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Welcome to La Scena Musicale’s weekly Highlights, a roundup of classical music news from Canada and beyond. We’re starting off the new year with appointments to the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario, a host of new albums, and several concerts featuring notable Quebecois classical performers.
New Year, New Music
Music Theatre Wales has released its second digital opera in partnership with production company Hijinx. Perthyn, named after the Welsh word for ‘belong’, was created by young neurodiverse performers to share the message of belonging, according to The Violin Channel.
Buzz Brass’s previously announced Héritage, the quintet’s debut ATMA Classique album, will be released Jan. 12.
Matthias Mautte is directing Ensemble Caprice in their upcoming ATMA Classique release, Don Quichotte chez la duchesse.
With the emergence of several big band ensembles in recent years, including Canadians Darcy James Argue and Daniel Hersog, The Guardian writer Kevin Le Gendre suggests jazz orchestras are making a comeback.
Marin Alsop has been appointed as Principal Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra for three years, starting in the 2024-25 season. Meanwhile, Théâtre du Nouveau Monde general and artistic director Lorraine Pintal, as well as Cleveland Orchestra music director Franz Welser-Möst, have announced that they’re stepping down from their roles.
Recent and Upcoming Shows
We at the La Scena Musicale team have compiled a list of our top concerts of 2023. Stay tuned to hear more about this year’s best concerts!
Pianist Jean-Michel Blais performed a symphonic rendition of his 2022 album Aubades (La Presse) at the Maison Symphonique on Jan. 11 and 12, with Nicholas Ellis and the Orchestre de l’Agora as accompaniment.
A string-wind ensemble (image provided by the Orchestre de l’Agora, taken by Nadia Zheng)
From Jan. 12 to 14, Montreal-based cellist Elinor Frey will play three of Bach’s cello suites (Stir) at Early Music Vancouver’s LUMEN Festival.
Fazil Say will headline Pro Musica’s first Cartes blanches concert on Jan. 21 at Salle Pierre-Mercure.
Bassist, Orford Music resident, and 2022 ADISQ Félix laureate Carl Mayotte has announced a series of six shows in partnership with six Quebec music conservatories. The first show is Jan. 28 with the Conservatoire de Montréal, with the rest to follow in February and March.
Carl Mayotte (Photo provided)
Recordings
Vikingur Olafsson’s Goldberg Variations has been streamed over 20 million times (Ludwig Van) according to recording label Deutsche Grammophon. He’ll be touring the work from Jan. 20 to June, with a Jan. 22 concert at the Club Musical de Quebec and a Jan. 24 concert at Salle Bourgie.
Awards, Appointments, and Competitions
CEO of the Royal Conservatory of Music and 2023 Order of Ontario appointee, Peter Simon (Photo provided)
The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Honourable Edith Dumont, has appointed 25 people to the Order of Ontario, including Royal Conservatory of Music CEO Peter Simon. Toronto Symphony donor Blake C. Goldring and “Up From The Roots Entertainment” creator Dwayne Morgan were also appointed.
The 78 appointees to the Order of Canada in 2023 were announced by Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, in December. Music-related appointees include luthier Linda Jane Manzer (officer), Canada’s first Inuk opera singer, Deantha Rae Edmunds (member), classical composer Gary Alan Kulesha (member), and double bass player Joel Andrew Quarrington (member).
Local News
The 91-year-old film composer behind the Star Wars and Indiana Jones soundtracks, John Williams, says he won’t be retiring (Classic FM) following the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Classic FM).
In the “era of the algorithm,” where vinyl records and CDs seem to be holding their own, Le Devoir writer Philippe Renaud investigates the future of physical sheet music.
Obituary
Orianna Santunione, an Italian soprano who was known internationally “for her performances at Paris Opera” according to Opera Wire, died at 89 on Dec. 16.
Soul singer and pianist Les McCann has died at 88 (La Presse) after a bout of pneumonia.
British drummer and percussionist Tony Oxley passed away on Dec. 26 (The Guardian). He was best known for his influential 1970s album The Baptised Traveller and for performing in Alan Skidmore’s quintet. He also played with the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, the Joseph Holbrooke Trio, and various pianists and trumpeters.
German-American horn player Hermann Baumann died on Dec. 29 at 89. “American double bassist and hornist Willie Ruff died on (Dec. 24) 2023, at the age of 92 years old,” says The Strad. And principal trumpet for multiple American symphony orchestras, Frank John Kaderabek (Slipped Disc), has died at 94.
New Orleans Opera’s general director, Robert Lyall, died of cancer on Jan. 5 (OffBeat Magazine).
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