC Orchestra); on May 15 members of the COC Orchestra and Ensemble Studio will perform instrumental and vocal works by Handel, Bach and Albinoni; on May 20 there is a farewell concert given by the graduating members of the COC Ensemble Studio; on May 22 Stephen R. Clarke will play and comment on recordings by Feodor Chaliapin, the bass who, in 1910, created the role of Don Quichotte in Massenet’s opera (staged this month by the COC). These events are all free.

Women in Song is the title of a benefit concert at St. Andrew’s Church; May 24, in support of the Out of the Cold program. The singers are Allison Angelo, Nathalie Paulin and Monica Whicher, soprano, and Norine Burgess and Elizabeth Forster, mezzo. The pianist is John Greer.

Other Events in the GTA: Mireille Asselin is the soprano soloist in Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen. The clarinetist is Camilo Davila and the pianist, Jean Desmarais. The program also includes Brahms’ Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in F minor, Op.120 as well as other works by Schumann and Davila. Shannon Mercer is the soprano soloist in a fundraising concert for the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto at Integral House, 194 Roxborough Drive, May 4. The pianist is Steven Philcox

Also on May 4, at Glenn Gould Studio, Off Centre Music Salon will present the music of Romantic Russian composers who were active in a modernist age: Rachmaninoff, Medtner, Grechaninov and Rebikov. The singers are Erica Iris Huang and Michèle Bogdanowicz, mezzo, Edgar Ernesto Ramirez, tenor, and Peter McGillivray, baritone (Glenn Gould Studio).

On May 10 at Eastminster United Church, the Academy Concert Series presents a Handel concert which will include selections from his Nine German Arias as well as other works. The singer is Nathalie Paulin, soprano.

On May 27 and 28at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre, the Talisker Players will present “A Poet’s Love.” The program includes Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Fauré’s La bonne chanson as well as works by Beckwith and Rappoport. The singer is Alexander Dobson, baritone, and the reader, Stewart Arnott.

Leigh Ann Allen and Natalya Matyusheva, soprano, Lauren Phillips, mezzo, and Keith Lam, baritone, are the winners in the NYCO Mozart Competition. They will perform with the NYCO Orchestra on May 31 at St. Michael’s College School.

 

Hans de Groot is a concert-goer and active listener who also sings and plays the recorder. He can be contacted at artofsong@thewholenote.com.

1908-ChoralThat whistling sound you heard this week might have been an entire city breathing a sigh as the last vestiges of this wretched winter – which lasted well into April – finally passed away and we all unclenched our shoulders from around our ears. (On the other hand it might have been the sound of more than 120 choirs flocking to this month’s Canary Pages – see page 29 – something that has become an annual rite of passage for choirs in this part of the world.)

As usual, Toronto came in for lots of scorn from Canadians this year for not being tough enough to withstand winter conditions that other parts of the country would consider mild, or at least normal.

For these folk, I have five words: “Union Station at rush hour.” By the end of the winter, the Canadian military had recruiters stationed on the subway platform ready to enlist the winners of the trench warfare that took place at Union every day. Nobody’s tougher than Torontonians. Or meaner, after this winter; out-of-towners, you’re warned.

This year’s spring concerts are likely to combine triumph and relief in equal measure. There are many choices to be found in the listings; below are several.

Spring-Themed Concerts: On May 4 the Etobicoke Youth Choir performs their spring concert, entitled “Why We Sing.”

On May 10 the Toronto Swedish Singers perform their “Annual Spring Concert.” The evening includes a selection of Swedish and Nordic music. I confess that this group is new to me – I hope to find them in these pages in the future.

Also on May 10, the Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir performs their “Spring Gala Concert.”

The Echo Women’s Choir performs “Singing! Here! Now!” on May 11, with an eclectic program that includes folk music from China, the Balkans and Ukraine.

