The most significant concert presenter in this city outside the Toronto Symphony Orchestra is Nina Draganic, the unheralded doyenne of the Canadian Opera Company’s annual 10-months of free concerts at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.
The new season kicks off at lunchtime on Sept. 18, with a concert by the COC’s Ensemble Studio and will run its combination of classical, jazz, world and new music, dance and lecture concerts through to the end of June.
In total, the COC says more than 400 individual artists will take part in the total of 77 concert dates. As was the case last year, the chamber music sub-series is being curated by COC music director Johannes Debus.
Every professional performer gets paid, even through the concerts are free to the public. It was an unbreakable condition imposed by late COC general director Richard Bradshaw when he dreamt of free community concerts during the planning of the Four Seasons Centre, and the company has managed to stick to it, even though the next year’s money supply has not always been guaranteed over the course of the economic turmoil in recent years.
For all the details on this year’s season, click here.
John Terauds