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Volunteers honoured at the AGM Sept. 28

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The WMCT had the best Annual Meeting in town!

Half an hour of positive reports from the treasurer and president, then a mini-recital by Scholarship and Fellowship winners, a free lunch, and a floral “Thank you” to volunteers who plan and staff Music in the Afternoon, serve on awards, finance, and fundraising, committees, and document the history of the WMCT. For more photos, taken at the Women’s Art Association, see the WMCT Facebook page.

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National Youth Orchestra on tour

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The National Youth Orchestra of Canada hosts our new office space, as reported on March 19 here.  Their work with young musicians culminates in an annual cross-country tour.  Musical Toronto reviewed the recent touch down in this city.  For further information about the NYOC, see the website.

2017 National Youth Orchestra of Canada

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Updated History

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Fred and Hanna Feuerriegel have further revised the History of Concerts and Performers of the WMCT to include the 2016-2017 season, with clearer treatment of composers’ song cycles and collections.

This indexed list of concerts, performers, and repertoires of WMCT concerts, has a table of contents and indexes hyperlinked to the listings – just click on the page number.   A look through the performer index confirms the WMCT’s reputation for bringing to Toronto audiences outstanding Canadian and international artists at the beginning of their careers.

Read this wonderful resource from cover to cover to appreciate the development of the WMCT, or search to find your favourite performers or musical works.  The Artists Selection Committee always has it at hand, or rather on screen, making sure that even masterpieces like the Mozart Clarinet Quintet are not programmed every year.  Cheers for Fred and Hanna!

2017 03 18

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Integral Man at Hot Docs

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Toronto Hot Docs Film Festival features “Integral Man” this week about the late Jim Stewart a successful mathematician who spent a decade and a small fortune building Toronto’s Integral House, considered by many one of the city’s best performance spaces.

“After Euclid, Jim Stewart is the most published mathematician in the world”, says the Hot Docs description. Integral House reflects his two obsessions, curves and music.  It is a stunning architectural gem of subtly curved wood and vast, evocative spaces.

The WMCT held a memorable concert in Integral House in 2014 to raise funds towards its 10th Career Development Award, which was a live competition won by Charles Richard-Hamelin.

Shannon Mercer, soprano, and Steven Philcox, piano, performed.

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Jean Edwards retires at 90

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Issachah Savage and Jean Edwards

Canadian soprano and long time WMCT member Jean Edwards said farewell to the stage recently in a fund-raising concert at the Heliconian Hall. For her surprise finale Jean dressed as a ballerina complete with tutu sang the piece made famous by the British comedienne Beatrice Lillie, “There are Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden”.

See Joseph So’s report in Musical Toronto.

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WMC Winnipeg

119th Season, Stories /

WMCT Meets WMCW, December, 2016
By Diane Martello

Kathryn Young, Past President of the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg (WMCW) is an intelligent, articulate and astute classical music lover and volunteer with the WMCT’s sister organization in Manitoba. Recently Kathryn and I compared notes while enjoying lunch at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in downtown Winnipeg.

Founded in 1894, and with a current membership of about 90, the Winnipeg club punches well above its weight in supporting classical music. It does this In four ways:
> it produces concerts featuring emerging artists
> it provides annual scholarships for university level music students
> it manages The WMC McLellan Competition for Solo Performance with first prize both cash and a performance with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
> it coordinates and cooperates with other classical music presenters as part of Winnipeg’s “Musinet”.

Kathryn explained that the club provides a stage for young artists,  “three of our four concerts are held on Sunday afternoons at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. By selling individual tickets we manage to come close to filling the 300 seat auditorium. Our fourth concert is held on a Thursday evening and showcases the five winners of our university-level scholarships.” For more information about the wonderful work of the Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg, “…where tradition embraces the future” please visit the website.

www.womensmusicalclubofwpg.ca

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Dannthology to the next generation

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The Danns: Robin, Steven, Alana Zarankin, baby Zarankin Dann, Lucas and Nico.  Zosha di Castri holds her WMCT commissioned score Near Brute Force. (Someone else was holding her baby).

SCRUTINY | Steven Dann Presents A Charming All In The Family Program At Walter Hall

By Robin Elliott on April 8, 2016, MUSICAL TORONTO

“Dannthology” was the title of a recital by the Toronto violist Steven Dann, together with family members (sons Nico and Lucas, daughter Robin, and daughter-in-law Ilana Zarankin, who is married to Nico) and friends (bassist Joel Quarrington and pianist James Parker), for the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto on Thursday afternoon, April 7 in Walter Hall. For only the second time in its 118-year history, the members of the WMCT arrived to find a drum set on the stage (the first time was for trumpet player Jens Lindemann’s recital last season). The drum set, along with timpani and sundry other smaller percussion instruments, was played with much expertise by Nico in two works on the programme. The other three family members appeared only in a new work by Zosha di Castri, about which more anon. …

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Dannthology to the next generation Read More »

Trio Arkel concert Feb. 19

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Trio Arkel concert Feb. 19

The concert is called String Tapestry and it weaves the traditional with the new – Beethoven, Gubaidulina, Kodaly – it’s presented by Trio Arkel and guests at Trinity St. Paul’s on Feb. 19 at 7 pm.
Trio Arkel is composed of three women at the top of the Canadian classical music scene: Marie Berard, concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company orchestra, Teng Li, principal violist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Winona Zelenka, assistant-principal cellist with the TSO. For the String Tapestry concert they are joined by guest artists; internationally renowned violinist Scott St. John and violist Sharon Wei, who is viola professor at the University of Western Ontario and member of Ensemble Made in Canada who played Music in the Afternoon last May. As well, Winona Zelenka was one of the judges for the Career Development Award competition last spring.

The group’s standard program features classics from the chamber music repertoire, but they also play new music by living composers and this concert is a fine example. Presented will be a string trio by Sofia Gubaidulina, a modern spiritualist from the Soviet Union; the Trio Serenade for Two Violins and Viola (Opus 12) by Kodaly, and Beethoven’s String Quintet in c major, (Opus 29) “The Storm”.

Tickets are $30 – $15 for students and a 20 minute pre-concert seminar about the repertoire, given by Marie Berard begins at 6:30 pm. Trinity St. Paul’s is 427 Bloor St. West.

More information here.

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