Beat Columns (Live Music)

The timing could not be more perfect. Just last month The WholeNote editor David Perlman threw down the gauntlet. The challenge: to begin the work of rallying a team of cross-country WholeNote correspondents. The initiative started in the last issue with Ian Alexander’s coverage of music on Vancouver Island. I am picking up the narrative trail at the next stop on the journey from “sea to shining sea” in Vancouver, where in just a few short weeks, Opera Conference Vancouver will be under way.

Opera Conference is an annual international symposium on opera, this year hosted by Vancouver Opera in partnership with OPERA America, Opera.ca, and Opera Volunteers International. The theme of this year’s conference is “Opera: Out of Bounds.” It has a few meanings, one of which is a play on words. Every year, OPERA America holds its annual conference in a different host city, and 2013 marks the first time in over ten years that the conference is being held outside the boundaries of the US, not seen in Canada since 2002 in Toronto. Most if not all of Canada’s opera companies will be there May 6–11, joined by another 400 delegates from opera companies across North America and the world.

More significantly, the theme “Opera: Out of Bounds” reflects the sector’s growing imperative to expand the definitions of opera beyond the Euro-centric traditions of the art form and extend its reach beyond the walls of the opera house. Through diverse programming over three days, the conference will explore strategies and deliver learning for connecting with new communities and new audiences, and creating greater value and civic impact. There could not be a better place for such a conference than Vancouver, one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada, with 52% of the population speaking a first language other than English.

There will be opera too — and lots of it. Running concurrent with the conference is Vancouver Opera’s production of Tan Dun’s Tea: Mirror of the Soul, in its Canadian premiere. Tea: Mirror of the Soul, an extraordinary fusion of Western opera and Eastern myth, from the Academy-Award-winning composer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, will be performed three times over the conference schedule. Vancouver Opera will also present Naomi’s Road, a 45-minute opera designed for touring to schools and community venues. Based on the Joy Kogawa novel of the same name that details a young Japanese girl’s experience as her family is interned during World War II, Naomi’s Road is taken from one of Canada’s most painful and complex social periods — one that was not even discussed in schools for years.

Vancouver Opera is a proud member of Opera.ca and OPERA America, two associations that share a long history and reciprocal relationship. In fact, all members of Opera.ca are by default also members of OPERA America, a membership arrangement that brings real value to Canadian members. As a partner in the presentation of the conference, Opera.ca is contributing its own programming and events around the conference.

The first of these is the “Vancouver Co-Production Colloquium,” at the very start of the week on Monday, May 6 and Tuesday, May 7. Hosted by Vancouver Opera, at their new production space and corporate headquarters, the O’Brian Centre, the colloquium is a staple program of Opera.ca offered to professional company members every two years. This year, professional companies will come together to explore potential opportunities for new co-production, co-commissions and other ways of collaborating to bring greater value to opera audiences and communities across the country.

The link between the success of an opera company and the strength and commitment of its board of directors has long been recognized. These volunteers work tirelessly on behalf of their companies. Because of the vast geography of Canada and the fact that most of them work full time as well, the opportunities to come together and learn from each other are few and far between. We are creating such an opportunity on the afternoon of May 7 with “National Opera Directors Luncheon.” Opera company board members from across Canada are invited to attend this gathering, to network and learn from one another.

Most conference delegates will have arrived by Tuesday, May 7, in time to be treated to a floating “Welcome Cruise and Reception.” The full conference kicks off the next day with a keynote presentation by Don M. Randel, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Other notable speakers include Robert Sirman, director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts, Douglas McClennan of ArtsJournal and David Gockley, general director of San Francisco Opera. The rest of the conference is a bustling hub of sessions, forums, seminars, break out discussions and networking, organized into “tracks” related to opera company function (technical, financial, artistic, audience development, etc).

A highlight and much-anticipated part of every Opera Conference is the New Works Sampler, and this year, it shares the bill with “Showcase: A Decade of New Canadian Opera,” on Friday, May 10, at the Vancouver Playhouse. The showcase is exclusive to conference delegates only.

Showcase is a retrospective look at works funded through the Canadian Opera Creation Fund (COCF), a ten-year initiative made possible by a $2.5 million grant from the Canada Council to Opera.ca, to re-grant in the exploration, development and production of a new brand of opera — opera made in Canada. The COCF program came to a close in 2011, counting some 24 new operas that had premiered on Canadian stages, with another half dozen still in development, as a direct result of this significant and unprecedented investment.

The “New Canadian Opera” portion of the double bill evening of new works features:

Alternate Visions, John Oliver, composer, Genni Gunn, librettist, submitted by Chants Libres; Brothers Grimm, Dean Burry, composer, submitted by the Canadian Opera Company; Filumena, John Estacio, composer, John Murrell, librettist, submitted by Calgary Opera; Lillian Alling, John Estacio, composer, John Murrell, librettist, submitted by Vancouver Opera; Mary’s Wedding, Andrew MacDonald, composer, Stephen Massicotte, librettist, submitted by Pacific Opera Victoria; The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G, Aaron Gervais, composer, Colleen Murphy, librettist, submitted by Tapestry New Opera; Transit of Venus, Victor Davies, composer, Maureen Hunter, librettist, submitted by Manitoba Opera.

OPERA America’s “New Works Sampler” will feature works-in-progress and recent premieres: Khaos, Don Macdonald, composer, Nicola Harwood, librettist, submitted by the Amy Ferguson Institute; Cold Mountain, Jennifer Higdon, composer, Gene Scheer, librettist, submitted by Opera Philadelphia; Sumeida’s Song, Mohammed Fairouz, composer and librettist, submitted by Peermusic Classical; The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Mark Adamo, composer and librettist, submitted by G. Schirmer. 

For more information about the conference or to register, visit operaconference2013.operaamerica.pathable.com.

Christina Loewen is the executive director, Opera.ca.

About Opera.ca: Opera.ca is the national association for opera in Canada. It works with members across the country to represent and advance the interests of Canada’s opera community. It seeks to create and sustain an environment that makes opera central to Canadian life, offering greater opportunity for opera artists and audiences alike.

Opera.ca provides services in advocacy and communications, along with support for Canadian opera creation. Working in collaboration with OPERA America, Opera.ca facilitates member discussions about artistic quality and creativity, education and audience development, community service, governance, resource development, promising partnership opportunities, international

Here are some recommendations for you, dear reader, for Jazz Appreciation Month (which in case you didn’t know, this is):

Dora Mavor Moore award winning cabaret performer Paula Wolfson is a brilliant singer, actor and entertainer who along with multi-instrumentalist Kirk Elliott will present “Strings Attached” at the Flying Beaver Pubaret on Friday, April 5 at 7pm. Wolfson’s appearances are a rare treat so reservations for this show are highly recommended; if you’d like a preview of Wolfson’s talent, check out her promotional video on YouTube or visit paulawolfson.com

Closest in timbre to the human voice, the trombone is considered a difficult instrument to master. As such, it’s not every day that one hears a whole choir of them on a given stage. At The Rex on April 9 at 9:30pm, trombone master Al Kay leads his Trombone Orchestra as part of an annual fundraiser for Humber College’s Jerry Johnson Scholarship. To read more about Johnson (1949–2005) and his life and music, visit jerryjohnsonplays.com

A valued collaborator and arranger with vocalists such as Sophie Milman and Susie Arioli, Montreal-based saxophonist Cameron Wallis, a hard-swinging player with a sweet tone, has recently released his first quartet recording Calling Dexter. Dedicated to the inspiring spirit of the legendary Dexter Gordon, the album features an even mix of originals and standards, with Wallis performing on soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and c-melody saxophones! His Toronto CD release is on April 13, 9:45pm at The Rex. Visit cameronwallismusic.com

