Beat Columns (Live Music)

Before we get to this month’s concerts, I’d like to wade in on the world music component of Canada’s music industry awards, the JUNOs. Held from March 26 to April 1 in Ottawa, this year’s JUNOs have 41 award categories encompassing nominations of the top-selling singers and musicians you would expect such as Arcade Fire, Avril Lavigne, Drake, Justin Bieber, Michael Bublé and Nickelback.

The “World Music Album” category nominations reflect more modest album sales, but no less artistic ambition and achievement. Among the distinguished performers represented is previous JUNO award-winner Kiran Ahluwalia. Her latest album Aam Zameen: Common Ground fuses her own ghazal and Punjabi folk-song approach with the music of the African masters of Malian “desert blues.” Montreal based artist Socalled has had a shorter career, yet his latest music, impossible to pigeon-hole, is no less ambitious in its transnationality. His musical mission appears to cross all sorts of musical and media boundaries, all the while embracing a kibitzing attitude toward sound collage inspired by pop, funk, klezmer and rap. Another nominee is the Brazilian-born singer, percussionist and composer Aline Morales, represented by her debut solo album Flores, Tambores e Amores. Her music assays Brazilian song styles such as samba, forró and 1960s tropicalia, and forges them into her own voice with traces of Italian film soundtracks, avant-garde poetry, African percussion and vintage synths.

Now to the month’s live offerings: examining world music in a living historical context on March 1, the Royal Conservatory’s String and World Series at Koerner Hall presents the multi-Grammy Award-nominated viola da gambist, Jordi Savall, directing two groups, Hespérion XXI and the Tembembe Ensamble Continuo. The Catalan virtuoso of the viola da gamba, “an instrument so refined that it takes us to the very brink of silence,” Savall has been among the world’s major figures in early music since the 1970s. He is partly responsible for bringing the viola da gamba back onto the world stage. While his typical repertory ranges from the mediaeval to the baroque period, Savall’s approach to interpreting this “dead” historical repertoire has always been informed by the performance practices of living oral music traditions of Europe, the Arab world and now the “New” world.

Appointed European Union ambassador for intercultural dialogue in 2008, Savall is passionate about asserting the common roots of human expression. The Koerner Hall concert is titled “Folias Antiguas & Criollas: From the Ancient to the New World.” It features Spanish and Mexican baroque music as well as performances from the living Mexican Huasteca and Jarocho music traditions: Savall explores the creole music created from their confluence. You can catch the programme March 2 at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo if you miss it at Toronto’s Koerner Hall.

No less challenging to the music landscape status quo is the March 5 CD launch concert, “Bridges: Jewish and Arabic Music in Dialogue” at the Al Green Theatre, Miles Nadal jcc. Headlining are Lenka Lichtenberg, the Jewish singer with an international career, and Middle Eastern-Canadian singer, dancer, actor and qanun player Roula Said. For over 20 years the inspiring Said has been one of Toronto’s leading lights in the belly dance, Arabic and fusion music scenes. While Lichtenberg was born and raised in Prague, she completed her university music education in Canada. Her current music reflects her Yiddish roots and her ongoing study of the Jewish cantorial tradition; in her extensive touring, she pursues a career as a singer-songwriter. Together, their aim with “Bridges” is to establish an inspiring dialogue between Jewish and Arabic cultures grounded on musical commonalities. They are supported in their quest by an outstanding backup band composed of a Toronto world musician “A-team,” including John Gzowski on oud, guitars and bouzouki, Kinneret Sagee on clarinet and Ernie Tollar on sax, flutes and clarinet. The rhythm section consists of bassist Chris Gartner, percussionist Alan Hetherington and Ravi Naimpally on tabla and dumbek, all of whom performed with convincing élan on Lichtenberg’s sparkling last album Fray, markedly influenced by Toronto’s interactive world music scene.

On March 2 the Toronto-born chanteuse Alejandra Ribera performs at the Glenn Gould Studio. Her dramatic singing and genre-hopping eclectic repertoire draws on both her Argentinean and British heritage, and particularly mirrors the grit and magic of Ribera’s everyday urban Canadian reality with its darkly lyrical themes.

The Amadeus Choir, directed by Lydia Adams, presents “A Celtic Celebration,” March 3, at Toronto’s Jubilee United Church. The 115-voice veteran choir is joined by Stratford’s five-piece, pan-Celtic fusion band Rant Maggie Rant, led by multi-instrumentalist Mark Fletcher. The Highland dancers also on the bill will undoubtedly further animate the concert.

The Royal Conservatory’s World Series presents two outstanding singers early in March. On March 7, in a multi-media presentation, the Latin Grammy award winning Lila Downs will perform her dramatic and highly unique reinvention of traditional Mexican music and original compositions fused with blues, jazz, soul, African root and even klezmer music.

And on March 10, it’s another Grammy Award winner’s turn: the powerful-voiced Angélique Kidjo performing her brand of Afro-funk fusion with an infectious joie de vivre. Dubbed “Africa’s premier diva” by TIME magazine, the West African born Kidjo has been an active member of the international world music scene for over 20 years. Her list of illustrious collaborators including Bono, Carlos Santana, Peter Gabriel, Alicia Keys and Branford Marsalis, gives an idea of the force of her personality and the significant impact of her vocal accomplishments.

On Thursday March 15, at 7:30pm, Nagata Shachu, Toronto’s professional Japanese taiko drumming and music group, presents the premiere of Tatsujin Gei (Master Artists) at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto. Three master performers from Japan — Kodo Drummers’ Yoshikazu and Yoko Fujimoto, and the Okinawan dance master Mitsue Kinjo — will join forces with Nagata Shachu directed by Kyoshi Nagata. (This rare chance to see some of Japan’s top exponents of taiko, song and dance in Toronto missed our listings deadline so you won’t find further details here in the magazine. Call the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre at 416-441-2345 for details.)

This month, two of our universities showcase the wide-ranging world music activities of their music students and faculty. I’ve found these concerts are a particularly good way to sample a musical tradition new to me: they’re relaxed, the youthful participants are charged with the enthusiasm of new converts — plus they’re free.

On March 15, from noon to 8pm, York University’s Department of Music presents day one of its “World Music Festival.” Performances by the World Music Chorus, Celtic, Ghanaian, Cuban, Klezmer ensembles and the Escola de Samba will fill the halls and rooms of the Accolade East Building with global sounds. The festival continues all next day with Caribbean, Chinese, Korean Drum, Balkan Music, Flamenco and Middle Eastern ensembles. Then on March 19, York’s World@Noon series presents the triple platinum, Israeli singer-songwriter Idan Raichel at the Tribute Communities Recital Hall, Accolade East Building. His “Idan Raichel Project” is distinguished by its fusion of Hebrew lyrics, Middle Eastern and Ethiopian music and electronica.

The University of Toronto Faculty of Music presents its own World Music ensembles in concert March 16 and 21 at the MacMillan Theatre, Edward Johnson Building. On March 28, at Walter Hall, the exemplary Vocal Jazz Ensemble is directed in concert by the inspired extended vocalist, conductor and teacher Christine Duncan. They will perform with their guest, Darbazi, our region’s first and most accomplished Georgian polyphonic choir.

There was a time in the early 1990s when the guitar duo Strunz & Farah virtually defined the emerging world music market. Their very successful albums won Billboard’s World Music Album of the Year and a Grammy nomination. With an eclectic sound that has been described as world fusion, their music is a mediated reflection of their cultural roots, including Afro-Caribbean, Latin American folk, flamenco and Middle Eastern music, wrapping it all up in jazz-based improvisation. They’re back on the road appearing in venues across Southern Ontario this month. Starting at Hugh’s Room in Toronto, March 14, they then appear at the Capitol Theatre in Port Hope, the Molsen Canadian Studio at Hamilton Place, London’s Aeolian Hall and at Market Hall in Peterborough, on March 15, 16, 17 and 18, respectively.

Finally, rounding out the month, on March 31 the Royal Conservatory presents “Intercultural Journeys,” echoing the intercultural and peace-bridging function of music proposed by some of the other concerts noted this month. Israeli cellist Udi Bar-David leads a group consisting of Lebanese violinist Hanna Khoury and Palestinian percussionist Hafez Ali, digging into repertoire merging European and Arabic classical musics. Their guests, Syrian singer Youssef Kassab, cantor Beny Maissner and Toronto qanun master George Sawa, will add yet more inclusive notes to this cross-cultural concert.

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

Let me take you on a little journey in Bachian lines. Its outset was some 40 years ago, during the days when Melville Cook was director of music at Toronto’s Metropolitan United Church. Its steps reach right through to this present season, with Metropolitan United’s four-concert BachFest.

Some readers will remember Metropolitan’s yearly Holy Week presentations of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion: the elegant, white-haired Cook at the helm of double choir, double orchestra and imposing soloists, with the gambist Peggie Sampson at the centre of it all. These performances occurred annually for many years, until approximately 1985.

The Bachian tradition has remained with Cook’s successor, Patricia Wright. She calls Bach her “heart composer,” and describes the genesis of this season’s BachFest as very much a continuation of what has gone before: “At Metropolitan, I inherited a Good Friday concert tradition; (under Dr. Melville Cook, my predecessor, the St. Matthew Passion was performed each year). With financial challenges, we have gone to presenting a major work with orchestra every other year. In my 25 years at Metropolitan, we have presented Bach’s St. John Passion five times and the B Minor Mass three times. Wanting to do the B Minor again was the beginning, and when choir members offered to help finance a performance of part of Christmas Oratorio, the idea of a BachFest took hold. As an organist, I could not resist an organ recital, even though the Metropolitan organ (the largest in Canada, a 1930/98 five-manual Casavant) is a masterpiece of romantic organ design. Then the idea of an instrumental concert with the ever-creative Benjamin Stein gave us the four-concert BachFest.”

Two of these concerts have already taken place: theorbist Benjamin Stein (also WholeNote’s choral columnist) was one of the featured artists in February’s “Jam Sessions with Bach,” and the first three cantatas of the Christmas Oratorio were presented last November. But the remaining two are imminent: On March 16, Wright will give an all-Bach organ recital entitled “Bach and the King of Instruments.” On April 6, the Metropolitan Festival Choir and Orchestra, with soloists, will give a Good Friday performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass.

Those Bachian lines also extend down other roads this month. On March 17, the British cellist Colin Carr comes to Koerner Hall for a monumental performance of all six Bach suites for solo cello. On March 18, a recital at Heliconian Hall entitled “Bach Bliss,” presented by soprano Amy Dodington and oboist Hazel Nevin Newton, features the Wedding Cantata and other music by Bach. On March 25, the Church of St. Simon-the-Apostle with the Canadian Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra will present Bach’s St. John Passion. On April 6 in Kitchener, the Grand Philharmonic Choir brings our journey full circle, with a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

Instruction

It’s always good to learn from a specialist. Here are some instructive, and no doubt fabulous, events that you can take advantage of this month.

Conductor, composer and commentator Rob Kapilow has, for years now, championed the idea that the appreciation of any worthy piece is enhanced by really getting inside it. He has developed a series of programmes called “What Makes It Great?” which is, in his words, “about listening. Paying attention. Noticing all the fantastic things that might otherwise go by. When you begin to hear the things that make a piece great, it can spring to life as if you have never heard it before. We take a piece of great music, tear it apart, put it back together again, and do everything in our power to get inside to see what makes it tick and what makes it great. Then on the second half of the program we hear the piece performed in its entirety — hopefully with a new pair of ears.”

On March 9, with the help of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, he’ll lead the audience to a new appreciation of none other than Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Acclaimed violinist Jennifer Koh will play the Spring and Summer concertos.

Masterclasses can be edifying experiences, not only for the student performer but also for the auditors. Everyone receives the benefit of (hopefully) constructive insights from someone who has a life-long dedication to the subject, and more: they are a window into the mind and personality of the artist/teacher conducting the class. At the Royal Conservatory, masterclasses are free and open to the public. Carr, a committed teacher, will give two of them, in the morning and the afternoon of Friday March 16, the day before his Koerner Hall concert. You are encouraged to attend!

And, in case you’ve been wondering about that occasionally unwieldy but beautifully expressive instrument, the baroque oboe, you have a chance to hear what a master player like John Abberger has to say about it, and also to hear him play it in works by Hotteterre, Telemann and Handel. With collaboration by harpsichordist Sara-Anne Churchill, he’ll acquaint you with the mysteries of his instrument in Toronto Early Music Centre’s Musically Speaking series concert, “The Art of the Baroque Oboe,” at their new concert space, St. David’s Anglican Church, on March 25.

Others

• March 11: Have you ever heard a verse set to music and said “Aha, I know that — but it’s different, not the same tune as I’m used to hearing!” At Nota Bene Baroque’s “An English Messiah” concert in Kitchener, you’ll be intrigued to hear the Messiah texts masterfully set to music by … not Handel, but by his great predecessor Henry Purcell. Violinist Stephen Marvin leads the ensemble with special guest Tactus Vocal Ensemble.

• March 17: Lutenist John Edwards and soprano Hallie Fishel combine their scholarship and talents in the Musicians in Ordinary’s last concert of the season, Sero, sed Serio. “Late, but in earnest” was the motto of one of the most influential British political figures during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I: Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. A patron of music, he supported composers Byrd, Gibbons and Dowland, whose music you’ll hear in this tribute to Cecil.

• March 23 and 24: In honour of our winged, furry and watergoing friends, both actual and mythical, recorder/traverso player Alison Melville has designed “A Musical Bestiary.” This programme presented by the Toronto Consort features music from renaissance Europe, including “The Ape, the Monkey, and Baboon,” “The Counterpoint of the Animals,” “Le chant des oyseaux” and more!

• March 24 and 25: As its title “Viva Italia!” suggests, this concert of Cantemus Singers celebrates Italy with passionate songs and madrigals as well as religious music of the Renaissance and early Baroque. Songs of love — divine, human and patriotic — by Monteverdi, Vecchi, Gabrieli, Palestrina and others will be featured, as well as the soaring Miserere by Allegri.

• March 27, 29 to 31, April 1: Tafelmusik’s “Choral Spectacular” celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir. Read more about it in this month’s “Choral Scene” beat column by Benjamin Stein.

• April 01: Port Rowan, near Long Point on Lake Erie, is the setting for Arcady’s upcoming “A Baroque Messiah.” This very active Southwestern Ontario ensemble often features the music of its artistic director, Ronald Beckett, and performs a range of early music as well.

