Composer, conductor and pianist Dinuk Wijeratne, who moved to Toronto last year from Halifax, had his musical sensibility awakened by Claudio Abbado, who died on Jan. 20.

 

Tapestry lands a rare handmade 9.5-foot Imperial Bösendorfer, and pays it forward with a planned disaster relief concert.

The cover subject of Issue #115, which was launched with the new site, is veteran avant-gardist Akio Suzuki. The story is available online, as is an audio sample of his work — a feature that used to be available only by getting the CD that still comes with a printed copy of each issue.

The three-storey building, clad in white corrugated metal and dotted with stripey splashes of colour is unprepossessing among the new glass condo buildings sprouting up along Dundas St East, but the anonymous exterior belies the riches within.

The musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra show their gratitude by awarding two key supporters as "Honorary Musicians".

The period-instrument orchestra has been based at the multipurpose building — erected in 1889 as a Methodist church — since 1981.

French director/designer Laurent Pelly has staged a wonderfully whimsical new production of Cendrillon — Jules Massenet’s  imaginatively rich setting of Charles Perrault’s take on the Cinderella fairy tale premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1899.

The six performances are to take place between June 20 and July 6, 2013. Cinemas around the world that screen Royal Opera productions will get a chance to show the June 24 performance.

Here’s a little smile, courtesy of the 2012 National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain: