The Canadian Opera Company have announced five participants to the 2017 COC Orchestra Academy – a three-week training program established to provide musicians with professional training in an opera orchestra.

Downes is coming to Gallery 345 on Jan. 13 with 13 Ways of Looking at the Goldberg, and from what I’ve been listening to of this cycle, as interpreted by Downes, this is a remarkable and provocative program.

“Had the Music and Beyond chairs been discovered during Gould’s lifetime, he almost certainly would have welcomed having a chair identical to The Chair in its original, more comfortable version,” says the press release.

The presence of four all-professional orchestras draws a lot of great musicians to the city. They, in turn, encourage others, through networking and teaching, which creates a cycle of growth and renewal that feeds the growth of other orchestras and ensembles, and makes for a flourishing chamber-music as well as symphonic culture.

Around this time last year, Opera Hamilton made the announcement that due to a lack of funding, it was closing its doors for good. It wasn’t the first time Hamilton has lost an opera company. Opera Hamilton’s predecessor, Opera Ontario, went bankrupt in 2008, and despite moving from Hamilton Place to the Dofasco Theatre —(a smaller venue designed to cut costs) it wasn’t enough to balance the books...

Announced today, the jury members will include be David Agler (Canada); conductor Richard Bonynge (Australia); opera administrator and artistic consultant Brian Dickie (England); tenor Ben Heppner (Canada); baritone Wolfgang Holzmair (Austria); mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne (United States); bass Joseph Rouleau (Canada); mezzo-soprano Birgitta Svendén (Sweden) and soprano Deborah Voigt (United States).

The New Creations Festival, which comes up every March, is perhaps the most obvious example of an organization playing it safe. It welcomes back popular American composer John Adams as its marquee guest in 2014.

ELORA FESTIVAL

American children’s author Maurice Sendak died this morning in Danbury, Conn., aged 83, from complications following a stroke he suffered on Friday, according to longtime caretaker Lynn Caponera.

Three of the 18 winners are are from Toronto — but, like so many of the 28 finalists in the instrument competition, living or studying abroad.