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Monique Dubé: 23rd Prix Opus Hommage

By Dominic Trudel on 1 February 2020 Classical

The Conseil québécois de la musique has paid tribute to a leading figure who has left a significant mark on musical life in Quebec. Monique Dubé, who has spent close to 35 years cultivating chamber music on Montreal stages, is the 2019 recipient of the 23rd Prix Opus Hommage. Because Dubé’s father was a music director in the Irish community of Montreal’s Rosemont neighbourhood, Dubé first discovered music through sacred choral singing. Back in the day, there was no reason to expect that Dubé would be called on to play a key role in the concert music industry. Although she was…

23rd Opus Awards Heavenly Heights

By Dino Spaziani on 31 January 2020 Classical

On Sunday Jan. 19, 2020, Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts finds itself between heaven and earth. The Conseil québécois de la musique is ready. Make way for celebrations of a year rich in creation, imagination, emotion, collaboration, for music in vibrant colours. The preliminary gala For a third year running, near the entrance, Marc Hervieux conducts live interviews on the CQM Facebook page. The excitement of those involved in local arts is palpable. It doesn’t take long to know a bit of what they are preparing for in 2020. The passion will always outweigh the potential…

Photo: Sylvia Elzafon

Fabio Luisi Begins New Era with Dallas Symphony

By Paul E. Robinson on 19 January 2020 Classical, Concert Reviews, Orchestral

DALLAS, TX – Jaap van Zweden is gone and Fabio Luisi doesn’t take over until the 2020-2021 season, but the new man is stopping by often enough as music director designate to begin to give Dallas audiences a taste of what is to come. This past week he offered three works by American composers and a major chestnut in the form of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. All in all it was carefully-considered programming and the performances were very good. At the age of 60, Italian-born Fabio Luisi has an enormous repertoire and vast experience. But most of it is with European…

Photo: igloofest Facebook

Winter Festivals

By Andréanne Venne on 3 December 2019 Classical, Contemporary

Winter Classics Festival Jan. 31 to Feb. 2 The Orchestre symphonique de Laval is launching its Winter Classics Festival, a joyous occasion to listen to classical music in a festive setting with refreshments and activities for all. Because it coincides with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven, the composer’s great classics, such as his Fifth and Seventh Symphonies, will be played in four concerts over three days. Alain Trudel conducts, with Charles Richard-Hamelin at the piano in the “Emperor” Concerto and a hundred-strong choir in Beethoven’s Ninth. Entertainment includes yoga, fireside stories and skating, while hot chocolate, beer…

Photo: Annie-Éthier

Pentaèdre: Winds for all Seasons

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 3 October 2019 Chamber Music, Classical

Founded in 1985, the woodwind quintet Pentaèdre has an enviable reputation. It will present a variety of concerts during the 2019-20 season. “Pentaèdre has always been a woodwind quintet, but it is, above all, a flexibly sized ensemble that showcases music for wind instruments,” said flutist Ariane Brisson, the new artistic director. “You can hear a lot of music for woodwind quintet. However, we like varying repertoire, changing ensemble size, and inviting many musicians to join us.” The season begins with Hommage à Jacques Hétu, a concert that fulfills the ensemble’s mission. On Nov. 8, Pentaèdre observes the 10th anniversary…

Photo: courtesy

Nicole Linaksita: Winner of the Stepping Stone

By Charlotte Paillas on 2 October 2019 Classical, Music Competition, Piano

Like many young seekers of competition glory, Nicole Linaksita is fond of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The Vancouverite won the $10,000 first prize in the Stepping Stone division of the Canimex Canadian Music Competition last June in Calgary with a less famous score: Moritz Moszkowski’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in E Major Op. 59. The gala performance was with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra under its resident conductor, Karl Hirzer. “I wanted to enjoy the experience and to show people why I love the piece so much,” she says. “Being more relaxed helped things naturally happen rather than having every…

A look back on the outstanding 42nd edition of the Festival de Lanaudière

By Newswire on 6 August 2019 Classical

A year of renewal and discoveries under a new artistic direction Joliette, August 5, 2019 – The 42nd season of the Festival de Lanaudière has just come to a close with a breathtaking weekend to crown this memorable edition. “We immediately felt the public’s confidence in this first season entrusted to Renaud Loranger. This paves the way for a bright future,” points out François Bédard, the event’s executive director. The Festival has rekindled its founder’s original vision: to share classical music with a large public and to shine a spotlight on talent from around the world. Powerful pieces, stunning performances, wonderful discoveries,…

Cellist Matthew Christakos Wins 2019 Michael Measures Prize

By Newswire on 17 July 2019 Canadian Music, Classical

Today, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the winners of the 2019 Michael Measures Prize, which recognizes promising young Canadian classical music performers enrolled in the summer training program of the prestigious NYO Canada (National Youth Orchestra Canada). This year’s Michael Measures first prize of $25,000 goes to cellist Matthew Christakos. Matthew attends the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists of the Royal Conservatory of Music, in Toronto, and will begin a bachelor’s degree in music at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Peter Wiley and Carter Brey in September 2019. The Michael Measures…

WHITNEY ROBINSON, ALEX SOARE and KEELY FUTTERER as The Marquise, Sulpice and Marie; photo: Gary David Gold

Opera Saratoga 2019 – Tales of Girls Interrupted

By Charles Geyer on 7 July 2019 Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Musical Theatre, Opera, Orchestral, Romantic, Theatre, Vocal

REVIEW: of Ellen West (the world premiere of a new work by Ricky Ian Gordon and Frank Bidart); and La fille du régiment (a new production of Donizetti’s 1840 comic opera). Opera Saratoga inaugurated its summer 2019 mainstage series on June 29 and 30 – the same weekend as the highly-touted “WorldPride 50” celebration. The latter event, of course, originated as homage to the purported founding moment of the modern gay rights movement; but it has by now pullulated far beyond its initial meaning, becoming a portmanteau affirmation of self-identities of all stripes. It is interesting, then, that – whether…

Photo: Rachel Dawson

Conductor Brian Law: A Musical Adventurer Returns

By Charles Geyer on 31 May 2019 Classical, Vocal

Author : (Charles Geyer )

“He did remarkable things,” says Julian Armour of Ottawa’s pioneering choral music conductor Brian Law. “He probably made a greater contribution to music in this city than anyone else in its history.” That’s no idle assessment, coming as it does from the founder of the original Ottawa Chamber Music Society and the Music and Beyond festival, and himself one of the capital’s most influential classical-music shapers. But Armour’s esteem for Law is well-founded. On a personal level, Law is responsible for one of Armour’s most important early professional opportunities, having offered Armour a place in the renowned Thirteen Strings chamber…

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