Saxophonist, vocalist, violist and composer Shannon Graham is a young musical visionary whose debut album, Shannon Graham and the Storytellers, will be released on April 17 at 8pm (see listings section A) at Gallery 345, the perfect space to experience Graham’s artful, classically-influenced, ambitious brand of modern jazz, with her nine-piece band. Visit shannongraham.ca

Vocalist Gillian Margot has recently returned from a contract at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore and as of June will have a similar deal in Shanghai for the summer. Hers is a rich, supple voice that shines with elegance. Catch her at the Old Mill Inn’s Home Smith Bar on Friday, April 19 as part of the Something to Sing About series with Stuart Harrison, piano, and Ross MacIntyre, bass. Visit
gillianmargot.com

The endlessly imaginative and deeply playful piano stylings of Adrean Farrugia are truly one of a kind. He can frequently be heard with a variety of acts including Matt Dusk, the Brad Goode Quartet, the Ernesto Cervini Quartet and Tim Shia’s Worst Pop Band Ever, to name a few. This month he leads his own quartet on at least two occasions: Saturday, April 27 at 8:30pm at The Jazz Room in Waterloo, and in Toronto on Monday, April 29 at 9pm at The Emmet Ray. A brilliant talent! Visit adreanfarrugia.com

On Sunday April 28 from 4–8pm, the Dominion on Queen will house “Toast and Jam,” a special birthday party for singer Debbie Fleming. Perhaps best known for her a cappella group Hampton Avenue, Fleming can sing everything from R&B to Rachmaninoff, folk, jazz and her own originals. She will perform a set with Bill King on piano, Russ Boswell on bass, Tony Quarrington on guitar and Daniel Barnes on drums, and will then open the stage for jamming by her friends. Come by and raise a glass! Visit debbiefleming.ca

Happy JAM, and here’s hoping to see you in the clubs! 

Ori Dagan is a Toronto-based jazz musician, writer and educator who can be reached at oridagan.com

Even when you arrive slightly late to the party, you sometimes still get to have your cake and eat it too. In terms of having his cake, David Visentin was only eight years old when he started playing the violin. Various relatives were playing fiddle at the time; one was also a jazz violinist; and his own brother, who started on the piano, later switched to violin as well. He was well on his way.

Still, even when you have made all the right choices, the personal trajectory of a career musician can begin to pall, as it did for Visentin, 16 years into a comfortable and satisfying association with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. After performing onstage at the plush, 2,300-seat Centennial Concert Hall for the umpteenth time, Visentin says, “We would go out into minus 30–40 degree weather — this was average for us — but the tragedy of that weather is that there are people who live outside. There is still a very large urban Aboriginal population and, many times on these evenings, we would pass people sniffing glue — because that was the big epidemic happening at the time in downtown Winnipeg.

“I remember this occasion, I’d already been thinking about the relevance of what I was doing on stage as a musician for audiences that would get out to warm parking lots and get into warm cars to warm homes. I was trying to reconcile what I call the distance between the stage and the sidewalk. The next morning, I read the headline in the newspaper that one of them had died and another was still in a coma — and it really came home to me personally that what I was doing on that stage had very little relevance to the sidewalk. I felt that if my art was to have any meaning, it had to extend further.”

In retrospect, he admits, “I wish I had come to that conclusion earlier.” He was in his early 40s, and it would still be a few years before he was to be offered the position of associate dean of the Glenn Gould School, and dean of the Young Artists Performance Academy at the Royal Conservatory. “And guess what? I was being offered the opportunity of training the next generation of musicians like myself.”

Then came a series of events in 2009 that was to change his life forever. It’s what Visentin describes as “an amazing Celebration of Music Week, where Venezuela essentially came to Toronto and took it over.” The prestigious Glenn Gould prize, which “promotes the vital connection between artistic excellence and the transformation of lives,” was being awarded to Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu, the founder of El Sistema in Venezuela.

To celebrate the occasion, Gustavo Dudamel, often regarded as the poster child for El Sistema and now the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led the Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela in their Canadian debut. Among the many events being held were 14 intimate concerts at high schools and community youth centres featuring Venezuelan chamber ensembles, an international music symposium and a climactic concert for 14,000 students at the Rogers Centre.

As a member of the board of the Glenn Gould Foundation, Visentin was in the front row of these events and was so blown away by the calibre of the young Venezuelan musicians that he spoke to Abreu and offered his services to El Sistema. He was invited as a masterclass guest artist for two weeks, to teach at various centres throughout Venezuela.

Now the executive and artistic director of Sistema Toronto, Visentin has found in this remarkable program a way of bridging the stage and the sidewalk that he has long sought. Begun as a social rescue program in 1975 among the most poverty-stricken and violent neighbourhoods in Venezuela, El Sistema has transformed the lives of more than a million children in Venezuela alone — and the program is rapidly gaining traction in many parts of the world.

It’s been said that El Sistema has brought the joy of achievement, the motivation to strive for personal growth and betterment and the love of learning to children who would otherwise be part of a lost generation. Visentin points to an important distinction: “Sistema describes itself as a social program through music, not a music program that has social benefit.” Abreu describes it thus: “The orchestra and chorus are more than artistic structures, they are models and schools of social life because to play and sing together means to intimately coexist while striving toward perfection and excellence, to follow a rigorous regimen of discipline and coordination and to seek harmonic integration, to foster ethical and aesthetic values in the awakening of sensibility and forging values.”

Abreu refers to Mother Teresa as having been the one who realized that the most tragic aspect of poverty is not the lack of bread or a roof overhead, but the feeling of insignificance that poverty breeds, the lack of identity and self-worth that all too often spirals into violence. In contrast, it is the redemptive role of music that leads to the child’s becoming a role model for the family and community, by inspiring in the child a sense of responsibility, perseverance and punctuality and eventually inspiring new hopes and dreams.

Abreu refers to the world crisis invoked by the historian Arnold Toynbee — not the economic crisis which everyone seems to talk about, but a spiritual crisis for which religion offers no solution. It is now only art in the form of music, Abreu says, that can synthesize the wisdom of the ages and provide creative space for culture in the community, not just as a luxury for the elites, but as something in which all can truly participate.

Visentin agrees: “I believe that poverty has many faces. While Toronto is not Caracas and Canada is not Venezuela, we don’t have the extremes of poverty and violence that are expressed in Venezuela, but we do have poverty and we do have violence and that’s where there’s no difference between Canada and Venezuela.

“Dr Abreu is passionately opposed to the waste of time — ‘the perverse use of leisure time’ is what he calls it. Time-wasting, for Abreu, could mean being forced to sell T-shirts eight hours a day in Caracas to make money for your family or it could be wasting time in front of the computer when you could be putting it to productive use or it could be gang membership.

“Poverty needs to be seen in more than just a socioeconomic context. Poverty of spirit is no respecter of class, because that’s ultimately where everyone meets, even in contexts where people seem to have everything going for them. It’s a great leveller when you see that everyone has parts of themselves that are impoverished. Some have the means to address them, some do not. And this is where Sistema has a value.”

Visentin describes this as a shift in awareness: “When you are looking at it through a different lens, it changes everything that you deliver — your knowledge and your experience. Because I can teach a violin lesson, I can coach an ensemble, I can conduct an orchestra, but when you’re imparting qualities of humanity — citizenship — the first thing you have to do is turn the mirror on yourself and look at what it is you really have to give. So that again levels the playing field, because we’re all trying to be better people, better family members, community members.

