JUNO nominations for Blake Pouliot and Charles Richard-Hamelin Read More »
Vivian sends her January 2019 Newsletter:
Happy New Year! 2018 was a busy year, with the premiere of my Earworms for orchestra, Shifting Landscapes for piano quartet for Ensemble Made in Canada’s Mosaique Project, and The Ice Is Talking for ice blocks and electronics commissioned by the Banff Centre. I’m also proud to have written on Motherhood and the Creative Process (According to Five Canadian Composers) which appeared in the blog Music on Main. This coming year will be as busy as the last, with a few important premieres this winter and spring, and also a trip to Cambodia this coming February to research music for a potential opera. Read More
News from Vivian Fung, WMCT 2017 commissioned composer Read More »
Blake Pouliot, 2018 WMCT Career Development Award winner, has been awarded the Canada Council’s Virginia Parker Prize. This $25,000 Prize is awarded to a musician, under the age of 32 who demonstrates outstanding talent, musicianship and artistic excellence and who makes a valuable contribution to artistic life in Canada and internationally.
Several WMCT CDA winners have been awarded this prize in earlier years: Shannon Mercer (2006), James Ehnes (1997), and Karina Gauvin (1995).
In 2015, Blake was given the use for three years of the 1729 Guarneri del Gesu violin from the Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank. This loan has now been renewed until 2021.
Canada Council Awards for Blake Pouliot Read More »
The Toronto Summer Music Academy has announced its program for 2019. Two winners of the WMCT CDA will be mentors in its Chamber Music Institute: Yegor Dyachkov (cello, 2000) and Charles Richard-Hamelin (piano, 2015). They will coach ensembles and also perform with their students in reGENERATION concerts.
Career Development Award Winners become Mentors Read More »
Katherine Moffatt, trumpet; Frances Armstrong, piano; Alex Hetherington, mezzo-soprano; and Abigail Bachelor, harp, performed at the Annual General Meeting, September 27, 2018.
Scholarship winners at the AGM Read More »
“Emily D’Angelo, winner of the 2016 Met Auditions at the incredibly young age of 21, is currently a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Program there. Tonight, she virtually cleaned up by winning four prizes – First Prize, Birgit Nilsson Prize, Zarzuela Prize, and the Rolex Audience Prize. For the finals, she sang “Dopo notte” from Handel’s Ariodante with stunning fioritura. She also sang a brilliantly idiomatic zarzuela. Fellow mezzo Rihab Chaieb was the Third Prize Winner, combining rich vocalism with alluring stage presence in “Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix” from Saint-Saens’ Samson et Dalila. “
From Joseph So’s report from Lisbon on the latest success of the winner of the WMCT 2016 Centennial Scholarship. Read the full report.
Operalia: another first prize for Emily D’Angelo Read More »
The Toronto Summer Music Academy is a summer training programs for chamber musicians and singers 18-35 years old who are on the verge of a professional performance career, with tuition paid by sponsors.
Frances Armstrong began her piano studies at age ten in Vancouver, BC, and discovered her love of working with singers when she was a teenager. In April 2017, she graduated with distinction with her Bachelor’s Degree in Solo Piano Performance from the University of Victoria, where she studied with Bruce Vogt. Throughout her university studies, she received scholarships to study a broad range of repertoire at intensive programs such as the Vancouver International Song Institute, Orford Summer Music Academy, Franz Schubert Institute, Stratford Vocal Academy, Tapestry Opera’s Songbook, and Opera NUOVA. In August 2017, Frances made her debut as music director in Muskoka Summer Theatre Festival’s 2017 production of La Bohème. She is now in her first year of a Master’s Degree in Collaborative Piano Performance at the University of Toronto, where she studies with Helen Becqué and Steven Philcox.
Frances will perform in the Toronto Summer Music Festival at a public master class with Christoph Prégardien on July 19, 10-12 am, and in two reGeneration concerts on Saturday July 21, at 1 pm and 4 pm, all in Walter Hall.
WMCT Foundation supports Frances Armstrong, pianist, in the Toronto Summer Music Academy Read More »
Pianist and teach Peter Longworth has died at the early age of 54. Peter graced the WMCT stage five times, beginning with the Duke Piano Trio in the 102nd season, and most recently in 2016 during the 119th season, with James Sommerville, horn, and Scott St. John, violin.
John Terauds and Norman Lebrecht have written heartfelt tributes to his contributions to Toronto musical life.
Further appreciations by colleagues, students and friends at Ludwig van Toronto.
2018 06 26
In Memoriam: Peter Longworth Read More »
The final concert, from May 3 2018, in the 120th season of Music in the Afternoon was broadcast on CBC Radio 2 In Concert, Sunday May 27 (11 am – 3 pm, 94.1 in Toronto).
Concert Preview in LudwigVan | Concert Review in LudwigVan
Enjoy these photos if you missed it!
Tom Wiebe, above on the left in slightly more formal concert wear, rehearsed in the hockey sweater of his home-town Winnipeg Jets.
The brand-new work was Coffee will be Served in the Living Room, a miniature symphonic poem for all 8 cellos, on an episode in the life of Jackson Pollock. Commissioned composer Kelly-Marie Murphy bowed to a happy crowd
Special thanks to Alice Kim, a former student of Simon’s and ultimate rescuer, stepping in to learn the music only a few days earlier, replacing a performer faced with a health crisis.
CelloDrama! encore: May 27 on CBC Radio 2 Read More »
Diane Martello, WMCT president, with Blake Pouliot and his new official t-shirt. After a week of concerts in Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Toronto, the 2018 Career Development Winner paused on April 16 before flying off to Ottawa to performances with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, for a lunch with some WMCT and WMCTF Board members, and the CDA Committee.
Here is Blake with Annette Sanger, CDA Committtee Chair, CBC Producer Alison Howard, and the cupcakes. Blake wrote to Annette he is “beyond humbled to get the opportunity to join…an incredible and laudable group”. Blake will be performing in Music in the Afternoon‘s 122nd Season, 2019-20. Follow his performances until then on his website.
Yes, the cupcakes! Individual stunners, made by Kathy Halliday, each with a spun-sugar musical motif, including “CDA” of course, a mini-instrument for Blake (complete with pegs), and the notation of the opening solo violin line in the second movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
Kathy Halliday, far right, Blake’s parents Les and Christine Pouliot, far left, and the rest of the lucky cupcake eaters.
Blake Pouliot has joined “The Club” Read More »
