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Credit: Vancouver Sun

Remembering Kazuyoshi Akiyama (1941-2025)

By Madeline Boldt on 29 January 2025 Arts Industry, Canadian Music, Classical, Classical Music, Obituaries, Orchestral, Toronto, Vancouver

Legendary Japanese conductor Kazuyoshi Akiyama has passed away at the age of 84. A cornerstone of Vancouver’s classical music scene, Akiyama led the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra for over 13 years. Under his leadership from 1972 to 1985, the VSO transitioned from the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to the Orpheum, marking a new era of growth, increased ticket sales, and a revitalized sound. Early Life and Career Born in Japan in 1941, he launched into the world of classical music in 1964 when he made his debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. His immediate success earned him the roles of both Music…

A scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Madama Butterfly, 2025. Photo: Michael Cooper

Review | COC’s Madama Butterfly a Profound Emotional Journey

By Denise Lai on 28 January 2025 Newswire, Opera, Toronto

With its epic music and heartbreaking story, it is no surprise that Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly remains one of the most popular and beloved operas of all times. It has been over 10 years since Madama Butterfly was last staged by the Canadian Opera Company after the pandemic forced the cancellation of its mainstage performances in 2022. This opera has also struggled with many controversies related to western imperialism, along with cultural and gender stereotypes. In this production (seen Jan. 26), COC has at least in part addressed them by foregoing the traditional geisha makeup, and by having an all-Asian…

Tickets now on sale for Opera 5’s Toronto Opera Festival

By Newswire on 28 January 2025 Chamber Music, Classical, Newswire, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

TORONTO, ON – Tickets are now on sale for Opera 5’s first-ever Toronto Opera Festival, running from June 12-21, 2025 at Factory Theatre. The festival features a series of performances, including the world premiere of Come Closer by Canadian Composer Ryan Trew and with a libretto by Opera 5’s General Director Rachel Krehm, Opera 5’s first musical theatre production, Elegies: A Song Cycle by William Finn, and a Gala Performance – featuring the Portfolio Artist Interns. The Toronto Opera Festival is currently Toronto’s only professional opera festival dedicated to celebrating opera, musical theatre, and new Canadian works. It will also showcase homegrown talent while training the next generation of portfolio artists. Rooted in…

Opera 5 Announces 2025 Portfolio Artist Internship Program Participants

By Newswire on 23 January 2025 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Education, Employment, Newswire, Opera, Toronto

TORONTO, ON – Today Opera 5 announces the 8 singers who will join the Portfolio Artist Internship Program for the 2025 Toronto Opera Festival, in partnership with Opera McGill and the Schulich School of Music. The Portfolio Artist Internship is an innovative new approach to artist training designed to support individuals pursuing a portfolio career: a multi-faceted path, artistic or otherwise, simultaneously. The internship provides three levels of learning opportunities: performance, professional skills development, and secondary artistic/administrative skills. The 2025 interns include Kyle Briscoe, Jayden Burrows, Len Crino, Kate Fogg, Brenna McFarland, Maddelena Ohrbach, MacKenzie Sechi, and Emma Yee. For more information on these artists, click…

New Conducting Mentoring Program and Community Concert in May

By Newswire on 16 January 2025 Choral, Classical Music, Education, Newswire, Toronto

Toronto, January 16, 2025 — The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (TMChoir) is proud to announce an exciting new initiative for local conductors: the Conducting Mentoring Program, taking place over several weeks in April and May 2025. This program is designed for local conductors of all experience levels, including university students and emerging community leaders, and will focus on educational activities surrounding the community concert, rather than extensive podium time. The program delivers a personalized, in-depth musical learning experience for participants, combining observation, discussions, and lectures. With its innovative approach to conducting mentorship, it emphasizes hands-on engagement and collaborative learning, providing an…

Shown left-right: incoming singers of the 2025/2026 Ensemble Studio, Ariana Maubach, Angelo Moretti, Nicholas Murphy, Emma Pennell, and Ben Wallace (all photos submitted by the artist).

