Beat Columns (Live Music)

Summer solstice renamed: the Toronto Jazz Festival is calling Friday June 21 Free-For-All Friday, as participating venues all over the city will charge no cover. Tough choices that night: David Buchbinder’s lush tones at Lula Lounge; the swinging hi-hat of NYC veteran Victor Lewis at The Rex; the sparkling voice of Molly Johnson enchanting a packed house at the Jazz Bistro ... she will be back the following evening, by the way, with tickets priced at $35.60.

On Free-For-All Friday, trumpet player Brownman will be playing at the Mây Cafe on Dundas West, but if you miss that gig, sweat ye not: he plays a gig every single day of the festival, culminating in a two-night CD release event for his Brownman Electryc Trio CD featuring NYC bassist Damian Erskine.

“It’s actually 13 gigs in nine days,” the Trinidad-born, New York-schooled, Toronto-based Brownman tells me. “Two private gigs don’t appear on the schedule ... It’s pretty crazy. One’s gotta stay organized.My book literally has an hour by hour breakdown of what I’ll be doing over those nine days. There’s so much going on behind the scenes! Like all the logistics of flying in the mighty Damian Erskine, who appears on the new Electryc Trio CD and who will be the featured bassist during the two-night CD release extravaganza on June 28 and 29. Dealing with his airport pickups, hotel accommodations, trying to set up a bass masterclass for him that I’ll host, and a hundred other details means essentially every hour of each day has to be carefully planned out. And, of course, the entire week leading up to the fest is stacked with rehearsals. For every one of those gigs, there’s a corresponding rehearsal. The one that makes me the most nervous is the big Freddie Hubbard Tribute to launch the fest. We’re doing two sets of Freddie’s material — his acoustic material in the first set, and a set of his electric stuff — and only have a single rehearsal to mount all those tunes. That’ll be a nail-biter for sure. But the cats are some of the best in the city, so I’m not that worried. I’ll definitely need to be taking my vitamins that week.”

A leader of no fewer than seven groups, Brownman dabbles in many varieties of jazz, from Latin to electric, and is also actively connected to the urban music scene.

“You’ll notice I’m at Mây for a lot of the Jazz Festival dates. I did a hip hop show there in winter and ended up hanging out with the owners until 4am that night. That led them to ask me if I’d be interested in booking and curating their whole Jazz Festival program. It’s a great space with huge potential for live music and they were happy to give me artistic licence to book as I pleased, so that led to the exhausting work of putting that program together. It’s a strong cross-section of some of the city’s finest multi-faceted jazz artists and will hopefully provide the city with another venue with strong jazz programming during the TD Fest.”

Speaking of strong programming, it is tough to choose just one quick pick for every day of the festival, but here goes:

Thursday June 20, 8pm: country music legend Willie Nelson with an opening set by Canada’s “sweetheart of swing,” Alex Pangman. Massey Hall. $59.50-$125.

Friday June 21, 7pm and 9:30pm: homegrown talent too rarely heard: Mary Margaret O’Hara with Yvette Tollar. Musideum. Free-For-All Friday!

Saturday June 22, 8pm: gospel and soul queen Mavis Staples and the pride of New Orleans, Dr. John. Nathan Phillips Square. $56.50

Sunday June 23, 10pm: blues legend James Cotton at the Horseshoe Tavern. $37.85.

Monday June 24, 7pm: solo jazz piano master, Fred Hersch. Enwave Theatre, Harbourfront. $28.39.

Tuesday June 25, 7:30pm: 19-year-old sensation Nikki Yanofsky at Koerner Hall. $48-$70.50.

Wednesday June 26, 8:30pm: octogenarian treasure Don Francks & Friends at Dominion on Queen. $TBA.

Thursday June 27, 7:30pm: Canadian Jazz Quartet: Gary Benson, guitar; Frank Wright, vibes; Duncan Hopkins, bass; Don Vickery, drums; with NYC’s Randy Sandke, trumpet. Home Smith Bar at the Old Mill Inn, $40.

Friday June 28, 8pm and 10:30pm: arguably Italy’s greatest jazz export of all time, the exceptionally polished vocalist Roberta Gambarini at Jazz Bistro. $40.10.

Saturday June 29, 7:30pm: Gord Sheard’s Brazilian Experience: Brian O’Kane, trumpet; Colleen Allen and Andy Ballantyne, reeds; Alastair Kay, trombone; Rick Shadrach Lazar, percussion; Aline Morales, percussion and vocals; Rob Gusevs, keyboards; Collin Barrett, bass; Max Senitt, drums; Gord Sheard, piano and accordion. $25.45.

A toast to jams: Between the Festival’s mainstage acts and the club series one will find far more than swing and bop: blues, country, roots, soul, folk, hip hop, avant garde and electronica. There’s really only one thing this reporter wishes there was more of: jam sessions. Jazz by its very nature is about improvisation and nowhere does this become more quintessential than when fate unites players from across continents to collaborate on the likes of “It Could Happen to You.” On the bright side, when the festival is over you can enjoy some jazz jams all year long in Toronto.

Chalkers Pub is the home of Lisa Particelli’s Wednesday night 8pm to 12am session, GNOJAZZ, which stands for Girls’ Night Out Jazz (where gentlemen are welcome too). Now in its eighth year and still going strong, the vocalist-friendly evening is a cherished place for singers of all levels to hone their performance chops, form musical connections and become inspired by their peers. By providing a safe musical environment that includes the rock solid rhythm section of Peter Hill on piano and Ross MacIntyre on bass, Particelli has given countless individuals a place to make music comfortably, thereby strengthening this community immeasurably. Most importantly, it is not a competitive diva-fest but rather a friendly place for singers and listeners to gather, share, learn and grow. Hundreds of singers have attended over the years, including vocal teachers and students, professionals and amateurs alike.

“The singers have been wonderful, of course, but it’s the loyal listeners that keep it going,” says Particelli. “These are people who simply appreciate the talent of others and make a special point to come out and support them. Without the support of listeners, the jam session would not be able to survive, so we are truly grateful for our regulars.”

Over the years Particelli has instilled education into the jam in various ways: celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month, organizing workshops by guest artists and for the past three years by fundraising for a vocal jazz scholarship at Humber College. The money is raised by special concerts billed as “GNOJAZZ All-Star Vocal Showcases” and the next one takes place as part of the Toronto Jazz Festival on Sunday, June 30 from 7pm to 10pm at Chalkers Pub. Congratulations to the 2013 recipient of the scholarship, Daniella Garcia!

Gathering inspiration from Lisa Particelli, some of the singers who have been coming out to GNOJAZZ have started jam sessions of their own, including Pat Murray who is starting up her “Jazz Jam-Gria” at 417 Restaurant & Lounge on the Danforth, Tuesday nights. This is particularly good news considering that The Rex Hotel, home of the Classic Rex Jazz Jam, has recently taken the jam out of their programming. At Jam-Gria, instrumentalists are encouraged to bring their axes, with vocalists also welcome:

“Jam-Gria is an east end jazz jam that encourages all levels of musicians to sit in with a house band of mentors or colleagues,” says Murray. “It draws Toronto’s A-level players as well as those musicians taking their first leap of faith into the world of improvisation. The new digs at 417 are exquisite! Very chic decor and cuisine to die for!”

Also on the east side of town, Laura Marks started a Monday night session called Bohemian Monday earlier this year at Rakia Bar.

“Last New Year’s Eve I dropped in to the Rakia Bar New Year’s Eve party,” recalls Marks. “The owner said that they’d like to set up a regular program of music there and asked me if I would work with him on a jam that is mostly jazz but open to other genres. We started in February and have gradually been building it ever since. Up until last Monday it was held every two weeks. Now it will happen every Monday.”

Marks has chosen to invite different musicians each week. Among those who have made up the house band are Mark Kieswetter, Ross MacIntyre, Brendan Davis, Reg Schwager, Lee Wallace, Peter Hill, Shawn Nyquist, Adrean Farrugia and Chris Gale. New to Bohemian Monday in June will be Amanda Tossoff with Brendan Davis on the 10th and Bernie Senensky and Duncan Hopkins on the 17th.

“All the musicians who have played with us remark on the great atmosphere, food, drink and hospitality,” adds Marks. “We’d like to encourage anyone who plays an instrument to come and play.”

Just got word that also on Monday nights, but on the other side of town at Runnymede and Annette, saxophonist Nick Morgan has started up a jam session at Annette Studios. There is a Fender Rhodes on location for piano players, an amp for guitar players, a microphone for vocalists and a new Gretsch jazz kit for drummers.

Here’s a toast to all these jams! May they all thrive in bringing new ears to this music. Hosting a jam session is not an easy job, so please remember to tip generously. Happy listening! 

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

Two toronto theatre companies, neither known for musical production, break new ground this month by presenting on their main stages original musicals written and composed by Canadian artists. The first show, by Soulpepper theatre, opens on May 9, and while its title may lack originality, the production certainly doesn’t. An update of a “comedy with songs” that Theatre Columbus created in 1996, The Barber of Seville reunites its creators — Michael O’Brien (writer), John Millard (composer) and Leah Cherniak (director) — for a fresh look at the runaway hit that won DORA awards for outstanding musical production, score, and female performance. Needless to say, the show arrives with buzz.

“But original?” you ask. “What about Rossini’s opera?” As if to answer such a question, Michael O’Brien points out that Gioachino Rossini based The Barber of Seville on a comedy that French playwright Pierre Beaumarchais wrote in 1775, the first of his “Figaro trilogy.” Well before Rossini’s opera buffa premiered in 1816, Beaumarchais’ play (itself an opéra comique — a mixture of spoken words and music) inspired other writers and composers (most notably Mozart) to pen variations. This type of borrowing, far from exceptional in the theatre, is common, with writers and composers using a variety of sources to create work whose originality often relies on form more than content. Certainly, this is the case with the two musicals I preview here.

As O’Brien sees it, Soulpepper’s take on The Barber of Seville “combines the best elements of Beaumarchais’ play with highlights of the Rossini opera and a few twists of our own, creating an all-new contemporary version ...” Using a highly theatrical representation of 18th-century Spain as his touchstone, the Toronto playwright heightens the play’s comic elements at every turn. “Dialogue and lyrics are a colourful mish-mash of classic romance and modern irreverence. Plot and characters are faithful in spirit to both Beaumarchais and Rossini, though I’ve thrown in a few big surprises that I hope will delight those who know the source material well.”

Discussing the music he composed for the play, John Millard addresses the similarities and differences between O’Brien’s script and those of his predecessors. “Michael used the dramaturgical structure of the [Beaumarchais] play and placed the musical moments where they belonged inside it. All the recitative is gone. The songs function the way they do in most theatrical situations, in that very little action takes place inside them. Mostly they reveal states of emotion: current, past or future. Many of the recognizable themes are there [but] it’s not the opera. It’s an entertainment of our own devising, based on [the work of] Rossini and Beaumarchais.” Ultimately, Millard regards the score as a “high end folk music version” of Rossini’s creation, noting that it includes “patter songs, cavatina and arias. There is also a Scottish folk song, a couple of things of my own invention and quotes from many different sources.”

Arguably, it is the quotes and references that most distinguish the show as contemporary — a mash-up typical of late 20th-century performance that is clever, tuneful and fun. In many shows from this period, style uses content as a pretext for coups des théâtre that foreground the paradox of combining live performers with technological wizardry. Barber is no exception although, rather than treat its sources with reverence, it lampoons them with a playful vigour that is as physical as it is stylized. In the press release for the 1996 production of the show, Theatre Columbus celebrated the act of “freely plundering from Rossini’s opera” even as it reduced its summary of the plot to a cryptic sentence: “A lovesick nobleman seeks the woman of his dreams but to win her, he must enlist the help of the mercurial Figaro.” More telling of the company’s theatrical goals and achievements with the prodution was its contention that the play leads the audience “into a madcap spiral of deceit, disguise, trickery and mayhem.”

In productions such as this, style is tantamount to sensibility. In this particular Barber, the sensibility is simultaneously base and sophisticated — an appropriate combination given the show’s debt to bouffon and commedia dell’arte — theatrical styles that elevate mime and exaggerate gesture with a precision akin to dance. The style was noteworthy in the Theatre Columbus production, of which Kate Taylor noted in her review for the Globe and Mail:“From the slightest gesture to the smallest prop, every opportunity for a laugh is exploited in a hugely detailed production. It takes a great deal of control to create the appearance of reigning confusion on stage; Theatre Columbus has plenty.”

The onstage band that John Millard has assembled to accompany the Soulpepper cast promises to further extend the stylish originality that the play achieved in its first production. Millard’s use of banjo, violin, accordion, bass, guitar and flute is unconventional to musicals, let alone opera, yet “true to the spirit of Rossini,” he suggests, though he quickly adds “but it’s quite a different creature.” He explains that “In some of the pieces I’ve attempted to replicate [Rossini’s] score. In other arrangements, we’ve approached it in the form of a lead sheet. In others, a re-envisioning. It’s a broad approach.” The cast, he notes, which mixes new faces and seasoned veterans like Stratford stalwart Dan Chameroy who plays Figaro, is “discreetly miked,” a tip of his hat to current fashion.

There’s nothing discreet about our second original either: Of A Monstrous Child is a new musical that recalls Weimar cabaret in its coupling of queer provocation and steamy style in the service of a political aesthetic. Created by Ecce Homo for Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, which co-produces the piece on its main stage starting May 15, the show’s subtitle, “A Gaga Musical,” offers a key to the production’s theme that Alistair Newton, its writer and director, is happy to elucidate in an interview. “I think that Lady Gaga is a kind of climax — or perhaps denouement — of post-modernism. Gaga is the ideal cipher to explore and explode our current cultural moment, ruled as it is by hipster ersatz-irony and obsession with authenticity. […] Gaga is obsessed with persona and fantasy and self-aware self-expression, and that’s really what theatre is all about.”

Ecce Homo, like Newton (the company’s artistic director), is preoccupied with theatre in extremis — or, more precisely, “total theatre” as it was theorized by artistic visionaries like Meyerhold and Antonin Artaud in the early 20th century. For them, “self-aware self-expression” was tantamount to theatre as theatre, not as a representation of life. Ecce Homo, founded in 2005 by Newton, Matt Jackson, a production designer, and Austrian installation artist Edith Artner, defines its goal as “stylized theatrical works with strong socio-political content which synthesize text, music, dance and design to yield a total theatrical experience. Ecce Homo strives to equally balance politics and entertainment, to challenge audiences visually, intellectually and emotionally; to produce work on big themes for troubled times.”

While Lady Gaga might seem a strange choice on which to focus a musical with such lofty pursuits, Newton says otherwise. “I think Gaga is actually a deadly earnest figure in a pop-cultural landscape that prizes detachment above all. I think her project is to elicit intimacy through artifice, and my work attempts to do the same.” Besides, as he points out, Of A Monstrous Child is not about Gaga per se but, rather, one of her fans who loses his way en route to a Lady Gaga concert and encounters the ghost of Leigh Bowery, a performance artist who died in 1994.

Described by Boy George as “modern art on legs,” Bowery has become more famous in death than in life, an irony that Newton exploits by making him emcee of the evening’s shenanigans that proceed in cabaret fashion. Introducing a who’s who of artists, academics and celebrities whose work Lady Gaga has used in her rise to fame, Bowery gives “the monstrous child” (and the audience) a crash course in queer performance. Simultaneously he constructs a dialectic in which originality and fame square off. As Newton puts it: “Leigh sought the kind of fame Gaga has achieved but he wasn’t willing to compromise, even slightly [to get it]. A part of Gaga’s genius is her ability to sell downtown aesthetics to a midtown audience. I’m not sure what Leigh would have thought of her.”

For Newton, Bowery is “the rarest of pop cultural figures: a total original.” To play him, the director has cast Bruce Dow, a masterful singer and actor as well as a consummate comic whose latest incarnation as King Herod in the Stratford production of Jesus Christ Superstar landed him on Broadway. At his side, celebrated comedian and impersonator Gavin Crawford plays a host of famous artists and intellectuals that includes Bjork, Marina Abramović and Andy Warhol. To bring Lady Gaga onstage, Newton employs the talents of Kimberly Persona whose uncanny resemblance to the pop star extends the musical’s interrogation of authenticity. With her voice, movement and style Persona mimics the pop star so expertly that she calls into question the idea of personal authenticity in much the same way that the show interrogates the notion of originality.

This latter theme is best illustrated by the score of the piece which, ironically, is not credited to a composer. “I view Lady Gaga as an appropriation artist, in the tradition of painters like Jasper Johns and musicians like Girl Talk,” Newton explains. “It only seems appropriate to create a score that deconstructs and reconstructs and mashes up bits and pieces of existing pop music to create something ‘new.’” To achieve this end, Newton, along with his musical director, Dan Rutzen, and sound designer, Lyon Smith, devised a process by which Newton would suggest “how certain pieces of songs might fit together — related by a similar key, or a hook that seems to fit” at any given moment. Rutzen’s task was to translate Newton’s instincts into vocal arrangements and the basic outline of the instrumentation, which he then would give to Smith to create the final backing tracks. “Both Dan and Lyon are taking on several roles in this project — producer, session musician, vocal coach etc. — and they’ve combined their talents to create a unique musical experience.”

