345 Sorauren Avenue
Toronto ON M6R 2G5
By Appointment Only
t 416.822.9781 contact us / map
Past concerts at Gallery 345.
Fragments of Love Friday, January 20, 8pm
$30
Xin Wang, soprano, Wallace Halladay, saxaphones, David Hetherington,
cello
As music, as truth, Love can only be learned piece by piece.
We say love with different tongues, we show love in various
ways, we experience love's gifts: the joy, the fear and all
that is in between. Project X is taking a wintery evening
to display the shades of love we have found. Because love
is on our mind and so it should be on yours.
Program:
'Some Love Songs' For Soprano and Saxophone Ana Sokolovic,
'Sequenza' for Violoncello Luciano Berio
'Un Lieu Verdoyant' for Soprano and Soprano Saxophone Phillipe
Leroux
Intermission
'4 Kanzonens' for Soprano and Violoncello Jurg Wyttenbach
'Wild, wild nights' for Soprano, Cello and Soprano Saxophone
KaNin Chan
'Fragments of Love' for soprano and soprano saxophone Walter
Zimmermann
Xin Wang, Soprano
Xin Wang has distinguished herself as a dynamic and captivating
performer of contemporary music, having sung works by Canadian
and international composers Alice Ping Yee Ho, Petar Klanac,
Fu Hong Shi, Jose Evangelista, James Rolfe, Ana Sokolovic,
Karin Renquist, Jurg Wyttenbach and many more. Ms. Wang has
performed with many of Ontario’s best known venues
for contemporary music, including the Queen of Puddings Music
Theatre, Tapestry Opera New Works, New Music Concerts. Soundstreams
Canada presented “Pimooteewin”, the first Cree
opera, composed by Melissa Hui with libretto by Thompson
Highway. Xin premiered and toured this production to Northern
Ontario. Xin performed Abigail Richardson’s "Sanctuary
Songs”, which won the 2009 Dora Award for Best New
Musical/Opera. Her performance of Aaron Gervais’ “Sensational
Revolution in Medicine” at the SHIFT Festival 2009
won Mr. Gervais the SOCAN AWARDS’ first prize in the
vocal category.
Some of her recent performances are: "The Pub Opera" by
Gareth Williams and David Brock presented by Tapestry New
Opera Works in November 2011; Chamber concert "Small
Arguments" in June 2011 with Saxophonist Wallace Halladay
and Trio Trillium, co-produced with TheMusic Gallery, presenting
the world premier of Alice Ping Yee Ho’s.
Works by Philippe Leroux and Thomas Kessler; 'Facade' with
the Talisker Players Chamber Series in May 2011 and 'Beauty
Dissolves in a Brief Hour', presented by Queen of Puddings
Music Theatre, as part of the Montreal Contemporary Music
Festival in February 2011.
Xin Wang's upcoming projects are: 'Mehetapja' by Omar Daniels
in January, 2012, presented by New Music Concerts. 'Sanctuary
Songs' remounted by Theatre Direct in February 2012. Ms.
Wang will also be spending the majority of her time in 2012
learning the '14 recitations' by George Aperghis, supported
by the Ontario Arts Council's Career Development Grant
When offstage, Xin Wang is a passionate voice teacher. Teaching
since 2001, her students range from amateurs to those in
university pursuing careers in music, from teenagers to retired
seniors. She treasures immensely the collective process of
discovering and owning one’s voice.
A native of Mainland China, Canadian Soprano Xin Wang completed
her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Winnipeg
before moving to Toronto where she graduated from both the
Opera division and the Artist Diploma Programme at the University
of Toronto’s Faculty of Music.
Wallace Halladay
Canadian saxophonist Wallace Halladay captures the qualities
of the modern virtuoso, being at home in numerous styles,
from the traditional to jazz and beyond. A specialist in
the performance of contemporary music, he has commissioned
and given premières of numerous works for saxophone.
In addition to performances of concertos by Ibert, Schmitt,
Husa, Scelsi and Donatoni, he has worked with composers Michael
Colgrass, Mauricio Kagel and Scott Good on the Canadian premières
of their concertos, the latter commissioned by the Esprit
Orchestra.
He inaugurated the Intersections Series with the Kitchener-Waterloo
Symphony in an entire concert of music for saxophone and
orchestra entitled The Story of the Saxophone. He makes his
début with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 2009.
He has been presented by and performed with new music groups
across Canada and the United States, including New Music
Concerts, Continuum, Sound Symposium, CCMW, 5-Penny New Music,
Kumquat, Earshot!, Contact, soundaXis, Toca Loca, and Bang
on a Can in New York. He was the Artistic Director of the
Scelsi Centenary, Franco Donatoni, and Gubaidulina Chamber
Projects. His orchestral experience includes performances
with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra,
National Ballet Orchestra of Canada, and as a fellow of the
Tanglewood Music Centre.
Wallace Halladay holds a Bachelor’s degree in Performance
and Composition from the University of Toronto, a Master’s
from New England Conservatory in Boston, and a doctorate
from the Eastman School of Music. He also studied at the
Conservatorium van Amsterdam with internationally acclaimed
virtuoso Arno Bornkamp and a grant from the Canada Council
for the Arts. He has previously taught saxophone, chamber
music and theory at Memorial University of Newfoundland and
the Eastman School of Music, and presently teaches at the
University of Toronto. He is a Conn-Selmer Artist and plays
Selmer (Paris) saxophones.
David Hetherington
A native of St Catharines Ontario, David Hetherington is
currently the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Assistant
Principal Cellist. He received his musical training at the
Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto,
and furthered his studies in New York, Italy and Germany
with Claus Adam, André Navarra and Paul Tortelier.
A member of the TSO since 1970, he also teaches cello and
chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the
University of Toronto. He coaches the cello sections of the
Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra
of Canada, and is Music Director of the Inter-Provincial
Music Camp near Parry Sound, Ontario. As a soloist, David
Hetherington has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra,
the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, the Niagara Symphony and
the Symphony Orchestra of Canada. As a chamber musician,
he has toured Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe,
and has performed at the Ottawa, Elora and Kincardine Music
Festivals. He is a founding member of the Amici Chamber Ensemble,
which presents an annual series of concerts at the Glenn
Gould Studio in Toronto. He is also a founding member of
the string quartet Accordes, which performs regularly for
New Music Concerts and other contemporary music organizations.
He has appeared on several recordings for several labels
including Naxos. His cello was made in 1695 by Giovanni Grancino.
SONGS FOR A WINTER'S DAY:
ALEX DOBSON, baritone and MARC DI RUGGIERO, piano Sunday January 15 at 3 pm
All Tickets $20
Programme
Poems of Heinrich Heine
Schwanengesang Franz Schubert
Der Atlas
Ihr Bild
Das Fischermadchen
Die Stadt
Der Doppelganger
Dichterliebe Robert Schumann
1. Im Wunderschonen Monat Mai
2. Aus meinen Tranen spriessen
3. Die Rose, die Lilie, die Taube
4. Wenn ich in deine Augen seh'
5. Ich will meine Seele tauchen
6. Im Rhein, im heiligen Strome
7. Ich grolle nicht
8. Und wussten's die Blumen
9. Das ist ein Floten und Geigen
10. Hor ich das Liedchen klingen
11. Ein Jungling liebt ein Madchen
12. Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen
13. Ich hab' im Traum geweinet
14. Allnachtlich im Traume
15. Aus alten Marchen
16. Die alten bosen Lieder
Bios
British-Canadian baritone Alexander Dobson has been praised
for his musicality and dramatic awareness in a range of repertoire
on both opera and concert stages. Opera highlights include
his riveting title role portrayal of Wozzek and Don Giovanni
both conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte
with Opera Hamilton, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette
for l’Opéra de Montréal, Silvio in Opera
Quebec’s Pagliacci, Marcello in La Boheme for Saskatoon
Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria, De Retz in Bard Summerscape’s
production of Les Huguenots and his Royal Opera Covent Garden
debut with The Midnight Court.
A dedicated concert and recital artist, Alexander has appeared
with the Orchestre Métropolitain for Mahler’s
Songs of a Wayfayer; the National Arts Center Orchestra in
Mahler's Symphony No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand”;
Messiah with the Edmonton Symphony; in recital at Toronto’s
Aldeburgh Connection; at the Vancouver New Music Festival;
and as Aeneas in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Montréal’s
Theater of Early Music which he will tour with the group
in the spring of 2012. He has sung Schubert’s Winterreise
to great acclaim in Canada, England, and France. Alex spent
this past summer as bass soloist at the Carmel Bach Festival
under the direction of Paul Goodwin and will return next
summer to sing arias in the B Minor Mass and Handel's Alexander's
Feast.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Marc di Ruggiero is
a graduate of Saint Michael's Choir School where he began
his studies in piano and choral singing. He studied at both
the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and at the Western
Conservatory of Music in London from which he graduated with
first class honors, subsequently completing a 4-year Bachelor
of Music in Piano Performance at the University of Toronto
in just two years.
Marc has frequently collaborated with singers and has participated
in chamber music concerts in Canada, France and Italy and
served as musical director for numerous French theatre productions
in Toronto. He has collaborated in Italy with the international
tenors Angelo Marenzi and Carlo Bini whom he accompanied
in recital in Tuscany in 1999. More recently in 2007, he
acted as repetiteur for Leoncavallo's Pagliacci at the Teatro
Garibaldi (Santa Maria Capua Vetere - near Naples) with Carlo
Bini in the lead role.
In France, Marc has accompanied the Canadian soprano Karen
Wierzba in a recital in June 2005 at the Canadian Cultural
Centre in Paris and in March 2007, accompanied the soprano
Monica Ling Lin in a recital of art song and opera also at
the Canadian Cultural Centre. He has also collaborated with
the French violinist, Véronique Davério, in
various concerts in Paris and Eymoutiers (Limousin).
Since 2008, he has collaborated with the Canadian soprano,
Measha Brueggergosman, in particular for rehearsals in Paris
of "poèmes pour mi" by Olivier Messiaen
in preparation for her debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam
with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He also accompanied
Measha Brueggergosman at the French 2008 classical music
awards (Diapason d'or 2008) held at the Maison de Radio France
in Paris performing selections from her Deutsche Gramophone
CD Surprise, winner of the Diapason d'or of the year (best
vocal CD) for 2008.
In April 2009, he performed in China with the Bel Canto
operatic ensemble from Canada giving 6 concerts in 5 cities
over a period of 10 days at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center,
Hangzhou Theatre, Fujian Grand Theatre (new theatre in Fuzhou),
Ningbo Grand Theatre and the Shipai Theatre and Cultural
Weekend Theatre in Dongguan near Hong Kong.
Since January 2008, he has participated in masterclasses
in Paris conducted by Janine Reiss, former head vocal coach
at the Paris Opera and the Chorégies d'Orange. He
has been living in Paris, France since 2003.
An Evening with Lara Downes January 13, 8pm
$40 / Students $25 For tickets and information contact: edwin@edwinhuizinga.com
PLUS
Classical Revolution
String Quartet jam session - featuring
Edwin Huizinga, Rebecca
MacLoed, Keith Hamm, and Tobias Baz
wine and light fare reception
and a chance to mingle with the musicians
LARA DOWNES
A captivating presence both on and offstage, critically acclaimed
American pianist Lara Downes has garnered wide acclaim
as one of the most exciting and communicative pianists
of today's generation. Lauded by NPR as "a delightful
artist with a unique blend of musicianship and showmanship" and
praised by the Washington Post for her stunning performances "rendered
with drama and nuance," Lara presents the piano repertoire
- from iconic favorites to newly commissioned works - in
new ways that bridge musical tastes, genres and audiences.
Lara’s fresh and insightful interpretations have captivated
audiences at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center,
Queen Elizabeth Hall London, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the
Salle Gaveau Paris, the American Academy Rome, San Francisco
Performances, the Portland International Piano Festival,
Le Poisson Rouge NYC, the Montreal Chamber Music Festival,
and the University of Washington World Series, among many
others. Her performance projects have received support from
prominent organizations such as the National Endowment for
the Arts, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, and
American Public Media.
Ms. Downes’ chamber music appearances include collaborations
with other noted soloists and ensembles, including violinists
Rachel Barton Pine and Lara St. John, cellists Zuill Bailey
and Denis Brott, the Miami and Alexander String Quartets,
and the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet. Commissions and premieres
of new works for Lara have come from composers Aaron Jay
Kernis, David Sanford, Benny Golson, Eve Beglarian and Dan
Coleman, among others.
Lara’s solo recordings have met with tremendous critical
and popular acclaim. Her debut CD, Invitation to the Dance
(2000), was called "a magical recording" by NPR,
and her second release, American Ballads (2001), was ranked
by Amazon.com among the four best recordings of American
concert music ever made. Dream of Me (2006), was praised
for "exquisite sensitivity" by American Record
Guide. Her world-premiere recording of 13 WAYS of Looking
at the Goldberg: Bach Reimagined was released in 2011 to
overwhelming response, celebrated as "Electric…otherworldly…magnificent… A
rewarding journey through Bachian fields…at once arresting
and playful”.
Lara's busy performance career is strongly driven by her
commitment to expanding and developing new audiences for
the arts. She is the Founder and President of the 88 KEYS® Foundation,
a non-profit organization that fosters opportunities for
music experiences and learning in America's public schools,
and she regularly works and performs with the next generation
of talented young musicians as Curator of the Young Artists
program at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at
UC Davis, where she serves as Artist in Residence.
Downes grew up in San Francisco, where she made her concert
debut at age 7. She studied with Adolf Baller and Reah Sadowsky,
and later worked under Hans Graf at the Vienna Hochschule
and Rudolph Buchbinder at the Musik Akademie Basel Lara Downes
is a Steinway Artist. WWW.LARADOWNES.COM
Sacha Rattle, clarinet
Since his highly praised 2009 solo debut at Berlin’s
Philharmonie, Sacha Rattle has become an established soloist.
Noted for his immense sensitivity, warm character and unique
sound, his career has developed rapidly with performances
throughout Europe, including festival appearances at Schleswig-Holstein
Musik Festival, Gidon Kremer’s Kammermusikfest, Lochenhaus
and Italy's AnimaMundi Festival. Sacha recently made his
Asian Solo-Debut with the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra
last November.
Sacha is also a much sought-after chamber musician having
collaborated with artists such as Katia and Marielle Labèque,
François Leleux, Pascal Moragues, Sir Simon Rattle
and Claudio Bohorquez. He performs regularly in recital with
duo partner Zeynep Özsuca and as a guest artist with
the Sheridan Ensemble. Sacha is also a founding member of
Berlin Counterpoint, which has been playing in many prestigious
venues worldwide.
Born in London in 1983, Sacha began studying the clarinet
at the age of 9 at the Birmingham Conservatoire. In 2005
he received his Performance Diploma at the Oberlin Conservatory
of Music under Professor Richard Hawkins. Interested in the
german school of clarinet playing, Sacha then moved to Berlin
to study with Karl-Heinz Steffens at Hochschule für
Musik „Hanns Eisler“ Berlin. In 2010, he completed
his studies with Wenzel Fuchs and Ralf Forster.
Evening Sponsors:
EMILYN STAMM, piano, CHARLES JAMES,
bass, JOHN WILLIAMS, clarinet Saturday December 17 at 8 pm
$15
TORONTIADE Thursday Dec 15, 2011 at 8 pm
Pay What You Can
Six local composers and five local performers will present
a pay-what-you-can concert of new music on Thursday, Dec.
15, at 8pm at Gallery 345, 345 Sorauren Avenue. The program
will be the product of Torontiade, a new music workshop that
emphasizes collaboration and networking.
The term Torontiade stems from Schubertiade,
an intimate event that 19th century composer Franz Schubert
would host at his home to showcase new compositions.
This workshop runs from mid-Nov. to Dec. 15, during which
composers consult with performers at a number of casual meetings.
Once the writing is complete, each piece is given two hours
of rehearsal time before it is premiered at the concert.
High quality video and sound recordings, both invaluable
resources and great marketing tools for musicians, are handed
out to each composer and performer.
Current workshops reinforce a divide between composer and
performer. By making networking a priority, the Torontiade musicians
are promoting a culture that encourages new project ideas
and future collaborations.
AMBUSH: THE MUSIC OF JURIJ KONJE Tuesday December 13 at 8 pm
$20
When he steps onto the stage of noted Toronto performance
space Gallery 345 on Dec. 13th, Jurij Konje will be fully
armed. Most visible will be the impressive arsenal of percussion
instruments he has collected from around the world. Less
obvious but equally important will be the invaluable musical
experience the Toronto-based percussionist, composer and
recording artist has accumulated over the course of a career
that has seen him excel in genres as diverse as rock, classical,
world, and new music.
His performance will feature material taken from the three
albums he has recorded over the past four years, Flux, Walkabout,
and Ambush. This compelling trilogy showcases Konje's fertile
creative imagination, and their original compositions will
be performed on darabuka, karimba, triangle, claves, shakers,
gong, bells, and whistle. Jurij's treated and looped narrations
of evocative words and phrases will add depth and atmosphere
to his ear-catching creations.
Konje's percussion skills have been honed through study
at the University of Toronto and with, amongst others, the
late John Wyre, the co-founder of the pioneering percussion
ensemble Nexus. His talent has been utilized in performance
and on recordings by artists and ensembles ranging from The
Brandenburg Ensemble and University of Toronto Percussion
Ensemble to world music groups Autorickshaw and Flaming Dono
Drum and Dance, indie rock icons By Divine Right, and alt-pop
superstar Feist. He has performed with distinction at venues
as varied as Molson Park in Barrie, The SkyDome, New York
City's Lincoln Centre, Washington Irving and Metropolitan
Museum, and Washington's Smithsonian. As a composer, Jurij
has had his work performed by the Orpheus Choir of Toronto,
Janus 21, and such percussion ensembles as Humdrum, Attaca
and Tabu. His current projects include the percussion group
Coeo and the percussion and electronic duo 1 + 1>3.
Following the creative journey of this emerging composer
will be a highly rewarding pursuit.
For more information, contact:
Alejandro Vela and Theresa Rudolph:
PIANO AND VIOLA Dec 2, 2011 at 8 pm $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Program
Robert Schumann, Märchenbilder (Fairy Tale Pictures),
Op. 113
Samuel Zyman, Sonata for Viola and Piano
César Franck, Sonata in A Major
Theresa Rudolph, Viola
Award-winning violist Theresa Rudolph is an active chamber
musician, recitalist, and orchestral player. She is currently
3rd Chair Viola in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Rudolph
has performed on concert series in Toronto, Vancouver, Detroit,
Ottawa, and throughout eastern Canada. She has been featured
several times on CBC Radio 2 in performances broadcast nationally,
and collaborated with esteemed artists such as violinists
Miriam Fried and Scott St. John, cellist Steven Isserlis,
and pianist Jamie Parker. Currently, she performs in the
Rudolph Family Chamber Players with her mother, flutist Kathleen
Rudolph, her father, percussionist John Rudolph, and her
husband, violinist Csaba Koczo.
Ms. Rudolph has participated in many festivals, such as
the Banff Centre for the Arts Summer Master Classes Program,
the New York String Orchestra Seminar, and the Steans Institute
for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival. In addition, she
performed as part of the “Musicians from Ravinia” 2001
tour. As a member of the Brutini String Quartet, Ms. Rudolph
attended the Issac Stern Chamber Music Workshop in New York
and performed in Carnegie Hall. In 1998, the quartet became
prize winners at the prestigious Fischoff Competition, an
initiative renowned for launching the careers of young chamber
musicians.
Hailing from Vancouver, Ms. Rudolph was a student of Gerald
Stanick. A recipient of a scholarship grant from the Canada
Council for the Arts, she then obtained her Bachelor of Music
degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with
Robert Vernon. In March of 2001, shortly before graduating,
Ms. Rudolph became the youngest member of the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra at the age of 21. She also held the position of
Assistant Principal Viola of the National Ballet of Canada
Orchestra, and was a member of the Canadian Opera Company
Orchestra, where she frequently appeared as Acting Principal
Viola. Ms. Rudolph has also performed with the Vancouver
Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra.
Alejandro Vela, Piano
Acclaimed as “a conjuror at the keyboard” and
praised for his power to carry an audience away through his
ability to create an atmosphere of mystery, sensuous beauty
and majesty, Alejandro Vela is a pianist of Northern Mexican
origin now performing in concert halls worldwide. Recent
solo recitals have brought him to Taipei, Toronto, Montreal,
Rome, Vienna, Budapest, Kiev and Berlin. In February of 2011,
Mr. Vela gave début performances in Tokyo in a solo
recital and as soloist with the Camerata de Coahuila led
by Ramón Shade in Mexico. In October of 2011, Mr.
Vela plays in Budapest at the prestigious Obudai Tarsaskor
Concert Hall in commemoration of Liszt's bicentennial birthday.
Also this season he débuts in Prague and Helsinki,
tours Asia, and performs as a member of the Quint Quintet
in major venues in North America.
Alejandro Vela has performed as soloist with most of the
Mexican orchestras including the Orquesta Filarmónica
de la Ciudad de México, the Orquesta Sinfónica
del Estado de México, the Orquesta Sinfónica
Carlos Chávez, the Orquesta Filarmónica de
Jalisco, the Filarmónica del Estado de Querétaro
and with many American ones, including the Chicago Symphony
and the Houston Symphony led by Christoph Eschenbach, as
well as orchestras in Israel, Canada and the Dominican Republic.
He has appeared at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, Alice
Tully Hall in New York, National Arts Center in Mexico and
the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Recently, Mr. Vela
gave acclaimed performances at the El Paso Pro-Musica concert
series, the Canadian Opera Company Piano Virtuoso Series
in Toronto, Mexico City's Sala Nezahualcóyotl, Festival
de México and the National Concert Hall in Taipei.
Born and raised in Piedras Negras, Alejandro very early began
his piano studies with his mother Hortensia Vela Mante and
continued with Robert Avalon. He holds both a Bachelor and
a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where
he studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky. More information on Alejandro
Vela at www.alejandrovela.com.
THE MUSIC OF GEORGE ENESCU.
ILYA POLETAEV, piano and AXEL STRAUSS, violin Friday November 25 at 8 pm $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Axel Strauss - Biography
The first German artist to ever win the international Naumburg
Violin Award in New York, Axel Strauss has been equally acclaimed
for his virtuosity and his musical sensitivity. The Salt
Lake Tribune praised his well-rounded artistry by saying, "Strauss
quickly established that he is a virtuoso to be reckoned
with. But amid his technical acumen, there was a genuine
musician. His interpretive prowess was delightful."
Mr. Strauss made his American debut at the Library of Congress
in Washington DC and his New York debut at Alice Tully Hall
in 1998. Since then he has given recitals in major North
American cities, including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los
Angeles and San Francisco. In 2007 he was the violinist in
the world premiere of "Two Awakenings and a Double Lullaby" – written
for him by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis.
Mr. Strauss has performed as soloist with orchestras in
Budapest, Hamburg, New York, Seoul, Shanghai, Bucharest,
San Francisco and Cincinnati, among others. He has collaborated
with conductors such as Maxim Shostakovitch, Rico Saccani,
Joseph Silverstein, and Alasdair Neale.
His recordings include the Brahms violin concerto (BPOlive),
Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words" (Naxos), the
violin version of the Sonatas Opus 120 by Brahms (Organum)
and the Duo for Violin and Cello by Kodaly (Oehms Classics).
Naxos recently released his recordings of the 24 Caprices
by Pierre Rode and of the Violin Concertos Nos. 17-19 by
Rodolphe Kreutzer. Amadeus Press has issued a DVD featuring
Axel Strauss in concert at Steinway Hall in New York City.
Mr. Strauss frequently performs at various music festivals
in the US. Festival visits abroad have taken him to Germany,
India, Korea and Japan. His chamber music partners include
Menahem Pressler, Kim Kashkashian, Joel Krosnick, Robert
Mann and Bernhard Greenhouse.
Since his European debut in Hamburg in 1988, Axel Strauss
has been heard on concert stages throughout Europe. He has
given concerts in Moscow, Vilnius, Berlin, Bremen, Leipzig
and Nuremberg. Concert tours have taken him to Armenia, Azerbaijan
and Romania. He has also toured South America and performed
in Japan with the Philharmonic Violins Berlin.
At the age of seventeen he won the silver medal at the
Enescu Competition in Romania and has been recognized with
many other awards, including top prizes in the Bach, Wieniawski
and Kocian competitions. Mr. Strauss studied at the Music
Academies of Lübeck and Rostock with Petru Munteanu.
In 1996 he began working with the late Dorothy DeLay at The
Juilliard School and became her teaching assistant in 1998.
He has also worked with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Felix
Galimir, and Ruggiero Ricci, and at the Marlboro Music Festival
with Richard Goode, Mitsuko Uchida and Andras Schiff. Mr.
Strauss has been residing in the United States since 1996.
He maintains a busy performance schedule and serves as Professor
of Violin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Axel Strauss performs on an outstanding violin by J.F.
Pressenda, Turin 1845, on extended loan through the generous
efforts of the Stradivari Society in Chicago.
Ilya Poletaev, piano -
Biography
Pianist Ilya Poletaev is quickly becoming recognized as
one of today’s most original and compelling artists.
In July 2010, he captured First Prize at the prestigious
XVII International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig
and, as the winner, has appeared in recital at the Leipzig
Gewandhaus.
A pianist with an inquisitive mind who explores a wide range
of repertoire choices ranging from the 16th to the 21st century,
Mr. Poletaev leads a multifaceted career as both a classically
trained pianist and as a performer on early keyboards. The
Philadelphia Inquirer praised his debut in Philadelphia’s
Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (in both C.P.E. Bach’s
Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, Wq. 23 and Mozart’s
Piano Concerto in D minor with Symphony in C), singling out
his “lively imagination” and “unfailingly
gorgeous tone,” and remarking that “in total
it was an interpretation of considerable individuality.” Keith
Kibler of
The Berkshire Review has said of Mr. Poletaev, “An
expert harpsichordist, [he] played Bach on the piano as well
as any I have heard…[]…His intelligence was?luminous.”
Mr. Poletaev has appeared with the Toronto and Hartford
symphony orchestras as well as with Orchestra of St. Luke’s,
Romania’s Filarmonica “Mihail Jora” di
Bacau and Filarmonica di Stat Transilvania of Cluj-Napoca,
and Orchestra J-Futura of Trento, Italy. Mr. Poletaev was
the First Prize winner of the XX Concorso Sala Gallo Piano
Competition in Monza, Italy, where he also received the Audience
Prize, the Bach Prize, and the Orchestra Prize. A prizewinner
at the 2011 George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest,
he also captured First Prize at the 2009 Grieg International
Competition, and was a laureate of the 2008 National Stepping
Stone Competition in Canada. He joined the Astral Artists
roster as a winner of its 2009 National Auditions.
As a harpsichordist, Mr. Poletaev was a top prizewinner
at the 2007 Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society harpsichord
competition, and has been heard in such venues as Carnegie’s
Weill Recital Hall, Pierpont Morgan Library, the Helicon
Foundation, the Aston Magna Early Music Festival, the Amherst
Early Music Festival, and Yale’s Collection of Musical
Instruments. As a continuo player, he has performed under
Masaaki Suzuki, Andrew Lawrence-King, Steven Stubbs, Nicholas
McGegan, Simon Carrington, Graham O’Reilly, and Helmuth
Rilling. As a chamber musician, he has performed alongside
such distinguished artists as Robert Mann, Donald Weilerstein,
Gary Hoffmann, Boris Berman, Paul Hersh, Susan Narucki, and
Miah Persson. He has also appeared at the Moab, Caramoor,
Sarasota, Norfolk, Yellow Barn, Banff, Orford, and Stratford
Summer Music festivals.
Mr. Poletaev gave an acclaimed performance at the Caramoor
Festival with renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and the
Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by David Robertson.
Other recent performances include Medtner’s?Piano Concerto
No. 3 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Peter Oundjian,
solo appearances at Germany’s prestigious Klavier-Festival
Ruhr, a concerto performance at the Accademia Filarmonica
Romana, and recitals at Italy’s Festival Lago Maggiore,
the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, and the Accademia
di Santa Cecilia in Rome. His two-volume recording of the
complete works of George Enescu for violin and piano, with
violinist Axel Strauss, will soon be released on the Naxos
label.
Mr. Poletaev began studying in Moscow at the age of six
and continued his studies in Israel until he moved to Canada
at the age of 14. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from
the University of Toronto, where he studied with pianist
Marietta Orlov and harpsichordist Colin Tilney, as well as
a doctorate and a Master’s degree from Yale, where
he studied with Boris Berman. Between 2005 and 2010 he also
served on the faculties of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music,
the Yale Department of Music,?and the Yale School of Music
as a lecturer in Early Music. In the spring of 2011 he was
appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at the Schulich School
of Music at McGill University in Montréal.
ENOCH ARDEN performed by
MAURO BERTOLI AND KEVIN WHITE Thursday November 24 at 8 pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Enoch Arden Program Notes
by Pauline Finch
In 1897 Richard Strauss composed his setting of Tennyson's
1864 narrative poem Enoch Arden as one of two piano-and-narrator
melodramas to perform with his good friend and benefactor,
the famous actor and reciter Ernst von Possart.
The melodrama, which combines words (usually prose or blank
verse) spoken dramatically to keyboard or instrumental accompaniment,
evolved from spoken scenes in opera into an independent art
form and was very popular in the 19th century. The Strauss-Possar
duo toured both Enoch Arden and The Castle by the Sea (composed
several years later) extensively together, drawing large
and appreciative audiences.
Some commentators and critics have called melodramas a form
of song without melody; others have called them theatre without
scenery; still others have dismissively called them irrelevant,
being neither one thing nor the other. The closest parallel
genre mght be the early 20th-century radio play, in which
the listener experiences words whose mood and context are
enhanced by specific music and sound-effects; another analogy
might be hearing a good movie soundtrack without seeing the
moving images. In each case, one must imagine the visual
component.
Despite their great popularity during the 1800s, stand-alone
melodramas did not transition well into 20th and 21st century
popular culture. But melodramatic form is often experienced
within recorded “talking books”, multi-media
stage performances, or flashback and retrospective scenes
in live theatre, television and movies.
Enoch Arden has rarely been recorded but the 2007 partnership
of Sir Patrick Stewart (famed for his many seasons as Star
Trek TNG's Captain Jean-Luc Picard) with pianist Emmanuel
Ax has brought this work renewed critical respect and a resurgence
of public interest.
Enoch Arden tells the sentimental Victorian tale of a man
who returns home after being lost at sea for ten years, to
find his wife remarried to a good friend. Like Wagner, Strauss
uses a series of musical tags (or leitmotifs) to identify
the story's situations and surroundings, as well as its leading
characters – Enoch, his wife Annie; and Philip, their
mutual friend, who eventually marries Annie. In a supreme
act of selfless faith Enoch chooses a life of anonymity,
working at odd jobs to survive, giving up his own happiness
so that Annie, Philip and their children might be spared
the division and disruption that his return to the family
would cause.
Bios
The versatile Canadian stage performer, writer, and cartoonist
Kevin White is a graduate of the Humber College Theatre Performance
Program. He has studied with such renowned teachers as Maja
Ardal, Diana Belshaw and Dean Gilmour.
Kevin was a participant in the 2007/2008 Paprika Festival
at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre. Recent ensemble roles include
the production of Tir-Na Nog: a Visitor's Tale, at the Theatre
Centre in Toronto, as well as Unfinished Passage at the Imperial
Oil Opera Theatre.
In addition to performing Enoch Arden, a melodrama for
narrator and pianist, with concert pianist Mauro Bertoli,
Kevin can also be seen regularly performing in live improv
comedy shows in Waterloo, and is a creative collaborator
on several other artistic projects.
THE ART OF THE PIANO:
MAURO BERTOLI
Wednesday November 23 at 8 pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Schumann : Papillons op.2
Schumann : Toccata op.7
Liszt: Improptu Brillante on melodies by Spontini and Rossini
Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody n.6
Bio
Mauro Bertoli, pianist, born in Italy, winner of many International
Piano Competitions, has established himself on the international
stage and has been praised by the press for his formidable
technique and his exceptional sensitivity (from Toronto Star "....dazzled
by (the) up-and-coming pianist ...with absolutely flawless
technique and deep musicality...Here is a newcomer to watch
out for").
He has performed for important Festivals and in major concert
halls (Theatre “La Fenice” in Venice, Auditorium “S.Cecilia” in
Rome, Verdi Hall in Milan, Beijing Concert Hall for the “Arturo
Benedetti Michelangeli Beijing International Piano Festival”,
Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Kitchener-Waterloo
Chamber Music Festival...) throughout Europe, North America,
Israel, Brazil and China. Mauro has also played with orchestras
such as Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, Orchestra of Teatro
Olimpico of Vicenza, Palm Beach Symphony Orchestra, Texas
Festival Orchestra, Ottawa University Orchestra (conducted
by Philippe Entremont), Orchestra “Coccia” of
Novara, Chamber Orchestra of Brescia to cite a few.
His recordings have been broadcast on CBC Radio, Radio Classica
Bresciana, Radio Classica Milano among others.Besides focusing
on his solo career, Mauro is an active chamber musician and
has appeared together with Wolfgang David, Netanel Draiblate,
Lucia Luque, Liv Hilde Klokk, Eric Ruske, Emilio Còlon,
Kenneth Grant, Marco Zoni, David Gardner, Steeve Michaud,
Julie Nesrallah among others.
In the season 2011/12 he will perform also for Muskoka Concert
Association, Barrie’s Colours of Music. He will also
perform with the Oakville Symphony Orchestra and the Kamloops
Symphony among others.
He received his musical education at the Academy of Music “G.
Verdi” in Milan, at the Academy “S. Cecilia” in
Rome, at the Foundation “R.Romanini” in Brescia,
at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, in Brussels (ICPA – International
Certificate for Piano Artists) and at the Ecole Normale de
Musique “A. Cortot” in Paris. He won the “Giuseppe
Sinopoli Award 2006”, the prestigious Italian prize
awarded personally by Giorgio Napolitano, the President of
the Italian Republic.
He studied with Sergio Marengoni, Sergio Perticaroli, Nelson
Delle Vigne and Mats Widlund, he also attended masterclasses
with Alexis Weissenberg, Francois-Rene Duchable, Michel Beroff,
Robert Roux, Sthépane Lemelin, France Clidat, Bruno
Canino, Andrea Lucchesini, Mario Brunello, Franco Rossi...
Mauro is an Associate Performance Faculty Member (piano),
Department of Music, at Carleton University in Ottawa.
“I recommend the young and very gifted Italian pianist Mauro Bertoli...”.
Louis Lortie
“I personally recommend very specially Mauro Bertoli, he is a gifted
young pianist, very talented and an experienced pianist with a fine perception
of music....”. Philippe Entremont
RECITAL NUMBER SIX
Sunday November 20 at 7:30 pm
(Music by Lidov, Westcott and The Three Great B’s) with the Annex Quartet:
Hezikiah Leung, Carolyn Blackwell, violins, Yunior Lopez, viola, Peter Cosbey,
cello
Programme
David Lidov, Obedient Ears, Andrew Timar, Sulings,
D. Lidov, piano.
L.v. Beethoven, Piano Sonata op 10/2, D. Lidov, pian.o
David Lidov, “Song”, The Annex Quartet.*
(p a u s e)
Lidov, et al. “A Brief History of I Love You” Rick Sax, MalletKat and
MAX
( a trailer for the Jan 14 premiere).
Bix Biederbecke, Bixology, W. Westcott, piano.
- - - - - -
Eurreal (Little Brother) Montgomery,
1. St. Joe Martin Blues. 2. Shreveport
Farewell 3. TBA. William Westcott, arr.
David Lidov, Three Small Whole Numbers,
1. Four. 2. Twelve. 3.
Nine.
David Lidov is a music theorist,
occasional pianist, and a composer best known for works for
small ensembles or voice. His music has been performed in
North and South America and in Europe. Except for short stints
in Mexico, Brazil and Germany, he has taught in the York
University Department of Music, where he was a founding member,
since 1970. His theoretical investigations, beginning with
a computer algorithm to write melodies in 1972, were an early
and influential source for musical semiotics. St. Martin's
Press published his general theory, Elements of Semiotics
(1999) and Indiana University Press released a collection
of his best known writings on music, Is Language a Music?
(2004). His never up-to-date websites are www.David-Lidov.CA and www.yorku.ca/lidov.
Bill Westcott was born in
Southern Illinois near St. Louis, Missouri. When he was
a student at the University of Illinois, he also studied
blues piano for several years with Eurreal "Little
Brother" Montgomery in Chicago, a major blues-recording
artist of the 1930s and of the later blues revival. From
that time, he has dedicated himself to transcribing, preserving
and performing the outstanding music of the early blues
pianists of the teens, twenties and thirties. While working
occasionally as a soloist and accompanist in classical
performance, he has performed as a band member in various
rock, Dixieland, country and western, ragtime, jazz and
blues ensembles over the past 35 years. Since 1979, he
has lived and worked in Toronto, Canada, maintaining an
active career as pianist, composer, arranger, lecturer,
singer, writer and teacher. For several years, he provided
concert notes for the TSO programs. He has appeared as
pianist and singer in blues, jazz, ragtime and folk festivals
in Canada and the United States. He has published articles
on the subjects of early jazz and blues piano and the history
of African-American music in general. Orchestras in Canada,
the United States and Eastern Europe have performed his
original compositions and arrangements. He taught music
through the 1980s in the Department of Music at York University,
leaving the academic life in the '90s to work as a freelance
musician but returning recently as an Associate Professor
teaching composition.
