Share:
Browsing: Canadian Music
Eva Gauthier spent the summers of 1922 and 1923 in Europe, studying voice with Anna Schoen-René in Berlin, renewing her acquaintance with composers and colleagues in Paris and London, and replenishing her library with new scores. When she prepared her annual New York recital for the fall of 1923, she chose an eclectic program which not only ran the gamut of styles from Purcell and Bellini to Schoenberg and Milhaud (with several first performances included), but also featured the first appearance of popular American songs in a recital program. To accompany her in this last group she engaged the 25-year-old…
Share:
Lucas Debargue, the enigmatic pianist whose career took off after he was placed fourth at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015, performs in Quebec for the first time in two highly-anticipated concerts. The young pianist appears on December 4 at Quebec City’s Palais Montcalm and on December 9 at Montreal’s Place des Arts. Who is he? Lucas Debargue is a French pianist who has had an unusual career. In 2006, at age 16, he quit formal studies, preferring improvisation and sight-reading. In 2008 he entered Paris Diderot University to study literature. This “break” certainly influenced his playing, but he admits…
Share:
In 1998, Theodora Stathopoulos founded the Symphony Orchestra of Montreal’s FACE School (Fine Arts Core Education). The purpose was to train young musicians via newly-minted teachers, high-level amateurs and talented students. Stathopoulos is proud to see that twenty years of sustained effort have resulted in a string section (over 70 violins, violas, cellos and double basses) composed entirely of FACE students, some as young as ten. What’s more, this season’s concertmaster is only 13! That’s the youngest in the history of the orchestra, which when it started out only had a few FACE students among its players. The creation of…
Share:
Inaugurated in the 1960s by the congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and of Mary, the Claude-Champagne Hall is one of Montreal’s most iconic concert venues. Some of the largest music ensembles of the city have performed in this hall, marking several generations of music. Radio-Canada also occupied the premises until the mid-1970s and in those years they recorded its Grand Concerts. Today affiliated with the University of Montreal, the Claude-Champagne Hall continues to host many classical orchestras attracted by the authenticity and acoustic quality of the venue. The hall has also become the main venue…
Share:
Originally from Sherbrooke, pianist Tristan Longval-Gagné, fell into the “musical pot” early. In fact, his parents were both musicians and ran a music school in their home. He is now proudly a co-owner and teaches at the school. His first memories are therefore inevitably related to music and to his piano-teaching father, Tristan’s first teacher. After attending McGill University where Tristan studied with Sara Laimon whom he describes as his real mentor, he continued his studies at the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. In 2009, he won first prize at the OSM Standard Life Competition and in 2010 the…
Share:
It has already been 20 years since we first interviewed Canadian baritone Gerald Finley (see Philip Anson’s article). Then, Finley was a rising star specializing in Mozart operas and German lieder. Looking back, he says, “I was 37 and singing Papageno in The Magic Flute. It was seen as a good role to introduce young baritones to the house and to the acoustics at the Met, where of course big voices are the standard.” Finley is back at the Met this autumn, singing an acclaimed Athanael in Thaïs. “I’m working with the same director, John Cox. Back then he felt…
Share:
HAMBURG – “Suche Karte.” Seeking ticket. This is always a good sign, quite literally, in German-speaking lands, where it is common to advertise your unhappy condition with two words writ large on a piece of cardboard. Sure enough, a visit to the box office of the Elbphilharmonie confirmed that the fifth installment of the Orchestre Métropolitain’s tour of Europe was quite sold out. Eight thousand requests, 2,100 seats. Suche Karte. The huge demand cannot be reconciled with the usual explanations. Soloists Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Jean-Guihen Queyras are reputable enough, but hardly the stuff of a sellout. Yannick Nézet-Séguin is recognized everywhere.…
Share:
Montreal-based QW4RTZ is a new a cappella quartet that is making its name by sharing their passion for singing. Founded in 2010, the quartet now consists of Louis Alexandre Beauchemin, Philippe Courchesne Leboeuf, François ‘Fa.2’ Dubé and François Pothier Bouchard. They have a distinctive style, one that combines their classical background with a love of pop music, creating clever and original unaccompanied voice arrangements of the great standards of jazz, classical, and pop music. Their first album A cappella 101 came out in 2016 and was warmly received by critics. Although they come across as having a relaxed and youthful vibe,…
Share:
The 2012 film A Late Quartet is largely built around the preparation and performance of Beethoven’s Quartet in C-sharp minor, op. 131. The film has been praised on every level — the acting in particular. The actors, however, are not musicians! The actual sound of the movie’s fictional Fugue String Quartet was provided, most effectively, by the Brentano String Quartet. In the movie’s final scene the ensemble’s cellist (actor Christopher Walken) stops the performance and explains to the audience that he is no longer able to meet the music’s challenges. (He has Parkinson’s disease.) Anticipating that he might not be…
Share:
