Sharp-eyed readers have noticed TheWholeNote banner showing up in a less than customary spot – as “presenting sponsor” of a series of public masterclasses, the first time in our fifteen years that we have done so. These particular masterclasses are part of this year’s Toronto Summer Music Academy and Festival. The first of them was Friday July 23 from 3pm to 6pm– members of the Vienna Piano Trio, coaching three of the pre-formed chamber ensembles registered as students for this year’s TSM.

July 23, 3pm. Portrait of legendary opera director Herman Geiger Torel looks out affably over “his” room, as TSM founding artistic director Agnes Grossmann introduces, left to right,  cellist Matthias Gredler, pianist Stefan Mendl, and violinist, Wolfgang Redik   the acclaimed Vienna Piano Trio.

First student ensemble, The Darjeeling Trio (Ameline Chauvette-Groulx, violin; Leanna Rutt, violoncello; Peter Blake, viola) had prepared Beethoven’s String trio in c, Op.9/3.  Gredler gestures, while Mendl to his immediate left, and Redik look on.

Give and take. Gredler and Mendl flank the afternoon’s second ensemble, Duo Axus Mundi (Joelle Mauris, violoncello; Viva Sanchez Reinoso, piano), who had prepared Chopin, Sonata in g, Op. 65.

Reflections. L to R: Redik, violin; Mendl, piano; Gredler, cello, observing, L to R,  Sarah Wiebe, Meiyen Lee and Catherine Folstad (Trio Mecasa), the afternoon’s final ensemble, who had prepared Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E-flat M, Op. 70/2  
Occasional public masterclasses have been part of the TSM formula from the start. But it’s the first time in five summers that Agnes Grossmann has agreed (somewhat cautiously it must be said)  to a series of public masterclasses like this, advertised well in advance. Not counting last Friday’s with the Vienna Piano Trio, there will be five opportunities over the next 3 weeks, for truly obsessive members of the concert-going public to indulge our pleasure in this fascinating concert/classroom hybrid.  
And if Friday’s first masterclass was an indicator, we die-hards have something rare and special to look forward to. What greater pleasure can there be, after all, than to sit for two or three hours on the edge of things, entirely ignored, overhearing rather than hearing, while coach and  student go over some fine point, over and over and over again?   One can literally not hear a complete movement played through, or aria sung, in two or three hours. And yet one can  come away from these experiences enlivened in the way one listens, staggered at how much detail true excellence demands, technically and emotionally.  
A few minutes after last Friday’s masterclass, I had the pleasure of sitting with Redic, Gredler, and Mendl. Even with a couple of hours rehearsal looming before their dinner, they cheerfully indulged my appetite, whetted by the masterclass itself, to catch glimpses of things from the performer’s point of view.  More from that conversation next time.
Next masterclass up is Matthias Goerne, Wednesday July 28 at 10am, in the Geiger Torel Room again, coaching a very interesting vocal threesome – Colin Ainsworth, Leslie-Ann Bradley, and Peter McGillivray, who will themselves present a concert of German Art Songs later in the festival (Aug 4).

Earlier this spring, Canadian Opera Company audiences were treated to the spectacle of two queens battling for supremacy on the stage of the Four Season Centre, in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda.

Now, we learn, the COC has two more queens – this time on the roof. These are queen bees, in a pair of beehives recently installed atop the Four Seasons Centre. Let's hope these queens get along a little better than Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots did: both ladies clearly had bees in their bonnets.

This is the latest idea that the COC has imported from Europe, where bees have been living on the roof of the Paris Opera for some years. However, the COC's bees are more technologically advanced than their French cousins: they have their own blog, on the COC's website. (The COC's blog can be read here.)

It would be a fine thing if the COC could make some money selling the honey the bees produce – and timely too, as the company was stung by a nasty deficit last season. But beyond that, it's not yet clear what role the bees will play within Canada's largest opera company. Will the "Humming Chorus" in Madama Butterfly be replaced with a droning chorus? Will worker bees be substituted for the slaves in the company's upcoming production of Aida? Or will the clever insects become season subscribers, occupying a block of seats in Row B?

Despite all the unanswered questions swarming around this initiative, it has all the markings of a trend that might catch on in Toronto. What will be next? A pond of frogs, kept by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and called upon whenever Israel in Egypt is programmed? An orchestra of cats, herded together for performances in the TSO's annual New Creations Festival? Bats in the belfry at Tafelmusik concerts?

Whatever happens, The WholeNote will keep readers up to date on the latest buzz.

Colin Eatock

One of this country’s choral legends, conductor, mentor and master teacher, Deral Johnson, passed away recently, on March 24, in a hospice in Arkansas.

Deral, or “DJ,” as he was known by so many, was truly a legend, and a mentor to many of Canada’s finest conductors, including Bob Cooper, Ken Fleet, Brenda Zadorsky, Victoria Meredith (the list is a long one), as well as several noted composers (including Nancy Telfer) and performers (including Darryl Edwards, head of voice studies at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music). I feel so fortunate to have studied conducting and advanced choral conducting with DJ when I was an undergrad, back in the late 70s, in the Music Education programme at the University of Western Ontario.

It’s a nice problem to have when renowned international musicians are clamouring to play in your concert venue – and according to Mervon Mehta, the Royal Conservatory’s Executive Director of Performing Arts, no less than Yo-Yo Ma was one of the clamourers. As announced today, Ma will be opening Koerner’s second season on October 14 accompanied by Katherine Scott.