Unique equals original? Hardly, in that all the music in the show has been heard before, although not in the way it is presented here. Onstage: a cello, piano and live, amplified voices; offstage: recorded sound. “You’ll hear many recognizable pieces of songs throughout the show,” Newton comments, “though no part of my artistic practice is ever entirely straight ...”

A rock-show with choral singing and acoustic moments: something like a Lady Gaga concert by way of Yoko Ono and a Gregorian choir? Rossini, via banjo, accordion and flute?

See both, and then you decide on the effect ... and the label. If you must. 

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

Rossini, Wagner, von Suppé, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Donizetti, Grieg, Offenbach, J. Strauss, Jr., Liszt. Sure, they all hold membership in the pantheon of great composers, but do you know what else they have in common? Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Wile E. Coyote, to name some of those lovable Looney Tunes characters who have danced, pranced, chased and raced around on screen, to the music of those aforementioned composer heavyweights, or rather, to brilliantly conceived and executed adaptations, orchestrations, arrangements and “borrowings” of their music by American composers, Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn, the ingenious creators of the symphonic soundtracks to those zany Warner Bros. cartoons of yesteryear. (They sure don’t make ’em like they used to.)

Looney Tunes: Remember The Rabbit of Seville? (1949) — “Welcome to my shop, let me cut your mop, let me shave your crop. Daintily, daintily.” (Can’t you just hear/see Bugs Bunny, dressed in a barber’s outfit, beckoning Elmer Fudd with that Rossini-inspired score à la Stalling?) And what about What’s Opera, Doc? (1957) that amazing tour de force where Franklyn manages to condense the four nights of Wagner’s Ring cycle into seven exhilarating orchestral minutes to accompany the cartoon capers as Bugs and Elmer battle it out in a parody of Wagner operas. It’s famous, of course, for Fudd’s “Kill the Wabbit,” sung to the tune of Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries,” from Die Valküre. As George Daugherty, creator and conductor of “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony” has said, “Once you’ve seen Elmer Fudd chasing about on screen singing “Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit,” you will never hear Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” the same way again.”

Well, guess what? Bugs is back in town! And you’ll be able to test Daugherty’s theory when “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony” returns to the Sony Centre after its hugely successful 2011 engagement. Celebrating over two decades of Bugs Bunny on the concert stage, the production involves projecting the classic cartoons onto a large screen, while an orchestra, in this case the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, provides a live accompaniment, with Daugherty conducting. It’s great fun for both the audience and orchestra (though a little more tricky for the latter). There is one performance in Toronto on May 18, at 7pm; a 2pm show was recently cancelled. Two days earlier, on the 16th, Daugherty will conduct the KWS on home turf at Kitchener’s Centre in the Square, at 7pm.

And what’s on the program? In addition to the two iconic cartoons mentioned, I dangle a carrot with a few others: Baton Bunny, with music by von Suppé, orchestrated by Franklyn; Zoom and Bored (Road Runner “epic”), with an original score by Stalling and Franklyn, based on “The Dance of the Comedians” from The Bartered Bride by Smetana; A Corny Concerto, with music by Stalling, based on Tales of the Vienna Woods and The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II; and Long-Haired Hare, with an original score by Stalling, “after” Wagner, von Suppé, Donizetti and Rossini. You’ll also hear selections from the Great American Songbook and traditional American folk songs. And there will be “guest appearances” by Tom and Jerry, the Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, not to mention an appearance by Tweety and Sylvester in a cartoon titled (presciently) Home Tweet Home, with an original score by Franklyn. I guarantee it will contain a lot more than 140 notes ... and lots of character.

This is serious entertainment, folks. Resist (and poo-poo) at your own risk. Besides, as Daugherty contends: “If most people — even the most highbrow of opera and classical music lovers — were to admit the truth, they would fess up that they heard their first strains of the Ring cycle or ... The Barber of Seville courtesy of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.” As for Stalling and Franklyn, Daugherty holds them in high regard, suggesting that they’re “up there” with the likes of Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. Come see for yourself.

Lenny tunes: Staying with the screening-with-live-orchestral-accompaniment idea for a moment, if watching Looney Tunes cartoons isn’t your thing, but Bernstein is, then you’re in luck! Because, on May 28 (7:30) and 29 (1:30 and 7:30), at Roy Thomson Hall, Bernstein’s dazzling score to West Side Story will be performed by the TSO, while the 2011 re-mastered version of the film (with original vocals and dialogue intact) is shown, in high definition, on the big screen. “West Side Story: film with live orchestra,” was initiated and shepherded by The Leonard Bernstein Office in New York City, to mark the 50th anniversary of the film which was originally released in October of 1961. You can read here about the amazing journey of the West Side Story reconstruction project — starting with the startling fact that the original score materials did not exist. The piece, alone, is a loving tribute to the film, and offers a real appreciation for, and a fascinating, in-depth account of, the complexities involved in bringing a project of this nature to fruition.

Steven Reineke, recently appointed principal Pops conductor of the TSO (and music director of the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall), will conduct the TSO in what is sure to be a magical and memorable experience. We’re invited to enjoy the two evening concerts with “drink in hand” and popcorn, both available for purchase.

I have to say, as an unabashed fan of the film’s music, choreography and Sondheim lyrics, that the TSO’s bringing it even further to life is going to be very “cool.”

(And if you’d like to hear the TSO play more Bernstein, you can catch the orchestra at the George Weston Recital Hall on June 2, 3:00pm, in a performance of his Overture to Candide, along with Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Bramwell Tovey conducts and is at the piano.)

Birthday tunes: And with that nod to Bugs and Bernstein accomplished, I close this column with two bicentennial birthday acknowledgments: Wagner was born on May 22, 1813, and Verdi on October 10. Both the Oakville Symphony and the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra mark the Verdi milestone with concerts titled, coincidentally, “Viva Verdi.” On May 11 (8pm) and 12 (2pm) at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, the OSO offers selected Verdi overtures, arias and duets, with guest soprano Laurie Reviol. On May 24, the EPO returns to the Martingrove Collegiate, at 8pm, and performs the “Triumphal March” and “Ballet Music” from Aida, “Va Pensiero” from Nabucco and other selections. Baritone Jeffrey Carl and soprano Rachel Cleland join conductor Sabatino Vacca, along with special guest, tenor Richard Margison — another coup for the EPO! (Last month, it was pianist Arthur Ozolins performing the Rachmaninoff Third.)

For its free noonhour Chamber Music Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, the Canadian Opera Company presents "Happy Birthday, Wagner" on, you guessed it, the composer’s actual birthday, May 22. The intriguing program, featuring the cellists of the COC Orchestra, includes arrangements of Wagner’s opera overtures for four cellists, Bizet’s Carmen Fantasy for five cellos, and a work by 19th-century cellist, David Popper, who knew and admired Wagner, subsequently transcribing several of his piano solo works for cello. Hmmm. I wonder what either of them would have thought of Stalling’s and Franklyn’s way with Wagner.

Th-Th-Th-Th ... That’s all folks! 

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.

Two of my favourite things in life are Bach and espresso. So when someone gets the idea of actually combining the two, I get the feeling he’s done it just for me. There’s a Bach-playing duo who obviously have a plan to meet me for coffee, and they are baroque violinist Edwin Huizinga and harpsichordist Philip Fournier. Their plan: an ingenious tour of coffee houses in Toronto’s west end, designed to forever ensnare unsuspecting coffee drinkers into an everlasting love of Bach and classical music performance. The engaging Huizinga (you may have noticed him playing in any one of several groups in town — Tafelmusik or Aradia for example — he’s the imposing fellow with the long red hair who plays his violin with obvious passion) tells me more:

“The idea is that so many musicians travel the world, and often don’t really get the benefit of getting to know their community, people on their street, people in their ‘hood.’ And vice versa, where the community often doesn’t realize the talent living ‘in their own backyard.’ These evenings will be free, super casual, super intimate, super up close and personal, and will feature an hour or more of music of Bach for harpsichord and violin; we will be playing some solos and some of the obbligato violin sonatas as well. The events will also include some words about the pieces, some conversation about us and the instruments we play.”

And they are two interesting musicians. Besides being an accomplished violinist in a whole range of genres from improv to indie rock to baroque to modern, Huizinga was a founding member of the international network Classical Revolution — an organization of musicians dedicated to performing high-quality chamber music in non-traditional settings — begun in San Francisco in 2006. Fournier is organist and music director at St. Vincent de Paul, a specialist in Gregorian chant, a well-known recitalist on harpsichord and organ who has been called one of the finest organists of his generation.