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.

It may be partially true that with age comes wisdom. But it is certainly true that with age comes the inability to remember what one went down to the basement to retrieve. Upstairs you trudge again, retracing your steps until your memory is sufficiently jogged — oh right, duct tape — and you are ready to make the frustrating second trip. Perhaps what often passes for wisdom is in fact a mellow, philosophical acceptance of how many extra journeys for duct tape (or garbage bags or whatever) age and failing memory now require.

Myself, I’m finding that with age comes immaturity. Jokes that made me sneer with contempt in my high-minded teen years now make me snicker and guffaw. I look forward to the ongoing dismantlement of my critical faculties, until seeing Bugs Bunny in drag and Wile E. Coyote repeatedly plummeting into a chasm sends me to the floor, helpless with laughter. But time, memory and the way in which both elements change perception seem to be the themes of a number of this month’s concerts.

On March 3 the Guelph Chamber Choir presents “Remember … Places, people and songs you love.” With the concert’s repertoire focussed around folk songs, spirituals, Broadway show tunes and cabaret songs, audience members will doubtless find themselves recalling specific occasions tied by memory to some specific song.

Toronto’s Bell’Arte Singers have presented a whole series of linked concerts this year (for the complete series see bellartesingers.ca) that evoke this sense of introspection. Their latest March 3 concert, “Classical: Ways of Seeing,” features music by Bach, Barber, Mozart and Brahms, among others. Treating the music almost like visual works of art, this choir asks its audience to not only listen but to ponder the question of what constitutes beauty, balance and classicism.

Another concert evoking a bygone era is the Victoria Scholars’ “The Romantic Gentleman,” on March 4. Here, the audience is reminded not to lose sight of the things that may fall by the wayside in our charge towards modernity. Comprising works by Brahms, Elgar, Gounod, Rossini, Grieg and others, this concert conjures a time of frock coats and muttonchop whiskers, of codes of honour and high-minded behaviour. The title of this concert also raises a difficult, extra-musical question: what standard defines a “romantic gentleman” in the 21st century? Is our new “RG” the man who discreetly refrains from posting on Facebook or Twitter pictures of himself passed out beside a beer bong (merely texting them instead to his closest friends)? Standards have changed, of course. But perhaps attendance at this particular concert should be mandatory for men 25 and under.

One of English literature’s most poignant evocations of the pangs of memory and the challenges of time and age is Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The playwright’s last play, it contains some of his most powerful poetry, and with lines like “in the dark backward and absym of time,” is generally thought, in part, to be a meditation on the currents and sorrows of Shakespeare’s own life. Chorus Niagara (in pan-Canadian partnership with the Richard Eaton Singers, who work out of Edmonton, and the Vancouver Bach Choir) has commissioned Canadian composer Allan Bevan to create No Mortal Business. This new work takes as its premise the idea that The Tempest (and other earlier works of Shakespeare) were indeed windows into the playwright’s preoccupation with religion, politics, aging and art. Orpheus Choir and Chorus Niagara will combine to make up a 160-voice ensemble to present the work on March 4.

Two local choirs, on the other hand, embrace and celebrate the passage of time this month. The Toronto Classical Singers, directed by their founder, Jurgen Petrenko, celebrate their 20th anniversary. I have sung on several occasions with this rambunctious and friendly group of singers, and it is a pleasure to salute them at this time. On March 4 they perform Vivaldi’s Gloria and Schubert’s Mass in G.

Tafelmusik Chamber Choir celebrates its 30th anniversary with a series of concerts from March 27 to April 1. Full disclosure: I have also sung with this ensemble and have accompanied student vocalists and instrumentalists on lute and theorbo at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute. Setting these connections aside, I can state with confidence that TCC is one of the top choral ensembles in the city and possibly in all of Canada. This group has been part of the continuing story of the resurgence of pre-1750 music — a sprawling, international dialogue between scholars, performers and audiences that has revived and uncovered a multicultural wealth of previously forgotten composers and compositions.

The Tafelmusik Orchestra, of which the choir is an offshoot, has been a leader in this ongoing area of discovery. For these concerts, The TCC has commissioned a new piece by Canadian composer James Rolfe, and will also perform works by Purcell, Rameau, Handel, Poulenc and Saint-Saëns.

Anniversaries define the passage of time; so do annual events. Outside of the Jewish community, one of the lesser known holidays is Purim, a real children’s party centred around costumes, games and food. Purim commemorates the story of Queen Esther, one of the great mythic tales of Jewish pride and independence. The Toronto Jewish Folk Choir performs songs in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian and English at its March 1 “Purim Concert.”

Memory is what helps define tradition — what we remember of the past shapes our present and future. Canada is a young country filled with immigrants, and for many it is the histories and art forms of our ancestral countries that often define us. At the same time, Canadian composers are hard at work creating a repertoire that they hope will help define us anew. Choirs performing concerts that include Canadian works are the Vespera Choir, March 29, the Echo Women’s Choir, March 31, and the aptly named Canadian Singers, who perform in Markham on March 4.

Finally, the choral requiem form, often valedictory in nature, is well represented this month. Fauré’s Requiem, a particularly tender and introspective setting, is performed by two different choirs: Oriana Women’s Choir on March 3 and the Church of St. Nicholas Birchcliffe, March 30. Another requiem setting by a French composer, Maurice Duruflé, can be heard from the Voices Chamber Choir on March 31. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir performs Vaughan Williams’s Mass in G and Martin’s Mass for Double Choir on Good Friday, April 6. On the same evening the Metropolitan Festival Choir performs Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and the Georgian Bay Concert Choir performs Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor. Canadian composer Eleanor Daley’s excellent Requiem is presented by Mississauga Festival Choir on March 31.

(Venue change - Voices' 31 March concert is now being held at Church of St. Martin in-the-Fields.)

To sum up, this month’s concerts, built around memory and the passage of time, enjoin us to respect the past, so that we may better understand the present and prepare for the future. At least, I think they do. I’d better check my notes …

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

Peter Eötvös

If you are a follower of new music but didn’t know the name of Hungarian composer/conductor/educator Peter Eötvös till now, don’t be too hard on yourself. According to Robert Aitken, “There are many like him, with huge careers in Europe, and correspondingly busy, but they have no reputation on this side, until someone invites them here, and sometimes not even after that.” New Music Concerts artistic director Aitken extended such an invitation to Eötvös more than three years ago to come and do a concert, of Eötvös’ own devising, for NMC. “I’d have liked him to come in 2011,” Aitken says, “but when I reached him I was told there were already plans under way for him to come in 2012, and there was a very slim chance he would have time for both.”

Those “plans under way” were for Eötvös to play a leading curatorial role in this year’s TSO New Creations Festival, a series of three concerts, March 1, 3 and 7 at Roy Thomson Hall.

With the same blend of pragmatism and cooperation that manifested itself between Soundstreams and the Canadian Opera Company during composer Kaaija Saariaho’s visit last month, Aitken hitched the NMC wagon to the TSO calendar. The upshot is that three days after the March 7 final concert of New Creations, Eötvös will also do a concert with NMC, on March 10, at the Glenn Gould Studio.

Aitken’s connections with Eötvös come from Aitken’s many years teaching in Freiburg, Germany, with Eötvös based in Karlsruhe, “one town away.” Aitken is looking forward immensely to the whole visit, not just the NMC leg of it. “He [Eötvös] is well respected as a composer in Europe, and it is deserved. He just doesn’t make mistakes. Clever like a fox, is what I would call him, a French expressionist but with an absolutely distinctive Hungarian accent! And his conducting is as good.”

It’s interesting to compare the role of Eötvös as “curator” as it applies to the NMC and TSO legs of the visit. The NMC concert is very tightly knit, as befits its smaller scale, and it’s possible to see how each of the choices on the programme comes directly from Eötvös himself. But in the case of New Creations, with the best will in the world, there are many more factors at play. There are works that have been commissioned from local composers to fit in with a theme. There are the happy accidents arising from meetings on the road. The significant presence of clarinettist/composer Jörg Widmann in the series, for example is as likely to have materialized from Widmann’s playing a Mozart concerto under Oundjian’s baton somewhere in Europe, as from a connection between Eötvös and Widmann. But of such happy accidents is true creative ferment born. Every year Oundjian’s and the TSO’s genuine commitment to the New Creations Fedtival as a significant part of their cultural mandate becomes more clearly defined. And the event itself becomes more focused and exhilarating. With the steeply reduced ticket price at RTH, there’s no reason the Hall shouldn’t be rocking for three days with symphonic sound that invigorates the players’ and the audience’s ears.

Esprit Orchestra

At the other end of the month, March 29, Alex Pauk’s Esprit Orchestra continues its drive to bring symphonic music to a hall large enough to handle an orchestra with serious new music chops. “Turned On By Texture” is their fourth and final Koerner Hall concert this season, featuring, among other works, Jamie Parker in Harry Somers’ Third Piano Concerto, and Xenakis’ Jonquaies. (If it wasn’t too late to organize, I’d suggest that Esprit offer half price rush tickets to anyone who shows up with ticket stubs from any two of the three New Creations concerts that kicked off the month!)

By the way, for a really interesting insight into what keeps Pauk motivated, check out Jack Buell’s Q&A with Pauk in “We Are All Music’s Children” this month (page 68). What’s in the magazine is just part of a much longer piece on the web.

The Classical Continuum

Returning to Eötvös’ concert with NMC March 10, it was interesting to me that he chose to programme Stravinsky as part of the mix. There’s a striking number of concerts this month where to a significant extent presenters seem to be emphasizing the classical/post-classical continuum, rather than the great divide. March 11, for example, the Stuttgart Chamber Choir and Soundstreams Choir 21 are bringing a programme to the Carlu that includes Ligeti, Mahler, Bach, Penderecki and a Frehner world premiere. And on March 22, in a Music Toronto Discovery Series concert, Véronique Mathieu, violin, and Stephanie Chua, piano, present a programme of works that includes, among others, works by Sokolović, Clara Schumann and Heather Schmidt. And another example: Kindred Spirits Orchestra’s Markham New Music Festival on April 1 offers Stravinsky, Current, Bartók, Honegger, Richard Strauss and Southam.

Straight Up

And, all too briefly for those who prefer their new music straight up, check out:

• March 9: Music Gallery. Emerging Artist Series: Emergents II: Ina Henning, accordion and Marc-Olivier Lamontagne, guitar.

• March 12: Arraymusic. Array Session #11: An Improv Concert.

• March 16: Toronto New Music Projects. Stefan und Steffen: The Music of Wolpe and Schleiermacher.

• April 3: Canadian Opera Company. Chamber Music Series: Primitive Forces.

And finally a reminder: details on all these, and a whole lot more new music, can be found in our magazine listings, or, even more readily by searching “New” in the listings on our website.

Cage Watch: 180 days & counting

Last issue I pointed out that although the 100th anniversary of John Cage’s birth will not be until September 5, 2012, among presenters of music, large and little, the celebratory clock has already started to tick. So, from now, and for the next 180 days (February 29 to September 5), let The WholeNote Cage Watch begin.

(Bemused readers should take a moment to read Pam Margles review, on page 69, of the reissue of Cage’s seminal book Silence for a visceral sense of what the fuss will be about.)

March 2 at Koerner Hall, Soundstreams/Royal Conservatory present “So Percussion: Cage@100,” works by Cage and a new work by turntablist Nicole Lizée.

March 22 at Gallery 345, Daniel Gaspard, piano, and Ellen Furey, dancer, present “John Cage, Sonatas in Movement.”

October 25 to 28 a conference,“The Future of Cage: Credo,” will be presented at the Graduate Centre for Drama, U of T. Details to follow.

“Orchestra Month” in Southern Ontario?

If April is “opera month” in Southern Ontario, perhaps March should be proclaimed “orchestra month” given the wealth, diversity and richness of orchestral music being offered this month. From no less than four predominantly Russian programmes, three mostly-French programmes and two mostly-Italian programmes, to several concerts featuring a significant choral component, what we have this month is a veritable orchestral feast, bordering on an (enviable) embarrassment of riches.

Local boy makes good

Starting with a much anticipated homecoming, on March 24 conductor Nathan Brock will “return home” for his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Toronto-born Brock (also a U of T Faculty of Music grad), who has held the post of assistant conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal since July 2009, will conduct the TSO in an all-Russian programme, with guest cellist Joshua Roman; the programme will be repeated on the 25th. I had an opportunity to ask Brock a few questions regarding his upcoming “homecoming.” This is what he says goes through his head (and heart) when he thinks about his imminent TSO debut:

“Conducting at home is a particular thrill and also a particular challenge. I haven’t been part of the Toronto music scene for almost ten years (I left in 2002) and obviously a lot has changed in my life … When I left I was still really just a kid. Since then I’ve put several degrees, many countries, contact with many of the world’s greatest conductors, a marriage and two kids under my proverbial belt. A number of the players in the symphony are old friends, an even greater number are old teachers, mentors and frankly, idols from my musical upbringing in Toronto. I’m thrilled to be given the chance to show them what I can do!”… it’s a strange mix of nerves and excitement being in front of the home crowd. These emotions are also tempered by a great sadness at the thought of experiencing this moment without some of the people who have influenced my musical life the most.”

I wondered about his thoughts on Russian music, too, given that he’ll be conducting an all-Russian programme. “Russian music is wonderful. It’s visceral. The spirit of this people is incomparable and leaps from every page of the great Russian classics whether it’s Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich. You simply can’t escape its potent affect. It is music that grabs you and changes you — no questions asked (Russians aren’t ones to stand on ceremony!).”

When I asked Brock, himself a cellist, about the dynamic of conducting a fellow cellist he said that “there is definitely a simpatico,” adding, with a wink, “We’re such easy people.” He also figured, given their relative closeness in age and the music being performed, that he and Roman will “get along just great!”

Brock also appears to “get along just great” with the younger set, the 6 to 16 year olds. In his role as assistant conductor with the OSM, he was recently awarded a Prix Opus for the youth concert project he led, ingeniously titled, “You Can Never Be Too Classical.” Brock thinks that “kids, especially as they get older, can appreciate when they are being fed ‘for kids’ material as opposed to getting the real thing.” The programme for the concert that won him the Opus? “We started with some Vivaldi, progressed through Debussy, Adams, even some Gougeon, to Stravinsky. We finished the last 20 minutes by playing the Firebird Suite!”