He pauses for a moment before resuming: “So this question of social value is really the fundamental question that Sistema is not answering necessarily, but asking. Creating an environment, bringing people together in this joint endeavour around this body of great literature and art, with remarkable results. We see everything as inextricably linked. It’s quite wondrous and frightening at the same time because there’s no way to be separate, you have to belong in a way that draws the best out of you or it draws you away, I don’t think there’s a neutral ground.”

Now into its second year, Sistema Toronto offers its after-school program to 80 young string players from Grades 1–6, who come in for two and a half hours a day, four days a week, 38 weeks a year. Explains Visentin, “We ask only three things: to see themselves as a team, to always help each other and to always do your best.” It’s the same dictum that applies to their teachers, all accomplished musicians, who are selected as much for their passion for their craft as for their ability to teach.

On any of these days, as three o’clock approaches, music stands are wheeled out, chairs whisked into place and various string instruments assiduously tuned in anticipation of the children who will play them. “We’re often asked: what’s the curriculum, what’s the pedagogy, where are the texbooks, where’s the handbook?” says Visentin. “There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. The beauty is that it’s created in each community.” At Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School, for example, in addition to classical works, they also learn Tibetan folk songs and stories that reflect the Hungarian Roma community, not to mention The Great Canadian Story, a composition by one of their teachers, Ronald Royer. Visentin sees this as an opportunity for the children to express themselves not just to their own community but to the other communities where they are inevitably invited to perform, forming a network of communal music making.

For its own part, Sistema Toronto is already looking to extend its program beyond Parkdale Junior and Senior Public School. Last year, Peter Oundjian, director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, was appointed the first honourary music ambassador for Sistema Toronto’s Playing to Potential music education program, with its focus on rehearsing and performing as a member of an orchestra. At the same time, when Leonard Cohen was awarded the Glenn Gould Prize for lifetime achievement, he chose Sistema Toronto to receive the $15,000 City of Toronto Protégé Prize. Just the other day, a few University of Toronto students adopted Sistema Toronto for its Philanthropy and Youth project, which was up for a $5,000 prize for the best presentation.

El Sistema-inspired programs are proliferating across Canada — there are at least 12 programs being run from New Brunswick to British Columbia. “What’s very exciting, “ says Visentin, “is that there’s a momentum happening, more activity happening in Canada per capita than, I believe, anywhere else in the world, and Ontario is leading in the number of programs that are Sistema-inspired.” 

Rebecca Chua is a Toronto-based journalist who writes on culture and the arts.

One of the most accomplished accompanists (or, as we now prefer to say, collaborative pianists) of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was Coenraad V. Bos. It was Bos who played the piano in the first performance of Brahms’ Vier Ernste Gesänge in 1896. In his autobiography, The Well-Tempered Accompanist (1949), Bos wrote about his long association with singers like Helen Traubel and Elena Gerhardt but he also mentioned an unfortunate experience with the Wagnerian tenor Ernest van Dyck. In a London recital van Dyck and Bos were performing Schumann’s song “Ich grolle nicht,” a song which ends with a piano postlude. Bos was disconcerted to find that people started clapping before he had had a chance to play that postlude. He was even more disconcerted when he found out why. Van Dyck had bowed as he sang his last note and left the stage. Bos insisted on playing the postlude and managed to silence the applause. Van Dyck was furious.

A central figure in Bos’ autobiography is the tenor Raimund von zur-Mühlen. While von zur-Mühlen was initially very critical of Bos’ playing, he became more appreciative later. At one point, after a recital in Berlin, he sent Bos a note which read: “Last night you must have played well, because I was not conscious of your playing throughout the recital.” When Gerald Moore came to write his autobiography, the ironically titled Am I Too Loud? (1962), he quoted that passage and expressed his dissent, something that would not surprise anyone who had read Moore’s earlier book, The Unashamed Accompanist (1943). Throughout the autobiography Moore expressed his appreciation for the singers and instrumentalists with whom he had worked, but like Bos he too had some unfortunate experiences. One of these was with the soprano Frieda Hempel. A recital she was giving with Moore included two songs by Hugo Wolf with substantial postludes. Hempel told Moore: “Just play a chord when the voice part ends — else my applause will be spoiled.” Moore wanted none of this — as one would expect.

Moore, more than anyone else, raised the profile of the accompanist through his recitals, his recordings and his books. He had a long career: when he was quite young (“my voice still unbroken”), he became the organist of St. Thomas’s Church on Huron Street in Toronto. His career ended with a farewell recital in 1967. The other performers were Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Victoria de los Angeles and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Moore had the last word — the concert ended with a piano transcription of Schubert’s song “An die Musik.”

We are fortunate that in Toronto we have many accomplished collaborative pianists: in recent months we have been able to hear Sandra Horst (with David Pomeroy), Steven Philcox and Rachel Andrist (in the COC Ensemble Studio competition), Jennifer Tung, Brahm Goldhamer and Peter Tiefenbach (with the artists of the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory) and Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata (in the concerts of the Aldeburgh Connection).

On March 7 at the Jane Mallett Theatre at 8pm, John Hess is the pianist in a recital with the soprano Erin Wall. The program will include works by Schubert, Korngold, Strauss and Ricky Ian Gordon. Hess is especially known as an authority on contemporary opera and song in Canada. He has worked with many singers, including Valdine Anderson, Jane Archibald, Ben Heppner and Wendy Nielsen. He teaches in the Faculty of Music at Western University.

On March 10 at 2:30pm at Walter Hall, Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata present the Aldeburgh Connection’s annual “Schubertiad.” The singers are Monica Whicher, soprano, Isaiah Bell, tenor and Gordon Bintner, bass-baritone.

Also on March 10 Peter Longworth will be the pianist in a concert with Melanie Conly, soprano, and Anita Krause, mezzo, in works by Fleming, Chausson, Raum, Schubert, Barber and Delibes in the Heliconian Hall at 3pm.

The Canadian Voices concert at 2pm on March 24 in the Glenn Gould Studio features New York-based pianist Ken Noda with mezzo Wallis Giunta. Noda has worked with many distinguished soloists including Jessye Norman, Kurt Moll and the late Hildegard Behrens. The main work on the program is Kurt Weill’s Die sieben Todsünden, a work originally produced as a sung ballet in 1933. The text is by Bertolt Brecht. As the work’s full English title, The Seven Deadly Sins of the Bourgeoisie, makes explicit, the emphasis is on what sin means in a capitalist society. Giunta is a former member of the COC Opera Studio Ensemble and is at present a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. We recently saw her as Annio in the COC production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito — a tomboy Annio because that is how the director, Christopher Alden, saw the part. She will return to the COC next January as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, a roleshe sang in an acclaimed Lindemann/Juilliard production in New York last fall.

Other events: On March 5 and 6, 8pm at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, the Talisker Players presents a program of musical settings (by Buczynski, Finzi, Good and Toch) of poems by de Pizan, Hardy and others on the changes that time will bring. The soloists are Carla Huhtanen, soprano, and Peter McGillivray, baritone; Stewart Arnott is the reader.

On March 9 at Metropolitan United Church at 7:30pm there will be a concert of music from the French baroque including the achingly beautiful Leçons des Ténèbres by Couperin. The soloists are Ariel Harwood-Jones, soprano, and Christina Stelmacovich, mezzo. Another concert at Metropolitan will present music by Gilles, Duruflé and Lili Boulanger on Good Friday, March 29, at 7:30pm.

