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Matthew Aucoin (photo: Steven Laxton)

Matthew Aucoin Wins 2018 MacArthur Fellowship

By Newswire on 5 October 2018 Music Competition, Newswire, Vocal

It was announced today that Matthew Aucoin – “one of the most sought-after young voices in classical music” (Wall Street Journal) – has been named a 2018 MacArthur Fellow. Selected for his extraordinary originality and dedication in his creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction, the composer, conductor, writer, and pianist is one of 25 recipients of this year’s “genius grant.” On learning of the award, Aucoin commented: “When I look at past MacArthur fellows, I’m struck not just by their brilliance but, in so many cases, by their humaneness and wisdom. Claudia Rankine, Peter Sellars, Claire Chase –…

Upcoming Concerts – Ottawa

By Richard Todd on 5 October 2018 Arts Industry, Classical Music

Musically Speaking: Tetzlaff, Storgårds, Schubert National Arts Centre Orchestra, John Storgårds, conductor, with Christian Tetzlaff, violin. This will be the first pair of regular subscription concerts performed in the born-again acoustics of the National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall. A new shell and a more forward position for the orchestra will offer a new and presumably better sound. The major works on the program will be Berg’s Violin Concerto and Schubert’s Symphony in C Major (“the Great”). Each concert will be followed by a discussion in the Musically Speaking series featuring Storgårds and Tetzlaff. Southam Hall, Oct. 10-11 at 8 p.m.…

New Jewish Music. Analekta Works by Current, Marhulets, Foss

By Benjamin Goron on 5 October 2018 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Contemporary, Folk, Orchestral, Vocal

Three composers are involved in this first co-production between Analekta and the Azrieli Music Prizes: Brian Current and Wlad Marhulets, winners of the 2016 Azrieli Commissioning Competition and Azrieli Prize in Jewish Music, respectively, and the American Lukas Foss. The Czech National Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Steven Mercurio, the choir by Miriam Nmcová. Soloists are soprano Sharon Azrieli, clarinetist David Krakauer and tenor Richard Troxell. In The Seven Heavenly Halls, Current offers his musical vision of the Zohar, the fundamental text of the Kabbalah. Tension in the orchestra, a tumult of voices, mystical flights of fancy and dense textures…

Dussek: Piano Concertos (Hyperion)

By Norman Lebrecht on 5 October 2018 CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

Jan Ladislav Dussek could have been a contender if only Mozart had been born somewhere else and at another time. Dussek (1760 to 1812) has the wrong dates and the wrong skill sets. Two bars into every movement he picks a note that you know Mozart would have declined for a better choice and, while Dussek may recover quickly and deliver a passage that could pass for Clementi at his best, your ear is already tensed for the next false turn. Of the three concertos on offer here, two are contemporaneous with late Mozart in 1787 and 1791 yet have…

Opéra de Montréal: Building a Community of Opera Lovers

By Pierre Vachon on 4 October 2018 Education, Opera

The Opéra de Montréal has been reaching out to a broader audience over the last few years by staging activities for diehard fans and newcomers alike. The purpose, of course, is to get people better acquainted with this “total” art form, as Wagner once called it, and thus build a wider community of devotees. Among the activities and community initiatives devised by the company to develop awareness are Parlons opéra, préOpera, presentations in schools for the blind and hearing-impaired, and initiatives designed to promote mental health. The good news is that things are working out. Just last year, 14,494 youths…

Majestueux Mozart: Orchestre du Nouveau Monde takes on the Requiem

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 4 October 2018 Choral

True to tradition and confident of success, the Orchestre philharmonique du Nouveau Monde will perform Mozart’s Requiem twice on Nov. 10 under the baton of its own Michel Brousseau. Presented by Mundia Productions, the concerts in Notre Dame Basilica bring together five musical organizations: the Orchestre philharmonique du Nouveau Monde, its choir, the Chanteurs de Sainte-Thérèse, le Chœur Tremblant and the Ottawa Classical Choir. Brousseau has a passion for the Requiem, having conducted it many times. Mozart died while working on it, aged 35. As Brousseau explains, “It’s an unfinished work and we still don’t know for sure what was…

Ensemble Caprice

Third Edition of the Mécénat Musica : A Major Shift in Quebec Musical Philanthropy

By Hassan Laghcha on 4 October 2018 Classical Music

The Foundation of Greater Montreal has launched the third edition of Mécénat Musica, a program that encourages cultural philanthropy. The program, created by and for donors, encourages individuals to make donations held in perpetuity of $25,000 to a cultural organization they hold dear, and families to match them with donations of $250,000 or $2.5 million. The net cost of a $25,000 donation is $6,750 after tax credits, thanks to the additional Quebec tax credit for a substantial donation to culture, among others. This credit can be used only once in a lifetime and will be available until December 31, 2022.…

Génération 2018 ECM+ : Coming to A Concert Hall Near You

By Arnaud G. Veydarier on 4 October 2018 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Contemporary

A leader among the Canadian contemporary music ensembles, ECM+ has acquired over three decades a consistently reaffirmed reputation for the daring of its creations and the calibre of its performers. Since 1987, under the artistic direction of its founding conductor Véronique Lacroix, the ensemble has presented more than 260 premieres and issued 10 recordings that portray a sparkling and constantly evolving musical landscape. If the organization is primarily collective, this search for new worlds of sound cannot succeed without a competition for the next generation of composers. Born of the desire to provide composers with a stimulating creative environment and…

Photo : Brent Calis

Magali Simard-Galdès – 2018 Récital-concours of Festival Classica Winner

By Benjamin Goron on 3 October 2018 Art Song, Music Competition, Vocal

Second prize-winner in 2017 of the Recital Competition of French Art Song at the Classica Festival, soprano Magali Simard-Galdès this year won first prize for her performance of the art songs of Cécile Chaminade, accompanied by Michel-Alexandre Broekaert, who won the pianist’s prize. The Rimouski-born singer and champion of Chaminade is very proud of this feat, winning over the jury in the face of works by Debussy, Ravel, Fauré and Poulenc. Chaminade (1857-1944) was a concert pianist and prolific composer much loved in her time. Simard-Galdès likes her simple and limpid poetry, which lets the musical phrases speak for themselves.…

Élisabeth Pion – 2018 Shean Piano Competition Winner

By Benjamin Goron on 3 October 2018 Classical Music, Music Competition, Piano

Last May, 22-year-old pianist Élisabeth Pion from Otterburn Park, Quebec, won the Shean Piano Competition in Edmonton for her performance of Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto. With this feather in her cap, she is about to embark on a Master’s at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London with Ronan O’Hora. Shortly before her departure for the U.K., Pion spoke about her world of freedom, multidisciplinarity and solitude – ingredients that seem to match her pensive look and the nonchalance of a young Martha Argerich. Talk of music quickly veers off into the autobiographical Carnets by Camus, which she is…

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