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Orchestras: Ontario

By Eva Stone-Barney on 1 September 2023 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Ottawa, Toronto

Toronto Symphony Orchestra The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s 2023-24 season has something for everyone, with their Masterworks series, Pops concerts, special events, and youth programming. To start off the season, conductor Gustavo Gimeno will lead the orchestra in performances of Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, programmed alongside Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps, and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (Sept. 20, 21). Seong-Jin Cho will then join the orchestra at the piano in a performance of works by Ravel (Sept. 28-30). Trevor Wilson, the TSO’s RBC Resident Conductor,will take the podium for a program of English favourites,…

Jean-Sébastien Vallée (Photo by Nan Melville)

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir 2023-24 Season: Hear the Passion

By Denise Lai on 1 September 2023 Choral, Classical Music, Toronto

The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir has big plans for its upcoming 2023-24 season. Artistic Director Jean-Sébastien Vallée’s programming is based on the theme “Human Passion Unleashed.” Vallée explains that this season’s repertoire resonates deeply with the core of human emotions, embracing the full spectrum of passion, intensity, and vulnerability. His choices reflect his vision to forge a connection between the audience and the profound depth of human expression that choral music can convey. TMC’s season opener In Time is a unique immersive experience that combines music and dance, showcasing Toronto dance group Compagnie de la Citadelle. This is complemented by two…

Vincent Lauzer (Photo by Julien Faugère)

La Nef: The 2023-24 Season

By Alexandre Amat on 1 September 2023 Baroque and Early, Canadian Music, Classical Music, Montreal, Quebec Music

Claire Gignac, artistic and general director of La Nef, says that its repertoire is defined by “a mosaic of musical colours,” the result “of all sorts of artists, disciplines, types of music, repertoires and resonances coming together.” The 2023-24 season will offer four engaging concerts reflecting this range of musical approaches. To open the new season Oct. 18 at Centre St-Jax, the show Tant que vivray will feature Vincent Lauzer on recorder and Sylvain Bergeron on lute. Dedicated to baroque music, the concert will present an instrumental repertoire from France, Spain and England from the 16th and 17th centuries. Soprano…

Pirates et Corsaires

Fall Highlights: Visual arts

By La Scena Musicale Team on 1 September 2023 Arts Industry, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Visual Arts

Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia Montréal Museum of Contemporary Art Oct. 25, 2023-March 10, 2024 If you want to dance with the devil, then this nonconformist, nontraditional, and absolutely shocking exhibit will surely stir your spirits. Russian feminist artists known for their conceptual eye tinged with nonconsensual flavours continue to be discovered and defy the authoritarian regime of their homeland. The project, which stems from a meeting in Moscow between co-founder Maria (aka Masha) Alyokhina and Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson and was launched by Reykjavik’s Kling & Bang gallery, brings its own taste for justice to the MAC. This culturally-sensitive…

Fauré Quartett

Upcoming Concerts (September 2023)

By Eva Stone-Barney on 1 September 2023 Classical Music, Montreal

Montreal Les Grands Ballets: Cinderella Les Grands Ballets will take the stage at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier with their production of Cinderella. With music by Sergei Prokofiev, and choreographed by Australian choreographer Jayne Smeulders, the production will feature the Grands Ballets Orchestra, directed by Dina Gilbert, and all-new sets and costumes, designed by Simon Guilbault and Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt, respectively (Sept. 8-10). www.placedesarts.com Les Boréades de Montréal: Maestro Mozart Following the success of their album, Maestrino Mozart, Les Boréades, led by soprano Marie-Ève Munger, will open their 2023-24 season with Maestro Mozart. On the program are excerpts of the composer’s most famous operas, all…

The actors for Bluma Appel Theatre's The Lehman Trilogy

Fall Highlights: English Theatre

By Jim Burke on 1 September 2023 Montreal, Theatre, Toronto

Montreal September Montreal’s Anglo theatre scene is still struggling to return to its pre-pandemic bustle, but hopefully quality will triumph over quantity. First up is Kate Lavut’s big-hearted Fringe hit A Little Bit Pregnant, a comedy-drama about a group of young people “trying to adult.” Mainline Theatre, Sept. 8, 10. www.mainlinetheatre.ca A favourite out-of-town venue for Montrealers is the delightful Hudson Village Theatre, which promises The Greatest Play in the History of the World. Written by Brit playwright Ian Kershaw, it’s a space/time bending love story narrated by a woman in the wee small hours. Hudson Village Theatre, Sept. 13-24.…

Alain Trudel

Os de Trois-Rivières: Cœur by Gilles Bellemare

By Alexandre Amat on 1 September 2023 Classical Music, Montreal

The inaugural concert of the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières’s 2023-24 season, conducted by Alain Trudel, will take place Oct. 21, 2023 and will feature two works of exceptional breadth: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, Op. 55,“Eroica” and Gilles Bellemare’s Cœur—five symphonic poems for choir and orchestra. The idea for Cœur was born out of a collaboration between the composer, chief conductor, and first artistic director of OSTR, Gilles Bellemare, and cardiologist François Reeves. The symphonic poems written for choir and orchestra were inspired by the audible and visual rhythms of heartbeats. Each of the five movements is based on an arrythmia…

Fall Festival Picks

By La Scena Musicale Team on 1 September 2023 Arts Industry, Montreal

Festival de chant choral de Montréal Oct. 20-22 Now in its second year, Montreal’s Festival de chant choral brings back many of last year’s participants while encouraging all interested choristers and lovers of French choral singing to partake in its activities. The invited choirmaster for this upcoming edition, held under the auspices of the Alliance chorale du Québec, will be Monique Richard, an active promoter of choral music in New Brunswick’s Acadia region. While its programming is primarily geared toward music from living composers, the festival offers more than just performances; workshops and panel discussions revolving around a new yearly…

Something for Everyone: Choral Music in Toronto

By Eva Stone-Barney on 1 September 2023 Choral, Classical Music, Toronto

Author : (Eva Stone-Barney)

Canada boasts a vast, vibrant choral community—with countless professional and amateur choral organizations of all sizes scattered across the country. Among the most exciting places to be a choral singer, conductor, or lover of the choral arts is Toronto, Ont. It comes as no surprise that the country’s largest city would be ripe with choral activity. Jamie Hillman, U of T head of choral studies, describes it as “an international hub for artistic and cultural work.” Toronto is home to some of the country’s oldest choral organizations, such as the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Founded in 1894 by Augustus Vogt, the…

Andrea Núñez

Fall Highlights: Opera & Vocal

By Justin Bernard on 1 September 2023 Montreal, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Opéra de Montréal presents Mozart’s La nozze de Figaro Opera de Montréal begins its new season at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier on Sept. 23 with an eight-day run of Mozart’s masterpiece La nozze de Figaro. Drawing on the writings of Pierre Beaumarchais and composed a decade before the French Revolution, the opera was censored at first due to the scandalous depictions of the aristocracy. A cornerstone of the Mozartian canon, it exhibits both dramatic intensity and comical relief in certain scenes. Figaro, incidentally, marked the first collaboration between the composer and the talented librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte who, soon after this joint…

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