The University of Toronto Faculty of Music will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Canadian composer Harry Somers with a day-long symposium on September 27, followed by a concert.
The symposium will bring scholars and performers together to examine and explore the works in Somer’s catalogue, including a short recital. Brian Cherney — author of the biography Harry Somers (1975) and editor of Between Composers: The Letters of Norma Beecroft and Harry Somers (2024) — will deliver a keynote talk.
Harry Somers
Harry Stewart Somers was born in Toronto on September 11, 1925. His devotion to music would be sparked when he was in his teens, and he met a married couple who introduced him to classical music. He began studying piano with a neighbourhood teacher at the age of 14, and passed his Grade VIII exam at the Toronto Conservatory just three years later.
Harry studied at the conservatory for a year, but then followed his teacher’s recommendation to put piano studies aside to learn composition with John Weinzweig, a noted Canadian composer who was a strong advocate for new music.
The Second World War took Somers away from music from 1943 until the war ended in 1945, and he served with the Royal Canadian Air Force. When the war ended he returned to the conservatory to study with a new teacher. He also began to write and perform his own works during this period.
In 1949, he won a scholarship to go to Paris and study with Darius Milhaud. There, in addition to composing works such as his suite for harp and orchestra, he was exposed to the music of Boulez and Messiaen, composers who would influence his work.
Somers returned to Canada, and while making a living as a music copyist, he continued to composer. He composed his Symphony No. 1, and took up the guitar. He would return to Paris for more study in the early 1960s, and also took on a part-time career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation hosting youth concerts on TV.
He also worked for the North York school board as he continued to compose and his music gained in popularity and fame. Somers wrote probably his best known work, the opera Louis Riel, in 1967 as a commission by the Canadian Opera Company for Canada’s Centennial Year celebrations.
He became a founding member of the a founding member of the Canadian League of Composers (CLC), and was the first Canadian composer to be made a Companion of the Order of Canada. He won a JUNO Award in 1997 for Best Classical Composition for his recording Picasso Suite.
Harry Somers He developed a distinctive musical language that combined modern elements with techniques and structures of the 18th century. He died in 1999, leaving an extensive legacy of works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, soloists, TV and film. His work was recognized internationally, perhaps more so than in Canada, and continues to be programmed in Canada and in Europe.
Details
The events scheduled during the day will take place in the Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queen’s Park (Room 330)
There will be a free recital at 11:00 a.m. in Walter Hall featuring solo and chamber works, plus choral excerpts from Serinette (1990) performed by Soundstreams Choir 21.
- The recital is open to anyone, but attendance at the symposium is limited to 100, and so registration is required. Registration is open until September 18 [HERE].
The day’s events culminate in a concert by the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Among other pieces, they’ll perform Somers’s Passacaglia and Fugue for Orchestra (1954) at the Tribute Communities Concert Hall, which is located at York University.
Uri Mayer conducts the University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the program includes:
- Benjamin Gabbay: Overture to the Old World (world premiere)
- Harry Somers: Passacaglia and Fugue
- Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 88 in G Major
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, op. 67
Find tickets [HERE]
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