March 12, in a 7pm free concert at University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, AA303 Arts and Administration Building, tenor Lenard Whiting will sing Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with the pianist Brett Kingsbury.

On March 16 at 7:30pm in the Bloor Street United Church, Capella Intima performs the anonymous 1650 oratorio Giuseppe. The soloists are Lesley Bouza and Emily Klassen, soprano, Laura McAlpine, alto, Bud Roach, tenor, and James Baldwin, bass. The same program will take place at McNeill Baptist Church in Hamilton on March 16 at 2pm and at Kingston Road United Church in Toronto on March 17 at 2pm.

On March 26 in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, there will be a free concert at noon of art songs and poetry by the artists of the University of Toronto’s Voice and Collaborative Piano departments. The conductors are Darryl Edwards and Steven Philcox.

On April 3 the Toronto Latvian Concert Association presents Vestard Shimkus, piano, and Elina Shimkus, soprano, in works by Wagner, Vasks, Shimkus, Mozart and Rossini at 7:30pm at the Glenn Gould Studio.

And beyond the GTA: on March 10 at 3pm Primavera Concerts presents Shannon Mercer, soprano, and Andrew Ager, organ, in a concert of works by Bach, Ager and others at St. Barnabas Church in St. Catharines. 

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

Queen of Puddings Music Theatre announced on February 8 that it would conclude operations at the end of August of this year. For many it comes as a shock that Toronto should be losing a company that for the past 20 years has brought an uncompromising vision to the development and production of new Canadian chamber opera. Their legacy is a series of works, acclaimed by critics and audiences alike, which have redefined not only what a Canadian opera can be but also what opera itself can be. Beatrice Chancy (1998–1999) by James Rolfe and George Elliott Clarke was the first opera about black slavery in Canada and launched the career of soprano Measha Brueggergosman. The Midnight Court (2005–2007) by Ana Sokolović and Paul Bentley was the first Canadian opera — and QoP the first Canadian company — invited to the Linbury Studio at England’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

In contrast to these narrative-based works, QoP also explored the boundaries of opera. Love Songs (2008–2011) by Ana Sokolović, a solo opera that set various love poems and the words “I love you” in more than 100 languages, was declared the best production at the Zagreb Biennale and was subsequently presented at the prestigious Holland Festival. Beauty Dissolves in a Brief Hour (2010) by Pierre Klanac, John Rea and Fuhong Shi, presented three poems in medieval French, English and Mandarin in the form of a ritual that was hailed by EYE Weekly as “an exquisite piece of music theatre.” In 2012, co-founder and co-artistic director Dáirine Ní Mheadhra was awarded the Canada Council Molson Prize in the arts in recognition of her lifetime achievements and ongoing contributions to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada.

Why should Ní Mheadhra and co-founder and co-artistic director John Hess choose to end such an enterprise when it has reached the peak of its success? In some ways the question answers itself. The co-founders have decided that Queen of Puddings should end on a high note.

In an email interview near the end of last month, Ní Mheadhra agreed that she and Hess would answer a number of questions about QoP, its legacy and the future. Here it is:

Why did you decide that QoP should cease operations? Do you feel that QoP has achieved all the goals it was set up to achieve?

We decided that QoP should cease operations because after nearly 20 years we feel we’ve achieved what we set out to do, which was to commission and produce original Canadian opera to a high artistic standard and to develop an international profile for this work. In this current season the company is thriving, with the great success and critical acclaim for our production of Ana Sokolović’s opera Svadba-Wedding, now touring nationally and internationally. Coming up on April 30thwe are presenting the premiere of a new vocal chamber work, Inspired by Lorca, by composer Chris Paul Harman, sung by Krisztina Szabó with our ensemble at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.

We’ve been considering our decision for some months, and while we realize that it’s unusual to cease operations when an organization is extremely healthy, it felt like the right decision for us both in this phase of our lives and in the life cycle of QoP. The end of our season in August 2013 feels like a very natural artistic ebbing point, and it also coincides with the end of our current three-year operational funding, and thus feels like the right moment to close the company. We want to conclude in a year like this, which is full of artistic highlights and the fulfilment of our goals — with continued financial stability due to a deficit-free track record.

What do you feel are QoP’s greatest achievements over its existence?

Probably our greatest achievement has been never to accept “received wisdom” about the state of new music/opera in Canada, but to have furrowed our own path with our individual beliefs. Just one example: when Dáirine arrived in Toronto from Ireland in 1994 we were told that there were only two singers in Toronto who could possibly sing new opera. We thought that was a load of old rubbish. It would never have occurred to us to segregate new opera from middle opera or old opera. For us it’s all a continuum — Monteverdi, Mozart, Puccini, Strauss, Shostakovich, Andriessen, Sokolović, Rolfe ... and the singers who sing those operas also sing contemporary Canadian opera — there’s no difference.

We think another very important achievement has been the international touring we’ve done of new Canadian opera, which hardly existed before QoP. That was hugely important to us. Before Dáirine came to Canada, she had no real impression of what new Canadian music was like as it didn’t have a strong profile internationally. But we’ve discovered that the best singers in the world live in Canada and that there’s huge composer talent here too. It has been our mission to deliver this news to the world!

For example, we’ve wanted to bring Ana Sokolović’s music back to her Serbian homeland for ten years, and last October we felt such inordinate pleasure walking down a main street in Belgrade with a big poster of Ana and Queen of Puddings outside the Atelje 212 Theatre announcing a performance of Svadba that night. In the performance the singers sang Serbian so well that we were asked how we ever managed to find six Serbian-Canadian singers! Shortly afterwards, we brought Svadba to Dublin (Dáirine’s hometown) and the audience could not believe the virtuosity of the singers and the sheer imagination and verve of the music. But all of this we knew all along, and knew that audiences outside of Canada just needed to hear these Canadian singers and music, and they would be bowled over. And they certainly were.

Are you worried that the gap left by the departure of QoP
will leave a gap in the creation of new opera in Canada,
or are you confident that QoP’s success as a deficit-free arts organization has left a model that others can build on?

We’d never have the hubris to think that we’d left a gap in new opera in Canada! People are very resilient and if there is a gap, it would be filled sooner or later. Now the deficit-free business, well that’s another story! That was a personal aesthetic — we would have been mortified to ever show up at a board meeting announcing that we’d gone into deficit. So along with our producer Nathalie Bonjour, we just made sure we never spent more than what we thought we could fundraise.

What will happen to the many works that QoP created? Will other companies have permission to perform them, or will they disappear along with the company?

QoP has an excellent track record of repeat performances of new operas. When we commission a new opera, we have exclusive rights for a few years after, but that being said we’ve never turned anyone away who wanted to do their own production of a QoP work. That’s what we all want — more productions of new operas! Just last week, the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore presented their own production of Svadba and in fall 2013 there will be another US production of Svadba. Our 2009 production, Love Songs, has already had three other versions performed in Canada with a fourth coming up in a few months. And so on. We consider the new operas we have commissioned as living organisms which will continue to be performed well into the future and form a vital part of the emerging canon of Canadian opera.

What plans do you have for the future?

John has a recital with soprano Erin Wall on March 7 at the St. Lawrence Centre in Toronto and then a BC recital tour with Ben Heppner. For Dáirine, she’s been approached about a few projects, but in the short term she’ll probably take a break after August 31st and fuel the imagination with walks in the mountains in County Kerry and long coffees on the Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon. Then she’ll start having ideas for new projects and be back knocking on someone else’s door!

Let me give you my deepest thanks for truly enlivening the world of opera in Canada.

