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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Read more: Song Aplenty

bandstand_jack_macquarrie_with_tuba_winter_2_1In last month’s column I speculated that many bands in our area would have a wide variety of events for the summer months. Nothing like the way it was,of course, when I started playing in a band many years ago, shortly after the dinosaurs had departed from the local scene. For us back then it was all about band tattoos in towns throughout Southwestern Ontario. There were the boys bands and the company bands (both now almost extinct) and the town bands. I remember well the Pressey Transport Company band, the Chatham Kiltie band and, most impressive of all, the White Rose Oil Company band from Petrolia, Ontario, in their elegant white uniforms. At the end of the summer it was, more often than not, the long bus trip to the Canadian National Exhibition to compete with other bands on the old North Bandstand. Local town band tattoos are now very rare, and the CNE no longer hosts such band events, but I had an inkling it would be a summer of relative plenty. So I sent a brief survey questionnaire to a number of bands located within an hour’s drive of Toronto. Are they travelling far afield for special events or are they hosting concerts on home territory?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Definition Department

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

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

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

jaznotes_houston_person_photo_by_john_abbott_1Around the 5th century, Anglo Saxons had a settlement on the site of present-day Norwich. By the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London. This year it was announced that Norwich would become England’s first UNESCO City of Literature. It is also home to the Norwich Jazz Party which was held on the first weekend of May and featured a line-up of prominent mainstream jazz musicians, including Harry Allen, Houston Person, Bucky Pizzarelli, Rossano Sportiello and Warren Vaché.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

theatre_42ndstreet4_photo_by_david_houIndeed, Stratford’s The Pirates of Penzance is a crowd-pleaser that deserves all the accolades it is bound to receive — a show “respectful of tradition but absolutely contemporary at the same time,” to quote McSweeny. Something of the same could be said about 42nd Street, the other musical offering that I saw in preview at Stratford last month, albeit for different reasons. There’s a symmetry between the two shows that becomes especially evident when one views them back-to-back, a connection that suggests a possible reason for their being programmed together in an anniversary season. Each depicts theatre from a back-stage perspective that allows the audience to see the process of making a show. Whereas McSweeny chose the approach to help conceptualize his innovative staging of Pirates, Gary Griffin, the director of 42nd Street, had no choice in the matter: the book for the musical begins and ends on-stage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Very few choirs should ever attempt to sing Bach.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

choral_thatchoir_photo_by_brian_telzerow_1I was intrigued and mystified by a group called That Choir. Googling that one was an interesting experience. It turns out that That Choir is an a cappella group based in Toronto, founded in 2008 and comprised primarily of actor/singers. Their June 4 concert launches their first CD, and features music by Rachmaninoff, Whitacre and Lauridsen. Information about them can be found at www.thatchoir.com.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the may 2012 issue of The WholeNote, editor David Perlman announced that this particular beat column was here to stay, and invited contributors. I feel very much like the proverbial “new kid on the block” but I am beginning to find my way and I think I shall enjoy the work.

Few artists have done as much for the art of song and for the development of Canadian talent as Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata, the pianists who direct the Aldeburgh Connection. For many years they have presented an annual program in Toronto and a few years ago they added an annual summer program at Bayfield, on the shores of Lake Huron. This year’s program looks especially enticing: on June 8 at 8pm, Adrienne Pieczonka, soprano, and Laura Tucker, mezzo-soprano, present a recital with works ranging from Alessandro Scarlatti to Richard Strauss; on June 9, also at 8pm, Alexander Dobson, baritone, sings Schumann, Vaughan Williams and Ivor Novello; on June 10 at 2:30pm, a vocal quartet (Andrea Cerswell, soprano; Alexandra Beley, mezzo-soprano; Andrew Hadj, tenor; David Roth, baritone) will celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee by presenting a varied repertoire ranging from Handel to John Beckwith.

Readers who, like me, have a special fondness for the soprano Meredith Hall will have two chances to hear her this month. On June 17 at 2pm, as part of Music at Sharon’s summer series held at Sharon Temple, she will be singing Dido in a concert performance of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the baritone Todd Delaney as Aeneas. They are accompanied by the Toronto Masque Theatre, directed by Larry Beckwith. Hall is especially well known for her performances of early music, from medieval plainchant to the operas of Mozart, and also for her recording of Scottish songs (Robert Burns and others) with the ensemble La Nef. On June 29, however, she and the pianist Brahm Goldhamer will move into different territory with a program consisting entirely of the songs of Franz Schubert, at 8pm at the Heliconian Club, 35 Hazelton Ave.; admission is pay-what-you can. Hall tells us that she has been a lover of Schubert’s songs ever since her student days, that she and Goldhamer have been singing and playing a large number of Schubert songs during the last year and that the recital on June 29, entitled “Oh, for the love of Schubert,” will give us a selection of these. Hall and Goldhamer will be joined by Bernard Farley, guitar.

artofsong_franknakashima2_photo_by_chris_frampton_1Frank Nakashima used to be a counter-tenor; he has sung with the Toronto Consort and with The Gents. I have a reason to know this since, many years ago, he gave me a series of lessons. He is now a tenor and will be performing Elizabethan music (Byrd, Holborne, Dowland, Gibbons, Bull) with the Cardinal Consort of Viols in a concert organized by the Toronto Early Music Centre, St. David’s Anglican Church, 49 Donlands Ave., on June 17 at 2:30pm. Well, voices change: David Daniels moved the other way since he began as a tenor and became a counter-tenor early on; Placido Domingo started out as a baritone, became a world-famous tenor, and is a baritone again, at least part of the time; I myself, to compare great with small (as Milton would have said), started off as a baritone, had a stint as a tenor (a mistake), then a counter-tenor and now I am a baritone once more.

From July 4 to July 15, Music and Beyond will be held in Ottawa. There will be further details in our July issue but here are some details about a concert on July 5 at 8pm: Wallace Giunta, mezzo-soprano, John Brancy, baritone, and Peter Dugan, piano, will perform “A Lover and his Lass,” a concert which will include music by Mozart, Schumann, Britten, Rossini, Vaughan Williams and Bernstein. Giunta is an exciting singer. She is primarily known for her work in opera: she was a member of the COC Ensemble Studio and will sing Annio in the COC production of La Clemenza di Tito in February 2013. The Ottawa concert will give us another chance to hear her in recital (she was at Music Toronto in March) at the Dominion-Chalmers United Church.

Later in July it will be time for the 2012 Toronto Summer Music Festival. The July issue of The Wholenote will provide a detailed account but here is an advance notice: the line-up includes two outstanding singers, Colin Ainsworth, tenor, and Gerald Finley, bass-baritone.

Here are details for some other events taking place in June or early July:

June 3 at 5pm: Hallie Fischel, soprano, and John Edwards, lute and guitar, will also celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee with a concert featuring music from the time of Queen Elizabeth I, at St. Olave’s Church, 36 Windermere Ave.

June 7 at 12:15pm: Marina Tchepel, soprano, and Patricia Wright, piano, will give a recital at Metropolitan United Church, 56 Queen St. E.; admission is free.

June 8 at 7pm: the Swedish Women’s Educational Association will present Josefine Anderson, mezzo-soprano, and Nigar Dadascheva, piano, in a concert of music by Grieg, Stenhammar, Sibelius, Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn and others, at Agricola Lutheran Church, 25 Old York Mills Road.

June 8 at 7:30pm: Guy Moreau and Pamela Hyatt will present “Cabaret a la Franglaise” at The Annex Live, 296 Brunswick Ave.

June 12 at 12:10pm: the University of Toronto Community will present a program entitled “Music and Dance for Haiti.” Singers include Laura Hare, soprano, and Sam Broverman, baritone. The concert takes place in the Music Room at Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle.

June 13 at 7:30pm: in a concert presented by the Danish and Swedish Consul Generals and the Icelandic Consul, the Nordic Singers (Randi Gislason and Cecilia Lindwall, sopranos; Magnus Gislason, tenor; Hans Lawaetz, baritone), who last performed in Toronto in 2012, will sing Scandinavian music, Nielsen to ABBA, at the Danish Lutheran Church, 72 Finch Ave. W. Most of the group are members of the Royal Danish Opera.

June 14 at 12:10pm: Claudia Lemcke, soprano, and Christopher Dawes, piano, will perform at Christ Church Deer Park, 1570 Yonge St.; admission is free and donations are welcome.

July 2 at 12:15pm: as part of the Musical Mondays series, Kristine Dandavino, mezzo-soprano, and William Schookhoff, piano, will perform a program which will range from Saint-Saëns to Gospel at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 10 Trinity Sq.

Postscript: As I was about to send this off to the publisher, I read the sad news of the death of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. It was my good fortune that I heard him twice in concert in the early 60s: once with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, once in a program that consisted of the complete Mörike Lieder by Hugo Wolf. He has left a very extensive legacy of recordings. I particularly prize his 1955 performance of Schumann’s opus 39 Liederkreis and his 1971 performance of Schubert’s Die Winterreise, both with the incomparable Gerald Moore.

Hans de Groot taught English Literature at the University of Toronto from 1965 until the spring of 2012, and has been a concert-goer and active listener since the early 1950s; he also sings and plays recorder. He can be contacted at artofsong@thewholenote.com.

Not that long ago, June in Toronto meant a slow slide into summer, accompanied by an inevitable wind-down of concert activity. Over the last half decade, however, Luminato has enriched this time of the year by infusing the performing arts into the lifeblood of our city, entertaining and inspiring citizens and visitors alike. Luminato has swiftly established itself as one of North America’s preeminent arts festivals, having commissioned over 50 new works, and presented 6,500 artists from over 35 countries. This year “Luminato 6” takes place from June 8 to 17 in various downtown venues. Many performances are free; most are staged at the Luminato venue they’re calling the “Hub,” at David Pecaut Square.

world_ernest-ranglin_1Taking its cue from the rich diversity of the city’s numerous cultural communities, Luminato presents world music as part of its overall programming, its artist mix fostering a healthy, dynamic balance and even interplay between local and international performers. In an interview with The WholeNote, Luminato music curator Derek Andrews revealed that he has been working on some 30 music events this year, many which have world music connections. Andrews noted that Luminato aims to take risks by programming artists who are new to Toronto audiences, pairing them with local newcomers and favourites. Here are a few concert picks:

World music at Luminato launches on Friday June 8 with the double bill of K’NAAN and Kae Sun. Both are known primarily as hip hop, and sometimes “urban folk” performers, yet both were born on the African continent. They both maintain ties to their homelands. Born in Somalia, the singer, rapper, poet, songwriter and instrumentalist K’NAAN is a Canadian popular music phenomenon. He garnered global attention when his song Wavin’ Flag was adopted as the 2010 FIFA World Cup theme song, in due course becoming an international chart-topper. The singer-songwriter Kae Sun (Kwaku Darko-Mensah Jnr.), on the other hand, began his career performing in his native Ghana before immigrating in his teens to Canada, studying multimedia and philosophy at McMaster University in Hamilton. His debut album, Lion on a Leash (2009) blends folk, soul and hip hop idioms, and was followed, after a visit to Ghana for inspiration, by his impressive 2011 EP, Outside the Barcode, which was “recorded on 2-inch tape on a farm in Ontario.”

On the afternoon and evening of Saturday June 9, Luminato’s Hub is the site for a “Caribbean Summit” where veteran Jamaican and Trinidadian musicians celebrate their nations’ 50th anniversary of independence. Here are a few of the headliners: Guitarist Ernest Ranglin was called “the most important musician to emerge from Jamaica” by Island Records’ founder Chris Blackwell. Ranglin is also credited as the founding father of Jamaican ska, which paved the way for reggae music. He fronts the “Jamaica to Toronto” band which includes Jay Douglas and Everton “Pablo” Paul. Calypso Rose, “The Queen of Calypso,” began her singing career at 15 in her native Tobago. She has enjoyed a long string of calypso hits during her five-decade career. Another seasoned singer, the Jamaican-born Michael Rose, began his recording career with the important group Black Uhuru, which in 1985 won the first Grammy for reggae. He has since released more than 20 albums, including Last Chance, which reigned for weeks at number one on the UK reggae charts. Bringing it back home, the Trinidadian-Canadian group Kobo Town takes its name from the Port-of-Spain neighbourhood, the birthplace of calypso. Formed in 2004 by singer-songwriter Drew Gonsalves, the band’s lyrics explore issues such as immigration and war, while its music serves up compelling heart-pumping, booty-shaking reggae-calypso grooves.

