The rehearsals are done, the venues dusted off and the stagelight bulbs are new as music festivals within driving distance of Toronto kick into action tonight and this weekend. Here are the highlights:
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
To accompany the weekend’s highlights, I’ve found a pleasant soundtrack: Kesäfanfaari (Summer Fanfare), a fresh piece by Finnish organist Marko Hakanpää. Here he is at the gallery organ at St Michael’s Church in Turku, Finland:
ELORA FESTIVAL
Tonight: Few choral works define a Bigger is Better mantra than Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem — a way to send off the dead in grand-operatic style. The festival singers and orchestra (longtime collaborators shared with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir) as well as four operatic Canadian soloists — soprano Yannick-Muriel Noah, mezzo Anita Krause, tenor David Pomeroy and bass Robert Pomakov — perform in the Gambrel Barn under festival founder and artistic director Noel Edison tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday: Attention Brahms lovers, the excellent New Zealand String Quartet presents both of the Op. 51 String Quartets on the same programme at St John’s Church.
Sunday: It’s two great choral works by George Frideric Handel at St John’s Church at 2 p.m., followed by soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra at the Gambrel Barn at 4 p.m. It’s an odd programme of Philip Glass paired with Bayrakdarian singing an arrangement of Maurice Ravel’s Kaddisch by Serouj Kradjian.
The Elora Festival continues to Aug. 4. You’ll find all the details here.
MUSIC NIAGARA
Tonight: Although this year’s music festival in Shawville, um, I mean Niagara-on-the-Lake, had an early start, the official opening concert features Ireland’s chrossover-ey Anúna choir at St Mark’s Church at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday: Canada’s Mr Beethoven, Stewart Goodyear, takes over St Mark’s Church with two well-loved Sonatas (Opp. 26 & 57) and is joined by cellist Rachel Mercer, festival director, Toronto Symphony Orchestra violinist Atis Bankas and a chamber orchestra in a performance of the Triple Concerto at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday: Bankas teams up with Lithuanian organist Jurate Bundzaite in a programme of music new and old packaged as “Music of 1812,” at St Mark’s Church, at noon.
Music Niagara runs to Aug. 11. You’ll find all the details here.
WESTBEN
The festival right outside Cambellford founded by Brian Finley and Donna Bennett gets an early start. This is a weekend of light fare, with the highlight being a visit by tenor Colin Ainsworth, who sings a Scottish-themed programme of songs folky, arty and showtune-y on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Westben runs to Aug. 4. You’ll find all the details here.
LEITH SUMMER FESTIVAL
At 200 km from Toronto, the village near Owen Sound pushes the boundaries of the day trip, but the second of the festival’s four concerts curated by Robert Kortgaard promises a stimulating mix of old and new as flutist Susan Hoeppner teams up with percussionist Beverley Johnston.
All concerts take place in Leith’s little shoebox church on Saturdays. This one starts at 7:30 p.m. The final concert is on Aug. 24. You’ll find all the details here.
[late addition]WATERSIDE SUMMER SERIES
After I posted this, Peter Tiefenbach tweeted me regarding what looks like a particularly fine concert on Saturday way out on Amherst Island, near Kingston.
The second of five concerts at St Alban’s Church features two of Toronto’s finest singers — mezzo Krisztina Szabó and baritone Alexander Dobson in a programme piano accompanists Tiefenbach and Robert Kortgaard have entitled “In Two — Love & Sex from Both Sides in Song.”
You’ll find the festival’s website here (which says the male singer in Saturday’s programme is Geoffrey Sirrett.)
COMING UP
- Stratford Summer Music‘s opening night, complete with fireworks atop the Avon, is Monday. At six weeks, this is the province’s longest-duration festival. Details here.
- At about 250 km from downtown Toronto, the Festival of the Sound is the furthest away, but closest to embodying music in a Group of Seven Canadian Shield landscape. It gets underway on July 18, running to Aug. 11. Details here.
- For those happy to enjoy what the city has so offer and eschew the glorious season we call construction, Toronto Summer Music launches at Koerner Hall on July 16, running to Aug. 3. I’ll have more on this in a few days. You’ll find all the festival details here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