Ensemble Studio to Welcome Five New Singers for 2025/2026 Season

By Newswire on 16 January 2025 Newswire, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company’s prestigious Ensemble Studio for artistic career development has invited five of the country’s most talented artists to join next season, marking the 45th anniversary of the COC’s innovative program for singers and pianists. Soprano Emma Pennell, mezzo-soprano Ariana Maubach, tenor Angelo Moretti, baritone Ben Wallace, and bass-baritone Nicholas Murphy will join the company’s highly specialized program for Canadian opera professionals in 2025/2026, alongside two returning Ensemble Studio members entering their second year of the program, soprano Emily Rocha and bass Duncan Stenhouse. Last fall, following a national audition tour, Maubach, Pennell, and Murphy all placed as finalists at the COC’s 11th annual Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition, with Pennell securing Second Prize and Maubach clinching both First Prize and…

Soprano Lauren Margison and tenor Colin Ainsworth.

Review | Lauren Margison & Colin Ainsworth Shine in OIC Alceste

By Gianmarco Segato on 13 January 2025 Concert Reviews, Opera, Toronto

Although Toronto audiences have experienced memorable Robert Carsen stagings of two operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck in relatively recent seasons (Orfeo ed Euridice and Iphigénie en Tauride, both in 2011), Voicebox: Opera in Concert (OIC)’s Jan. 12th presentation of his Alceste (1767) is a Canadian premiere. Its 1769 preface was a de facto manifesto outlining Gluck’s ideals for operatic reform. The result is an opera stripped bare of virtuosic vocal display that relies on expert articulation of its French text to make an effect. Happily, in soprano Lauren Margison and tenor Colin Ainsworth, OIC had found two exemplars of French,…

TSO conducted by Anja Bihlmaier at Roy Thomson Hall. Photo: Jae Yang

Review | TSO Delights with Dvořák and Mozart Crowd-Pleasers

By Denise Lai on 13 January 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Toronto

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) heralded the new year with two audience favourites: Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622 and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor, op. 95 (“From the New World”). On Jan. 12, the concert opens with the usual choice of a rarely-performed modern piece. Most Toronto audiences, myself included, are unfamiliar with Grażyna Bacewicz, even though she was one of Poland’s most well-regarded composers of the mid-20th century. Her “Concerto for String Orchestra” is her best-known and most-performed piece, and considered a prime example of Polish neoclassicism, showcasing Bacewicz’s style of blending traditional and…

Cast of Koerner Hall's Into the Woods. Photo: RCM/Lisa Sakulensky

Review | Stellar cast enlivens flawed Into the Woods at Koerner Hall

By Gianmarco Segato on 31 December 2024 Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, Opera, Popular Music, Toronto, Vocal

The nearly 40-year-old musical Into the Woods, with music and lyrics by the legendary Stephen Sondheim and book by American playwright James Lapine, has become a staple on North American stages. Its appeal is clearly linked to an ingenious amalgamation of familiar characters from classic fairy tales like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk. Their stories are utilised to deliver a universal message that boils down to “be careful what you wish for”. Koerner Hall has assembled a cast which includes the crème de la crème of Canadian musical theatre in a smartly-staged production by Richard…

Holly Chaplin in the title role of Toronto Operetta Theatre's Countess Maritza. Photo: Gary Beechey

Review | Toronto Operetta Theatre’s Marvellous Countess Maritza

By Gianmarco Segato on 30 December 2024 Concert Reviews, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

As is their tradition, Toronto Operetta Theatre livens up the in-between-Christmas-to-New Year lull with an annual production of a classic, golden age operetta. This year, it’s Hungarian composer Imre Kálmán’s Countess Maritza with its non-stop succession of great tunes and authentic czardas-infused rhythms. TOT can always be relied on to present some of the best young Canadian talent and this was certainly no exception at Dec. 29th’s opening performance. A Maritza that moves TOT’s General Director, Guillermo Silva-Marin is also the show’s stage director and he does a lot with comparatively modest means. Maritza’s country mansion is appropriately decorated with…

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