Stories

Singing Valentines from La Scena Musicale

Stories / /

La Scena Musicale presents Singing Valentines 2016.

Trained singers will telephone your amour (friend, husband, wife, parents, sister, brother or children) on February 11 to 14 and serenade a favourite love song in your name. The cost is $30 to $60 and it’s a donation to La Scena Musicale, a non-profit charity whose mission is to promote music and the arts through the power of the written word. It produces the magazine La Scena Musicale and the website.

This year’s Celebrity Singer is renowned baritone GINO QUILICO, available for a donation of $75 to $100. There are only 10 Celebrity Valentines available.

The list of singers include sopranos Chantal Dionne and Janice Goodfellow, mezzo Priscilla-Ann Tremblay, tenors Wah Keung Chan and David Menzies, and baritone Simon Fournier. Available songs include such favourites as My Funny Valentine, Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix, Che gelida manina, O mio babbino caro, Chanson triste, and many others.

To book a song and singer for February 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th,  call 514-948-2520, or visit www.lascena.ca for the complete menu of singers, songs and arias, and time availabilities.

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And Soprano towards Diva

Scholarship Winners, Stories / / ,

And Soprano towards Diva

Simone Osborne, after her “surprise” debut at Music in the Afternoon on November 19, 2015, will take another large step forward in her career next year. The Canadian Opera Company has announced that its new season will include a remounting of Harry Somers’s grand opera Louis Riel in a co-production with the National Arts Centre. Composed for the 1967 centennial, this return will celebrate the work’s 50th anniversary, and will help mark the 150th anniversary of Canada’s confederation. Simone will play the rôle of Marguerite, a part which includes the famous “Kuyas”, the lullaby sung by Riel’s wife to their child at the beginning of Act III. The title part will showcase Russell Braun, whose first performance of many with the WMCT began with his debut as a scholarship winner in 1992.

About Harry Somers’s Louis Riel
About the COC revival next season

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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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“Justly proud…”

Career Development Award, Stories / /

“Justly proud…”

And indeed we are.

Dang Thai Son

The Wholenote Magazine managing editor Paul Ennis notes in the current issue that the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto was “justly proud” when Charles Richard-Hamelin won silver in the prestigious 17th Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw last week. And even more than overly proud that the piano sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58. performance that won him the Krystian Zimerman Prize for best performance of a sonata is the very sonata that won him first prize in the WMCT’s Career Development Award competition last April.

Puffed our chests for sure.

Yike (Tony) Yang and Dang Thai Son
Yike (Tony) Yang and Dang Thai Son

But there is another connection as Wholenote editor David Perlman notes on page 6. Sixteen-year-old Toronto high school student, Yike (Tony) Yang who placed fifth in the Chopin competition is taught by Dang Thai Son. Dang graced the cover of the Wholenote in February 2000 in the context of what he called “my real Toronto debut” – at the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto – 20 years after he “burst seemingly out of nowhere, onto the world stage in 1980, and won first prize at the 10th Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw”.

See online theWholeNote:

While checking theWholenote notice page 26 where Isabel Leonard’s Nov. 19 concert is recommended. “The Women’s Musical Club of Toronto can always be relied on to provide artists and programs of interest. I’m looking very much forward to the recital by the American mezzo …..” Hans de Groot.

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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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Kitchen to Carnegie Hall – Book

Stories / / , ,

*From Kitchen to Carnegie Hall: Ethel Stark and the Montreal Women’s
Symphony Orchestra, 

This new book by Faculty of Music, University of Toronto Ph.D candidate,
Maria Noriega Rachwall, documents the fascinating and groundbreaking story
of the first all-women’s symphony orchestra in Canada, formed in 1940, and
directed by the first Canadian female conductor, Ethel Stark. Amazingly,
after just seven years, the orchestra took to the stage at Carnegie Hall –
the first Canadian orchestra to play in that most prestigious of venues!

The Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra, along with many other women’s
musical clubs and organisations – including the WMCT – played a pivotal
role in promoting women in the context of performing and presenting
classical music.

(Some of you may remember Maria wrote an article on this topic in the
WMCT’s February 2013 *News & Notes*)

~ Annette Sanger, President

The book is available at Amazon.ca and SecondStoryPress.ca

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Back Stage Basics – The Lost Quartet

118th Season, Stories / /

Back Stage Basics – The Lost Quartet

April 10, 2014.

It was my first time assisting with the “Green Room”, behind the scenes with the performers at a WMCT Music in the Afternoon concert. Evelyn O’Doherty, with years of experience, was in charge, and described the routine. The Pavel Haas Quartet would arrive at the Edward Johnson Building around 10, and have a couple of hours to rehearse in Walter Hall before the Tuning Your Mind lecture.

Pavel Haas Quartet
Pavel Haas Quartet

We waited in the lobby, scanning every entrant with a string instrument and a professional air. No appropriate group had arrived by 10:15, or even 10:30, and by 10:45, anxiety kicked in. A flurry of phone calls, from us to the WMCT office, from the office to Simon Fryer, our Artistic Director, in Regina, between the Czech quartet and Simon, and finally back to us, pinpointed their location – at Hart House!

After a dead run down Philosopher’s Walk, through the side door, and up to the Hart House desk, I breathlessly announced I was looking for a string quartet, actually four people carrying instruments. No help there, but flying out the House front doors, I spotted them, heading tentatively towards Queen’s Park Crescent. They were on the right track then, so we all hustled up to the Faculty of Music entrance, and down the elevator to the Walter Hall lobby. I pointed out the portrait of Arnold Walter, a compatriot of theirs: they had other things on their minds. Evelyn unlocked the Green Room door for them, they had a little time to familiarize themselves with the hall, and their brilliant performance revealed nothing of the earlier little drama.
Protocols for communication between performers and the WMCT volunteers meeting them at Walter
Hall have since been revised.

Kathleen McMorrow

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Back Stage Basics – “What drums?”

118th Season, Stories / /

 Back Stage Basics – “What drums?”

Behind the scenes stories of “interesting moments” on concert day.

As back stage volunteers we arrive early at Walter Hall. A key for the performers’ lounge, known as the “Green Room” is picked up at Reception and we await the arrival of our artists. Usually they appear a little before 10 a.m.

“We are so thrilled to have you here to perform for the WMCT! How was your flight? Do you need help with parking? The page turner will be arriving at 11:30. Would you like a coffee? Can we pick up a sandwich for you at lunch? We’ll take you to Walter Hall.”

While the musicians rehearse we unlock the Green Room then set out water bottles and snacks before gingerly stepping on stage to hand over the key.

Usually things go very smoothly. Sometimes there are surprises!

U ofT Music staff and students saved the day for trumpeter Jens Lindemann’s concert. He was to perform with a jazz trio. Of course we all know that pianists do not arrive with their own instrument, but did you know that jazz drummers don’t either? We sure didn’t!  They bring their sticks and cymbals only. When not in use the Faculty of Music’s very best jazz drum kit is kept chained to the wall inside a locked room. Only two people have both keys! Fortunately the  drums were available that day! Doors and padlocks were unlocked, student movers were engaged and the show went on to multiple standing ovations.

Diane Martello

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WMCT Alumni – Paul Lewis

Stories / / ,

WMCT Alumni – Paul Lewis

To great acclaim, Paul Lewis made his Toronto debut in Music in the Afternoon’s 115th season on Oct. 18, 2012. This summer, he’ll play Stratford Summer Music on July 29 at 2 pm in St. Andrew’s Church, in Stratford.

https://stratfordsummermusic.ca/

Earlier this spring, he was attacked by a seagull in Liverpool, giving the British media the opportunity to state:

The Birds are Bach
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/11683368/The-Birds-are-Bach-Concert-pianist-sprains-finger-in-vicious-seagull-attack.html

 

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