Classical Music - my/maSCENA

Browsing: Classical Music

Photo: Geri Born

Jordi Savall: Tracing the History of the New World Through Music

By Justin Bernard on 3 April 2026 Baroque and Early, Strings

When Jordi Savall spoke with La Scena Musicale in 2022, he was on a North American tour that took him to Ottawa and Montreal with his ensemble Hespèrion XXI. At the time, his repertoire centred on the golden age of consort music, a period spanning the 16th and 17th centuries. This year marks the 85th birthday of this illustrious viola da gamba player and conductor, a specialist in early music and unearther of rare gems. Despite his years, Savall demonstrates a passion for research and the unknown that remains as strong as ever. Indeed, in addition to his specialist ensembles,…

Photo: Bo Huang

Alice Ping Yee Ho: The Real and the Imagined

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

“I live in two worlds,” says pianist and composer Alice Ping Yee Ho. Born in Hong Kong, Ho studied music in the U.K. and Germany before settling in Toronto. She was deeply impacted both by hearing traditional Chinese music in her youth, as well as her education in the Western classical music canon: “It shaped how I listen and how I create.” Ho says that her Western training helps her compose logically and, almost, mathematically. However, her influences from Chinese music culture encourage her to consider the emotional impact of the piece and sometimes move away from what is the…

Festival Classica 2026: Programming for Modern Tastes

By Justin Bernard on 3 April 2026 Contemporary, Opera, Orchestral, Piano, Popular Music, Vocal

The 16th edition of Festival Classica, taking place from May 22 to June 14, will continue to extend its repertoire beyond the limits of classical music under the artistic direction of Marc Boucher. La Scena Musicale spoke to some of the leading artists involved in this year’s festival, including composer and arranger Simon Leclerc, whose new adaptation of Luc Plamondon and Richard Cocciante’s 1998 musical, Notre-Dame de Paris, will be unveiled on June 12. It will be one of three productions offered by Nouvel Opéra Métropolitain in addition to Les Grands classiques de Michel Legrand (June 6) and the opera…

Photo: Lena Kern

Arturo Chacón-Cruz: From “Cielito Lindo” To “Nessun Dorma”

By Adrian Rodriguez on 3 April 2026 Interviews, Montreal, Opera, Vocal

Francisco Araiza, Ramón Vargas, Rolando Villazón, Javier Camarena. For decades Mexico has produced an extraordinary lineage of lyric tenors who have conquered the world’s opera stages. And now, Arturo Chacón-Cruz. He has sung leading roles in more than 30 countries, appearing at major opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala and Vienna State Opera. Lately, he has been expanding into more dramatic repertoire with upcoming role debuts in Manon Lescaut and La fanciulla del West, two pinnacles of the verismo repertoire. His path to the international opera stage did not begin in a conservatory. It started with mariachi.…

Performing The Queen In Me. Photo: Dahlia Katz

Teiya Kasahara: Transforming Opera

By Hal Kowalewski on 3 April 2026 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Opera, Toronto, Vocal, West

Teiya Kasahara is best known as the creator-performer of The Queen In Me, which plays with the operatic canon to critique the exclusion of marginalized voices in the opera industry. Trained as a coloratura soprano, Kasahara came to prominence performing roles like The Magic Flute’s Queen of the Night. More recently, they have moved on to heavier, more dramatic repertoire including Madama Butterfly’s Cio-Cio San and the title role in Salome. In 2020, Kasahara went viral as the ‘Balcony Soprano’ who sang familiar repertoire from their Vancouver balcony. However, the categorization of soprano and the feminine roles that accompany it…

CD Review | Ménestrel, Janelle Lucyk, Kerry Bursey

By Justin Bernard on 3 April 2026 Classical Music

Ménestrel Janelle Lucyk, soprano & violin; Kerry Bursey, tenor & lute Leaf Music, 2025 At the end of their March 3 performance at Le 9e in Montreal’s Eaton Centre, the Ménestrel duo put their eponymous debut album on sale, giving the public a chance to continue their listening experience and discover pieces not included in the concert. Right away, Janelle Lucyk’s gentle voice welcomes us, the tone swaying between full-bodied and light, creating an airy vocal line, weightless—which, in the context of folkloric music, constitutes a wonderful display of skill. After another piece of the same nature, we hear Monteverdi’s…

Summer Camp Guide 2026

By La Scena Musicale on 3 April 2026 Classical Music, Education, Guides, Montreal, Multimedia, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver, West

Acadia Summer Music Academies Wolfville, July 5 to 11 Creative Music Workshop, TD Halifax Jazz Festival Halifax, July 4 to 12 Montreal Camp Livingstone Magog, June 28 to August 7 Camp musical d’été de Montréal (CMEM) Montreal, June 29 to August 21 Camps de jour en arts de la scène Nos Voix Nos Visages Longueuil, June 29 to August 14 Creative Video Day Camp Montreal, June 29 to August 21 École de théâtre du vieux St-Eustache, camp de théâtre et d’impro St-Eustache, June 22 to August 14 Institut Suzuki Montréal Montreal, July 18 to 26 KlezKanada Summer Retreat of Yiddish…

CD Review | Aribert Reimann: Ein Traumspiel, Wergo

By John Gilks on 3 April 2026 Classical Music

Aribert Reimann: Ein Traumspiel; Denn Bleiben ist nirgends Franziska Rabl, mezzo-soprano; Karsten Jesgarz, tenor; James Tolksdorf, baritone; Marek Reichert, baritone; Opernchor Theater Hof; Hofer Symphoniker; Walter E. Gugerbauer, conductor; Martin Engler: narrator; Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Manuel Nawri, conductor Wergo, 2026 Ein Traumspiel was Aribert Reimann’s first opera. It premiered in 1965 in Kiel. It is based on Strindberg’s Ett drömspel (A Dream Play), which is a pretty weird piece, and musically, it’s heavily influenced by Alban Berg. Since the premiere, the piece has had two productions in Germany—at Wiesbaden in 1987 and, of all unlikely places, in 2018 in the…

CD Review | The Beethoven Project: Beethoven 5/Vol. 5; Jonathan Biss

By Heather Weinreb on 3 April 2026 Classical Music

The Beethoven Project: Beethoven 5/Vol. 5 Jonathan Biss, piano; Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra; Malin Broman, leader Orchid Classics Jonathan Biss is clearly grappling with Beethoven. The latest and final instalment of the Beethoven Project, which pairs Biss’s performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 3 with Caroline Shaw’s Watermark— written in direct response to the concerto—offers listeners a fresh perspective on the composer. Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto sits at the crossroads between his early works and the composer’s “heroic” middle period, when his compositions became much larger in scale and emotionally powerful. Unlike many of the great recordings of the concerto,…

Minna Re Shin. Photo: Loïc Bruderlein, extracted from the Sonate des Saisons performance video project (dir. Carlos Ferrand).

Minna Re Shin’s Sonate des Saisons: Crossing Disciplinary Divides

By Viktor Lazarov on 3 April 2026 Classical Music, Interviews, Piano

A lone figure stationed at a grand piano in a dark hall is nothing new to modern concertgoers. This scene suddenly changes with the arrival of three dancers taking centre stage. Combing through the air, their gestures echo the suspenseful minor chords played by the pianist. This mise en scène is amplified by dramatic projections and a video of Chinese calligraphy being drawn by the hand of an invisible master. “The Sonate des saisons project takes inspiration from Rachel Laurin’s Sonate Op. 2 en mi mineur as well as my own cultural background and heritage,” explains pianist Minna Re Shin. Based on the…