Classical Music - my/maSCENA

Browsing: Classical Music

CIOC 10th Anniversary

By Xenia Hanusiak on 11 October 2017 Classical Music

Ten years ago visionary teacher and organist John Grew of McGill University gathered together several interested businessmen, headed by E. Noël Spinelli, to establish the Canadian International Organ Competition (CIOC). It was the first international organ competition in the Americas, and it was also the first international organ competition to screen live performances. This year the CIOC celebrates its 10th anniversary. “We have 56 applicants from 21 countries, representing a 40% increase over the previous edition,” says Thomas Leslie, Executive Director. The CIOC has grown to become a competition, a festival, and a celebration that allows patrons to discover the…

Zoltán Fejérvári

By Xenia Hanusiak on 11 October 2017 Classical Music

Zoltán Fejérvári — Concours musical international de Montréal by Xenia Hanusiak The 2017 competition of the Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) has been won by Zoltán Fejérvári, a 30-year-old pianist from Hungary. Outperforming 300 other contestants — a 120% increase from the previous piano edition held in 2014 — Fejérvári takes home the $30,000 first prize from the City of Montreal and the $50,000 Joseph Rouleau Career Development Grant from by the Azrieli Foundation. The CIMM holds the honour of being the only international music competition in North America to hold a contest every year. Its 2018 edition will…

Ballet Opera Pantomime

By An-Laurence Higgins on 11 October 2017 Classical Music

Ballet Opera Pantomime Opus Discovery Prize by An-Laurence Higgins Unique in its kind, the small Montreal company Ballet-Opera-Pantomime received last February the Opus Discovery of the Year award. As the name suggests, BOP creates ambitious and multidisciplinary productions using different art forms and different artists. Founded in 2013 by graduates of the Conservatoire de Montréal, the company’s mission is to promote and disseminate classical and contemporary music. From its beginnings, the company turned to works of composers of the 20th century, beginning with the chamber opera Curlew River by British composer Benjamin Britten. Its members were then able to work…

L'Étoile de Chabrier (2013) Photo: Bonnallie-Brodeur

Quebec’s Opéra Bouffe

By Hassan Laghcha on 11 October 2017 Opera, Vocal

Prepares to blow its 40th candle! They are all of different ages and professional backgrounds, but they all share the same passion: Operetta. Everyone has a very special history that led them to the Opéra bouffe du Québec. La Scena Musicale went to meet all the beautiful people who sing there and was able to preview the final preparations for their annual show in November. It is Wednesday, 7 pm, in the basement of the church of Bon-Pasteur in Laval. The tension is palpable among the thirty volunteer choristers who are preparing to take one of their final rehearsals under…

Jean-Michel Dubé

By Olivier Gentil on 11 October 2017 Classical Music, Piano

Jean-Michel Dubé Canadian Music Competition – Tremplin Section By Olivier Gentil Last July, Jean-Michel Dubé won the Canadian Music Competition – Stepping Stones. Over four rounds, this challenge represented the performance of nearly three hours of repertoire, and Dube presented Prokofiev’s 7th Sonata, Liszt’s Obermann Valley, a work by Brahms and an impromptu by Schubert. In the finale, the young pianist presented Beethoven’s Piano Concerto # 2. More recently, last September, Jean-Michel Dubé was awarded the Best Performance Award for the imposed work of the German Music Prize, an international competition in the very heart of Berlin. The particular work…

Magda Olivero – La Verissima – Part II

By Denis Robert on 11 October 2017 Opera, Vocal

Having had the honour of presenting this great lady was one of the memorable pleasures of my years spent at the Metropolitan.” – M. Chapin Following my first article on Magda Olivero, I would now like to relate my adventure through the various stages that allowed me to better understand the Olivero phenomenon. After recording the performance of Adriana Lecouvreur in Hartford in 1969, I decided to pursue my idea to record and archive all her performances. So I joined her in Dallas where she sang Fedora in Giordano’s opera of the same name, and a second recording was added…

Lois Marshall – An Appreciation

By Howard Dyck on 11 October 2017 Opera, Vocal

Lois Marshall was internationally regarded as one of the great sopranos of our time. And while she was blessed with a superb natural voice, it was the deeply emotional, personal, heartfelt dimension of her singing that was so distinctive. Her strength of character was borne out of adversity. At the age of two, she was struck down with polio which crippled her legs. Although her disability prevented her from achieving international recognition on the opera stage (she did sing some opera, most notably with the CBC Opera Company in the 1940s and 50s), she enjoyed an illustrious career as a…

Some Great Canadian Sopranos

By Pierre Chénier on 11 October 2017 Opera, Vocal

For this issue of La Scena Musicale, I have chosen four sopranos of our time, active on the national and international stage: Adrianne Pieczonka, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Karina Gauvin and Suzie LeBlanc. Aside from their talent, I chose them to illustrate the voices, genres and styles that exist among our artists. Adrianne Pieczonka was born in the United States and at age 2, moved with her family to Burlington, Ontario. In an international career that took her to all major stages, she moved to Europe in the 1980s and returned to Canada in Toronto in 2005. Adrianne Pieczonka possesses a large operatic voice,…

Interview with Raphaëlle Paquette

By Patricia Weber on 11 October 2017 Opera, Vocal

Having toured the world for nearly six years in the part of Cristal in the opera Starmania, soprano Raphaëlle Paquette has enjoyed a wide-ranging career in Quebec. The classically trained singer, dancer and pianist has now turned her attention to pop music and mixed genres — for example in her Duo Cheek to Cheek — and often performs in nursing homes. The week of October 21–28 finds her playing Gilda in Opéra de Québec’s Rigoletto. As part of our coverage of the new season, Raphaëlle spoke to us openly about the challenges of opera singing and the realities of a…

Dress rehearsal of Manitoba Opera's production of Die Fledermaus at the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Dr. Falke (Gregory Dahl) sings praise to the joys of wine, good fellowship and love. The comic operetta opens Saturday, November 25 with additional performances on November 28 and December 1.

Gregory Dahl from Scarpia to Rigoletto

By Arthur Kaptainis on 11 October 2017 Opera, Vocal

Thank heaven for seniority. As a 28-year-old teacher of choral music in Winnipeg, Gregory Dahl did not have any. Which meant he was among the first to be laid off when the high school at which he worked decided to downsize. “I had this epiphany,” the baritone said before an open rehearsal of Puccini’s Tosca in Place-des-Arts. “I was in teaching, which I think is a stable job. And this stable job was unstable. For years I wanted to be on stage. I denied it to myself. Finally, I said, that’s it, I’m going to try it.” The baritone had…

Previous 1 … 243 244 245 246 247 … 334 Next

Current Issue

PDF HTML

Next Issue : June/July 2024

Ad Deadline : May 24, 2024

Past Issues, Subscriptions, Advertising