On May 31 the St. Elizabeth Scola Cantorum Hungarian Choir performs their spring concert, which includes Schubert’s Mass in G and works by Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály.

Festivals: Jewish Music Week in Toronto, May 18 to 25, is the brainchild of Aliza Spiro. In its fourth year, it is increasingly attracting the attention of Toronto audiences and the many Jewish musicians in the city who welcome the opportunity to showcase their talents and artistic projects.

There are many excellent solo performers and ensembles participating in this festival. Choral ensembles include Lachan Jewish Chamber Choir, taking part in a free May 19 concert, “Vocals for Victoria Marathon,” at Nathan Phillips Square.

The Lirit Singers, perform in “Music of Milton Barnes” on May 20. Barnes was a Jewish-Canadian composer whose approachable music, rooted in jazz and traditional Jewish sources, continues to be performed by many performers and ensembles.

More information about this event can be found at
jewishmusicweek.com.

SING! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival: May 30 to June 1,is an intensive weekend of a cappella vocal music. Taking place at Harbourfront, it is a well-curated eclectic mix of choirs, smaller vocal ensembles and soloists. Choirs performing during the weekend include the Cantemus Singers and Cawthra Park Chamber Choir, Pax Christi Chorale, That Choir and Hamilton Children’s Choir.

On May 31, a number of these ensembles will take part in a concert devoted to the music of R. Murray Shafer. Later on the afternoon of the same day, several of the vocal ensembles and soloists from the festival will sing musical accompaniment to a selection of National Film Board of Canada short films. NFB shorts, most famously the works of Norman McLaren, are renowned among film aficionados and have won awards all over the world.

More information about the festival schedule can be found at torontovocalartsfestival.com.

Women in Music:Preparing for an exam, one of my students remarked on the almost complete absence of female composers in the repertoire syllabus. Stumbling to explain why this might be the case well into the 21st century, with the amount of historical resources now available, I pondered uneasily the degree to which the educational canon in music often lags behind the initiative taken by performers. There is plenty of music available written by women, currently and from past centuries, and this should be reflected in student as well as concert repertoire.

On May 24 the Jubilate Singers present “Inspire! music by Canadian women.” The program includes works by familiar and established composers Eleanor Daley, Stephanie Martin, Suba Sankaran, and Shelley Marwood, a musician currently pursuing a graduate degree in composition who is beginning to fulfill commissions for ensembles across Canada.

For an historical take on female composers, consider the Voices Chamber Choir’s “Go, Lovely Rose” on June 7. The concert includes works by Hildegard von Bingen, Fanny Hensel, Imogen Holst, Ruth Watson Henderson and others. Fanny Hensel was Felix Mendelssohn’s sister; Imogen Holst was the daughter of Gustav Holst. Both women had rich and varied musical careers; I’d encourage both choral audiences and students interested in the subject to explore their compositions.

War and Struggle:2014 is the centenary of the start of the First World War. Remembrance ceremonies will begin in earnest in the summer, but several choirs have spring concerts with themes of battle and memory. Music was of tremendous importance in both world wars – music to inspire, music to galvanize, to bolster, comfort and commemorate. There is a rich legacy of compositions that choirs can draw upon.

On May 10 the Peterborough Singers perform Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and Welsh composer Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace.

On May 31 Barrie’s King Edward Choir performs “KEC Remembers: Songs of Love, Loss and Victory!” The concert includes songs, letters and poetry that commemorate the lives of those lost 100 years ago in World War I.

On June 7 Kingston’s North Lakeshore Mass Chorus performs “Till the Boys Come Home,” also a tribute to those who served.

Finally, a shout-out to another Toronto ensemble that has slipped under my radar in the past. On May 31 the French-themed Ensemble vocal Les voix du coeur performs “Quand on chante, on a toujours 20 ans” (When you sing, you’re always 20 years old). The concert is comprised of popular French songs from different parts of the world. The program is given at 2pm and 8pm.

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