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The Richard Tucker Music Foundation removes tenor’s son from board over offensive comments

By Olivier Bergeron on 22 July 2020 Classical Music

David Tucker, son of the legendary American tenor Richard Tucker, has been removed from the board of directors of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. On July 18, soprano Julia Bullock shared an article from the Washington Post on her Facebook page, quoting protesters in Portland who were being detained by federal officers in unmarked vans. Mr. Tucker commented, “Good. Get rid of these thugs and I don’t care where you send them. They are a Pox on our society.” More offensive comments followed. After tenor Russell Thomas noted in a comment that the Tucker Foundation had only once given its top prize, the…

Angèle Dubeau and La Pietà to perform concerts on water

By Newswire on 22 July 2020 Classical Music

Montreal, July 22, 2020 – Violinist Angèle Dubeau and her orchestra La Pietà, an all-woman string ensemble consisting of 11 musicians, will stage their concerts Les Dames du Lac on the wonderful Lac Tremblant and Lac Mercier, in the majestic setting of Mont-Tremblant. These events will give the spectators a chance to listen to high-quality musical performances from their own watercraft (canoe, kayak, paddle board, etc.), while respecting social distancing guidelines. The free performances will take place on: Saturday July 25 at Lac Tremblant at 5 p.m. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/113697680824 Saturday August 1 at Lac Mercier at 5 p.m. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/114125648888…

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir announces the appointment of Simon Rivard as Associate Conductor

By Newswire on 21 July 2020 Classical Music

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is thrilled to announce the appointment of Simon Rivard as Associate Conductor. Simon Rivard has been serving as RBC Resident Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra since 2018. He was recently named an Equilibrium Young Artist as part of Canadian soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan’s internationally-acclaimed mentorship program for early career professional musicians. In 2017-2018, he was Resident Conductor of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and Musical Director of the TBSO Symphony Chorus. In recent years, he has served as Assistant Conductor of the Choir of St. Andrew and…

COC to stream Hadrian in free, one-night-only presentation as part of Montréal Pride Festival

By Newswire on 20 July 2020 Classical Music

Toronto – For the first time ever, audiences around the world will have a special opportunity to watch the Canadian Opera Company’s 2018 world premiere production of Hadrian, in full, online. On Monday, August 10 at 6:30 p.m. ET, in partnership with Montréal Pride Festival, the COC is hosting a free, one- night-only digital stream of the modern grand opera. The Hadrian Watch Party helps kick off one week of virtual Pride events and will feature a live Q&A session with both the composer and celebrated singer- songwriter Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor, a giant in Canadian theatre. “This…

Fifth Vernon Proms Classical Music Festival: The Show Must Go On

By Ruqaiyah Zarook on 20 July 2020 Classical Music

For a brief moment, it looked as though the fifth annual Vernon Proms Classical Music Festival was going to be canceled. But thanks to the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, residents of the Okanagan in B.C. will continue to hear the sounds of classical music from July 10 to Aug. 6, albeit a little differently. “I was not sure about the festival; everything was up in the air,” says Natalia Polchenko, founding and artistic director of Vernon Proms. “But once we received word about the province reopening, we reconsidered.” Polchenko explains that it is more important than ever to keep the…

Glimmers of hope

By Marc Chénard on 19 July 2020 Classical Music

Fearing for the worst during the current crisis, our species yearns to see the light at the end of the tunnel. With the lockdowns now easing, there is reason to hope, but the threat of an impending second wave, as experts warn, still looms large. No less preoccupied by this state of affairs, the arts community has been hit hard. Reeled at first, it was thankfully kept afloat through emergency government support programs. While it was easy to fall prey to the doom and gloom, some artists countered this. The internet, for one, enabled the most resourceful ones to stage…

Blue moods

By Marc Chénard on 19 July 2020 Classical Music

Gone but not forgotten If jazz is social music, as Miles Davis once put it, the current rule of social distancing has weighed heavily against it. Forced into lockdown like everything around it, the music industry in general, and its jazz sector more specifically, has suffered greatly, its venues darkened, festivals cancelled and recording studios shut down. The first affected, however, are the performers, deprived of livelihood, and surely among the most vulnerable had they not been confined. On the local front, though, the pandemic has yet to have claimed victims in the community, nor in the rest of the…

Never Waste A Crisis Lixil, Japan’s Multinational Construction Giant

By Philip Ehrensaft on 18 July 2020 Classical Music

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a shadow boom in media variations on the “never waste a crisis” theme. When major crises arrive, a small army of authors and promoters advocate changes in the economy, polity or culture that they see as long-overdue imperatives. This year’s annual Opera America and League of American Orchestra conferences, held virtually, were permeated by debates between proponents of the never-waste-a-crisis worldview versus the it’s-rough-now-but-things-will-settle-back-to-normal perspective. This debate permeates every sector of the economy, politics and culture. In this article, I focus on how the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed, in record time, the practices of a…

Bayreuth Festival 2020 Programme goes Online in Partnership with DG

By Newswire on 17 July 2020 Classical Music

DG Stage will host the first-ever virtual Bayreuth Festival this summer. In partnership with the spiritual home of Richard Wagner’s music dramas, DG Stage will present sixteen evenings between 25 July and 29 August. The four works scheduled for the 2020 Bayreuth Festival – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin and Der Ring des Nibelungen – will be online on DG Stage in recent or landmark productions from the Bayreuth archives. “This unique event means so much to so many people around the world, which is why we are delighted to be able to collaborate with Deutsche Grammophon and present our full festival programme online… . DG Stage is set…

Les Balcons symphoniques OSDL delivers the care of music

By Hassan Laghcha on 16 July 2020 Classical Music

In an initiative aimed squarely at the health crisis, the Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil has organized a series of mini-concerts under the balconies of retirement homes. To bring a little sunshine into the lives of confined seniors, a quintet comprising Caroline Chéhadé, Ariane Bresse, Brian Bacon, Christopher Best and Gilbert Fleury and led by OSDL artistic director Alexandre Da Costa have visited residences and homes including the Chartwell Villa Rive-Sud residence, the AdvantAge and Émérite de Brossard, Promenades du Parc, Habitations Paul-Pratt, the Manoir Saint-Bruno and the Résidences Fleur de Lys Sainte-Julie. “When we present our concerts on balconies for…