Toronto Summer Music Festival wraps up its first week with a series of four “Mentors & Fellows” concerts at Walter Hall on Saturday and Sunday (details here).
ELORA FESTIVAL
Saturday: The highlight of the weekend is Coronation: Crowning Glory at the Gambrel Barn, a multimedia show that includes some fine orchestral and choral music, including the Choral Dances from Gloriana, the opera Benjamin Britten wrote for Elizabeth II’s coronation. The concert begins at 3 p.m.
The Elora Festival continues to Aug. 4. You’ll find all the details here.
MUSIC NIAGARA
Saturday: Fresh from Toronto Summer Music this week, Toronto’s Gryphon Trio plays to the Loyalist pleasures of Niagara-on-the-Lake at St Mark’s Church at 7:30 p.m.
Music Niagara runs to Aug. 11. You’ll find all the details here.
WESTBEN
Saturday: Fans of piano music should try to catch André Laplante at 2 p.m. For a review of this programme, click here.
Sunday: Two operatic veterans — tenor Richard Margison and baritone John Fanning — are going to raise the roof with a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the births of operatic titans Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner, at 2 p.m.
The festival right outside Cambellford founded by Brian Finley and Donna Bennett features a purpose-built post-and-beam barn with walls that swing open to let in the air and sound of nature. Westben runs to Aug. 4. You’ll find all the details here.
STRATFORD SUMMER MUSIC
Opening week continues with Friday’s unveiling of composer R. Murray Schafer’s gorgeous scores at Stratford Public Library and early-morning performances of Music for Wilderness Lake on the Avon. You’ll find the all the details here.
FESTIVAL OF THE SOUND
Tonight: There is an opera gala on Saturday night with some very fine young singers, but the really fun concert is tonight at the Charles Stockey Centre, as Toronto’s excellent Hannaford Street Silver Band plays some Canadian favourites (Godfrey Ridout’s Fall Fair and Howard Cable’s Ontario Pictures) alongside new compositions by Torontonian Kevin Lau. You’ll find all the festival details here.
John Terauds