Orchestras Canada

In mid-October, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra takes to the skies for performances in Malaysia, South Korea and China, making its debut at the Beijing Music Festival, and presenting an expanded version of its renowned Galileo Project that includes Mandarin narration, Chinese astronomy and music.

The Asia tour begins in Kuala Lumpur with two performances on October 18 and 19 at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas and an education concert at the National Planetarium, home of the Malaysian National Space Agency (ANGKASA). On October 21 and 22, Tafelmusik makes debut at the Beijing Music Festival, including a concert at the Forbidden City Concert Hall. At the end of the tour, three Tafelmusik musicians will run an intensive five-day residency at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea. Chinese-Canadian musician Wen Zhao and bilingual American actor Jonathan Kos-Read, a well known film and television personality in China, join Tafelmusik for the performances in Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. tafelmusik.org

Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra has had a busy summer – making its first-ever appearance at the Orford Festival in early August, traveling to Italy for Maestro Kent Nagano’s Reate Festival in Italy in late August, and then making its 18th annual appearance as orchestra-in-residence at the Klang und Raum Festival in Germany in early September. It’s a harbinger of travels to come: in 2010-11, the orchestra will perform in 20 cities in North America, Europe and Asia.

Speaking about the tours, Music Director Jeanne Lamon noted, “Tafelmusik is proud to represent Canada internationally. It’s really important that the best Canadian artists go out in the world to remind people that Canada is an important force culturally, as well as politically and economically. I believe we live in one of the finest countries in the world, and I’m very proud to represent Canada on the world stage. Our job as cultural ambassadors is an extremely important part of our raison d’être.”

tafelmusik.org

Following tours to Italy, Germany, Québec, Mexico and the United States earlier this season, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is now well into its fifth international tour for the 2009/2010 season, a nine-city European itinerary with stops in Belgium, Holland and Spain. While in Europe, Tafelmusik will perform repertoire by Mozart and Haydn with long-time collaborator, conductor Bruno Weil and fortepianist Ronald Brautigam.

A number of remarkable (and remarkably varied) concerts by Canadian orchestras are coming up this spring, and here are some of the highlights.

April 14-22, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is presenting a 3-program Sibelius festival that includes performances of all seven of the Finnish master’s symphonies in chronological order, under the direction of conductor Thomas Dausgaard.  Each TSO Sibelius Festival programme also includes a selection of the composer’s lesser heard works for violin and orchestra, performed by Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto.  To learn more, you can download a Sibelius festival podcast at the TSO’s website here.

April 7-11, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is celebrating Earth Day with a multimedia concert presented in collaboration with Earth Day Canada.  Tafelmusik violinist Julia Wedman conceived this programme as a “journey with our Earth through the course of a single day” and the program includes music by Rameau, Vivaldi, Geminiani, Haydn, Telemann, Bach and Zelenka performed against a backdrop of visuals by local photographers.  As well, there’s a pre-concert talk, a photo exhibition, and a “green room” with interactive displays and information booths on an environmental theme.  Other features:  you can bring your own mug and receive a free organic coffee at intermission; or, if you’re so inclined,  – Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre (Tafelmusik’s home venue) is hosting a range of Earth Day themed events, including a church service, workshops, a local food lunch, and a “blessing of the bikes”.

Next Thursday, April 8, the Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil, led by music director Marc David, is presenting a concert version of Mozart’s Magic Flute. The cast includes tenor Sarkis Barsemian (Tamino), soprano Emanuelle Coutu (Pamina), baritone Marc Boucher (Papageno), soprano Amelia Watkins (Queen of the Night), and bass Taras Kulish (Sarastro).  For more information on what’s bound to be a wonderful evening, please visit here.

In Victoria, the Victoria Symphony is teaming up with the Canadian College of Performing Arts to present excerpts from seven Tony Award-winning musicals, conducted by Brian Jackson and co-directed by Jacques Lemay and Janis Dunning.  The program features the full orchestra, 63 CCPA students on stage, over 150 costumes, and set designs.  The Canadian College of Performing Arts is the only programme in Canada offering the full complement of studies in acting, singing, dancing and musical theatre.  (Does that make its graduates quadruple threats?)  Since its inception, co-founders Janis Dunning and Jacque Lemay, plus a renowned faculty, have trained performing artists who consistently go on to establish careers on stage and screen.  For more on this exciting program (running tonight through Saturday), please visit the orchestra’s website here.

Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra has taken The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres on a four-city tour of California and Missouri, January 30 to February 6.  Stops on the tour include Kansas City, Santa Barbara, San Diego and Los Angeles.  The 2010 U.S. tour follows prestigious debuts at New York’s Carnegie Hall in February 2009, the inaugural Reate Festival in Italy last summer, and an October appearance at the Cervantino International Festival in Mexico.

The project has been nominated as Canada’s entry in the International Year of Astronomy’s 2009 Prize for Excellence in Astronomy Education and Public Outreach. The winners will be recognized in March 2010 at a ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa. In November 2009 The Galileo Project was the subject of a feature article in Hubble Space Telescope’s CAP Journal (Communicating Astronomy to the Public), and was the December 2009 cover story for International Arts Manager, a UK publication. In April 2009, the International Astronomical Union named an asteroid after Tafelmusik. Looking ahead to October 2010, The Galileo Project travels to Asia and Tafelmusik will make its debut in Kuala Lumpur. A Mandarin-language version of the project is being prepared for the Chinese stops on Tafelmusik’s tour itinerary.  For more information on the orchestra, please visit their website here.

The intrepid people at Tafelmusik have just launched a contest to find the best 90-second video celebrating the “sing-along spirit” of their annual Sing-Along Messiah performance. As the media release says, “Tafelmusik’s Sing-Along Messiah is a Toronto tradition beloved by thousands. Now is your chance to show the world your finest Sing-Along voice by recording your best rendition of your favourite Messiah excerpt in a 90-second video that will be viewable worldwide. Be creative! Have fun! Sing your heart out with friends and family or be a daring soloist. You can appear in the video, or not, as long as the music and/or voices in the video are your own. (You could even film yourself as a sock puppet!). It doesn’t matter if you are a member of a choir, or you have never sung before – if you enjoy Handel’s Messiah, show us your stuff.”

Prizes will be offered for the Best Overall Performance, Best Group / Family, Best Soloist, and Most Creative, and the final decisions will be made by Mr. Handel himself. What’s more, they’ve even dared Orchestra News to submit an entry. We’re thinking about it.

For more information, you can visit Tafelmusik’s website here.

At its Annual General Meeting on October 27, 2009, incoming Tafelmusik Board Chair David Linds announced the orchestra’s 9th consecutive operating surplus. Highlights of the 2008-09 season included:  an increase in ticket revenues of 17% over the previous year; a full Toronto season of 50 concerts; seven tours, one of which included the orchestra’s sold-out debut at Carnegie Hall.

“We did so much in our 30th Anniversary season,” remarked Managing Director Tricia Baldwin. “Rather than reducing activities in tougher times, we’ve expanded our presence in our home city, on the world stage, and through Web 2.0 social media, offering distinct and remarkable programmes such as Alison Mackay’s Galileo Project, which is now taking us around the world.”

Two of Canada’s better-travelled orchestras have headed to Mexico this month for the 37th annual Festival international Cervantino de Guanajuato.  Both the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal and Tafelmusik will perform at the festival, which brings together over 2000 artists from 30 different countries and is generally considered to be Latin America’s premiere multidisciplinary festival.  The theme of this year’s festival is Galileo Y El Telescopo: 400 AÑOS, named in honour of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA 2009). 

The OSM will perform three carefully-chosen works under the direction of Jean-François Rivest at the festival, including Claude Vivier‘s Orion, Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (with the ever-stellar Marc-Andre Hamelin) and Holst‘s The Planets.  Tafelmusik will perform its Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres program, a multi-disciplinary event that features the orchestra, astronomers, a stage director, a set and lighting designer, and astronomical photographers. The Cervantino edition of The Galileo Project will broaden Tafelmusik’s reach to Spanish-speaking audiences of the world thanks to the translation of the narrated text from English to Spanish. Assuming the narrator’s role is Mario Iván Martínez, one of Mexico’s most accomplished classically-trained actors who has a parallel career as a singer specializing in early music. Martínez was a member of the prestigious Ars Nova ensemble for 15 years, and his acting roles include Dr. John Brown in the internationally hailed film, Like Water for Chocolate. 
 
For more information about the OSM, you can visit their website here; for more information on Tafelmusik, you can visit their website here.

