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Browsing: Classical Music

Sabina Sandvoss (cello) and Davin Mar (viola), winners of the 2026 Michael Measures Prize. Photos: courtesy of NYO Canada.

Newswire | Sabina Sandvoss and Davin Mar win Measures Prize

By Newswire on 3 April 2026 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Newswire, Toronto

TORONTO, ONTARIO – March 30, 2026 – The National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYO Canada) is thrilled to announce the winners of the prestigious 2026 Canada Council for the Arts Michael Measures Prizes. Awarded to only two recipients each year, these prizes recognize and support the finest young classical musicians in Canada aged 16 to 24, celebrating their extraordinary artistry and dedication. Together, their awards mark two historic firsts: Sabina Sandvoss is the first female cellist to win First Prize, and Davin Mar the first violist to receive the honour. 2026 Canada Council for the Arts Michael Measures Prize Winners:…

Editorial (April 2026)

By Wah Keung Chan on 3 April 2026 Arts Industry, Vocal

Happy spring! Welcome to the April/May 2026 national issue of La Scena Musicale, with a special focus on the voice! This issue also includes our annual guides to Canadian spring festivals, summer studies and choirs. Tenor Russell Thomas, who is making his debut in the title role of the Canadian Opera Company’s Werther, graces our English edition while our French cover features Mexican tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz as he debuts at Opera de Montréal as Don José in Carmen. As well, we meet Quebec soprano Elisabeth Boudreault who makes her Opéra de Québec debut as Musetta in La bohème, and groundbreaking…

Dinuk Wijeratne: Identity in Motion

By Kaitlyn Chan on 3 April 2026 Classical Music, Contemporary, Interviews, Orchestral, Piano

Canadian composer, conductor and pianist Dinuk Wijeratne is well known for his cross-cultural works, which he describes as “East-West.” “On any given day, I don’t feel either fully Eastern or Western,” says Wijeratne. “Call it a conflict or an identity crisis—but I always think, aren’t I so blessed that I get to try and create a balance for even a few moments in a piece of music?” Born in Sri Lanka, Wijeratne spent his childhood and adolescent years in Dubai. He studied composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, The Juilliard School, Mannes College and the University of Toronto.…

Industry News | April/May 2026: All the Winners Announced

By Gianmarco Segato on 3 April 2026 Classical Music

Appointments On Feb. 10, Canadian Opera Company (COC) announced Ian Derrer as their next general director beginning July 1, 2026. He currently serves as general director and CEO of The Dallas Opera, a position he has held for the past eight years. Derrer previously served as general director of Kentucky Opera and spent eight years at Lyric Opera of Chicago as director of production and head of the rehearsal department. Derrer will succeed David C. Ferguson, who has served as COC’s general director since June 2024 after the sudden departure of Perryn Leech. Ferguson will be named general director emeritus…

Left: Denise Torre; Right: Dorothéa Ventura & Vincent Lauzer. Photo: Brenden Friesen

Les Idées heureuses: Chaconnes and the Taste of Chocolate

By Benjamin Goron on 3 April 2026 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Montreal, World Music

With Chaconne et chocolat : délectations espagnoles, Les Idées heureuses continues a musical adventure it began a few years ago. Its theme: the fascinating chaconne. Having explored France, Germany, Italy and England, this new program invites audiences on a trip to Spain with a few detours to South America, cradle of many artistic influences that have nourished this musical form. The heart of the project is the richness and diversity of the chaconne. “The chaconne as a dance and an instrumental form is rather a chameleon: you can enter into all sorts of emotions, choose any genre, discover music that’s very…

Étienne Tremblay

Canadian Music Competition: A Rite of Passage and a Model for Learning

By Benjamin Goron on 3 April 2026 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Interviews, Music Competition, Piano

Pianist Étienne Tremblay is currently studying for his bachelor’s degree at the Université de Montréal under Henry Kramer and André Laplante. While devouring the repertoire, he is preparing for nearly a dozen competitions this year, as well as appearances at festivals and other engagements. His life is governed by the black and white keys. Yet, without the Canadian Music Competition (CMC), he might not have chosen this path. What follows is a portrait of a young artist deeply rooted in his art and a competition unlike any other. “It was thanks to CMC that I flew on a plane for…

Winona Zelenka and Marie Bérard. Photo: Chung Ling Lo

Arkel Chamber Concerts: A Program Engineered Around Enescu

By Adrian Rodriguez on 3 April 2026 Chamber Music, Classical Music, Toronto

“I wore myself out trying to work a piece of music divided into four segments of such length that each of them was likely at any moment to break.” When George Enescu described his Octet in C major, Op. 7 in these terms, he framed it less as a chamber work than as an engineering feat. On May 31, Arkel Chamber Concerts places this challenge at the centre of its program, Grand Romance, at Toronto’s Trinity St. Paul’s Centre, taking on a work that demands both precision and collective imagination. For 13 years, the Toronto-based series has built its identity…

Left to right: Anoushka Shankar. Photo: Jag Gundu; Earl Lee. Photo: Lim Hak Hyun; Karen Cargill. Photo: Nadine Boyd

Upcoming Concerts

By La Scena Musicale Team on 3 April 2026 Classical Music, Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto

Toronto Koerner Hall Georgian-born violinist Lisa Batiashvili appears in recital on April 26 with pianist and countryman Giorgi Gigashvili, presenting works by Beethoven, Franck and Bartók as well as a new piece by Ioseb Bardanashvili. On May 1, Korean-Canadian cellist and conductor Earl Lee, music director of the Ann Arbor Symphony, leads the Royal Conservatory Orchestra. The ensemble of students from the undergraduate and graduate programs of The Glenn Gould School play Samy Moussa’s Elysium, Mahler’s “Titan” symphony and are joined by violinist Sabina Sandvoss, winner of The Robert W. and G. Ann Corcoran Concerto Competition, for Bloch’s Schelomo. Two…

Russell Thomas: Taking the Werther Challenge

By Catherine Kustanczy on 3 April 2026 Interviews, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Russell Thomas is many singers at once—and he aims to excel at them all. The Miami-born tenor, celebrated for his interpretations of Italian repertoire and, more recently, German works, is preparing to make his role debut in Toronto this spring as Werther in Jules Massenet’s popular opera of the same name, with the Canadian Opera Company (COC). Hailing the French opera’s “immense emotional impact,” Thomas says the work is a supreme marriage of music and text. “From the very beginning, when Werther walks in and sees the house and looks at the children playing, a whole world is being painted,…

Vincent Lauzer. Photo: Emmanuel Crombez

La Nef: How Imitation has Fuelled the Creative Imagination

By Benjamin Goron on 3 April 2026 Baroque and Early, Classical Music, Montreal

Guided by an idea as simple as it is inexhaustible—the art of imitation—La Nef’s latest program offers a fascinating musical journey through the centuries. From the Middle Ages to contemporary composition, Jeux d’imitation, jeux de miroirs will highlight the enduring nature and richness of the imitative process, which have never ceased to inspire composers. At the heart of the project lies an ancient—yet surprisingly modern—concept: the gymel (from the Latin cantus gemellus, or “twin song”). As Vincent Lauzer, the project’s musical director and flutist, explains: “The starting point was the medieval gymel, a form of composition and improvisation that seeks…