You’ll find them in three coffee houses on these dates: May 6: Baluchon (Sorauren Ave.); May 7: The Common (College and Dufferin); May 8: Sam James (Harbord and Clinton). It all culminates in a concert of Bach at Holy Family Church on May 18, where hopefully some of the audience will have had the pleasure of first hearing them over a latte.

There’s a different tour you can take this month, one which centres on the theme you could call aspects of the feminine nature.

On May 10, 11 and 12, Toronto Masque Theatre’s “The Lessons of Love” pairs two masques drawn from two traditions, Blow’s Venus and Adonis of 1683 and Alice Ping Yee Ho’s newly composed The Lesson of Da Ji, which is scored for voices and an ensemble of baroque instruments including violin, lute and recorder as well as traditional Chinese instruments. The Blow piece relates the story of the beautiful and seductive goddess Venus, tragically struck as a result of her own selfish decisions. Ho’s work, on the other hand, tells of a Chinese concubine of the Shang dynasty, now understood mostly as an interfering supernatural being or a conniving seductress — ah, but is she tortured by deep inner conflicts? This presentation features among its wonderful cast Peking Opera artist William Lau, who plays a traditional female role representing the “Dark Moon.”

On May 24, 25 and 26, women of talent and vision are celebrated in the Toronto Consort’s “A Woman’s Life,” created by Alison Mackay. She is the designer of such multi-disciplinary shows as “The Galileo Project,” House of Dreams” and “The Four Seasons, a Cycle of the Sun,” each one incorporating stunning imagery, movement and gorgeous music to allow the audience to bear witness to a culture vividly brought to life. In the present production, she explores the lives and accomplishments of women composers and singers from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and early Baroque — women such as Hildegard of Bingen, Barbara Strozzi and Francesca Caccini. The Consort is joined by guests, actors Maggie Huculak and Karen Woolridge.

Aspects of Venus, even her ablutions apparently, are explored by soprano Dawn Bailey and the Elixir Baroque Ensemble, in TEMC’s last concert of the season on May 26. Bailey is surely one to watch; her extensive résumé includes art song, oratorio and operatic appearances in Canada and abroad, in new music and old. She’s especially sought after for her interpretations of music from the 17th and 18th centuries. In this concert she and the Elixir Ensemble perform music of the French Baroque, including a cantata by Colin de Blamont, La Toilette de Venus.

And finally, on May 27 the Toronto Continuo Collective presents “The Immortal Soul of Psyche.” An astoundingly beautiful mortal woman, Psyche had to overcome impossible obstacles in order to win her lover, the god Eros; through perseverence she was rewarded with immortality and everlasting happiness. Works by Locke and Lully unfold her story, performed by singers, guest instrumentalists and the Continuo Collective themselves, a group dedicated to the study of the art of expressive continuo playing.

Others of note

May 10: Michael Kelly was an Irish tenor, composer, actor and theatrical manager whose career led him to artistic centres all over Europe; along the way he met and made friends with many of the most celebrated musicians of the day. Not the least of these friendships was with Mozart, whom he met in Vienna. In Kelly’s memoir Reminiscences he describes an evening’s entertainment he attended, a quartet party where the performers were Haydn, Dittersdorf, Vanhal and Mozart — it must have been quite an event! In “An Evening with Michael Kelly,” the Eybler Quartet recreates the music heard that evening while their guest, actor R.H. Thomson reads from Kelly’s memoir and other writings. Gallery Players of Niagara present the same program May 12 in St. Catharines.

May 11: The Peterborough Singers directed by Sidney Birrell is a 100-voice choir which celebrates the conclusion of their 20th season in their hometown of Peterborough with the performance of a masterpiece, Bach’s B Minor Mass. Soloists include soprano Leslie Fagan, mezzo Laura Pudwell, tenor Adam Bishop and baritone Peter McGillivray.

May 25: Who else but I FURIOSI Baroque Ensemble would present a program titled “HIGH”? The plot is best described by themselves: “I FURIOSI rises from the depths and soars to new heights in this program of lofty heavens. Baroque gods always descended in a machine — but whence? Since those gods always returned up high, the ensemble endeavours to find out what all the fuss is about up there.” Guest for this concert, which takes place at St. Mary Magdalene Church, is lutenist and theorbist Lucas Harris.

May 30, 31, June 1 and 2: You shouldn’t be surprised to find 19th-century repertoire on Tafelmusik’s upcoming program (namely, Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, the Coriolan and Egmont Overtures, and Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto) — after all, they’ve been pushing the boundaries of their repertoire for some years now; also, they have as their next soloist the wonderful Polish-Canadian pianist Janina Fialkowska, a Chopin specialist, playing an 1848 Pleyel piano — the same model as that used by Chopin when he gave his last concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris in 1848, and one of very few to survive.

June 2: In a concert titled “Master Works of J.S. Bach,” organist Philip Fournier (of the coffee house duo above) plays three great works: Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in G, several fugues from the Art of Fugue, and the C Minor Passacaglia, on the Gober/Kney tracker organ at The Oratory, Holy Family Church. 

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.

In last month’s column, I spoke about the act of listening, and how music creators have been evolving compositional strategies that bring more awareness to the ways we listen. When we slow down and open our whole being to engage with the sounds our ears are receiving, we truly do enter into a realm of perception that transcends normal everyday life. This can, of course, happen when we are listening to traditional music, but when the creative and artistic intention is focused on creating shifts in our perception of sound, it is easy to feel as if we are slipping into an “alternative universe.” This is how Musical Toronto blog-writer John Terauds describes his experience of listening to Ann Southam’s music as performed by Eve Egoyan — a concert I wrote about in that same column in April.

The Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound on May 31 and June 1 in Kitchener presents a perfect opportunity to stretch our listening awareness even further. This year’s festival, “Between the Ears,” offers a wide range of events including concerts, sound installations, a regatta of origami boats in a reflecting pool, performative sculptures, late night improvisations and a street market. On May 31, some wild things are in store for festival-goers, including the percussion music of Australian composer Erik Griswold. His pieces have been described as the place where music and kinetic sculpture merge. Imagine a percussionist playing an array of temple bells and bowls accompanied by the sounds and rhythms created by a cone-shaped pendulum spilling 50 pounds of rice through a large funnel. This is Griswold’s work Spill. In his piece Strings Attached for six percussionists, the gestures of the performers become a living sculpture. Their mallets are attached with nylon ropes to a lighting rig, thus visually magnifying their movements.

Other features of the Friday evening event include a performance of James Tenney’s Having Never Written A Note for Percussion — a stunning acoustic experience sure to stretch you wide open. In fact, my body can still remember the reverberations I experienced back in 2000 when this piece was performed at the Tenney farewell concert in Toronto. A single note on an instrument of choice is played as a tremelo for “a long time.” It begins at the threshold of hearing and rises in volume to an extreme threshold before returning again to silence. A simple concept yet the complex sonic results are unforgettable.

The festival evening will wind down with Hit Parade by Christof Migone. Participants lie face down and pound the pavement with a microphone. Everyone has their own amplifier positioned as far away as possible and can take breaks after each 100 hits. A sonic playground extraordinaire!

June 1 brings a performance by current and founding members of the legendary improvising ensemble CCMC (who also were the founders of the Music Gallery), and a cutting edge electronic piece, La chambre des machines, created by Martin Messier and Nicolas Bernier who digitally transform sounds made from machine gears and cranks. The night ends at the Walper Hotel with the members of Freedman (Justin Haynes, Jean Martin and Ryan Driver) performing on a ukulele, a suitcase and a street-sweeper bristle.

Xenakis and Beyond: Just preceding “Between the Ears” is another festive gathering called “Random Walks: Music of Xenakis and Beyond” running from May 24 (in Toronto) to May 25 (in Waterloo). Presented by the Fields Institute, the Perimeter Institute and the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo, this two-day event will focus on the music, ideas and influence of Greek composer and architect Iannis Xenakis. Concert presentations of his string quartet, percussion and electroacoustic music will be intermingled with lecture and discussion sessions. Xenakis was a 20th-century “heavy weight,” whose ideas continue to have a profound impact across many disciplines. Part of the festival will be devoted to exploring and taking stock of the range of this influence on, among others, composers, mathematicians, architects and computer scientists.

Xenakis’ music is often quite physically demanding on the performer, requiring a high level of technical prowess. That should bode well for some extraordinary concert experiences. Performers include the JACK Quartet, renowned for its “explosive virtuosity,” and an extensive list of percussion soloists and ensembles, including Montreal’s Aiyun Huang and Toronto’s TorQ Percussion Quartet. For a great essay on Xenakis’ string quartet music, I recommend the article written by James Harley, accessible through a weblink on the festival’s home page (google “Random Walks”). Noted speakers include musician and author Sharon Kanach who worked closely with Xenakis for many years, and composer/computer programmer Curtis Roads, former editor of the Computer Music Journal who also pioneered a form of computer sound creation known as granular synthesis.

