Orchestras Canada

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

The intrepid people at Toronto’s Aradia Ensemble have just announced a unique two-year project to develop new works for baroque ensemble – Baroque Idol. Aradia is looking for composers to submit 5 minute works for 4 baroque strings (2 violins, viola, cello), harpsichord/organ, baroque oboe/recorder, and baroque bassoon.

Ten works will be chosen from the submissions for performance by Aradia in February 2011. Five composers will then be selected, and each will be commissioned to write a 10 minute work for Aradia in the 2011-12 season. The five works will be featured on a commercial CD.

Composers are invited to consult with Aradia’s period performance specialists prior to the submission deadline of December 15.

For more details, please contact Aradia administrator Wendy Limbertie by email at cfac.toronto@sympatico.ca.

The Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra has announced its 47th season, under the leadership of music director Paul McCulloch. The HPYO comprises a Wind Ensemble and a full symphonic orchestra, and the groups will give three concerts this season, and will also take part in a number of different musical events, including a Showcase concert with the Orchestre des jeunes du Québec maritime in October. hpyo.com

Montreal’s Quatuor Molinari has announced details of its fall 2010 season. Repertoire includes quartets by American minimalist composers Riley, Glass and Reich; the four last quartets of Shostakovich, and a pair of performances with singer Pierre Lapointe, combining his repertoire in unique settings with string quartet, along with movements from quartets by Ravel, Schafer, Glass and Schnittke. For more information on the quartet and its series, you can visit their website at quatuormolinari.qc.ca

Toronto’s Aradia Ensemble (Kevin Mallon, music director) has announced details of its 2010-11 series at the Glenn Gould Studio. Highlights include a semi-staged performance of Handel’s Giulio Cesare (in collaboration with the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy), the “Dublin” Messiah, a program of new works for Baroque ensemble by young composers, and an all-Bach program featuring a singer, a dancer and a visual artist. For more information about Aradia, you can visit their website at aradia.ca

This week, we’re highlighting a couple of imaginatively-programmed concerts from two very different orchestras, aimed at very different audiences!

This Saturday, the National Arts Centre Orchestra presents an hour-long, bilingual family program entitled Happy Mother’s Day: A Musical Tribute to Moms. The concert will be led by Boris Brott, and will feature popular Canadian cartoonist Lynn Johnston, her trumpeter brother Al Ridgeway, musical families within the NAC Orchestra, a performance of Robert Munsch‘s Love You Forever – and, as a special treat, three members of the astoundingly gifted Leong-Mach family. The mother-son trio includes 13-year old Ottawa violinist Kerson Q Xun Leong, who recently won the top prize in the under-16 category at the prestigious Menuhin Competition in Oslo, Norway – his very first international competition. He will perform with his cellist brother Stanley, and his mother, Tu Mach, an accomplished pianist and music teacher. As well, one lucky mother will be selected from the audience to conduct the NAC Orchestra! The fun begins in the lobby 45 minutes prior to each concert, and includes: a thematic book display by the Ottawa Public Library; musical activities by Music for Young Children; a display of “Chuckle Brothers” comic strip artwork by Brian Boychuk, violinist with the NAC Orchestra; activities by the Kanata Gymnastics Club; a brass and woodwind instrumental petting zoo organized by Canterbury High School; origami flower and finger puppet crafts; a special appearance by KAOS the Cat, official mascot of The Ottawa Academy of Martial Arts; and an information table by the Ottawa International Children’s Festival.

On May 15 in Toronto, the Aradia Ensemble (led by Kevin Mallon) presents Thunderbird: A First Nations/Baroque Collaboration. The program features mezzo soprano Marion Newman, a regular collaborator with Aradia, and a native Canadian – and it is built around the traditional legend of the Thunderbird. The program includes traditional first nations song and dance (including an elaborate Thunderbird mask, carved by Master Carver Victor Newman), weather- and storm-related music of the Baroque era by Locke and Clerambault, , and the world premiere of a work by composer Dustin Peters. Here’s what Marion Newman has to say about the program:

“The biggest thread that ties together Baroque and Aboriginal culture would be the beat that music provides. It starts with the heartbeat, it moves to the drum, the instruments strike up, people’s feet begin to twitch and dance is born. It may seem like a crazy thing to be combining such forces, but in my heart and mind it makes perfect sense that we are doing this concert. I’ve been involved in various projects that combined my two worlds of First Nations culture and classical music. The Magic Flute with Vancouver Opera was the biggest thus far. It was very successful and really made me want there to be more of that kind of good collaboration in my career. The kind of collaboration that helps people to understand that First Nations culture is still very much alive and that we are evolving and yet keeping our traditions close to our hearts. As part of the stage of healing from past wrongs, we need to share, discuss, make new art, create music that makes us happy and that opens the table for healthy discussion and understanding. My uncle, George Taylor, has been touring around the world, singing our traditional songs and sharing our dances with people in an open and respectful way for a long time. I have always been encouraged by my family to be a spokesperson for our culture. Someone who can show that we are not all stereotypical, in the movie and bad news way, but that we are open to questions and that we want people to understand that very many of us are healthy and happy, living productive lives”.

On April 22, Aradia Ensemble (Kevin Mallon, director) will give a free hour-long lunch-time concert at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre, featuring excerpts from Samuel Arnold’s Polly, written as a sequel to the composer’s highly successful The Beggar’s Opera.

Aradia’s recording of Polly, which will be released for sale at the concert, is a world premier recording.  Aradia Ensemble Director Kevin Mallon will be joined by Laura Albino as Polly, Marion Newman as Jenny Diver, Jason Nedecky as Ducat, Loralie Kirkpatrick as Trapes, Gillian Grossman as the Indian Scout, Sean Watson as Morano and introducing Kyra Folk- Farber as Mrs. Ducat.

This week, April 16 and 17, the Kamloops Symphony (under the direction of Bruce Dunn) will present a pair of Charlie Chaplin movies, complete with live accompaniment.  The films are The Rink and The Adventurer, and they’ve been freshly scored for smaller orchestra by Carl Davis.  As the KSO’s media release advises, “a large screen will fill the stage to provide a larger than life view of The Rink and The Adventurer. American composer Aaron Copland’s Music for the Theatre sets the stage for an evening of hilarity.”

Les Violons du Roy (led by principal guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and featuring violinist Vadim Guzman) will present a dynamic and varied program of music from North and South America, tonight (April 16) at the Palais Montcalm.  Works include Chavez’s Toccata for percussion, Villa Lobos’s Bachianas brasileiras #9, two tangos by Piazzolla, Prevost’s Scherzo, Barber’s Adagio, and Bernstein’s Serenade for violin, strings and percussion.

From May 4 to 13, the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal (led by Music Director Kent Nagano) will present a comprehensive Beethoven festival that includes all nine symphonies, the Triple Concerto, and a new work by Booker Prize-winning author Yann Martel, narrated by Michel Dumont and set to the ballet music from Creatures of Prometheus.  Featured soloists in the “Triple” are James Ehnes, violin; Antonio  Meneses, cello; and Menahem Pressler, piano.