The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) has announced a four-year extension of William Eddins’ contract as Music Director. Presently in his fifth season at the helm of the orchestra with one year remaining on his current contract, this extension will see Eddins conducting the ESO through the 2014-2015 season. This partnership, which began in September 2005, will mark a significant and stable period of artistic leadership for Eddins and the ESO. Since the professional establishment of the orchestra in 1952, only one other ESO Music Director reached the 10-year tenure, that being Uri Mayer, who held the position for 13 seasons, from 1981-1994.

Nurhan Arman, Music Director of Sinfonia Toronto, has announced the appointment of Canadian composer Heather Schmidt as the orchestra’s Composer-in-Residence for the 2009-2010 season.  In making the announcement Maestro Arman said, “I am thrilled that Heather Schmidt will be closely involved with us this year. I am looking forward to leading the world premieres of her new Piano Concerto and a Cello Concerto that she is writing for us, and working on many other projects together throughout the season. This appointment re-emphasizes Sinfonia Toronto’s commitment to Canadian composers.”
 
Earlier this week, Executive Director Katherine Carleton presented the first of this year’s Orchestras Canada Betty Webster Awards to Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, at the opening of their Toronto season of concerts.  The festivities continue in October, when award winners Kathy Humphreys (General Manager of the Kamloops Symphony) and Jeff Alexander (President and CEO of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra) will be presented with their awards.  We are proud to salute these leading citizens in the Canadian orchestral community!

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has announced that Jennifer MacDonald will join the TSO Music Department as Artist Liaison/Assistant to Artistic Administration.  Jennifer comes directly to the TSO from Ottawa where, for the past two seasons, she has been Artistic Administrator of the highly successful Ottawa Chamber Music Society.  She holds a Bachelors degree in Music (piano) from Mount Allison and a Masters in Musicology from McGill.

It’s been an exciting time as member orchestras across the country share the details of their season-opening concerts.  Here are a few highlights:
 
Tafelmusik launches its 2009-2010 Toronto season with set of joint concerts with Montreal’s Arion Baroque Orchestra, featuring celebratory music by Jacques Danican Philidor, André Danican Philidor, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Johann Christian Bach and George Frideric Handel (Music for the Royal Fireworks). Leadership duties on the concerts are shared between Tafelmusik Music Director Jeanne Lamon and Dutch cellist and gambist Jaap ter Linden.  Not only will the concert be heard in Toronto, but it will also tour to Quebec the following week.  For more information about Tafelmusik, please visit here;  for more information about Arion, please visit here.

Symphony Nova Scotia kicks off its season with a series of free concerts during its second annual Symphony Week, running Tuesday, September 22 to Sunday, September 27.  The week features Symphony Nova Scotia musicians giving free, live performances at such venues as City Hall, the Spring Garden Road Library, Scotia Square Mall, Citadel High, and the Maritime Museum. Performances will include everything from children’s music to orchestral concerts featuring the entire Symphony – and one highlight among many is a new partnership with the Atlantic Film Festival, wherein the orchestra is teaming up with emerging film composers to perform and record original soundtracks to new Canadian films. Click here for more info.

I Musici de Montreal opens its Downtown Series with a celebration of the 60th anniversary of Jeunesses Musicales du Canada (JMC), featuring a pair of pianists who took part in the Montreal International Musical Competition 2008. Competition winner Nareh Arghamanyan will play Concerto No 2 by Saint-Saëns, Israeli pianist Dorel Golan will interpret the first Concerto by Mendelssohn – and they’ll team up to perform the concerto for two pianos by Mozart. The program will be led by I Musici music director Yuli Turovsky. Click here for more info.  
 
While the National Arts Centre Orchestra actually opened its season in the pit for Opera Lyra’s production of The Magic Flute, the orchestra will formally open its season with the five-concert Romantic Revolution Festival, September 23-October 1.  Four of five festival programs will be led by NACO Music Director Pinchas Zukerman, and concerts will feature guest artists Gil Shaham, Angela Cheng, Lynn Harrell and Katherine Chi, along with guest conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni.  The festival has been designed as a n exploration of the pivotal period in artistic and musical history that marked the emergence of Romanticism, and will range from Haydn to Schumann and Verdi. Each concert opens with a capella musical selections sung by the Cantata Singers of Ottawa led by director Michael Zaugg, and there will also be pre-concert lectures, and a post-concert talkback.  Click here for more info.