April 2024 Newsletter 68
April 2024 Newsletter 68 Read More »
Midori Marsh, 2024 Career Development Award Winner
At the March 7 Music in the Afternoon concert, Annette Sanger, CDA Committee Chair, presented this year’s award to Midori Marsh, soprano.
In her thanks for the award, Midori exhorted us all to sing, in and out of the shower, as the best way to personal pleasure, and community strength and unity!
Midori Marsh is an American-Canadian soprano, from Cleveland, Ohio. She received her Bachelor of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2017 and her Master of Music in Opera at the University of Toronto in 2020. In the fall of 2019, she took home both first prize and the audience choice award at the Canadian Opera Company’s (COC’s) Centre Stage competition, and recently completed her third year with the COC’s young artist ensemble.
A “polished and poised performer” with “a truly gorgeous, expressive sound,” Midori is a known quantity in the Canadian opera scene, performing with Tapestry Opera, Against the Grain Theatre, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the NAC Orchestra, and more. While at the COC, Midori was seen as Nella in Gianni Schicchi, the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, Annina in La traviata, Papagena in The Magic Flute, and Frasquita in Carmen.
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Another WMCT Scholarship Winner joins COC Ensemble Studio
For the 2024/25 season soprano Gabrielle Turgeon will become part of the company’s professional development program. As an undergraduate at the U of T Faculty of Music, Gabrielle was the 2021-2022 winner of the WMCT Centennial Scholarship. She is currently a student at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
As a new member of the Ensemble Studio she will be well on the way to a professional career, like mezzo-soprano Alex Hetherington, a previous winner of the same scholarship and current Ensemble Studio member.
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In Memoriam: Barbara Gory
Barbara Gory (shown left) passed away on Monday, December 4, 2023, at the age of 95.
Working with Elizabeth Newton (centre), and Esther McNeil (right), Barbara Gory established the WMCT Foundation in 2000.
Bringing to the WMCT her skills as one of the earliest women in Canada to be certified as a chartered accountant, Barbara guided the process of securing the Foundation’s charter and charitable status. She served as its first Secretary-Treasurer, was Vice-President 2004-2007 and a director at large until 2010. The Foundation has grown to be able to support the operation of the Club, and to fund several annual scholarships at the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatory of Music, and the flagship Career Development Award of $25,000 every three years. She was also a longstanding member of the Club and offered astute advice as a member of its committees and board. Barbara Gory was a member of the Legacy Circle.
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The 2024 Career Development Award Competition
Eight young Canadian classical musicians embarking on performing careers, from all over Canada, and playing a range of instruments, have been selected by CBC producers. The winner of the $25,000 award will be announced at Music in the Afternoon on March 7, 2024.
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The 2024 Career Development Award Competition Read More »
Music in the Afternoon artists among the Canada Council 2023 Musical Instrument Bank competition winners.
Chris Whitley
1900 Stefano Scarampella violin
Cameron Crozman
ca.1750 Gennaro Gagliano cello
The Competition offers the opportunity to borrow and perform with an exceptional instrument crafted by a world renowned luthier, for three years.
The Icing on the Cake
A Glorious 125th Season Finale
Students from Unionville HS, R.H. King, and the Peel Region Strings program enjoyed the brilliant program played by Mark Fewer, Chris Whitley, the Thalea String Quartet, and Jeanie Chung.
After the concert came the Book Launch party for Robin Elliott’s third installment of the history of the WMCT: Counterpoint Three, with his promise to keep documenting us until the 150th!
The party included Kathy Halliday’s astonishing cupcakes. For more photos, check our Facebook page.
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Celebration at Queen’s Park
Her Honour Elizabeth Dowdeswell welcomed us to the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario’s suite on February 7, 2022.
Bella Czyrnyj, 2022-2023 WMCT University of Toronto Graduate Fellowship recipient, opened the reception with a performance of Hommage a M. de Falla by Béla Kovács for solo clarinet. After welcoming remarks from the Lieutenant Governor, and the current and past WMCT presidents, Michael Bridge, 2021 WMCT Career Development Award recipient played a brief solo accordion recital. He included a “musical game,” challenging us to identify tunes from repertoire created around the time of the WMCT’s founding. We did well.
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