Brock will conduct (some more of) that powerful Russian repertoire including Glinka’s Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila, Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances from Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio espagnol and Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, (with cellist Roman), March 24 (7:30pm) and 25 (3pm), at Roy Thomson Hall.

Kuerti at Kitchener

Coincidentally, another Toronto-born conductor, Julian Kuerti, will be performing with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony over the same weekend that Brock conducts the TSO; actually, Kuerti and the KWS perform on March 23 and 24, so, in theory, you can catch both Kuerti and Brock at the podium with a bit of advance planning. Kuerti, who completed a two-year post a few years ago as assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, made his TSO debut in 2007. He is now a freelance conductor with a full concert schedule in North America and Europe. In fact, during the same weekend I was hoping to reach him for this column, it turned out he was busy guest conducting the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. When he comes to Kitchener, Kuerti will lead the KWS and the young pianist, Nareh Arghamanyan, in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5, the “Emperor,” a piece he is intimately familiar with, not surprisingly, given that he is the son of renowned Beethoven expert, pianist Anton Kuerti. (He also conducted his father in the “Emperor” in a “legendary, last minute” event, in March, 2008, in Boston. Worth googling!)

Ms. Arghamanyan and Kuerti will no doubt provide two grand evenings of music making with the KWS, at the Centre in The Square, at 8pm. Also on the programme is Gary Kulesha’s Torque and Schumann’s Symphony No.2.

And much more

In what is shaping up to be a very busy weekend in March, the 23rd and 24th will also see Masterworks of Oakville Chorus and Orchestra mount Mahler’s Symphony No.2, “Resurrection,” one of its “most ambitious concerts yet,” according to a backgrounder we received from conductor Charles Demuynck. Soprano Marian Sjolander and alto Kyle Engler will join an orchestra of 90 and a chorus of 80 for the 8pm event at St. Matthews Roman Catholic Church in Oakville. And as is often — no, make that always — the case with this column, the month’s offerings present yet another “so many concerts, so little room” quandary. For more on the month’s orchestral riches, please refer to what is fast becoming a regular “Quick Picks” feature, at the end.

“String Quartet Month” in Southern Ontario?

I started by saying March might well be dubbed Orchestra Month, but there is an equally strong case for calling it String Quartet Month. Why? Because this month there are — count them — ten quartets performing throughout Toronto, the GTA and beyond. The Juilliard String Quartet (more about them later), for example, is performing both in Markham and at Brock University; the Vogler is first at the Hamilton Conservatory and then, about two weeks later, at the Royal Conservatory. And here are the other eight: Bozzini, Cecilia, Penderecki, Silver Birch, Simon Bolivar, Takács, Ton Beau and Tokyo (more of them later, too).

So, from the splendour of a 90-piece orchestra, let’s turn, now, to the intimacy, and dare I say it, relative complexity, of the string quartet. Of the ten performing in around the GTA this month, I thought I might attempt a “compare and contrast” with two of them: the Juilliard String Quartet (JSQ) and the Tokyo String Quartet (TSQ).

Both are quartets of long standing, the JSQ having been established in 1949, the TSQ, in 1969. Each is “quartet in-residence” at a prestigious music school: the JSQ at … yes, the eponymous Juilliard School; the TSQ — whose founding members (all former music students of Tokyo’s famed string teacher Hideo Saito) met while studying at Juilliard and who were trained by members of the JSQ — at Yale. Robert Mann, founding member of the Juilliard, spent 52 years as first violin, leaving in 1997, and their newest member, first violin Joseph Lin, started in 2011; the Tokyo’s violist, Kazuhide Isomura, a member of the group since its inception, will be retiring in 2013 (along with second violin Kikuei Ikeda, a member since 1974), after 44 years. (“Our very own” Peter Oundjian played first violin with the Tokyo for 14 years (1981 to 1995) before taking up the post of music director with the TSO in 2004; incidentally, he also studied at Juilliard.) And finally, try as I may, I could not find out when the JSQ last performed in Toronto; I gather it’s been a while. I did learn, however, that their Canadian debut took place in 1965, in a concert presented by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto; they performed twice more for the WMCT, in 1967 and 1972. The TSQ, on the other hand, has had a “regular gig” with Music Toronto, returning almost every season (twice sometimes, like in this one) since its first visit in 1975.

Regarding the 2013 departures of Isomura and Ikeda from the TSQ, members of the quartet referred to the two leaving “their indelible stamp on the Tokyo’s DNA.” A moving statement and an engaging concept, one definitely worth pursuing, at another time …

In the meantime, however, the TSQ performs Haydn’s Quartet in G Op.64 No.4 and Bartók quartets nos. 1 and 2 in its 44th concert for Music Toronto on March 15, 8pm, at the Jane Mallett Theatre. And the JSQ performs Haydn’s Quartet in G Major Op. 54 No.1, Donald Martino’s Quartet No.5 and Beethoven’s Quartet in B-flat Major Op.130 with Grosse Fuge, on March 28, 8pm, at the Markham Theatre. They repeat the programme, replacing the Martino with Elliott Carter’s Quartet No.5, March 30, at Brock University’s Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, 7:30pm.

QUICK PICKS (see details in our concert listings):

Orchestral, Mostly Russian

• March 10, 7:30: Barrie Concerts. Russian Masters. Works by Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. Hi-Way Pentecostal Church, 50 Anne St. N., Barrie.

• April 3, 8:00: National Ballet of Canada. 60th Anniversary Concert of the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra. Music by Borodin, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Talbot and others. Koerner Hall.

Orchestral, Mostly French

• March 24, 24 8:00: Mississauga Symphony. French Connection. Works by Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky and others. Elaine Hou, piano. Hammerson Hall, Living Arts Centre, Mississauga.

• April 1, 3:00: Guelph Symphony Orchestra. Tour the World: French Masters. Works by Berlioz, Ravel and Franck. Sarah Whynot, piano; Judith Yan, conductor. River Run Centre, Guelph.

Orchestral, Mostly Italian

• March 3, 8:00: Greater Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra. Spring Pops: all’Italiana. Works by Rossini, Vivaldi, Haydn and others. Aria Tesolin, mezzo; Entela Galanxhi. Columbus Centre.

• March 9, 7:30: Toronto Symphony Orchestra. What Makes it Great? Vivaldi Four Seasons. Jennifer Koh, violin; Rob Kapilow, conductor and host. Roy Thomson Hall.

Orchestral, Mostly Choral

• March 25, 2:30: Kingston Symphony. The Creation. Haydn. Kingston Choral Society and soloists; Glen Fast, music director. Kingston Gospel Temple, Kingston.

• March 31, 8:00: NYCO Symphony Orchestra. Music by Mozart. Includes Mozart’s “Coronation” Mass. NYCO Symphony Chorus; Oakville Choral Society; and soloists. St. Michael’s College School.

Some Other String Quartets

• March 11, 3:00: Royal Conservatory. Chamber Music Series: Takács Quartet with Joyce Yang, piano. Beethoven: String Quartet No.14 in c-sharp; Dvořák: Piano Quintet in A. Koerner Hall.

• March 26, 7:30: University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Chamber Music Series: Simón Bolívar String Quartet. Works by Haydn, Ginastera and Schubert. Walter Hall.

