{"id":28578,"date":"2015-05-21T19:10:14","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T23:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=28578"},"modified":"2016-03-26T18:08:09","modified_gmt":"2016-03-26T22:08:09","slug":"scrutiny-21c-festival-openner-one-grand-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2015\/05\/21\/scrutiny-21c-festival-openner-one-grand-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | 21C Festival Openner One Grand Experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Copeland-Parker\"
Stewart Copeland and Jon Kimura Parker open RCM’s 21C Music Festival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

21C Festival, Stewart Copeland, Jon Kimura Parker and others. Koerner Hall, Wednesday May 20.<\/i><\/h3>\n

[Orininaly published in the Toronto Star<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Yesterday marked the start of the second year of the Royal Conservatory of Music\u2019s 21C Music Festival<\/a>. The festival runs for five busy days, and opened with an innovative collaboration between ex-Police Drummer Stewart Copeland<\/a>, pianist Jon Kimura Parker<\/a> and others.<\/p>\n

While Copeland is perhaps best known as the former drummer of The Police, his career has continued to flourish. Instead of turning to real estate or selling insurance in Florida, he reinvented himself as a composer for the screen and stage. His post-Police career credits include countless Hollywood film scores, an opera for the Cleveland Opera Company, and ballets for the San Francisco Ballet and Ballet Oklahoma. In other words: lemons to lemonade.<\/p>\n

Aptly titled\u00a0Of the Score<\/i>, the festival opener featured the quintet converging between the written score and improvised music \u2013 a home Copeland happily resides. The line-up was impressive, and besides\u00a0Copeland and\u00a0Jon Kimura\u00a0Parker, featured MET Opera violinist Yoon Kwon, EVI (electronic valve instrumentalist) Judd Miller and a young bassist Marlon Martinez.<\/p>\n

The evening flew by with classically tinged works that numbered twelve, plus an encore. Copeland mentioned that anyone who could name the encore would win a trip on the band\u2019s private jet. Parker interjected, \u201cbut we don\u2019t have a jet\u2026\u201d Rock & Roll excess is a hard habit to break.<\/p>\n

Like a scene from the Glastonbury Festival, the spectacle started with Copeland walking out on stage with his drumsticks held high above his head. The other musicians followed suit, eager to let loose and have fun.<\/p>\n

Anchored by a Marshal Stack sitting centre stage, standouts included Copeland\u2019s\u00a0Celeste<\/i>, which was the most cohesive of the bunch. What was\u00a0unique was\u00a0Copeland\u2019s\u00a0emphasis on the groove, rather than a typical percussive backbone. His signature snare sound was high-pitched and strident. With a traditional grip, the hi-hat filled in the gaps alongside many tasteful flourishes.<\/p>\n

\"Violinist
Violinist Yoon Kwon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Violinist Yoon Kwon<\/a> (playing amplified throughout) seemed to be the violin equivalent of the lead singer. Though she was charismatic and had technique in spades, she sometimes got lost in the many improvisatory climaxes that had the lady sitting in front of me slinking down in her seat. Despite the a few minor balance issues, Koerner Hall handled the decibels in stride.<\/p>\n

The second highlight was an innovative arrangement of Stravinsky\u2019s Suite from\u00a0The Rite of Spring<\/i>\u00a0by Jon Kimura Parker. It opened with Judd Miller playing a solo on the EVI (a device that looks suspiciously like a breathalyzer). He evoked a\u00a0collage\u00a0flutes tinged with melodies including a quote from\u00a0Every Breath You Take<\/i>. Copeland looked on with a proud grin from the stool of his drum kit.<\/p>\n

Reminiscent of the Bad Plus, they burst into a period of thumping and scowling chords that had just about everyone\u2019s attention. Jon Kimura Parker grounded the ensemble with a perpetual motion that sewed the harmonies and instrumental voices into a dense tapestry. This wasn\u2019t your typical\u00a0Rite of Spring<\/i>, but the energy was there.<\/p>\n

So was this Jazz or classical? I would say neither.\u00a0But who cares what you call it, as long as it feels right. It was more about the unique combination of the musical personalities that made the night a success. The point is exploration, which the 21C Music Festival has made its forte.<\/p>\n

The 21C Music Festival runs May 21-24<\/a>.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? Get our exclusive newsletter\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a><\/span> for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stewart Copeland and Jon Kimura Parker join forces during the opening night of RCM’s 21C Music Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[118,19,32,38,52],"tags":[4498,1774,4889,5453],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/05\/Copeland-Parker.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-7qW","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28578"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28650,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28578\/revisions\/28650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28578"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=28578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}