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La Grande tournée, Photo: Maxime Brut

The Grande Tournée for Montreal’s 375th: A village fair for modern times

By Nathalie de Han on 1 June 2017 150/375, Circus, Interviews

Montrealers have almost certainly heard of the Grande tournée, brainchild of Cirque Éloize. This innovative, festive project celebrating Montreal’s boroughs is free and aimed at all ages. For 19 weekends, the Grande Tournée brings Montreal’s parks and alleyways alive with circus performers, magicians and local artists. Jean-Philippe LaCouture, event director and producer for Cirque Éloize and Maxim Bonin of Les Chats de Ruelle (“alley cats”) tell us how it all came together. “The commission in charge of Montreal’s 375th anniversary celebrations has a mandate to highlight Montreal talent, and they suggested a project that wasn’t the one we submitted, but…

Marina Thibeault, Photo: Matthew Perrin

Marina Thibeault: 21st-Century Viola Ambassador

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 June 2017 Interviews, Strings

“It’s 2017!” is the new benchmark expression of disapproval for antiquated modes of thinking and doing, and we need only to look at the success of Marina Thibeault’s debut album Toquade to recognize that the viola has a voice autonomous from its petite counterpart and that henceforth all viola jokes must be met with exclamations of the date rather than laughter. They’re just not relevant anymore,” says Thibeault. “They’re like the embarrassing jokes that your uncle tells.” Reaching the top four Classical albums on iTunes on the day of its release, Toquade is but the cherry on the top of…

Kronos Quartet, Photo: Jay Blakesberg

The Kronos Quartet Looks to the Future

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 June 2017 150/375, Chamber Music, Contemporary, Interviews

For Canada’s Sesquicentennial celebration, Ottawa’s 8th annual Music and Beyond Festival boasts a star-studded slate including Sarah Chang, Measha Brueggergosman, and Garrick Ohlsson, among other local and international favourites. From July 4 to 17, festivalgoers will enjoy a truly multi-disciplinary menu of classical music with artistic collaborations that include dance, visual art, poetry, comedy – even yoga for those who are feeling more adventurous. Of the 75 concerts and events scheduled, one of the most anticipated guests is surely the Kronos Quartet, who will perform at Dominion-Chalmers United Church on July 5. For over forty years, the string quartet has…

Simon Brault

Interview with Simon Brault of the Canada Council for the Arts

By Hassan Laghcha on 1 June 2017 150/375, Arts Industry, Classical Music, Interviews

“We’re able to take many more risks.” To foster artistic experimentation, begin recognizing Indigenous culture, support emerging talent, treat artists less prescriptively – these are some of the new guidelines for the Canada Council for the Arts as it emerges from years of austerity and undergoes a “historical moment,” in the words of director Simon Brault. Taking stock halfway through his mandate at the head of the CCA, which he has directed since June 2014, Brault highlights the following achievements: adopting of a new funding model, an Indigenous arts funding program, and the “CCA’s big comeback on the international scene,…

Man and His World @ 50: Expo 67 revisited

By Marc Chénard on 1 June 2017 150/375, Experimental Jazz, Interviews

On October 29, 1967, at the closing ceremony of Montreal’s World Fair, a.k.a. Expo 67, Commissioner General Pierre Dupuy concluded his speech with these telling words: “My report is this: mission completed!” A half-century later, this assessment still stands: the event fulfilled its mission to celebrate mankind in its diversity. For 184 days, Montrealers, Quebecers, Canadians, Americans, and tourists from distant lands could visit the world in one train ride, the Expo Express, that linked one peninsula (Cité du Havre) to two islands (Sainte-Hélène and Notre-Dame). During one magical season, a little over 50 million visitors set foot on its…

