118th Season

Pavel Kolesknikov with the TSO

118th Season / /
Pavel Kolesnikov made a brief appearance in Toronto last weekend.  You can hear him perform a full recital at the final concert of the 118th season of Music in the Afternoon on May 5, 2016, with a program of C.P.E. Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin.

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Pianist Pavel Kolesnikov, centre, played to much acclaim with the TSO at Roy Thomson Hall on Saturday night.

Pavel Kolesnikov (piano), Earl Lee (conductor), Saturday, Feb. 20.

It was a banquet of blurry fingers at Roy Thomson Hall Saturday night, as pianist Pavel Kolesnikov stopped by to lend his musical finesse to Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”. Despite a wonderful concert, his appearance was brief, and left the audience wondering why he wasn’t performing more than just a 25-minute work. It seemed hardly worth the trip from his home in London, England, but it was.

Seemingly coming out of nowhere, Kolesnikov’s career has been on an astonishing rise after winning Calgary’s 2012 Honens Piano Competition. The Siberian pianist has been slinking around the world, with stops at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Konzerthaus Berlin. The next push came from BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artist, which provides young promising artists with performance opportunities and live broadcasts.

Slightly underexposed against TSO’s gang of strings at his back, Kolesnikov’s not so much played Rachmaninoff’s 24 Paganini variations, but rather, painted them. With one of the silkiest runs in the business, his technique was elegant and trim. While skirting concerto territory, its Russian romanticism was strongest at its most hushed moments. Each of the variations was played upside down, sideways and occasionally upright. Kolesnikov’s pedalling was noticeably sparse and tempered with plumes of electric flourishes.                                          Michael Vincent, Toronto Star

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Mezzo to Soprano

118th Season, Stories / / ,

Mezzo to Soprano

“Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it.”  Eliza Tabor (1835-1914)

“The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”  Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Planning for the WMCT’s November 19th Concert with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (Met Opera star, Grammy Award and Richard Tucker Award winner) began two years ago. Artistic Director Simon Fryer suggested Miss Leonard to the Artists Selection Committee as a possibility for the 2015/16 Season.

Questions: How long-ago had a mezzo-soprano performed at Music In the Afternoon?
Would the season be balanced with Canadians and internationals, established and up-and-coming musicians? Was Miss Leonard available? Would she like to sing for us and did she have a pianist in mind?

The fit seemed just right, so a date was chosen and the agent’s contract was signed. Brochures were printed, website updated. Ads were placed, tickets sold. Lyrics were received, translations verified. Pre-concert talk arranged. Programmes printed. Critics invited. Refreshments purchased. One day left. Ready to go!

And then the agent’s phone call! “Miss Leonard is ill. Her doctor advises her not to fly from Chicago to Toronto. She has to cancel!”

What to do? Should we scrap the concert? Can we inform everyone in time? NO! A substitute must be found! Let’s try the agent. Is there another singer available on short notice? Maybe. Let’s try Canadian Soprano Simone Osborne. She just performed  with the Toronto Symphony.

“Oh! You’re in Winnipeg!…But you’re not busy tomorrow….You’d love to do it!…. You know the pianist, John Arida…. You have a programme ready to sing….There’s a flight this afternoon….You and John can rehearse this evening….”

Simone

And so the disappointment became resolve, the difficulty became opportunity, and the Mezzo became the Soprano!

Thanks to Artistic Director Simon Fryer, and Past President Annette Sanger, for a day full of emails and phone calls, avoiding disaster, and bringing us an unexpected treat.

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Simone Osborne’s Surprise Debut

118th Season / / ,

“Surprise!”

Pianist John Arida with Simone Osborne
Pianist John Arida with Simone Osborne

Simone Osborne threw her arms in the air and her signature big smile beamed as she greeted the Music in the Afternoon audience in Walter Hall Nov. 19.

Scant 30 hours before Isabel Leonard – due to illness – had cancelled her performance and Simone Osborne had graciously agreed to make her debut with the WMCT.

“The audience was indeed pleasantly surprised’, says Joseph So in his La Scena Musicale review.

“…it was a truly an auspicious WMCT debut.”
Read review

 

 

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Iain Scott TYM Speaker Nov. 19

118th Season, Tuning Your Mind / /

Iain Scott photo1Iain Scott – Tuning Your Mind Speaker
Nov. 19, 12:15 pm
before Isabel Leonard concert

Iain Scott is one of Canada’s leading experts on opera and the singing voice. He grew up in a small village in Scotland and came to Canada 45 years ago; he now lives in Toronto with his wife, Barbara. After a 30-year career working with engineers in Shell, chartered accountants in Deloitte, and consulting actuaries in Mercer, he founded his own company “OPERA-IS” (the IS is for “Iain Scott’) in 2002 to develop opera appreciation courses, lead opera tours and offer opera guides. He is much in demand as a writer, lecturer, and broadcaster about opera.

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Léonardelli – Afiara MT Review

118th Season / / ,

“Exploring the Wonders of the Harp” 

“The Afiara String Quartet is celebrated for its performances of the Beethoven quartets, and so it is no surprise that on this occasion the players turned in a nuanced and beautifully realized interpretation.”

“…Léonardelli’s performance of both works was outstanding; she has made a fine recording of El Dorado in the chamber version and certainly makes a strong case for its merits.”

 

Read Robin Elliott’s review in Musical Toronto here.

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Afiara…The e-Quartet

118th Season, Stories / / ,

October 15, 2015.

The Afiara, “a quartet for the 21st century”

Timothy Kantor, Eric Wong, Caroline Léonardelli, Valerie Li, Adrian Fung
Timothy Kantor, Eric Wong, Caroline Léonardelli, Valerie Li, Adrian Fung

If you were in the audience for their participation in the Music in the Afternoon opening concert of the 118th season, you may have noticed a few missing page turns. If you were sitting close enough, you may have noticed the iPads on their music stands and the click pedals at their feet, as they read their parts from pdfs rather than paper for some of the pieces they performed – a première of a different sort for the WMCT.

The conveniences of this system for the touring musician are clear – your whole repertoire on one device whose battery you have remembered to charge, with copies in the hands of your fellow performers, and as many backups on thumbdrives as necessary for your peace of mind. So expect to see more e-ensembles in future.

In the recent Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Borromeo Quartet, a pioneer in this approach, performed their signature concert, the complete Bartok Quartet cycle in one evening, from electronically scanned full scores, with Apple computers on purpose-built stands! The Afiara, according to violist Eric Wong, are still flexible, using e-scores to advantage in rehearsal or performance, but relying on paper on occasion.

For harpists however, this future may be a long time coming. As explained by Erica Goodman, our Tuning Your Mind speaker, and in John Mayo’s notes, changing accidentals on their instrument requires constant footwork on seven pedals, each with three positions, leaving no toe free to tap the automatic page turner. So while the Afiara gazed at screens, Caroline Léonardelli played Grandjany’s Rhapsodie from the original 1922 French publication, a fragile, yellowing print.

~ Kathleen McMorrow

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TSO Role for Afiara Cellist

118th Season / / ,

images-1Afiara String Quartet cellist, Adrian Fung has just been named Vice-President of Innovation with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a new role in the TSO’s management team. Mr. Fung is a founding member of the Afiara String Quartet. The group, and Caroline Léonardelli will open Music in the Afternoon’s 118th season this Thursday, October 15.

Read Musical Toronto story here: 

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Annual General Meeting – 2015

118th Season / /

Program2015 – Annual General Meeting

Thursday, Oct. 1
Women’s Art Association of Canada, 23 Prince Arthur Ave.
and
Scholarship Winners Recital – Braden Young, piano with Alice Kim, cello

2015 -2016 Board of Directors
2015 -2016 Board of Directors
Diane Martello, president; Annette Sanger, past president; Eva Innes, WMCT Foundation President
Diane Martello, president; Annette Sanger, past president; Eva Innes, WMCT Foundation Chair

 

 

Annette Sanger, past president with Julia Smith
Annette Sanger, past president with Julia Smith

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Erica Goodman TYM Speaker

118th Season, Tuning Your Mind / /

Erica Goodman Tuning Your Mind Speaker Oct. 15

imagesWorld acclaimed solo harpist Erica Goodman is the Tuning Your Mind speaker at the first concert of the 118th season. Her talk will precede the Oct. 15 Music in the Afternoon concert with harpist Caroline Léonardelli and the Afiara String Quartet.

A native of Toronto, Erica Goodman received her training at the Royal Conservatory and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philidelphia. She played under the baton of Igor Stravinsky when he recorded in Toronto.

The Tuning Your Mind lecture series precedes WMCT concerts in Walter Hall and begins at 12:15 pm.

More information about Erica Goodman here.

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