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Browsing: Canadian Music

Anne Sofie von Otter, photo Ewa-Marie Rundquist

This Week in Montreal (May 16–22)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 16 May 2016 Baroque and Early, Contemporary, Orchestral, Quebec Music, This Week in Montreal

Final concerts in the SMCQ’s John Rea series Directed by Denis Marleau, Walter Boudreau and Plasirs du clavecin perform Le petit livre des Ravalet, an atypical opera composed by Rea. Period instruments, audio, singers, and actors take the stage. Usine C, May 16, 7 pm. www.smcq.qc.ca The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra Mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and countertenor Andreas Scholl join San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra to celebrate 30 years at the podium for Nicholas McGegan, the orchestra’s conductor and artistic director. On the program: opera arias and duos and Handel oratorios, as well as a work written by Arvo Pärt…

Emily d'Angelo au COC

Industry News: April 2016

By Shira Gilbert on 1 April 2016 Arts Industry, Choral, Circus, Contemporary, Opera, Orchestral, Quebec Music

Big Wins Toronto-based mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo has been named the winner of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The 21-year-old D’Angelo, one of five winners from a pool of nine finalists, performed two arias with the Met Orchestra under the baton of Antony Walker at the Grand Finals Concert on the Met stage. Previous winners of the Met Auditions include many of the world’s great opera stars, such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Thomas Hampson, and Frederica von Stade. In 2015, D’Angelo won both First Prize and the Audience Choice Award at the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio Competition. Soprano Chelsea…

Review: R Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 April 2016 Canadian Music, CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary

David Fallis, conductor; A Luminato Festival Production Analekta AN 2 8784-5. 1 hr 53 min 24 s. For its 10th Anniversary last June, Toronto’s Luminato Festival staged its most ambitious work to date, R. Murray Schafer’s Apocalypsis. Over 1000 performers from across Canada, both professional and amateur, united to realize this historic music-theatre work, which was performed and recorded in the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. Due to the massive scale of the work, this is only the second time it was performed (the first was in London, Ontario in 1980), and the first time it had been recorded…

André Gagnon Baroque (ATMA)

CD Review: André Gagnon Baroque (ATMA)

By Michèle-Andrée Lanoue on 1 February 2016 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Quebec Music

André Gagnon Baroque Mes Quatre saisons – Les Turluteries Jean-Willy Kunz, harpsichord Orchestre symphonique Vallée du Haut-Saint-Laurent, Daniel Constantineau ATMA Classique. 2015. ACD22715. 65 min 17 s André Gagnon’s Mes quatre saisons (1969) and Les turluteries (1972) are infused with a new breath of life with this new disc on which baroque and popular music blend joyfully. With a style approaching that of Bach and Vivaldi, Jean-Willy Kunz on harpsichord interprets and transforms the melodies of Léveillée, Vigneault, Leclerc and la Bolduc’s “turlutes”, along with the Orchestre symphonique de la Vallée-du-Haut-Saint-Laurent directed by Daniel Constantineau. Its unique character comes across…

Women on Strings: Julie Triquet and Yukari Cousineau

By Michèle-Andrée Lanoue on 1 February 2016 Quebec Music, Strings

Julie Triquet Wherever she goes, Julie Triquet has the desire to meet others and to share that which animates her every day: music. A look at a journey that has been both classic and extraordinary by the woman who became concertmaster with I Musici de Montréal in 2012. A native of Québec City, Julie Triquet began studying violin at the age of 3 with teacher Claude Létourneau. “My mother had seen an interview with him on television, and she had become sort of convinced.” Triquet fell in love with the violin from the moment she started playing. She subsequently…

collectif9: On the Edge

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 February 2016 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Interviews, Quebec Music, Strings

Known for pushing the boundaries in their music, Montréal-based classical string band collectif9 is forging into uncharted territory with the release of their debut album (see review here), featuring the world premiere recording of Volksmobiles by Canadian composer Geof Holbrook. Formed in 2011 by Thibault Bertin-Maghit, collectif9 is a group of nine classically trained string players who aren’t shy about shaking things up. The members, who met at McGill University and the Université de Montréal, are violinists Yubin Kim, Frédéric Moisan, Grégor Monlun, and Roland Arnassalon; violists Scott Chancey and Xavier Lepage-Brault; cellists Andrea Stewart and Jérémie Cloutier; and bassist…

Industry News: February 2016

By Shira Gilbert on 1 February 2016 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Opera, Quebec Music

Bernard Labadie The Canadian Opera Company has announced that its 2016-17 season will include a new production of Harry Somers’ Louis Riel, in conjunction with the National Arts Centre. The Canadian Opera was premiered in 1967 for the Canadian centennial. Seven performances, featuring a largely Canadian cast, will take place from April 20 to May 13, 2017. The company also announced the contract extension of Music Director Johannes Debus through to the 2020-21 season. Canada’s longest running full-time classical music critic has retired. Claude Gingras, age 84, has capped a 63-year career, most of which was spent at Montréal’s French-language…

Cette semaine à Montréal (26 à 31 octobre) / This Week in Montreal (October 26 – 31)

By Kiersten van Vliet on 25 October 2015 Chamber Music, Quebec Music, This Week in Montreal

Music / MusiqueMathieu Père et Fils avec la Trio HochelagaEn lien avec l’exposition sur nos années vingt présentée par le Musée des beaux-arts, Arte Musica propose des œuvres dénichées dans les archives de l’époque. Le Trio Hochelaga interprète trois œuvres québécoises qui nous plongent dans la musique des années 1920 à 1940 : un trio de Rodolphe Mathieu, un trio d’André Mathieu et un quatuor avec piano d’Auguste Descarries. Invité : Victor Fournelle-Blain, alto. Salle Bourgie, vendredi 30, 18 h 30. www.sallebourgie.ca

Spring Festival Picks

By Rebecca Anne Clark on 1 April 2015 Canadian Music, Classical Music

Montreal & Quebec Guitare Montreal April 24-26, www.guitaremontreal.com This weekend festival combines performances, lectures, masterclasses, an exhibition, and a competition with over $4,000 in prizes. The festival begins Friday night with a performance by the Montreal Guitar Society under the direction of Dave Pilon, plus Czech guitar virtuoso Vladislav Bláha and Alan Liu, winner of last year’s Youth Competition. Guitar luthiers and vendors will be displaying their wares all day Saturday and Sunday. Saturday evening features a performance by last year’s competition winner, Miodrag Zerdoner, and renowned New York guitarist David Leisner. On Sunday afternoon, the Montreal Guitar Society Competition…

Video of the Day – Pioneers in Canadian Musical Life

By Paul E. Robinson on 4 January 2014 Canadian Music, Video of the day

We need to pause every once and a while to remember the men and women who contributed so much when Canadian musical life was still in its infancy. Much of the most important work was done by a handful of Germans and Austrians who arrived in Canada against their will during World War II and stayed on to make the country their home.Eric Koch (1919-) was one of them, and in a remarkable series of videos posted on YouTube he has articulated very well what it was like to be transplanted into a foreign country, and then to make it one’s…