Browsing: Canadian Music

Angela Hewitt, Piano  Sought after as both a soloist and collaborator in recital and chamber performances, Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt will appear in Stresa, Italy, for a solo recital of works by Bach and Schumann (Sept. 5). Shortly after, she can be heard in Kempten, Germany, performing Bach’s Goldberg Variations, with Christian Bakanic (accordion), Petrit Çeku (guitar), Christian Wendt (bass) and Benjamin Schmid (violin) (Sept. 19). The rest of her season has yet to be announced. www.angelahewitt.com Philippe Sly, Bass-Baritone Bass-baritone Philippe Sly will spend the first half of his 2023-24 season performing on home-soil in Quebec (Nov. 1), Halifax…

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If Guelph is the ignition switch for jazz in Southern Ontario, the Off Festival de Jazz de Montréal (OFJM) is its counterpart for the Montreal region. Both events have long histories, the OFJM stretching back to Y2K, when local musicians banded together to call out the city’s mammoth jazz festival for its cavalier attitude toward them. Off Festival On Again Having outgrown that original purpose, the event has carved its own niche over time, now casting itself as a promoter of local talent, of which the city has no short supply. In its upcoming 24th edition, running from Oct. 5…

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Hommage à François Dompierre Louise Bessette, piano; François Dompierre, composer and piano ATMA Classique, 2023 We rarely hear Louise Bessette in this light. To celebrate François Dompierre’s 80th birthday, the pianist offers us arrangements of film music, and other selections, all of which played a role in establishing the reputation of the Quebec composer, himself a pianist. “Most are piano reductions (…); others are adaptations of radio improvisations. Finally, a few were written especially for her, and are dedicated to her,” explains the composer, in the album’s booklet. These include Entre mer et chanterelles, written in honour of his former…

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Montréal Musica Marc Bourdeau, piano Centrediscs, 2023 Marc Bourdeau’s new project features piano music by Montreal composers. The innovative project, conceived during the pandemic, includes a CD containing 22 tracks and eight short films and music videos. Among the composers, there are names of yesterday and today who’ve made Montreal famous in the music world: piano star Marc-André Hamelin; “Canadian Mozart” André Mathieu; jazz monument Oscar Peterson, composers and pedagogues François Morel, Claude Champagne, Jacques Hétu, John Rea and Denis Gougeon; and organist Rachel Laurin. The CD, whose repertoire spans a century (1918-2017), offers the image of a city with…

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Author : (Eva Stone-Barney)

MONTREAL/QUEBEC Centre Culturel de Pointe-Claire In an effort to make cultural programming accessible to its residents, and breathe life into public park spaces, the Centre Culturel de Pointe-Claire will present a series of free concerts as part of their Summer Evenings in the Parks / Summer Beats in the Parks Festival. Running from June 28 to Aug. 16, the festival will consist of 10 concerts in parks across the city. Starting at Stewart Park on June 28, audiences are invited to a concert of world music titled Paul Kunigis: Yallah. Performances of blues, Latin jazz, world jazz, and Brazilian percussion…

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Author : (Eva Stone-Barney)

This year marks 30 years of the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival. Founded in 1994 by Richard Hornsby, clarinetist and Director of Music at the University of New Brunswick, and pianist Robert Kortgaard, the program has expanded substantially over the years, evolving from a three-day chamber-music event to a two-week music festival, complete with educational and mentorship programming for emerging musicians, community outreach activities, and a wide variety of concerts. Offering what Hornsby describes as a “combination of events in various locations around Fredericton,” the festival ensures that “anyone can experience and enjoy live classical chamber music.” “When we started,”…

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This page also available in / Cette page également disponible en français The field of jazz has its share of stories about musicians who died young, but there are also those who lead long and productive lives, some fortunate enough to reach a ripe old age and receive due praise for their accomplishments. In this era of smoke-free clubs, more jazz figures than ever are pushing well into their 90s, a handful of them even shattering the centenary mark. In case you wondered, the oldest living jazzman today is Ray Anthony, the last of the swing era big-band leaders, now…

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Durme, Durme: Four Ladino Folk Songs Maureen Batt, soprano; Tara Scott, piano Leaf Music, 2023 With only four short compositions inspired by prayers, poems, and lullabies, composer Elisha Denburg doesn’t have much room to establish the themes of the Judeo-Spanish folk songs. Luckily, he uses time to its fullest, enlisting soprano Maureen Batt and pianist Tara Scott to convey a wide range of raw emotions by reducing vocals and piano to their bare essentials. Batt demonstrates extreme flexibility through her limited performances, switching from solemn to jolly to confident without a second thought. She accommodates this wide range of feelings…

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Theme: Variation David Rogosin, piano Leaf Music, 2023 Theme: Variation shouldn’t be taken casually—the solo piano album is a thought-provoking, conceptual experiment that deserves many rounds of active listening. David Rogosin begins Orlando Gibbons’s The Italian Ground, followed by Mein Junges Leben Hat Ein End and Est-ce Mars, both composed by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. These compositions start slow and quiet before developing into fast, loud performances, demonstrating how variation in tempo and volume impact tone. This is a grace period that eases the listener into Rogosin’s concept of “variation.” He soon introduces Chopin’s Berceuse, Op. 57 to illustrate how a…

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I and Thou VC2 Cello Duo: Amahl Arulanandam, Bryan Holt, Paul Widner and Andrea Stewart, cello; Ben Reimer, drums; Stephanie Chua, piano Leaf Music, 2023 VC2 Cello Duo’s new album, I and Thou, is not for the faint of ear. The Violet Hour and Heist 2 give listeners a brief introduction to the cellists’ performance style on the album: busy and chaotic. Amahl Arulanandam and Bryan Holt highlight how they clash and co-operate as musicians in a joint performance that is more tense and disturbing than the sum of its parts. This is the strained nature of human relationships, the…

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