We’ve had a marvellous run of 20 years and experienced huge generosity, support and warmth from our friends and colleagues in Canada. They’ve all been integral to our work and we couldn’t have given the best of ourselves without their belief that we would do no less. 

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

Surveying the concert scene this month, I can’t help noticing that there are several in which the central figure happens to be female — that’s a good theme, I’m thinking! So here’s my praise to the Power of Woman.

Tafelmusik’s featured guest soloist and director this month is the eminent baroque violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch, an artist with a vivacious personality and a sparkling approach to the music she plays. Born in Australia into a very musical family — wind players, string players, singers — she is married to the British cellist Raphael Wallfisch. She’s long been a respected and sought-after leader and performer in the period performance movement, though she did not enter into this world until her late 20s, when she was handed a baroque instrument and bow and asked to play them in a concert in two weeks — “and I never looked back,” she says. “Suddenly I found myself in the thick of a ‘movement’ that was strong and vibrant and had a ‘truth’ to teach me. I am still learning — more and more to tell the truth.” Extremely committed to the nurturing of young artists, she’s been intensely involved with many groups such as the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra and also has recently formed the Wallfisch Band, an international period-instrument orchestra in which young musicians play alongside mentors at the top of their profession.

The quote above is taken from an interview with Tafelmusik, published on their website (you can read the whole interview there). Here’s another Wallfisch quote, from a 2010 interview with Jesse Hamlin of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Making music defines us. It’s not a job, it’s what makes us tick.”

Wallfisch’s Tafelmusik program takes you to Madrid, with music by composers active in or having some connection to Spain — particularly Boccherini, who lived in Madrid and whose music is often highly inflected with Spanish rhythm and charm. You’ll hear his La musica notturna delle strade di Madrid, whichevokes the hustle and bustle of the Spanish capital, and his sizzling Fandango. Wallfisch and Tafelmusik are joined by flamenco dancers Esmeralda Enrique and Paloma Cortés from the Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company — a group described on their website as “passionate and driven,” whose “expressive, powerful dancers perform finely wrought pieces that hold in perfect balance tradition and classicism with a modern, contemporary aesthetic.”

“A Night in Madrid” is presented five times, March 20 to 24 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre.

English soprano Emma Kirkby has been described as “the artist who almost single-handedly changed the way we listen to voices in early music.” Now an icon in the world of period performance, a renowned early music specialist known for her impeccable style and purity of voice, Kirkby initially spent her musical life singing in choirs and madrigal groups with no thought of making singing a career. In a world where the big operatic voice reigned supreme, she didn’t fit in, either with vocal equipment or by temperament. Her immense gifts couldn’t be hidden though, and inevitably she was “discovered” by such people as lutenist/director Anthony Rooley. Once she had found her own way as a singer, she, like Wallfisch, never looked back. She’s known as an artist of high technical skill, refinement and depth, one who conveys the meaning of the text in a powerfully poignant way.

On her website is a very telling remark, prompted by a 2007 survey of “the greatest sopranos” in which she placed at number ten: “While such things are inevitably parochial, partial, controversial and outdated as soon as they appear, (Kirkby) is pleased at the recognition this implies for an approach to singing that values ensemble, clarity and stillness alongside the more obvious factors of volume and display.”

She is joined by Swedish lutenist Jakob Lindberg for the Toronto Consort production of “Orpheus in England,” a program which pays particular homage to the 450th anniversary of John Dowland’s birth. Performances take place on April 5 and 6 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre.

And there’s more. As part of their residency at St. Michael’s College and in keeping with our theme, the Musicians In Ordinary present their own tribute to “Ladies that are Most Rare” on March 19, in a program of songs to poems by Lady Mary Sidney, Lady Mary Wroth and the Egerton Sisters, and music from the lute books of Mary Burwell and Margaret Board.

One of the busiest harpsichordists around, Sara-Anne Churchill is a woman on a mission to bring an awareness of her instrument to the general public. “People don’t realize how often they are exposed to the harpsichord and its music, and I want to show how ubiquitous it is, and how versatile (and amusing!) the harpsichord can be,” she says. So to draw in all those not yet seduced by the charms of the harpsichord she’s devised a program of familiar pieces (such as Handel’s Harmonious Blacksmith variations), arrangements (such as Dowland’s Flow my Tears arranged by Byrd) and some unlikely surprises too, such as the theme from The Addams Family! “The Cliché Harpsichord” is a TEMC presentation that takes place on March 24 at St. David’s Church.

Fifteenth-century French martyr and saint, Joan of Arc, has inspired countless works of art throughout the ages. Not the least of these is Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc, depicting her trial and execution, for which Renée Jeanne Falconetti’s performance is described as one of the finest in cinematic history. In a co-presentation by the Toronto Silent Film Festival and Scaramella Concerts, this film is screened at Innis Town Hall on April 4 to an adventurous accompaniment: a newly composed score by Los Angeles composer Tom Peters, featuring the composer playing electric stick violone and Joëlle Morton playing amplified viola da gamba.

Others

March 9: Music at Metropolitan presents “Baroque and Beyond III: Music from the French Baroque” including Couperin’s Leçons des Ténèbres and other works. Performers are soprano Ariel Harwood-Jones, mezzo Christina Stelmacovich, theorbist/lutenist Benjamin Stein, the Elixir Baroque Ensemble and others.

March 15: “Distres’d Innocency: The Community Baroque Orchestra of Toronto Mixes with Elixir” is the title of the next CBOT concert held at Victoria College. Their guests, Elixir Baroque Ensemble, are a vibrant new group consisting of gambist Justin Haynes, harpsichordist Sara-Anne Churchill, violinists Elyssa Lefurgey-Smith and Valerie Gordon. Together the two groups play music by Purcell, Vivaldi, Telemann and Bach; Elixir is featured on its own in music by Castello and Buxtehude.

March 16 in Hamilton, March 16 and 17 in Toronto: Capella Intima presents the anonymous oratorio Giuseppe, dating from around 1650 and discovered in the Vatican Library, for five voices and instruments. Sopranos Lesley Bouza and Emily Klassen, alto Laura McAlpine, tenor Bud Roach, and bass James Baldwin are joined by organ and gamba.

March 23: Bach’s B Minor Mass is presented at Toronto’s Metropolitan United Church by the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Amadeus Choir, soloists and orchestra, under the baton of Lydia Adams.

March 30: Ever probing life’s profound issues, I FURIOSI explores the deep, hidden things in life with music by Dowland, Scarlatti, Handel and Buxtehude. “The Down-Low” features guest Alison Mackay playing both double bass and viol, and takes place at a new venue, Windermere United Church.

March 31: At U of T’s Trinity College Chapel, the Schola Cantorum and Theatre of Early Music under director Daniel Taylor present “Jesu meines lebens leben,” with works by Buxtehude, Bruhns and Kuhnau.

April 5: Handel’s Concerti Grossi Op.6 are 12 of the finest and most attractive examples in this genre. Aradia Ensemble and the Kingsway Conservatory Strings sample from these works, in a CD release concert at Glenn Gould Studio.

For details of all these and others not mentioned here, please consult The WholeNote’s daily listings. 

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.

Reflecting on the nature of time and how we ultimately have no choice but to surrender to its rhythms is an activity that eternally captures the human imagination. One of the great gifts of Japanese culture to our understanding of time is found in the principle of Wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in the imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. Things in a state of transience, of coming and going — such as a flower coming into bloom or decaying — demonstrate this ideal. Wabi-sabi honours the process of change and those effects that the passage of time creates. Awareness at this level requires a quiet mind and cultivated human behaviour, which, in the Japanese worldview, can be instilled through the appreciation and practice of the arts.