The 2016 NYO performs at the Maison Symphonique

The National Youth Orchestra: Unsilent and At The Edge

By Rebecca Anne Clark on 1 June 2017 150/375, Education, Interviews, Orchestral

When Barbara Smith and Blanche Israël greeted me at the NYO’s downtown Toronto office, they had a weary-yet-determined air – familiar to any arts administrator labouring over a cherished project. “We’re getting down to the wire,” they explained, citing less than a month until the National Youth Orchestra begins its 2017 season and welcomes 92 talented young musicians, chosen from over 500 applicants, into its training program. I commented that it’s an exciting time. “Well okay, if you say so!” they chuckled dryly before admitting that it is indeed an exciting time. The orchestra will soon embark on the Edges…

The Babes Are Back! MasterVoices Polishes Up Victor Herbert’s Babes in Toyland for a Glorious Return

By Charles Geyer on 26 April 2017 Contemporary, Interviews, Musical Theatre, Opera

PREVIEW: of the new MasterVoices concert presentation of Babes in Toyland by Victor Herbert (Carnegie Hall, New York City, April 27, 2017 at 7 p.m.); and INTERVIEW: with MasterVoices’ musical director Ted Sperling. Long before Sondheim walked on the dark side with Into the Woods, or Disney began issuing its franchise line of tailored fairy-tale musicals, composer Victor Herbert and his Broadway posse had raided the nursery cradle, character-snatching a mother lode of Mother-Goose autochthons to populate the monumental 1903 operetta, Babes in Toyland. They’re all there – Mary Quite Contrary, Tom Tom the Piper’s Son, Little Bopeep, Jack, Jill,…

Simone Dinnerstein, Photo: Arianna Dominguez

Collaborator at the Keyboard: Piano Star Simone Dinnerstein – and Mozart – Meet the Cubans

By Charles Geyer on 22 April 2017 CD and Book Reviews, Classical, Interviews, Piano

REVIEW: of the new Simone Dinnerstein classical album Mozart in Havana; and INTERVIEWS: with pianist Simone Dinnerstein (and with pedagogue and activist Solomon Mikowsky). What happens when a nice girl from Brooklyn, a bad boy from Salzburg, and a precocious passel of Cuban children of the Revolution all get together? If the parties in question are acclaimed pianist Simone Dinnerstein, composer Wolfgang Mozart, and the members of the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, the answer is Mozart in Havana – Dinnerstein’s new album, debuting April 21 from SONY Classical, and destined to be one of the most talked-about classical recording drops of…

Lawrence Brownlee in Charlie Parker's Yardbird, Photo: Dominic M. Mercier

Tenor at the Table! Opera Philadelphia Welcomes Lawrence Brownlee as Artistic Advisor

By Charles Geyer on 18 April 2017 Interviews, Opera, Vocal Jazz

INTERVIEW: with Lawrence Brownlee (and Opera Philadelphia general director David Devan). The busy life of one world-class tenor just got that much busier, and the American opera scene stands to benefit mightily by it. On March 30, Opera Philadelphia announced that renowned tenor Lawrence Brownlee will be its newest “artistic advisor” – a role in which the artist will carry an impressive brief of prerogatives for advancing the programming, outreach, and project development of a company already regarded as among the most progressive, energetic and innovative in the country. Brownlee is, of course, an international performance star, appearing regularly on…

Samy Moussa, Photo: Manu Theobald

Samy Moussa Celebrates Montreal in Music: La Symphonie Montréalaise for the 375th with the OSM

By An-Laurence Higgins on 1 April 2017 150/375, Contemporary, Interviews, Quebec Music

Samy Moussa, a young Montreal composer, will see his work premiered on the occasion of the 375th anniversary of the city of Montreal by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. At 32 years old, Moussa has just won the 2017 Hindemith Prize, given to a contemporary composer and accompanied by an award of 20,000 euros. This is not the composer’s first collaboration with the OSM, since the soberly-titled Symphonie is his fifth orchestral commission. It is, however, his longest and most ambitious work. In a brief interview, Moussa spoke to us about the circumstances of the creation of the work and…

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