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Browsing: Strings

Louisa Staples & Johannes Brzoska of Viatores Quartet at the Banff International String Quartet Competition (2025). Photo: Rita Taylor/Courtesy of Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

Review | Banff International String Quartet Competition opens with Haydn & the 21st-century

By Bill Rankin on 28 August 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Music Competition, Strings

The 15th triennial Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) began on Aug. 25 at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in the Canadian Rockies, west of Calgary. Nine string quartets (a tenth, Montreal-based group withdrew after being invited) are competing for cash prizes as well as a three-year career development program valued at a half a million dollars. Each quartet plays four rounds of various repertoire, some prescribed and some they curate, for a jury of seven distinguished string players, including Toronto Symphony concertmaster and founding member of the New Orford String Quartet, Jonathan Crow. Three quartets will be…

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra

Calgary Philharmonic 2025/26 Season Kicks Off Sept 5

By Newswire on 14 August 2025 Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Film, Movie soundtrack music, Multimedia, Musical Theatre, Newswire, Opera, Piano, Popular Music, Strings, Theatre, Violin, West

Calgary AB (August 14, 2025) — World-renowned stars, epic classics, thrilling collaborations, rockin’ pops, family fun, blockbuster movies, and more — the Calgary Phil heads into its 70th anniversary season with concerts for all ages and tastes. Celebrating seven decades as Calgary’s Orchestra, the Calgary Phil is more committed than ever to making orchestral music accessible to everyone. September alone demonstrates the exciting variety that audiences can expect throughout the season. We officially get things cooking on September 5 at The Big Four Roadhouse for the Canadian premiere of SYNTHONY: EDM Meets Orchestra, which sees the Calgary Phil, along with…

Discover the latest Canada Council prize winners

By Newswire on 9 July 2025 Arts Industry, Dance, Literature, Newswire, Opera, Strings, Visual Arts, Vocal

The Canada Council for the Arts has the immense pleasure of recognizing the following prize winners for their contributions to photography, dance, visual arts, literature and music. Bernard Diamant Prize Emma Pennell is recognized for their powerful operatic voice and unwavering advocacy for Indigenous representation in classical music. Emma will receive a $5,000 prize. Read More Canada Council for the Arts Photography Prize Sandra Brewster is recognized for her compelling explorations of identity, memory, and place through photo-based and multimedia art. Sandra will receive a $8,000 prize. Read More Jacqueline Lemieux Prize Cai Glover is recognized for his innovative choreography that fuses movement…

The winners of the 2025 Jean-Marie Beaudet Award and the Virginia Parker Prize

By Newswire on 25 June 2025 Classical Music, Newswire, Orchestral, Strings

The Canada Council for the Arts is delighted to announce the winners of the Jean-Marie Beaudet Award in Orchestra Conducting and the Virginia Parker Prize, through which the Council recognizes the highest levels of artistic merit and career achievement by artists from Canada in the performing arts and classical music. And the winners are: Jean-Marie Beaudet Award in Orchestra Conducting ($20,000) Jaelem Bhate, conductor, composer and Music Director of the Prince Edward Island Symphony. The Jean-Marie Beaudet Award in Orchestra Conducting is given to a promising young conductor from Canada for their remarkable work. Virginia Parker Prize ($30,000) Joanne Yesol…

(L-R): Cheri Maracle, Gryphon Trio, and Marion Newman in Echo: Memories of the World. Photo: Darcy Beck

Review | Echo: Memories of the World Explores Archives’ Power

By Kaitlyn Chan on 4 June 2025 Concert Reviews, Indigenous, Multimedia, Piano, Strings, Vancouver, Vocal, West

As the audience arrived at the Chan Centre for Echo: Memories of the World (May 31), they were immediately directed to the choral loft behind, and above the stage. “This is an intimate concert,” the ushers said as they asked us to fill the first two rows of seats. This intimacy fostered a closeness to one’s neighbour and undivided attention on the carefully curated program we were about to see. On the stage, four or five additional rows of seats allowed some audience members to be even closer, only a few feet away from the performers. Above them was a…

