Conductor Martin MacDonald and the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra will celebrate the new season with a concert titled Appalachian Spring on April 19. The varied program ranges from Schumann to Toronto’s own Alexina Louie.
One of the highlights of the event will be a performance by Dayou Kim, a young pianist who took home first prize at the 2024 CCC Toronto International Music Festival Concerto Competition.
We spoke to conductor Martin MacDonald and pianist Michael Berkovsky, Dayou Kim’s instructor at The Taylor Academy about the event.
The Concert
The program for Appalachian Spring includes:
- Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin Suite
- Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana: Intermezzo
- Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54 (1st mvt), Dayou Kim, piano
- Alexina Louie: Music for a Celebration (1990)
- Copland: Appalachian Spring: Suite (1945)
Michael Berkovsky
Canadian-Israeli pianist Michael Berkovsky, Dayou Kim’s instructor, is a Faculty member at The Glenn Gould School and The Taylor Academy at the Royal Conservator, and an award-winning musician. Many of his students have gone on to win competitions and study at the world’s most prominent music schools.
“In the last 15 or 20 years, I’ve shifted my attention to teaching,” Berkovsky explained.
His lessons with Dayou take place at The Taylor Academy. “We have a very talented child,” he says of her.
At The Taylor Academy, he’s working with not only high level students, but world class colleagues. “There’s a lot of high level teachers that moved here,” he notes. “It’s a supportive environment. The RCM, I think it’s he best system out there,” he adds. “It’s a system that has enabled many kids to climb up the ladder.”
He believes the level of talent and technique that he’s experiencing now has, in general, risen over the years.
“My own approach is about 50 percent the piano, and 50 percent a relationship with my students,” he explains.
It’s Toronto’s classical music ecosystem that supports that growth and progress.
“It’s amazing that we have so many orchestras in town,” he says. “Toronto these days is one of the best towns to be a classical musician.”
He points out how many Canadians are out there taking international competitions by storm.
When it comes to coaching his own students for a competition, it’s important to keep the focus on the music, and to help them remember it’s not a life or death situation. “I like to remind kids that it’s not really all about the competition,” he says. He reminds them it’s also about hearing their friends play, and perhaps finding out about new pieces they’d like to tackle.
Dayou Kim began studying piano at the age of six, and is studying with Michael on a full scholarship at The Taylor Academy. She has previously won multiple awards and scholarships, including 2022 The Taylor Academy Concerto Competition.
“Dayou came from Korea I think about five years ago,” Berkovsky says.
Admissions to The Taylor Academy are by audition, and Dayou was one of the top students over the last five years or so.
“She is particularly technically gifted,” Michael says. “I tell her in class sometimes that I’m jealous of her fingers.”
Kim seems to connect with the music on a deep level. “It’s fun for her.”
The Schumann Piano Concerto is one she hasn’t performed before publicly. “It’s kind of a new push for us,” he says. He points out the more mature emotional depth of the work, with its combination of passion and lyricism. “I had her read some of the love letters between Robert and Clara, which always causes some giggles in class,” he says. “I really like what she’s doing with this.”
He’s happy to see her performing with CBSO. “It’s great to see the new generation of audience [members] and musicians.”
Dayou Kim performs Chopin’s Scherzo No. 4 in E Major, Op. 54 in July 2024:
Martin MacDonald, Music Director
“This is our second year that we’ve been in partnership with the Toronto International Music Festival,” notes Music Director Martin MacDonald.
MacDonald has been a member of the judging panel for the Festival’s concerto competition, and it comes with a perk.
“I would have the opportunity to choose a soloist,” he explains. “It’s really nice, the level is really high — really talented students. They run a pretty great festival.”
It’s held at the same venue where CBSO holds their concerts: the PC Ho Theatre at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto.
Appalachian Spring takes place on the Easter weekend, with the concert scheduled as a matinee. The occasion also influenced the program of uplifting music.
“We wanted to pick really fresh and inspiring music,” Martin explains. “With the Copland and the Ravel, especially, there are some really wonderful solo opportunities.” Inspiring beauty is a common thread. “There’s a running theme through there.”
Maurice Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin is the composer’s homage to French Baroque music. Martin points out that Ravel wrote the work, and its gorgeous melodies, to commemorate the friends he’d lost to WWI.
Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, a one-act opera, is a story that takes place over the Easter weekend in Sicily.
Dayou Kim’s performance matches the tone of the other works.
“The Schumann fits nicely. The first movement is a really nicely contained 15 minute piece on its own,” he says. It’s also a nice showcase for the pianist.
“Appalachian Spring is the longest work,” he notes. CBSO will be performing the full orchestral version of the piece, which Copland created after the more typically performed 13-instrument version.
“There’s something really special about it. There’s moments that you get a really full, lush sound that’s really satisfying for the audience and the musicians,” he says. “It really adds a nice flavour to the sound of the work.” It’s also, as he points out, quite challenging to perform.
Alexina Louie’s celebratory work fits into the mood. “We put Canadian repertoire in every program.”
“A nice kind of start anew, a fresh take on the programming,” MacDonald says. That’s without making it thematic per se. “It’s a collection of pieces that really work well together.”
The mix keeps it interesting. “It’s important with a community orchestra it’s really about exploring different sounds and time periods. It’s also really great to do programs outside the overture, concerto, symphony format.” Adding more pieces to the program is a different experience for the orchestra as well. “You have to be able to pivot from one piece to the next.”
- Find more details and tickets for the April 19 performance of Appalachian Spring [HERE].
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