Recognized for their eclectic repertoire of music, The
Annex Quartet—Hezekiah Leung, Carolyn Blackwell (violins),
Yunior Lopez (viola), and Peter Cosbey (cello)—continues
to deliver dynamic performances that push the boundaries
of classical music. Since 2008, the quartet has been in
high demand throughout Toronto and abroad. Recent performances
include the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheater at the Four Seasons
Centre, Montreal Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Hall, Toronto’s
Luminato Festival where they joined the Kronos Quartet,
and the Stratford Festival where they performed the complete
cycle of Mozart’s “Haydn Quartets.”
Recent shows have included works by Terry Riley, Franghiz
Ali-Zadeh, and Osvaldo Golijov as well as the piano quintets
by Johannes Brahms, Antonin Dvorak, and Dmitri Shostakovich.
The Annex Quartet experiments. Recently, they embarked on
modern jazz project performing and recording works for string
quartet, double bass, alto sax, bass clarinet and drums by
Patrick Reid and Colin Power. Gradually, the quartet has
expanded their repertoire by using instruments from Cuba,
the Middle East, and Asia. The Annex Quartet is currently
releasing on an all-Cuban album entitled “Mojito: the
Music of Cuba for String Quartet.” For more information
please visit www.AnnexQuartet.com
Hezekiah Leung has studied
the violin since the age of five and studied under Florence
Kim, Herbert Tsang, and Pavel Chiriac. Stephen Shipps He
has has participated in the New York Strings Seminar, the
Banff Music Festival, and the Sarasota Music Festival working
with with Pamela Franck, Desmond Hoebig, Ani Kavafian, Kim
Kashkashian, Alex Kerr, Don Weilerstein, Joel Smirnoff, Daniel
Phillips and Kolja Lessing. He is currently completing an
Artist Diploma at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory
with Barry Shiffman.
Carolyn Blackwell, originally
from Calgary, Alberta, has shared the stage with Steven Dann,
Geoff Nuttall, Martin Beaver, Anssi Karttunen, Renaud Capuçon,
and Mayumi Seiler. She has been featured with The Art of
Time Ensemble, The Via Salzburg Chamber Orchestra, the Mooredale
Concerts series and the Artists of The Royal Conservatory
(ARC) and is featured on the group’s newest recording “Two
Roads to Exile” from the RCA Sony Red Label. Carolyn
performs regularly with the Canadian Opera Company and was
the youngest instrumentalist invited to participate in the
inaugural Wagner Ring Cycle Performances at the Four Season’s
Centre. Carolyn has studied with Steven Dann, Nick Pulos,
Barry Shiffman, Henk Guittart, Mark Steinberg, and Peter
Longworth.
During the summer months, Carolyn is a principal of the Verbier
Festival Orchestra in Verbier, Switzerland and participates
in the IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music Seminar in Cornwall,
England. She was recently awarded a chair in the Verbier
Festival Chamber Orchestra under Gabor Takacs-Nagy and will
be making her Amercian debut at The Spoleto Festival in May
of 2011.
Yunior Lopez, born in Cuba,
enjoys an eclectic career as a chamber player, conductor,
and entrepreneur. A recipient of many awards and prizes,
Mr. Lopez began his career after winning a contract with
the Las Vegas Philharmonic at the age of eighteen. In 2006,
Yunior joined Lukas Foss’s National Festival Orchestra
as principal violist. Thereafter, he was appointed conductor
of the Academy Symphony Orchestra at The Royal Conservatory
in Toronto, Canada. Yunior founded The Annex Quartet in
September of 2008.
Other orchestral experience include principal viola of the
Royal Conservatory Orchestra, the orchestra at the Kennedy
Center’s Summer Music Institute, the Nevada All-State
Orchestra, and the prestigious World Youth Symphony.
Yunior is an alumnus of the Domaine Forget Chamber Music
Program and the National Arts Centre’s Young Artist
Program in Canada, the Interlochen Arts Camp, the National
Symphony Orchestra’s Summer Music Institute (SMI),
and the Las Vegas, Green Valley, and Hot Springs Music Festival’s.
His principal teachers include Steven Dann, Susan Barton,
and David Holland. Other influences include conductors Uri
Mayer and Mario Bernardi. For more information please visit
Yunior’s Website – www.YuniorLopez.com
Peter Cosbey, a graduate of
the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School
as a student of Bryan Epperson, began his cello study in
Regina with Cameron Lowe. His orchestral experience with
the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and the Regina Symphony
Orchestra was recently expanded with a one year term as
Assistant Principal Cello of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.
Performances with The Cosbey Trio, Quinsin Nachoff, pianist
Mariko Kamachi, and the Artists of the Royal Conservatory
have been recorded for broadcasts on the CBC. Frequently,
Peter performs on the Alicier Arts chamber music series
in Toronto. Peter has also appeared on the Mooredale Concerts
series, the Niagara International Chamber Music Festival,
Summer Music in the Garden at Toronto Music Garden, the
Piano Salon series in Toronto, and the St. Clair County
Community College’s Thursday at Noon Concert Series
in Port Huron. At the Georgian Music concert series in
Barrie he performed with the Hausmann String Quartet and
Serouj Kradjian. Peter’s awards include the Dr. Howard
Leyton-Brown bow award, the Director’s Gold Medal
from the Conservatory of Performing Arts in Regina and
top prize at the Regina Musical Club’s Recital Competition
for 2006. As a teacher Mr. Cosbey is on faculty at the
Toronto School for Strings in Toronto, Canada and the JVL
Summer School for Performing Arts in North Bay, Canada.
Originally a bassoonist, Andrew Timar has
made his mark over the past 20 years as a suling (Indonesian
bamboo ring flute) and gamelan player, concert organiser
and teacher. He has been active in Toronto’s New Music
and World Music scenes since the 1970’s as a composer,
musician, teacher, arts administrator and as founding editor
of MUSICWORKS magazine. He has worked with Musicdance Orchestra,
New Music Co-op, Critical Band, New Music Concerts and the
legendary artists Jon Hassell, Brian Eno,Trichy Sankaran
and Laurie Anderson.
As a suling and gamelan performer, he has been active throughout
Canada, Europe, Japan and Indonesia. Andrew served as the
Artistic Director of Evergreen Club contemporary gamelan
from 1987 to 1990. Under his direction the group toured Europe
and western Canada and released a CD.
In 1995, he founded Gamelan Toronto, the city’s first
permanent Karawitan Jawa (gamelan) group, studying and performing
Javanese gamelan and vocal music. For “Canada’s
Year of Asia Pacific” Andrew conceived and directed
Gamelan Summit Festival 1997, the first national gathering
of gamelan-related performance groups from across Canada,
playing host to over 75 performers. His more recent projects
the suling in various combinations with both Western and
Asian instruments and musical languages.
Andrew was invited in 1999 to establish a gamelan studio
program at York University and served as its first Course
Director. In 2000 he co-authored a curriculum to teach gamelan
and wayang for the 560 school Toronto District School Board
(TDSB).
RICK SACKS, one of Toronto’s
leading exponents of new music, Composer and musician Rick
Sacks holds a master’s degree in percussion from SUNY
Stony Brook. He directs Arraymusic, and has performed and
recorded with The Glass Orchestra, New Music Concerts, the
Canadian Opera Company, Tapestry New Opera, Evergreen Club
Contemporary Gamelan among others, and has toured extensively
throughout the world.
A Gallery of Harp & Song Sunday November 13th at 3pm $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
info and to reserve tickets: 416-346-6600 / harp@sharlenewallace.com
Gallery 345 + Sharlene Wallace + Sora = an intimate afternoon
of original and folkloric music, musings and myth. International
recording and touring musician, Sharlene, has garnered a
reputation for being one of Canada's most versatile harpists
while Calgary based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist,
Sora, has been praised for her soaring voice and unusual
lyrical vision. Together, they paint a contemporary musical
portrait perfectly suited to Gallery 345.
SHARLENE WALLACE, harp
Sharlene Wallace is one of Canada's most prolific and influential
lever harp players. She also plays Classical harp.
She has won two international competitions, the Lyon & Healy
International Pop & Jazz Lever Harp Competition (Tucson,
Arizona) and the Concours d'Improvisation de Rencontres Internationales
de Harpe Celtique (Dinan, France).
Rhythmic and original, "Wallace's sound is a combination
of Jazz, Classical, New Age, Latin and Celtic Folk. The pieces
are visual, cerebral and full of rhythms..." (Teresinha
Costa, eye for the future). "This is not just your harp
music with a pretty face - it is smoky, saucy and flirtatious,
serving up a delicious blend of drama and daydreams." (Susan
S.H.). "A fantastic, joyous musical adventure that ended
far too soon." (Ian Hepburn, director "Music Alive!
Musique en Vie").
Harpist, recording artist, composer, Sharlene has created
five independent CDs featuring many of her compositions which
have been influenced by her explorations in Latin, Celtic,
and contemporary music: "the rhyme & the river", "Journey
of Shadows", "Beyond the Waves", "Island
Mountain", and "Anticipation" (collaborated
CD with flute/piano player Susan Piltch). Sharlene has also
been involved in commissions for the lever harp by numerous
Canadian composers including John Beckwith, Bruce Mather,
Evelyne Datl, Kirk Elliott, William Beauvais and a piece
for orchestra and lever harp by Rodney Sharman.
Sharlene tours internationally giving concerts, workshops,
masterclasses and adjudications. She has performed in numerous
festivals and concert series across North America and in
Europe including The World Harp Congress (Vancouver, BC),
Celtica and the Workshop Internazionale di Arpa (Italy),
Musicora (Paris, France), Festival of the Sound (Parry Sound,
ON), Harpcon (St. Louis, MO), and Vancouver Island Musicfest
(BC). Sharlene is involved in collaborations with bass player
George Koller, piano/flute player Susan Piltch and singer-songwriter
Sora among others.
Sharlene is also on the faculty of York University teaching
lever and pedal harps. Her own Classical performance degree
is from the University of Toronto where she studied with
the eminent harpist Judy Loman. Sharlene is Principal Harpist
with the Oakville and Kingston Symphonies.
With a uniquely ancient-to-modern sound, Canadian singer-songwriter,
Sora weaves together contemporary stylings with the mystical
moods of Celtic folk, New age, medieval madrigals and other
modes of early music. The result is a heady, colourfully
evocative tapestry that conjures the imagery of long ago
but feels just as current as anything from the present musical
landscape – all while sounding like little else on
today’s airwaves. With a penchant for threading stories
and narratives through her live performance of swirling harp,
earthy percussion, ethereal backups and soaring vocals, this
much is clear; you have never heard anything quite like Sora.
Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Sora was classically
trained on violin and piano as a child and toured with a
youth orchestra and fiddling group when she was a teenager.
Surprisingly, however, it’s only recently that she
became a singer, shortly after the birth of her first daughter
in 2000 (she and her husband have four children). “I’d
been away from music for years, and I was starting to feel
like something was missing in my life,” recalls the
vocalist, who majored in psychology at the University of
Calgary and graduated with honours. “I started taking
voice lessons as something just for me, and things just blossomed
from there.”
The initial fruits of Sora’s newfound voice were 2003’s
Winds of Change, a collection of traditional folk songs from
the British Isles, and 2007’s Light, a four-track EP.
In 2009, Sora released a full length album, Heartwood, in
which Sora delves deeply into examinations of human archetypes,
all held within a contemporary framework. With this release,
Sora received airplay on many college and community radio
stations, charting on several while the reviews poured in,
unanimously applauding her crystalline voice and unusual
lyrical vision within the songs. While her love of mythology
plays a central role in her songs, Sora maintains that for
her it’s not simply about setting tales to music. “It’s
always my goal to understand the heart of the myth, rather
than to simply retell a story,” she says. “I’m
far more interested in discovering why that myth is still
meaningful today.” And like those ancient myths themselves,
the songs Sora sings have a hauntingly elusive resonance
that will surely see them echoing throughout the ages to
come.
Sora’s uncanny sensitivity to meaning within stories
and her ability maintain urban relevancy within the organic
settings of her music is starting to garner recognition.
In 2010, Sora was commissioned to give voice to Calgary Family
Service’s 100 year anniversary, which became the song,
Legacy, recorded with Juno-nominated producer, Douglas Romanow
and performed at the gala event.
“My ultimate goal is to create something that people
would want to listen to and get lost in,” says Sora.
And to that end, her music is indeed a wonderful place to
get lost in.
THE BRADEN/MICHELS/RESTIVO
JAZZ PROJECT Saturday Nov 12 at 8 pm
$25; $20 students
Don Braden
Julie Michels
Dave Restivo
Kieran Overs
Daniel Barnes
Don Braden – Saxophones and Flute – New York
Julie Michels – Vocalist – Toronto
Dave Restivo – Piano – Winnipeg
Kieran Overs - Bass – Toronto
Daniel Barnes – Drums -Toronto
An evening of contemporary and traditional jazz standards
and original compositions performed by outstanding Toronto
jazz artists and special guest from New York, High Note Recording
Artist, jazz saxophonist, flutist, writer and arranger, Don
Braden.
Don Braden - Saxophones and Flute
Don Braden is a musician of the highest calibre. Having spent
years performing and touring as saxophonist with greats like
Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard
and Roy Haynes, he has developed an extensive knowledge of
every aspect of jazz performance. He is an imaginative, technically
excellent, soulful saxophonist, and his harmonic and rhythmic
sophistication give him a unique approach to improvising
as well as composing and arranging. Most important of all:
he has a beautiful sound, and he swings! All this combines
with his joyous yet disciplined personality to make him one
of the most important musicians working today.
Since 1991 he has worked with Tom Harrell, the Mingus Big
Band, Kenny Barron, J. J. Johnson, the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars,
the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and many others. He has composed
music for everything from duo to full symphonic orchestra,
in many styles, for recordings (including 16 CDs as a leader
and nearly 80 as a sideman), film and television, and worked
several years as composer for Bill Cosby. He is also a world
renowned educator, having spent over a decade giving master
classes at countless schools and universities, and running
first class educational programs such as the Litchfield Jazz
Camp and NJPAC's Jazz For Teens.
Braden's groups have included some of the most respected
musicians today; among them: bassists Christian McBride & Joris
Teepe, pianists Benny Green & Darrell Grant, drummers
Carl Allen, Cecil Brooks III & Billy Hart, trumpeters
Tom Harrell & Randy Brecker, trombonist Steve Turre,
organists Jack McDuff & Larry Goldings, and guitarist
Russell Malone. In addition to performing and composing for
his own groups and CDs, Don Braden has composed for a number
of important projects. He spent four years as co-music supervisor/composer
for Bill Cosby’s most recent CBS sitcom, “Cosby”,
which is now in syndication. In addition, he co-wrote the
theme song for Cosby’s current CBS cartoon series, “Little
Bill”. Braden is also the proud recipient of a Doris
Duke Foundation (in conjunction with Chamber Music America)
Jazz composition grant, which funded the creation of a new
work for his Octet.
Braden’s educational endeavours are a very important
part of his career. He is Music Director of the Litchfield
Jazz Camp, and the Music Director of the New Jersey Performing
Arts Center’s Wachovia Jazz for Teens program. He is
Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Montclair State University
and is also a visiting professor at the Prins Claus Conservatoire,
in Groningen, Netherlands. He endorses R S Berkeley Saxophones
and flutes and also AMT Microphones, and Jamey Aebersold
play-a-long products.
As a saxophonist, composer, arranger, and teacher, Don Braden
continues to represent the highest levels of strength, creativity,
discipline, joy, and soulfulness as he moves along the classic
jazz path: to express a contemporary point of view in the
powerful, spiritual, intelligent, and (most importantly)
swinging jazz style.
". . . one of the new young lions of the tenor saxophone." --
Roy Haynes, drummer
". . . brilliant and assured . . ." -- Peter Watrous, The New York
Times
" A nice person and a great musician . . .", -- Bill Cosby
More information about Don Braden is available at www.DonBraden.com.
Julie Michels – Vocalist
As a baby, Julie Michels hummed in key with the radio and
she hasn’t stopped since! Her ability to vocalize flows
effortlessly from within, gliding through any genre from
jazz to folk, bebop and blues. Julie’s “glorious
holler” [Mark Miller, The Globe & Mail] has been
a unique and important feature on the Toronto jazz scene
for more than two decades, settling there after studying
with legendary bassist Richard Davis at University of Wisconsin
and spending time gigging across Europe and North America. She
has performed, toured and recorded with Kevin Barrett, George
Koller, Ottawa’s Chelsea Bridge, the MCCT Choir (Diane
Leah, Musical Director) and her own bands, Sutra and Parlay.
Julie’s other performance credits include Kahil El’Zabar,
Ernest Dawkins, Dougie Richardson, Rob Frayne, Nancy
Walker, Dave Restivo, Konrad Pluta, Adrean Farrugia, Joe
Sealy, Robie Botos, Diane Leah, Jordan Klapman, John McDermott,
Sophia Perlman, Gillian Margot, Terra Hazelton, Heather
Bambrick, Jason Fowler, Rob Pilch, Kevin LaLiberte, Tony
Quarington, Larnell Lewis, Davide Direnzo, Archie
Alleyne, Ratech Das, Cheny Leon, Kieran Overs, Artie Roth,
Paul Novotny, John Geggie, and ensembles such as The Decidedly
Jazz Danceworks, The Toronto Tabla Ensemble, The Ancient
Voices Project, The Madison Celtic Renaissance Consort and
The Blackhawk String Band.
Julie’s performances at popular Toronto jazz venues
including the Top of the Senator, the Rex Hotel, Hugh's Room,
Statler's Lounge, the Montreal Bistro, Trane Studio and Opal
are regularly met with great responses and packed houses.
Her recordings include "Singing Naked" (1995) with
bassist, George Koller and “Live at Statler’s” (2003)
with Kevin Barrett and her latest - recordings "She
Sings, He Plays" – Julie Michels and Kevin Barrett
(2010) and "Bass and Voice" with George Koller
(2011).
More information about Julie Michels is available at http://www.juliemichels.com/listen.htm
“Michels is a startling new voice, hugely powerful yet completely controlled.
Fearless, too" Mark Miller, Globe and Mail, CD review
“Michels possesses a huge voice with amazing control, both in range of
volume, expression and wonderful tonal effects which she uses like an instrument.” Bob
Scott, The Examiner
Dave Restivo - Piano
Dave Restivo is one of Canada's most respected and influential
jazz artists. A pianist, percussionist and composer, he is
a 3-time winner of the National Jazz Awards' Keyboardist
of the Year Award, and is listed in the current edition of
Canadian Who's Who.
Dave is well known for his work with Rob McConnell's Boss
Brass and Tentet, the Mike Murley Quintet, and legendary
songwriter Marc Jordan. He has also performed and recorded
with Dave Holland, Jon Hendricks, Kenny Wheeler, John Abercrombie,
Jerry Bergonzi, Mel Torme, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Pat
LaBarbera, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Grace Kelly, Howard
Johnson, Ingrid Jensen, Christine Jensen, Kevin Mahogany,
Randy Bachman (BTO/Guess Who), David Clayton Thomas, Molly
Johnson, Moe Koffman, Joe LaBarbera, Mark Whitfield, Marcus
Belgrave, Joey Baron, Curtis Fuller, Stacy Rowles, Jane Bunnett,
Jeff Healy, Tim Hagans, Jeff Hamilton, Alex Acuna, Gene Bertoncini,
Joe Lovano, Sheila Jordan, Donny McCaslin, Metalwood, Charles
McPherson, Norman Marshall Villeneuve, Memo Acevedo, and
many others.
Dave Restivo has served on the music faculty at the Banff
Centre for the Arts and St. Francis Xavier University, Humber
College and the University of Toronto. He is currently teaching
jazz piano on the Music Faculty of the University of Manitoba.
"...quite simply one of the most exceptional jazz pianists of his generation
that Canada has produced..." –Roger Levesque, Edmonton Journal
Kieran Overs - Bass
Toronto-born bassist Kieran Overs has been active on the
Canadian music scene since 1970, first on guitar and electric
bass and for the past 33 years on acoustic bass. He is a
B.Mus. graduate of the Humber/BCOU Music Program and holds
a master’s degree from McGill University (Montreal).
He also studied privately with renowned Danish bassist Neils-Henning
Orsted-Petersen and arranger Rick Wilkins. Working in Toronto
as a sideman with such artists as Zoot Sims, Chet Baker,
Bill Charlap, Harold Mabern Jr., Carol Sloane with Bill Mays,
Brian Dickinson, Pat Labarbera, Alex Dean, Kirk MacDonald,
Nancy Walker, Lorne Lofsky and Ted Quinlan and touring internationally
with Moe Koffman/Dizzy Gillespie and Jane Bunnett, he established
a solid reputation in Canadian jazz. To his credit Overs
has 4CDs on the Unity/Page label as leader/producer and more
than 80 as a sideman.
Kieran Overs was one of only 8 jazz artists selected to represent
Canada on the 4CD/50-artist-boxed set "HERE AND NOW"-A
Celebration of Canadian Music "; produced by the Canada
Council to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the United
Nations (released world-wide in October 1995). A profile
of Overs’ career can be found in Mark Miller’s
book "The Miller Companion to Jazz in Canada".
Recently, Kieran Overs toured internationally with singers
Sophie Milman and Emilie-Claire Barlow. He is on adjunct
faculty at Humber College in Toronto and Mohawk College in
Hamilton and is active as a freelance musician, clinician
and bandleader. His current band is an all-star line-up of
Canadian musicians, Overs’ Eleven.
More information about Kieran Overs is available at www.kieranovers.com.
“…Toronto bassist Kieran Overs was sitting in on behalf
on Cecil McBee…Overs was very much in his element” Mark Miller
of the Toronto Globe & Mail on Kieran with…Kenny Barron:
Daniel Barnes - Drums
Drummer, Composer, Producer and Singer Daniel Barnes was
born into an artistic family in the central hub of downtown
Toronto, Canada in 1965. His father Milton Barnes was a classical
music composer with symphonic, chamber and choral works for
concert stage and dance to his legacy. His Mother Lilly is
a published author and scriptwriter for television and radio.
His Brother Micah is a singer songwriter best known for his
work with The Nylons.
Daniel found his calling at age 5. His education came through
private studies in Toronto and attending The Banff Centre
Summer Jazz Workshop in the late 1980's. At 16 he began regular
professional work with The Micah Barnes Trio who played local
clubs and graduated to the concert stage opening for international
touring acts. Daniel went on to perform and record with the
top echelon of Canadian artists including Holly Cole, Joe
Sealy, Jane Bunnett, Hilario Duran, Molly Johnson, Richard
Underhill, Jake Langley, Brian Browne The Flying Bulgar Klezmer
Band, Maryem Tollar, Theresa Tova, DJ Socalled, The Bourbon
Tabernacle Choir, Bass is Base and many more. Throughout
the 1990’s Daniel toured in Europe, The U.S., Africa
and The Caribbean with Ethiopian singing star Aster Aweke
(“The Aretha Franklin of Ethiopia” TIME magazine).
Daniel has released two of his own jazz Cd’s; 2003’s “Culmination” and
2007’s “Classic Beauties”. They receive
critical acclaim and considerable airplay on The CBC and
JazzFm in Toronto.
Daniel’s band has appeared at The Toronto and Montreal
International Jazz Festivals among others and has been broadcast
in performance on TV Ontario. His Cd’s are available
through major retail outlets, at itunes.com and through www.danielbarnes.net.
Daniel was nominated “Drummer of the Year” at
both the 2003 and 2007 National Jazz Awards while his work
with others has thrice been nominated for Juno awards with
a win in 1996 for Joe Sealy’s “Africville Suite”.
More information about Daniel Barnes is available at www.danielbarnes.net
“stands with the best of (his) generation in Canada" Mark Miller,
Globe and Mail.
THE ART OF THE PIANO: BEATRIZ BOIZAN Friday November 11 at 8 pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963):
San Francisco El Grande
Antonio Soler (1729-1783):
Sonata in F-Sharp Minor, S.R. 78
Sonata D-Flat Major, S.R. 88
Ignacio Cervantes (1847-1905): Danzas
Invitación
Los Tres Golpes
Ilusiones Perdidas
La Encantadora
Adiós a Cuba
Improvisada
Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963):
La Comparsa (from Danzas Afro-Cubanas)
…Y La Negra Bailaba! (from Danzas Afro-Cubanas)
Manuel María Ponce (1882-1948):
Estudio de Concierto # 8 Preludio galante
Estudio de Concierto # 1 Preludio trágico
Part II
José Luis Turina (1952-present):
Homenaje a Isaac Albéniz (2001)
Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909): Selections from Suite
Iberia
Evocación (Book I)
Triana (Book II)
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983): Danzas Argentinas, Op. 2
Danza del Viejo Boyero
Danza de la Moza Donosa
Danza del Gaucho Matrero
Biography
Considered “One of the brightest new lights in the
classical world” (The Vancouver Sun), pianist Beatriz
Boizán is admired for her vibrant personality, charismatic
stage presence, unique musicianship and innate talent to
deliver breathtakingly authentic innovative performances
of Spanish and Latin American music, a repertoire for which
she was encouraged by her teacher and mentor, Mme. Alicia
de Larrocha.
Her debut CD, Pasión, on Galano Records, features
Boizán playing 17 solo piano pieces written by some
of her favorite Spanish and Latin American composers - Lecuona,
Soler, Cervantes, Albéniz and Ginastera. Her stunning,
scintillating, passionate, moving interpretations, delivered
with deep maturity, understanding and respect are certain
to make a tremendous, lasting impact on Classical and Latin
music fans worldwide.
Born in Baracoa (Cuba), in the heart of a musical family,
Miss Boizán began cultivating her gift as a child
under the guidance of her grandmother Esclarecida Guilarte.
After graduating in 1995 with honours from the National School
of Music in Havana, she moved to Canada to further her musical
training. In Vancouver, Boizán obtained the Music
Diploma at the Vancouver Community College King Edward Campus
in 1999. She completed the Bachelor of Music at the University
of British Columbia in 2002 and her Master in Music degree
at the University of Alberta in 2004. She currently resides
in Ontario, where she is promoting her Debut album Pasión.
In a concert organized by the Fundación Autor of
Sociedad General de Autores y Editores(SGAE) in Madrid, as
homage to Joaquín Turina on the 60th anniversary of
his death, Ms. Boizán performed works by the prestigious
composer and his grandson José Luis Turina, the most
prominent composer of Contemporary Spanish Music. After attending
the concert he said about Ms. Boizán’s playing: “She
surprises by her sensitivity, her pianism and her incomparable
and masterful sound".
“Ms. Boizán is endowed with the skill of a
virtuoso. Her playing is above reproach, a breath of a tropical
breeze always swirling somewhere in the space between the
score and Ms. Boizán’s performance.”
-Renée Silberman, The Beat Magazine, London, Ontario
“She’s an extremely talented pianist, full of
personality…”
– The Edmonton Sun
“I heard her while adjudicating the Fraser MacPherson
Scholarship Competition a few years ago. She won. She is
a beautiful young pianist in every way. Her sound is her
own – never an ugly moment – imagination, musicality,
and she has the magic.”
–Pianist Linda Lee Thomas (The Vancouver Sun)
Jane Bunnett and Hilario Duran:
Improvisations upon John Cage's FONTANA MIX Monday November 7 at 7:30 PM (McLuhan
Conference Delegates)
Tuesday, November 8 at 7:30 PM (General Public)
Cost: Delegates (included in conference registration fees); Public: $20 at the
door
Internationally reknown musicians Jane Bunnett (soprano
sax and flute) and Hilario Duran (piano), with the aid of
some prepared tapes, will perform spontaneous improvisations
to Robert Bean's iteration of John Cage's Fontana Mix (1958).
The score Cage created for Fontana Mix consists of 20 sheets,
ten transparencies inscribed with points (or dots), a single
transparency bearing a straight line and ten plain white
sheets with squiggly lines. By means of an included graph
and a straight line, the performer uses the sheets in combination
as a "tool" to assemble a realization of Fontana
Mix. In executing the tape, Cage divided his sound sources
into six classes; city sounds, country sounds, electronic
sounds, manually produced (meaning "instrumental")
sounds, wind-produced sounds (such as singing), and small
sounds that require amplification, such as crickets chirping.
Coordinate points drawn from the transparencies determine
the class of each tape sound, inches of tape used, its volume,
timbre, mixing, and other elements. Cage once described the
score of Fontana Mix as "a camera from which anyone
can take a photograph."
The challenge for the players is not to "re-create" the
original tape mix, but to respond in the moment to the images
on the wall before them. The player's response to the images,
brings everything that they have learned and distilled over
years of playing to create a new composition, a unique soundscape.
If they incorporate some of Cage's sound sources, then they
will be in close proximity to the spirit of the piece. Cage
would welcome this form of improvisation, but he might ask
the player to leave his or her personal history at the door.
That is the great challenge to this type of performance.
Each time played the composition will be unique, a direct
connection to the moment played in, never to be repeated
(unless, of course, it is recorded).
Bios:
Multiple Juno Award winner, Jane Bunnett has turned her bands
into showcases for the finest talent from Canada, the U.S.and
Cuba. She has been nominated for Grammy Awards, numerous
Juno Awards, and most recently, was honoured with an appointment
to the Order of Canada. An internationally acclaimed musician,
Jane Bunnett is known for her creative integrity, improvisational
daring and courageous artistry. Her exploration of Afro-Cuban
melodies expresses the universality of music and her ability
to embrace and showcase the rhythms and culture of Cuba has
been groundbreaking. She has toured the world bringing her
own special sound to numerous jazz festivals, displaying
her versatility as a flutist, saxophone player and pianist.
As an educator, spokesperson and social activist, she remains
unafraid to explore uncharted territory in her quest for
excellence! More on Jane Bunnett here: http://www.janebunnett.com/biography.html
Hilario Duran is one of the world’s most innovative
creators of Afro-Cuban music & Latin Jazz. He has won
two JUNO Awards and over a dozen National Jazz Awards in
Canada. The Latin Jazz Corner wrote that Hilario is one of
the world’s “contemporary Cuban pianists that
moved jazz into the 21st century”. He received two
JUNO Award 2010 nominations for the Hilario Durán
Trio album “Motion” (Alma/Universal Records);
best Contemporary Jazz album of the Year & Recording
Engineer of the Year, and he was named #1 Latin Jazz Best
Recording of 2010 by Latin Jazz Network. He received a Grammy
nomination in 2007 for his Latin Jazz Big Band album, “From
The Heart”, (Alma/Universal Records) featuring Paquito
D’Rivera and Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez,
and won a Juno Award (Canadian Grammy equivalent) for “Contemporary
Jazz Album of the Year”. He was honoured with the prestigious
2007 Chico O’Farrill lifetime achievement award in
Miami for his outstanding contributions to Afro-Cuban jazz
and Latin Jazz. He is adjunct piano professor and ensemble
director in jazz faculty at Humber College, Toronto, Ontario.
More on Hilario Duran here: http://www.hilarioduran.com/biography.htm
INTIMATE ECHOES
Chelsea Shanoff, saxophone
and Teresa Vaughan, piano Sunday November 6 at 3 pm
$15 general admission and $10 for seniors and students
Programme
Prelude, Cadence et Finale
Alfred Desenclos (1912-1971)
TBA (World Premier)
Mike Romaniak (b. 1989)
Intimate Echoes (Canadian Premier)
Robert Lemay (b. 1960)
Intermission
Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Trans. Alain Bouhey
Sonata
William Albright (1944-1998)
I. Two-Part Invention
II. La Follia Nuova: A Lament for George Cacioppo
III. Scherzo “Will o’ the Wisp”
IV. Recitative and Dance
Biography
Teresa Vaughan
Teresa Vaughan, a Toronto-based pianist, has worked extensively
as a collaborative pianist and pedagogue. Teresa recently
received her Master of Music in performance from the University
of Toronto where she studied with Midori Koga and Jamie Parker.
Originally from the West Coast, Teresa’s performances
have taken her from Victoria to Halifax. She has collaborated
with a variety of instrumentalists, including VIVID, a flute/piano
duo she co-founded, woodwinds, strings, and vocalists as
well as a number of choral ensembles. Currently, Teresa is
the pianist for Wallace Halladay’s saxophone studio
at the University of Toronto and a staff accompanist for
the Toronto Children’s Chorus. Additionally, Teresa
maintains busy teaching studios, both privately and in the
University of Toronto Children’s Piano Pedagogy Program.
Chelsea Shanoff
Chelsea Shanoff is a diverse Toronto-based saxophonist,
with a strong interest in modern music. Chelsea holds a Masters
of Music degree from Arizona State University, where she
studied saxophone performance with Dr. Timothy McAllister.
She received her Honours Bachelors of Music degree in saxophone
performance from the University of Toronto in 2009, studying
under Dr. Wallace Halladay. Chelsea was the recipient of
the 2008 Hinda and Tobias Memorial Scholarship. Chelsea is
an avid yoga practitioner and plans to complete a yoga teacher-training
program in 2011-12.
Chelsea was featured as an emerging artist on the 2010 X-Avant
Music Festival held at the Music Gallery in Toronto. She
has also appeared in performance at the University of Toronto
with Dr. Wallace Halladay. While at Arizona State University,
Chelsea was the tenor saxophonist of the Estrella Consort,
a saxophone quartet based in the greater Phoenix area. As
a member of the quartet, Chelsea performed at various music
festivals and events, such as the Classical Revolution PHX,
Second Sundays Series, and the Xenakisfest held at ASU. She
has also performed at multiple North American Saxophone Alliance
conferences. In 2005 Chelsea performed at Carnegie Hall with
the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra.
Chelsea has performed as a member of the Toronto Royal Conservatory
of Music Orchestra, the Arizona State University Orchestra,
the Toronto Wind Orchestra, and the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra.
Chelsea has participated in master classes with Nobuya Sugawa,
Timothy McAllister, Serge Bertocci, Rhonda Taylor, and the
PRISM saxophone quartet. Chelsea teaches both privately as
well as with the Canada Music Academy. In the summer of 2008
Chelsea was the Music Director at East York Community Center
Arts Camp, while in the summer of 2007 she was the Music
and Drama Director at Easter Seals Camp, working with physically
disabled children and young adults.
The Thing Is Saturday October 29 at 8 pm
$20; $10 Students
Tova Kardonne- vocals, compositions,Amy
Medvick- flute, Mike Wark- alto saxophone, Christian Overton-
trombone, David Atkinson- piano, Graham Campbell- guitar,
Trevor Falls- drum kit, Devon Henderson- double bass
The Thing Is was formed in 2006 by composer and vocalist
Tova Kardonne in Toronto, Canada. With the musicians she
met in Jazz/fusion workshops at the renowned Humber Jazz
program, she formed a band around her unique fusion of Jazz
with the Balkan and South African influences of her childhood.
The unique richness of her sound has attracted guest appearances
from some of Toronto’s most acclaimed jazz virtuosi,
including Bill McBirnie, Dave Restivo, Ted Quinlan, and Jim
Vivian. Regulars at The Rex Hotel, The Thing Is also performs
at Gallery 345, The Trane Studio, The Fermenting Cellar,
Clinton’s, and The Music Gallery. Tova’s 4-octave
range, predilection for odd time signatures and hard-grooving
arrangements make for a rare treat; music that grabs and
holds both the mind and the gut.
“Adventurous composition and great musicianship combined with a wild
array of influences for a cool and unique sound.”- Alan Davis, Small
World Music
THE ART OF THE PIANO:
COLOUR OF MY DREAMS, VLADA MARS Friday October 28 at 8 pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Selection of minimalist music
Vlada Mars is bringing to Toronto new program with selections
from minimalist music, from Erik Satie, John Cage, Michael
Nyman, Philip Glass, Yann Tiersen, Wim Wertens, etc. and
her own compositions. Her passion for exploring and intimate
approach to music makes her recitals unique experience. Her
recent concerts in London, U.K, Belgrade, Serbia and Vancouver,
were praised by the public and her colleagues. New program
is inspired by Joan Miro's painting 'Ceci est la couleur
de mes reves' and her own insightful dreams. Please join
Vlada and discover what colours are your dreams.
Part 1
Dreams and Memories
Cage, Part, Preisner, Einaudi, Comando, Glass
Part 2
Signs Along the Road
Satie, Cosma, Mertens, Sakamoto, Tiersen, Nymann, Mars
Biography
Educator and pianist, Vlada Mars’ music education
started when she was seven, in a school for musical talents
in Belgrade, Serbia. During her ten years of elementary and
secondary music school, she studied piano, solfeggio, theory,
harmony and history of music. Vlada studied musicology at
the Academy of Music in Belgrade. After moving to Vancouver,
she was appointed as the music coordinator of Hollyburn Country
Club in 1997, where she is actively teaching piano and theory,
and coordinating other music programs, recitals and lectures.
Her students are currently studying at Berklee School of
Music in Boston, University of North Texas, Pomona University
in California etc. Beside her teaching profession, Vlada
is actively playing. She is passionate about exploring piano
scores for movies, a passion which resulted in her celebrated
piano recitals “Music in the Movies” and “Playground
Love”. In 2009, her passion took her in exploring minimalist
music of Philip Glass and Yann Tiersen in unique piano recital
named “Going Places” - benefit concerts for the
SAGE safe house in North Vancouver, benefit concert for Canuck
Place Children’s Hospice in Vancouver , solo recitals
in Toronto and London, U.K. and in Belgrade, Serbia. On numerous
occasions, her piano performance was a part of multimedia
exhibitions for prominent artists in Vancouver.