Stewart Goodyear. Photo: Allan Cabral/Courtesy of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Review | Stewart Goodyear’s Exuberant Caribbean Callaloo with TSO

By Andrea Rush on 2 June 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Piano, Strings, Toronto

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra continues to thrive, playing to a packed Roy Thomson Hall on May 28, each part of the program receiving multiple standing ovations. Wednesday evening ticket holders could also enjoy a pre-concert offering with TSO Chamber Soloists Eri Kosaka, violin; Theresa Rudolph, viola; and Emmanuelle Beaulieu Bergeron, cello. They were joined by the main concert’s soloist and Toronto native, pianist Stewart Goodyear to perform two of his own compositions, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and Piano Quartet. Goodyear’s trademark versatility and musicality opened the evening and shone throughout the rest of the night. As a whole, the program…

Guitarist Sean Shibe performs with (l-r) Matthew Hunt, Adam Walker, and Ema Nikolovska. Photo: Darius Weinberg/Wigmore Hall

Review | Steve Shibe & Ema Nikolovska Bring on the New at Wigmore Hall

By James Ellis on 30 May 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Strings, Vocal, Winds

Scottish guitarist Steve Shibe is a feature artist at London’s Wigmore Hall this season. I first clocked him at a stellar concert with the Manchester Collective in Cardiff. He is clearly a musician to watch out for as this concert proved. Scottish composer James Dillon’s 12 Caprices for guitar solo was given its world premiere. Conjured earlier this year, Dillon’s sound contains ghosts of atonality, though the allure of classical Spanish guitar was never far away. Gently hushed, these miniatures commanded the space, the sense of quiet was highly pleasing. Shibe looked focused and played with his renowned pianissimo. With…

Ottawa Chamberfest: Violinist Shunske Sato on historical practice

By Madeline Boldt on 30 May 2025 Baroque and Early, Classical, Classical Music, Ottawa, Piano, Violin

When Shunske Sato takes the stage, the audience steps into a whole new era. Far beyond playing music from the past, Sato is determined to immerse himself in the era. Through a blend of research and music, he has fostered a unique approach to early music—one that is equally rooted in fact and feeling. Beyond his career in performance, Sato also doubles as a scholar and educator. His practice is historically-informed, based on his involvement in extensive research on 18th- and 19th-century performance practices. A violinist and conductor, Sato attempts to bring to life the textures and intricacies of the…

Abel Selaocoe with the OSM. Photo: Antoine Saito

Review | Selaocoe’s Extraordinary Four Spirits & Prokofiev with OSM

By Amanda Wong on 27 May 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Montreal, Orchestral, Strings

The world of classical music is filled with prodigies and virtuosos. Excellence is the norm onstage in a large concert hall, and so it takes an artist of exceptional brilliance to deliver a performance that doesn’t just impress, but rocks you and stays with you long after the final note. Abel Selaocoe is a South African cellist and vocalist who, at just 33, has emerged as a trailblazer in modern classical music. On May 21, a packed audience of concert goers gathered to witness him sing and play alongside the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under the baton of celebrated Chinese-American…

Asitha Tennekoon. Photo: Simon Karmal

Review | Asitha Tennekoon Interrogates the Immigrant Experience at WMCT

By John Gilks on 9 May 2025 Art Song, Concert Reviews, Piano, Strings, Toronto, Vocal

Tenor Asitha Tennekoon’s May 8th recital at the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto explored the idea of Belonging. The first set, Vaughan Williams’ setting of six poems from Housman’s On Wenlock Edge explored a geographically settled but psychologically unsettled sense of self. The accompaniment of piano quintet (Steven Philcox, piano; Yolanda Bruno and Aysel Taghi-Zada, violins; Laurence Schaufele, viola and Amahl Arulanandam, cello) provided lots of colour for these sometimes lyrical, sometimes dramatic, but always death-obsessed poems. Tennekoon sang them with perfect diction and great expressiveness, navigating the tricky dialogue in “Is my team ploughing?” very effectively. Ian Cusson’s Where…