Simon Fryer

125th Season | The Return to Walter Hall

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Back to the Future!
Artistic Director Simon Fryer has created a 125th Season of five Concerts: a celebration of past, present, and future, with generations of diverse artists, mentors and “mentees.”
Come back to Walter Hall to enjoy “Connection and Continuity:” chamber music repertoire highlights from the last 125 years, and the next.

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CelloDrama! encore: May 27 on CBC Radio 2

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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!

Ariel Barnes joined Simon for the first work, a duo by Jean Barrière from 1740 Paris.  In an early one of several behind-the-scenes dramas, Ariel had been appointed solo cello of the Nürnberger Symphoniker soon after the program announcement: happily he was able to fly back from Germany to join us

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After Simon conquered the virtuoso solo Capriccio per Siegfried Palm, a quartet played a gentler 20th-century piece by Jocelyn Morlock.

Tom Wiebe, above on the left in slightly more formal concert wear, rehearsed in the hockey sweater of his home-town Winnipeg Jets.

The audience in the sold-out hall was next enchanted by the famous Bach Chaconne, arranged for 4 cellists, including Minna Rose Chung from the University of Manitoba, second from left, and David Hetherington, far right.

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

Finally, the piece without which a gang of 8 cellists will refuse to party. Shannon Mercer, 2006 CDA winner, and generous fundraiser for the WMCT, joined in for Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5.

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.

Karen Houston, also a former student of Simon’s, brought her class of cellists from Rosedale Heights School for the Arts, to join the full hall beside WMCT members and guests, and holders of the Cultural Access Pass from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship.

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2017 March 9: Shaham, Erez, Wallfisch

119th Season / / , ,

President Diane Martello, Raphael Wallfisch, Hagai Shaham, Amon Erez and Artistic Director Simon Fryer

Cellist Raphael Wallfisch greets WMCT members after the concert

Intermission at Walter Hall

Hagai Shaham, Amon Erez, Raphael Wallfisch

Volunteers display new Music in the Afternoon logo T shirts

Canadian composer John Beckwith celebrated his 90th Birthday at the concert

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Issachah Savage interview and photos

119th Season / / , , , ,

“What can I say, except that the music and the text seemed to come from his soul…” Joseph So, Musical Toronto

Issachah Savage interviewed by Joseph So

Students from Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts
Michael Shannon, Issachah Savage, students from Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts
“We had a fabulous time, thank you so much for the generous gift. The kids were buzzing.”
Jeffrey Newberry, Performing Arts, Wexford Collegiate School for the Arts

Artistic Director Simon Fryer opens the 119th season
Artistic Director Simon Fryer opens the 119th season

piano

With Simon Fryer and Kathleen McMorrow
With Simon Fryer and Kathleen McMorrow

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