The next afternoon, on June 10, the concert titled “Ethiopiques: The Horn of Africa” offers a double bill exploring the region’s folk, jazz and hybrid musical genres. The Boston-based nine-piece Debo Band mixes horns, strings and accordion along with voices. Their sound is a tribute to the exciting hybrid Ethiopian music being made by the bands of Haile Selassie’s era. The Debo Band has recently been signed to SubPop’s Next Ambience label. The other ensemble on the card is Abyssinian Roots. Produced by Toronto’s Batuki Music Society, the band features notable expats of Addis Ababa’s nightclub scene. Among the styles presented: “Azmaris” songs accompanied by monochord music with lyrics replete with social commentary, varied regional folk musics, as well as Ethio-jazz standards.

The evening concert on June 12, titled “Buena Vista West Africa,” comes with a world music back-story. The opening act is the Ivory Coast singer Fatoumata Diawara in her North American premiere. After a career as an actress and multi-instrumentalist, she released an album featuring her singing. Diawara also made significant contributions to other high-profile projects, including Herbie Hancock’s Grammy-winning Imagine Project. Now to the back story of the show’s title. In 1996, several of Mali’s finest musicians were scheduled to visit Cuba to record an album with local musicians. The Malians never arrived, however, and the veteran Cubans, not wishing to squander the scheduled studio session, recruited other musicians to partner with. That recording resulted in the global world music hit album Buena Vista Social Club. Fourteen years later the original Malian invitees, including Bassekou Kouyate, Toumani Diabate, Kassey Mady Diabate and Djelimady Tounkara, were finally united with the Cuban singer and guitarist Eliades Ochoa and his Grupo Patria. They produced the album AfroCubism. That this remarkable African-Cuban musical ensemble, which rarely performs live, is making its Toronto premiere at a free concert is a good argument for Luminato’s programming.

Then, on June 16 at 8pm, Toronto’s self-described “Balkan-Klezmer-Gypsy-Party-Punk-Superband” Lemon Bucket Orkestra, opens Luminato’s “Balkan Beat Blowout.” According to the festival promo the 13-piece Orkestra “grew out of a conversation between a Breton accordionist and a Ukrainian fiddler in a Vietnamese restaurant” — not an unlikely scenario in contemporary Toronto, I’d say. Even the title of their 2011 EP Cheeky gives away their folk party ways. Lemon Bucket is putting its imprint on the city’s urban-folk scene with their quirky arrangements of traditional Ukrainian, Yugoslavian and Romanian songs. The headline act scheduled at 9pm is the Bucovina Club Orkestar, making its North American premiere.

In addition to these (and many more) concerts, Luminato is also presenting free weekday noon hour discussions and concerts of world music interest at the Luminato Lounge at the festival Hub, under the rubric, “Lunchtime Illuminations and Concerts.” These events feature artists’ conversations, each paired with a custom-tailored musical performance. They look like an unparalleled opportunity to get a deeper peek into the artists’ m.o.

Please check the Luminato website (www.luminato.com), print media and of course The WholeNote listings for more details.

Other Picks

Contrary to appearances in my column thus far, Luminato is not the only world music game in town this month. On June 1, the Royal Conservatory presents Simon Shaheen at Koerner Hall. Among today’s most significant Arab musicians, performers and composers, Shaheen is a virtuoso oud and violin player, incorporating traditional Arabic, jazz and Western classical idioms. Of interest to fans and students, Shaheen will also lead a public masterclass on Friday June 1 at 10am, at Beit Zatoun, located on Markham St., just south of Bloor.

Also on June 1, Ensemble Polaris presents “Game On!” at the Heliconian Hall. This concert presents traditional Canadian and northern European songs and dance tunes linked thematically with sport and games of skill and chance. Self-described as an “Arctic fusion band” — and why not? — Ensemble Polaris also performs at 2pm on June 7 at the Toronto Public Library’s Orchardview branch.

