The next round of CBC Young Artist broadcasts begins this Sunday, on CBC Radio 2’s In Concert (airs between 11:00 and 3:00.) The path to the WMCT Career Development Award begins here!
Career Development Award process begins Read More »
If you enjoy James MacMillan’s Tuireadh, performed on Music in the Afternoon on March 3, consider attending the next Soundstreams concert. On March 8, Scotland’s leading composer conducts a choral concert featuring his own Seven Last Words from the Cross.
Soundstreams brings James MacMillan to Toronto Read More »
There’s a Master class!
Friday, March 4 from 11am to 1 pm the Daedalus String Quartet holds a master class with U of T students in Walter Hall.
WMCT members/subscribers are invited to attend this complimentary event.
Daedalus Master Class March 4 Read More »
Emily D’Angelo, winner of the WMCT Centennial Scholarship last year has reached the semi-finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition held in New York March 6.
You can hear Emily in Walter Hall March 31 from 12 to 1 pm. As winner of the University of Toronto Norcop Prize in Song, Emily and Sonya Sim, winner of the Gwendolyn Williams Koldofsky Prize in Accompanying, will perform in U of T’s complimentary Thursday Noon Recital Series.
“A sultry concert of French music” reads the billing for a mid-winter concert at Alliance Française with harpist Caroline Léonardelli and mezzo-soprano Julie Nesrallah. Music from the late 19th/20th century features pieces by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Marcel Tournier and Reynaldo Hahn. “Ah! The Symbolists and late Romantics knew how to spin a tune!”
Caroline Léonardelli, along with the Afiara String Quartet, opened this season’s Music in the Afternoon concert season and Julie Nasrallah was MC for the Career Development Award competition last April. They performed this “sultry” concert at Carnegie Hall almost a year ago.
It’s in the Spadina Theatre, 24 Spadina Road, February 27 at 8 pm. Tickets are $15 and $10 for seniors and students.
Impressions de France Read More »
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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
Pavel Kolesknikov with the TSO Read More »
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.
Trio Arkel concert Feb. 19 Read More »
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.
Singing Valentines from La Scena Musicale Read More »
WMCT Performers Nominated for 2016 Juno Awards
The nominees for the 2016 Juno Awards have been announced, and, once again, the lists are packed with artists who have performed for Music in the Afternoon. In the category of Instrumental Album of the Year, two of the five nominees are WMCT alumni.
Jens Lindemann and Tommy Banks are nominated for “Legacy Live” – Jens played for Music in the Afternoon March 12, 2015. Also nominated is the Afiara Quartet, with Skratch Bastid, for the album “Spin Cycle” – the Afiara Quartet along with Caroline Léonardelli opened the 118th season last October.
Three of the five nominees for Classical Album of the Year have played for the WMCT. Frequent performer and WMCT Career Development Award Winner (1991) James Ehnes is nominated for his album “Franck & Strauss: Violin Sonatas”. James has performed for the WMCT four times – on November 19, 1992; at the Centennial Celebration Concert on May 24, 1998; on December 6, 2007; and at the 115th Anniversary performance at Koerner Hall on May 2, 2013.
Nominated for a recording of “Liszt: Piano Sonatas & Sonnets” is Angela Hewitt who appeared on the WMCT stage first on December 5, 1985, and again at the WMCT Centennial Celebration Concert on May 24, 1998. Also nominated in this category is the Cecilia String Quartet, for their album “Mendelssohn, Op. 44, Nos. 1 & 2”. That group played for the WMCT on March 29, 2012, after winning the Banff International String Quartet Competition.
In the category of Classical Album of the Year: Large Ensemble or Soloist(s) with Large Ensemble, two of the five nominees have played for the WMCT. James Ehnes is nominated for the album “Vivaldi: Four Seasons” which he recorded with the Sydney Symphony. In addition, Stewart Goodyear is nominated for the album “Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos 2 & 3” which he recorded with the Czech National Symphony. Stewart appeared on the WMCT stage with James Ehnes on December 6, 2007.
Finally, in the category of Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral Performance, Suzie Leblanc is among the performers on the nominated album “Peter-Anthony Togni: Responsio” recorded with Jeff Reilly, Andrea Ludwig, Charles Daniels and John Potter. Suzie sang for Music in the Afternoon on November 21, 2013 with Les Voix Humaines consort of viols.
You can listen to their award-winning albums – but you can hear them live, first, on the WMCT stage – still, chamber music at its finest.
WMCT Artists Get JUNO Nominations Read More »
James Ehnes turned 40 on Wednesday, January 27. He was born on Mozart’s birthday, although 220 years later, and, like Mozart, Ehnes displayed considerable musical ability from an early age. On the occasion of his 40th the CBC was able to persuade him to participate in building a “40 photos for 40 years” slide show which is available here:
See CBC Newsletter for more photos and info.
At the age of 15, on December 1,1991, Ehnes became the second winner of the then-fledgling WMCT Career Development Award, winning first prize over finalists Erika Raum, Catherine French, and Lara St. John. He remains the youngest winner in the history of the award. As part of his prize, he returned to Toronto to play in the WMCT’s 95th season, on the 19th of November, 1992, and this concert marked his official Toronto debut. Accompanied on that occasion by Montreal pianist Louise-Andrée Baril, his performance earned a standing ovation. He has since returned to the WMCT stage three times, most recently with Russell Braun and Carolyn Maule on the occasion of the WMCT’s 115th anniversary, in a special concert at Koerner Hall on May 2, 2013.
In the photo above, Ehnes is shown in 1993, the year he started at Julliard, with Walter Homburger, who was his first manager. Walter, former managing director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (from 1962 to 1987) and is the husband of Emmy Homburger, who was WMCT President in the early 2000’s. Walter also celebrated a birthday in January, on the 22nd, although it was not his 40th.
The WMCT is proud of all that James Ehnes has achieved in his first forty years, and wishes him all the best for the next forty.
~ cvb
James Ehnes turns 40 Read More »