Since January of 2013, the city of Toronto has been enjoying Spotlight Japan, a four-month, city-wide, multidisciplinary celebration of classic and contemporary Japanese culture in theatre, dance, film, visual arts and of course, music. On March 5 at Koerner Hall, Soundstreams will be presenting their contribution to this “spotlight” in their concert “Fujii Percussion and Voices.” Since the act of listening to music offers a very refined way of experiencing movement through time, this concert will present an opportunity to be transported into a deeper engagement with these ideals of transience and impermanence.

The concert features the virtuosic Fujii Trio from Japan performing on five-octave marimbas, vibraphone, glockenspiel and a variety of other percussion instruments along with Canadian performers Ryan Scott on percussion, Gregory Oh on piano and the Toronto Children’s Chorus. Because writing for percussion instruments is central to the work of many Japanese composers, this concert offers an extraordinary opportunity to experience the subtle workings of instrumental colour by four of that country’s outstanding composers: Tōru Takemitsu, Akira Miyoshi, Maki Ishii and Yasuo Sueyoshi. The concert will include the Canadian premiere of Miyoshi’s Yamagara Diary featuring the Toronto Children’s Chorus and a rare instrument called the sanukite, as well as a newly commissioned work from Canadian Michael Oesterle.

The sanukite is a uniquely Japanese instrument made from black volcanic stones that originate from the Kagawa Prefecture area. Known locally as kankanishi or “cling-clang rocks,” they produce a unique ethereal tone when struck, which, in the words of Japanese drummer Masashi Tomikawa “reveal the spirit of time itself.”

Oesterle’s piece Carrousel references the spiral motion of time and is scored as a quartet for glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba and piano. The three percussion instruments will surround the piano and function as a way of preparing the piano as they reflect back the piano’s gestures, creating a type of “blurred vision.” This is similar to how “as we pivot around the sun, all bodies acquire a natural rhythm or pulse, tuned to the return of sunshine and darkness, becoming captives of a solar carrousel.” The other Canadian work is Claude Vivier’s Pulau Dewata (Island of the Gods) for percussion ensemble of varying instrumentation dedicated to the people of Bali.

The ending of a legacy: In spite of the virtue of embracing impermanence, it is still an unfortunate turn of events that the immensely successful series run by the Canadian Music Centre — New Music in New Places — will be coming to an end. This nation-wide series has forever changed the landscape of how contemporary music is perceived and received in this country, and even though it is being terminated due to federal funding changes, it’s absolutely essential that this innovation of placing new music listening experiences within community venues be taken up in different ways in the future. This month offers three opportunities in southern Ontario to experience music in the places where people gather — from eateries, to breweries, to retail stores.

The first such event will happen March 1 at the Academy of Lions General Store featuring the Music in the Barns Chamber Ensemble performing works by Richard Reed Parry, Rose Bolton and Scott Godin. The venue is part café, part gallery and part fitness store. Post-concert events include a performance by baroque folk duo Tasseomancy, and a chance to party with DJ Adam Terejko.

Not in our concert listings but of interest, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo residents can visit the Happy Traveller Bistro, 40 Garden St., Guelph, 519-265-0844, on March 8 to hear performances by the Kitchener-Waterloo Guelph New Music Collective. The Bistro offers a welcoming environment for local artists, musicians and community projects while serving up vegetarian and vegan food.

And on March 21 and 22 it’s off to the recently opened Junction Craft Brewery tap room and retail store for “Junction the Dry,” to hear music by Derek Johnson, Emilie LeBel, James Rolfe, Caitlin Smith and Healey Willan.

As these events demonstrate, New Music in New Places has made the experience part of our evolving consciousness.

The emerging collectives: There’s much talk these days about “emerging artists.” It’s become a buzz phrase and even the arts councils have categories for such creatures. But beyond the labels, one characteristic I’m noticing amongst younger composers and musicians is the movement towards the creation of collectives. Not that this is necessarily a new strategy, but it’s a healthy sign of creating space not only for new voices and artistic visions, but also for new ways of collaborating. This form of partnership is another reflection of changes in the creative process that I spoke of in February’s column in the context of the upcoming New Creations Festival running March 2 to 9. More about that festival below, but first, here’s a look at opportunities to see what’s happening in three of these local collectives.

The Thin Edge New Music Collective is inspired by how new music can impact contemporary life. Their March 13 concert at the Canadian Music Centre will feature works using innovative instrumentation: melodica, thumb piano, toy piano, autoharp and auxiliary instruments alongside violin, piano and cello.

The second collective is Vox Novus that gathers together composers, musicians and music enthusiasts. In their March 10event at the Al Green Theatre, they will be presenting electroacoustic compositions from 60 Canadian composers with 60 one-minute dance works.

The Spectrum Music collective is a group of jazz-trained musicians and young contemporary classical composers. Their upcoming concert “What Is Toronto?” on April 5 will focus on intimate snapshots of the history, languages, people and places of the city. The concert will include a panel discussion on the subject of Toronto’s identity and history featuring local writers, politicians and thinkers.

Words and music: In their concert entitled “Time & Tide” on March 5 and 6, the Talisker Players will perform compositions by Canadians Walter Buczynski and Scott Good alongside readings of texts from various English authors. At Gallery 345 on March 14, the words of poets Roger Greenwald, Sheniz Janmohamed and Jacob Scheier will provide inspiration for the musical improvisations of Kousha Nakhaei on violin and Casey Sokol on piano.

Music in story is as old as humanity itself. At the Toronto Storytelling Festival, which runs from March 16 to 24, a composition I wrote eight years ago, The Handless Maiden, for soprano, storyteller, vocalizations and electroacoustics will be performed March 24. Another storytelling-focused concert will be happening at Kingston Road United Church on March 24. “The Storied Harp” will feature works by Marjan Mozetich (Songs of the Nymph) and Murray Schafer (The Crown of Ariadne).

Celebrating anniversaries: Since anniversaries are a way of marking time, there are a few important ones to note this month. Esprit Orchestra is presenting their 30th anniversary season finale concert March 28 with two newly commissioned works by Torontonian Erik Ross and Montrealer Denis Gougeon. These new works will serve to bring attention to Esprit’s ongoing tradition of presenting and commissioning Canadian music.As a special audience treat, the orchestra will also be presenting repeat performances of two audience favourites: Purple Haze and the theme from The Twilight Zone.

Two unique events complete the anniversary motif. Six different composers, all born in 1912/13, will be toasted in a fundraiser for New Music Concerts at Gallery 345 on April 6 to honour their 100th birthdays. Included are small works by Weinzweig, Pentland, Cage, Nancarrow, Brant and Lutoslawski. And to further celebrate the legendary Weinzweig, Soundstreams will be presenting a concert of his works March 11 at Walter Hall, followed by the unveiling of a plaque to be placed at Weinzweig’s family home.

The New Creations Festival: As mentioned above, I wrote at length about the Toronto Symphony’s New Creations Festival in February’s issue of The WholeNote, so I won’t repeat myself here, other than to say don’t miss out on this, and in particular the premiere on March 9of A Toronto Symphony: Concerto for Composer and City. The two other concerts in the festival are on March 2 and 7. Given that the Spectrum collective is also featuring Toronto’s sounds and places in their April 5 concert, our ears should be primed for engaging in new ways with the place in which we live. Who knows where this might lead as a follow-up to the ending of the New Music in New Places series?

Additional quick picks

Music Toronto. Discovery Series: Trio Fibonacci. Works by Radford, Onslow and Sokolović. Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, March 14.