• March 28, 8:00: Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society. Silver Birch String Quartet. Works by Mozart, Beethoven and Boccherini. KWCMS Music Room, Waterloo.

• March 29, 1:30: Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. Music in the Afternoon: Cecilia String Quartet. Works by Mozart, Shostakovich, Sokolović, Puccini and Beethoven. Walter Hall.

• April 5, 8:00: Music Toronto. Quartet Series: Quatour Bozzini. Works by Stravinsky, Osterle and Britten. Jane Mallett Theatre.

It’s a full-up month! Enjoy!

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

If you were quick off the mark picking up this month’s magazine or one of the smart/lucky ones who have registered on our website to receive a “heads-up” when the online facsimile edition is up (usually 24–48 hours ahead of the print edition) then you still have time to make it down to the St. Lawrence Centre for mezzo Wallis Giunta’s March 1 recital, with very busy collaborative pianist Steven Philcox at the keys. The Music Toronto Discoveries Series concert was originally billed as “a recital of English language songs,” but a very interesting turn of events has technically made a liar out of Giunta. As reported in this column last month, half of the programme will now consist of a song cycle, All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, by Rufus Wainwright.

It should be an intriguing evening. Wainwright performed the cycle himself at the Winter Garden Theatre two summers ago, as part of the lead-in to the North American premiere of his opera, Prima Donna, at that year’s Luminato festival. The audience that night consisted, to a very large extent, of legions of longtime Wainwright fans who were baffled and frustrated by the request to refrain from applauding between the individual songs. Hearing it sung through will provide an opportunity to hear it as a true song cycle, a single work with a compelling emotional arc to it, in the hands of a mezzo/piano team whose stars are both on the rise. The other half of the programme will feature Britten, Purcell, Vaughan Williams, Barber and others. So the evening will be a true test of all concerned.

(If you haven’t already done so, check out my video interview with Giunta, part of our “conversations@thewholenote” series. She says quite a bit about the choice of repertoire for this concert.)

Steven Philcox

As mentioned, collaborative pianist Philcox is a busy man this month. In addition to the March 1 Music Toronto recital, he will be at the piano for a March 6, 12 noon, “Celebration of Canadian Art Song,” part of the COC’s Bradshaw amphitheatre concert series. He will be accompanying soprano Carla Huhtanen, mezzo Krisztina Szabó and tenor Lawrence Wiliford in a programme of works by Harman, Passmore and Glick. And March 12 at 7:30pm, at Walter Hall, in a U of T Faculty Artist Series concert, he will accompany two of the finest, soprano Monica Whicher and baritone Russell Braun, in a programme of works by Barber, Rorem, Fleming, Vivier, Greer, Beckwith and others. (Composer Samuel Barber’s name, incidentally, crops up in these vocal listings as often as Philcox’s.)

In addition to the concerts already mentioned, Barber is one of the featured composers in Off Centre Music Salon’s March 25 event titled “Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life: inaugural American Salon,” featuring works by Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin, Kern and the aforementioned Barber. Tenors Keith Klassen and Rocco Rupolo, baritone Giles Tomkins and Ilana Zarankin will do the vocal honours, with Off Centre co-founders, Boris Zarankin and Inna Perkis, collectively or individually, at the piano.

Song Cycles and — Cyclists

Complete song cycles are, in truth, in somewhat short supply this month, but seasoned song-cyclists we have a-plenty. I’ll come back to the seasoned cyclists soon, but first a nod to the one cycle that jumps out: March 17 at 8pm, the astonishingly consistent and prolific Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society presents baritone Matthew Zadow, accompanied by Dina Namer, piano, in Schubert’s Die Schöene Müllerin. (Zadow then crosses to the other side of The WholeNote’s “Beyond” for an appearance, on March 25, with the Kingston Symphony in Haydn’s The Creation, along with Laura Albino, soprano, and James McLean, tenor.)

Returning to our veteran “song cyclists,” as mentioned last month Aldeburgh Connection’s Bruce Ubukata and Stephen Rawls, fresh off their sold-out triumphant gala at Koerner Hall, return to their more customary format and venue for their 14th (or is it 15th?) annual Greta Kraus Schubertiad, at Walter Hall, on March 18. Titled “Schubert and the Esterházys,” it will feature soprano Leslie Ann Bradley, mezzo Erica Iris Huang, tenor Graham Thomson and baritone Geoffrey Sirett.

Three other recitals to mention here: March 4, at Koerner Hall, the Royal Conservatory presents acclaimed English tenor Ian Bostridge, with Julius Drake, in a mainly Schumann and Brahms programme; Michael Schade, who seems more comfortable in his musical skin every time out, comes to Roy Thomson Hall March 30 with Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni and accompanist Justus Zeyen; and reminding us that the continuum of art song reaches from some of the city’s largest venues to it’s most intimate, in between those dates, on March 25, Nocturnes in the City presents Marta Herman, mezzo, with Timothy Cheung on piano at St. Wenceslaus Church, in a programme of works ranging from Mozart to Kapralova.

“Art of Song”

Keen-eyed readers of this magazine will have noticed that by including this article among our “Beat by Beat” columns this issue, we are taking steps to ensure that “the Art of Song” takes its regular place here (although almost certainly not with the publisher as its regular writer!).

In truth, this little essay barely scratches the surface of a genre as nuanced as any we cover. Take cabaret for example: Max Raabe & Palast Orchester at Koerner Hall, March 8 and 9; Ute Lemper with the Vogler Quartet at the same venue April 4; Alliance Française’s March 9 presentation of “Quand la ville nous habite” (The city inside us)” with Patricia Cano, vocals and Louis Simao, multiple instruments at the Pierre-Léon Gallery; Against the Grain’s March 13 presentation of Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins at Gallery 345; and an ongoing programme of vocalists with serious credentials at the Green Door Cabaret (Peter McGillivray on March 6 for example) ...

We are looking forward to exploring this new beat, in all its diversity, in the months ahead.

It’s not the flower in her hair, the cute dress or the matching scarf and boots. And it’s not just her fierce, soulful tone on the horn that blows listeners away — it’s that Alison Young takes musical chances and has something to say. She’s a jazz musician, yes, “but that can mean different things to different people. I’m glad that I studied jazz because if you’re looking at it as an all-encompassing approach to music, you can take what you learn and apply it towards any genre. So there’s a lot of discipline, but also a lot of room for creativity.” So who has this Young lady spent her time listening to the most?

“When I started listening to jazz, it was always the more soul-influenced players that grabbed my ears. Cannonball Adderley was one of my first major influences, and then I got really into funk. Later on I got into Tower of Power and Lenny Pickett — after seeing him on Saturday Night Live way back when, he became one of my favourite sax players. Then there’s Aretha Franklin. Eddie Harris. Anybody who plays or sings with soul! There are a lot of local musicians who have influenced me in a big way too, like Phil Nimmons and Mike Murley — both former teachers — and countless others. I could go on forever!”

Talented, dedicated and likable, Young is easy to hire. As a side-woman, she plays in more than a few bands and can be heard in a variety of contexts this month: at the Reservoir Lounge with Alysha Brillinger & the Brilltones (Feb 2, 9, 16 and 23 at 9:45pm); at Castro’s Lounge in the Beaches with Big Rude Jake (Feb 4 at 4:30pm); at the Distillery District’s Boiler House with Peter Hill & Christ Lamont (Feb 5 at 11am); back at the Reservoir Lounge with Bradley and the Bouncers as well as Sophia Perlman and the Vipers (Feb 8 and 13 at 9:45pm); and at the Dovercourt House with Roberta Hunt’s Red Hot Ramble (Feb 17 at 9pm). In the midst of all of that, Young will lead her own quartet at the Pilot Tavern on Saturday February 11 from 3:30pm to 6:30pm with Richard Whiteman on piano, Jack Zarowski on bass and Glenn Anderson on drums.

“These are all fantastic musicians I’ve had the privilege of playing with in many contexts over the past few years … I’m excited about this gig! Being a bandleader is entirely different from being a sideman and I plan to do a lot more of my own gigs — and maybe even some recording — this year, but I’m still getting used to calling the shots. I’m used to supporting a bandleader’s creative vision, but I love the idea of being in charge of the musical direction, there are so many things I want to do!”

SPEAKING OF DOING MANY THINGS, Vancouver’s Cory Weeds is not only a saxophonist (www.coryweeds.com), but also a jazz club owner (www.thecellar.com), record label owner (www.cellarjazz.com), radio show host (Chasin’ the Train on CFRO, www.coopradio.org) and he’s a father of two! After firing off a few questions to Weeds, I acquired both insight and inspiration.

As a musician, recording artist, club owner, record label owner, radio host, etc. you are obviously extremely devoted to jazz music. How did this devotion come about?

Well, jazz was always in my household. My dad is a guitar player and music was always a part of my family. I was a typical rebellious teenager and didn’t really figure out how great jazz was until I was in about grade 11. When I graduated from school I didn’t really have any other interests than music so I went to music school (Cap College) and things just grew from there. I knew I wanted to be involved with this music. I had a very entrepreneurial spirit from a young age and when I was about 24 or 25 there was a big lull in the jazz scene here. Not a lot going on. I was mad that I couldn’t go see Oliver Gannon, Cam Ryga, Ross Taggart etc on a regular basis so I decided I should start my own club, so I did. The label was a natural transition. I had been doing radio before that so that continued and musically I was prepared for my career to sort of slow down and stop. The complete opposite happened and I couldn’t be happier. Jazz isn’t a part of my life, it is my life.

What sacrifices (if any) have you had to make in order to own and run a successful jazz club?

Job security, pension, EI, benefits (although I married a school teacher). I don’t feel I have sacrificed much. I have a beautiful wife, two kids who are the lights of my life, we own an apartment, we have a car. I mean what more could someone want? I have all this all while being in the “jazz” business. I feel very fortunate.

There are fewer jazz clubs in Toronto than there used to be … what advice would you give to someone who has a dream of opening one up?

Wow that’s a tough question. Be prepared to dedicate your life to it for at least five years. I mean 24/7. If you’re not a musician then talk to musicians, find out what they like/don’t like about other clubs. Get to know the musicians first. I had the musicians on my side from day one and that is the single most important thing. Try promoting a few concerts locally to get your feet wet. Finally, don’t give up. Persevere!!!

What do you enjoy about playing in Toronto?

I love T.O. and always have. It was the first big city I visited as an adult and the second I would get there I’d head to Sam the Record Man to spend all the money I had on CDs. Now my sister lives there and I love connecting with all my Toronto musician friends. I love playing with Bernie Senensky, always look forward to seeing Kelly Jefferson and Andy Scott and love playing with everyone I get a chance to. I have found that through my club, my label and my own records I have some fans there too which is really nice. Building a fan base is a long, slow process and it’s nice to see the hard work pay off.

If you’re reading this column early enough in the month, you’ve got a few chances to catch Weeds in and around The Big Smoke: at The Rex (Feb 2 at 9:30pm), with vocalist Maureen Kennedy at the Dominion on Queen (Feb 3 at 8:30pm), at the Pilot Tavern (Feb 4 at 3:30pm) or at The Jazz Room in Waterloo (Feb 4 at 8:30pm).

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

Well, the holiday season, with all of its almost overlapping rehearsals and concerts, is past history. Then, like mother nature (with the exception of her one or two nasty outbursts), the community ensemble scene lapsed into a tranquil, semi comatose state of inactivity. We have not heard of a single event scheduled for January or early February. Then, well after Groundhog Day and Family Day have past into history, we see the awakenings of a new season.

The first musical events for the season brought to our attention are not concerts, but are still events of considerable interest to members of community ensembles. Long and McQuade will be presenting no fewer than five free clinics on successive Saturday afternoons starting February 4. If you play clarinet, saxophone, trumpet or trombone, check for details at bloorband@long-mcquade.com. The two which particularly caught my attention were sax and trumpet. If you have never seen or heard contrabass, sopranino or soprillo saxophones, here’s your chance. The AllSax4tet will be performing on eight different sizes of saxes. As for the trumpet session, it will feature none other than the incomparable Doc Severinsen, leader of the Tonight Show Band for 30 years. Yes, he’s still actively performing.

The other noteworthy event is “International Horn Day 2012” presented by the York University Department of Music on February 10 at 7:30pm. This will feature Jacquelyn Adams with Clifton Hyde, guitar and Jeff Butterfield, drums, plus horn ensembles of all levels from across southern Ontario, including the Toronto Symphony horn section, Tafelmusik horns and more. See the listing section for details.

Two concert offerings which have come to our attention break with tradition in quite different ways. The first of these will be The City of Brampton Concert Band’s “Heroes and Villains” on Saturday, February 25. The concert will focus on the theme of heroes and villains in the broad sense of its many manifestations in life, history, nature, literature and art. Director Darryl Eaton has assembled a fantastic range of guest artists to help explore these concepts in musical terms. Perhaps the quirkiest will be William Snodgrass performing a whimsical version of The Flight of the Bumblebee as a percussion solo. For more details check their website at www.bramptonconcertband.com.

The second of these concerts with a different approach will be that of the Markham Concert Band. In a departure from more traditional programming, conductor Doug Manning decided to focus on works composed and/or arranged by Canadians. As an added feature, no fewer than four of these composers and arrangers will be in attendance. In the audience, to hear their compositions performed, will be renowned trumpeter Johnny Cowell and saxophonist Eddie Graf. As for the other two composers, they are band members Sean Breen and Vern Kennedy.

A long time member of the Toronto Symphony, Cowell also made his mark as a composer in the popular field. In fact, in the early 1960s Cowell had more compositions on the Hit Parade than anyone else. Two of his compositions were number one on the charts world wide. Walk Hand in Hand, now a wedding standard, and Our Winter Love are still popular today, almost 50 years later.

Graf was a band leader in Canadian Army shows in England and Europe during World War II. On his return to Canada, he led his own big band and was responsible for writing, arranging and conducting for many CBC shows. Now in his 90s, Graf is still playing and turning out fine compositions and arrangements.

Kennedy, composer and singer, had a long history with such CBC shows as the Juliette Show, Wayne and Shuster and the Tommy Hunter Show. In addition to playing trumpet in the band, Kennedy is a founding member of the Canadian Singers who will also be appearing in this concert. Originally an octet and now a vocal quartet, this group was established in 1994 with the goal of singing music by Canadian composers. They will sing works by both Cowell and Kennedy in this concert.

