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Alejandra Odgers. Photo: Éric Turgeon

Orchestre philharmonique du Québec: Youthful Zest for a Spring Concert

By Benjamin Goron on 1 June 2026 Classical Music, Musique classique, Musique orchestrale, Orchestral

For its 25th edition, Orchestre philharmonique du Québec will perform its Concert du printemps – Fondation Famille Le Blanc on an unprecedented scale. This unmissable event, already sold out at Maison symphonique de Montréal, will bring together 645 students from 17 schools from Centre de services scolaire Marie-Victorin. Directed by violinist and conductor Alexandre Da Costa, the children’s choir and the orchestra will perform film-music greats as well as a world premiere by Alejandra Odgers. From The Sound of Music to How to Train Your Dragon, Mission Impossible, Encanto, Super Mario Bros and The Dog who Stopped the War, the…

Photo: Dario Acosta

Erin Morley: Golden Age Coloratura

By Patrick Dillon on 1 June 2026 Interviews, Opera, Vocal

“Of course I said yes! It was a no-brainer!” recalls a smiling Erin Morley when the luminous American soprano is asked to outline the genesis of her Golden Age collaboration with tenor Lawrence Brownlee, a bewitching blend of bel canto and French arias and duets that emerged first as a recording, then as the extended tour that’s bringing her to Koerner Hall on July 16 as part of Toronto Summer Music. Amazingly, this will mark her Canadian debut. “Larry gave me a surprise phone call during the pandemic, back in 2020. I’d never sung with him, never even met him,…

Left: Chamberfest's Canadiana, 2025. Right: Chamberfest's Rising Stars Showcase, 2024. Photos: Curtis Perry

Ottawa Chamberfest 2026: Expanding the Definition of Chamber Music

By Hal Kowalewski on 1 June 2026 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Opera, Ottawa, Scena Jazz

Chamberfest is, above all else, a celebration of form. With this festival, Artistic Director Carissa Klopoushak aims to highlight both the best of what chamber music is, and what it can be. “Chamberfest uses a very broad definition of chamber music,” she says. “It’s purposefully done, and it’s carefully done, too.” Chamberfest aims to create a milieu where chamber music builds connections among its performers, and between artist and audience. The smallness of the presenting ensembles and the intimacy of the venues shrink the distance between stage and house, allowing listeners to feel truly absorbed by the music. “We use…

La Scena Musicale’s Summer Festival Picks

By La Scena Musicale Team on 1 June 2026 Canadian Music, Classical, Classical Music, Musique populaire

Alberta and British Columbia by Hal Kowalewski Banff Centre Summer Arts Festival The Banff Centre Summer Arts Festival, in Banff, Alta., is one of the largest off-season events in Western Canada, featuring exhibitions, film screenings, the Literary Cabaret writers’ series, and more. The organization concludes the summer with the Banff International String Quartet Festival. Additional events include the Art of Piano series, the return of the outdoor “In a Landscape” concert, a visit from renowned violinist James Ehnes, and the presentation of Tapestry Opera’s Torrent of Light, focused on the ethics of AI. www.banffcentre.ca/summer-arts-fest ChamberFest West Entering its fifth year,…

Photo: Bo Huang

Mark Fewer: New Bach Recording Showcases Canadian Luthiers

By Heather Weinreb on 1 June 2026 Classical, Classical Music, Violin

Canadian violinist Mark Fewer not only plays the violin—he plays a lot of them. His album—J.S. Bach: Violin Sonatas and Partitas, to be released by Leaf Music in August—is recorded on six different violins, each made by a leading Canadian luthier. The album is an “homage to Canadian makers. …I thought, what better way to pay tribute to these great makers than to challenge yourself to record the greatest challenge of the repertoire to begin with—which is this repertoire of unaccompanied Bach,” says Fewer. A passion for lutherie has marked the performer’s career. When he founded the Sweetwater Music Festival…

Photo: Curtis Perry

Alexander Shelley: Saying Goodbye to NACO

By Emma Yee on 1 June 2026 Classical, Classical Music, Orchestral, Ottawa

Eleven years ago, in 2015, Alexander Shelley was named the youngest-ever music director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO). He recalls the great anticipation he felt at the prospect of working with “such a classy group of musicians, such a great group of individual talents, and such a sophisticated orchestra. I knew I’d have this double-sided challenge of maintaining the qualities they had developed from years prior, and also exploring new territory.” When Shelley began his tenure, the orchestra was starting to plan for Canada 150, which, the maestro says, created a challenge “to interrogate the question of national…

Vanda Treiser & Valerie Kuinka. Photo: Brenden Friesen

Highlands Opera Studio: Elevating Canadian Opera Artists for 20 Years

By Emma Yee on 1 June 2026 Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

In 2007, internationally-acclaimed operatic tenor Richard Margison and celebrated violist and stage director Valerie Kuinka started Highlands Opera Theatre. At the time, according to Kuinka, they noticed a significant drop-off point for aspiring professional Canadian opera singers because they were unable to connect to the next level. Their first season consisted of a two-week training program with seven singers, presenting Ravel’s L’heure espagnole and von Suppé’s Die schöne Galathée. Over the years, thanks to funding from the Vanda Treiser Initiative, the Azrieli Foundation, the Government of Canada, and the Ontario Charitable Gaming Association, the program has grown greatly, encompassing both…

The Girl Who Cried Pearls. Photo: National Film Board of Canada

Music and Film | The Girl Who Cried Pearls: Where Music and Animation Meet

By Flora Marie Angerer on 1 June 2026 Classical, Classical Music, Film, Montreal

In animated film, where every image and sound is deliberately constructed, music plays a central narrative and aesthetic role, shaping atmosphere, rhythm and emotional perception while reinforcing immersion in the film’s fictional world. Music can operate in different ways within animated film, from recurring musical themes linked to characters and emotions in How to Train Your Dragon to the song-driven storytelling of Disney’s Frozen. Films like The Red Turtle rely on music to shape atmosphere and perception despite minimal dialogue, while Pixar’s Soul places music itself at the centre of the narrative. Particularly fascinating in its use of music is…

Photo: Shayne Gray

Mandle Cheung: Realizing the Dream to Conduct

By Joseph So on 1 June 2026 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Orchestral, Toronto

Most classical-music lovers derive pleasure by attending performances of their favourite works. Some dream of making music themselves. They might learn to play an instrument as a sideline in their spare time. Those with the talent and the dedication may well go on to become professional musicians. Then there’s the rare bird, someone like Mandle Cheung, a Hong Kong-born naturalized Canadian, who made a fortune as a tech entrepreneur. He’s also a lifelong music lover, having fallen for classical music after hearing the Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto at the age of 13. He joined his high school’s harmonica band and even…

Left: Cecilia Livingston. Photo: Daniel Alexander Denino. Right: Jennifer Nichols

Opera 5 Parḗlios: Premiere Unites Percussion, Dance and Song

By Emma Yee on 1 June 2026 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

What might the end of our human days look like? What might happen if we reach a solar minimum? These are questions posed by composer Cecilia Livingston and librettist Duncan McFarlane’s Parḗlios, a work that sits somewhere between opera, oratorio, dance, and installation. The piece, which premieres on June 12 as part of Opera 5’s Toronto Opera Festival, “imagines a population in an imaginary Britain that is losing the sun.” Will those people end up staring at a semicircular screen, a ceiling of mirrors, artificial mist, and aluminum frames to experience an illusion of the sun? This possibility was suggested…

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