Toy Piano Composers. Threshold/Le Seuil. Works by Pearce, Thornborrow, Denburg, Tam, Correia and Ryan. Artword Artbar, Hamilton, March 21. Repeat performance March 23 in Toronto at the Heliconian Hall.

Canadian Sinfonietta. A Visit from Lviv. Works by Vasks, Paderewski, Royer, Pepa and Laniuk. Glenn Gould Studio, March 23.

Diana McIntosh. In Concert. Featuring a retrospective of works composed and performed by McIntosh. Heliconian Hall, April 4. 

Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto-based composer and electro-vocal sound artist. She can be contacted at sounddreaming@gmail.com.

What a difference a month makes! It seems that after weeks of intimate, romantic, light-hearted, sweet and sexy Valentine offerings, mighty, majestic and weighty Russian fare is to be the antidote to all that sweetness, judging by the proliferation of programs focusing on Russian music this month. (Not that Russian music can’t be romantic — think Rachmaninoff’s Second piano concerto.) With titles like “Russian Masters” and “Kiev to St. Petersburg,” works by Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff abound, with Prokofiev, Mussorgsky, Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rubinstein also represented. It all promises to be rather thrilling!

(And for those of you still hankering for the sexy stuff, at the end of the column there’s a Quick Picks of Piazzolla, whose tempting tangos turn up the heat all over the place this month.)

Community bookends: Interestingly, two community orchestras are offering programs comprised of symphonies and concerti by Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, at each end of this issue’s date range. Perhaps one reason for the focus on these two Russian giants is the significant birth and death anniversaries occurring this month and further down in 2013. This year marks the 120th anniversary of Tchaikovsky’s death. Rachmaninoff was born 140 years ago on April 1 and died 70 years ago on March 28.

Whatever the reason, we’ve got two evenings of great orchestral fare to consider. Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and his Violin Concerto in D Major are featured in Counterpoint Community Orchestra’s “Kiev to St. Petersburg,” March 2, 8pm, at Saint Luke’s United Church. Erica Williamson is the violin soloist and the CCO’s Terry Kowalczuk conducts.

About a month later, on April 5 at 8pm, it’s the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra’s turn at Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, when they present “Russian Masters” at Martingrove Collegiate. The program also includes Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Reputed to be one of the most technically challenging in the repertoire, it will be in the most capable hands of Canada’s Arthur Ozolins, who recorded the Rachmaninoff Third, as well as the First, Second and Fourth, for CBC Records, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, under Mario Bernardi, between 1985 and 1993.

Speaking of pianists and Russian repertoire, in between the CCO and the EPO, the TSO presents “From Mozart to Sibelius” on March 23 at 7:30. In between Wagner’s “Prelude to Act III” of Lohengrin and Mozart’s “Overture”to Don Giovanni, pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin will perform a personal favourite of mine, Rachmaninoff’s beautiful (and remember, romantic) Piano Concerto No.2, the piece he played when he won the 2011 TSO National Piano Competition. The guest conductor is Mélanie Léonard who is in her first season as associate conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. And the Sibelius? The program, which repeats on the 24th, ends with his Finlandia.

Stravinsky on Sorauren: Sorauren Avenue, that is, number 345 — home of Gallery 345. Created in 2005 by Edward Epstein, the gallery has evolved into a wonderfully welcoming — and very busy — acoustically superb space for the performance of jazz and contemporary classical music, as well as standard, classical repertoire. Typically, you’ll find 12 to 15 Gallery 345 listings in any given issue and this one is no different. This round, there’s a kind of “mini Stravinsky festival” and, interestingly, a “mini Piazzolla festival” happening between March 1 and 26 — three concerts in each mini-fest.

There’s even one concert offering a work by both Stravinsky and Piazzolla: March 1, in a concert of music exploring dance, rhythm and movement, aptly titled “Pas de Deux,” cellist Kathleen Long and pianist H.W. Cecilia Lee perform Stravinsky’s Suite italienne, a very popular work based on several movements from his 1920 neoclassical ballet Pulcinella. For this arrangement, Stravinsky collaborated in 1932/33 with legendary cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, who later teamed up with fellow living legend Jascha Heifetz on an arrangement for violin and cello. (The most-often-performed arrangement, though, is the one for violin and piano, a 1933 collaboration between Stravinsky and violinist Samuel Dushkin.)

The other works on the program include Bartok’s Romanian Folk Dances, two pieces by Kapustin, Poulenc’s Sonate pour violoncelle et piano, Op. 143 and, as promised, Le Grand Tango by Piazzolla, all ensuring an exciting musical study of dance, rhythm and movement.

The other two concerts in Gallery 345’s unofficial Stravinsky fest occur at 8pm on March 11 and 20. The first, with the Pivot Chamber Soloists (Minghuan Xu, violin; Soo Bae, cello; Romi deGuist-Langlois, clarinet; Winston Choi, piano), features two Brahms trios (A Minor, Op. 114 and B Major, Op.8)in addition to Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat for clarinet, violin and piano. Originally scored for septet, Stravinsky later arranged his work for the condensed trio version being performed here. Incidentally, the PCS plays the same program the next day in Waterloo, for the indefatigable Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, which presents two other March concerts (3 and 10) featuring works by Russian composers; cellist Bae and pianist Choi perform as a duo in the latter. These KWCMS concerts are noted below in a selection of Russian picks.

The March 20 concert features Ensemble Paramirabo, a versatile and innovative quintet from Montreal. Dedicated to “reserving the lion’s share of their programming to new works,” the ensemble will perform The Rite of Spring, arranged by emerging, Canadian composer Kevin Lau. Lau’s Gates of Light , M.Y. Ha’s Fairy Tale and the eponymous Paramirabo, composed by Claude Vivier in 1978, complete the program.

More Stravinsky: While it might normally fall under the “In With the New” banner, in this case it only makes sense for me to include Arraymusic’s “Stravinsky’s Sphere: The Influence of Igor Stravinsky.” On the March 10 program: a new work by Oesterle, the Canadian premiere of Andriessen’s Life, L’Histoire du Soldat and a player piano version of The Rite of Spring by plunderphonics (google it) guru John Oswald. The Arraymusic Ensemble, with guest violinist Marie Bérard, perform at the Enwave Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, at 3pm.

A final hot tip: “Doing Rite by Stravinsky” is the title of piano great, Jon Kimura Parker’s April 2 solo piano recital at Flato Markham Theatre. Starting at 8pm, Parker will no doubt dazzle as he performs his arrangement of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, along with Prokofiev’s Sonata No.3, Op.28, Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G Minor, Op.23 No.5 and the stirring Pictures at an Exhibition, by Mussorgsky. Miss it and weep!

RESIDUAL RUSSIANS PICKS

March 3 8:00: Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society. Toronto Serenade String Sextet. Rimsky-Korsakov: String Sextet in A; Rubinstein: String Sextet in D Op.97. Waterloo.

March 7 7:30: Iron Strings Quartet. Iron Strings Plays Tchaikovsky. Smetana: String Quartet No. 1 “From My Life”; Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No.3 Op.30.

March 10 8:00: Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society. Soo Bae, cello, and Winston Choi, piano. Rachmaninoff: Sonata for Cello and Piano; and works by Chan Ka Nin, Piatti and Messiaen.

March 14 7:30: Trinity College, University of Toronto. Music That Speaks To You: Shostakovich – Rumours, Lies, Enigmas and Music. . Shostakovich: Second Trio. Gryphon Trio; Gary Kulesha, commentator.

April 5 8:00: Gallery 345. Art of the Piano: Alejandro Vela. Works by Prokofiev and Granados.