Aventa Ensemble Friday October 21 2011 at 8 pm
$25 General Admission
Aventa Ensemble
Aventa, founded in 2003, is a Victoria-based ensemble with
a mission statement of performing and fostering new music
in British Columbia and Canada. We achieve our mission statement
and serve our diverse audiences through a variety of activities
including our main concert series, special presentations,
outreach activity and touring. Under the artistic direction
of Bill Linwood, the ensemble is comprised of musicians who
are passionate about new music and its place in our culture.
Aventa New Music Society is a registered non-profit society
with charitable status.
Aventa regularly commissions both Canadian and international
composers and has presented premieres of over 80 works both
in Canada and on tour. Recent highlights from the international
repertoire include the Canadian premieres of Anders Nordentoft’s
opera On This Planet and
Pierre Boulez’s Dérive II (1988-2007) of which
Robert Everett-Green from the Globe and Mail wrote; “I
can hardly give enough praise to the 13 players of Victoria's
Aventa Ensemble and conductor Bill Linwood, who tackled all
this difficult music with skill, passion and dedication”
As a finale to an exciting 2010/11 season, Aventa embarks
on its third international tour in May 2011 with performances
in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and New York City. Highlights
include appearances at Denmark’s Athelas New Music
Festival and the European premiere of celebrated
Canadian composer, Gilles Tremblay’s À quelle
heure commence le temps? Hailed as “a superb contemporary-music
ensemble” (Globe and Mail), Aventa is amongst Canada’s
finest musical ambassadors.
In a continuing commitment to Canadian repertoire, Aventa
presented 25 Canadian works and 10 premieres over the last
year. Highlights have included our Victoria concert series,
critically acclaimed international and national tours and
a residency at the Banff Centre. "Aventa - directed
by Bill Linwood, has a knack for putting complementary compositions
together. For those of us who think contrast is overrated,
their programs are a treat." - Globe and Mail, Feb.
5, 2008.
In February 2010, the ensemble appeared in Montreal as
part of Société de musique contemporaine du
Québec (SMCQ) Hommage à Gilles Tremblay. As
part of SMCQ’s 44th main concert series, this concert
honored renowned Canadian composer Gilles Tremblay. In the
words of SMCQ’s Artistic Director, Walter Boudreau: “Aventa
Ensemble’s high quality of performances and original
repertoire has made it one of Canada’s most appreciated
contemporary music ensembles. William Linwood and his ensemble
present a particularly inspired Tremblay.”
In April 2010, the ensemble embarked on a national tour,
which included performances in Victoria, Montreal, Toronto
and Halifax. The tour featured Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau
sans Maître, British Columbia composer Dániel
Péter Biró’s Mishpatim and Gilles Tremblay’s
Chants Convergents. “Le Marteau came last on a program
which had already scaled the heights … Aventa Ensemble
delivered an amazing performance of it under the direction
of conductor Bill Linwood” – Stephen Pedersen,
The Chronicle Herald, Halifax. The ensemble’s focus
on the repertoire of Pierre Boulez continued in January with
critically acclaimed performances of his 2006 masterpiece
Dérive II and premieres from Jordan Nobles (BC), André Ristic
(QC) and Piotr Grella-Mozejko (AB) in Montreal, Toronto,
Calgary and Edmonton.
In June 2010, Aventa participated in a two-week residency
at the Banff Centre joined by composer Gavin Bryars, director
Joel Ivany and British Columbia author and librettist Marilyn
Bowering. This Banff Centre Production Residency for BC Artists
allowed Aventa to refine Bryars’ opera Marilyn and
featured a workshop performance on June 12, 2010. Commissioned
by Aventa, this opera is based on the iconic figure of Marilyn
Monroe and features the Faroese artist Eivør Pálsdóttir
in the lead role. The premiere of Marilyn will take place
in Victoria in October of 2012.
Aventa’s 2011/12 concert season begins with Ignite!,
our annual Composers Workshop, which serves student and emerging
composers across Canada. Guest composers Michael Finnissy
(UK) and Michael Oesterle (QC), join Aventa in working with
participating composers in the development of their music.
Season highlights include a week-residency with Sir Peter
Maxwell Davies as the ensemble presents the world premiere
of his 2011 work Stormwatch, Stormfall, written for Aventa.
Aventa has been fortunate to receive generous support from
all three levels of government and are encouraged by support
received from Foundations, international support, private
donors, sponsorship and our growing audience. Aventa occupies
a unique position within the Canadian music community. The
ensemble has established itself as a leader in contemporary
programming through an established concert series, tours,
commissions and premiere performances. Further information
can be found at www.aventa.ca
"a superb contemporary-music ensemble" – Elissa
Poole, Globe and Mail
“a superb Canadian ensemble” – Sueddeutsche, München
“an amazing performance” – Stephen Pedersen, The Chronicle
Herald, Halifax
“an uncommonly compelling interpretation” – B5 Kultur, München
“tight and well-prepared” – Arthur Kaptainis, Montreal Gazette
“a remarkable performance, a tour-de-force to match the music” – Deryk
Barker, Music in Victoria
"I can hardly give enough praise to the 13 players of Victoria's
Aventa Ensemble and conductor Bill Linwood, who tackled all
this
difficult music with skill, passion and dedication". – Robert
Everett-Green, Globe and Mail
“You've had a glimpse of infinity, and lo and behold, it's a nice
place to be” – Elissa Poole, Opus Magazine
Toy Piano Composers present:
Avant Guitars October 15, 8pm
$10 advance, $15 at the door
Avant Guitars: Works for Electric Guitar Quartet. October
15th, 8 pm, Gallery 345 - The Toy Piano Composers
write new works for the electri guitar quartet featuring
Rob MacDonald, Mike Savona, Demetri Petsalakis and Patrick
Power. The world of classical composition and the world of
electric guitar collide in a crash of creativity - will there
be noise? Yes. Will there be guitar solos? Yes. Will there
be beauty? YES. Works by Fiona Ryan, Chris Thornborrow, Elisha
Denburg, Monica Clorey, Christian Floisand, Nancy Tam, Daniel
Brophy and guest composer Adam Scime. $10adv/$15dr*.
Formed by Monica Clorey and Chris Thornborrow in July
2008, The Toy Piano Composers is a collective of ten
composers dedicated to bringing imaginative, creative
new music to Toronto and beyond. The toy piano acts
as a symbol of the group, representing playfulness, innovation,humor,
and imagination, and is featured in many of their concerts.
Their first season started with a concert for two pianos
and two toy pianos called The Toy Piano Composers Debut,
followed by a concert for string quartet using compositional
restrictions called Cage the Bird, then closed with
a concert for the improvisation quintet Digital Prowess entitled …and
then my brain exploded. Their second season began with the
composers becoming performers in I Heart New Music,
followed by a vocal concert entitled Smile, and finishing
up with a concert where the audience had to guess the composer
in Unusual Suspects. The Toy Piano Composers recently
finished their third season, presenting collaborations
with three Toronto groups – Sneak Peek Orchestra
(Toy Piano vs. Orchestra, September 25th, Calvin Presbyterian
Church), TorQ Percussion Quartet (Recess, February
26th, Heliconian Hall), and the junctQin keyboard collective
(Mini-uet, May 5th, Gallery 345). They are currently
in their fourth season which will feature a concert with
the electric guitar quartet Avant-guitars (October 15th,
8 pm, Gallery 345), an evening of short opera scenes entitled
Opera Scenesters (January 21st, 8 pm, Heliconian Hall) and
a dynamic collaboration with the legendary Toronto new music
ensemble Arraymusic (April 28th, 8 pm, Music Gallery). For
more information and tickets, see www.thetoypianocomposers.com.
The Piano Music of Ann Southam Friday October 14 at 8pm
$25 adults / $20 students and seniors
Array pianist Stephen Clarke is joined by special guest
pianists Eve Egoyan, Henry Kucharzyk and Christina Petrowska
Quilico.
As an added delight we bring Peggy Baker to reprise her brilliant dance
to Ann’s Spatial View of Pond.
Programme
Stephen Clarke - Glass Houses #9
Eve Egoyan - In Retrospect
Eve and Stephen - In a Measure of Time
Christina Petrowska Quilico - A selection of Rivers
Henry Kucharzyk - Spatial View of Pond with Peggy
Baker dancing.
Trikonasana Saturday October 8 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Trikonasana (pronounced trih-koh-NAH-sah-nah) is a collective
trio. Nancy Walker (piano), Bruce Cassidy (trumpet and EVI)
and Lowell Whitty (drums) push the boundaries of structure
and freedom, playing original tunes that move from rhapsodic
to intense to groovy. Come and see the group in this fantastic
concert setting,
Bios
Pianist and composer Nancy Walker is
the winner of the 2008 National Jazz Awards Keyboardist Of
The Year Award and the 2003 Montréal International
Jazz Festival’s prestigious Grand Prix de Jazz.
Nancy has several discs as leader to her credit. Her debut
as leader, Invitation, was released in 1997. and was voted
one of the year’s best by Jazz Canadiana reviewers.
Toronto Star critic Geoff Chapman named Luminosity (2000)
one of the top jazz recordings of that year. Levitation,
Nancy’s third recording (2003), was “a fine example
of the modern jazz musician’s art” according
to the Globe & Mail’s Mark Miller. When She Dreams,
was released in 2004 on Canada’s premier jazz label,
Justin Time Records, and shot to the number one position
on Canadian campus radio jazz charts.
In 2005, Nancy and her quartet (featuring saxophonist Kirk
MacDonald, bassist Kieran Overs and drummer Barry Romberg)
toured the Canadian jazz festivals. That same year Nancy
was nominated in four categories at Canada’s National
Jazz Awards. In 2006, Nancy’s recording Rainy
Days and Mondays (Somerset/Universal) was nominated for a
JUNO award in the “Instrumental Album Of The Year” category.
She was also among the Keyboardist Of The Year nominees at
the 2006 and 2007 National Jazz Awards. Her next recording
Need Another was a trio date with Kieran Overs and drummer
Ethan Ardelli.
Nancy’s latest release (made possible with the help
of The Ontario Arts Council) is New Hieroglyphics, and features
her current working quartet with Ted Quinlan (guitar) along
with Overs and Ardelli.
Nancy has a solid background as a pianist and keyboard player
for a variety of international recording and concert acts,
both in and outside the jazz idiom. She’s recorded
and toured with folk artist Sylvia Tyson, children’s
entertainer Raffi, pop icons The Parachute Club, balladeer
Roger Whittaker, and well-loved composer (the late) Hagood
Hardy, to name a few.
Over the years Nancy has built enduring jazz relationships.
As the pianist in the John Geggie Trio, Nancy continues yearly
to hold the piano chair in the house rhythm section for The
Ottawa International Jazz Festival’s nightly jam sessions.
With bassist Geggie, Nancy has performed in concert with
drum legend Billy Hart, contemporary drum heavyweight Matt
Wilson and saxophone dynamo Donny McCaslin. She has recorded
and performed in concert with the cream of Canada’s
jazz vocal crop, from Vancouver’s Karin Plato to Toronto’s
Emilie-Claire Barlow, and has worked frequently alongside
Toronto saxophonists Kirk MacDonald and Pat Labarbera. Nancy
can be heard on recently released recordings by John Geggie
+ Donny McCaslin (this Plunge Records
release garnered rave reviews and made several “Best
of 2010″ lists), Kirk MacDonald Jazz Orchestra, Fair/Galloway
Quintet and Swedish guitarist Mikko Hildén.
Thanks to grants from The Canada Council For the Arts, Nancy
has had the opportunity to study with renowned American pianist/composers
Fred Hersch, Jason Moran, and Myra Melford.
“She’s a commanding presence at the piano. Her
solos are strong and personal, and she’s a wonderful
accompanist.”
Ted O’Reilly, The Whole Note Magazine
“Harmonically she’s influenced by the usual
suspects-Evans, Hancock, Jarrett, etc.-but her delicate touch
and denser harmonic constructs brings to mind British pianist
John Taylor as well…Walker’s music is easy on
the ears, but don’t mistake that for lacking in interest
or
challenge, because she masks an advanced harmonic concept
within an accessible veneer.”
John Kelman, All About Jazz
“Nancy Walker has played enough piano to know how
to keep listeners interested however hard she pushes the
boundaries of familiarity."
Geoff Chapman, The Whole Note Magazine
Lowell Whitty
Lowell Whitty is a recent graduate of the Humber CollegeMusic
Program. Over the past few years he has had the fortune of
keeping a busy schedule playing many styles and performing
frequently around Toronto. He leads a group that plays his
original compositions called Notes and Noodles. The group
has released a self titled EP in the summer of 2010 and have
been playing regularly all over Toronto since. His touring
experiences include having performed all over Switzerland,
Denmark and Italy with New Orleans jazz band The Happy Pals.
Lowell has performed with many other artists such as The
Heavyweights Brass Band, Avi Granite 4, RightLeftWhere (feat.
Tom Richards and Peter Lutek), Nancy Walker, Bruce Cassidy,
Kevin Quain & The Mad Bastards, NKLS 4tet, Dan Easty's
Blue View, to name a few. Lowell is an active teacher (drums,
percussion, and theory with 8 years of teaching experience)
in the Toronto area. He has studied with Jim Black, Nick
Fraser, Joey Baron, Barry Romberg, and Chendy Leon in a clinic
of a private setting. Feel free to contact him regarding
private lessons.
Bruce Cassidy
Bruce Cassidy (trumpeter, EVI player, composer, arranger,
producer) was born in Fredricton, N.B , schooled in Nova
Scotia and Dalhousie University. Bruce first started playing
trumpet in Montreal in the 1950’s with Joe Sealy and
Hubie Basso. After studying at the Berklee College in Boston
he moved to Toronto where he became a fixture on the Toronto
jazz scene, both in clubs and studios recording seven albums
with Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass.
He has recorded, played and toured with Doug Riley’s
Dr. Music, Lighthouse, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones and Anne
Murray as well as a number of symphony orchestras including
the Toronto Symphony. Bruce composed for and performed with
Blood Sweat and Tears, producing their
last two albums and acting as musical director. Along the
way he became an expert performer on the EVI, or electronic
valve instrument created by his friend Nyle Steiner.
A move to South Africa in 1980 saw him involved in producing
music for film, television, dance and orchestra and many
other creative projects, immersed in South African culture.
He currently performs with his “Hotfoot Orchestra” comprised
of some of Toronto’s best musicians.
In his role as educator, Bruce is on the faculty of the
Jazz Studies program at Humber College, Toronto.
The Art of the Piano:
Alejandro Vela, piano and Ji Min Hong, dancer Thursday October 6 2011 at 8 PM
"In Celebration of Bicentennial of Franz Liszt"
Works by Franz Liszt and Manuel M. Ponce
Alejandro Vela, Piano
with Ji Min Hong, Corps de Ballet, The National Ballet of
Canada
Choreographed by Robert Binet
For Advance Tickets or Additional Information
please email: vela@alejandrovela.com
Program
Manuel M. Ponce: Selections
Franz Liszt: Selections from Years of Pilgrimage: Second
Year (Italy)
Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12
Alejandro Vela, Piano
Alejandro Vela, Piano
Acclaimed as “a conjuror at the keyboard” and
praised for his power to carry an audience away through his
ability to create an atmosphere of mystery, sensuous beauty
and majesty, Alejandro Vela is a pianist of Northern Mexican
origin now performing in concert halls worldwide. Recent
solo recitals have brought him to Taipei, Toronto, Montreal,
Rome, Vienna, Budapest, Kiev and Berlin. In February of 2011,
Mr. Vela gave début performances in Tokyo in a solo
recital and as soloist with the Camerata de Coahuila led
by Ramón Shade in Mexico. In October of 2011, Mr.
Vela plays in Budapest at the prestigious Obudai Tarsaskor
Concert Hall in commemoration of Liszt's bicentennial birthday.
Also this season he débuts in Prague and Helsinki,
tours Asia, and performs as a member of the Quint Quintet
in major venues in North America.
Alejandro Vela has performed as soloist with most of the
Mexican orchestras including the Orquesta Filarmónica
de la Ciudad de México, the Orquesta Sinfónica
del Estado de México, the Orquesta Sinfónica
Carlos Chávez, the Orquesta Filarmónica de
Jalisco, the Filarmónica del Estado de Querétaro
and with many American ones, including the Chicago Symphony
and the Houston Symphony led by Christoph Eschenbach, as
well as orchestras in Israel, Canada and the Dominican Republic.
He has appeared at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, Alice
Tully Hall in New York, National Arts Center in Mexico and
the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Recently, Mr. Vela
gave acclaimed performances at the El Paso Pro-Musica concert
series, the Canadian Opera Company Piano Virtuoso Series
in Toronto, Mexico City's Sala Nezahualcóyotl, Festival
de México and the National Concert Hall in Taipei.
Born and raised in Piedras Negras, Alejandro very early
began his piano studies with his mother Hortensia Vela Mante
and continued with Robert Avalon. He holds both a Bachelor
and a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where
he studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky. More information on Alejandro
Vela at www.alejandrovela.com.
Ji Min Hong, Corps de Ballet,
The National Ballet of Canada
Photo by Sian Richards,
courtesy of The National Ballet of Canada
Ji Min Hong was born in Seoul, South Korea. She trained
at the Yewon Arts School in Seoul, at the Seoul branch of
the Vaganova Ballet Academy and at Canada’s National
Ballet School. She joined The National Ballet of Canada as
a member of the Corps de Ballet in 2010.
Ms. Hong’s repertoire includes roles in Cinderella,
The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, Serenade and Theme and Variations.
She also danced in the company premiere of Christopher Wheeldon’s
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
During her training, Ms. Hong made appearances as a Lead
Swan in Swan Lake with Canada’s National Ballet School
and the Lilac Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty with the Yewon
School. She participated in The Banff Centre’s Summer
Arts Festival in 2010, performing in Ji?í Kylián’s
Wings of Wax pas de deux and Indigo Rose. Ms. Hong also danced
with the Dutch National Ballet in Natalia Makarova’s
La Bayadère in 2009.
Ms. Hong was a finalist in the 2001 Asia Pacific International
Ballet Competition.
THE ART OF THE PIANO DUO: PIECES OF THE EARTH
CD release concert
John Kameel Farah and Attila Fias, pianos Wednesday October 5 at 8 pm
$15/$10 (Seniors/Students)
John Kameel Farah
Toronto composer-pianists Attila Fias and John Kameel Farah
present a concert of Earth-themed compositions and improvisations
for two pianos.
PIECES OF THE EARTH is inspired by our planet in all of
its manifestations: as a world of deep oceans and pillared
mountains of natural wonder and majesty, as a precious island
in our solar system, as a place of civilisations blooming
and falling, and as a fragile, delicate environment in peril.
Themes of the fluttering of birds, volcanic plumes, cosmic
dervishes, dreamy gardens and trembling warnings from the
Earth itself dance and intertwine throughout the album. Drawing
upon their combined diverse backgrounds in jazz, free improv,
minimalism, Electronic music, Early music and avant-garde
experimentalism, the stylistic range of these new pieces
and improvisations expand the boundaries of the piano duo
repertoire.
This concert will be recorded by The Signal, CBC Radio
2 for broadcast.
Bios
John Kameel Farah is a Toronto–based composer, pianist
and visual artist. He studied composition and piano performance
at the University of Toronto, where he received the Glenn
Gould Composition Award twice during his studies. In 1999
he had private lessons with Terry Riley in California, and
later at the Arabic Music Retreat in Hartford. In 1998, he
performed the complete solo piano works of Arnold Schoenberg
in Toronto. Toronto’s NOW Magazine named his as Best
Pianist 2006, and he was the recipient of the K.M. Hunter
Artist Award for music for 2011.
Behind a stage set up that can include piano, Baroque harpsichords,
various synthesizers, and laptop computers, John Kameel Farah
ranges all over his instruments while setting up textures
and countertextures, moving deftly from acoustic to electronic
episodes, and deploying his materials with a mixture of scientific
care and wild abandon. Also an avid improvisor, Farah is
interested in working in a wide open creative field through
which he can combine, juxtapose, and transform the musics
that interest him most: Early and Baroque keyboard music,
ambient minimalism, Middle-Eastern music, Electronic Dance
Music, and electroacoustics.
As a visual artist, his ink drawings have been presented
at solo and group exhibitions. He has also composed extensively
for solo piano as well as for string quartet, percussion
groups, wind ensembles and electronic arrangements.
Farah performs regularly in his native Toronto, and has
toured internationally across the U.K., Europe, USA, Canada,
the Middle–East, Brazil, South Korea and Mexico. In
1999 and 2002, he visited the Edward Said National Conservatory
in the West Bank, giving performances and masterclasses in
Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
His last CD, "Unfolding" was released on Dross:tik
Records in 2009, and his next album, "Between Carthage
and Rome" will be released in a few months.
Born in Budapest, Hungary, Attila began studying music and
playing piano at an early age with his father’s guidance.
When his family moved to Canada, he studied with distinguished
Canadian musician Dr. David Ouchterlony. He graduated with
a performance degree in jazz from the University of Toronto.
Attila's experience includes performing and recording with
people such as producer Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, John Lennon),
Oscar-winner A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire), Indian music
stars such as Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan (Shakti), Jolly
Mukherjee (Bjork), New York based Brazilian jazz harmonica
virtuoso Hendrik Meurkens (Oscar Castro-Neves, Paquito D’Rivera),
tabla master Rajesh Rajbhatt (Zakir Hussain) and many fine
Canadian musicians.
As a bandleader and performing musician, Attila has toured
around the world, playing in concert venues of all sizes
such as Wembley Stadium, Sydney SuperDome, Bangalore Palace
Grounds, Roy Thompson Hall, and many more. In 2009, Attila
and his quartet was invited to perform centre stage at the
Los Angeles Convention Center for the 61st Primetime Emmy
Awards Governor’s Ball, the largest sit down dinner
event in the United States.
Attila has produced, composed, arranged, and performed for
Universal/MCA, Sony/BMG, EMI America, Somerset Entertainment,
Fisher Price and independent labels, on over 90 internationally
distributed CDs with one platinum and three gold-selling
albums in Canada. They cover a diverse range of styles including
jazz, world music, rock, classical, latin and Indian fusion.
The Attila Fias Trio’s debut album of all original
music entitled “Stories” was released in 2010.
It’s a spirited fusion of modern jazz with various
musical and ethnic influences. Attila’s compositions
are eclectic yet cohesive as they explore unusual rhythms
and harmonies while still incorporating elements of jazz
and free improvisational sections. Attila is currently working
on several projects including composing for a new Trio CD,
a Brazilian jazz project, and a new music piano duo with
fellow pianist John Kameel Farah.
Sylvie Courvoisier Friday September 30 at 8 PM
$20 ($15 for members of AIMToronto, students, seniors, underemployed, etc. )
2-day pass: $30 ($25 for members, students, seniors, underemployed, etc.)
Composer/pianist is the featured artist this weekend of
aim/toronto’s interface series. She performs two sets
tonight with Pamela Attariwala, violin and viola and Matt
Miller, samples and electronics; Muskox with Ali Berkok,
piano, Pete Johnston, bass, Jake Oelrichs,
drums, Mike Smith, banjo and Jeremy Strachan, reeds; Sylvie
Courvoisier, piano, Kyle Brenders, soprano saxophone, Rick
Sacks, percussion and Heather Segger, trombone.
Composer/pianist , Sylvie Courvoisier was born and raised
in Lausanne, Switzerland. She moved to Brooklyn, New York
in 1998, where she currently resides. She has played and
recorded with John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Tim Berne, Joey Baron,Mark
Feldman, Tony Oxley, Yusef Lateef,
Joëlle Léandre, Herb Robertson, Butch Morris,
Tom Rainey, Mark Dresser, Ellery Eskelin, Lotte Anker, Fred
Frith, Michel Godard, Mark Nauseef among others.
She has been commissioned to write music for concerts, radio,
dance and theater. Her works include:” Concerto for
electric guitar and chamber orchestra"; "Balbutiements" for
vocal quartet and soprano. Commissions include the Vidy Theater
of Lausanne, Pro Helvetia and
Germany's Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival. Her latest releases
as a leader are: ABATON with Mark Feldman and Erik Friedlander
on ECM Records (2004), LONELYVILLE with her quintet on
Intakt Records (2007), a solo piano album, SIGNS AND EPIGRAMS,
on Tzadik Records (2007), and two quartet albums "TO
FLY TO STEAL'' (2010) and "HOTEL DU NORD" (2011)
on Intakt Records
Since 1995, she has been touring widely with her own groups
and as a side person in USA, Canada, Japan and Europe including
Jazz and New Music Festivals such as Berlin, Willisau, Donaueschingen,
Banlieue Bleue, Saalfelden, Groningen, Visions NY, Nürnberg,
Taktlos, London
LMC, Bath Festival, Muenster and Victoriaville Festival,
among others
She performs regulary in Duo with violinist Mark Feldman,
and just recorded a new CD " OBLIVIA" on Tzadik
Records (2010) and co-leads the Sylvie Courvoisier Mark Feldman
QUARTET. Sylvie is the leader of her quintet "Lonelyville"with
Ikue Mori, Mark Feldman, Vincent Courtois and Gerlad Cleaver
and the Trio Abaton . She is a member of “Mephista”,
an improvising trio with Ikue Mori and Susie Ibarra; “Trio “along
with Ellery Eskelin and Vincent Courtois. She also performs
regularly alone .Since 2010, she has been working with the
new project
of the flamenco dancer Israel Galvan "la Curva".
| Awards include Switzerland's 1996 Prix des jeunes créateurs
, Zonta Club's 2000 Prix de la Création, and Switzerland's
2010 Grand Prix de la Fondation Vaudoise de la Culture
| Selected Discography:
HOTEL DU NORD-- Sylvie Courvoisier Mark Feldman Quartet (Intakt
2011)
TO FLY TO STEAL-- Sylvie Courvoisier Mark Feldman Quartet
(Intakt 2010)
OBLIVIA- - Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier- (Tzadik
2010)
DICTEE/LIBER NOVUS - John Zorn(Tzadik 2010)
FEMINA -- John Zorn (Tzadik 2009)
AS SOON AS POSSIBLE - Courtois, Courvoisier & Eskelin
( Cam Jazz 2008)
EVERY SO OFTEN - Ellery Eskelin & Sylvie Courvoisier
( Prime Source 2008)
SIGNS AND EPIGRAMS -Sylvie Courvoisier solo (Tzadik2007)
LONELYVILLE- Sylvie Courvoisier Quintet with Mori, Feldman,
Courtois,
Cleaver (Intakt 2007)
REAL ABERATION--Herb Robertson -NY Downtown Allstars-(clean
Feed 2007)
MALPHAS - Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier, music of
John Zorn-Book
of Angels- (Tzadik 2006)
ABATON – Sylvie Courvoisier Trio feat. Feldman, Friedlander
(ECM
Records, 2cd 2004)
MASADA RECITAL -Sylvie Courvoisier & Mark Feldman , music
of John Zorn
(Tzadik 2004)
ENTOMOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS - Mephista (Courvoisier, Mori,
Ibarra) (Tzadik 2004)
DEUX PIANOS- Sylvie Courvoisier , Jacques Demierre (Intakt,
2000)
Y2K - Sylvie Courvoisier Ocre (Enja Records, 2000)
MUSIC FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO - Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Feldman
(Avan
Records, 1999)
MUSIC FOR BARREL ORGAN, PIANO, TUBA, BASS AND PERCUSSION
- Sylvie
Courvoisier Ocre (Enja, 1997)
« ...That her music is as aesthetically beautiful
as it is strange and mysterious is only further testament
to her prowess as a composer. That this trio plays her music
as if it has been creating it from the air is nothing short
of remarkable. Abaton is Courvoisier's crowning achievement
thus far, and this group points her firmly forward in a direction
where everything is still possible, demonstrating that there
is something new under the sun in classical music and improvisation.
Perhaps Abaton is the great moment of 2003 for new classical
music. »
Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
« Courvoisier's playing is jaw-dropping at times,
and there's an extended passage that features her working
both inside and on the keyboard of the piano interacting
with Rainey and the others in subtle combinations, and working
up to a terrifying free jazz piano freakout that could make
a person faint!»
Michael Anton Parker, 2005
« This highly original and new music has it all: razor-sharp
edges, sounds of a thousand dancing needles, thundering power
arising from deeply yawning chasms, mystic fluorescence throughout,
calmness combined with a mysterious kind of moving»
Henning Bolte, 5/2007
« …Dans un autre pays que la Suisse, elle serait
adulée comme une des plus importantes plumes musicales
de son temps. Elle recevrait tous les prix envisageables,
n'aurait plus à se faire du souci pour les trente
années à venir. Mais elle a décidé de
vivre outre-Atlantique. Elle est notre ambassade, mieux que
quiconque.... »
Arnaud Robert, Le Temps, 2005
Sylvie Courvoisier Saturday October 1 at 8 PM
$20 ($15 for members of AIMToronto, students, seniors,
underemployed, etc. )
2-day pass: $30 ($25 for members, students, seniors,
underemployed, etc.)
Tonight’s performance also has three sets. The first
has Sylvie Courvoisier playing a piano duo with Marilyn Lerner;
the Tania Gill Quartet, Tania Gill, piano, Lina Allemano,
trumpet, Jean Martin,
drums, Clint Ryder bass; Sylvie Courvoisier, piano, Justin
Haynes, guitar, Nicole Ramperesaud, trumpet, and Joe Sorbara,
drums and percussion.
The Lighting of the Moon Saturday September 24, 2011
at 8 PM
$20 General Admission Proceeds to support the Heart and Stroke Foundation of
Ontario
For Advance Tickets or Additional Information
call: 416-565-7792 or email: info@lynnglazer.com
Lynn Glazer - Vocalist
with Sunny Choi - Pianist
Directed, Staged, and Musically Arranged by Gerald Isaac
Biographies
Lynn Glazer is a Toronto-based Vocalist.
Lynn's vocal background is rooted in classical vocal studies
at The Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto. Her musical
theatre work has included roles in the St. Clement's community
musical theatre productions of Fiddler on the Roof; No,
No, Nanette; Me and My Girl; and Schwartzspell. More recently,
Lynn has been involved in a variety of musical revues at
The Storefront Studio, including The Girls Back Home; 100
Years of Broadway; Lovely Ladies Productions; and Thanks
Will.
In recent years, Lynn has focused on jazz standards from
the 1920s to '50s and in 2009 she recorded the EP entitled,
From The Heart, including innovative renditions of jazz favourites,
from moving ballads to the sassy and up-tempo "Funny
Honey".
The Lighting of the Moon evolved from Lynn's collaboration
with renowned veteran actor, singer, dancer, choreographer,
and director, Gerald Isaac, at The Storefront Studio, Toronto,
and Sunny Choi, noted piano artist.
Sunny Choi - Piano Artist
Grammy award-winner Enrique Iglesias called Sunny Choi's
piano playing 'truly amazing.' She has over twenty million
YouTube views and has played in front of thousands with
rave reviews. Sunny Choi has charted in Billboard magazine,
been featured in newspaper articles in Asia, Europe and
North America, and has developed a global following. Even
while performing at over 200 events each year, Sunny Choi
has multiple recording projects in development while her
current recordings are available worldwide.
Aaron Keele CD Release Friday September 23, 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Aaron Keele has spent his life surrounded by stacks of vinyl
records. Raised in his father’s
collectable records store in the mid 1970s, he was already
singing Frankie Lymon and the
Teenagers tunes at the tender age of 6. That same year, he
sat on Fats Domino’s knee. The call of music was undeniable
and, at the age of 15, Aaron formed an a cappella doo-wop
group which enjoyed a measure of local success. Aaron also
performed with The Persuasions and The Dixie Hummingbirds,
among others, but it was jazz that finally captured his heart.
Throughout the early 1990s, The Aaron Keele Contingent played
the Toronto Jazz Festival and a host of jazz clubs including
the Top Of The Senator. The Aaron Keele Contingent released
its first album, Present Idiolect, in 1995. It was a promising
start, but little things–like trying to make a living–got
in theway.
So, after a 16-year hiatus spent building a successful business
(yes, he buys and sells collectable records too), Aaron found
his voice once more. A voice which, over the years, had modulated
into that of a mature jazz singer: sophisticated and rich.
And he had the artistry to match. The time seemed ripe to
make another record. Side-stepping the standard repertoire,
Aaron chose material not usually associated with the jazz
vocal idiom–songs originally recorded by The Smiths,
Daniel Lanois, Beck, Eddie Kendricks, Charles Brown, and
Kim Mitchell, among others. The album was recorded in late
January, 2011, and features an outstanding trio of backing
musicians: drummer Davide DiRenzo and bassist Marc Rogers
(both of the Holly Cole group) whose collective credits include
Jacksoul, MichaelKaeshammer, The Philosopher Kings, and more;
and Aaron’s secret weapon, pianist Rob Thaller, who
co-arranged with Aaron all the songs on the album. This album
spans many moods, both introspective and upbeat. It is spacious
and deep, and themusicianship is as accomplished as it gets.
Contact Contemporary
Music presents
Walk on Water Sunday September 18 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Wallace Halladay, sax and Mary-Katherine Finch, cello with
special guests Ryan Scott, percussion and Allison Wiebe,
piano Contact Contemporary Music is a contemporary music
ensemble and
concert producing organization that highlights collaborations
with other media, established and emerging composers, performances
in alternative spaces, and outreach to underserved communities
that stress diversity, collaboration and accessibility.
Praised by the Globe and Mail for its "thought-provoking" and "highly
entertaining" programming, and by the New York Times
for "methodical and mesmerizing" performances,
Contact has firmly established itself as one of Canada's
leading interpreters of the music of our time.
Under the direction of percussionist and founder Jerry Pergolesi,
Contact has performed at some of the world's most prestigious
new music festivals, including the Huddersfield Contemporary
Music Festival (UK), Open Ears Festival of Sound (Kitchener),
and the Bang
On A Can Marathon (New York).
Wallace holds a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music,
and studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Arno
Bornkamp. Wallace was the 2009 recipient of the prestigious
Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts,
the first woodwind player to be awarded in its 25-year history.
Wallace is a Conn-Selmer Artist and plays Selmer (Paris)
saxophones.
Mary-Katherine Finch – cello
Cellist Mary-Katherine Finch holds both Bachelor and Master
degrees in performance from the University of Toronto. She
performs frequently in recital with pianist Ron Greidanus.
Playing an authentic baroque cello, she has appeared with
Aradia, Baroque Music Beside the Grange,
Grand River Baroque Festival and Toronto Masque Theatre.
In the area of new music, she regularly collaborates with
the ensembles Toca Loca and Ergo, and has premiered several
chamber works of Canadian composers. Mary-Katherine frequently
plays with the larger ensembles of the Mendelssohn, Isler,
Amadeus and Elora Festival Choirs.
Allison Wiebe – piano
Allison Wiebe (M.Mus; A.R.C.T.) is currently on the Piano
Performance Faculty at the University of Western Ontario
in London, ON, and on top of being an active performer and
chamber coach, she maintains a private studio in Toronto
where she resides. As a senior piano member
of the College of Examiners at the Royal Conservatory of
Music, she also recorded components of the new Perspectives
compact disc recordings launched Winter 2008.
Allison has extensive experience adjudicating music festivals
around the country and particularly enjoys the Alliance for
Canadian New Music Projects Contemporary Showcase competitions.
As a soloist, she performs and collaborates regularly and
received a grant from the
Canada Council of the Arts to perform as a semi-finalist
in the 24th Annual Eckhardt-Gramatte National Music Competition
for the Performance of Canadian Music held in May 2001.
Ryan Scott - percussion
Ryan Scott is an acclaimed marimba and multi-percussion
soloist who has performed extensively in North America, Europe,
Japan, Indonesia and Africa. He also plays with the Canadian
Opera Company Orchestra, the Esprit Orchestra, the National
Ballet of Canada Orchestra, the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Composers’ Orchestra,
New Music Concerts, the Bob Becker Ensemble, Soundstreams
Canada, Continuum, Ensemble Noir, ArpaTambora and is a member
of the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan. He has collaborated
numerous times with violist
Rivka Golani, and has been a guest artist several times with
NEXUS. He has made CDS for Centrediscs, CBC Records, hatART
and NAXOS. Mr. Scott is currently writing a series of works
for the Marimba, the first of which was premiered recently
by the composer on CBC Radio’s Two New Hours.
Mr. Scott received a Bachelors and Masters degree in music
from the University of Toronto where he studied with Russell
Hartenberger and Robin Engelman. Mr. Scott performs exclusively
on Marimba One and uses Zildjian cymbals.
Highlights of this season include the Canadian premiere
of You Are (Variations) by Steve Reich in October, and a
world premiere of a Marimba Concerto by Erik Ross with the
Esprit Orchestra in May.
Music on the Edge Saturday September 10 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Student
The Dartmoor (UK) based musical duo of Susie Hodder-Williams (flute/alto
flute)
and Chris Caldwell (soprano sax/bass clarinet and singing
bowl) bring their
evocative and enthralling landscape inspired sounds to
a variety of
galleries, arts centres and creative spaces in the USA
and Canada this
September.
Their recent CD release 'Mariner's Way' (FMRCD 291-0510), explores
the
mythical journey of the mariner, travelling across Dartmoor
(South-West England), on the ancient track known as the
Mariner's way.
This CD has received excellent reviews from both sides
of the
Atlantic:
''Beautiful and evocative'' Radio Antwerp
''I felt as if i was entering a calm dreamworld'" Downtown Music
Gallery, New York
"On the threshold of silence..not far from the restrained mode
of John
Surman's ECM solo's "The Wire”
"New Ambient soundscape music" National Dutch Radio
"Utterly captivating" The Independent, UK
This is a superb opportunity to extend the spirit of summer and linger
a while longer in England's myth-sodden terrain. Catch
this duo while
you can.
Bios
Chris Caldwell
Chris graduated from the Guildhall School Of Music & Drama in 1986
having studied with Stephen Trier. As a performer he's been involved
with some of Britain's leading contemporary composers
and ensembles
including The Mike Westbrook Orchestra, BCMG, Steve Martland
Band,
London Saxophonic, Michael Nyman Band and The Delta Saxophone
Quartet.
Chris has also performed with many of the UK's leading orchestras
including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra,
London Symphony Orchestra, CBSO, Royal Opera House, Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia. He has worked
in the West End
for the last fifteen years playing in many productions
including Les
Miserables, Cats, Chicago, Follies, City Of Angels, Guys
and Dolls and
La Cage aux Folles.
His commercial work has seen International tours with the London
Concert Orchestra (Anton & Erin from Strictly Come Dancing), Shirley
Bassey Orchestra in Russia, Lebanon, Turkey, Cairo and
the UK plus
tours of Asia, Japan and Europe with the Michael Nyman
Band,
Grahamophones, and for a variety of theatre groups.
Since 2009, Chris has been exploring and developing a new area of
improvisations and compositions with Susie Hodder-Williams,
inspired
by the natural history of Dartmoor. The Mariner's Way
CD is the first
result of this fruitful partnership which was launched
at the
Greenaway Barn Gallery as part of the Devon Open Studios.
In 2010, he
set up a performance series, in Devon, called Music on
the Edge which
has found its first home in the engaging Long Room, Drewsteignton.
Susie Hodder-Williams
Susie Hodder-Williams was born in Kent and studied English
at the University of York and the flute at the Royal Northern
College of
Music. Her love of music ranges from the more traditional
classical
repertoire to contemporary music and techniques; the
use of breath, so
unique to the flute, Japanese contemporary music, and,
enthused by the
landscape of Dartmoor, how music connects with the land
and how the
flute has been used in folklore.
She studied energy medicine at the Lakeland College and is inspired
by
how music is used and can be developed in the world of
healing. She is
currently recording a series of CDs exploring the two
worlds: The Tao
of Homeopathy, a reading read by the author, Ian Watson,
underpinned
by soundscapes created by Susie Hodder-Williams, will
be launched in
2011 and a CD inspired by the Alaskan Essence Research
Project will be
released in 2012. She has also recorded a CD called Three
Meditations
which will be available for download in the Autumn and
released on FMR
records at the end of the year.
Concert tours have brought her to the Far East, Europe, around the
UK
and more recently to the US. She has performed with the
London Mozart
Players, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Concert
Orchestra,
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, New London Sinfonia,
English National
Ballet and the Irish Chamber Orchestra.
She has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, both as a chamber and
orchestral musician, (In Tune & Late Junction December 2nd 2010)
played at the BBC Proms and recorded several contemporary
and chamber
CDs for FMR records. Her new recording, The Mariner's
Way, based on the landscape of Dartmoor, was released
in 2010.
The international composer, Steve Goss has just written her a new piece
for solo flute, entitled The Sea of the Edge, which was
first performed at the Guildford International Music
Festival on March 21st 2011. She has released the world
première recording of this work
this
Spring on the FMR label, as part of the new CD, Northern
Lights, which
was given a four star **** review from the Independent.
In September
2011, she is touring the US and Canada giving the US
Première of The
Sea of the Edge in Downtown Music Gallery, New York.
The Nicolas Caloia Quartet Wednesday September 7 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
TILTING
Nicolas Caloia – contrebasse, Jean Derome – flûte basse,
saxophones,
Isaiah Ceccarelli – percussion, Guillaume Dostaler – piano
Bios
Nicolas Caloia was a student of Lisle Ellis and Fred Hopkins, like them he
is committed to searching for new sounds. A well known accomplice in Montréal’s
avant-garde community, Nicolas has also led
and composed for the Ratchet Orchestra since 1994. The full 30 member orchestra
has recently performed in Montreal at the Suoni per i Popoli, L’Enver,
le Cheval Blanc, Guelph Jazz Festival and the 27e Festival International de
Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. He has lead the quartet Tilting since 2006,
which has recently performed at Le Cheval Blanc, Upstairs, Casa del Popolo
and the the Guelph Jazz Festival. On the label Ambiances Magnétiques
Nicolas appears with: Jean Derome – Canot Camping; Lori Freedman “3″ ;
Ensemble SuperMusique – Canevas + ; and Robert Marcel Lepage – a
Machine à explorer le tempo. Nicolas appears on Constellation records’ releases:
Sam Shalabi’s
Land Of Kush – Monogany; Sam Shalabi’s Land Of Kush – Against
the Day; Matana Roberts – Coin Coin : Gens de couleaur libre.
From 1999 to 2010 Nicolas performed and recorded with Bansuri player Catherine
Potter’s Dunya Project. This group draws inspiration from North Indian
classical music and toured internationally.
“should have Ellington smiling down from above”
Richard Moule – Signal to noise “honnète et intègre”
Marc Chenard – Scena Musicale
Jean Derome is a cofounder of the Ambiances Magnétiques record label,
and one of the most active and provocative members involved in many of Montreal’s
creative music movements. He is a model and an inspiration to the communitie’s
musicians. A recipient of the 1992 Freddie Stone Award, Derome has for many
years been an innovator in the art of putting sounds together and of taking
sounds apart. As an accomplished musician, composer, interpreter, multi-instrumentalist
and improvisor, he has been working to enlarge the boundaries of music for
more than thirty years.
“Multiinstrumentiste débridé, jazzman virtuose, compositeur
actualiste et champion de l’impro sans filet, Jean Derome respire la
musique, et pas seulement à travers ses flûtes et saxos.”
Réjean Beaucage – le Voir
A resolutely unique and engaging drummer, Isaiah Ceccarelli is active in both
improvised music and composition in Montréal. His first album, lieux-dits,
released on Ambiances Magnétiques in 2006, was received as « one
of the most original approaches to come through our offices in recent times » (Marc
Chénard, La Scena musicale )
“a writing style with rare personality in this musical context “
Thierry Lepin – Jazzman Magazine
Guillaume Dostaler is a favorite collaborator among Ambiances Magnétiques
artists.With Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms, he recorded three CDs for
the label Ambiances Magnétiques (Carnets de Voyage, 1994; Navré,
1995; Torticolis, 1998) and appeared in dozens of jazz and new music festivals
across Canada (Montreal, Vancouver, Guelph), the United States (Edgefest in
Ann Arbor, MI), and Europe (Moers in Germany, Banlieues Bleues in Paris, France).
“… a cutting-edge improvisor and imaginative sideman…”
François Couture – All-Music Guide
The Robi Botos Trio Friday June 17 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Bio
Born into a musical Romani (Gypsy) family in Nyiregyhaza,
Hungary, the mainly self-taught Robi Botos began his musical
career when he was just a child, playing drums, and percussion
with his father and two brothers. It was at age seven when
Robi first took up piano, the instrument he has since mastered
and with which he has made his mark. Robi's notable performances
include: Concert at the Long Beach convention and entertainment
centre. Opening concert for Bela Fleck, Stanley Clark, and
Jean Luc Ponty, at the 2005 International Downtown Toronto
Jazz Festival on the main stage. As well in the same year
Robi opened for Oscar Peterson at the prestigious Stravinsky
hall in Montreaux Switzerland. Since immigrating to Canada
in 1998, Robi has made great contributions to Canada's jazz
scene. He has been featured with many local and international
greats including: Chaka Khan, Michael Brecker, Pat Labarbera,
Marcus Belgrave, Steve Gadd, Terri Lyne Carrington, James
Blood Ulmer, Vernon Reid, Donald Walden, Archie Alleyne,
Dougie Richardson, Roberta Gambarini, Jake Hannah, Peter
Appleyard, Jackie Richardson, Jake Langley, Vito Rezza, Vinnie
Colaiuta, Dave Young, Norman Marshall Villenueve, Dennis
Coffey, John Lamb, Joey DeFrancesco, Peter Cardinali, Toots
Thielemans, Guido Basso, Avishai Cohen, and Richard Bona
to name a some.
Signposts Bill Gilliam and Charlie Ringas
Saturday June 11, 2011 at 8 PM
Admission $20
Signposts is the collaboration between composers Bill Gilliam & Charlie
Ringas performing prepared piano and percussion with spoken
word. Gilliam & Ringas perform insightful poetry and
humorous writings of Ivor Cutler, Rumi, Alan Lightman, Don
Van Vliet and Frank Zappa to signpost their sound explorations
with musical improvisations. This show will be a multiple
CD release event of their new “Signposts” CD, “Revolving” CD
by Charlie Ringas and “Memory Vision” DVD featuring
Bill Gilliam's compositions.
BIOS
Bill Gilliam – composer / pianist
Bill is from London, England and moved to Toronto after
completing his studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Has written scores for film, dance and theatre and new music
ensembles presented at festivals and contemporary music venues.
With the assistance of the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts
Council and FACTOR he has released electronic music and contemporary
jazz CDs and performed improvised / electro-acoustic music
in collaboration with different performance artists at the
Music Gallery, alternative music venues and jazz festivals.
His new music compositions include works for voice, spoken
word, soloists and chamber ensembles and for Toronto’s
2007 Nuit Blanche all-night art event, Bill’s electro-acoustic,
multi-media production Memory Vision was a featured installation
at the Canadian Music Centre. In 2008 / 2009, he received
grants from the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council
to create his work, Poems from a Love Triangle a 45 minute
new music concert for voice, actors and chamber ensemble
based on the erotic love poems of Irish poet W.R. Rodgers.
This work was performed in May 2009 at the Music Gallery
with poetry staged as a radio drama. Bill continues to perform
solo and with different artists in the Toronto area and his
DVD “Memory Vision” is now released on Supermono
Records.
Charlie Ringas has delved into progressive and experimental
music and by contrast has also found inspiration from the
jazz of all eras. His past ensembles and projects include
a diverse group of musicians creating a melting pot of all
genres.
Charlie is the co-founder of Supermono Records that has
released 32 titles. His credits include his Ring Cycle project
for new music chamber ensemble with chorus, Flame of Days
(1997) and Heart Of Mind (2000). He also created the experimental
Hermetic Music Commission, a new music sextet with spoken
word that recorded his work In Sound Is (2002).
His project Gold of Hours is a full length score for chamber
orchestra and chorus was performed October of 2004 and November
2005 at Premiere Dance Theatre. Charlie continues to compose
and perform with different artists in Toronto and his latest
CD “Revolving” is now released on Supermono Records.
Duologue: David Occhipinti and Mike
Murley Friday June 10 2011 at 8 pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Saxophonist Mike Murley and guitarist David Occhipinti began
playing in and around Toronto as a duo in 1999. The intimate
musical rapport that they developed during this period led
to their eventual recording of the Duologue CD in November
of 2002. This critically acclaimed recording was nominated
for a Juno Award, a national jazz award and a Canadian Music “Indie” award
in 2004. They released Duologue Vol. 2 in 2005.
They have toured as a duo in eastern Canada three times and
western Canada twice.
They have twice performed at the Atlantic Jazz festival
in Halifax (2000 and 2005) and have performed in the Yukon
and the Queen Charlotte Islands in BC.
Duologue features Mike and David in a very intimate setting
for what Geoff Chapman of the Toronto Star described as:
" …the mood is far tougher than mellow. It's
a type of chamber jazz with a sharp edge, with pleasing unison
passages and frequent fine solos."
Vanessa Lee and Miguel Angel Villanueva Friday June 3 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Program
Samuel Zyman - Sonata
I - Allegro Assai
II - Lento e molto espressivo
III - Presto
Horacio Uribe Duarte - Aproximaciones al Son Huasteco
I - Preludio
II - Son
Joaquin Gutierrez Heras - Sonata Simple
I - Allegro non troppo
II - Andante
III - Allego
INTERMISSION
Matthew Lima - 3 etudes for solo piano (World Premier)
I - Claustrophobia
II - Say Hello to Forever
III - For a Broken Bough
Bohuslav Martinu - First Sonata
I - Allegro moderato
II - Adagio
III - Allegro poco moderato
Biographies
Vanessa May-lok Lee - piano
Much sought after as a collaborative pianist, Vanessa May-lok
Lee has performed throughout Canada, the U.S.A., England,
Wales and Mexico, sharing the stage with artists such as
Measha Bruggergosman, Nicholas Daniels, Jens Lindemann and
the late Lorand Fenyves. Ms. Lee has served as the collaborative
pianist in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts and
currently freelances in Toronto.
Affiliated with numerous chamber ensembles, Ms. Lee is most
notably the pianist of BATSO – Brass Artists of the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a versatile group comprised of
the principal brass players of the TSO: Andrew McCandless
(trumpet), Neil Deland (horn) and Gordon Wolfe (trombone).
BATSO is currently planning a tour of Western Canada and
the U.S.A.
As well as performing, Ms. Lee also maintains a demanding
teaching schedule with particular focus on the joint education
of theory and piano. Her private teaching studio, The Etobicoke
Studio, strives to bring a working theoretical knowledge
of music to the keyboard.
Ms. Lee graduated with an Honours Bachelors degree at the
University of Toronto, under the direction of Marietta Orlov,
and a Masters in Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London,
England with Michael Young. She also holds a post-graduate
diploma (London), the Advanced Certificate (University of
Toronto), the ARCT (Royal Conservatory of Music), and was
granted the prestigious LRAM designation (a licentiate in
teaching) from the Royal Academy of Music in England.
Ms. Lee has just completed work on two new CDs. The first
is the debut recording of the Lee/Villanueva Duo with internationally
acclaimed flautist, Miguel Ángel Villanueva. This
CD features the sonatas of Prokofiev, Zyman, Martinu and
the Schumann Romances. The second CD features the Lee/Villanueva
Duo with guest violist Elodie Guillot (France). Repertoire
on this recording showcase the works of Mexican, French and
Canadian composers including Prism by Erik Ross, commissioned
by the Lee/Villanueva Duo. Both CDs will be released in June
2011.
Upcoming projects during the 2010-2011 season include performances
in Canada, the U.S.A. and Mexico. As an avid supporter of
new music and the creation of new works, Ms. Lee will premier
numerous pieces this season including Eduardo Angulo’s
Sonata for Flute and Piano, as well as a series of six etudes
for solo piano by American composer Matthew Lima.
Miguel Ángel Villanueva -
Flutist
Miguel A. Villanueva is the most as soloist active flute
player in Mexico. His recordings include the whole work for
flute by the mexican composer Eduardo Angulo and Flute Concertos
by Eugenio Toussaint, Horacio Uribe, Lucía Álvarez
and many others.
Besides his soloist career, he organizes the National Flute
Festival and the National Flute Competition in Mexico City.
Born in México City, he started his musical studies
at the Escuela Nacional de Música (UNAM) with Roxana
Lara and Héctor Jaramillo. In 1984 he enters the Ecole
Normale de Musique de Paris and the Conservatoire National
de Region de Saint-Maur, in Paris, France, where he is awarded
a Diplome Superieur d´Excecution and Médaille
d´Or respectively. His teachers were: Jacques Royer
(Orchestre de Paris), Ida Ribera (J. P. Rampal’s assitent)
, Shigenori Kudo (International soloist) and Michel Moragues
(Orchestre National de France). During his student years,
he was awarded a First Prize at both the Nerini and Bellan
Competitions in Paris; he also won a Third Prize atthe UFAM
International Competition. He has been invited to perform
as a soloist by the Münchener Streicher-Ensamble, the
Orchestre de la Cité Universitaire and the most important
orchestras in Mexico. He was invited by the Berliner – Mozart
Ensemble to perform as principal flute during a European
tour. As a recitalist, he has performed in México,
France, England, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Austria,
Portugal, Canada and the USA. Mr. Villanueva holds a teaching
position at the Escuela Nacional de Música at the
National University of México (UNAM).
Matt Lima - Composer
Matt Lima was born in 1976 to a psychiatric social worker
and a poet who still moonlights as a chef de cuisine. He
grew up in Queens, but the roots of his musical inclination
can be traced to an old piano at his grandmother's house
with which he amused himself as the youngest child during
family gatherings. He has studied with Mario Davidovsky and
Bernard Rands at Harvard, where he graduated summa cum laude
in the spring of 1998. On next to London as a winner of the
prestigious British Marshall Scholarship where he finished
an M.Mus at the Royal Academy of Music studying with Michael
Finnissy, and where he stayed as the graduate fellow in composition.
Moving to Paris in 2001, he spent a brief period at the Conservatoire
National Supérieur where he studied with Frédéric
Durieux. He is a founding member of the Ensemble Multilatérale,
a Paris-based new music collective uniting composers, performers,
musicologists and teachers. www.multilaterale.org
Matt is very fortunate to have been accorded early recognition
as a composer, earning commissions from such organizations
as Meet the Composer, the Manhattan Wind Quintet, and the
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His Four Piano Preludes
took first prize in the Bertelsmann Music Group's first annual
World of Expression Scholarship program, and he has won ASCAP's
Morton Gould Young Composer Award twice. Lima has also been
active as an educator, organizing and delivering lectures
on music and composition for primary and secondary school
students. More recently he has worked at the IRCAM where
he was in charge of rewriting the documentation for the computer-assisted
composition software OpenMusic. He has been commissioned
by the Arvo Pärt Festival at the Royal Academy, the
Spitalfields Festival in the City Of London and the National
Youth Band of Wales. In 2000 he was one of seven composers
selected by the American Composers Orchestra to participate
in their Whitaker Reading Sessions, and What Is It That It
Is was premiered at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
Center's 'Double Exposure' concert series. His residence
at La Muse en Circuit in Paris resulted in the creation of
a piece for ‘cello, tablas and electronics premiered
by Eric-Maria Couturier and Shyamal Maitre at the “Extentions
du domaine de la note” festival in 2006. His piece
ill symmetries was published in 2007 year by Editions Jobert
as the inaugural issue of the Editions Jobert/Multilatérale.
His most recent work is a sound design piece played live
for the experimental music theater production “The
Oroom” in New York City, and a collaboration with French
saxophone quartets Osmose and Axone on “L’Arcane
majeur,” a 21-movement piece based on the tarot deck,
premiered last year in Paris and the Netherlands. He is currently
working on a project for string quartet and voice based around
the works of New York City poets of the 1960’s, most
notably his father.
Trio sTREga Saturday May 28, 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme
Kevin Lau To the Edge of the Sky, Trio for clarinet, violin, piano
Mario Pagotto Il Volo del Pettirosso, for violin and piano
Leonard Bernstein Sonata for clarinet and piano
Intermission
Franz Liszt Waltz on Gounod's Faust, for piano solo
Maurice Ravel Sonata for violin and piano
Paul Schoenfield Trio for clarinet, violin and piano
About Trio sTREga
Trio sTREga is a chamber group co-founded by Polish clarinettist
Katarzyna (Kasia) Marczak and Italian pianist Erika Crinó.
Kasia and Erika met in Vancouver at the University of British
Columbia while both completing their Doctorates in Performance.
Their shared love for chamber music led them to form Trio
sTREga, while still studying at the university. Originally
composed of clarinet, cello and piano, after the recent move
to Toronto, the trio changed its profile into a combination
of clarinet, violin and piano, with the introduction of outstanding
violinist Ewa Sas.
The trio has made its debut in 2006 in Vancouver and was
immediately invited to perform at the “New Music Alberta” (Edmonton,
Alberta) series during its 2006-2007 concert season. After
a short Winter Residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts
(Alberta), where Erika and Kasia collaborated with such artists
as Berry Shiffman and Henk Guittart, they moved to Toronto.
Trio sTREga quickly established itself as a young and approachable
group, recognized for its friendly but professional readings
of even the most complex scores.
Trio sTREga is strongly dedicated to communication with its
audience. Explanations and comments are always included in
the performances, linking new works to the more classical
ones, presenting background information and relating music
to the different arts. The trio’s commitment to a wider
appreciation of music is also evident in the numerous outreach
performances in conservatories, community halls, art and
social events, as well as TV appearances.
BIOS
Italian pianist Erika Crinó is
very active both as a chamber musician and a soloist. Several
of her performances have been featured on CBC Radio, including
a solo recital for Debut Friday Series, a performance of
chamber music with percussionist Salvador Ferreras, a performance
of Stravinsky's "Concerto for Two Pianos" with
pianist Brett Kingsbury, and, more recently, the performance
of Jocelyn Morlock's "Involuntary Love Songs",
with soprano Vania Chan, winner of the special prize at the
Eckhard-Gramatté Competition.
Born in Tarnow, Poland, Ewa Sas began
playing the violin at the age of 7. In 2006 she graduated
with 1st Class Honors from the Instrumental Department of
Akademia Muzyczna in Cracow, receiving her Master of Arts
degree in violin performance under the tutelage of Professor
Teresa Gl?bówna. From 2001 to 2006, in recognition
of her academic achievements, Ewa received Study Scholarships
for every year of her studies. In that time (2001-2003),
she also completed an Inter-Faculty Pedagogical Program,
hosted at the Akademia Muzyczna in Cracow. In 2008 she finished
her second Master degree (M.Mus) in violin performance at
University of British Columbia in the studio of Jasper Wood.
For the 2 years she was living in Vancouver, Ewa was concertmaster
of Orchestra Armonia, a member of the Erato Ensemble, and
she performed throughout BC with many orchestras and chamber
ensembles, as well as solo, including a performance at the
2006 BC Fashion Week Opening Show. Currently, Ewa is living
in Montreal, studying with Richard Roberts, concertmaster
of Montreal Symphony, as well as Denise Lupien, a distinguished
pedagogue at McGill University.
KARTARZYNA MARCZAK graduated
from the Instrumental Department of the Academy of Music
in Cracow (M.Mus. in Clarinet Performance), and the followig
year she received her second M.Mus. from the Department of
Composition, Conducting and Music Theory of the aforementioned
institution. In 2009 she obtained her DMA degree from the
University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Ms. Marczak is a founding member and artistic director of
the Ara Ensemble, a chamber group specializing in contemporary
music. The ensemble has performed at many festivals, music
seminars and individual concerts in Poland and abroad. In
2003 the group recorded, and in 2006 released, its first
CD, devoted to Canadian composers. While at UBC, she co-founded
the Trio sTREga, consisting of clarinet, cello and piano,
in conjunction with her fellow DMA students at UBC. Over
the time the group changed its profile and nowadays exists
as a clarinet-violin-piano ensemble.
As a soloist Katarzyna Marczak has appeared at festivals
and music seminars. In 1992 she performed as a pianist in
the finals of the Competition of Contemporary Music in Warsaw.
In 2003 she recorded a number of contemporary pieces for
clarinet, released in 2005 on CDs accompanying scores published
by the Polish Music Edition (PWM). In 2008 she succesfully
premiered the famous HARLEKIN by Karlheinz Stockhausen, a
45-minute long stage dance piece for solo clarinet. She presented
the piece already on a concert tour in Poland in November
2008, as well as in The Banff Centre for the Arts, during
her creative residency in Fall/Winter 2008/2009.
Kasia plays Bb Selmer Recital clarinet, with Morales-Backun "fatboy" cocobolo
barrell and Backun cocobolo bell. She uses Backun mouthpiece "T".
Her A clarinet is an E13 Buffet Crampon, with Morales-Backun
cocobolo barrell.
Brian Dickinson, piano and Ted Quinlan, guitar
Friday May 27 2011 at 8:00
$20; $15 Senior; $10 Student
Juno Award-Winning pianist Brian Dickinson is
one of Canada’s most versatile introspective and flexible
accoustic artists and composers. Born in Guelph, Ontario
in 1961, DICKINSON started playing the piano when he was
five. In his early teens, BRIAN quickly acquired a taste
for blues and rock & roll. His father, an amateur jazz
guitarist, got BRIAN interested in jazz. DICKINISON began
listening to the music of piano players Bill Evans, Keith
Jarret, Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner.
DICKINSON has worked with many of the top names in the field
of jazz: trumpeter Randy Brecker, saxophonist Dewey Redman,
guitarists John Abercrombe and Sonny Greenwich. Under his
own name, BRIAN has recorded the albums October 13th and
In Transition. In addition, BRIAN’s piano work can
be heard on saxophonist Mike Murley’s Time and Tide,
bassist Keiran Over’s Gateway and Shapeshift, and Jane
Bunnet’s In Dew Time.
In addition to composing, performing and recording, BRIAN
DICKINSON is on the music faculties at the University of
Toronto and at Toronto’s Humber College.
"Where other musicians enjoy more fanfare, few enjoy
more respect then Brian Dickinson"
- Mark Miller Globe & Mail
Ted Quinlan
Ted Quinlan is regarded as one of the most versatile guitar
players in Canada. His skills are highly in demand as a jazz
player, session musician, writer and educator. Ted is the
Head of the Guitar Department at Humber College's Music Program
in Toronto.
As a busy sideman Ted has performed with Chet Baker, Freddie
Hubbard, Jimmy Smith, Joey DeFrancesco, Michael Brecker,
Dave Holland, Maria Schneider and Dave Liebman.
His debut CD As If received a Juno nomination for Contemporary
Jazz. His other numerous recording credits include his performances
on Doug Riley's Con Alma, Radioland Records' Tribute to Wes
Montgomery, Phil Dwyer's Road Stories, Dave Restivo's Prayer
for Humankindness and Ted Warren's First Time Caller.
Ted is the recipient of the 1998 Jazz Report Award for Guitarist
of the Year.
Mark Laver and Chris Donnelly Thursday May 26, 2011 at 8pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Mark Laver
Chris Donnelly
Programme
Mark Laver, saxaphone and Chris Donnelly, piano perform songs
by Leadbelly, Kapustin, Mahler, Schubert, Lennie Tristano,
Hank Williams
Bios
Mark Laver, a PhD Candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University
of Toronto, is establishing a reputation as one of the most
versatile young alto saxophonists in Toronto. Mark has performed
with jazz luminaries such as Lee Konitz, Seamus Blake, Kurt
Elling, Eddie Prévost, Hugh Fraser, and Phil Nimmons.
As a classical saxophonist, he won the gold medal for woodwind
performance for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s ARCT
exam in 2001. He has been a featured soloist with NEXUS,
the Kingston Symphony Orchestra, the Guelph Symphony Orchestra,
and the Royal Conservatory Orchestra. Mark has been published
in such music periodicals as Critical Studies in Improvisation,
Canadian Musician and The Recorder, and was profiled in the “Canadian
Rising Stars” issue of The Music Scene/La Scena Musicale.
Mark is an alumnus of the Jazz Performance programme at the
Faculty of Music (University of Toronto), and of the Banff
International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music (2005).
Chris Donnelly represents a new generation of jazz pianists,
composers and improvisers dedicated to creating programs
that are engaging, entertaining and educating. He is continually
praised for his virtuosic performances, musicality, versatility
and ability to captivate audiences
In September 2008, Chris released his Juno-nominated, debut
album with Alma Records called ‘Solo,’ featuring
a blend of original material and arrangements of jazz standards.
This also earned him nominations for ‘Best Recording
of the Year’ and ‘Best Keyboardist of the Year’ from
the 2009 National Jazz Awards.
Upon completing his Masters of Music in Jazz Performance
at the University of Toronto, Chris was awarded The Tecumseh
Sherman Rogers Graduating Award for students ‘deemed
to have the greatest potential to make an important contribution
to the field of music.’
Chris is currently on faculty at the University of Toronto.
Adam Scime presents "FUZE" Sunday May 22, 2011 at 8pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 students
Fuze - An evening of new Canadian works featuring Electronics
Programme
People Are Not Cars, Suite for Tape - Alex Eddington
Lilies, for Flute and Electronics - Riho Esko Maimets
Devotion, for Tape and Video - Emilie Lebel
- Intermission -
River, for Flute and Electronics - Caleb Chan
Fuze, for amplified violin and audiofile playback - Paul
Frehner
Corona, for Flute, Cello and Elextronics - Adam Scime
Biography
Adam Scime (b.1982) is a young composer living in Toronto.
Adam is currently studying with Gary Kulesha at the University
of Toronto where he has been awarded a full fellowship to
study as a Doctoral student in composition. Previous to his
current position at U of T, Adam studied composition at The
University of Western Ontario, where his teachers included
Peter Paul Koprowski and Paul Frehner. Adam has also received
private lessons with renowned composers Chen Yi, Osvaldo
Golijov, and Cornelius Schwehr.
Adam has written extensively for orchestral, chamber, solo,
and electro-acoustic mediums. Though still early in his career,
Adam has received several performances by Canadian and International
professional soloists and ensembles. Most recently, Adam
was selected to participate in the Chrysalis Composers Workshop
with the Continuum Contemporary Ensemble, during which his
piece Fixity was performed under the baton of Christopher
Butterfield. In the summer of 2010, it was announced that
Adam?s piece Vagues, a Prelude for Piano and Electronics
was selected as the winning composition for the Electro-Acoustic
Composers Competition hosted by acclaimed American pianist
Keith Kirchoff. Subsequently, Mr. Kirchoff performed Vagues
as part of his 2011 North American Tour. In January of 2011,
renowned Canadian soloist Nadina Mackie Jackson premiered
Adam's new Concerto for Bassoon, Electronics, and Chamber
Orchestra. Adam has also been appointed Composer in residence
with the GamUT contemporary ensemble for the 2010/2011 season,
a residency that will see the commissioning of two new works,
and one new installation. Future projects include a Commission
from The Jumblies Theatre Company. Also, Adam has been selected
to write a piece for The Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop
which will be performed in a concert commemorating the passing
of Canadian composer Ann Southam. In the summer of 2011,
Adam will participate in the National Arts Centre Composer
training program to study with Composers Colin Matthews and
Gary Kulesha as an apprentice.
Ig Henneman Sextet play Kindred
Spirits Thursday May 19 2011 at 8 PM
$25 all seats, reservations recommended
Please send all requests to info@gallery345.com
This new international band was founded in
December 2010 in celebration of composer/bandleader Ig Henneman’s
25th anniversary and her 65th birthday. The sextet toured
Europe and ended the tour in the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. This
concert was recorded and appears on the new CD ‘Cut
a Caper’ Wig 19. The CD will be released in Canada
May 2011.
The sextet program include homages to some
of Henneman’s artistic soul-mates including Thelonious
Monk, Emily Dickinson, Jimmy Giuffre, Ian Dury, Galina Ustvolskaya,
Misha Mengelberg, Morton Feldman and Francesco Landini.
The sextet is a select group of musicians that Ig regards as
musical kindred spirits.
Ig Henneman Sextet
Ab Baars (NL) - tenor sax/ clarinet/ shakuhachi
Axel Dörner (DE) - trumpet
Lori Freedman (CA) - bass clarinet/ clarinet
Ig Henneman (NL) - viola and compositions
Wilbert de Joode (NL) - contrabass
Marilyn Lerner (CA) - piano
about the cd Ig Henneman Sextet ‘Cut a Caper’
(...) Listening to these tracks, with their ‘solo’ excursions,
ensembles and subdivisions, the impression one invariably takes away is a
group voice, a collective understanding that works in a common direction even
when the parts and the voices seem quite fractured and dissociated. (...)
Here’s a group that always seems to be re-engaging with dance, even
if it is the kind of ‘dancing in the head’ that Ornette Coleman
choreographed forty years ago. Perhaps it has something to do with the male/female
twinning that one sees on stage, or perhaps the echoes of early dance-bands
in the instrumentation. But isn’t there also something in the pitch
of the music itself, right from those floor-clearing measures at the beginning
of ‘Moot’, that suggests there is movement in this music, something
that addresses the body as well as the listening head?
(...) More questions than answers, but that is in the nature both of this
music and of this musician. Ig Henneman’s music always asks us questions
of ourselves. It doesn’t make insistent demands. It proposes, and argues,
advances and invites, whirls away on its own but always returns.
--Brian Morton
An Evening of Creativity featuring
The Steve Koven Trio Saturday May 14, 2011 at 8 pm Admission $20
Advanced tickets can be purchased through Paypal (sktrio@interlog.com) sktrio@interlog.com www.stevekoven.com
Steve Koven
Rob Clutton
Nick Fraser
Steve Koven - Piano
Steve Koven was born in Toronto, Canada, and
began playing piano at age seven. He has studied with various
jazz artists including Benny Green, Geoff Keeser, and Bruce
Barth.
Steve has been a professional musician since
earning a BFA in Contemporary Improvisation from York University
in 1987 and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Music
at York University. In addition to performing world-wide
with his trio, he’s played solo throughout North America,
Europe, and the Caribbean. When not on tour or in the studio,
Steve composes music for film, television and conducts master
classes and workshops which focus on the development of improvisational
tools and musical self-expression.
As an Educator, Koven has conducted master classes and workshops
in China, Japan, Colombia, Barbados and Mexico.
Steve is currently on staff at York University where he teaches
Contemporary Improvisation and Jazz Piano in the Faculty
of Music.
Rob Clutton - Bass
Rob Clutton is a composer and double bassist
who was born in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, and has made his
home in Toronto for the last twenty years. He earned a Bachelor
of Music in Performance at the University of Toronto in 1991
and is currently pursuing a PHD in Music at York University.
Rob is active in the creative and improvised
scenes in Toronto with solo project and group projects and
as a member of a burgeoning improvising community. His solo
project involves composing, performing, and recording for
solo bass, including the CD Dubious Pleasures on the Rat-drifting
label. Rob has performed numerous solo concerts, including
the Guelph Jazz Festival in 2005.
Group projects include the Rob Clutton Band,
which has released two CDs of original compositions and performed
numerous concerts including the Montreal Jazz Festival. The
bassist is a member of Drumheller, N, The Steve Koven Trio,
N.O.J.O., Jazzstory, Quorum, The Ryan Driver Quartet, the
David Buchbinder Ensemble, and the David Mott Quintet and
is a founding member of the Association of Improvising Musicians
Toronto, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting
local creative improvising musicians, and to facilitating
events in Toronto that bring international visiting artists
together with local improvisers.
Nick Fraser - Drums
Nick Fraser has been an active and engaging
presence in the Toronto new jazz and improvised music community
since he moved there from Ottawa in 1996. He has worked with
a veritable "who's who" of Canadian jazz and improvised
music including Justin Haynes, Mike Murley, Rich Underhill,
P.J. Perry, Phil Dwyer, Michael Snow, John Oswald, Andrew
Downing, Jean Martin, Christine Duncan, Joe Sorbara, Lina
Allemano, Quinsin Nachoff, Dave Restivo, Jim Vivian, David
Braid, Ryan Driver, Rosemary Galloway, David Occhipinti,
William Carn, Nancy Walker, Kieran Overs, Kelly Jefferson,
John Geggie, John MacLeod, Ken Aldcroft, Scott Thomson, Marilyn
Lerner, David Mott, Lori Freedman, Jean Derome, Ron Samworth,
John Stetch and Kirk MacDonald. In addition, he has had the
opportunity to perform and/or record with such international
artists as Michael Moore, Bobby Shew, Donny McCaslin, Marilyn
Crispell, Anthony Braxton, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Jean-Luc
Ponty, Bela Fleck, Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Wynton Marsalis,
David Binney, Steve Turre, Matt Welch, Bill Carrothers and
Bill Mays. Nick's recorded works as a leader include Owls
in Daylight (1997) and Nick Fraser and Justin Haynes are
faking it (2004). He has worked extensively with Rob Clutton
and Ronda Rindone in the cooperative trio This Moment whose
debut album Beautiful Line was released in 2002 on the 9Winds
label. He also co-leads the co-operative group Drumheller
with Brodie West, Rob Clutton, Eric Chenaux and Doug Tielli
who released their self-titled debut CD on the Rat-Drifting
label in 2005 and Wives in 2006. Other projects that occupy
Nick regularly are Michael Herring's Vertigo, The AIMToronto
Orchestra, the Ugly Beauties (with Marilyn Lerner and Matt
Brubeck), Ronda Rindones’s Quorum, the Lina Allemano
4, Deep Dark United and The Bill Grove Quartet. Nick is a
founding member of The Association of Improvising Musicians
of Toronto, a non-profit organization dedicated to the Toronto
improvising community.
Leslie Ting, Violin and Pierre-André Doucet,
Piano
Friday May 13 2011 at 8 pm $20; $15 Seniors; $10 students
Leslie Ting
Pierre-André Doucet
Programme
F. Poulenc - Sonata for violin and piano, FP119
W.A. Mozart - Sonata for piano and violin in B flat major,
K454
intermission
E. Elgar - Sonata for violin and piano, Op. 82
Bios
Leslie Ting, violin
A native of Kitchener, Ontario, violinist Leslie Ting is
an experienced solo and chamber musician. She premiered in
2010 with l'Orchestre de l'Université de Montréal,
under the direction of Jean-François Rivest, performing
Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1. Also well
in demand as an orchestral musician, Ms. Ting has performed
with the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, l'Orchestre de la Francophonie
Canadienne, and the Kayaleh Chamber Orchestra, and has collaborated
with conductors Stéphane Laforest and Kent Nagano,
amongst others.
As a teen, Ms. Ting was a prize winner in the Guelph Spring
Festival and was selected to join the National Youth Orchestra
of Canada on its tours in Japan and Europe. Having attained
Associateship of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto in both
Violin and Piano Performance, she focused her energies on
the violin.
Upon completion of her studies with Jerzy Kaplanek and Jeremy
Bell of the Penderecki String Quartet, Ms. Ting attended
the Mozarteum Academy in Austria, the Kayaleh Violin Academy
in Switzerland, as well as the Banff Centre for the Arts,
working with such eminent musicians as Eduard Schmeider,
Joel Smirnoff, Andres Cardenas, Habib Kayaleh and Maxim Vengerov
along the way.
