This is a list of concerts we are attending, wishing we could attend, or thinking about attending between November 11 and 17, 2024. For more of what’s happening around Toronto, visit our calendar here.
Trinity Bach Project: Bach & Roses
Wednesday, November 13, 8 p.m. Grace Church on-the-hill; Sunday, November 17, 3 p.m.
Metropolitan United Church. Pay-what-you-wish.
Trinity Bach Project opens its third year with BWV 72 Alles nur nach Gottes Willen (“Everything according to God’s will”), a cantata based on the acknowledgement, acceptance, and willingness to carry the difficult times in our hearts, with courage that comes from staunch faith: perhaps a prescient choice for many as we face another year-end full of uncertainty and troubling thoughts. With twelve excellent singers, five strings and baroque woodwinds- recorder and oboes, this is a great chance to hear the complexity and flexibility of a mid-sized chamber ensemble. The parallel between the voice set with lovely timbre of baroque oboes and recorder, is a sweet-sounding combination, and would make it a great first exposure for many who may have not heard Bach’s smaller choral works live in two of the most lovely acoustic spaces in Toronto. Info here.
Music Toronto: Miró Quartet
Thursday, November 14, 7:30 p.m.
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Jane Mallett Theatre. $20+
The Miró quartet is coming to Toronto as part of their 3-days Ontario tour, bringing the perennial favourites: Haydn’s very last quartet, and easily considered the best of the French chamber music: Debussy quartet. Since 1995, Miró has been busy making their mark, including winning the Banff International and the Naumberg competition, and becoming the first ensemble to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant. CAROLINE SHAW? The group’s musicality and technical mastery is a joy to attend to, especially in the intimacy of the Jane Mallett Theatre. Read our Preview here. Info here.
Confluence Concerts: Robert Burns: A Passion for Freedom
Friday November 15, 7:30 p.m., Saturday November 16, 7:30 p.m.
Heliconian Hall, $30
The ever curious Alison Mackay, a musician and a master navigator of entangled world of music, history, and all things that are human, is well-known for her multifaceted work with Tafelmusik, including the Galileo Project and House of Dreams, received with rave reviews internationally. She brings her cross-cultural view of Robert Burns to intimate Heliconian Hall this evening. What rdoes Robert Burn, a fierce voice of Scotland, have in common with Frederick Douglass, the African-American orator and abolitionist, along with the ever-popular spiritual mysticism of Rabindranath Tagore, and Tayisa Khryplyva, currently holding the torch bright for Ukraine’s children in midst of a war? Come and find out how our human drive for freedom connects us through different times, places, and stories. Info here.
Freesound Presents: Music for Piano Quartet II
Friday, November 15, 8 p.m., Sunday, November 17: 3 p.m.
Array Space, 155 Walnut Avenue.$22.63, or Pay-what-you-wish
A short and intense program of piano quartets of our times. All three works: to gwen, with love (2021) by Georgia Denha, Baba O’Riley (2022) by Michael Oesterle, and Chronochromatic Variations II (2024) by Laure M. Hiendl, are written within the current decade, and to experience such fresh works live is genuinely a curious experience. What are we speaking, and what of, are we speaking? When we say current, do we agree? Is it possible to define such images, or are we simply too close to ourselves? Such questions cannot be answered in solitude — come and experience these works played by the four players, who’ve been digging deep and consistently in Toronto’s contemporary scene: Aysel Taghi-Zada, Matthew Antal, Amahl Arulanandam, and Wesley Shen. Info here.
Viano Quartet with MILOŠ
Sunday November 17, 3 p.m.
Koerner Hall, $50+
Though many people love classical guitar, it’s surprisingly rare to hear guitarists on stage in major stages of our city. So, to hear MILOŠ, known for his mega popular 2011 album with Deutsche Grammophon album: Mediterraneo, on Koerner Hall with Viano Quartet, is a great way to explore this intricate and delicate soundscape, in true variety of styles, ranging from baroque, all the way up to Broadway and the Beatles. A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon, before the whole end-of-the-year frenzy totally takes over. Info here.
Aga Khan Museum: Kintsugi: Flamenco with Healing Featuring Farruquito
Sunday November 17, 7:30 p.m.
St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Bluma Appel Theatre, $72+
The week-long Duende Flamenco festival at the Aga Khan Museum arrives this Sunday downtown with its final concert, Kintsugi, with the amazing Farruquito. An Aga Khan Museum commission, Farruquito, the third-generation Flamenco artist, and his musicians, have put together a stunning presentation, with additional forces Ángel Rojas, artistic director, and media artist Victor Tomé. Come to experience the passion and infectious drive of the Gitano world — it’s always amazing to see how music, a medium that lives briefly through time, shares so much with another ephemeral world — of dance. Info here.
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