More on string quartets: May seems to be the month not only for experimental music festivals, but also for string quartets specializing in contemporary music. Besides the JACK Quartet mentioned above, the Mivos Quartet from New York will be offering two concerts with slightly varying programs on May 24 at Gallery 345 and May 25 at Heliconian Hall. The young players of this quartet came together in 2008 after graduating from the Manhattan School of Music and set out to expand the quartet repertoire by commissioning and collaborating with a wide cross-section of contemporary composers. A third quartet — the Toronto-based Magenta String Quartet — will be presenting works by Toronto composers Eatock, Gfroerer and Vachon on May 25 at Eastminster United Church.

East and West: The East and West musical dialogue continues in two extraordinary events this coming month. First up is a production by the Toronto Masque Theatre of The Lesson of Da Ji written by two of Toronto’s own: composer Alice Ping Yee Ho and librettist Marjorie Chan. Traditionally, masque is a fusion of music, dance and theatre which flourished in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. This new work, which runs from May 10to 12 at the Al Green Theatre, will be a contemporary take on the older form based on the true story of the Shang dynasty concubine Da Ji and the King who took revenge on her secret lover. The music will blend European baroque instruments with various eastern instruments including the pipa, erhu and guquin, which Da Ji learns to play as part of the narrative. A traditional Peking Opera dance performance will complement the blending.

The second East and West event will be Soundstreams’ season finale concert, “Music for China,” on May 14, which also happens to be their first stop on the way to touring in China. Featuring music for chamber orchestra written by Chinese, North American and European composers, the concert will include performances by the Canadian Accordes String Quartet and the Chai Found Music Workshop — an ensemble from Taiwan that specializes in contemporary classical as well as traditional Chinese and Taiwanese music. I do have to note a heartening feature of this concert program, even though it is not mentioned in any of the media releases (which is not to be taken as a criticism, but rather a sign of progress). All works on the program are written by women, with the exception of the piece composed by Murray Schafer. This fascinating lineup includes composers Dorothy Chang (USA), Fuhong Shi (China), Alexina Louie (Canada) and Kaija Saariaho (Finland).

Contemporary choral: Four concerts of contemporary choral music are in store for lovers of this genre. The Oriana Women’s Choir celebrates the 80th birthday of Ruth Watson Henderson on May 25 with a concert featuring several of her compositions along with premieres by emerging composers. On June 1 the Amadeus Choir joins with the Bach Children’s Chorus to present Henderson’s Voices of Earth and a premiere by Eleanor Daley. And on May 10, the Upper Canada Choristers sing music of the Americas, including pieces by Astor Piazzolla (Fuga y misterio) and Eric Whitacre (Lux Aurumque) sung by their highly accomplished Latin ensemble Cantemos. If you haven’t yet heard the virtual choir version of Lux Aurumque — it’s a must. Go to YouTube and search it out. Whitacre’s music is also included in the Da Capo Chamber Choir’s concerts on May 4 (Kitchener) and May 5 (Waterloo), along with works by Leonard Enns and Glenn Buhr.

Emerging: New sounds by young composers can be experienced at two events, both happening on May 25. At the Music Gallery, the ∆TENT ensemble performs works by emerging local and international composers, while the group called “(insert TITLE)” showcases works for the marimba. Arraymusic presents their annual Young Composers’ Workshop Concert with premieres by four emerging composers who have spent the month workshopping and experimenting with members of the Array ensemble to create their new pieces.

With such an eclectic mix of concerts representing widely diverging aesthetics to choose from, this month offers the perfect time to open your ears to something you may not have encountered before. And in so doing, you will be right in step with the stimulating forces spring offers. 

Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto-based composer and electro-vocal sound artist. sounddreaming@gmail.com.

More than any other musician before Wagner, Beethoven exemplified the idea of composer as spiritual leader, the artist as visionary genius who compels the support of performers, teachers and historians to realize his dreams and ideas.

Beethoven is an approachable genius, though. His achievements are leavened and humanized by his vulnerability, his awkwardness bordering on misanthropy and his loneliness. Through the insights we garner from his letters and notebooks we are witness to his very human struggles with friends, family and colleagues, to his frantic rewriting and experimentation with his own work.

With few exceptions, every note of Beethoven’s oeuvre feels like something is at stake. To be involved in a performance of his work sometimes seems, in a small way, like sharing in his struggles. As much as any of his works, the Missa Solemnis — performed in Toronto on May 15 by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir — exemplifies this phenomenon.

It’s generally accepted that Beethoven did not write sympathetically for voices. He was certainly not alone in this. In many instances Bach appeared to think of the voice as an instrument with a human being attached. Many of both composers’ solo and choral vocal lines, beautifully wrought, are only possible to execute faithfully as long as the singer does not have to breathe for minutes on end.

The choral section of Beethoven’s famous Ninth Symphony is a half-hour long vocal rollercoaster ride that taxes both the solo quartet and the choir with sustained high tessitura writing, dynamic extremes that require skilled vocal control, long instrumental-style passages with no room to breathe, all combined with the challenge of being heard over the wall of sound created by brass, winds, strings and tympani.

The Missa Solemnis is the same thing, multiplied by three.

It is the extreme nature of the vocal writing in the Missa Solemnis that makes it especially challenging. Beethoven’s cruelly high melodic lines and virtuosic instrumental writing were well beyond the capabilities of the players and singers of the time, and the first performance of the work (in Russia, 1824) was famously ragged. It was not published in its entirety until after his death.

But in writing music that outstripped the capabilities of the musicians of the time, Beethoven founded the idea of the composition as artistic and spiritual summit, to which musicians must aspire and strive. Wagner and Stravinsky would continue this tradition, forcing musicians to develop new technical prowess, matching their abilities to new sounds that the world had never experienced. The Italian verismo vocal training of the late 19th and early 20th centuries founded a tradition of vocal heft that could deliver the heaviness of sound required by late Beethoven composition and the music that followed in its wake.

The Missa Solemnis is infused with the same spirit as the Ninth Symphony and other late period Beethoven — a musical expression of faith locked in combat with doubt. Extremes of mood convey an almost desperate sense of Beethoven’s desire to connect to the world around him.

The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is perhaps the only group in the region that can marshal the forces for such a mammoth work. A large-scale choir in the 19th century mode, the TMC is well equipped to be able to handle the technical elements of the work and to have a fighting chance to avoid being swamped by the orchestra. This is a massive undertaking for any ensemble and a chance to hear it live is not to be missed.

The Missa Solemnis is a kind of apotheosis of the European mass tradition, but innumerable other mass settings exist to cater to all tastes. A homegrown Canadian example that draws on one important strain in our history is the Celtic Mass for the Sea written by Scott MacMillan, a legendary folk musician from the East Coast. For their “Celtic Tide” concert on June 1 the VOCA Chorus has assembled a kind of Canadian Celtic supergroup, experienced and renowned players who bring their deep knowledge of Irish folk tradition to the music.

The VOCA Chorus, led by veteran conductor and pianist Jenny Crober, has made a specialty of combining classical works with folk and popular elements. Their Celtic-themed concerts have been increasing in popularity each year, and tickets for this current concert are reportedly in high demand.

Celtic Mass for the Sea was commissioned by the CBC in 1988 and has garnered many performances since then. The work blends the exuberant nature of Celtic rhythms with the resonance of the ancient mass text. Macmillan is planning to travel to Toronto to attend the performance and will give a pre-concert lecture on the work.

Further on the subject of modern Canadian works: I took part in a concert recently where the hapless ticket seller was quizzed about the nature of the music involved. The potential concert-goer wanted to make certain that whatever works were on the program would not be too “modern.” Assurances that the most modern composer of the evening died in 1986 were barely sufficient.

Yes, this happened. It’s common enough, really, so there’s no point in being all snobby about it. Many people actively fear contemporary music, and I’ll address that in depth in future columns. But folks, your friends, neighbours and colleagues are exploring new works in their various choirs every week. All of them, or at least most of them, make it back after rehearsal with their sanity intact. If they can do it, so can you. Here are a few concerts to consider this month.

This year’s celebrations of Ruth Watson Henderson’s 80th birthday continue with a concert of her works by the Oriana Women’s Choir on May 25. Read my appreciation of Watson Henderson’s work in my October 2012 column.