Ms. Ting is also a graduate of the University of Waterloo
with Bachelor of Science (Honours) and Doctor of Optometry
degrees. During her undergraduate studies she was granted
a National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
award to work in vision science research. As a licensed optometrist
based in Ottawa, Ontario, she volunteered locally with The
Gift of Sight Foundation, and internationally, with Canadian
Vision Care in Anna Regina, Guyana, providing eye care to
developing countries.
After working for two years as an optometrist, she returned
with full focus to the violin, successfully completing her
Masters in Violin Performance at l'Université de Montréal
under the tutelage of Vladimir Landsman, and an Artist's
Diploma at that same institution, studying with Laurence
Kayaleh.
A promising soloist, collaborative pianist and chamber musician,
Pierre-André Doucet premiered with Symphony New Brunswick
in 2007; he has also performed with Sinfonia de Lanaudière
under maestro Stéphane Laforest. He has participated
in the Tuckamore Festival (Newfoundland-Labrador), the Orford
Festival (Québec), the Gijòn Festival (Spain),
the Vancouver International Song Institute (British Columbia)
and the International Klaviersommer Bad Bertrich (Germany).
In addition to performing publicly in these contexts, he
has been featured at the Airs d’étés
de Beaumont, the Baie des Chaleurs International Chamber
Music Festival, various Jeunesses Musicales Centers, and
has also performed for the Ambassador of Canada to Belgium.
Concert tours have also brought him to British Columbia,
Ontario, Quebec, Eastern Canada and Saint-Pierre et Miquelon,
most notably as the winner of the Atlantic Young Artist Competition
(2010). He has been heard on Atlantic broadcasts of Radio-Canada
and CBC Radio, as well as nationally on Espace musique.
As a collaborative pianist, Mr. Doucet has worked with countless
established and emerging artists, as well as the Samulnori
Quartet, l’Orchestre de l’Université de
Montréal and l’Atelier d’opéra
de l’Université de Moncton. Furthermore, he
has performed and recorded with countless choirs and vocal
ensembles, among them Nouvel Air, les Jeunes Chanteurs d’Acadie,
le Chœur Beauséjour, Voce dell’Anima and
le Chœur Vives Voix.
In addition to being a pianist, Mr. Doucet has a marked interest
for many art forms, and is a vocal proponent of those that
demonstrate interdisciplinarity. As a writer of short stories
and poetry, he was laureate of the Antonine-Maillet-Acadie
Vie Literary Awards for Kilométrage (2009), and a
finalist in literature at the Jeux de la Francophonie, in
Lebanon, for Deux préludes, opus posthume (2009).
In the past few years, he has also brought various art forms
to wider audiences, helming a literary blog for emerging
international francophone authors (Suites du Phénix),
and frequently contributing to Point Blank Video Blog. Aware
of the evolving role of the artist, he also strives to bring
classical music to rural communities, and sits on the board
of directors for When We Play, an organisation dedicated
to bringing music education to underprivileged children.
Winner of the Third Prize at both the National Music Festival
(2007; 2010) and the Canadian Music Competition (2009), Mr.
Doucet has twice been a laureate of the Auditions Jeunes
Artistes de Radio-Canada (2004; 2006). Among other recognitions,
he has been a laureate of the Order of Canada Mentorship
Program (2009), and was the recipient of the Dorothy Buckley
Prize for interpretation of a Canadian work at the CFMTA
National Piano Competition (2009). Furthermore, Mr. Doucet’s
evocative readings of contemporary works and his ardent work
in disseminating new music have led him to premiere works
by Canadian composers J. Mitchell Burke, Richard Gibson,
and Pierre Michaud, as well as by South African composer
Hendrik Hofmeyr.
Pierre-André Doucet holds a Bachelor’s in Piano
Performance from Université de Montréal, where
he is currently pursuing his Master’s in Music. He
is presently studying under the tutelage of Maneli Pirzadeh,
thanks in part to grants from the New Brunswick Arts Board,
the Fonds québécois de recherche sur la société et
la culture, and the Canadian Millenium Scholarship Foundation.
Previously, he studied with Richard Boulanger and Julien
Le Blanc at l’Université de Moncton. In addition
to having benefited from masterclasses with Marc Durand,
Robert Koenig, John Perry, Jean Saulnier, and David Jalbert,
he has been coached on chamber music repertoire by members
of the Jupiter String Quartet and the Duo Concertante, and
on vocal repertoire by Rosemarie Landry, Francis Perron,
Rena Sharon and Robin Wheele.
The Toy Piano Composers present Mini-uet May 7, 2011 at 8pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 students
New works by the Toy Piano Ensemble featuring the junctQín
Keyboard Collective.
Toronto-based junctQín (pronounced ‘junction’)
consists of pianists Elaine Lau, Joseph Ferretti, and Stephanie
Chua. The name of the collective is taken from junctio – the
Latin word meaning to join, and from Qín – the
Chinese character for keyboard instrument. Elaine and Joseph
began duo piano performances in 2003; Stephanie and Elaine
met the same year as graduate students. The three discovered
a mutual love of contemporary music for all kinds of keyboards,
so when the trio united for a gig in the spring of 2009,
junctQín was born.
Self-proclaimed “keyboard geeks,” the members
of junctQín consider the group a vehicle to introduce
audiences to contemporary keyboard repertoire. Through collaborations
with living composers, innovative programming, interactive
performances and outreach programs, junctQín’s
goal is to break down the barriers of new music with one
of the most accessible instruments – the piano. Most
of junctQín’s concerts feature a grand piano
and two toy pianos, or, depending on the venue (or weather!)
will include electroacoustics with toy piano, music box,
acoustic tables, iDogs (yes – a robot dog), laptop,
and other instrumentalists. With primary emphasis on contemporary
music, programs can include anything from Baroque keyboard
works to multi-media projects. junctQín’s mandate
is to introduce classical contemporary music to a broad audience
by creating unique concert experiences.
In its inaugural year, junctQín was featured at the
2009 spOtlight Festival (produced by Ontario Arts Council,
and co-sponsored by North American toy piano manufacturer
Schoenhut). The group also gave a well-received recital at
the Canadian Opera Company’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre
at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, performed
at the Cambridge Galleries as part of March Break outreach
activities and gave the Canadian première of Invention
in Three Parts, composed by American composer Douglas C.
Wadle at Artsweek Peterborough. The latter work was selected
to be performed at Toronto’s 2010 Scotiabank Nuit Blanche,
an all-night contemporary art festival.
With a keen interest in multimedia and multi-arts presentations,
junctQín has also collaborated with Canadian artist
Kenneth Doren in his digital opera Rule Britannia: A low
opera in grand shite style and with Toronto conceptual artist
Derek Liddington for his Springsteen-inspired, piano-duel
installation Coup de grâce. Projects and concerts during
2011 include commission of works by Canadian composers Aaron
Gervais, Alex Eddington and Susan Griesdale, as well as a
collaboration with the Toy Piano Composers Collective (www.thetoypianocomposers.com),
whose manifesto is “eight mischievous composers unleash
their collective creative musical genius on Toronto.” In
the 2011-2012 season, junctQín is scheduled to perform
in the Colours of Music Festival (Barrie, ON), as well as
première a new collaboration with Austrian composer
Karlheinz Essl (University of Music and Performing Arts,
Vienna) presented by Toronto’s Music Gallery.
The versatility of Elaine, Joseph, and Stephanie has resulted
in their involvement in many performances that extend beyond
traditional settings, such as a garden concert at the outdoor
Raff Pavilion, an outdoor trail concert at Eramosa River
Park, and a sound installation at Artspace Gallery. They
have each appeared as soloists and collaborative pianists
throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe, in numerous
concert series, venues and ensembles. Dedicated to working
with living composers, these musicians have premiered dozens
of Canadian and international compositions – most recently,
works by Toronto composer Linda Catlin Smith, UK composer/installation
artist Hywel Davies, and German composer Moritz Eggert.
junctQín wishes to acknowledge the generous support
of the Ontario Arts Council.
The Art of the Duo Piano:
Xenia Pestova and Pascal Meyer Friday May 6, 2011 at 8 PM Tickets $20/$15 Seniors/$10 Students
Programme
Dugal McKinnon (B. 1972): Diktat, Ditty, Half-life
Steve Reich (b. 1936): Piano Phase (1967)
Henri Dutilleux (b. 1916): Figures de résonances (1970)
-intermission-
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): The Rite of Spring (1913),
version for two
pianos
Bios
Xenia Pestova (New Zealand/Canada) and Pascal Meyer (Luxembourg)
formed a piano duo in 2003. Since their studies at the Conservatory of
Amsterdam, the two pianists went on to develop international solo performing
careers. As a piano duo, they combine their shared aesthetics of sound
with their commitment to programming new and non-standard works.
Praised for sensitivity, clarity, intelligence and exquisite coordination,
Pestova and Meyer received rave reviews for performances of Karlheinz
Stockhausen¹s MANTRA. The duo have had performances in New Zealand,
Canada and Europe and appear regularly with the United Instruments of
Lucilin contemporary music ensemble.
Pestova and Meyer were recently featured as soloists in the two-piano
concerto Dialoge by Bernd Alois Zimmermann with the Luxembourg Philharmonic
Orchestra (OPL) conducted by Arturo Tamayo during Festival Rainy Days
and Peter Hirsch at the prestigious Festival Musica in Strasbourg.
The duo¹s CD recording of MANTRA was released on NAXOS in September
2010.
This is the first recording to use digital technology for
the electronic processing.
"For Hope and Memories" Fundraiser for CMHA Sunday May 1 2011 at 3:00 PM
$15 General Admission
Adria McCulloch (soprano), Christina Faye (piano), Bruce Radmacher
(cello)
Programme
Beauty Mark (Dark Star Requiem) Andrew Staniland (poetry by: Jill Battson)
Execution Scene (Filumena) John Estacio (John Murrell)
Renovated Rhymes - Elizabeth Raum (poetry by: John Hicks)
My Fancy Late and Early, A Maiden's Life and Love in Canadian
Folk Song - John Greer
Evening Out - David McIntyre (poetry by: Joanne Gerber)
On this Wondrous Sea - Craig Urquhart (Emily Dickinson)
Litany - John Musto (Langston Hughes)
Dream with Me - L. Bernstein (with Bruce Radmacher on cello)
Come ready and see Me - Richard Hundley (James Purdy)
Sure on this Shining Night - Samuel Barber
Bios
Critically acclaimed soprano, Adria McCulloch, seen most
recently in Toronto as Anaman in Opera Erotique (Out of the Box Productions,)
holds a Master of Music degree from the Maryland Opera Studio. Adria
has performed the role of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, the title role
in Gluck’s Armide, and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. She
was a member of Calgary Opera’s Emerging Artists, touring the role
of Susan in Alan Bell’s Turtle Wakes. She sang with the Calgary
Philharmonic Orchestra and the Regina Philharmonic Chorus. Adria
is a graduate of Opera Lafayette’s Young Artist program in Washington
DC, with whom she performed various concerts and recorded Une Bergère
in Lully’s Armide on the Naxos label. In 2010, she sang the
role of Naiad in Gluck’s version with Opera Lafayette at Kennedy
Center and Rose Theater, Lincoln Center.
Pianist Christina Faye is an active member of the professional
Toronto music scene. Originally from Thunder Bay Ontario, Christina
had her first experience as a collaborative pianist at age nine. Since
then, she has worked with a vast number of student and professional instrumentalists,
singers, orchestras, chamber groups and theatre and opera productions
as well as being an accomplished solo performer. While still in
high school, Christina completed the ARCT level Performance Certificate
from Conservatory Canada and studied piano pedagogy, theory, violin,
viola and pipe organ. Christina received a Bachelor of Music with
Distinction in Piano Performance from Brandon University in 2007 and
a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano and Chamber Music from
the Eastman School of Music in 2009 both under scholarship and with grants
from Manitoba and Canadian Arts Councils. Christina has held positions
at several major summer music programs including Opera Nuova in Edmonton
AB, and the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory in Colorado and has been
the music director and pianist for two productions by integrative theatre
company, Out of the Box Productions. She has experience and interests
in a wide range of musical styles and is especially interested in contemporary
music.
Music of Jewish Composers Saturday April 30 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
CHAI
José R. López, Piano
Laura Wilcox, Viola
Program
November, from “Das Jahr” (The
Year) - Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847)
Trois Petites Fantaisies Op. 41 - Charles Valentin Alkan
(1813-1888)
Assez gravement
Andantino
Presto
Intermission
Fantasy for solo viola (1964/2002) - David Lidov
Sonate de concert Op. 47 - Charles Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
Allegro molto
Allegrettino
Adagio
Finale alla Saltarella: Prestissimo
José R. López, pianist
“Engaging, insightful pianism, delightful
touches of character to virtually every measure, without
ever overdoing it.” -Tim Smith (Sun-Sentinel)
“Impeccable musicianship, elegance of
line, and delicately sculptured phrasing to the ornate piano
writing.” - Lawrence Budmen (Coral Gables Gazette)
“Clarity of mind and affinity for Schubert
and Beethoven … beautifully etched Bagatelles, Op.
126” – James Roos (Miami Herald)
JOSÉ R. LÓPEZ is Assistant Professor
and Coordinator of the Keyboard Department at Florida International
University in Miami, Florida and is the President of the
American Liszt Society Chapter at FIU (www.americanlisztsociety.net
) . He has performed throughout the United States, Italy
and Central and South America with orchestras, solo recitals,
and chamber groups in concert halls, summer festivals . Active
throughout South Florida, he has been a featured performer
in the Florida International University’s Music Festival;
ISCM New Music Miami Festival, the Palm Beach Chamber Music
Festival, Coral Gables' Mainly Mozart Series, University
of Miami’s Miami Festival. He is a founding member
of the Deering Estate Chamber Ensemble and a co-founder of
The Deering Estate “Living Artist Concert Series”:
collaborative concerts revolving around environmental and
preservation themes involving historians, living composers,
literary and visual artists, including Master classes for
young artists. Recent activities include performances in
the Lake Como region of Italy for the 2008 International
Convention on 12-tone music , a publication on piano works
by Riccardo Malipiero as part of the proceedings at the Villa
Vigoni German/Italian Center in Mennagio, Italy and a recording
of the complete solo piano music by Riccardo Malipiero.
A versatile pianist and enthusiastic performer
of chamber music, José has been a member of the Dalbergi
Trio, has collaborated in many chamber works with strings,
winds, brass, and voice, has been a member of FIU’s
resident new music ensemble, the Nodus Ensemble, and was
the orchestral pianist with the Florida Philharmonic for
13 years. His interest in contemporary music features frequent
world premieres and collaborations with composers along with
his pursuit in resurrecting rarely heard works by Romantic
and Classical composers. Dr. López received his MM
and DMA degrees from the University of Miami School of Music,
where he studied with Dr. Rosalina Sackstein, a former pupil
of Claudio Arrau and Isabelle Vengerova. He has recorded
for SNE, Albany and Innova record labels. Dr. López’s
website can be accessed at www.joselopezpiano.com
Laura Wilcox- Bio.
Canadian-American violist/violinist, LAURA
WILCOX has collaborated in many crossover ventures with artists
and composers from North America, Asia, Europe, Central and
South America. Laura is a founding artist of The Deering
Estate Chamber Ensemble and the Music Director of The Deering
Estate Living Artist Concert Series, a collaborative concert
series held at the 444-acre Deering Estate at Cutler (an
archeological, architectural, environmental and historical
preserve) located along the shores of Biscayne Bay in Miami,
Florida. Having received awards from the Canada Council,
the Chalmers Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council, MetLife
Foundation and the American String Teachers Association,
Laura has performed as a chamber musician and soloist throughout
the United States, Canada, South America and Europe. She
studied at McGill University in Montréal where she
received the Concert Diploma with distinction.
Her recordings of Schubert, Feld, Ligeti,
Schumann, and Cage are all on the SNE label. Committed to
both performing rarely heard masterpieces along with classics
and new works, Laura also has a love and interest in teaching
new generations of young musicians. Currently active as a
teacher and chamber music coach for the Greater Miami Youth
Symphony and string programs in South Florida she also records
and performs with her husband, Jose R. Lopez (Coordinator
of Keyboard studies at Florida International University-School
of Music and a founding member of the Deering Estate Chamber
Ensemble). Both Jose and Laura live in Southwest Miami-Dade
County with their three rescue dogs, Johannes, Clara, and
Flory (Florestan).
The Art
of the Piano: Alejandro Vela Friday April 29 2011 at 8 PM
Tickets $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme
Manuel M. Ponce: Hacia la cima, Intermezzo, Gavota, Estrellita,
Balada mexicana
Alberto Ginastera: Danzas Argentinas, Op. 2
Isaac Albéniz: Evocación from Iberia
Samuel Zyman: Two Motions in One Movement
Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Bio
"Gripping and powerful."
The Dallas Morning News
A virtuoso who effortlessly blends spectacular technical
prowess with innate musicality, Alejandro Vela is a pianist
of Northern Mexican origin now performing in concert halls
worldwide. This Juilliard-trained artist has scored successes
at ChicagoÕs Ravinia Festival, Alice Tully Hall in
New York, National Arts Center in Mexico and the Royal Concertgebouw
in Amsterdam. Alejandro has appeared with most of the Mexican
orchestras and he has performed with the Chicago and Houston
symphony orchestras under Christoph Eschenbach. Recent and
upcoming concert activities include extensive tours in Taiwan
in collaboration with cellist Chao-Lun Lu, concerts with
the Coahuila Chamber Orchestra in Mexico, solo recitals in
Toronto, Montreal, Rome, Vienna, Budapest, Kiev, Berlin and
appearances at the Festival de Mˇxico and at the El Paso
Pro-Musica concert series alongside Philippe Quint, Hector
del Curto, Claudio Ragazzi, Pedro Giraudo, Ani Aznavoorian,
Lidia Karminska, Mat Fields, Oren Fader and Kurt Moroki.
In February 2011 Alejandro had the honor of performing a
solo recital showcasing his new compilation of Latin-inspired
music at the Official Residence of the Embassy of Mexico
in Japan.
For more information please visit www.alejandrovela.com.
Les
Amis Concerts Presents
Trio Atlantik Tuesday April 26 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
W.A. Mozart: Divertimento
Allegro
Adagio
Menuetto
Andante
Menuetto
Allegro
Michael Pepa: Trio Atlantik
Erno Dohnanyi: Serenade
Marcia - Allegro
Romanza - adagio non troppo quasi andante
Scherzo - vivace
Tema con variazoni - andante con moto
Rondo (finale) - allegro vivace
Formed in 2010 through personal and musical friendship,
Trio Atlantik is dedicated to creating inspired interpretations
of the beloved standard works while exploring new music of
their peers residing in their respective neighbourhoods,
cities and countries. Bringing together their international
training and years steeped in intense chamber music performance,
Trio Atlantik is determined to breathe a new life into the
rarely performed string trio repertoire and introduce ears
to the novel.
Bios
Canadian violinist Akemi Mercer performed all over the world
as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestra player. Prize-winner
in the Canadian Music Competition and the Peel Music Festival,
Akemi has appeared as soloist with the Toronto, Oakville
and Etobicoke Orchestras. As member of the award winning
Gemini and Ebony String Quartets Akemi has collaborated with
the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Steven Dann, Vladimir Mendelssohn,
Anssi Kartunen, Steven Isserlis, Mayumi Seiler, Scott St.
John, and William Aide. She has attended festivals such as
Banff, Orford, Scotiafest, the Southern Ontario Chamber Music
Institute, Domaine Forget and the Kuhmo Festival in Finland,
and from 2005-2006 was a member of the UBS Verbier Festival
Orchestra touring Europe and South America with Micheal Tilson
Thomas, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Daniel Gati and Gustavo Dudamel.
Born in Edmonton, Alberta and raised in Richmond, BC and
Oakville, Ontario, Akemi completed her Bachelor of Music
Performance in Toronto with David Zafer and Mayumi Seiler,
after which she continued her studies with Victor Tretyakov
at the Music College in Cologne, Germany. From 2006-2007
she was member of the Orchestra Academy of the Munich Philharmonic
and participated in masterclasses with Peter Oundjian, Christian
Tetzlaff, Martin Beaver, Jose Luis Garcia, Maricio Fuchs,
and members of the Orford, Tokyo, St. Lawrence and Juilliard
quartets.
Since March 2008, Akemi is a permanent member of the Frankfurt
Radio Orchestra, now Associate Principal Second violin, under
Paavo Jarvi. Along with her orchestral playing, Akemi is
member of the Alighieri Quartet, the Frankfurt String Sextet,
and is a leading member of Frankfurt Strings, a string orchestra
made from members of the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra. Akemi
comes to Canada regularly to play concerts, most recently
guest concertmaster with the National Ballet Orchestra, a
performance with her sister Rachel Mercer of Brahms' Double
Concerto, and the 5th concert of a Haydn trio cycle with
the Mercer-Oh Trio for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music
Society.
German violist Dirk Niewöhner is prize winner at both
the German Viola Society and the Eastern Music Festival in
the United States. He has appeared as soloist with orchestra
on both violin and viola and as a member of the Mahler Chamber
Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. Founding member of
the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Claudio Abbado, Dirk
has been a member of the Munich Philharmonic viola section
since 2003.
Dirk has performed at festivals such as the Rheingau Musik
Festival, Lucerne Festival and at Carnegie Hall, and has
collaborated with Kolja Blacher, Renaud Capucon, Mirijam
Contzen and Wen-Sinn Yang. He was a member of the Signum
String Quartet, a prizewinner at the International Charles-Hennen-Concours
(Netherlands) and currently plays with the Munich Philharmonic
String Sextet and the Tertis Viola Ensemble - the only quartet
worldwide consisting of four violas.
Dirk studied violin with Ida Bieler, Miriam Fried and Rainer
Kussmaul before continuing his studies on viola with Wolfram
Christ and Hariolf Schlichtig. He also has chamber music
degrees with the Alban Berg and Melos Quartets. Dirk has
received scholarships from the German Music Council and the
German cultural foundation "Villa Musica". Grand
prize winner of the 2001 Vriendenkrans Competition in Amsterdam,
Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer made her European recital
debut in the Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal. Rachel has performed
as a soloist across Canada, in Europe, the Balkans, the United
States, South Africa and Israel, and her performances have
been broadcast in Canada, Israel and Europe. She currently
records for Israeli indie label EnT-T. As a member of the
award-winning Aviv String Quartet from 2002-2010, Rachel
toured regularly on five continents, and released cds on
Naxos and Dalia Classics.
Born in Edmonton, Rachel began cello studies at the age
of three continuing at the Vancouver Academy of Music, the
Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto
with Shauna Rolston, the New England Conservatory with Laurence
Lesser, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Dmitri
Ferschtman. Rachel attended Orford, Banff, Holland Music
Sessions, Ravinia,
Prussia Cove, Scotiafest, Proquartet, the Juilliard Quartet
Seminar and the Verbier Academy, for masterclasses with Boris
Pergamenschikow, Frans Helmerson, Lynn Harrell, Janos Starker,
Aldo Parisot, Gregor Horsch, Valentin Berlinsky, Valentin
Erben, Henry Meyer and Walter Levin.
Currently based in Toronto, Rachel has given guest masterclasses
at the University of Toronto and QuartetFest at Wilfred Laurier
University. She is cellist for Via Salzburg, a chamber music
series led by Mayumi Seiler, and of piano quartet Ensemble
Made in Canada, winners of CBC Galaxie Rising Stars Award,
and named among "80 women to watch" in the 80th
anniversary edition of Chatelaine magazine in May 2008. Ensemble
Made In Canada tours across the country and most recently
began appearing in the United States with a residency at
SUNY, New Paltz, NY. Rachel and her violinist sister Akemi
formed the Mercer-Oh curator Gregory Oh) and are playing
a complete Haydn trio cycle for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber
Music Society between 2009-2013. Rachel also appears in recital
with pianist Angela Park as the Mercer-Park duo. Other upcoming
concerts include the the Art of Time Ensemble season , a
debut recital at Music Toronto, and summer festival appearances
in Ottawa, Stratford and Halifax with the Mercer Duo and
Ensemble Made In Canada.
Recent winner of the Canada Council Instrument Bank Competition,
Rachel plays the 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius cello, on loan
until
August 2012 from the Canada Council for the Arts, donated
to the council by a generous anonymous donor.
The
Art of the Guitar: ChromaDuo:
Rob MacDonald and Tracy Anne Smith Friday April 22 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Artists; $10 Seniors & Students
CD launch for our debut recording 'Hidden
Waters', featuring world premiere recordings of music composed
by Roland Dyens, Stephen Goss, and Christopher William Pierce.
Admission will include the concert and 1copy of the CD.
About:
A dedicated new voice in the contemporary music world, ChromaDuo
is vigorously developing and presenting some of today's most
evocative, lyrical, and exhilarating music. Classical guitarists
Tracy Anne Smith and Rob MacDonald unveil refreshing and
innovative programs of new works by some of the most exciting
living, breathing composers of our time.
ChromaDuo has commissioned works from the incomparable
Parisian Roland Dyens, irreverent British powerhouse Stephen
Goss, genre-bending New Yorker Ben Verdery, and emerging
major American talents Christopher William Pierce and Judah
Adashi. Alongside these creations, their unique concert programs
feature standout works from the late 20th and early 21st
centuries, and they continue to seek out pioneering new voices
to enrich the repertoire.
Highlights of their debut concert season in 2009 include
performances at new music festivals and guitar societies
across the United States and Canada; from Boston to Seattle,
Toronto to Vancouver. This season they will expand their
reach, premiering Niterói, Roland Dyens’ sparkling
new tour de force, at the Guildford International Music Festival
in England, before returning to North America for a number
of follow-up performances.
Critics have called Rob MacDonald a “Canadian guitar
visionary,” (Minor 7th Magazine) and Tracy Anne Smith, “One
hell of a guitarist - and more importantly a top-class musician.” (Festival
21 Blog). Together they combine forces to create their debut
recording, to be released in March 2011, featuring five world-premieres
of works by Dyens, Goss, and Pierce.
Anna Atkinson and George Meanwell Thursday April 21 2011 at 8 pm
$15; $10 Students
Anna Atkinson is an innovative
and multi-talented musician and composer. She attended the
University of Victoria, studying viola and chamber music
with Joanna Hood and the Lafayette String Quartet. There
she also began to write and perform her own songs regularly,
accompanying herself on viola, accordion, and four-string
banjo. Along with fellow violist/songwriter Rachael Cardiello
she formed Blue Richard and the Apricots, releasing an EP
in January 2008. The duo attracted large audiences in Victoria,
Vancouver and Seattle with their fearless harmonies and unique
instrumentation.
In October 2008, following the completion of her Bachelor
of Music and a month-long bicycle expedition to the East
Coast, Anna settled in Toronto where she now writes, performs,
records and teaches. She has recorded and appeared in concert
with Laila Biali, Andrew Downing, David Essig, Allison Brown,
George Meanwell, Saidah Baba Talibah, Tucker Finn, Chloe
Charles and Lenni Jabour, among many others. She also appears
regularly with various classical ensembles throughout Toronto.
Last summer, Anna played violin and accordion in the Stratford
Festival's production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and
Living in Paris, and will be returning to Stratford this
season to play in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
In the last two years Anna has brought her songs to growing
audiences throughout Ontario as well as Montreal, Vancouver
and Victoria. With the assistance of the Ontario Arts Council
and a Guthrie Award from the Stratford Festival she completed
her first album of original songs and is thrilled to announce
its release in June 2011, followed by a Canada-wide tour
in the fall.
In the late 1970's, George Meanwell was
guitarist and vocalist with the Toronto acoustic folk trio
Short Turn which performed throughout the then extensive
416 area code, garnering invitations from Morningside, 90
Minutes Live, and George Hamilton IV. Until 2002 he was Quartetto
Gelato's founding cellist, guitarist and mandolinist (as
well as webmaster, sometime arranger and liner note writer)
in concerts throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Since
then he has returned to songwriting, releasing two CDs of
original material: Another Street (2003), featured on the
year-end "hit list" of CBC's DiscDrive, and Late
(2008) with his band The Loss Leaders.
George continues to be busy as a cellist. He was featured
on the soundtrack of the documentary film A Murder of Crows
on CBC and NPR, and appeared on stage as both cellist and
guitarist in the 2010 Stratford Shakespeare Festival productions
of As You Like It and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and
Living in Paris.
In the fall of 2010 he joined forces with Anna Atkinson
in a series of concerts throughout southern Ontario, and
in 2011 returns to the Stratford Festival in The Grapes of
Wrath.
Music for Horn and Soprano Wednesday April 20 2011 at 8 PM
Tickets $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme:
Works by Duparc, Schubert, Heggie, Lachner, S. Davis.
Bios:
Toronto-based horn player Roslyn Black is
an active freelance musician, recitalist and teacher in southern
Ontario. She recently returned to Canada after four years
in Miami as a member of the renowned New World Symphony,
under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. During her
tenure in Miami, Roslyn was fortunate to collaborate with
many remarkable musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming,
Christian Tetzlaff, Emmanuel Ax, Measha Brueggergosman, and
Leila Josefowizc. She spent three summers performing at the
Lucerne Festival in Switzerland with Pierre Boulez and two
summers apprenticing with the Boston Symphony at the Tanglewood
Music Festival. Roslyn's principal teachers include Richard
Ely, Joan Watson and James Sommerville and she completed
her Master of Music degree in 2004 at the New England Conservatory
in Boston. In 2009, Roslyn performed with the BBC Symphony
in London as a finalist for the position of Sub-Principal
Horn and previously held the Principal Horn position with
the Hingham Symphony Orchestra (now the Atlantic Symphony)
in Massachusetts. Previously, she has been a faculty member
at Miami-Dade College in Florida, the Dana Hall School in
Wellesley, Massachusetts, and both Havergal College and Upper
Canada College in Toronto. Roslyn is dedicated to the development
and performance of contemporary music and performs regularly
with the Callithumpian Consort in Boston, a chamber ensemble
committed solely to the performance of new music under the
direction of famed contemporary pianist, Stephen Drury. She
can be heard on numerous recordings on the Mode record label,
and is currently a performer in the touring production "Star
Wars in Concert" with the actor Anthony Daniels.
Soprano Mary Ann Power, is a
performer of a diverse variety of classical repertoire from
New Music premieres to the Early Music and Baroque periods.
In the Ohio Valley she actively sings in chamber recitals,
solo recitals, and performs as a volunteer at the Hospice
of Dayton. She has been a guest performer and/or master clinician
at Capitol University in Columbus, Ohio, the University of
Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music Preparatory Department,
and Roane State Community College in Tennessee. Some of Ms.
Powers' operatic repertoire includes Lucy from The Telephone,
La Musica from L'Orfeo, and Josephine from Story of an Hour
(premiere). Ms. Powers is also a dedicated teacher; her students
have won college scholarships, advanced to All State Choir
in Kentucky, and performed in many community theater productions.
Her most influential vocal training has been from Constance
Rock, William Cotten, Patricia Pease, and Christina von Wartenberg.
Ms. Powers holds a MM in Vocal Performance and another MM
in Vocal Pedagogy from New England Conservatory of Music,
and a BM in Vocal Performance from Ohio University in Athens,
OH.
Pianist Stephen Runge has been heard across Canada in recital,
as chamber musician, and with orchestra and is demand across
the country as teacher, adjudicator, and clinician. Stephen
came to national attention when he was awarded first prize
in the piano category of the National Music Festival. Since
then he has been the recipient of several important awards,
including prizes at the Eckhardt-Gramatté National
Music Competition, the International Stepping Stone of the
Canadian Music Competition, the C.F.M.T.A. National Piano
Competition, the Roberto and Mary Wood Competition, the Shean
Piano Competition, and the B.C. Young Artists' Piano Competition.
Stephen Runge enjoys performing lesser known repertoire
and new works. In 2000, he gave the Canadian premiere of
Lowell Liebermann's Piano Concerto No.2 with the Regina Symphony
Orchestra. He has also performed with the Saskatoon Symphony
Orchestra and the University of Victoria Orchestra. Dr. Runge
has been broadcast nationally on CBC Radio Two and La Chaîne
Culturelle de Radio-Canada. He has received special recognition
for his frequent performances as chamber musician and art
song collaborator, and is a founding member of the Beausejour
Trio. He is currently undertaking a major recording project
of the large works for solo piano by Robert Schumann. As
a clinician, Dr. Runge has given workshops at provincial
and national teaching conferences on topics such as effective
practice methods, approaching piano technique holistically,
and performance practices for Baroque and Classical music.
Songs of Faith and Doubt Sunday April 17 2011 at 4 PM
$20; $15 Seniors and Artists; $10 Students
Bios
Iris Krizmanic, as well as being principal horn of the Scarborough Philharmonic
(SPO) holds the position of third horn in the Niagara Symphony. She graduated
from the Glenn Gould School, having studied with principal horn of the Toronto
Symphony orchestra, Neil Deland, and Associate Principal Christopher Gongos.
She has played under the baton of many conductors such as Bramwell Tovey, the
late Richard Bradshaw, and Uri Meyer amongst others. She toured to China with
the Royal Conservatory Orchestra as part of a cultural outreach program for
the school. A multi-talented musician, Iris also plays the cello and takes
vocal lessons with Jean MacPhail. In the 2009/2010 season Iris will be a featured
soloist with the SPO performing Richard Strauss' first horn concerto.
Nicholas Nanos is a musician singer song writer with a long varied musical
career that included performances in almost every region of North America as
well as many places in Europe and the Middle East. Often called the tune smith
his work is currently less political than it used to be focusing more on spiritual
themes or that old favourite of song writers everywhere, love. Among his major
works is an Orchestral Piece called Whale Song and an Opera he is currently
writing called Sto Ena Hora which uses the emotions the characters feel to
express the story line rather than using dialog. As music Director for Pro
Amore Musicae, and choral director of Don Heights Unitarian, Nicholas promotes
the music of Canada and is dedicated to ensuring that Canadian artists get
more exposure.
Manifesto! Trio '86 Saturday April 16 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Jennifer Thiessen, viola;
Marc Wieser, piano;
Krista Martynes, clarinet
Trio '86 has currently explored the importance of controlled musical improvisation
as a medium for new forms of expression in chamber music inspired by Rzewski's
Parma Manifesto. Our exploration in improvisation has been motivated by composers
who "relinquish some control over the musical elements...with the full
belief that the performer will play with learned skills, while maintaining
the integrity of context and style." This journey features various
composers including Rzewski, Reich, and Riley, all advocates in introducing
improvisation, in all of it's forms, to written music, mixing some more or
less free improv (Brown, Derome, Coleman) with other pieces that are more controlled
(Riley, Reich). The Trio adds their creative style by completing this concert
with a commission from talented Brian Harman as well as two tributes from jazz
artists Ornette Coleman and Quebec's own Jean Derome.
A fortuitous wind from the west brought these three prairie-born musicians
in Montreal for their first concert in 2009.Jennifer Thiessen, Krista Martynes,
and Marc Wieser formed Trio ‘86 while discovering a shared passion for
collaboration and an appreciation for the unique sonority of the clarinet-viola-piano
combination. At once distinct and complimentary, these three personalities
are as compatible as the timbres and voices of their instruments.
The mission of Trio ’86 is twofold: First, we are committed to expanding
the available repertoire for our unique grouping; second, we are committed
to promoting and presenting new modes of communication by breathing new life
into the historical repertoire or commissioning and interpreting exploratory
new works for this instrumentation. A relatively neglected chamber music grouping,
the clarinet-viola-piano ensemble has its roots in the “Kegelstatt” trio
of Mozart, the Fairytales of Robert Schumann and the Hommage à Robert
Schumann of Kurtág.
After a successful series of concerts in Montreal, Trio ’86 looks forward
to branching out in their upcoming season with concerts in New York, Ontario
and western Canada, interacting with composers and incorporating performances
based on creative techniques such as improvisation and the use of electronics.
Eager to further exploit new possibilities, this exciting young Canadian trio
embraces an exploratory spirit, interpreting new and traditional repertoire,
forging new paths in performance.
Trio Fibonacci Friday April 15, 2011 at 8 pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Julie-Anne Derome
Gabriel Prynn
Stephanie Chua
The Trio Fibonacci was formed in 1998 and its brilliant career has featured
concert tours to South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Japan, to the
USA and across Europe. Indeed the Trio received the 2002 Prix Opus for its
artistic achievements overseas. Thanks to the Trio’s inspired interpretations
of the music of our time it gained early international recognition. Today the
Trio is noted for its equally eloquent performances of the works of earlier
eras. The Trio Fibonacci has been guided by some of the world’s most
respected chamber musicians, including Menahem Pressler, members of the Alban
Berg, Guarneri, Emerson and Vermeer string quartets, and by their mentors Eberhard
Feltz and Michael Vogler in Berlin. The Trio Fibonacci is in residence at the
Conservatoire de musique in Quebec City.
