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By Tyler Versluis on February 5, 2015
The month of February provides a handful of new music experiences to beat the cold weather. Three out of four concert recommendations involve out-of-town ensembles, while jazz-contemporary classical group Spectrum Music gives us an opportunity to contemplate the cosmos- anything to distract Torontonians from trudging through rivers of grey slush on our way to a TTC stop...
(Continue reading)By Paul E. Robinson on February 5, 2015
Telluride, Colorado – My wife and I spend the winter months in Austin, Texas, for the most part, and count ourselves fortunate to be able to avoid the bitter cold and pesky blizzards that beset so much of our native Canada between November and April. Occasionally, however, we succumb to an irrational longing to “enjoy” the romance of winter once again. So it was that we accepted an invitation to spend a week in Telluride, Colorado, one of the skiing capitals of North America, with my brother-in-law and his wife...
(Continue reading)By Michael Vincent on February 4, 2015
Musical Toronto’s weekly Critic’s Picks are a fully curated list of some of the best concerts happening now through the end of the week. Of course this is not to say we are the provocateurs of taste, but simply seek to provide a good weekly summary. For a look at the full breadth of what’s available in and around Toronto, check out the comprehensive concert listings from our friends at Wholenote Magazine...
(Continue reading)By Michael Vincent on February 4, 2015
Since Jeanne Lamon stepped down as music director in 2014, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir have been busy stoking the fire until a new successor can be found. They have instituted Interim Managing Director Alexandra Skoczylas, and a Music Director search committee, consisting of musicians, board members, administrative staff, and community representatives, to search both nationally and internationally to identify possible candidates. Until then, Jeanne Lamon is keeping a close eye on things, and will perform with the orchestra for select Toronto and touring programmes leading up to the appointment of a new Music Director...
(Continue reading)By Jenna Douglas on February 3, 2015
In the last few weeks, a recurring topic has come up among my artist friends. The crux of the issue can actually be boiled down to one question: are you still an artist if you can't survive on your artist income?...
(Continue reading)By Robin Roger on February 3, 2015
In Woody Allen’s film, The Purple Rose of Cairo, the heroine’s world is turned upside down when the matinée idol from the movie she is watching steps from the screen and enters her life. Recently I reversed Allen’s plot device by stepping into a film, when I travelled to New York City to have a piano lesson with Seymour Bernstein, the subject of a new documentary by Ethan Hawke: Seymour, An Introduction...
(Continue reading)By Neil Crory on February 2, 2015
On Saturday, January 31, the Canadian Opera Company officially launched the revival of its lauded 2006 production of Richard Wagner's epic Ring Cycle with seven performances of Die Walküre at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The production runs through February 22nd...
(Continue reading)By Robin Roger on February 2, 2015
Presumably, the theme for the Feb 1 Syrinx Chamber Music Concert, “Passion, Possibility, and Pleasure” was chosen to dispel some of the deep winter gloom with which music patrons struggle, including the inertia that makes coming to the concert hall a challenge in itself. Passion is warm, pleasure is consoling and both can make these dark days seem endurable, and the possibility of a better season believable. Gathering in the intimate space of Helicon Hall can further create the sense of a community of like-minded music lovers huddling together to warm their spirits by listening to beautiful expressions of anticipation of brighter and happier days...
(Continue reading)By Michael Vincent on February 2, 2015
What if composers had different first names? Our friends at the Composers with Different First Names tumblr wondered just that. In an act of revisionist history, they dubbed Mozart, a "Jeff". Donizetti, a "Ryan". The internet grows stranger everyday...
(Continue reading)By Michael Vincent on January 31, 2015
Since announcing his retirement from the stage last April, (due to an "unreliability" in his voice), Canadian tenor, Ben Heppner seemed content with maintaining his role as announcer for CBC II's radio program “Backstage with Ben Happner”. But the question remained – what of his singing? Is that really it?
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