On May 4 and 5, Waterloo’s DaCapo Chamber Choir performs “Leonardo Dreams,” a concert featuring works by the ensemble’s conductor Leonard Enns, fellow Canadian Glenn Buhr and American Eric Whitacre, all of whom write very well for choir and whose works have enjoyed repeated success with audiences.

Enns’ and Watson Henderson’s works are also featured in a concert by Barrie’s Lyrica Chamber Choir on May 25, along with works by Healy, Estacio and Mozetich.

On May 24 and 25, another woman’s chorus, Etobicoke’s Harmony Singers, performs an all-Canadian program of popular works, with songs by k.d.lang, Joni Mitchell, Barenaked Ladies and Michael Bublé. On June 2 the VIVA! Youth Singers perform Dean Burry’s A Medieval Bestiary, which is a cantata specially written for children’s voices. Burry’s work is both well wrought and appealing, and ought to be a very good introduction to classically styled music theatre for children.

On the subject of youth choirs, I recently had the pleasure of doing some vocal coaching for the Bach Children’s Chorus. It was an education to watch conductor Linda Beaupré — as experienced a choral musician as we have in Toronto — work with the next generation of choral singers. Her Bach Chamber Youth Choir, performing on May 11 with the Bach Children’s Chorus, is a rare youth ensemble catering to mid- and older teens interested in choral singing.

Finally, a free concert: the Caribbean Chorale of Toronto performs at the Church of St. Stephen on May 5. 

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

The high park sakura trees are finally in full bud — soon to be in glorious bloom–and spring is in the Toronto air. For Orthodox Christians this time marks Easter Sunday celebrated this year on May 5. And there is a springtide connection here with a new folk music scene with a distinctive pan-Slavic flavour that has been emerging among local young adults in the last few years. It’s attracting those of Eastern European, especially Ukrainian, descent but also folks from other ethnicities.

Whether called third wave folk revival, urban folk, or post-folk music, such descriptions are eventually bound to fail, relying as they do on older, shaky, stereotypes. A secure definition eludes even the wiliest ethnomusicologist. One thing is certain though, trained and amateur musicians and OCADU artist grads alike are gathering in private and public spaces in groups such as the Kosa Kolektiv, Lemon Bucket Orkestra and the Fedora Upside-Down, the latter“an urban folk movement, with 11 bands, four art collectives and two performance collectives.” As that self-representation illustrates, this scene includes the plastic movement and the often-neglected communal arts, as well as the purely sonic.

The women’s Kosa Kolektiv, barely three years old, expands that scope even further, aiming to revitalize and reinterpret the entire web of peasant folklore in an urban context. “We do this by singing songs, sewing, cooking, planting, crafting, putting on workshops and sharing ideas over tea and good food. There’s something to be said for the simpler pleasures in life, and Kosa Kolektiv embraces them.” Kosa means braid in Ukrainian. Young women traditionally wore long braids, or kosy, before marriage and this group uses it as an effective central image of cultural fusion, the braiding of old and new. “We seek to re-learn forgotten songs, rituals and stories, and to bring them to life in a relevant way within our urban communities,” they write on their website.

For the past two years the Kosa Kolektiv has hosted a string of choral folk song workshops focused on Slavic village music.The latest one titled “Vesnianky — Songs of Spring” taught Ukrainian spring ritual songs, as well as the hailky, a group activity which includes songs (haivky)performed while dancing and playing traditional games at (Orthodox) Easter.

You can take part along with the Kosa Kolektiv in the St. Nicholas Church community hailky on Easter Sunday May 5 at 4pm in Trinity Bellwoods Park. They will be joined by the members of the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, collectively leading village-style singing and community dancing. Not to worry if your Ukrainian is rusty, the dances will also be called in English. And one more thing: you’re invited to bring a blanket, your Easter baskets and nibbles to liven up the communal picnic. How fitting that the town where Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase is host to an exemplar of the global village.

Musideum around the world: Elsewhere downtown, the cozy venue Musideum continues its multi-genre music programming. This month alone I count at least seven concerts with world and/or folk music credentials. Here are just a few:

May 6 Toronto’s Debbie Danbrook performs on shakuhachi with Ottawa’s sound shaman Mark Daniel on crystal bowls in a program titled “Healing Music Mediation.” This concert reminds us of music’s other side: its calming gifts. Danbrook, the first professional female shakuhachi (Japanese end-blown bamboo flute) player to specialize in the healing- and meditation-aiding abilities of her instrument, has recorded 14 CDs specifically for that purpose. Her music, embraced by healers and spiritual practitioners, aims to bring its audience into a calming, peaceful and meditative state. Many of us could benefit from a deep relaxation of the body and mind allowing us, even for the duration of a concert, to let go.

The sitarist Partha Bose performs twice at Musideum, May 26 and June 2, the second time with Indranil Mallick on tabla, a leading student of the renowned Swapan Chaudhuri. Bose represents the newest generation of concert sitar players of the Maihar gharana (school or lineage) of Hindustani music which was propelled onto the international stage and record market by two musical giants, the late Ravi Shankar and his brother-in-law, Ali Akbar Khan.

May 30 local folk fiddle stalwart Anne Lederman leads a fiddle trio with Emilyn Stam and James Stephens called “Eh?!” Acknowledged at the 2011 Canadian Folk Music Awards, Eh?! mashes established fiddle traditions with composed and improvised music. They perform not only with three five-string violins, but also with piano, mandolins, accordion, guitars, kalimba and their voices. As their name suggests, Canadian fiddle music from Newfoundland, Quebec and Manitoba forms the group’s musical backbone–but with a twist: frequent detours to incorporate European and African models too.

Asian Heritage Month picks: In 2002 the Canadian government designated May as Asian Heritage Month and Small World Music was quick out of the blocks to mark the occasion. Its 11th Annual Asian Music Series continues May 4 with a concert featuring Rajeev Taranath on sarod (also spelled sarode, an Indian fretless lute) at the Maja Prentice Theatre in Mississauga. Taranath displays a brilliant technique, a wide emotional range and a disciplined strategy in developing a series of raags, the melodic types at the core of classical Hindustani music.

May 12 is Mother’s Day and Small World is commemorating it with Ramneek Singh’s vocal performances of Indian classical vocals in various genres, khayal, thumri, shabad-kirtan, sufiana and folk, also at the Maja Prentice Theatre. It’s a rare treat to have a concert with five such genres represented by a single vocalist who is among the GTA’s most accomplished Hindustani classical singers, a representative of the Indore Gharana.

Palmerston Library Community Asian Arts Fusion Festival:
To celebrate Asian Heritage Month, the Toronto Public Library is offering a wealth of live programs at various branches of which the Palmerston Community Asian Arts Fusion Festival on Saturday May 11 at the Palmerston branch just north of Bloor St. is perhaps the largest. It all starts at 11am with a street procession led by SamulNori Canada performing traditional Korean drumming in and in front of the library, animating the Koreatown neighbourhood. Tsugaru shamisen music follows played by Gerry McGoldrick a Canadian expert of this Japanese folk tradition. Choral music from the Republic of Georgia takes the stage at 1:30pm sung by the Darbazi choir representing music from the crossroads of Europe and Asia. They’re directed by the tenor Shalva Makharashvili who passes on a deep understanding and passion for the music of his Georgian motherland.

One of the centerpieces of the festival is the 11:40am performance of the 15-member Toronto group Gamelan Kayonan performing Balinese dance accompanied by live gamelan music co-led by the dancer Keiko Ninomiya and John Carnes. It’s followed by Javanese masked dancer Wiryawan Padmonojati, while his young son Rafifkana Dhafathi Padmonojati reinterprets the ancient art of Central Javanese shadow puppet theatre for Canadians. The Global Trio follows, serving up world music Toronto style, with a fusion of Persian, North Indian and Indonesian instrumental styles. And to cap off this Asian fusion afternoon Isshin Daiko (One Heart) of the Toronto Buddhist Temple sounds its thundering drums at 3pm to dispel all malevolent thoughts. Visit the Toronto Public Library’s website for more details on this and other Asian Heritage Month concerts, activities and reading suggestions.

Other picks: Those wishing to extend their May 11 world music immersion should visit the “World Music Collaborations Concert” at 3pm, presented at SING! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival at Harbourfront Centre. Suba Sankaran, who among several other roles is the singer with Autorickshaw, is acting as music director for the concert. She’s teaching a selection of South Indian-focused vocal music to be interpreted by an eclectic group of participants including the Georgian trio Zari, Judeo-Spanish soloist Aviva Chernick, Tuvan throat singer Scott Peterson and Lizzy Mahashe, a South African singer and gumboot dancer. For the finale Sankaran is preparing an arrangement that draws on the strengths of each of these diverse singers. An insider informs me the new work’s provisional title is WorldsKaleid.