Programme
Linda Catlin Smith – Far from shore for piano trio (2010) *
Juliet Kiri Palmer – diver(s) for piano trio (2003)
Jonathan Harvey – Piano Trio (1971)
Mauricio Kagel – Trio No.3 (2006-2007) *
* Toronto première
Julie-Anne Derome, violinist
Winner of the prestigious 2003 Virginia Parker Prize of the Canada Council
for the Arts to underline her innovative work as a performer, Julie-Anne Derome
was born in Montreal and studied with Christopher Rowland at the Royal Northern
College of Music, UK (1991- 1995), and with Mitchell Stern and members of the
Emerson String Quartet in the USA (1995-1996). Winner of the Mendelssohn Trust
Award in England in 1994 and of the Emerson String Quartet Competition in 1995,
Julie-Anne Derome also received a special prize from the jury at the 1992 Yehudi
Menuhin Competition in Paris for her interpretation of Anthèmes by Pierre
Boulez. Julie-Anne has performed as soloist with the Manchester Sinfonia at
the Aix-en-Provence International Music Festival in France, and gave the world
première of the revised version of the Berg Violin Concerto with the
symphony orchestra of the Royal Northern College of Music (UK). In 1993 she
took part in a concert of chamber music for Queen Elizabeth II in Cyprus during
a meeting of the Heads of the Commonwealth. In 1995 she featured as the soloist
in a performance of Corale by Luciano Berio with the SMCQ (Montreal). In 1996
she played with the Emerson String Quartet in Connecticut. In 1996 Julie-Anne
released a CD of twentieth century solo violin works entitled Solo (on the
Atma label). In reference to this recording the BBC Music Magazine hailed Julie-Anne
Derome as "a star in the making." She may also be heard on the Analekta
and SNE labels.
Julie-Anne regularly premières concertos by Canadian composers. In 2000
the Canada Council for the Arts awarded Julie-Anne Derome the loan of a 1902
Enrico Rocca violin and in 2003 an 1820 Johannes Franciscus Pressenda violin.
Julie-Anne performed a highly successful series of ten recitals in India in
2009 and plans to return in December 2011.
Born in England in 1973, Gabriel Prynn studied at the Royal Northern College
of Music (U.K) with Clive Greensmith, cellist of the Tokyo String Quartet.
From 1995 to 1996 he continued his cello studies with David Finckel of the
Emerson String Quartet in New York, and then went on to benefit from the guidance
of Paul Tortelier protégé Daniel Domb, then Principal Cello of
the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Mr.Prynn has participated in master classes
with Janos Starker, Yuli Turovsky, and with pioneering New Music specialist
Frances Marie Uitti in Amsterdam. Of the various awards that he has received
it is important to mention scholarships from the King Edward VII Foundation
(UK), the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (Germany), the University
of New York at Stony Brook, and research grants from both the Canada and Quebec
Arts Councils.
Mr.Prynn is devoted to the performance and interpretation of the music of our
time and appears regularly as soloist and chamber musician in Canada and Europe.
He has given the Canadian premières of a number of important works from
the modern cello repertoire including Ne songe plus à fuir for cello
solo by Richard Barrett, Gavin Bryars' cello concerto The North Shore, iv2
by Mark André, Herz for cello solo by Enno Poppe, and Advaya for cello
and live electronics by Jonathan Harvey. In January 2006 he was guest performer
with the German ensemble musikFabrik for a series of concerts at the Ultraschall
Festival in Berlin, and has performed regularly with the Ensemble Alternance
in Paris and with the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne in Montreal.
Stephanie Chua is an expressive and versatile Canadian pianist. Through musical
insight and innovative programming, she has devoted herself to performing works
of the 20th and 21st centuries. Based in Toronto, Stephanie has performed solo
recitals at the Music Gallery, the Arts & Letters Club of Toronto, and
the McMichael Gallery of Canadian Art; she also been heard in concerts presented
by the Esprit Orchestra, Soundstreams Canada, Contact Contemporary Music and
the X-Avant Festival 2010 (Toronto). Recent highlights include performances
at Impuls Contemporary Music Festival 2009 in Graz, Austria and a solo tour
of South-West England with performances at the Michael Tippet Centre (Bath)
and the Cube Microplex (Bristol) in 2008.
In 2009, Stephanie co-founded junctQín with Elaine Lau and Joseph Ferretti.
junctQín is trio of pianists devoted to performances of contemporary
music and commissioning new works for their unique instrumentation. Most recently,
junctQín has been featured in recital at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre
of the COC’s Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts and presented
at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche 2010 in Toronto.
Stephanie holds her Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal
Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music from the University of Toronto.
She was also Artist-in-Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and earned
her Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria. Her main teachers were
Robin Wood and Marietta Orlov, and she worked extensively in master classes
with Menahem Pressler and Leon Fleisher. In 2009, Stephanie received an Ontario
Arts Council Career Development Grant allowing her to pursue studies with Ian
Pace in London, England.
Trio sTREga Sunday April 10 2011 at 3 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme
Aram Khachaturian - Trio for cl., vl., pf (1932)
Andante con dolore, molt’espressione
Allegro
Moderato
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Violin Sonata K.301 (1778)
Allegro con spirito
Allegro
Johannes Brahms - Clarinet Sonata Op.120 n.1 (1894)
Allegro appassionato
Andante un poco Adagio
Allegretto grazioso
Vivace
Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Sonata Op.90 (1814)
Mit Lebhaftigkeit und durchaus mit Empfindung and Ausdruck
NIcht zu geschwind und sehr singbar vorgetragen
Béla Bartók - Contrasts for cl.,
vl., pf. (1938)
Verbunkos
Pihen?
Sebes
About Trio sTREga
Trio sTREga is a chamber group co-founded by Polish clarinettist
Katarzyna (Kasia) Marczak and Italian pianist Erika Crinó.
Kasia and Erika met in Vancouver at the University of British
Columbia while both completing their Doctorates in Performance.
Their shared love for chamber music led them to form Trio
sTREga, while still studying at the university. Originally
composed of clarinet, cello and piano, after the recent move
to Toronto, the trio changed its profile into a combination
of clarinet, violin and piano, with the introduction of outstanding
violinist Ewa Sas.
The trio has made its debut in 2006 in Vancouver and was
immediately invited to perform at the “New Music Alberta” (Edmonton,
Alberta) series during its 2006-2007 concert season. After
a short Winter Residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts
(Alberta), where Erika and Kasia collaborated with such artists
as Berry Shiffman and Henk Guittart, they moved to Toronto.
Trio sTREga quickly established itself as a young and approachable
group, recognized for its friendly but professional readings
of even the most complex scores.
Trio sTREga is strongly dedicated to communication with its
audience. Explanations and comments are always included in
the performances, linking new works to the more classical
ones, presenting background information and relating music
to the different arts. The trio’s commitment to a wider
appreciation of music is also evident in the numerous outreach
performances in conservatories, community halls, art and
social events, as well as TV appearances.
BIOS
Italian pianist Erika Crinó is
very active both as a chamber musician and a soloist. Several
of her performances have been featured on CBC Radio, including
a solo recital for Debut Friday Series, a performance of
chamber music with percussionist Salvador Ferreras, a performance
of Stravinsky's "Concerto for Two Pianos" with
pianist Brett Kingsbury, and, more recently, the performance
of Jocelyn Morlock's "Involuntary Love Songs",
with soprano Vania Chan, winner of the special prize at the
Eckhard-Gramatté Competition.
Born in Tarnow, Poland, Ewa Sas began
playing the violin at the age of 7. In 2006 she graduated
with 1st Class Honors from the Instrumental Department of
Akademia Muzyczna in Cracow, receiving her Master of Arts
degree in violin performance under the tutelage of Professor
Teresa Gl?bówna. From 2001 to 2006, in recognition
of her academic achievements, Ewa received Study Scholarships
for every year of her studies. In that time (2001-2003),
she also completed an Inter-Faculty Pedagogical Program,
hosted at the Akademia Muzyczna in Cracow. In 2008 she finished
her second Master degree (M.Mus) in violin performance at
University of British Columbia in the studio of Jasper Wood.
For the 2 years she was living in Vancouver, Ewa was concertmaster
of Orchestra Armonia, a member of the Erato Ensemble, and
she performed throughout BC with many orchestras and chamber
ensembles, as well as solo, including a performance at the
2006 BC Fashion Week Opening Show. Currently, Ewa is living
in Montreal, studying with Richard Roberts, concertmaster
of Montreal Symphony, as well as Denise Lupien, a distinguished
pedagogue at McGill University.
The Art of the Piano: Joel Hastings Saturday April 9, 2011 at 8 pm
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme:
Carter Pann: "Your Touch" (1997)
Carl Vine: Piano Sonata No.1 (1990)
Beethoven: Sonata in B-flat Major, Op. 106 "Hammerklavier" (1818)
Bio
Canadian-born Joel Hastings was the winner of the 2006 8th
International Web Concert Hall Competition (www.webconcerthall.com),
and the 1993 International Bach Competition at the Kennedy
Center in Washington, D.C.
After delivering a stunning performance at the Tenth Van
Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas,
one reporter designated Mr. Hastings the “audience
favourite” while another declared, “the kinetic
fingers of this young Canadian reminded me strongly of his
late countryman, Glenn Gould.”
In a Newsweek review he “pulled the audience to their
feet after a wild performance of Franz Liszt’s Totentanz.” Reviewers
have described his playing as passionate, mesmerizing, hypnotic,
and transcendental.
Mr. Hastings has performed solo recitals across Canada and
the United States, while his orchestral engagements have
included the Toronto Philharmonic; the Oakville, Okanagan,
Windsor, Kamloops, Niagara, Racine, Timmins and the University
of Michigan Symphonies; the Kitchener-Waterloo and Michigan
Chamber Orchestras, the Huntsville Festival Orchestra and
the Ann Arbor Concert Band. He has worked with conductors
including Gustav Meier, Kerry Stratton, Roberto Declara,
Daniel Swift, Susan Haig, John Morris Russell, Dwight Bennett,
Matthew Jones, Douglas Sanford, Donald Schleicher, Alexander
Platt, Bruce Dunn and Vincent Danner.
As a collaborative artist Mr. Hastings has toured internationally
with vocal ensembles, performing in such venues as the Vatican
and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, and he has recorded with
the Cranbrook Singers of Michigan and the University of Michigan
Symphony Band.
From the Royal Conservatory of Music Mr. Hastings earned
his ARCT diplomas in piano and organ, receiving a gold medal
for the highest score in the country.
He holds degrees in both instruments from the University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and taught as visiting faculty at
the University of Windsor, Ontario. Additionally, he has
given master-classes and adjudicated competitions and festivals
across Canada and the United States. Mr. Hastings has been
the recipient of multiple grants from The Canadian Council
for the Performing Arts.
Mr. Hastings has recently recorded a CD of Franz Liszt's
song and operatic transcriptions
and a CD of Frederic Chopin’s 24 Etudes available on
the Prestant Records label.
His debut CD Sessions has been featured on CBC radio.
Les Amis Concerts Presents
LOVE: Innocence, Passion, and Obsession Tuesday April 5, 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Lynn Kuo, violin and Marianna Humetska, piano
Programme
W.A. Mozart: Six Variations in g minor on 'Hélas,
j'ai perdu mon amant', K. 360
César Franck Sonata in A major:
I. Allegretto Ben Moderato
II. Allegro
III. Recitativo Fantasia
IV. Allegretto Poco Mosso
Nino Rota: Improvviso in re minore 4'30
Astor Piazzolla: Milonga en re
Igor Frolov: Concert Fantasy on themes from Gershwin's Porgy
and Bess
Women in Jazz Series:
Sheila Jordan and Yvette Tollar Saturday April 2 2011 at 8 PM Adults $20 / Seniors $15 / Students $10
Yvette Tollar
Sheila Jordan
This 3rd installment of the Women In Jazz Series features
a double bill with the grand dame of vocal jazz, Sheila Jordan
and JUNO Award Nominated, Canadian jazz vocalist, Yvette
Tollar. Often called a musician’s singer, Sheila Jordan
swings hard and is a masterful improviser. But still, she’ll
easily hold audiences captive with ballads so slow and drippy
that you’ll need a honey pot and stick to mark the
meter. With over 6 decades of rich jazz history under her
belt and a slew of awards and accolades recognizing her uncompromising
approach to the jazz tradition, Sheila Jordan’s popularity
continues to increase.
Now 82, Sheila’s touring schedule is busier than
ever. You can find her on any given month on any given continent
tying audience’s heart strings into bows with her ever
agile and expressive voice. She exudes an unapologetic love
for life and for the music, that, she’ll tell you,
she owes hers to.
This concert is a rare and intimate treat for lovers of
jazz and should not be missed.
Opening the night is Yvette Tollar - an award winning vocalist
born and raised in Toronto. With jazz at the root of Yvette’s
musicality and a voice that can make the hairs on your arm
stand at attention this songstress never fails to captivate.
As musical director of the Women In Jazz series and a life
long student of Sheila’s, this collaborative concert
is a joyful milestone for Yvette and her career.
Accompanying Sheila & Yvette are two of Canada’s
leading instrumentalists: Dave Restivo (piano) has twice
been awarded the National Jazz Award and Kieran Overs (bass)
who appears on over 80 albums, including Sheila Jordan’s
latest release, Winter Sunshine.
For concert reservations contact Gallery 345 (460) 822-9781
For concert + workshop packages call (647) 686-6962
Sheila Jordan - b. Sheila Jeanette
Dawson, Nov. 18 1928, Detroit, Michigan, USA.Raised in poverty
in Pennsylvania's coal-mining country, Jordan began singing
as a child and by the time she was in her early teens was
working semi-professionally in Detroit clubs. Her first great
influence was Charlie Parker and, indeed, most of her influences
have been instrumentalists rather than singers. Working chiefly
with black musicians, she met with disapproval from the white
community but persisted with her career.
After moving to New York in 1951, she studied with Lennie
Tristano and Charlie Mingus. During that time, Sheila also
married Parker's pianist, Duke Jordan. But it was not until
the early 60s that she made her first recordings including
The Outer View with George Russell and her classic debut
album, Portrait of Sheila (Blue Note).
Since those early years, Sheila’s uncompromising style
and her absolute dedication to traditional jazz and bebop
has lead to world-wide recognition, a demanding year round
touring schedule and over 20 albums. With a career that spans
almost 70 years, Ms. Jordan has worked alongside other jazz
legends such as Lee Konitz, Steve Kuhn, Kurt Elling, Steve
Swallow and Carla Bley.
Sheila was honoured in 2010 with a New York Nightlife Award
(Outstanding Jazz Vocalist), in 2008 with the Mary Lou Williams
Women In Jazz for Lifetime of Service Award, in 2007 with
a Humanitarian Award by the IAJE, and in 2006 with a MAC
Lifetime Achievement Award. Downbeat Magazine’s Critic’s
Poll named Sheila in the Top 5 “Established Talent” category
every year since 1980.
Sheila taught at City College in NYC for 3 decades and
conducts her famous Vocal Jazz Workshops around the world
tirelessly. Her deep love for jazz and improvisation has
inspired thousands of vocalists and musicians to "keep
the music alive".
Going strong at 82 years old and entirely non-derivative,
Jordan is one of only a tinyhandful of jazz singers who fully
deserve the appellation and for whom no other term will do.
Yvette Tollar was born and
raised in Toronto and began singing professionally at 16.
Her expressive vocals are rich and soulful, her delivery
of lyrics mature and her approach effortless. She says music
is her connection to the source and this reverent approach
shines through in her sincere and unaffected performances.
Jazz has always been Yvette’s main focus but growing
up in Toronto’s multi-cultural and inclusive society,
she was exposed to a myriad of roots and folk music from
around the world. By remaining open to the world of influences
that surround her, Yvette sports immense versatility by lending
her talents to Hungarian, Arabic, Yiddish, Brazillian, Jamaican,
African and Indian projects. She has sung in at least 9 different
languages and more than a dozen genres including Traditional
and Modern Jazz, R&B, Classical and Klezmer music.
Ima and Cactus Flowers are Yvette’s two Modern Jazz
offerings. Many of the songs are self-penned but in Ima other
songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, brother, Ernie Tollar,
Dave Restivo and Kevin Breit also take the spotlight. The
arrangements are mainly piano trio and voice but also draw
on instruments as diverse as bansuri (bamboo) flute, mbira
(African thumb piano), mandolin and tabla.
Ms Tollar, has performed at dozens of Jazz, Folk and World
Music Festivals while touring across Canada, Europe and South
America. She has written music for film, sung for television
and live national radio broadcasts and has released two Modern
Jazz albums under her own name.
The recipient of numerous scholarships and grants, Yvette
has studied with Jazz legends, Sheila Jordan, Joe Lovano,
Kenny Werner and Dave Holland. She studied voice at The Royal
Conservatory of Music and with Canada’s first Speech
Level Singing expert, Bill Vincent. As well, she has studied
theory, jazz improvisation, composition, Arabic and Hungarian
singing, organ and piano.
In 2009 Yvette's CD, Ima, was recognized with a JUNO Award
Nomination for Best Vocal Jazz Album, as well, she was granted
a Chalmers Arts Fellowship (The Ontario Art's Council's most
prestigious honour).
Yvette is founder and artistic director of the Women In
Jazz Series which features masterful female improvisors from
around the world. Sheila Jordan (USA), Mary Margaret O'Hara
(Canada) and Jasna Jovicevic (Serbia) have all been featured
artists in this innovative, exciting and genre bending series.
Vocal Jazz Workshop with Sheila Jordan Sunday April 3 2011 at 10 AM & 2
PM
Attention all vocalists!
A rare opportunity to spend the day with jazz legend, Sheila
Jordan.
Please contact yvettetollar@hotmail.com to secure your place
as a participant or an auditor.
Gypsy Music Tuesday March 29 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme
Ana Sokolovic: Chant (2003)
Katarina Curcin: Gypsies (2009)
Michael Pepa: Fantaisie bohémienne (2004)
Video of highlights of the April 27, 2009 Belgrade concert
of music by Canadian/Serbian composers
Ana Sokolovic and Katarina Curcin
at Svecana sala Skupstine grada
Lynn Kuo, violin
Violinist Lynn Kuo has performed as soloist and chamber musician
across Canada, United States, Wales, Austria, Hungary, Serbia,
Croatia, Bulgaria, and Romania. As guest soloist,she has
performed with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber
Orchestra of Bulgaria, Canadian Sinfonietta, Brandon Chamber
Players, the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, the Nexus percussion
ensemble, and has also collaborated with artists such as
Christoph Eschenbach, William Aide, the Gryphon Trio, and
Penderecki String Quartet.
In demand as an interpreter of new music, Lynn has given
numerous world premieres of acoustic and electroacoustic
works written for her and various ensembles (Duo Vita, Les
AMIS Ensemble): Canadian and European composers which include
Michael Pepa, Dennis Patrick, Katarina Miljkovi?, Daniel
Foley, Elizabeth Raum, Scott Godin, James Harley, John Oliver,
Constantine Caravassilis, Avalon Rusk (Canada), Séan
Clancy (Ireland), and Viktorija Cop (Croatia).
In 2008-09, Lynn gave the Canadian and European premieres
of a fifth Michael Pepa work (ISOMORPHE), as soloist with
the Cantus Ensemble of Croatia. Reprising her role as head
of the Les AMIS Ensemble, Lynn embarked on a third European
tour in April 2009 under the artistic direction of Michael
Pepa. Among the performances: world premieres at the 2009
Music Biennale Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, the Mendelssohn
Concerto in D minor with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra of
Bulgaria and the Chausson Concerto for Piano, violin and
String Quartet with Marianna Humetska, piano and the Penderecki
String Quartet.
Lynn gratefully performs on a 1904 Riccardo Antoniazzi violin
and Hill bow on loan from Steven Pepa.
Described as a "pure chamber musician" (Globe and
Mail) creating "moments of pure magic" (Toronto
Star), Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer has demonstrated her
love for sharing music through performance since she was
three years old. Winner of the 2009 Canada Council Musical
Instrument Bank Competition, Rachel was awarded the use of
the 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius cello, donated anonymously
to the council, until August 2012. As the grand prize winner
of the 2001 Vriendenkrans Competition in Amsterdam, Rachel
made her European debut in the Concertgebouw and has appeared
as a soloist across Canada, in Europe, the United States,
Balkans and Israel. As a member of the award-winning Aviv
String Quartet from 2002-2010, Rachel toured regularly on
five continents. Currently based in Toronto, Rachel is cellist
of Ensemble Made In Canada, Via Salzburg, and the Mercer-Park
Duo. Rachel has released discs on Naxos, Dalia Classics and
EnT-T.
Recent winner of the Canada Council Instrument Bank Competition,
Rachel plays the 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius cello, on loan
until August 2012 from the Canada Council for the Arts, donated
to the council by a generous anonymous donor.
Pianist Marianna Humetska was born in Lviv, Ukraine. She
holds a Diploma with Honor from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory
in Moscow, an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School
of Music in Toronto and a Master Degree from the Lviv Music
Academy. Marianna Humetska is a prize-winner and diploma-winner
of numerous international competitions, among which are Tchaikovsky
Competition for Young Musicians and Diaghilev Competition
in Moscow, “Virtuosos of the year 2000” Competition
in St. Petersburg, Dvarionas Competition in Vilnius and Calgary
Honens Competition. Ms.Humetska is a winner of the “Galaxie” Rising
Stars Award of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the “Debut” Young
Artists Auditions and Marusia Yaworska Award from the University
of Ottawa. Marianna Humetska’s concert performances
were held in different countries worldwide. She participated
in the well-known music festivals, in particular: Kuhmo Festival
(Finland), Rheingau Festival (Germany), Tibor Varga Festival
(Switzerland), Music at the Institute in New-York (USA),
Music Biennale Zagreb (Croatia), Niagara International Music
Festival (Canada), Kyiv Music Fest, Festival of Contemporary
Music “Contrasts”, Chamber Music Sessions, Bach-Fest
(Ukraine). In addition to her solo and orchestra performances,
Ms.Humetska is also very much in demand as a chamber music
player and collaborative artist. The intense expressiveness
is peculiar to the artist’s masterly performance. “The
real expressive interpreter” is the translation of
heading of the review of Marianna Humetska’s performance
in the “Lauterbacher Anzeiger” (Germany). Her
playing is distinguished by perfect technique, sound colors,
vivacity and generosity in conveyance of feelings. “Marianna
Humetska startled everyone by her virtuosity, depth and temper
of the performance. The viewers got powerful charge of active
energy from her art” (“Panorama”, Ukraine).
According to the critic from the “Music Life” magazine
(Russia), the pianist’s performance of L. Beethoven
Piano Concerto 3 “startled by not only confident pianism,
which excluded any randomness, but also by the deepness of
philosophical comprehension of music, harmony of the performer’s
concept and preciseness of its implementation. She did not
have a single sound, which was not filled with an idea, warmed
by a feeling”.
ALL PROCEEDS will go towards the HUMANITARIAN
COALITION and their continued efforts to assist the flood
victicms of Pakistan.
We thank YOU for your support and generosity!
Mezzo Soprano Ali Garrison Sings
Repertoire “Mosaic” Saturday March 5, 2011, 8 PM
Tickets: $25 / $20 Seniors& Students - Limited general seating For concert information and seat reservations
please call:
Gallery 345 at 416 822-9781
Inspired by a dream mosaic of lapis
lazuli, amber, jade and other colourful semi-precious stones
in their natural imperfect splendour, mezzo soprano Ali
Garrison has created this year’s annual solo concert from richly varied
song influences. The inaugural performance of ‘Mosaic’ takes
place on Saturday, March 5, at Gallery 345, a jewel itself
on Toronto’s happening west side.
Singing in Korean, English, German,
Italian and French, Ms. Garrison will blend opera, jazz,
and folk idioms. “Each
set of unique, seemingly unrelated songs contributes to an
interlocking whole, through different subtle connections”,
says the singer. “‘Mosaic’ is an aesthetic
and a spiritual journey, an exploration of personal and collective
energy and impressions.”
Selected composers include Tosti who
was a turn-of-the-century salon composer and voice instructor
of the royal family, Kurt Weill, Duke Ellington, famous
French jazz force Michel Legrand and Anthony Davis who
composed the opera “X:
The Life and Times of Malcolm X”. Other works include
operatic arias by Virgil Thomson with words by Gertrude Stein,
and a set of songs featuring the poetry of Langston Hughes
who was one of the Harlem Renaissance’s foremost poets.
Expanding the evening’s mosaic
dimension are three noteworthy guest performers. Pianist
Joy Brown brings marvelous depth from accompanying the
Toronto Mass Choir and the Nathaniel Dett Chorale. Contemporary
dancer Claudia Moore is an acclaimed interpretive choreographer
whose MOonhORse Dance Company has won awards and recognition
for dramatic human expressiveness. Ina Henning is a virtuosic
accordion scholar from Germany taking her Ph.D. at the
University of Toronto under progressive accordion world
superstar Joe Macerollo.
The Thing Is Sunday March 6, 2011 at 3 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Tova Kardonne (composition/voice)
Amy Medvick (flute)
Christian Overton (trombone)
Mike Wark (alto sax)
David Restivo (piano)
Graham Campbell (guitar)
Trevor Falls (drums)
Jim Vivian (bass)
The Thing Is was formed in 2006 by composer and vocalist
Tova Kardonne, with musicians she met at Humber College’s
Jazz Performance program in Toronto, Canada. While participating
in saxophonist Alex Dean’s Jazz workshop, she found
she could form a band around her unique fusion of Jazz with
the Balkan, South African, and other such influences that
have surrounded her since childhood. The Thing Is has since
hosted guest musicians such as Bill McBirnie, Dave Restivo,
Ted Quinlan, and Jim Vivian at their concerts around Toronto
at The Rex Hotel, The Fermenting Cellar, Clinton’s,
The Trane Studio, and The Music Gallery. Tova’s 4-octave
range, predilection for odd time signatures and hard-grooving
arrangements make for a rare treat; music that grabs and
holds both the mind and the gut.
The Art of the Piano: Massimiliano
Valenti Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme
Chick Corea: 10 Children Songs
(No. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,12,18)
Alberto Ginastera: Sonata Op. 22, No. 1
Allegro marcato
Presto misterioso
Adagio molto appassionato
Ruvido ed ostinato
Komitas Vardapet: Six Dances for Piano (1869-1915)
Erangi - Danse de Erevan
Unabi - Danse de Shusha
Marali - Danse de Shusha
Shushiki - Danse de Vagarshapart
Et-arach - Danse de Erzarum
Shornor - Danse de Erzuru
Massimiliano Valenti: Sonata-Fantasia, quasi Jazz
Massimiliano Valenti has become
one of the most exciting pianist of his generation. He started
to study at the age of five and continued his musical studies
at the Musical Istitute “V.Bellini” in Catania,
graduating with top honors. Subsequently he refined his artistic
training with Paul Buch and Gerhard Oppitz in Germany and
with Marian Mika in Italy. Later, he studied with the great
Aldo Ciccolini in France, where he started to deepen his
knowledge of the French repertory. His last teachers were
Diana Apan and dana Borsan in Romania.
Massimiliano’s talent has opened
the way to a brilliant career, allowing him to become the
head of important musical organizations in Europe and to
perform in numerous festivals in Italy and abroad ( Austria,
Germany, Portugal, Spagna, Romania and United States).
He has conducted master classes at the University of Music
in Aveiro, Conservatory of Porto and fundao in Portugal
and at the Faculty of music in Timisoara, Romania, where
he has worked regularly since 2005. Valenti has also been
a member of the jury in national and international piano
competitions in Italy and abroad.
Reviews for his CD recording on the Casa Musicale ECO label
of music by Rameau, Satie, messiaen and Gershwin are full
of praise in the media, nationally and internationally. In
addition to his concert engagements and teaching, Valenti
is very dedicated to his other passion: painting. He regularly
receives critical acclaim for the passion and emotion he
manages to convey in both his paintings and his concerts,
fundamental elements that distinguish him and place him among
the most interesting pianists of today.
Spinning out of Nothingness The Music of David Buchbinder (trumpet)
Dave Restivo (piano)
Sienna Dahlen (voice) Debut Concert Saturday, February 26, 2011 8pm
Tickets $20/$15 Seniors/$10 Students
The trio format is in its nature flexible, free and intimate.
This grouping of three mature performer/composers at the
top of their respective games also creates worlds of sound,as
it brings together the sonorities of trumpet, piano and voice
(brass, wood/metal and flesh). David Buchbinder, Dave Restivo & Sienna
Dahlen will create frames forimprovisation with the jazz & classical
repertoire and their own, uncategorizable compositions, as
they spin sound out of Nothingness right into your ears.
Bios
DAVID BUCHBINDER is an award-winning
trumpeter, composer and cultural inventor. He leads numerous
music groups, composes for concert, theatre, film and television,
and presents large scale performance projects and has toured
extensively in North America & Europe. He hasearned a reputation as
a world music and jazz leading light, through the Flying
Bulgars, and his creation of Ashkenaz: A Festival of New
Yiddish Culture. He is the composer/creator/producer of the
music-centred, multidisciplinary, spectacles Tumbling Into
Light and ShurumBurum Jazz Circus. His most recent musical
project is Odessa/Havana, an unprecedented fusion of Jewish & Cuban
musics with jazz, which was named World Music Group of the
Year atthe 2008 Canadian Folk Music Awards. For his various
recordings he has been nominated forfour JUNO and two National
Jazz Awards. He was the recipient of the 2003 ASIFA Animation
Society Award for Excellence in Soundtrack Composition. David
also often collaborates with his wife, Palestinian/Canadian
dancer/musician/actor Roula Said and often in the form of
their band, Nomadica, which plays funked-up Roma music. David
has composed the scores for ninefeature films, and the short
Stone of Folly, awarded the Cannes Film Festival Prix du
Jury, andhas recently entered the world of composition for
the theatre with--among others--a major workfor Soulpepper
Theatre Company. David is currently a Resident Artist of
the Young Centre forthe Performing Arts, and is on the verge
of launching a new arts vision for the City of Toronto, called
Diasporic Genius. www.davidbuchbinder.ca
DAVE RESTIVO is one of Canada's most respected and influential
jazz artists. He is a 3-timewinner of the National Jazz Awards'
Pianist of the Year Award, and is listed in the current editionof
Canadian Who's Who. He is well known for his work with Rob
McConnell's Boss Brass andTentet, the Mike Murley Quintet,
and legendary songwriter Marc Jordan. He has also performedand
recorded with Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, John Abercrombie,
Jerry Bergonzi, Mel Torme, Pat LaBarbera, Ingrid Jensen,
Christine Jensen, Molly Johnson, Moe Koffman, Joe LaBarbera,
Mark Whitfield, Marcus Belgrave, Joey Baron, Curtis Fuller,
Stacy Rowles, Jane Bunnett, Phil Dwyer, Tim Hagans, Steve
Kirby, Jeff Hamilton, Alex Acuna, Gene Bertoncini, Phillip
Harper, Don Thompson, Ed Bickert, Guido Basso, P.J. Perry,
Trudy Desmond, Joe Lovano, Judi Silvano, Dave Pietro, Owen
Howard, John Hollenbeck, Ratzo Harris, Sheila Jordan, Jay
Clayton, Donny McCaslin, Metalwood, Charles McPherson, Dave
Young, Norman Marshall Villeneuve, Memo Acevedo, Dave Valentin,
Luis Conte, and many others. Dave has served on the music
faculty at the Banff Centre for the Arts and St. Francis
Xavier University, and currently teaches at Humber College
and the University of Toronto. Spinning Out of Nothingness:
David Buchbinder, Dave Restivo & Sienna Dahlen"...quite
simply one of the finest jazz pianists of his generation
that Canada can boast of..." -Roger Levesque, Edmonton
Journal
SIENNA DAHLEN is a freelance vocalist, instrumentalist,
composer and teacher, currently based in Toronto, Canada.
She holds a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance degree
from McGill University and a Master of Music degree in Jazz
Performance from the University of Toronto. Sienna sings
and writes in a variety of styles, but most notably contemporary
jazz, folk and experimental. Sienna has had the pleasure
of performing her music for audiences in Mexico, France,
Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, the Ukraine,
the US, and throughout Canada. Sienna has been invited as
an Artist in Residence at Trent University, the AOS Jazz
Series in Charlottetown, PEI and the Performers House Jazz
Camp in Silkeborg, Denmark. She has also given workshops
as a clinician at the Konsort Music Academy in Moscow, Russia,
the Kiev National University, the Broruphus Middle School
in Aarhus, Denmark and many other notable institutions. In
2010, Sienna co-released two collaborative CDs in France
and Denmark with the Karl Jannuska Sextet and the Dahlen-Baerentzen
Project. Music from these albums in addition to Sienna's
past recordings can be heard regularly onCBC, Radio Canada,
Jazz FM and many college and Internet stations here in Canada
andaround the world. Sienna's voice can also be heard on
the soundtrack of the 2007 Academy Award winning film, "The
Danish Poet". In March of 2011, Sienna will be traveling
to Argentina to participate in a residency at the Centro
Rural de Arte in the Los Alerces National Park located in
the Patagonia region of the country. www.siennadahlen.com
DUO Novinc/Caldarovic Saturday February 19, 2011 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme
B. Bersa: Povero Tomin, Elegija for Violin and Piano, Op.
1
J. Brahms: Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major, Op. 100
Allegro amabile
Andante tranquillo – Vivace – Andante – Vivace
di piu – Andante – Vivace
Allegretto grazioso (Quasi andante)
D. Peja?evi?: Sonata for Violin and Piano in D Major, Op.
26
J. Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 10
Ivan Novinc graduated violin at the
Department for Stringed Instruments and Guitar at the Music
Academy of the University in Zagreb in 2000, in the class
of Professor Maja Dešpalj-Begovi?,
and finished his postgraduate studies in the same class in
2009. He has been awarded numerous prizes at state competitions,
both as solo player and as the first violinist of the Porin
String Quartet.
Mr. Novinc has performed around the world, both solo and
in chamber ensembles (Slovenia, France, the USA, Spain, Austria,
Italy, Germany, Turkey, Mexico, Japan, Sweden, Argentina,
China and Canada).
Since 1998 he has played first violin in the Porin String
Quartet and has been the leader of the Cantus modern music
ensemble since 2001. In the years 2002-2006 he was the deputy
leader of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra.; in addition,
he has led the Zadar Chamber Orchestra since 2004. Since
2006 he has been performing with pianist Srdjan ?aldarovi?
and guitarist Tvrtko Sari?.
During his career Mr. Novinc has performed and cooperated
with numerous distinguished artists, such as Dunja Vejzovi?,
Monika Leskovar, Stefan Milenkovi?, Enrico Dindo, Aleksandar
Milošev, and Petrit Ceku.
He has attended master seminars of Professor
Maxim Fedotov, the Strings Only seminars in Zadar held
by Professors Maja Dešpalj-Begovi?, Valter Dešpalj,
M. Maurer, and L. Honda, as well as seminars in Austria
held by members of world-famous string quartets, such as
the Amadeus, Alban Berg , Bartok, Jana?ek and the Prague
Quartet.
In 2000 he was awarded the City of Zagreb
scholarship, the University scholarship and the Dean's
Prize. As member of the Porin String Quartet he won the
Dean's Award for Exceptional Performances and the first
prize in Radio podij, the contest for young Croatian artists
(both in 2000), the first prize in the 34th Darko Luki?
Competition of Young Musicians (season 2000/2001), the
Ivo Vuljevi? Prize for the most accomplished young musicians
of the year in 2002 and the Milka Trnina Award in 2007.
He also won the Darko Luki? Award for solo performance
at the 36th Darko Luki? competition (season 2002/2003),
the Stjepan Šulek Award for the performance of a soloist
violin composition in 2004, and the University Professors'
Association Award for the young scientists and artists of
the year in the academic year 2008/2009.
He has recorded for the HR (Croatian national radio), the
Austrian radio and the Cantus publishing house.
In 2010. Mr. Novinc became Assistant Professor at the Zagreb
Music Academy.
Srdjan F. Caldarovic, born January,
8th 1973 in Zagreb, Croatia, started to play piano at the
age of five. During his music education in primary and
secondary music schools in Zagreb, he had appeared in many
public performances. He had played as a soloist with several
orchestras, including the Zagreb Soloists ensemble (at
the age of 13). He had won the first prize in the piano
competition of former Yugoslavia (1985). 1987, as a member
of a piano quartet, he also won the first prize at the
Chamber music competition of the former Yugoslavia. From
1990 onwards he gives solo and chamber music recitals on
a regular basis in all major Croatian cities. For several
of his performances, Caldarovic has won outstanding awards
(Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1, Liszt: Sonata in B minor).
For his Washington debut music critic Cecilia Porter wrote – “Caldarovic's
playing reveals consummate artistry in coupling an introspective
approach with refined sensitivity for phrasing...”
Srdjan F. Caldarovic graduated in piano major at the Music
Academy, University of Zagreb in the class of Prof. Vladimir
Krpan (1995). Caldarovic went onwards to perfect his pianist
skills at Indiana University in Bloomington with Prof. Leonard
Hokanson (1996), and later at the Trinity College of Music
with Prof. Philip Fowke (2000). After completing these performance-oriented
programs, Caldarovic became a Teaching assistant at the University
of Miami School of Music where he obtained a Master’s
degree in Piano performance, under the guidance of a great
musician, J.B. Floyd (2002). He has actively participated
in masterclasses held by E. Timakin, S. Costa, R. Kehrer,
J. Rose, and R. de Waal. He has given a number of recitals
in Croatia and in the USA, and from 2005 he holds a position
as the Assistant Professor at the Music Academy, Piano Department
in Zagreb, Croatia.
The Art of the Piano: David Virelles Friday February 18, 2011 at 8 PM $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
"The idea of creating art that expands
consciousness is what interests me. Music has the potential
to achieve exactly that. The Masters had deep knowledge of
its architecture; they developed a kind of art of the highest
order that was not only creative and original but also has
that quality that opens the mind and exhorts to learn more
about ourselves.
