BREAKING NEWS: Orchestra London Silenced

By Michael Vincent on December 9, 2014

According to AM 980, Orchestra London has confirmed that the seventy-seven year-old orchestra will cease operations effective Tuesday, 16 December 2014. The planed closure is due to a massive budget shortfall, to the tune of nearly half a million dollars...

THE SCOOP | Toronto Integral House Founder James Stewart Dies at Age 73

By Michael Vincent on December 4, 2014

CRITIC’S PICKS | 11 Things You Absolutely Must Do This Week

By Michael Vincent on December 3, 2014

THE VOICE | Gianandrea Noseda Tells All

By Neil Crory on December 3, 2014

The dynamic Italian conductor, Gianandrea Noseda, needs little introduction to Torontonians. Since his local debut in April 2002, he has conducted nearly a dozen programmes with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. For his upcoming appearance, however, Noseda is bringing his own orchestra and chorus from the Teatro Regio Torino in Italy, together with twelve soloists for a single, not-to-be-missed performance of Rossini's epic William Tell (or, more appropriately, Guglielmo Tell).

THE CLASSICAL TRAVELER | Gounod: Faust (DVD Review)

By Paul E. Robinson on November 17, 2014

One might be forgiven for thinking that the strong Canadian presence in this performance is the key to its success. Baritone Russell Braun and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin are both in top form. And director Des McAnuff, formerly the artistic director of the Stratford Festival, has produced a fresh and powerful interpretation of Gounod’s perennial favourite.

REVIEW | A near-perfect blending of music, poetry and whimsy

By Michael Vincent on November 8, 2014

In a 1950s interview with Robert Craft, Igor Stravinsky was asked to give his opinion about the use of music as accompaniment to recitation. His response: “Do not ask, sins cannot be undone, only forgiven.” Despite Stravinsky’s misgivings, the Art of Time Ensemble (whose aim is to go beyond the classical repertoire) opened its 15th season on Friday night, with a fascinating and varied look at how music and the written word have collided and intersected throughout the ages. Following a series of recited poems, sung poems, tone poems, poets as musicians and musicals inspired by poetry, it was a variety show approach that rapidly swung back and forth from light entertainment to deeply affecting music...

SCHMOPERA | On Pianists, Those Vicarious Opera Singers

By Jenna Douglas on October 9, 2014

SCHMOPERA | Opera, The Inside Job

By Jenna Douglas on October 1, 2014

INTRODUCING | A New Expanded Musical Toronto

By Michael Vincent on October 1, 2014

FITS & BURSTS | Toy Piano Composers Open a Quirky Pandora’s Box

By Michael Vincent on September 23, 2014

The Toy Piano Composers turned seven last weekend. To celebrate, they treated an audience to a program of chamber music based on the premise of integrating homemade/invented instruments. It was an evening full of whispers, creaks, rustles, hums, crackles, and rubbing. The turnout was good, and even the Music Gallery’s exceedingly uncomfortable pews didn’t detour a wholehearted gathering...