April 6 7:30: University of Toronto Faculty of Music. University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Weinzweig: Symphonic Ode; Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings Op.48; Dvořák: Symphony No.8 in G Op.88. Victor Feldbrill, conductor.

QUICK PIAZZOLLA PICKS

March 3 2:00: Gallery Players of Niagara. Let’s Tango. Works by Villa-Lobos, Piazzolla and Jobim. St. Catharines.

March 3 3:00: Georgian Bay Symphony. Dance Forms. Byrd: Fantasias; Moulinié: Fantasias; and works by Haydn and Piazzolla.

March 8 8:00: Aurora Cultural Centre. Great Artist Piano Series: Seiler Piano Trio. Works by Mozart, Schubert and Piazzolla.

March 8 8:00: Flato Markham Theatre. Tangos: From Gardel to Piazzolla. Romulo Larrea Tango Ensemble; Romulo Larrea, bandoneon/compositions/conductor. Markham.

March 22 8:00: Gallery 345. Tango Café: An Evening of Music and Dance. Contemporary and traditional tangos by Piazzolla, Canaro, DiSarli and others.

March 26 8:00: Gallery 345. Duo Les Amis – Love: Innocence, Passion, Obsession. Piazzolla: Milonga en re; and works by Yanyuk, Franck, Rota, Frolov and Pepa.

Prepare to be amazed! 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.

Last month I argued that classical music’s shift, from cultural pinnacle to just one of many multicultural entertainment options, was a good thing. But classical musicians who love, believe in and make a living from playing music that has to fight with increasing difficulty for listeners’ ears and market share, may feel differently. What are the challenges for these musicians in a new century?

One advocate for this tradition is veteran Canadian conductor Robert Cooper. And one possible solution to the question above is exemplified by Cooper’s work with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto.

A tireless musical dynamo, Cooper conducts Chorus Niagara and the Opera in Concert Chorus as well as the Orpheus Choir. A personal aside: he was the first conductor I sang for, in the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir, the youth wing of Canada’s Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.

My prior experience of music centred around folk guitar and the Beatles, and my first encounter with choral music, from the Renaissance to the modern era, was both exciting and disorienting. But Cooper was an excellent choral ambassador for me and other young musicians. I remember being struck at the energy of this diminutive but authoritative figure who insisted on precision, focus and depth of engagement.

Cooper was also for many years the producer of CBC’s Choral Concert, along with host and fellow conductor Howard Dyck. Between them these musicians introduced the country to the world’s excellent choirs and promoted the work of Canada’s best ensembles.

Cooper celebrates his tenth anniversary as conductor or the Orpheus Choir this year. Asked about his work with Orpheus, he points out that the group is for hire as a recording ensemble and can handle pops and carol concerts — the meat and potatoes of any working ensemble. But Cooper has led the choir towards repertoire that he finds the most interesting — the lesser-known works of great composers and works by contemporary composers who are a modern extension of that tradition.

Modern choral composers have, for the most part, left behind the modernist experiments of the early to mid-20th century and are writing in idioms that extend the possibilities of tonal music, rather than eschew it. On March 22 the Orpheus Choir performs a double bill of two substantial but approachable modern works, English composer Howard Goodall’s Every Purpose Under the Heaven and young Latvian Ēriks Ešenvalds’ Passion and Resurrection.

Goodall has enjoyed a very successful career and is a well-known choral personality in Britain. His television lectures on music carry on the Bernsteinian tradition of using modern technology to educate new generations on music history. His music is instantly accessible, but challenging to execute well and stylishly.

This concert is the Canadian premiere of Every Purpose Under the Heaven, which was first performed in 2011 at Westminster Abbey. It was commissioned to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, likely the most renowned translation of this text yet written. While later versions drew on more accurate scholarship, the King James is a cultural touchstone that has drawn and inspired musicians and writers for centuries.

The Ešenvalds  composition, Passion and Resurrection, is an intense work that blends tonal elements with turbulent rhythms and harmonies. Compared sometimes to the choral works of Arvo Pärt, it seems to sidestep elements of romantic and modernist musical gesture and combine instead elements of folk music, Northern European liturgical chant and an individual spiritual vision. The composer has often worked with the Latvian State Choir, considered to be one of the best choral ensembles in the world.

In a nod to the increasingly important role of theatre in choral presentation, and a welcome change from the dry-as-dust concert hall paradigm that we all endured last century, the Orpheus Choir’s rendition of Passion and Resurrection will use sound and lighting design to heighten and enhance the music making. And as an added bonus, the composer himself will also be travelling to Toronto to attend the event and give a lecture about his work.

Concerts to note: This is the time of year that concerts often take place on Good Friday and include requiems and masses. Church choirs often marshall their forces for appealing and interesting concerts, many of which have free admission or very reasonable ticket prices. Please have a look in the listings to see what is being offered. Some unusual concerts of note:

The Hart House Singers perform Dvořák’s Mass in D on March 17. Admission is free and food donations to the U of T Foodbank are welcome.

On March 19, the touring Grinnell Singers, from Ohio’s Grinnell College, presents a concert that includes A Bluegrass Mass. I’ve never heard this work, but I love it already. This concert is also free, and takes place at the Franciscan Church of St. Bonaventure in Toronto.

Does Toronto hold special appeal to Ohioans? Ohio’s Avon Lake High School Chorale also performs a free concert at Kingston Road United Church on March 22.

On March 23 the Mohawk College Community Choir performs works by two late 19th century European organist/composers: Maurice Duruflé’s very appealing Requiem and Josef Rheinberger’s setting of the Stabat Mater. The Metropolitan Festival Choir also performs the Duruflé work on Good Friday, March 29.

For those who would like to further explore French choral repertoire, the Victoria Scholars Men’s Choral Ensemble performs “The French Connection”on March 3, with music by Caplet, Debussy, Fauré, and Poulenc.

On March 5 the Toronto Children’s Chorus takes part in “Fujii Percussion and Voices,” an event presented by Soundstreams. This concert sounds fascinating. Canadian musicians team up with the virtuoso Fujii family of Japan to perform modern works by Canadian and Japanese composers. The Fujii family are percussionists who specialize in the sanukite, a mallet instrument fabricated from an unusual volcanic stone located in the Sanuki region of Japan. 

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

By this time in late winter, I long for signs of lengthening days and gentle warm breezes. Snowy cold snaps alternating with warm thaws, the weather in the GTA has been a tease this season. Hoping for an early spring, I looked to the shadowy results of Groundhog Day, among our more lighthearted commercial calendric customs. The two celebrity rodent prognosticators on both sides of the border, Wiarton Willie in Bruce County, Ontario, and Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania, have forecast an early spring. Given that cold, slate-grey skies and frozen white ground continue to dominate our winter landscape, however, I remain unconvinced.

One cheery and as yet un-commercialized signal of the promise of longer, warmer days is the striking sight of our resident northern cardinals. Often seen flittering in and out of protected backyard hedgerows and under dense parkland tangles, the imposing 22cm male birds brighten up our urban winter drabness with their crested crimson coats. But it’s the repeated brief whistling late winter call that has caught my attention today. Often transcribed as a high-pitched “whoit ... whoit,” the brief ascending glissando has about an octave range, twice sung per call. Later in the season cardinals add other melodic motifs (slow trills, chuffs, chirps and churrs) to their repertoire of 16 or more sounds. Both the cardinal male and the mixed olive-persimmon feathered female begin to call around Valentine’s Day, a clear signal of the approach of the vernal equinox, this year falling on March 20.