"Through composing, I try to come up
with a representation in sound of different ideas that were
used as a point of departure for generating the musical material,
i.e. cycles found in Nature (orbits, night and day, etc),
Afro Cuban mystic-religious concepts, dualism, geometry,
visual arts, writing systems, language, and many other elements
that are a central part of our experiences as human beings.
My ultimate goal is to describe through music those experiences
that are particular to the way each of us live and think,
hopefully encouraging people that listen to it to keep looking
for answers."
– DAVID VIRELLES
This highly skilled pianist has received
several accolades recognizing his outstanding talent. In
October of 2003, he was chosen as the recipient of the
first Oscar Peterson Prize, presented by Peterson himself
at the ceremony held at Humber College. Also, when he was
only 15, Virelles won the first prize at the Concurso Jojazz
in Havana, adjudicated by several of the most prestigious
jazz musicians in Cuba. In 2006, David Virelles and his
quintet won the Grand Prix de Jazz General Motors, the
highest distinction awarded at the Montréal
Jazz Festival. The same year, Virelles was nominated for
the Canadian National Jazz Awards as Best Latin Jazz Artist,
and he won the CBC Galaxy Award for Rising Star.
In 2007, the David Virelles Quintet
released their debut album, Motion, on Justin Time. The
CD features saxophonist Mark Turner, Brazilian musician
Celso Machado as well as David's father, José Aquiles. Motion displays his
virtuosity and his endeavor to create original music that
is both an invitation to reflect as well as a sonic depiction
of life’s experiences.
His rapidly growing reputation was confirmed
with his winning the Louis Applebaum Composer’s Award
in 2008. That award recognizes excellence in a body of
work by an emerging artist in the field of jazz composition.
He will be playing with another great innovator, Steve Coleman,
in 2010, as well as continuing to develop his own musical
concepts and abilities.
The Annex String Quartet Thursday February 17, 2011 at 8 PM $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme
Osvaldo Golijov - Anhos Verdes
Terry Riley - Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector
Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quartet no. 7
- intermission -
Brahms Quartet no. 2 in a-minor
(Danny Seidenberg - Who Do You Think You Are? **Encore)
Recognized for their versatile and eclectic
repertoire of music,The Annex Quartet recently
made their American debut in Carnegie Hall. Since its inception
in 2008, The Annex Quartet has been in high demand throughout
Toronto and abroad. The 2010-2011 season opened with a concert
series at Bloor Street United Church featuring violinists
Thomas Cosbey, Sharon Lee, and Qi Cao as search for a new
member of The Annex Quartet begins. In addition, The Annex
Quartet will return to the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheater
for its third consecutive year to perform works by Ali-Zadeh,
Balakrishnan, Goligov, Kuzmenko, and Riley.
Past performances include recitals in Mazzoleni Hall at The
Royal Conservatory, live radio
broadcasts on Toronto's Classical 96.3 FM, two concerts featuring
Shostakovich and Villa-Lobos in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheater
at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, and a
performance at the 2009 Haydn Festival in Montreal. After
international auditions, The Annex Quartet was selected to
work alongside the Kronos Quartet at the Weill Music Institute
at Carnegie Hall. During their residency they performed in
the Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall featuring works written
for the Kronos Quartet.
The Annex Quartet collaborates on a regular basis with distinguished
artists from many genres of music. Most recently, they embarked
on modern jazz project and recording featuring works for
string quartet, double bass, alto sax, bass clarinet and
drums by Patrick Reid. Past collaborations include Ian McAndrew's
single "Rest" for String Quartet and Alto with
mezzo Nina Lorcini, and the piano quintets by Brahms, Dvorak,
and Shostakovich with pianists Samuel Deason, Benjamin Cruchley,
and Peter Longworth. The Annex Quartet has appeared in masterclasses
with the Brentano, Ethel, Kronos, and Tokyo quartets and
with chamber musicians Andrew Dawes (Orford Quartet) and
Philip Dukes. The Annex Quartet is currently under the guidance
of violist Steven Dann and cellist Bryan Epperson. For more
information please visit www.AnnexQuartet.com
The Art of the Piano: Stephen Clarke Fundraiser for Array New Music Centre
Saturday February 12, 2011 @ 4pm $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Array Ensemble pianist Stephen Clarke is set to reprise for
Toronto audiences the concert he recently performed in New
York City at Le Poisson Rouge. Canada has the chance to hear
him perform ecstatic piano works by Scelsi, Radelescu and
Sorabji on February 12th at Gallery 345 (345 Sorauren Avenue,
Toronto, 4146.822.9781) at 4 pm. This event is a fundraiser
for The Array New Music Centre, which serves the Array Ensemble,
resident and studio artists, and compositional and performing
music students, so please be sure to lend your support.
Program:
Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988)
Suite No.5 "Il Circo" (1935)
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988)
Two Piano Pieces
I In the Hothouse (1918)
II Toccata (1920)
Horatiu Radulescu (1942-2008)
Fifth Piano Sonata op.106
"settle your dust, this is the primal identity"
Giacinto Scelsi
Hispania (1939)
"triptyque pour piano"
This program brings together rarely heard early works by
Giacinto Scelsi and Kaikhosru Sorabji, along with one of
the last works by the late Horatiu Radulescu. The three composers,
in different ways, each have an idiosyncratic approach to
the piano and emply a virtuosity resulting in a music at
once probing and ecstatic. Canadian pianist Stephen Clarke
has long had a particular interest in the piano music of
Scelsi and this is his second recording of Scelsi with Mode
Records.
Stephen Clarke has performed in festivals in Europe, Canada,
the U.S. and South America, among these the Donaueschingen
Musiktage and the Berliner Festwochen. He has appeared as
soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group,
the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, New Music Concerts (Toronto),
the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble and the Merce Cunningham
Dance Company.
He also plays in a duo with violinist Marc Sabat, has worked
with a number of ensembles and is pianist with Arraymusic.
Solo recordings include first recordings of works by Giacinto
Scelsi (Mode Records) Udo Kasemets (hatHut) and Marc Sabat
(World Edition). Recordings with Marc Sabat include the complete
music for violin and piano by James Tenney (hatHut), Morton
Feldman and Christian Wolff (Mode), as well as Maria de Alvear
(World Edition) Mr. Clarke studied composition at the University
of Toronto and has written works for various ensembles.
The Art of the
Piano: Philip Adamson
"Piano Music of Ontario Composers" Saturday February 5, 2010 at 8 PM $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Programme
Jens Hanson (1936 -) Conflux (1980)
John Burge (1961 -) Etudes in Poetry (2001)
II. No Time
III. Riffs
Heather Schmidt (1975 -) Chaconne (1999)
David Lidov (1941 -) Voice Mail (2001)
Per Augmentationem
Party Dance
Tango
Cover - Rhythm Study
Walter Buczynski (1939 -) The August Collection (1987)
I
XV
XIV
XIII
Patrick Cardy (1953-2005) The Masks of Astarte (1981)
Philip Adamson, pianist Canadian pianist Philip Adamson has performed across
Canada and in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe, and has been heard frequently
on CBC radio. His solo recitals frequently explore less familiar areas of
the repertoire, and he has given first North American performances of several
works from the twentieth century British and French piano repertoire. An
album of piano music by the French composer André Jolivet appeared
in 2004 on the Centaur label, eliciting such comments as “formidable
technical prowess” and “powerful performance” from the
international press. The release of a disc of English piano music, also for
Centaur, is expected shortly.
A student of, and assistant to Marion Hall at Indiana University,
Philip Adamson’s approach to the pedagogy of piano technique has been
highly successful, and has resulted in interactive presentations and master
classes on the subject. He has lectured and performed several times at conferences
of the Canadian University Music Society. Formerly a faculty member of Carleton
University, the University of Ottawa and the University of Manitoba, Dr Adamson
has taught for many years at the University of Windsor.
Philip Adamson is also active as an adjudicator and clinician.
Ugly Beauties with Special Guest Jane Bunnett
Misterioso! The Music of Thelonius Monk Friday February 4, 2011 at 8 p.m.
tickets $20 /$15 seniors /$10 students
Jane Bunnett
Ugly Beauties- Lerner, Brubeck, Fraser
The incredible flutist /saxophonist Jane Bunnett meets the
sublime Ugly Beauties Trio (Marilyn Lerner-piano, Matt Brubeck-cello,
Nick Fraser-drums, for an evening of their magical take on
the music of the legendary Thelonius Monk...
Jane Bunnett-flute, sax
Multiple Juno Award winner, Jane Bunnett has turned her
bands into showcases for the finest talent from Canada, the
U.S.and Cuba. She has been nominated for Grammy Awards, numerous
Juno Awards, and most recently, was honoured with an appointment
to the Order of Canada. An internationally acclaimed musician,
Jane Bunnett is known for her creative integrity, improvisational
daring and courageous artistry. Her exploration of Afro-Cuban
melodies expresses the universality of music and her ability
to embrace and showcase the rhythms and culture of Cuba has
been groundbreaking. She has toured the world bringing her
own special sound to numerous jazz festivals, displaying
her versatility as a flutist, saxophone player and pianist.
As an educator, spokesperson and social activist, she remains
unafraid to explore uncharted territory in her quest for
excellence!
Ugly Beauties explores the terrain between jazz, contemporary
classical music and improvisation. Piano, cello and drums
interweave to create a boundless palette of texture and mood,
and the breadth of sonic experimentation at times renders
the three instruments indistinguishable from each other.
Marilyn Lerner-piano
Genre defying pianist/improviser Marilyn Lerner performs
to acclaim internationally, from her native Montreal to Havana,
from Jerusalem to Amsterdam and the Ukraine. Her groundbreaking
recordings have garnered much recognition, including her
2 solo recordings Luminance and Romanian Fantasy and Special
Angel with Sonny Greenwich. Her intimate knowledge of the
piano, combined with a fearless experimental and passionate
spirit render her a true original. Lerner’s work spans
the worlds of jazz, creative improvisation, klezmer, and
20th century classical music. Along with her innovative solo
piano work, Lerner tours with the Queen Mab Trio (with Lori
Freedman and Ig Henneman), across Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
Lerner has appeared with Tito Puente, Gerry Hemingway, and
Steve Lacy. In addition to the Ugly Beauties she performs
in her new York based free jazz trio with drummer Lou Grassi
and bassist Ken Filiano, and in the New Jewish music scene,
with Adrienne Cooper, Frank London, Alicia Svigals and David
Wall.
Matt Brubeck-cello
Matt Brubeck is a Juno-nominated performer/composer specializing
in improvisation on the cello. Raised on jazz and classically
trained at Yale, Matt is at ease in multiple genres and has
taken his cello improvisation skills into diverse musical
territories. In addition to the Ugly Beauties, Matt’s
current jazz/improv projects include Brubeck /Braid (with
pianist David Braid) and Tallboys (with guitarist Kevin Breit
and percussionist Jesse Stewart), and a duo with saxophonist
David Mott. Matt continues to enjoy performing with a wide
range of other musicians including Evan Parker, John Geggie,
Pierre Tanguay, Natalie MacMaster, Carlos del Junco, and
Yo-Yo Ma to name a few. During his years in San Francisco,
Matt performed with numerous jazz and improv artists including
Miles Boisen, Gino Robair, Ben Goldberg, and Pamela Z. He
founded Oranj Symphonette, which recorded two CD's for Rykodisc
and went on to play the major jazz festivals, from Monterey
to Montreal.
Nick Fraser -drums
Nick has been an active and engaging
presence in the Toronto new jazz and improvised music community
since he moved there from Ottawa in 1996. His recorded
works include Owls in Daylight (1997) and Nick Fraser and
Justin Haynes are faking it (2004). Nick has performed
professionally with a veritable "who's
who" of Canadian jazz and improvised music in addition
to such international artists as Marilyn Crispell, Anthony
Braxton, Wynton Marsalis, Joe Lovano and John Scofield, among
others. He co-leads the quintet Drumheller, who released
their self-titled debut CD on the Rat-Drifting label in 2005
and its follow-up disc Wives in 2006.
" Fraser can swing hard when necessary, but he’s
equally a colorist with all manner of unusual tricks up his
sleeve. Placing cymbals on the drums and pushing on them
while striking them created a sound akin to a water gongs.
His brushwork was impeccable, asserting time while, at the
same time, creating richer texture. His solos were clearly
focused on the musical rather than macho displays of dexterity—though
in order to do what he does, it’s clear that he possesses
all kinds of technical facility." John Kelman, All About
Jazz
Music from the Courts of 18th Century Europe Wednesday February 2, 2011 at 8
PM $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Louella Alatiit, violin
Emma Elkinson, traverso
Justin Haynes, viola da gamba
Borys Medicky, harpsichord
Programme
Paris quartet no. 6 ~ Georg Philip Telemann
Duo for flute and violin ~ CPE Bach
Sonata no. 6 opus 12 ~ Louis-Gabriel Guillemain
Trio sonata Wq 144 ~ Carl Philip Emanuel Bach
Bios
Flutist Emma Elkinson,
has a diverse musical career that has taken her across oceans. Originally
from Ireland, Emma studied at Trinity College Dublin,
the Royal Irish Academy of Music and received distinctions
in diplomas and certificates from the Royal School of
Music in London. Before leaving her family in Ireland
to continue her musical training with Patrick Gallois at
the University of Toronto, Emma performed as a soloist throughout
Europe. She now divides her time between Canada and Europe
freelancing as a modern, classical and baroque flutist whilst
completing her masters of early music with Barthold Kuijken
at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, the Netherlands.
With past and upcoming performances in the Huddersfield Contemporary
Music Festival with CONTACT contemporary music ensemble,
the East Cork Early Music Festival in Ireland and the Lutherse
Kerk in the Hague, Emma is delighted to be performing a program
that includes so many of her favourite works from the courts
of Europe with great musicians and would like to thank them,
gallery 345 and you for being here.
Justin Haynes studied viola da gamba
at Harvard and the Royal Dutch Conservatory in the Hague
where his principal teachers were Philippe Pierlot, Anneke
Pols and Reiner Zipperling. Currently based in Toronto, he
has performed with Folia, Scaramella, Tafelmusik, Opera
Atelier, and Les Voix Humaines as well as with the Boston-based
Arcturus Chamber Ensemble and Les Bostonades. He is also
a founding member of the recently formed baroque chamber
ensemble, L’Indiscrète. Justin’s interest
in the viola da gamba includes the history and construction
of the instrument itself. After making the viol he currently
plays on, he was awarded a Shaw traveling fellowship to study
instrument making in London and to explore the great Northern
European viol collections. He maintains an atelier in Boston,
USA, where he is curator of Harvard’s historical instrument
collection.
Borys Medicky has appeared as solo
harpsichordist and continuo player in the United States,
Canada, and Europe. Resident in Toronto, Canada, he is active
as a freelance performer, having appeared with major ensembles
in Toronto and beyond. He enjoys co-directing (with
lutenist Lucas Harris) the Toronto Continuo Collective, an
all-continuo ensemble dedicated to fostering an increased
interest in the stylish basso continuo accompaniment of seventeenth-century
vocal and instrumental music. He is the artistic
director of the Waterloo-based Nota Bene Period Orchestra,
with whom he performs as a soloist and continuo player, and
serves as organist of the Fifth Church of Christ, Scientist
in Toronto. Borys studied harpsichord with Michael Jarvis
in Canada and with Arthur Haas at the Eastman School of Music
and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, as well
as Baroque performance practice with lutenist Paul O’Dette.
Upon the completion of his doctoral degree at Stony Brook
he was awarded the Samuel Baron Prize, given to an outstanding
graduate. He is known for his strong interest in historical
dance and its influence on instrumental music. In addition
he carries out harpsichord maintenance duties for institutions
and private owners in the Toronto area, and completed his
first harpsichord-building project in the autumn of 2009. When
not involved in something musical, he is an avid reader and
particularly enjoys reading about technology and its impact
on modern society.
Louella Alatiit is an active baroque
violionist and has worked with such prestigious period-instrument
ensembles such as, Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s English
Baroque Soloists, The English Concert, The Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment, Opera Fuoco (Paris), New
York Collegium, Early Music Vancouver and recently with Ton
Koopman. Formally she has studied baroque violin with Kati
Debretzeni, Elizabeth Wallfisch and Catherine Mackintosh
at the Early Music Department of the Royal Conservatory of
The Hague (2006 to 2009). Prior to her studies
as a Baroque violinist Ms.Alatiit obtained a Masters in Music
from Stony Brook University in 2004 and she also received
a Bachelor of Music with in violin performance from McGill
University in June 2002. Furthermore, she remains a candidate
for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook. Presently,
she resides in The Hague (Netherlands) where she teaches
and works as a freelancer in Europe.
CD LAUNCH
Anne Lindsay "Hurry On Home" Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at 8 pm $20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Performance of the latest release from
one of Canada’s
most engaging and versatile instrumentalists, Anne Lindsay.
Following on the heels of her multi-award winning sophomore
release News From Up The Street, Hurry On Home is a collection
of duets and trios that we call ‘chamber fiddle,’ featuring
Anne’s virtuoso playing and heartfelt vocals in a variety
of styles including jazz, folk, neo-Appalachian, hip-hop
and Eastern European.
Hurry on Home is co-produced by Anne and her son Tosh Weyman,
a talented hip-hop artist and producer. The resulting album
bridges both genre and generations with brilliant performances
by musical friends young and old: Colleen Allen, Jim Cuddy,
Aaron Davis, Jason Fowler, Jaron Freeman-Fox, Michael Johnston,
George Koller, Joe Macerollo, Emilyn Stam, Tosh Weyman and
David Woodhead. At heart an instrumental album, there are
also three songs with vocals, including a duet with Jim Cuddy
from Blue Rodeo. Featuring mostly original compositions,
as well as co-writes with Michael Johnston, Tosh Weyman,
and a couple of tunes from friends Oliver Schroer and Kurt
Swinghammer, there is a lot of inspiring musical dialogue
here.
Anne has won major awards from the Ontario Arts Council,
National Jazz Awards and the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals.
She has had residencies with Blue Rodeo, the Jim Cuddy Band,
the Toronto Maple Leafs, the stage production of The Lord
of the Rings, and has performed across Canada, the United
States, Italy, and Spain. Anne has provided fabulous fiddle
for hundreds of recordings, yet for all her time spent in
the studio, she remains one of the most exciting live performers
anyone could hope to experience.
Anne Lindsay has established herself as one of the most engaging
and versatile instrumentalists in Canada. In 2007 she was
named Violinist of the Year at the National Jazz Awards and
Solo Instrumentalist and Producer of the Year at the 2007
Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Master of a wealth of diverse styles and blessed with a rare
talent for improvisation, Anne Lindsay has three CDs of her
original compositions (“Eavesdropping”, “News
From Up The Street” and her 2011 release “Hurry
on Home”) in addition to numerous recordings with other
artists.
In addition to her solo career Anne has been resident fiddler
for the Toronto Maple Leafs, folk fiddler for the Lord of
the Rings stage show, and a mainstay of the touring bands
of Blue Rodeo, Jim Cuddy and John McDermott.
Anne will be touring Southern Ontario in February/March to
celebrate the release. Please go to www.anne-lindsay.com/dates.htm for
a full list of dates.
Raw CD Release January 17, 2011, 7:30 pm
$10 admission only / $20 admission and CD
Soprano Carla Huhtanen and Continuum’s
ensemble give voice to James Rolfe’s body of seminal
and startling chamber music. This Centrediscs CD celebrates
the unique 20-year partnership between Continuum and one
of Canada’s most accomplished composers, tracing the
emergence of his astonishing “muscular and stripped-down” sound
and “delicate economy” of form. Highlights from
the CD will be performed by the ensemble.
Program
Repertoire will be chosen from the following James Rolfe
(CA) works:
Revenge! Revenge!! Revenge!!! (1995)
raW (2003)
Drop (1999)
Squeeze (1997)
Freddy’s Dead (2004)
Devilled Swan (1995)
Performers
Jennifer Waring Artistic Director
Anne Thompson Flute
Max Christie Clarinet
Carol Fujino Violin
Paul Widner Cello
Laurent Philippe Piano
Ryan Scott Percussion
Support Local
Musicians, Gallery 345 and
Save The Children A cello and piano recital
Rachel Mercer, cello
Vanessa May-lok Lee, piano
January 15, 2011 at 8 PM
Tickets $20 at the door
Half of the proceeds go to SAVE THE CHILDREN.
Reserve a place with rachelmercercellist@gmail.com
..."Latin and Jazz Travels"
Program to include the fiery and colourful sounds of De Falla,
Faure and Piazzolla, and jazz miniatures by the Russian
Kapustin.
Generously supported by the National Association of Japanese
Canadians Endowment Fund.
Bios
Rachel Mercer, cello Described as a "pure chamber musician" (Globe and
Mail) creating "moments of pure magic" (Toronto
Star), Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer has demonstrated her
love for sharing music through performance since she was
three years old. Winner of the 2009 Canada Council Musical
Instrument Bank Competition, Rachel was awarded the use of
the 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius cello, donated anonymously
to the council, until August 2012. As the grand prize winner
of the 2001 Vriendenkrans Competition in Amsterdam, Rachel
made her European debut in the Concertgebouw and has appeared
as a soloist across Canada, in Europe, the United States,
Balkans and Israel. As a member of the award-winning Aviv
String Quartet from 2002-2010, Rachel toured regularly on
five continents. Currently based in Toronto, Rachel is cellist
of Ensemble Made In Canada, Via Salzburg, and the Mercer-Park
Duo. Rachel has released discs on Naxos, Dalia Classics and
EnT-T.
Vanessa May-Lok Lee, piano Much sought after as a collaborative pianist, Vanessa May-lok
Lee has performed throughout Canada, the U.S.A., England,
Wales and Mexico, sharing the stage with artists such as
Measha Bruggergosman, the late Lorand Fenyves, Nicholas
Daniels, and Jens Lindemann. Ms. Lee has served as the
collaborative pianist in residence at the Banff Centre
for the Arts and currently freelances in Toronto.
Ms. Lee is the pianist of BATSO – Brass Artists of
the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a versatile group comprised
of the principal brass players of the TSO: Andrew McCandless
(trumpet), Neil Deland (horn) and Gordon Wolfe (trombone).
Formed in 2005, BATSO is currently planning a tour of Western
Canada and the U.S.A.
Ms. Lee has just completed work on her debut CD entitled
En Bleu et Or with flautist Miguel Angel Villanueva (Mexico)
and violist Elodie Guillot (France). Recorded on the Quindecim
label, this CD features the works of Mexican, French and
Canadian composers including Prism by Erik Ross, written
especially for the Lee/Villanueva Duo.
The Art of
the Piano: Vicky Chow Friday, December 3, 2010 at
8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Program
Vicky Chow, piano
Ryan Anthony Francis (b. 1981) Etudes: Digital Sustain,
Harlequin, Doppelganger, Loop (2008) **
Daniel Wohl (b. 1980) Aorta for piano and electronics (2010)
**
i. Aorta
ii. Phantom Limb
iii. Bones
David Lang (b. 1957) wed (1996)/boy (2001) **
Eliot Britton (b. 1983) cuneiform and glide for piano and
electronics (2010) *
INTERMISSION (15 minutes)
Andy Akiho (b. 1978) Vicki(/y) for prepared piano (2008)
**
Evan Ziporyn (b. 1959) In Bounds (2004) **
Jakub Ciupinski (b. 1983) Morning Tale for piano and electronics
(2009) **
i. nocturne
ii. alba
iii. the awakening
iv. the importance of being earnest
* World Premiere
** Canadian Premiere
Bio: Canadian
pianist Vicky Chow has performed extensively as a classical
and contemporary soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble
member, and has been hailed as ‘brilliant’ by
the New York Times (Anthony Tommasini). She is the pianist
for the New York based eclectic contemporary sextet, Bang
On A Can All-Stars. She has performed in North America, Europe
and Asia in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall,
The Guggenheim Museum, The Stone, le Poisson Rouge, Galapagos
Art Space, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, Tonhalle in Zurich,
Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai, The Polytheater in Beijing,
Chan Center for the Performing Art in Vancouver and has been
a guest artist in the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard
Music Festival, Golandsky Institute International Piano Festival,
musicacoustica festival (in association with Electro-acoustic
Music Association of China and China Electroacoustic Music
Center) in Beijing, E-music Week in Shanghai, the f(x) New
Music Marathon in Miami, Desert Chamber Music Society in
Palm Springs, Seattle Chamber Music Society, and Las Vegas
Music Festival. She has received grants and support from
Canada Council for the Arts, British Columbia Arts Council,
and the Vancouver Foundation. Most recently Ms. Chow finished
a performance tour in China, Italy, Germany, and Holland
with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, a performance tour in Malaysia
with the Perak Performing Arts Society, and performances
in Chicago with Opera Cabal. She is currently recording her
first solo piano album of music by composer Ryan Anthony
Francis, which will be released in late 2010 for composer
John Zorn’s label ‘tzadik’.
As an avid advocate of new music, she has worked with composers
such as John Adams, David Lang, and Louis Andriessen. In
addition to being a member Bang On A Can All-Stars, she is
the pianist for a Chicago-based avant-garde opera company
called ‘Opera Cabal’ that recently premiered
a new opera written for the group by American composer Lewis
Nielson, and a contemporary chamber group in New York called ‘ai
ensemble’. In addition to performing new music, Ms.
Chow also produces and curates concert programs of new compositions
by emerging composers at the Gershwin Hotel in New York City.
Ms. Chow made her orchestral debut at the age of 10 with
the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared since
with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard Symphony,
The Vancouver Academy Orchestra, White Rock Festival String
Orchestra and the B.C. Sinfonietta. She has performed under
numerous conductors, including George Manahan, James Conlon,
JoAnn Falleta, Bramwell Tovey, Victor Feldbrill, and Jeffrey
Milarsky. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with
New York Philharmonic flutist Renee Siebert and Metropolitan
Opera soprano Janet Hopkins at the Desert Chamber Music Society
and cellist Andre Emelianoff of the Da Capo Chamber Players.
As a competitor, she placed first in the Canadian Music
Competition four consecutive years. She also won the Toronto
Symphony Piano Competition and Juilliard concerto competition,
second prize in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Piano Competition,
third prize in the Pacific International Piano Competition,
and a finalist and honorarium prizewinner of the San Antonio
International Piano Competition.
Ms. Chow received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music
in piano performance from The Juilliard School, studying
with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin. She also holds
a second Master’s degree and a Professional Studies
diploma in contemporary performance from Manhattan School
of Music studying with Christopher Oldfather. Previously,
she studied at the Vancouver Academy of Music with Lorraine
Ambrose. Ms. Chow has performed in master classes with a
number of distinguished pianists, including Menahem Pressler,
Jerome Lowenthal, Ruth Laredo, Ursula Oppens, and Angela
Cheng. Ms. Chow resides in New York City.
San Agustin
Duo: Emma Banfield, violin, Dianna Dumlavwalla, piano Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 8
PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Program CANADIAN WOMEN COMPOSERS
Prelude and Allegro Violet Archer
Suite for Violin and Piano (1992) Alice Ping Yee Ho
Prelude
Scherzando
Nocturno
Impromptu
Duo Sonata for Violin and Piano Jean Coulthard
Grazioso
Lento mesto
Allegro, tempo giusto
Intermission
Sonata in A- for Violin and Piano Gena Branscombe
A Persian Abstract Afarin Mansouri
Dance Me to Your Beauty With a Burning Violin (2002) Kelly
Marie Murphy
Bios:
Since finishing a Doctorate of Music
at Northwestern University under Blair Milton, violinist
Emma Banfield is currently performing and teaching throughout
Canada, the United States and Europe. She received her Masters
degrees in Violin Performance and Chamber Music from the
University of Michigan where she studied with Aaron Berofsky.
Emma completed her undergraduate degree at Wilfrid Laurier
University, where she studied with Jerzy Kaplanek of the
Penderecki String Quartet and Annalee Patipatanakoon of the
Gryphon Trio. She has also been privileged to work with Yehonaton
Berick, Logan Skelton, Levon Ambartsumian, Almita Vamos,
the Vermeer Quartet, the Pacifica String Quartet, and the
Tokyo String Quartet among others. Emma has been the recipient
of numerous awards including a three year SSHRC grant, the
Weber Graduate Performance Scholarship, and the William M.
Spencer Award. Emma has recently performed throughout New
Brunswick as a member of the Saint John String Quartet and
also performs with the Blue Spruce String Quartet, the quartet-in-residence
at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She is the Director
of the Laurier String Academy at Wilfrid Laurier University
in Waterloo and has taught applied and academic courses at
both Northwestern University and Wilfrid Laurier University.
Diana Dumlavwalla has given
solo, concerto and chamber performances in Canada, Europe
and the United States. Her numerous awards include prizes
at the Royal College of Music Contemporary Piano Music Competition
and the NUMUS Pan-Am Chamber Music Competition. She was nationally
recognized when she received the Marusia Yaworska Scholarship
and the Elizabeth Massey Award from the Canadian Federation
of University Women.
Diana is completing a D.M.A. in Piano
Performance at the University of Toronto under James Parker
with significant pedagogical studies under Midori Koga.
She received her M.Mus. from the Royal College of Music
in England, B.Mus. in Piano Performance and Voice from
Wilfrid Laurier University and A.R.C.T. from the Royal
Conservatory of Music. She has also studied with Agnes
Olsheski, Virginia Blaha, Heather Taves, Yonty Solomon
and Logan Skelton. Diana is on faculty at the University
of Windsor. She is also Director of the Children’s
Piano Pedagogy Program at the University of Toronto, a member
of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s College of Examiners
and a sought-after private teacher in Brantford.
Duo Contempera:
David Hetherington, cello;
Joseph Petric, accordion Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Program
Cherney: Like Ghosts from an Enchanter Fleeing
Rea: Schattenwerk - *world premiere.
Louie: Bringing the Tiger Down from the M.
Hopkins: Reclaiming the Spirit solo cello
Mott: Red Haze - solo acc.
Romiti: Sonic Eclipse
Duo Contempera is
a name that reflects the contemporary, the collaborative,
and the colouristic. In 2008, David and Joseph were guest
soloists for Soundstreams Canada in a performance of Seven
Last Words by Sofia Gubajdulina. They have performed Richard
Romiti’s work Sonic Eclipse
for Toronto’s New Music Concerts, a work subsequently
recorded for CBC and for commercial release on the ConAccord
Label, and in Toronto’s 2010 Penderecki Festival where
they performed newly commissioned works by Toronto composer
Ivan Barbotin, Brian Cherney’s Like Ghosts from an
Enchanter Fleeing and solo works by Penderecki and Berio.
In the spring of 2010 Montreal composer John Rea completed
his Schattenwerk II for accordion and cello duo.
F&M
with special guest J. Ryan Waye (An Evening of Slow Tunes and Adult
Lullabies)
Thursday, November 25, 2010 at 8 PM, $10
F&M: Edmonton-based songwriters Rebecca
and Ryan Anderson are the heart of F&M. Over the past
four years and three albums, the couple and an evolving cast
of bandmates have developed a signature sound at the crossroads
of folk, pop, and epic rock that is stubbornly its own thing,
drawing on such a rich history of cross-genre influences
and the flickering contours of modern adulthood. Their debut
(Let Every Light Shine, 2007) dealt with the limits of life,
while their sophomore album (Every Light Must Fade, 2008)
reckoned with the specter of death. The new release, Sincerely,
F&M, explores those themes with greater nuance, finding
the infinite in the everyday. The songs are not simply about
navigating joy and anguish, but also attention, contemplation,
and devotion.
F&M transforms silence into a versatile and eloquent
instrument: it haunts the spaces between Rebecca Anderson’s
sparkling piano lines and tugs at the edges of her accordion’s
nostalgic wheeze; it charges the gaps in Ryan Anderson’s
guitar attacks with a crackling tension and animates the
percussive skeleton and melodic flesh contributed by the
rest of the band. It throws the interplay of their voices
into high relief – Rebecca’s ringing with the
delicate clarity of glass and lace; Ryan’s possessed
by the spirits of rough wool and campfire smoke. The result
is songwriting bursting with powerful sentiment and lofty
lyricism set to an odd folk-rock mutant soundtrack of Douglas
Sirk-ian intensity.
Mr. Waye’s songs reach out to you with
nostalgic charm; wooing listeners with his shy grace and
unexpected old world sound. Currently, this guitar strumming
songwriter resides in Toronto, Ontario.
Julia Morgan CD Release Wednesday November 24, 2010 at 7
PM
$10 General Admission
Julia Morgan is a young mezzo-soprano with
an impressive vocal range. Her love of performing, “her
confident stagecraft and easy smile” (need source here,
e.g. Toronto Star, 2009) and her natural talent give her
the breadth and depth to play any role. While her petite
frame deceives the eye of many, this Canadian mezzo has a
large, warm, caramel-like voice, which exudes the many colours
and emotions required for every character she portrays. Julia
has utilized her dual Canadian and British
citizenships by performing at the Franz Schubert Institut
in Baden bei Wien, Austria and the Britten-Pears Programme
in Aldeburgh, England.
The upcoming season is one of growth and adventure
for Julia Morgan. May 2010 sees Julia celebrating spring
as Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with
Saskatoon Opera’s School Tour. In August Julia will
return to her adopted home of Toronto to perform her dream
role of Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen with Summer
Opera Lyric Toronto. With recitals and performances throughout
the rest of 2010 and into 2011, Julia will conclude her 2011
season performing with the Kindred Spirits Orchestra at Toronto’s
Glenn Gould Studio in Mozart’s Coronation Mass.
Julia has recently performed with Opera York’s
Greek Chorus in the North American debut of Ella Milch-Sheriff’s
Opera And the Rat Laughed. She also performed Elgar’s The
Music Maker with the Toronto Choral Society in May 2009.
Rounding out 2009 Julia collaborated with pianist Amanda
Johnston at the Heliconian Hall in Toronto as part of her
recital series In Recital, performing a Liederabendwith
works by Sibelius, Brahms, Mahler, and Schubert.
Julia’s previous operatic work has consisted
of a vast array of roles. She has performed Rosline with
Highlands Opera Studio, Mustardseed and Second Woman with
Opera as Theatre at The Banff Centre and Announcer with Tryp
Tych in Toronto. With the University of Toronto Opera School
Julia also performed the roles of Bianca, Cherubino, Prince
Orlofsky and Frau Reich.
Julia’s recital experiences have taken
her through the cities of Greve, Victoria, Aldeburgh, Toronto,
and Baden bei Wien. She has performed in the Theatre am Steg,
the Festsaal des Congress Casino Baden, Castello di Verrazzano
and the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons
Centre. She has performed numerous works with the Prima
Youth Choir and Victoria Chamber Orchestra including Handel’s Messiah,
Vivaldi’s Gloria in D+ and Hayden’s Salve
Regina in G-. With the University of Victoria Orchestra
Julia performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah and selections
from Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Mahler. As part
of the International Bach Festival in Julia performed the
world premiere of In the Trail of the Wind,
in the Shadow of God by Canadian composer Imant Raminsh.
One of Julia’s most musically expanding experiences
was performing Les Noces by Stravinsky with the
Victoria Chamber Singers.
Much of Julia’s recital work has centred
on German Lieder. Julia’s rounded and multi-textured
voice is a marvel when performing her personal passion. Julia
will be releasing a CD of German Lieder this fall, collaborating
with Amanda Johnston at the piano. It will be available on
iTunes and from her website (www.amandajohnston.ca). Julia
and Amanda will also be completing a recital tour of British
Columbia and the Southern United States in January 2011.
The Art of
the Piano: Shoko Inoue Monday, November 22 2010 at 8:00
p.m.
Admission: Adults $20 / Seniors & Arts Workers $15
/ Students $10
Program
Robert Schumann : First Grand sonata in F sharp minorOp
11
Introduzione Un poco adagio
Allegro vivace
Aria
Scherzo E Intermezzo
Finale, Allegro un poco maestoso
INTERMISSION
Robert Schuman: Third Grand Sonata 'Concerto without Orchestra'
in f minor op.14
Allegro
Scherzo
Quasi Variazioni; Andantino de Clara Wieck
Prestissimo possibile
Shoko Inoueis a prize-winner
of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, first prize
winner for contemporary music of the Frinna Awerbuch Competition
and first prize winner of the Chopin Competition in New York
where she made her Carnegie Hall debut. She is active as
a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist throughout North
America, Japan and Europe. Among her notable appearances
are solo recitals at the 9th Annual World Piano Pedagogy
Conference in Las Vegas and at the Shostakovich Festival
in Rome's St. Cecilia Hall. She has had many solo concerts
at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Ontario, where she
makes her home.
Shoko Inoue was born in Tokyo, Japan, where she began playing
the piano at the age of three. She studied with renowned
teachers Shun Sato and Takashi Hironaka. Following her successful
appearance at the Casadesus International Competition, she
traveled to the United States to study at the Cleveland Institute
of Music under full scholarship with Sergei Babayan, celebrated
concert pianist, teacher, and artist in residence. Her studies
continued with Marc Durand and John Perry in Toronto, Canada.
As a student of Marc Durand, she received her M.A. in Piano
Performance from the University of Montreal, Quebec.
Ms. Inoue is committed to enhancing
life through music. Her intense performances and her broad
and varied repertoire are remarkable. Sergei Babayan has
noted that her "interpretations
are born of utmost integrity and sincerity that set her apart
from other musicians." She performed Prokofiev's Concerto
#2 in G minor, opus 16 with the Oshawa Symphony this past
January; a Trio Concert in Florida with Pinchas Zukerman
and Amanda Forsyth in February; a Piano Duo concert with
Sergei Babayan in Cleveland; a Piano and Cello Duo concert
with Amanda Forsyth at the Glenn Gould Studio, broadcasted
by CBC radio station in September; and a Piano Solo recital
presented by the Embassy of Japan at the National Gallery
in Ottawa in October 2008.