The fourth of the composers featured, and the youngest, is Breen. Still in his early 20s, Breen has been composing since his early days in high school. He plays baritone saxophone in the band, and will conduct his own Symphonic Overture for Winds.

Featured soloist for this concert will be trumpet showman John Edward Liddle. An honours graduate of the acclaimed Humber College music programme, for the past 30 years Liddle has pursued a varied musical career. From principal trumpet and soloist with many orchestras and concert bands in the GTA to smaller chamber groups as well as latin, jazz and dance bands, he has explored all facets of the trumpet repertoire. In his spare time Liddle conducts the Etobicoke Community Concert Band, the North York Concert Band and the Encore Symphonic Concert Band.

Among other works, Liddle will perform Graf’s three movement Trumpet Rhapsody and Cowell’s arrangement of La Virgin de la Macarena by legendary trumpeter Raphael Menez. In Cowell’s original composition Roller Coaster, a work for trumpet trio, he will be joined by band members Kennedy and Gord Neill.

We usually don’t receive much news about the concerts or other activities of the reserve military bands in Toronto, but one event has come to my attention that warrants mention. It’s a special “Veterans Appreciation Concert” by the naval reserve band of HMCS York. My career in the navy, which spanned a good many years in a variety of roles at sea and ashore, had its origins in music. It so happens that, while still in high school, I was enticed into a naval reserve band with the exalted rank of “Probationary Boy Bandsman.” While my time in the navy after high school did not involve music, I have always had a soft spot for naval and marine bands. This concert by the HMCS York Band will take place on Saturday, March 3 in Ajax.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t give an update on New Horizons Band activities. Locally, the Long and McQuade bands have now grown to four. Starting with one beginners group in September 2010, they have grown to two daytime and two evening groups for beginners and intermediate players now numbering 100 members. Now, under the umbrella of the University of Western Ontario New Horizons Band, a New Horizons Band Camp is scheduled for July at Brock University in St. Catharines. The intent is to bring together musicians from Canada and the U.S. as a way of celebrating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. I’m sure that we’ll have more details in future issues, or visit
www.newhorizonsmusic.org.

On a more serious note, it is with great sadness that we note the passing of Bette Eubank, a long time member of the Northdale Concert Band. In addition to playing as a regular member of the band’s flute section, Bette was always there when someone was needed to perform the many thankless non-musical jobs in the band. Bette also devoted much of her time to entertaining in seniors’ homes where she developed a special rapport with the residents. She departed much too early.

Definition Department

For the past couple of years we have featured a variety of wacky musical terms in this spot. For a change, this month’s is one that I encountered recently during a rehearsal. It is: Passissimo. I got no help from Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Oxford Companion to Music or such websites as www.MusicTheory.org.uk or www.thefreedictionary.com. Can anyone help?

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

This month’s article is a bit more serious than most of my contributions. The year began with the loss of a friend when Ian Bargh died on January 1. And with him went a treasure trove of musical know-how, a knowledge of the great standard song repertoire, including rarities that hardly anyone else knew, and the ability to interpret them, turning them into musical gems.

He also had that most desirable of qualities in a jazz musician: a sound of his own, a personal stamp that he put on everything he played.

A Scot and, like myself, born in Ayrshire, Ian in many ways was typical of the breed: careful with money, hard working, a bit of a rough diamond, but under it all, generous and sentimental.

In the last few years he and I talked quite often about death and we always agreed that we would not want a lingering end to life. Well, the end did come quickly for Ian. We came home at the beginning of last December from a cruise on which my band, the Echoes Of Swing, was playing. Ian, as they say, played his buns off and the smile on his face told us all just how much he was enjoying himself.

A month later and he was gone from us, but not in spirit, for a part of him will always be there for those of us who knew him, and his music will live on through his recordings.

Like the rest of us, Ian did have his idiosyncrasies and he certainly could have his grumpy moments when he saw the world through dark coloured glasses. I remember one occasion when, for a joke, I gave him a bottle of Famous Grouse scotch whisky. Somehow it seemed more appropriate than a sweet sherry!

I mentioned that Ian had “a sound.”

No single musical element identifies jazz musicians more than their personal sound — a sound that represents the individual. In the arts, a personal identity is something that any artist should strive for whether it be in the visual arts, literature, theatre or, of course, music. In jazz, Armstrong, Bechet, Lester Young, Bud Freeman, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Jack Teagarden, Pee Wee Russell and “Red” Allen are only a few who had a personal sound that makes them instantly recognizable.

The American composer, author, historian and musician, Gunther Schuller, had this to say on the subject: “It is up to the individual to create his sound, if it is within his creative capacities to do so — one that will best serve his musical concepts and style. In any case, in jazz, the sound, timbre, and sonority are much more at the service of individual self-expression, interlocked intimately with articulation, phrasing, tonguing, slurring, and other such stylistic modifiers and definers.”

In simpler terms, be your own person.

The late veteran trumpet player Sweets Edison also had his views on the subject when speaking about the early jazz greats. In his opinion, most of the musicians in those days were artists. They were individualists and had a sound of their own. If Billie Holiday sang on a record you’d know it was nobody but Billie. Louis Armstrong could hit one note on a record, and you’d know it was Louis Armstrong. Nobody sounded like Lester Young, like Coleman Hawkins, like Bunny Berigan, like Benny Goodman, Chu Berry, Dizzy Gillespie. They all had a recognizable sound.

More recently, Gary Smulyan, winner of the Downbeat critics’ poll in 2009 and 2011 for baritone sax, said that sound comes before everything ... If you listen to just the tenor saxophone — John Coltrane, Johnny Griffin, Joe Lovano, Chris Potter, Don Byas, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins — they all play tenor saxophone but you know who they are immediately. And to Gary, that’s the defining thing. “I’ve given a lot of thought and a lot of practice to try to really develop a sound that’s personal and unique to me” he says. “I mean you could be a great technician but if you don’t have a good sound no one’s going to want to hear you … And it’s really the identifying characteristic of who you are as a musician. And your sound is not in the instrument … The sound is something that you carry within your very being and that’s what comes out. So take someone like Sonny Rollins. I think that if you gave Sonny Rollins 50 different tenor saxes, 50 different reeds and 50 different ligatures, he’s going to sound like Sonny Rollins, with some variation because maybe the instruments aren’t comfortable … But essentially what’s going to come out is Sonny Rollins … and I tell that to my students. I say, ‘Don’t look for the magic instrument, because there’s no magic instrument.’”

I don’t mean to suggest that one should slavishly imitate one musician. As the saying goes, when you copy from one person that’s plagiarism, but if you copy from everybody it’s called research and every jazz musician is a product of what he or she has listened to and absorbed. Some musicians say they get ideas about their sound from players who don’t even play the same instrument as they do. It’s more about concept, phrasing and note choices.

It’s the same magic that makes a melody stick in our head, and the same magic that makes a particular improvised solo a classic.

And that takes us back to Ian Bargh and the very elusive personal touch he brought to his music.

Finally, if we look ahead to the beginning of next month, on March 7 at 5:30pm in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, one of our great Canadian musicians who has the magic in his music will be performing. His name? Guido Basso. He, along with another master musician, Don Thompson, will present a free concert of jazz classics and originals. If you are lucky enough to be there you will hear what the words in this month’s column have tried to describe.

Meanwhile, happy listening and try to make some of it live music.

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