The 114th Concert Season (2011-2012)

The 2011-2012 series once again demonstrates attention to the values that have allowed Music in the Afternoon to thrive for so long and reach new heights in the audience's concert experience.
Simon Fryer, WMCT Artistic Director

The 114th season opens with:

WEILERSTEIN TRIO
BARRY SHIFFMAN, viola
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2011, 1.30 p.m
Walter Hall, U of T

The Weilerstein Trio – Donald, Vivian, and their daughter Alisa – gave its first performance when Alisa was but six years old. Since then the trio has gained a wide and diverse following, performing at major venues in the United States and making its London debut in 2004 at the Royal Academy of Music. Performances are frequently broadcast and recordings of Dvorak, Janacek/Coxe, and Schumann trios have received rave reviews. The parents are senior figures in the American musical establishment: both hold faculty positions at the New England Conservatory in Boston and as performers are welcomed around the world. Alisa is one of the most sought after soloists of her generation. The results of this combination of familial understanding and generational perspective are spectacular.

The trio will be joined by Barry Shiffman, an accomplished performer, an associate dean at The Royal Conservatory of Music, and director of the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

"…passion is the hallmark of the Weilersteins’ playing."

Programme:
Dvorak - Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 90, "Dumky"
Charles Ives - Trio (1910)
Dvorak - Piano Quartet in D Major, Op.23, No.1

ROBERT AITKEN, flute
SIMON FRYER, cello
WALTER DELAHUNT, piano
THURSDAY< OCTOBER 27, 2011, 1.30 p.m.
Walter Hall, U of T

Robert Aitken is a driving force behind the development of Canadian music. He is artistic director of Toronto’s New Music Concerts, an organization he founded 40 years ago, and is known internationally as performer, professor, and composer. Early in his career he received support from the WMCT, and since has received a dazzling array of awards, including the Order of Canada and most recently the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts. Robert Aitken brings long-time collaborator pianist Walter Delahunt – a wonderful artist of broad and distinguished experience – and WMCT artistic director Simon Fryer in a programme including works by Haydn, Weber, Alice Ho, and a specially commissioned work for flute and cello by the dynamic Chris Paul Harman.

"A masterly force in the world of contemporary Canadian music..."
Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts

Programme:
Haydn - Trio No. 31 in G Major
Alice Ho - Cothurnus (2002)
Max Meyer-Olbersleben - Fantasie- Sonate, Op. 17
Philippe Gaubert - Trio Aquarelles
Chris Paul Harman - World premire of WMCT Commissioned work for flute and cello: Sonatine
Carl Maria von Weber - Trio in G Minor, Op.63, J259

ADRIANNE PIECZONKA, soprano
STEPHEN RALLS, piano
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2011, 1.30 p.m.
Walter Hall, U of T

The stunning and dramatic Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka needs no introduction. Hailed by the Daily Telegraph "her beauty of tone that can bloom into radiance or shrink to a whisper, " she performs on leading opera and concert stages throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. In 2007 she became an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community, and service to the nation. Earlier in the same year, she was named a Kammersängerin by the Austrian government. The title, originally bestowed by the royal courts, is awarded to distinguished singers who have made a significant contribution to the arts in Austria. Adrianne Pieczonka began her career at the Canadian Opera Company, later joined the Vienna Volksoper and the Vienna Staatsoper, firmly establishing her career in Europe. Her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the United Kingdom elicited an immediate return invitation. Adrianne Pieczonka now makes her home in Toronto. She will be accompanied by distinguished pianist Stephen Ralls, co-artistic director of The Aldeburgh Connection, in a programme of art song and opera arias.

"The luminous Adrianne Pieczonka..." l'Unità

Programme:
Phidylé- Henri Duparc
Le Manoir de Rosamonde - Duparc
Lamento - Duparc
La Vie anterieure - Duparc
Song cycle "Allegory of Sweet Desire" - John Greer
Tatyana's Letter Scene from “Eugene Onegin” - Tchaikovsky
Ritorna, vincitor from "Aida" - Verdi
Surta e la notte, Elvira's aria from "Ernani" - Verdi

ROGER CHASE, viola
MICHIKO OTAKI, piano
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2012, 1.30 p.m.
Walter Hall, U of T

Violist Roger Chase, in duo recital with pianist Michiko Otaki, offers a programme that has grown out of his Tertis Project – a determination to perform and record the enormous wealth of music commissioned, or adapted, for the instrument, by the great Lionel Tertis. Sonatas by Delius commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth. Sonatas by Ireland commemorate the 50th anniversary of his death. Music by Brahms is included ensuring that this recital will be a significant and spectacular event. Studies at the Royal College of Music with Bernard Shore and in Canada with Steven Staryk, led to work with the legendary Tertis himself, whose famed Montagnana viola Roger Chase now plays. He has performed and taught at numerous festivals in the United States, as well as in Japan, Italy, France, and The Netherlands. He teaches at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

Roger Chase’s regular duo partner Michiko Otaki is Director of Keyboard Studies at Clayton State University in Atlanta and has performed at major venues in the United States and around the world.

"The music was brought to life by the outstanding expressive eloquence of
Roger Chase's playing." Sunday Times, London

Programme:
John Ireland (arr. Lionel Tertis) - Sonata No.2 in A Minor for violin and piano
York Bowen - Melody for the C-String No.2 in F Major for viola and piano, Op.51
Frederick Delius - (arr. Lionel Tertis) - Violin Sonata No.3, Rtviii/10
Johann Sebastian Bach (arr. Zoltán Kodály) - Chromatic Fantasia and Fuge in D Minor for piano, BWV.903
Johannes Brahms - Sonata No.2 in A Major for violin and piano, Op.100

CECILIA STRING QUARTET
THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2012, 1.30 p.m.
Walter Hall, U of T

One of Canada's most exciting young ensembles, the Cecilia String Quartet won First Prize at the 2010 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the first Canadian group to do so since the St. Lawrence Quartet in 1992. The group is at present Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and also Quartet in Residence of Jeunesses Musicales du Canada. Cellist Rachel Desoer won the WMCT/WMCT Foundation Summer Music Scholarship at The Banff Centre in 2009. These four young women have been praised for "extraordinary commitment and maturity " (Montréal Gazette). Devoted to teaching and outreach they have presented educational programmes at elementary and high schools across the United States, Canada, and France. In 2009 the ensemble began a large scale project BLiM - Breathing Life into Music, a month long Odyssée residency in France which culminated in the performce of two quartets by Théodore Dubois that had been lost for the past century, as well as a new piece written for them by American composer Liam Wade. This is a stunning group with a very bright future.

"…one of those rare performances that announces the presence of great talent. "
St Petersburg Times


Concert Sponsor: Women's Musical Club of Toronto Foundation

Programme:
String Quartet No. 16 K 428 in E Flat - W.A. Mozart
String Quartet, Op. 108, No. 7 - Dmitri Shostakovich
Commedia dell'arte - Ana Sokolovic
I Crisantemi - Giacomo Puccini
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135, No. 16 - Ludwig Van Beethoven

All artists and programmes are subject to change without notice.