June 6 at noon the COC’s World Music Series presents a concert of “Authentic Klezmer and Gypsy Swing” at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. The musicians include the Yiddish Swingtet: Jordan Klapman, piano; Jonno Lightstone, clarinet; Tony Quarrington, guitar and mandolin.

Further afield at the University of Waterloo, the Department of Music presents “Singing: East and West” on June 13 at Renison University College. The University of Waterloo Choir directed by Gerard Yun performs chant and (Tuvan, or Inuit?) throat singing. Guests include Marhee Park, soprano; Waterloo Chinese Philharmonic Choir; and the Bluevale Collegiate Choir.

Back in Toronto, on June 20, the Georgian choir Darbazi performs as part of the glittering lineup at the SING! Festival fundraiser hosted by star tenor Michael Burgess at the Green Door Cabaret on Ossington Ave. Darbazi will also perform sets on July 2, at the Canada Day Celebrations, outdoor SING! tent at Harbourfront Centre.

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

“Sound art” is a performance genre, I think it’s safe to say, that will not ring bells, tuned or otherwise, for the majority of readers of The WholeNote. “We are, as a culture, obsessed with the new,” says blogger John Terauds in a recent entertaining post at musicaltoronto.org, “but it takes only the shallowest scratch on the surface to discover that what we all seek is comfort and continuity — flowers, sunsets, barbequed ribs, cheesecake and a bit of Mozart.”

new_darren_copelandMost of us, maybe, but all? Two mid-career contemporary composers in our midst, both being honoured with significant awards this month, Darren Copeland and Brian Current, would doubtless disagree.

Composer Copeland is probably best known in the new music community as the inspiration for New Adventures In Sound Art (NAISA). NAISA, as their website explains, is a non-profit organization, based at Toronto’s Wychwood Barns, that “produces performances and installations spanning the entire spectrum of electroacoustic and experimental sound art … to foster awareness and understanding … in the cultural vitality of experimental sound art in its myriad forms of expression … through the exploration of new sound technologies in conjunction with the creation of cultural events and artifacts.”

Mind you, Copeland would probably not object to being told that what he does “isn’t music.” In fact you’ll search long and hard for the M-word on NAISA’s own website (among such other terms as noise art performance, soundscape composition, multi-channel spatialization and layered listening excursion). Copeland is nevertheless an associate composer with the Canadian Music Centre, and just this month was selected to receive the Harry Freedman Recording Award by a national jury. Named for a pioneering Canadian composer, the award contributes towards the creative costs associated with making an audio recording of Canadian composers’ music, and is administered by the Canadian Music Centre. In Copeland’s case the award goes toward the recording of his piece called Bats and Elephants which will be published by empreintes DIGITALes. The award will be presented at a performance of the piece, at Gallery 345 on June 23.

The work has an interesting premise: humans can’t hear the full range of sounds uttered by bats or elephants unless these sounds are transposed within the range of human hearing (at which point they start to take on the identity of other animal species, such as birds). Copeland and his guest Hector Centeno play with this concept, using echo-location, the way bats do, to bounce sounds, from two hyper-directional speakers, off the Gallery’s walls. It’s a neat variation on the philosophical question posed at the outset of the column: when does a squeak become a song? Or a bellow turn into a bassline? Or noise into music? I suspect that the answer has as much to do with the tuning of the ears of the listener as the tuning of the frequencies from the source. It should make for a fascinating event.

(A brief digression before moving on to talk about our other award winner, Brian Current: it is entirely unsurprising to me that the Copeland concert is taking place at Gallery 345 — the “little gallery that could” just keeps chugging away with one playfully provocative event after another: “Composers Play” (including the aforementioned Brian Current) Friday June 1; “40 years of Foley” on Sunday June 3; “Art of the Piano” with R. Andrew Lee on June 4; the Architek Percussion Quartet on June 6; astonishing violinist Conrad Chow in his debut CD release concert, June 28; … the list goes on.)

Now, to Current. Just today (May 29) the Canada Council for the Arts announced that seven “mid-career arts innovators” were being honoured with Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Awards. The prize carries a $15,000 cash award so it’s “not nuthin,” as these things go. “Sculptor Valérie Blass; contemporary dancer Nova Bhattacharya; interdisciplinary artist Manon De Pauw; playwright, actor and director Denis Lavalou; composer and conductor Brian Current; poet Sylvia Legris; and filmmaker and multimedia artist Graeme Patterson are this year’s winners” the announcement goes. “These seven artists are pushing the envelope in their respective disciplines and are definitely seven to watch” said Canada Council director and CEO Robert Sirman.

Given our focus, Current is the one of the seven we’ve been watching this year, both as a composer and as the conductor of the Royal Conservatory’s New Music Ensemble. His composing and conducting seem to feed off each other. Given the economics of concert music, few contemporary composers get to write for large ensembles; fewer still get the opportunity to explore, using other composers’ works, the creative energy that a composer can alternately harness and unleash in a large ensemble. Some of you may have caught parts of his 2009, 12-hour, 200-person installation-performance of James Tenney’s In a Large Open Space, at the opening of the Conservatory’s new Koerner Hall, or taken in his students’ performance, in the dark, of G.F. Haas’s In Vain last December.

It was while doing some research on Current in the context of this award that I stumbled across the comment from Terauds’ blog with which I started this column. (The blog in question was about Current’s and Anton Piatigorsky’s recently completed chamber opera Airline Icarus).

“It’s no surprise that today’s composers feel … compelled towards the new, the unexplored, the unusual,” Terauds went on to say. “In his recently published memoir, Unheard Of, Toronto composer John Beckwith mentions at least a half-dozen times how he tried to not repeat himself in a new work. It’s a mantra for most contemporary composers. It’s also something I’ve heard many times from the musicians devoted to commissioning and performing new music. But there are two prices to pay for this fetish for the new, I think: Superficiality on the part of the composer, and alienation on the part of a potential audience. … So what does a composer do? Either give in and write film scores, or concert pieces at which serious critics will turn up their noses, or bravely go where their instincts and sense of adventure lead them. It’s a crazy tightrope that, most days, is actually quite thrilling to walk.”

Every living composer must discover his or her own balancing act, on this tightrope between superficiality and alienation. Arguably no one has done a better job of it than Philip Glass, whose Einstein on the Beach is undoubtedly one of the musical talking points of this year’s Luminato. One has only to think of the final aria in his life-of-Ghandi opera Satyagraha where the same eight-note phrase is repeated, but where you’d be hard pressed to persuade a mesmerized audience that all they had listened to was mi fa so la ti do re mi (in the scale of C, no less), 30 times in a row.

One of the truly festive things Luminato does, by the way, is to surround a work of art with opportunities to immerse in the context in which the work arose. Check out our ETCetera listings, on page 44, for example, for some of the screenings and colloquia that will surround the opera itself. And, perhaps best of all, the final moment in the festival will be an outdoor performance by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, in David Pecaut Square, featuring a performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, paired with the premiere of a new work by Glass, titled The 2012 Overture.

There’s a shiny intelligence in the idea of it, one has to say. How new the adventure in sound art turns out to be, time will surely tell.

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

Here’s what’s really neat about the classical music scene in June: it seems to me that performers and presenters, alike — having thrown off the heavy mantle of winter and survived their various spring concerts and season finales — are now ready to have some real, summer fun! Given what’s on offer — Green Pages and all — perhaps an apt motto for the month might be, “Go Big or Go Late Night!”

classical_stewart_goodyear_photo_by_gary_beecheyA good day for Goodyear: And when I say “big” I mean BIG, as in having pianist Stewart Goodyear perform all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas in the order in which they were composed — in one day! Let’s see, now. That translates into approximately ten and a half hours of some of the most complex, difficult and profound music ever written, played by one remarkable, strong-minded (and strong-bodied) pianist in a single day over three “concert sittings” starting at 10am and, with two breaks, ending at 11:30pm. Phew! —not for the faint of heart (and I’m talking about both performer and audience, here). Co-presenters Luminato and the Royal Conservatory haven’t billed this “The Beethoven Marathon” for nothing!

Goodyear — a Toronto native now living in New York — stopped by The WholeNote for a “Conversations” video interview session, May 10, with the magazine’s David Perlman.