On a personal note I am excited to be performing in concerts with one of Toronto’s senior world music groups, the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan (ECCG), at Arraymusic’s bright new studio on Walnut Street. The concerts on May 18 and 19 are titled “In the Cage,” celebrating the group’s 26-year-old connection with American iconoclast composer John Cage secured by the group’s commission of his Haikai (1986). The concerts also feature Cage student James Tenney’s Road to Ubud (1986) for prepared piano and gamelan degung, as well as Gamelan Klavier (2009) for the same instrumentation by this year’s Governor General’s Award recipient Gordon Monahan. Emerging Toronto composer Elisha Denburg’s new work scored for the percussion ensemble TorQ and the ECCG receives its world premiere on May 19. 

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

Long-time readers of The WholeNote might have noticed that I am usually in Vienna at least once every year. Well this year is no exception — here I am, but seeing this lovely city from a quite different perspective — from that of a hospital bed! To make a long story short, if this were the précis for a horror movie a working title might be “The Return Of The Dreaded Cellulitis,” or “Lost Limbo.” It’s the return of a condition for which I was first treated over three years ago and if not cured can result in the loss of a limb or even limbs, which would leave me legless and I don’t mean drunk!

The loss of limb thought opens up possibilities for dark humour. Please don’t be offended by my making jokes about something which is really no laughing matter, but keeping a sense of humour goes a long way in helping to cope with problems.

I decided to follow the advice of an Eric Idle song title and “look on the bright side of life,” so that if worst came to worst and I was minus a lower extremity, I could, for example, learn to play bass drum, cymbals, harmonica attached to some sort of neck-piece and become a one-man group called “Stump The Band” and go out not on one-night stands but one-leg stands performing such songs as “Knee Up Mother Brown,” “Peg Of My Heart,” “I Only Have Thighs For You.”

A suitable condition, too, if you want to be a “legend” in your own time.

I played a number of times with Benny Waters who, in his later years, lost the sight of one eye. He then included in his standard repertoire “Please Don’t Talk About Me One Eye’s Gone.”

Pianists Eddie Thompson, George Shearing and Joel Shulman all coped successfully with blindness and were known for their highly developed senses be considered blind.

I used to have musical competitions with Eddie to see who could play the most quotes during a song. I remember that on a few occasions there was actually a scorekeeper in the audience! But some of them were much too subtle for the average listener. If one of us played a really obscure quote the other would call out “Yellow Card!”

Shearing had a really funny version of The Lord’s Prayer. I can’t remember it word for word but it went something like this:

Our Farnham, who art in Hendon
Harrow be Thy name

Thy Kingston come; thy Wimbledon,
In Erith as it is in Hendon,

Give us this day our daily Brent
And forgive us our Westminster

As we forgive those who Westminster against us.
And lead us not into Thames Ditton

But deliver us from Ewell

For Thine is the Kingston, the Purley and the Crawley,
For Esher and Esher.

Crouch End.

Trumpeter “Wingy” Manone, so called because he lost an arm in an accident, played using one hand. Joe Venuti, the legendary violinist and prankster used to send Manone one cuff link every Christmas!

Red Norvo the renowned vibes player went almost totally deaf but was able to continue playing not hearing the notes but picking up the vibes — no pun intended.

Then there was Arnett Cobb. The big-toned tenor player from Texas was 30 years old when he had to have an operation on his spine. He recovered and resumed touring but eight years later in 1956 his legs were crushed in a car accident and for the rest of his life he had to use crutches when playing.

One of the world’s greatest violinists, Itzhak Perlman, contracted polio at the age of four but learned to walk using crutches and he plays violin while seated.

Django Reinhardt was one of the greatest guitar players of all time and after surviving an accident in a fire could only use the index and middle fingers of his left hand on solos. Ludwig van Beethoven remains one of the best-known and greatest composers of all time even though in his mid-20s he lost his hearing, while Evelyn Glennie, an amazing Scottish percussionist despite the fact that she is deaf, performs barefoot, which enables her to “hear” her music by feeling the vibrations.

Completing the circle back to Austria, the No Problem Orchestra, an Austrian band comprised of musicians with physical and mental disabilities (mostly Down syndrome) was formed in 1985. It has since given more than 5,000 concerts around the world.

Anyway, what I’m getting at in this article is that one can overcome all kinds of adversities with the power of music — and it helps to maintain a sense of humour.

So here I am in station 3A of the Dermatological Unit, Rudolfstiftung Hospital, Vienna, and the staff have been quite wonderful in the way they have looked after me, but also telling me in no uncertain terms that they won’t discharge me until they are good and ready.

Happy listening and stay out of hospital beds. 

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

It all started with a very nasty accident but with an outcome that, as I witnessed, was anything but accidental, namely a well-crafted concert by a rarely heard form of musical ensemble. As for the accident, it happened a few months ago. After one of their regular rehearsals, members of the Wychwood Clarinet Choir saw a woman riding her bicycle getting tangled with the streetcar tracks and being thrown to the pavement. Immediately, those choir members sprang into action like a well-practised team. They rendered first aid and took the victim back to her home at the nearby Christie Gardens retirement residence.

Over the ensuing weeks, those choir members and the victim, Bruna Nota, remained in touch and developed a strong bond of friendship. As her recovery progressed, Nota suggested that it might be appropriate for the choir to perform a concert for the residents of Christie Gardens. I had the pleasure of being a guest at that concert, my introduction to the work of the Wychwood Clarinet Choir, their director, Michele Jacot and several excellent arrangements for the ensemble, several by choir members.

Jacot grew up in Toronto in a house where there was constant good music. I asked her one of my usual questions: “Did you choose the clarinet or did the clarinet choose you?” Apparently the clarinet chose her, when she began music studies at Oakwood Collegiate. After undergraduate studies in music performance at the University of Toronto and a master’s degree from Northwestern, she returned to Toronto and embarked on a career of performing and private teaching. Now in its fourth season, the Wychwood Clarinet Choir was the brainchild of Jacot and a few of her adult clarinet students. It now numbers 20 regular members including her former teacher at Oakwood.

To acquaint audience members with the many diverse voices of the six members of the clarinet family, a sextet consisting of one of each instrument performed a very clever arrangement of What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor by choir member and former teacher, Roy Greaves. This was followed by one movement of a transcription of a Mozart serenade for wind octet also arranged by Greaves.

In the planning for this performance and their spring concert, the hunt for suitable arrangements led to another “happy accident.” It turned out that choir member Katherine Carleton knew renowned Canadian composer Howard Cable. Might he have written or arranged works for such a group? Yes he had. He hadn’t seen them for quite some time, but with a bit of digging, he provided two works. The first was an original 1964 composition, Wind Song, which he wrote for members of the Band of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado Springs. The other was an arrangement of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” from the 1940 Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical Pal Joey. So Cable was there to guest conduct these two works, mentioning that he had not heard either work in 50 years.

As a surprise for Cable, two former choir members, Harry Musicar and Sydney Gangbar, were invited to this performance. They were both schoolmates of his at Toronto’s Parkdale Collegiate and played with him in the school orchestra under Leslie Bell (who later achieved prominence as conductor of the Leslie Bell singers). In so many ways this concert really clicked for all concerned.

If you have never heard a clarinet choir with its many voices, it’s time to do so. Wychwood will be performing their spring concert at 3:30pm, May 12 at the Church of St. Michael-and-all-Angels in Toronto. While Cable has a prior commitment which will preclude his attendance at that spring concert, a bond has been formed with the choir. Rumour has it that he has already written a new work which will feature Jacot as soloist. We’ll be looking for him and that work at their fall concert.

Hannaford: April also saw the great Hannaford Street Silver Band’s annual three-day festival. The winner of this year’s Hannaford Youth Rising Stars Solo Competition was Jonathan Elliotson from Orangeville who has just finished second year in the performance program at U of T’s Faculty of Music. He played Jubliance by William Himes on cornet from memory. Elliotson has been the end-chair solo cornet in the Hannaford Youth Band this past season. The Hannaford Youth final concert of the season will be May 11 at 2pm at the Church of the Redeemer in Toronto. It will feature Andrew McCandless, principal trumpet of the TSO as guest soloist.

