While the wind and snow blow around our ears, Southern Ontario orchestras continue to present programs that are guaranteed to stretch the aural imagination:

On Saturday, February 5, the Aradia Ensemble, led by music director Kevin Mallon, presents an innovate concert at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio. The program features 5-minute works for baroque instruments by contemporary Canadian composers, selected through a competitive process – and the “winning” composer will be invited to write a longer work for Aradia in a future season. The ten composers taking part are: Ian McAndrew, Rose Bolton, Taylor Brook, Catherine Magowan & Spy Dénommé-Welch, Scott Maynard, Chris Meyer, Dustin Peters, Ronald Royer, Caitlin Smith and Kevin Mallon. For more information about Aradia, please visit www.aradia.ca.

Last night and tonight (February 3 and 4), the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony has electronic artist and composer Dan Deacon to join them for a concert at the Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts in Kitchener. The program will include a new work by and with Deacon, for electronics and orchestra, an arrangement by KWS music director Edwin Outwater of an older Deacon work, and a collaborative new take on Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. And the cast list includes ‘20 screaming children’ who will interact with the crowd. As Edwin Outwater says, “Dan’s music is the ultimate intersection – part party, part art. Traditional orchestra concerts are very passive, non-participatory; Dan’s concerts are all about audience interaction. We’re reinventing the orchestral experience with this concert – it’s about getting involved in the music and having a good time.” www.kwsymphony.ca