Read more: Going for the Gusto

June is a month of transitions, the waning concert season having mostly drawn to a close, the summer festivals having barely emerged. Fortunately though, there are still several very interesting events happening that showcase the “early” side of music, enough to keep you going throughout the month.

There’s a strong interest in chant at Toronto’s Church of St. Mary Magdalene. In this “oasis in the city for contemplative music,” you can hear chant, or chant-influenced music, throughout the liturgical year. There’s even a chant club, open to anyone, in which participants learn about chant through both singing and instruction in its history, theory and technique. For more about this, go to their website: www.stmarymagdalene.ca.

If chant is of special interest to you, you might want to take advantage of a full day of chant-focused workshops, presentations and rehearsals offered on June 9, with Schola Magdalena and the SMM Ritual Choir. The day is surrounded by concerts: on Friday June 8, Schola Magdalena women’s ensemble for medieval music performs masterpieces of the School of Notre Dame de Paris, including Sederunt by the 13th-century Perotinus; on June 9, workshop participants and singers from SMM present an evening of Gregorian chant, Marian anthems by Lassus, and music by Hildegard von Bingen.

The above two concerts occur also as part of the Concerts Spirituels 2012 series, presented at St. Mary Magdalene on Friday evenings in June (the June 9 Saturday concert being the one exception). Others in order of appearance are: American organist, Rich Spotts, and the SMM Ritual Choir, perform the Gregorian chant-based music of Tournemire, June 1; a program of chamber music including works by Vivaldi, June 15; and the SMM Gallery Choir performs Lasso’s Missa Entre Vous Filles, the Buxtehude Magnificat, and music by Willan, June 22.

early_holy_family_church_-_scanned_from_the_wholenote_july-aug_1997One of the joys of working at The WholeNote is discovering connections, hidden in the musical kaleidoscope and just waiting to be uncovered. In preparing to write about Philip Fournier’s organ recital at The Oratory, Holy Family Church, I was led back to the 20th issue of our magazine — July/August 1997— where, on page 31, a short lament was written on the destruction by fire of Holy Family Church (did I take the accompanying photo?). Well, in the intervening 15 years this west-end Toronto church has now been rebuilt and the organ replaced with a magnificent Gabriel Kney/Halbert Gober tracker organ which Fournier says “is easily one of the finest instruments in Toronto. The unusually reverberant nave it speaks into further limits its circle of peers.”

The organist, Philip Fournier, has the credentials to be a very good judge of organs. His bio is impressive; organists among us especially will recognize names that figure significantly in his background. For example, he studied Gregorian chant at Solesmes, France, with the famed Dom Saulnier; he was the first Organ Scholar at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester USA, and was subsequently named a Fenwick Scholar, the highest academic honour given by the College. He won the Historical Organ in America competition in 1992 and performed at Arizona State University on the Paul Fritts organ, and was awarded a recital on the Flemtrop instrument at Duke University. Now organist and director of music at St. Vincent de Paul in Toronto, he gives recitals regularly at the Oratory. He is also guest organist of the Toronto Tallis Choir, artistic director and continuo player of the St. Vincent’s Baroque Soloists, and is active as a composer.

Fournier’s recital on the Kney/Gober organ is designed to show off the capabilities of this instrument, with music by Sweelinck, Buxtehude, Weckmann and Bach. It takes place at the newly rebuilt Holy Family Church on June 10.

Spadina Museum holds their outdoor concert series, Music in the Orchard, every spring, with four concerts coming up. On June 17, you can hear a concert of “live outdoor audible acoustic music” (by his own affirmation) by Mike Franklin— he’s a versatile multi-instrumentalist and singer who specializes in European medieval, renaissance and traditional music, and I can attest that he always presents a very imaginative program.

And if you happen to be in the vicinity of the Church of the Holy Trinity (behind the Eaton Centre) at noon on Equinox or Solstice days, you can catch Mike creating a sonic landscape at the outdoor labyrinth there (this year, the Summer Solstice occurs on June 20). One late-September day, I heard him cast a cloak of sombre magic over the labyrinth and those who chose to walk it, with a hurdy-gurdy and with a most otherworldly shawm.

The Cardinal Consort of Viols and a special guest perform in the Toronto Early Music Centre’s Musically Speaking series on June 17. “Music for Queen Elizabeth I” pays tribute to not only the first Queen Elizabeth but also the second, in celebration of her majesty’s Diamond Jubilee; and the music of course is English— Byrd, Gibbons, Dowland, Holborne and Bull. As for the special guest— well, he’s an accomplished countertenor whom we don’t get to hear enough these days: Frank Nakashima (who counts eight years as The WholeNote’s Early Music columnist among his many artistic ventures). The concert takes place in a setting that is proving to be just right for intimate music-making: St. David’s Church, Donlands and Danforth.

Surely one of the most exquisite concert settings around is Sharon Temple in the municipality of East Gwillimbury. Music has resounded within the walls of this stunningly beautiful edifice ever since it was built by the Children of Peace in 1831. The concert series Music at Sharon, whose co-artistic directors are Larry Beckwith and Rick Phillips, makes its home there every year in June. Of the four concerts, two involve music of the 18th and 17th centuries (respectively): on June 10, “Zelenka Plays Bach” features three of the Bach solo cello suites (nos. 1, 3 and 6) played by cellist Winona Zelenka— one of the most compelling cellists around, whose recording of Bach’s six suites for unaccompanied cello won her a 2011 JUNO Award nomination in the small ensemble/solo classical category; and on June 17, a concert version of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas will be presented, with soprano Meredith Hall as Dido, baritone Todd Delaney as Aeneas, and the Toronto Masque Theatre.

Publicity for Music at Sharon urges you to “Plan to arrive early to picnic on the beautiful park-like grounds and tour the site’s unique heritage buildings, before moving inside the Sharon Temple for the pre-concert chat at 1:15pm followed by the 2pm concert.” Sounds like a plan for a wonderful afternoon!

Readers may recall June 2011’s Early Music column, which covered Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute’s yearly program in some depth in many of its aspects: instrumental, vocal and conductor/director studies; lectures, masterclasses, workshops and more. (You can find this column on The WholeNote’s website at thewhole­note.com— go to “About Us” and click on “Previous Issues.”) It’s a very successful format which is repeated this June at the University of Toronto from the 3rd to the 16th of the month. Four concerts are spawned during its run: June 4, “Delightfully Baroque,” with music performed by the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir; June 9, “Musical Interlude,” a casual noon-hour concert of baroque chamber music by TBSI faculty; June 13, “The TBSI Orchestras and Choirs,” directed by Jeanne Lamon and Ivars Taurins and featuring Institute participants; and June 16, “The Grand Finale,” a baroque extravaganza in which participants and faculty perform together. A lively baroque experience in a bustling city!

early_benjaminbagby_4_by_gilles_juhelSpeaking of “lively baroque experiences” in bustling cities, June 21 to 24 is a festive time to be in Montreal because the tenth anniversary of the Montreal Baroque Festival is happening; and though their theme this year is “The Apocalypse,” this is qualified by the subtext “Transformations, Revelations” — with the implied meaning that wonderful things are about to occur. Of this there can be no doubt: a look at their schedule reveals four days packed with events, from rendez-vous in a café to a “Parade for the Apocalypse,” to many concerts with terrific performers. You can witness a horse ballet presented at Louis XIII’s engagement in 1612, with horses from the Equimagie stables and music later transcribed by Lully. There is a dramatic monologue on the ancient epic story of Beowulf, the young hero slain by a dragon, formidably delivered by Benjamin Bagby (medieval specialist, singer and co-founder of the medieval vocal and instrumental ensemble Sequentia) who accompanies himself on the harp and has presented it to great acclaim over the past 20 years. There’s music by Hildegard von Bingen, Biber, Bach and others, including Telemann’s great sacred oratorio Der Tag des Gerichts (The Last Judgment). Performers include virtuoso natural trumpeters Jean-François Madeuf from France, and Graham Nicholson from Holland, as well as an array of top-notch musicians and ensembles whom audiences, especially in Quebec, are lucky enough to hear regularly. I hope you’ll be able to join them.

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.

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