The 113th Concert Season (2010-2011)

The 2010-2011 series demonstrates attention to the core values that have made Music in the Afternoon so successful yet reaches for new heights in the WMCT concert experience.
Simon Fryer, WMCT Artistic Director

The 113th season opens with:

LIVIA SOHN, violin
GEOFF NUTTALL, violin & viola
STEPHEN PRUTSMAN, piano
OCTOBER 14, 2010, 1.30 p.m.
Walter Hall, U of T

Violinist Livia Sohn has been hailed by Opus Magazine as “a stunning musician”, and performs widely on the international stage. The WMCT is particularly fortunate that Ms Sohn will be joined for her appearance by well-known violinist Geoff Nuttall of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and versatile pianist Stephen Prutsman. All three of these exceptional artists are feature on Ms Sohn’s recently released Naxos disc, Opera Fantasies, and Ms Sohn and her illustrious guests will bring a dazzling programme that includes elements from this disc, unusual works for two violins (and violin and viola), and Richard Strauss’ monumental sonata for violin and piano.

“Livia Sohn possesses a remarkably lithe and transparent tone of exceptional purity. [Her] virtually blemishless accounts…are nothing short of remarkable. Even when under the most fearsome technical pressure at high velocity, every note rings true with pinpoint accuracy.”
Strad Magazine

JAMES CAMPBELL, clarinet
NEW ZEALAND STRING QUARTET
PAUL STEWART, piano
NOVEMBER 25, 2010, 1.30 p.m.
Walter Hall, U of T

Clarinetist James Campbell is one of Canada’s most established and decorated musicians. He has performed in most of the world's major concert halls and with over 50 orchestras including the London Symphony, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and the Russian Philharmonic. James Campbell has followed his muse to five television specials, more than 40 recordings, more than 30 works commissioned, a Juno Award, the Roy Thomson Hall Award, Canada's Artist of the Year, the Order of Canada, and most recently The Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal. For the last 25 years he has been artistic director of the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound. Mr. Campbell brings friends the New Zealand String Quartet and Canadian pianist Paul Stewart for a programme of Brahms, Mozart, and new works by Phil Nimmons and Timothy Corlis. Phil Nimmons is of course Canada’s "godfather" of the jazz world, and Timothy Corlis is the recipient of this year’s WMCT commission, a quintet for Mr. Campbell and the NZSQ.

"Canada's pre-eminent clarinetist and wind soloist" Toronto Star

DARRETT ZUSKO, piano
WMCT Career Development Award Winner
FEBRUARY 10, 2011, 1.30 p.m.
Walter Hall, U of T

Still in his early twenties and rapidly establishing himself as one of the most exciting young artists of the new generation, Canadian pianist Darrett Zusko continues to garner much critical acclaim wherever he performs. “Clearly a phenom…” raved The Cincinnati Enquirer. He has been lauded for his “powerful technique and sonority” (La Presse) and his “exceptional musicality and virtuosity” (La Nueva España). Mr. Zusko is fast becoming one of Canada’s most sought-after soloists. He will perform a programme in tribute to Franz Liszt on this the 200th anniversary of that Romantic icon’s birth. Darrett Zhusko is winner of the 2009 WMCT Career Development Award.

Concert Sponsor: WMCT Centennial Foundation

AVIV STRING QUARTET
MARCH 10, 2011, 1.30 p.m.
Walter Hall, U of T

The dynamic Aviv String Quartet will be presented in a programme including Schubert’s masterful G major quartet. The Aviv Quartet is a multiple award winning ensemble that performs at leading venues throughout the world. Now recording for Naxos the quartet's repertoire comprises approximately 100 works, from Haydn to contemporary composers. The quartet originated in Israel (as the name suggests) and the cellist is now Canadian Rachel Mercer, a past WMCT scholarship winner who recently won the use of Canada Council Bonjour Stradivari. The quartet will also give a master class at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, sponsored by the WMCT.

"honesty and integrity of interpretation at the highest level" Mozarteum Saltzburg

RUSSELL BRAUN, baritone
PENTAÈDRE WIND QUINTET
JOSEPH PETRIC, accordion
APRIL 14, 2011, 1.30 p.m.
Walter Hall, U of T

Canadian superstar baritone Russell Braun – a past WMCT scholarship winner and no stranger to the WMCT stage – appears in a unique collaboration with Montreal wind quintet Pentaèdre and accordionist extraordinaire Joseph Petric. This stellar collection of artists will perform Schubert’s Die Winterreise in the remarkable arrangement by Pentaèdre’s Normand Forget. A subtle yet astonishing approach to Schubert’s seminal work, which the composer would no doubt enthusiastically approve!

"A searching musician, Braun has one of the world's most beautiful baritone voices.
He brings a poet's soul and a young man's bewildered grief to Schubert's shattering
cycle of solitude and loss."
New York Newsday

“Montreal has its own champions of the windy genre.”
Natasha Gauthier, Hour (Canada)

Artist's Sponsor: BMO Financial Group

All artists and programmes are subject to change without notice