Vibrant and skilled, with unlimited
musical colour and an expressive spirit, Shoko Inoue is
quickly becoming known for her unique communicative stage
presence and her quality of drawing an audience into her
innermost thoughts and philosophy on the music she is performing.
Her successful performances attest to her ability to recreate
for listeners, the transcendental world of the composers'
vision. She is an avid reader of German literature, enjoys
drawing, and being in Nature. Shoko has spent the last
three months on Vancouver Island, spending lots of time
in the "old growth forest" and the
wilderness, while teaching at the University of Victoria.
The Art of
the Piano: Ron Davis Saturday November 20 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Music gives pleasure and makes us think. There's no need
to choose intelligence over entertainment. This is what Ron
Davis is about.
Ron has coaxed music from his piano since his early youth.
Now he shares this passion all over the world, including
Asia, which he has toured four times. Ron is a brilliant
virtuoso and engaging entertainer. His playing calls to mind
Oscar Peterson and Jamie Cullum. Accolades abound.
Ron's most recent CD, his 7th, My Mother's
Father's Song, is his first all-trio recording. A celebrated
1930s Polish song about Ron's maternal grandfather lends
the CD its title. Bal u grabego Joska is a sensitive, emotional
embrace and touching family tribute. Also among the CD's
thirteen tracks: My Shining Hour (Arlen & Mercer),
For Once in My Life (Stevie Wonder) and Viva la Vida (Coldplay).
Ron works with symphony orchestras to
put the "fun" in
funky. SymphRonica (symphronica.com) superimposes his unique
brand of jazz on the traditional symphonic landscape, to
create an unforgettable concert experience. Ron has also
led ongoing jazz series, like Ron Davis and Friends and Gate
403 Jam Session.
More than a pianist, Ron has garnered international acclaim
as a composer. Rhythmaron: The Music of Ron Davis (2008)
is a deluxe compendium of 23 dazzling original tunes.
In Ron's hands and ears-on workshop, Playing Along to Surpass
(playingalongtosurpass.com), he teaches how to translate
jazz performance techniques into business success. It's cool.
It works.
Ron's written word compositions include Pianobabbler (pianobabbler.com),
his irreverent, urbane blog of musical musings. It's his
privilege to pen keyboard columns in Canadian Musician magazine.
He's published and edited numerous articles and books on
music, linguistics and law.
After studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Ron's
talent gelled as a teen. His mentor was the late Darwyn Aitken,
a musical giant who passed on lessons learned at the hands
of piano legends David Saperton (classical) and Oscar Peterson
(jazz).
His eclectic nature embraced other disciplines. Ron was
a lawyer. He taught at the Bar. He was an Assistant Professor
at the University of Toronto, where he earned a PhD in French
linguistics.
Ron serves on the Glenn Gould Foundation Executive Committee,
and on the advisory boards for the Jazz Performance and Education
Centre and Reaching Out Through Music. Peacebuilders International
and Feed the Hungry are among his other causes. For eight
years, he co-produced Jazz for Herbie, an annual benefit
for Sick Kids Hospital Foundation, helping children around
the world in medical need.
Que
Sarah: CD Launch of "Other Side" Thursday Nov 18, 2010 at 8 PM $10
Admission
Bio:Toronto
Ontario based singer songwriter "Que Sarah",
(Sarah Calvert) has been performing since the time she
was seven years old. Having trained as a classical pianist,
she has is now a self proclaimed "Jazzy Folkie".
Also a teacher of Kundalini Yoga, she produced and recorded
a CD of mantra/chants, and performs kirtans internationally.
She studied jazz piano and vocals at Selkirk Music College
in Nelson, B.C. and is a multi-instrumentalist who accompanies
her earthy voice with piano, guitar and harmonica. Formerly
a high-school English teacher, she now employs her love
of language to songwriting; she brings insightful witty
and honest lyrics by mixing humour and humility and creating
an intimate rapport with her audience. Many fans say things
like,"I love that tune about...I felt like I was reading
my own diary". "My dad always had an amazing
record collection; he was at Woodstock and music was his
passion. I listened to The Stones and the Beatles as a
toddler, and dancing around the living room belting out
everything from The Band to Barbara Streisand. My mum always
took me to Broadway shows in Toronto. She would have me
do concerts for her friends...Patsy Cline, the Andrew Sisters;..then
Beethoven. My Uncle Terry got me involved with his weekly
bluegrass jams, which I love. I owe so much to my family
for cultivating my love of music." She has played
at various venues worldwide from pubs and in the U.K.,
Australia to apres ski gigs at B.C. She was the assistant
music director/pianist in the Mirvish Production, "My
Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding" in Toronto
and is now serving up her tunes at bars and cafes in Toronto
and the surrounding area. Her new album, Other Side, is
complete and will be released at the end of September,
and features Toronto favourites like Suzie Vinnick, Andrew
Collins, Brian MacMillan and Tim Bovaconti. Read
more
The Art of
the Piano: Vlada Mars "Going Places" Friday November 12 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Pianist and teacher, Vlada's music education
started when she was seven in a school for musical talents
in Belgrade, Serbia. During her ten years of elementary
and secondary music school, she studied piano, solfeggio,
theory, harmony and history of music. Vlada studied musicology
at the Academy of Music in Belgrade. After moving to Vancouver
in 1994, she was appointed as the music coordinator of
Hollyburn Country Club where she is actively teaching piano
and coordinating other music programs, recitals and lectures.
Vlada is passionate about exploring and playing piano scores
for movies, a passion which resulted in her celebrated
piano recitals "Music
in Movies", "Playground Love" and a benefit
concert of the SAGE safe house in North Vancouver, "Going
Places". On numerous occasions, her piano performance
was a part of multimedia exhibitions for prominent artists
in Vancouver. On this visit to Toronto she brings a two-part
piano recital, and the "minimalist"
music of Michael Nyman, Philip Glass and Yann Tiersen in
search of the places music can take you. Her passion and
energy for piano and people is an inspiring experience for
audiences of all ages and diffeent music backgrounds.
Programme
Brave New World by McCreary, Bellamy, Nyman
Selection from the movie "The Hours" by
Philip Glass
Music of David
Lidov and Jocelyn Morlock Friday November 5, 2010 at 8 PM
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
Involuntary Love Songs (Alan Ashton) --- Joycelyn Morlock
Matches, Script, Thaw
Vania Chan, soprano, Erica Crino—, piano
.Sonatas with No Style ---- (2003)
Sonatina, Grand Sonata, Sonata-Aria,
Sonatine-Musette, Sonata-Rondo, CODA.
David Lidov, piano.
I N T E R M I S S I O N
Marianne's Requirements (Jane Austen)
Vania Chan, soprano, Erica Crin—, piano
Happy Birthday Frederic Chopin
Sonya Nanos, cello, Annika Borrmann, piano
Duo (1986)
Allegro, Adagio, Vivace
Lynn Kuo and Rebecca Van der Post, violins
Annika Borrmann was born in
Freiburg, Germany, where she started studying the piano at
a young age. As a regular participant and prize winner at
piano competitions she was accepted as a young student into
a program for musically gifted youth at the Musikhochschule
Freiburg. Later she earned her Bachelors degree at the same
institution and continued her performance studies in Hanover.
The influence of world renowned pedagogue John Perry led
her to move to Canada where she studied with him while earning
two Artist Diplomas at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto
as well as a Masters degree. Here, she also had the privilege
to be instructed by other famous musicians, such as Leon
Fleisher, Andre Laplante, Stephen Kovacevich, Marc Durand
and Robert McDonald. Currently Annika is a doctoral candidate
in music at York University. She also teaches at the Kingsway
Conservatory of Music and works as an accompanist.
Vania Chan is a Canadian lyric
coloratura soprano currently performing in New York City.
She had her Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall, as
a first prize winner in the Barry Alexander International
Vocal Competition. She has sung with Gateway Classical Music
Society NY, New York Opera Forum, and New York Lyric Opera.
Operatic roles performed include Olympia (Offenbach's Les
Contes d'Hoffmann), Susanna (Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro),
Flaminia (Haydn's Il Mondo della Luna), La Fee (Massenet's
Cendrillon), Armida (HandelÕs Rinaldo) and Sister
Mouse (Myron Fink's Animal Opera). At the Eckhardt Gramatte
Vocal Competition, she won for best interpretation of the
commissioned song cycle (Jocelyn MorlockÕs Involuntary
Love Songs), which was broadcast on the radio by the Canadian
Broadcasting Company. Vania recently graduated from the Manhattan
School of Music, receiving her Master of Music degree in
Classical Voice. Upcoming performances include a new reconstruction
of Bach's Cantata 216 Die Neisse und Pleisse with the Berkshire
Bach Society in Massachusetts, and the role of Gretel in
Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel with Opera Manhattan
Repertory Theatre. For more information please visit www.vaniachan.com
Italian pianist Erika Crin is
very active both as a chamber musician and a soloist. Several
of her performances have been featured on CBC Radio, including
a solo recital for Debut Friday Series, a performance of
chamber music with percussionist Salvador Ferreras, a performance
of Stravinsky's "Concerto for Two Pianos" with
pianist Brett Kingsbury, and, more recently, the performance
of Jocelyn Morlock's "Involuntary Love Songs",
with soprano Vania Chan, winner of the special prize at the
Eckhard-Gramatte Competition. With Trio sTREga, a trio dedicated
to modern music which she co-founded with clarinetist Katarzyna
Marczak during her doctorate at the University of British
Columbia, she was invited to perform at the Edmonton Composers
Concert Society. Since her move to Toronto, Erika has been
music director for two Opera Workshops by TrypTych. Last
year Erika performed Bach's Triple Concerto at the Glenn
Gould Studio with pianists Robert Silverman and Brett Kingsbury,
and the Koffler Chamber Orchestra directed by Jacques Israelievitch.
She is currently faculty at the Koffler Centre for the Arts
in Toronto.
Born in St. John's, Newfoundland, violinist Lynn
Kuo studied with the late Lorand Fenyves as an Eaton
Graduate Fellow at the University of Toronto. She has won
prizes in numerous prestigious competitions including, among
others, the Eckhardt-Gramattˇ, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Competition, Quebec Symphony Orchestra Canadian Concerto
Competition, the Atlantic Young Artist Competition, the Newfoundland
Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and the Canadian
Music Competitions. She has appeared as soloist with the
Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Brandon Chamber Players, the
Canadian Sinfonietta, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Bulgaria)
and others including the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra
- as both pianist and violinist Ð with which she also
toured.
She is a champion of new music, both acoustic and electroacoustic,
Lynn has given world premieres of compositions written for
and dedicated to her by Canadian composers Michael Pepa,
Dennis Patrick, Daniel Foley, Elizabeth Raum and American
composer Katarina Miljkovi?. She has headed the LES AMIS
ensemble in their extensive tours with Canadian music.
Currently based in Toronto, Ontario, Lynn plays with the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company and
is Assistant Concertmaster of the National Ballet of Canada
Orchestra. In addition to performing, Lynn has been a guest
lecturer and teacher at Canadian universities and teaches
privately. www.lynnkuo.com.
David Lidov is a music
theorist, occasional pianist, and a composer best known
for works for small ensembles or voice. His music has been
performed in North and South America and in Europe. Except
for short stints in Mexico, Brazil and Germany, he has
taught in the York University Department of Music, where
he was a founding member, since 1970. His theoretical investigations,
beginning with a computer algorithm to write melodies in
1972, were an early and influential source for musical
semiotics. St. Martin's Press published his general theory,
Elements of Semiotics (1999) and Indiana University Press
released a collection of his best known writings on music,
Is Language a Music? (2004). His never up-to-date website
is www.yorku.ca/lidov.
After completing her studies in the UK and Switzerland, British
violinist Rebecca van der Post has performed throughout Europe
with artists such as Thomas Ades, Siegfried Palm, Sophia
Rahman, and Jurg Wyttenbach. Festival appearances include
the Aldeburgh, Istanbul Festival, and the Bogota New Music
Festival. She has given radio broadcasts for the BBC, CBC,
and Slovak Radio. Since moving to Canada in 1999, Rebecca
has joined Arraymusic and Ensemble Noir. She has toured with
Autumn Leaf's production of Kopernicus, has appeared as guest
concertmaster of Symphony Nova Scotia, and performed in the
Massey Hall New Music Festival.
Megumi Masaki - Music 4 Eyes & Ears Monday Oct 25 at 8:00
$20; $15 Seniors; $10 Students
PROGRAMME
I.
Reflections in the Water (2000) for Piano
Vincent Ho with Video Tracks (2010) by Owen Bird
II.
Chroma Concerto (2007) for Piano & Animation Film
Michael Oesterle & Chris Hinton (animation film)
III.
The Hitchcock Études for Solo Piano, Glitch & Video
(2010, new commissioned work)
Nicole Lizée
The MUSIC 4 EYE & EARS program focuses on how the artificial
world integrates with the real world and the real world emulates
the artificial world in new Canadian concert music.
Megumi Masaki
Award-winning pianist Megumi Masaki is a multi-faceted artist,
dedicated teacher and interdisciplinary researcher of optimal
performance. She is renowned not only for her dynamic temperament, “imaginative,
intelligent and sensitive” (Deseret News) performances
and warm rapport with audiences, but also for the breadth
and innovation of her artistic activity.
For over twenty years Masaki has performed extensively as
a soloist and chamber musician with distinguished artists
in North America, Europe and Asia, in such venues as the
Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, Winnipeg Symphony
Orchestra New Music Festival, National Arts Centre Ottawa,
Cultural Olympiad Utah, National Museum of Women in Arts
Washington, D.C., Elmwood Hall Belfast, Alte Oper Frankfurt,
Casalmaggiore International Festival, Guarnerius Arts Centre
Belgrade, PhilamLife Theatre Manila, Okazaki Concert Hall
Japan, and Chengdu Concert Hall China.
A passionate advocate of music of her time, Masaki has commissioned
and premiered numerous works worldwide and worked with composers
including Nicole Lizée, T. Patrick Carrabré,
Vincent Ho, Randolph Peters, Gerhard Ginader, Jack Behrens,
Jórge Cordoba, Carlyle Sharpe and Steven Stucky. Explorations
into new art expressions created by a synthesis of music
and visual media have led to collaborations with visual artist
Owen Bird. Devoted to advancing the music of Eckhardt-Gramatté,
Masaki has recorded CDs of her piano works and the complete
works for violin and piano duo with violinist partner Oleg
Pokhanovski, and has published a critical performance edition
of her Piano Caprices. She made her film debut as performer
and researcher for “Appassionata: The Extraordinary
Life and Works of Eckhardt-Gramatté” by Paula
Kelly for CBC's Opening Night. She is also the Artistic Director
of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition,
the only competition in North America devoted exclusively
to contemporary music.
Masaki has been recorded for national broadcast by the CBC
and in Germany by HR. She has received numerous awards from
the Canada Council, Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs,
Manitoba Arts Council, SSHRC and won the Willi-Daume Prize
from the National Olympic Committee Germany for her multidisciplinary
project “Music and the Olympic Games.” Fascinated
with the parallels between sport and music performance, Masaki
has toured with Stars on Ice Germany performing live with
figure skating World Champions and Olympic medalists Wötzel & Steuer
and Denkova & Staviski.
Born in Japan, Masaki moved to Winnipeg and studied with
Leonard Isaacs, Marek Jablonski at the Banff Centre and Ronald
Turini at the University of Western Ontario, obtaining the
Bachelor of Music Performance with Honours and Master of
Music in Piano Performance and Literature degrees. She was
awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to further her studies
with Kendall Taylor at the Royal College of Music, earning
England's highest performance degree, the Postgraduate Advanced
Studies Diploma.
Masaki is dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of training
students for the rigors inherent in music careers. Her research
has developed a holistic approach to teaching: “Training
Pianists as Athletes: A Basic Training Method for Optimal
Performance,” resulting in invitations to present at
leading international piano and pedagogy conferences. She
has enabled many students to gain research and concert touring
experience and to win prizes at regional and national competitions.
Her commitment to teaching was recognized with the 2010 Brandon
University Alumni Association's Alumni Award for Excellence
in Teaching. In partnership with rural arts associations
and schools, she has also initiated an education outreach
project in Manitoba entitled “Masaki's Rising Stars.” Masaki
is in demand to give masterclasses at universities worldwide,
is on faculty at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival
in Italy and is Associate Professor of Piano at Brandon University
Ensemble Mujirushi Saturday October 16 2010 at 8pm
Based in Edmonton, Canada, the Avant-garde/alt
classical multi-media collective, Ensemble Mujirushi, was
founded to present new graphic, visual, conceptual, verbal,
intuitive and open scores by the Canadian and international
Avant-garde and Experimental composers. The group was conceived
by the composer Piotr Grella-Mozejko. Their public performances,
notably during the Edmonton International Film Festival (2006),
Explorations Concert Series (2008) and New Music in New Places
project (2009), usually held at the Stanley Milner Library
Theatre, have become highly discussed and received many enthusiastic
reviews and comments from the critics and audiences alike.
The ensemble, which now involves artists from across the
country, specialises in the performance of contemporary repertoire,
which often do entirely away with musical notation, substituted
for by abstract signs whose rôle is to inspire musicians
to improvise and/or create. Because they were “nameless,” the
group adopted the Japanese moniker Mujirushi (literally “name”).
The seven members of the ensemble are all consummate performers.
Singer and actress Helen Pridmore (Sackville) adds her interpretive
skills to broaden the range of the group’s repertoire.
Flautist Chenoa Anderson, saxophonist Allison Balcetis and
electric violinist Jerry Ozipko constitute the core instrumental
component of the Ensemble. Composer and educator Piotr Grella-Mozejko
is in charge of applying computer technology to live performances,
as is the distinguished Canadian composer, Ian Crutchley,
who also performs on “found” instruments, while
the video artist Christopher Payne (Ottawa) provides visual
interpretations of the music.
PROGRAMME
John Oliver (CDN): Birds of Paradise Lost
for flute and electronics (9')
Chenoa Anderson, flute - Ian Crutchley, computer
W.L. Altman (CDN): is it because for voice and electronics
(10')
Helen Pridmore, voice - Ian Crutchley, computer
Mikel Kuehn (USA): Crack for flute, saxophone, and electronics
(13')
Chenoa Anderson, flute - Allison Balcetis, saxophone - Ian
Crutchley, computer
Alex Eddington (CDN): Trails for ensemble and computer soundtrack
(11')
Helen Pridmore, voice - Chenoa Anderson, flute - Allison
Balcetis, saxophone
Ian Crutchley, keyboard - Piotr Grella-Mozejko, computer
Piotr Grella-Mozejko (CDN): Balcetis for computer soundtrack,
saxophone, and electronics (11')
Allison Balcetis, saxophone - Piotr Grella-Mozejko, computer
Ian Crutchley (CDN): The Contents of Your Kit May Vary for
optional performers (20 – 25') Ensemble
CD release Brian Dickinson, piano and Ted Quinlin, guitar The recording released on "Addo
Records" by Steve Bellamy.
Sat Oct 2 at 8:00
$20; $15 Snr; $10 Student
Juno Award-Winning pianist Brian Dickinson
is one of Canada’s most versatile introspective
and flexible accoustic artists and composers. Born in
Guelph, Ontario in 1961, DICKINSON started playing the
piano when he was five. In his early teens, BRIAN quickly
acquired a taste for blues and rock & roll. His father,
an amateur jazz guitarist, got BRIAN interested in jazz.
DICKINISON began listening to the music of piano players
Bill Evans, Keith Jarret, Herbie Hancock and McCoy Tyner.
DICKINSON has worked with many of the
top names in the field of jazz: trumpeter Randy Brecker,
saxophonist Dewey Redman, guitarists John Abercrombe
and Sonny Greenwich. Under his own name, BRIAN has recorded
the albums October 13th and In Transition. In addition,
BRIAN’s piano work can be heard on saxophonist
Mike Murley’s Time and Tide, bassist Keiran Over’s
Gateway and Shapeshift, and Jane Bunnet’s In Dew
Time.
In addition to composing, performing
and recording, BRIAN DICKINSON is on the music faculties
at the University of Toronto and at Toronto’s
Humber College.
"Where other musicians enjoy more fanfare, few enjoy more respect then
Brian Dickinson"
- Mark Miller Globe & Mail
Annual Fundraiser For New Music Concerts The Music Theatre of Rick Sacks Wednesday Oct 13, 2010 at 7pm
This is a special non-subscription fundraising
event to benefit New Music Concerts featuring theatrical
works composed and performed by percussionist Rick Sacks.
As the current president of NMC it will be my pleasure to
host this event at Gallery 345. I urge all of you to make
the effort to attend this event and give to a very worthy
cause. A wine and cheese reception will be held after the
concert. You will also receive a charitable receipt
for the CRA allowable portion of the $50 admission. Thanks
for your support, Edward Epstein
ABOUT NEW MUSIC CONCERTS
Now embarking on its 40th season, New Music Concerts enjoyed
a leadership role in Toronto’s new music scene throughout
its history. Founded in 1971 by internationally acclaimed
Canadian musicians Robert Aitken and Norma Beecroft, NMC
presented its first concert in January 1972 with guest
composer/conductor Luciano Berio. Since that time most
of the world’s renowned composers including John
Adams, Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Elliott
Carter, George Crumb, Peter Maxwell Davies, Morton Feldman,
Philip Glass, Heinz Holliger, Maurizio Kagel, Helmut Lachenmann,
Toru Takemitsu, Iannis Xenakis, Walter Zimmermann and,
early in their careers, rising stars like Tan Dun, Toshio
Hosokawa, Jörg Widmann and Raminta Serksnyte, have
come to Toronto at NMC’s invitation. Our strong support
of Canadian composers through commissions and performances
and by combining them with international artists has promoted
their success. A short list of some of our most notable
Canadian commissions includes Claude Vivier’s Zipangu,
Barbara Pentland’s Eventa, Harry Somer’s Chura
Churum, John Beckwith’s Eureka, Harry Freedman’s
Strands of Blue, Alexina Louie’s Sanctuary, John
Weinzweig’s Prisoner of Conscience, Bruce Mather’s
Ausone, Gilles Tremblay’s Triojubilus, plus Omar
Daniel’s Zwei Lieder nach Rilke and Chris Paul Harman’s
Amerika both of which went on to win the Jules Léger
Prize.
Since its inception NMC has presented more
than 325 concerts, commissioned more than 125 Canadian and
international works and performed some 700 Canadian and world
premieres. As English Canada's senior contemporary music
society, NMC's prime activity is producing high calibre concerts
of contemporary music, but our activities have included a
very broad range of presentation from contemporary classics,
to electroacoustics, mixed- and multi-media presentations,
sound sculpture, radiophonic works, films and music theatre
(including world premiere performances of R. Murray Schafer’s
Princess of the Stars on Heart Lake in 1981 and the North
American premieres of John Cage’s Roaratorio at Convocation
Hall and Thorkell Sigurbjornsson’s Grettir at the Betty
Oliphant Theatre). Current programs reflect the ongoing concern
to balance all aspects of our mandate to profile established
and emerging Canadian and international composers. Far from
resting on its laurels, New Music Concerts’ energy
has, if anything, increased in recent years as will be seen
in the coming anniversary season. It features concerts of
recent works by senior composers John Beckwith and Elliott
Carter and new works by Geoffrey Palmer, Paul Steenhuisen,
Robert Pritchard, Keith Hamel, André Ristic and Kee
Yong Chong. Chong will also curate a concert of music by
Malaysian composers active today. The Ensemble contemporain
de Montréal and the young composers of Generation
2010 will show us what the future has to offer in this country
and the dynamic Diotima Quartet will present some exciting
international string quartet repertoire from recent years
including Roger Reynolds’ centenary tribute to Elliott
Carter. A particular highlight of the season will be the
Portrait of Jonathan Harvey, a concert which had to be postponed
from last season due to the health of the respected British
composer. http://www.newmusicconcerts.com/New_Music_Concerts/Welcome.html
RICHARD SACKS, BIO
Richard Sacks holds a master’s degree in percussion
from SUNY Stony Brook. He performs with Arraymusic, the Glass
Orchestra, New Music Concerts, Aventa, Red Sky Performance,
the Evergreen Club Gamelan and others. Rick has toured worlwide
with these groups. He also works as a composer/designer in
contemporary dance and theatre. He has performed with Desrosiers,
Dancemakers, Le Groupe de la Place Royale, Bill James, Carbon
14, and TDT and Theatre Gargantua. He created the compositions
for CanStage’s Midsummer Night’s Dream in the
Park at High Park, Midsummer Night’s Dream at Passe
Muraille, the hit show Sibs (Tarragon), and the award-winning
children’s show Danny, King of the Basement (Roseneath).
His most recent work as co-composer/music director of Red
Sky's Tono won the 2010 Dora award for best sound design/composition.
Rick is Arraymusic's new artistic director.
- http://www.vex.net/rikscafe and http://www.rixax.com/
Ineo: Adam Sherkin, pianist/composer
Contemporary pianist/composer launches his 2010-2011 season
Sunday Sept 26 at 7:00
FREE ADMISSION
Wielding impressive abilities as both pianist and composer, Adam Sherkin fuses classical lineage with modern origins, interpreting his own music alongside works by John Adams, Harrison Birtwistle, J.S. Bach, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff. Ineo marks the launch of Adam Sherkin's 2010-2011 season.
A native of Toronto, Adam graduated from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory and the Royal College of Music, London. He has appeared in performance at the Four Seasons Centre, the Toronto Centre for the Arts, St Martin-in-the-Fields (London), Covent Garden and the Royal Albert Hall. Adam's works have been premiered at the Glenn Gould Studio, The Luminato Festival, the Spotlight Festival (Waterloo), the King’s Lynn Festival (Norfolk), The Bridgewater Hall (Manchester), The Warehouse and the National Portrait Gallery in London. Adam is an associate of the CMC and current artistic director of The Sixth Sphere, a contemporary music series based at the Academy of Spherical Arts in Toronto. Upcoming performance engagements include a Canadian premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's Harrison's Clocks at Toronto's X-Avant Festival (October 2010) and the complete piano works of John Adams presented in conjunction with the Canadian Opera Company in February of 2011.
PROGRAMME
John Adams: China Gates (1977)
Adam Sherkin: Daycurrents (2009)
Harrison Birtwistle: Clock IV (from Harrison's Clocks, 1998)
Beethoven: Sonata, op. 54
J.S. Bach: Two Duets, BWV 804 & 805
Sherkin: Drowned Fragments (2010) *Canadian premiere
Rachmaninoff: Corelli Variations, op. 42 (excerpts)
The Art of the Piano: John Farah Sat Sept 25
at 8:00
$20; $15
Senior; $10 Student
JOHN KAMEEL FARAH - artist-in-residence at Mackenzie Post-Digital
Composer, pianist, electronic musician and visual artist John Kameel Farah draws upon elements of modern classical, Baroque, free improvisation, Middle-Eastern rhythms and Electronica to create music that is somewhere between the concert hall and the sonic environments of our contemporary world. He studied composition and performance at U of T, where he was given the Glenn Gould Composition Award twice, and later performed the complete piano works of Arnold Schoenberg. NOW Magazine named his as "best pianist" for 2006. He has performed his music across Canada and the U.S., Mexico, South Korea, the Middle East, U.K. and Europe. Farah released his CD “Unfolding”on Dross:tik Records in 2009, and just returned from playing a series of concerts in Brazil, England and Germany. John is currently Artist-In-Residence at Mackenzie Post-Digital in Toronto, and he will be performing some new pieces composed during the residency at this concert.
The Art of the Piano: Claudia Chan First-prize winner of the 2010
Eckhardt-Gramatte National Piano Competition for Contemporary
Music. Music by Schubert, Chopin,Gubaidulina,Corigliano, Ligeti.
Friday Sept 24 at 8:00
$20; $15 Senior; $10 Student
PROGRAMME
Schubert - Sonata in A major, D664
Chopin - Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op.61
intermission
Gubaidulina - Chaconne (1962)
Corigliano - Etude Fantasy (1967)
Ligeti - Selections from Musica Ricercata: III, VII, VIII
(1951-53)
BIOGRAPHY
Recent first-prize winner of the 33rd Eckhardt-Gramatte National
Piano Competition for Contemporary Music, where she was described
as "an energetic, powerful and expressive pianist" and
a "wonderful ambassador" for contemporary music,
20-year-old pianist Claudia Chan made her concert debut at
the age of eleven playing Mozart's Concerto in C major, K.415
with the Thirteen Strings chamber orchestra, under the direction
of Jean-François Rivest. The following year, she recorded
Chopin's Polonaise in g-sharp minor for TVOntario's MusicMakers
series. Since then, she has competed and performed successfully
in several national and international piano competitions,
among these a semi-final appearance at the Eastman International
Young Artists Competition in 2006 and five national appearances
at the Canadian Music Competitions. She has also been recognized
annually at the Ontario Registered Music Teachers' Competitions,
the Ottawa and Toronto Kiwanis Music Festivals, and the Canadian
Music Competitions for her performances and received the
Marion Hewitt Memorial scholarship from the Ottawa Kiwanis
Music Festival in 2009 for the most distinguished alumnus
in any discipline.
Claudia has performed in Germany, France, Canada and the
United States and for such distinguished pedagogues as Leon
Fleisher, John O'Conor, John Perry, Lee Kum-Sing, Marc Durand,
Ursula Oppens, Andre Laplante, Kolja Lessing, Thomas Schumacher,
Jean-Paul Sevilla, James Parker, Jean-François Rivest,
and Stephane Lemelin. She was also selected as a finalist
in the 2008 Guelph Concerto Competition, the Glenn Gould
School's 2009 Concerto Competition and Tom Thomas Award,
and the 2010 Chamber Music Competition. Claudia has been
heard on the soundtracks of many short films produced by
the Canadian Film Composers Guild and the Ontario Arts Council.
Upcoming performances include appearances at the Mannes Institute
and Festival for Contemporary Performance in New York City,
the Banff Arts Centre Summer Masterclasses, recitals in Toronto,
Burlington, Ottawa, and Kelowna (including a debut at the
inaugural Kelowna Pianoforte Festival). Claudia will embark
on 16-concert tour of Canada and CBC recording and broadcast
of the two winning programs of contemporary piano music from
the Eckhardt-Gramatte competition in the fall of 2010, during
which she will give the Canadian premieres of Karen Sunabacka's
Curlicue.
Claudia is in undergraduate program at the Glenn Gould School,
as a Dean's scholarship student studying with David Louie
and John Perry.
Irshad Khan World Trio performs
a unique
blend
of Indo Latin Jazz music Virtuoso sitar
player Irshad Khan with Nancy Walker, Dave Field, and
Gino Mirizio Sunday Sept 19 at 7:00 $20; $15
Senior; $10 Student
Irshad Khan
Irshad Khan is considered among the world's best Sitar players
and the leading Surbahar (BassSitar) player of his generation
and among the finest instrumentalists of the world. His individual
stamp in both these instruments ascends from the distinctiveness
of his technique and mental prowess. is renowned not only
for his mastery of these two instruments, but for his unique
presentation of the different genres of Indian classical
music, and his mastery of the intricate “gayaki-ang”(vocal)
and “tantra-ang”(instrumental) styles, makes
Irshad Khan one of the most dynamic musicians of today. This
remarkable versatility allows him to transcend cultural barriers
and turn each performance into a spellbinding and unforgettable
experience for audiences everywhere. Through his performances
and international press accolades and groundbreaking albums,
he has proved to be an outstanding World musician “Scintillating
performance.” (Boston Globe, U.S.A), “Charismatic
music mesmerizes audience.” (The Toronto Star, Canada), “Feast
of music for the hungry”. (The Times, England) http://www.irshadkhan.net/
Having emerged as a child prodigy,
Irshad Khan gave his first public performance at the age
of seven. His international debut was at the Queen Elizabeth
Hall in London, England when he was only 13. At 18, he
made history by becoming the youngest soloist to perform
at one of the most prestigious international music festivals
held in London, known as the Indian All Night concert at
the Proms. Since then he has played in over 30 nations
that include performances in various music festivals and
conferences throughout India, Europe, the Middle East,
Russia, the Far East, and North America.
Irshad Khan is the founder/president of Universal
Academy for Musicians, based in Mississauga and Mumbai. Apart
from actively performing internationally, he also conducts
workshops, lectures and master classes in various educational
institutions. He has many commercial recordings, which are
sold worldwide.
Nancy Walker - Piano
Pianist and composer Nancy Walker is the winner
of the 2008 National Jazz Awards Keyboardist Of The Year
Award and the 2003 Montréal International Jazz Festival’s
prestigious Grand Prix de Jazz. Nancy has also studied in
New York City with renowned piano master Fred Hersch.
Nancy has several discs as leader to her credit.
Invitation, released in 1997. was voted one of the year’s
best by Jazz Canadiana reviewers. Toronto Star critic Geoff
Chapman named Luminosity (2000) one of the top jazz recordings
of that year. Levitation, Nancy’s third recording (2003),
was “a fine example of the modern jazz musician’s
art” according to the Globe & Mail’s Mark
Miller. When She Dreams, was released in 2004 on Canada’s
premier jazz label, Justin Time Records, and shot to the
number one position on Canadian campus radio jazz charts.
Nancy has a solid background as a pianist
and keyboard player for a variety of international recording
and concert acts, both in and outside the jazz idiom. She’s
recorded and toured with folk artist Sylvia Tyson, children’s
entertainer Raffi, pop icons The Parachute Club, balladeer
Roger Whittaker, and well-loved composer (the late) Hagood
Hardy, to name a few. Over the years Nancy has built enduring
jazz relationships. As the pianist in the John Geggie Trio,
Nancy continues yearly to hold the piano chair in the house
rhythm section for The Ottawa International Jazz Festival’s
nightly jam sessions. With bassist Geggie, Nancy has performed
in concert with drum legend Billy Hart, contemporary drum
heavyweight Matt Wilson and saxophone dynamo Donny McCaslin
(a John Geggie recording featuring Nancy, McCaslin and drummer
Nick Fraser is set for a 2009 release). She has recorded
and performed in concert with the cream of Canada’s
jazz vocal crop, from Vancouver’s Karin Plato to Toronto’s
Emilie-Claire Barlow, and she has been a frequent sideperson
of saxophonist Kirk MacDonald.
“She’s a commanding presence at
the piano. Her solos are strong and personal, and she’s
a wonderful accompanist.”
Ted O’Reilly, The Whole Note Magazine
Dave Field - Bass
Dave has performed with Oscar Peterson, Peter
Appleyard, Chet Baker, George Coleman, Red Norvo, Lenny White,
Phil Nimmons, Rob McConnell, Zoot Sims and many more. During
their respective hey-days, Dave was the house bass player
at Georges Spaghetti House and Bourbon Street, two of the
most important clubs in Canada's jazz history.
In addition to his legendary status of as
one of the best jazz bass players anywhere, Dave has also
seen double-duty as a "rock-star." During the 70's,
while at the height of their popularity with all of their
number one hits, Dave toured the world, performing with "The
Fifth Dimension." He has also worked with Beverly D'Angelo,
and Quebec superstar: Jeannette Reno. Dave's spirit, energy,
great attitude and "all-round spunkiness" work
like a finely tuned Swiss timepiece; always propelling the
music forward in a very positive direction, with metronomic
accuracy!
On the rare occasion that Dave cannot make
a gig (usually due to a studio recording engagement), the
bass chair in The Dan Bodanis Band has been filled by three
of the best bass players on the planet! Neil Swainson (George
Shearing, Moe Koffman, Oscar Peterson), George Koller (Shuffle
Demons, Holly Cole, Marc Jordan), or the incredible Al Henderson
(Co-founder/Bandleader of Canadian Jazz super-group: "Time
Warp," and music professor at both York University and
The University of Toronto).
Gino Mirizio - Percussion
Gino Mirizio is a major talent who is becoming
increasingly recognized as a highly accomplished musician/percussionist.
Gino is exceptional in demonstrating a remarkable level of
skill in a wide range of instruments, which include the congas,
bongos, timbale, cajon, djembe, dumbek, udu, as well as the
traditional drum kit.
Toronto’s Humber College gave him a
solid musical base to build on, and since his graduation
in 1993 he has worked hard to hone his skills to their present
level. Though he began his musical career with a jazz bias,
over the past twelve years he has added latin, rock, funk
and classical styles to his diverse repertoire.
Always anxious to expand his musical horizons,
Gino began performing and recording with the psychedelic
rock band, Freedom Rains and appeared with them on his first
CD. He later worked with Spanish guitarist Johannes Linstead
and added three more CD’s to his recording credentials.
A fortunate meeting with renowned impressario
Bernie Fiedler resulted in a highly successful tour with
the “First Lady of the Guitar”, Liona Boyd. It
was this tour which introduced him to the band Pavlo, a happy
encounter which resulted in Pavlo asking Gino to join his
group and tour with them. They have since toured all over
the world together, delighting audiences everywhere with
their exciting “Mediterranean” rhythms.
Gino’s playing has benefited from his
associations with musical celebrities such as Memo Acevedo,
Roger Flock, Don Vickory, Paul Delong and Vito Rezza. He
has nonetheless developed a style which is uniquely his own;
his charismatic stage presence engages his audience and carries
them along in many exciting new directions, where they are
only too happy to join him.
Quiet People Collective. Singer/songwriters
from Saskatchewan:
Zachary Lucky and The Bravest Ghost (Sean Craib-Petkau)
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