Speaking of Hannaford, at last year’s Hannaford Rising Stars competition, Jacob Plachta, now in third year trombone performance at U of T, won performing his own composition Sonata for Trombone and Brass. At this year’s HSSB festival, the Youth Band premiered Plachta’s new work for brass band titled Celebration. Another Youth Band member, Adrian Ling, has written a three-movement work titled Progressions for Brass Band, with one movement for each band of the Youth Program: Junior, Community and Youth. These three movements will be performed at their spring concert with the three bands set up in different locations in the church. Ling is a first-year composition student at U of T and started with the Hannaford Youth Program seven years ago. At the Junior Band’s Christmas concert, they performed a piece called Elf Factory composed by nine-year-old percussionist James Muir, about the elves complaining about working for “the man” who is of course Santa. It even has lyrics that are sung in the middle by the band members. At the Community Band’s February concert, they performed a piece written by grade nine tuba player Blaise Gratton called The Perfect Storm. This has lots of rhythm and percussion with lots of notes for the tubas. Who thought that composition was only for the old fogeys?

Ensemble time: It was gratifying this month to learn of a number of concerts by small ensembles. There is nothing like playing in a small group to hone one’s timing, tuning, phrasing and sense of cohesion with fellow musicians. This month, Western University professor Henry Meredith told me about a student concert set up to do just that, with pieces featuring students with like instruments, in ensembles with such clever titles as the “Majestic Trumpets,” the “Trom-Bonus” and the “Horn-Utopia.” Meanwhile, members of the four Toronto New Horizons bands organized an afternoon of “Chamber Sweets” where at least 17 small groups performed while audience members indulged their sweet tooths on the assortment of goodies provided. On May 25 the Milton Concert Band will present “Maytoberfest.” That’s their version of Octoberfest in May, complete with a full-course German dinner and a special musical treat: the guest small ensemble will be the Alphorn Choir of the Ein Prosit German Band of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Kudos: Our hats are off to the Newmarket Citizens Band for their performance at the recent Music Alive festival. This is a non-competitive adjudicated festival, and they were awarded the highest possible Platinum rating for their efforts. It takes lots of confidence to start off an adjudicated performance with a number like Amparito Roca to establish your credentials. 

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

April has become a month so replete with opera that May, which used to be rather quiet, is beginning to fill up with opera as well. The Canadian Opera Company’s production of Salome continues to May 22 and its production of Lucia di Lammermoor to May 24. They are joined on May 8 by the final opera of the 2012/13 season, Dialogues des Carmélites. What is usual among the other offerings this month is the high concentration of 20th- and 21st-century operas.

Dialogues des Carmélites (1957) by Francis Poulenc has not been seen at the COC since 1997. The opera is based on the true story of the 16 Carmelite nuns of Compiègne who were martyred during the Reign of Terror on July 17, 1794. The upcoming production is notable for its high concentration of Canadian talent. The cast unites such stars as Isabel Bayrakdarian as Blanche de la Force, Judith Forst as Madame de Croissy, Adrianne Pieczonka as Madame Lidoine, Hélène Guilmette as Soeur Constance, Frédéric Antoun as the Chevalier de la Force and Jean-François Lapointe as the Marquis de la Force. Except for the role of Mère Marie sung by Russian mezzo Irina Mishura, all the remaining roles are sung by such well-known Canadian singers as Doug MacNaughton, Megan Latham, Rihab Chaieb, Michael Colvin and Peter Barrett.

The production is directed by Canadian Robert Carsen who created it for De Nederlandse Opera in 1997 and is designed by Canadian Michael Levine, who designed the COC’s Ring cycle. The physical staging is minimalist, relying on a few significant props and the use of light to set the many different scenes. Carsen’s staging, however, uses more than 100 supernumeraries to evoke the constant threat of the French Revolution that Blanche does not escape by taking the veil. The opera runs May 8 to 25 with Johannes Debus conducting the COC Orchestra.

Among the new operas is the welcome return of Laura’s Cow: The Legend of Laura Secord composed by Errol Gay to a libretto by Michael Patrick Albano. The 75-minute opera written for the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, premiered in 2012 during Luminato as part of the commemoration of the War of 1812. It was specifically written to include all levels of the 200-voice CCOC from oldest to youngest, with the addition of three professional adult singers. Emily Brown Gibson and Mary Christidis alternate in the role of Laura Secord, Andrew Love sings the roles of Caller, Balladeer and Lt. FitzGibbon as he did last year; and Tessa Laengert sings the delightful role of the Cow. Having reviewed the opera last year for The WholeNote blog, I can testify that it is an ideal opera for the whole family. Laura’s Cow runs from May 3 to May 5 at the Enwave Theatre. Michael Patrick Albano directs and Ann Cooper Gay conducts the 14-member orchestra.

From May 10 to 12, Toronto Masque Theatre presents the world premiere of The Lesson of Da Ji by Alice Ping Yee Ho to a libretto by Marjorie Chan. The one-act opera plays on a doublebill called “The Lessons of Love” with John Blow’s 1683 opera Venus and Adonis and thus provides a view of the masque from past and present, West and East.

The story is inspired by real events in the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 bc). In the version by Ho and Chan, Da Ji, the king’s concubine, takes music lessons from the young nobleman Bo Yi to play the guqin, a type of zither. The king becomes jealous and exacts a grisly revenge on Bo Yi.

The singers include Vania Chan, Charlotte Corwin, Benjamin Covey, Alexander Dobson, Derek Kwan, Marion Newman, Xin Wang and Timothy Wong; the dancers are Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière and traditional Peking Opera dancer William Lau. Derek Boyes directs and Larry Beckwith conducts the TMT ensemble. Ho’s composition blends period baroque instruments (recorders, violins, viola da gamba, lute and harpsichord) and Chinese instruments (guqin, pipa, guzheng, erhu, gongs and drums).

On May 14 and 15, the COSI Connection will present the world premiere of The Wings of the Dove by Canadian composer Andrew Ager based on the 1902 novel by Henry James. The story concerns Kate Croy and Merton Densher who are engaged but too poor to marry. The entrance of the rich but terminally ill Milly Theale complicates and completely alters the couple’s relationship.

Toronto audiences will remember Ager as the composer of the opera Frankenstein, first performed by TrypTych Productions in January 2010. When Ottawa’s Thirteeen Strings premiered the Interlude from the opera in 2011, the Ottawa Citizen declared, “It’s gorgeous, if intensely wistful. Ager’s writing is subtly layered, its emotions being persistent and powerful without ever venturing into a hint of melodrama.”  “COSI” stands for the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy that commissioned the work. Ager’s opera will launch the COSI Connection which intends to bring back to Canada the fruit of the labour and training Canadians have received at the centre in Sulmona, Italy.

The staged production at the Heliconian Hall in Yorkville will feature soprano Leigh-Ann Allen, baritone Bradley Christensen, soprano Clodagh Earls, mezzo Stephanie Kallay and baritone Dimitri Katotakis. Michael Patrick Albano is the stage director and the composer will provide the piano accompaniment. After the produc-tion in Toronto, the opera will be produced in July at COSI in Italy, with full orchestra, choir and soloists.

Opera by Request has several operas-in-concert on offer in May. There is Janáček’s Jenůfa on May 5, Mozart’s Così fan tutte on May 24 and Puccini’s La Bohème on May 27. The rarest of the offerings, however, is Douglas Moore’s 1956 opera The Ballad of Baby Doe on May 11. The plot is based on the true story of the “Silver King” Horace Tabor (1830–1899), who built the opera house in Central City, Colorado, his wife, Augusta, and the woman, Elizabeth “Baby Doe” McCourt, with whom Tabor had an affair before divorcing his wife. Lisa Faieta sings the title role, Keith O’Brien is Horace Tabor, Eugenia Dermentzis is Augusta and Tracy Reynolds is Baby Doe’s mother. All the Opera by Request performances this month take place at the College Street United Church and are accompanied by William Shookhoff at the piano. OBR takes a new step withBaby Doein that the performance will not be in concert but semi-staged, with Lisa Faieta as the director.

Those seeking out 20th-century operas from Spain need look no further than the double bill by Opera Five of Goyescas (1915) by Enrique Granados and El retablo de maese Pedro (1923) by Manuel de Falla. The singers include mezzo Catharin Carew, soprano Emily Ding, soprano Rachel Krehm, baritone Giovanni Spanu and tenor Conrad Siebert. Maika’i Nash is the music director and pianist.Aria Umezawa directs. Performances on May 1 and 2 take place at Gallery 345.

From May 2 to May 5, Toronto Operetta Theatre presents Offenbach’sLa Vie Parisienne(1866) as its season finale. Last staged in 1992, the new production stars Elizabeth DeGrazia as the Swedish baroness with Stuart Graham as her wayward husband. Adam Fisher and Stefan Fehr play Parisian rogues ready to show the two foreigners a good time and Lauren Segal is the glamorous comedienne, Métella, ready to gamble for love. Christopher Mayell sings the role of the billionaire Brazilian whose masked ball concludes the madcap proceedings. Larry Beckwith conducts TOT Orchestra and Guillermo Silva-Marin directs. 

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