Browsing: Folk

Over the last two decades, Shawna Caspi has grown from a local performer to an internationally touring folk musician with five albums and two award nominations. Now, the Ottawa-born singer-songwriter is coming home. She’s performing an acoustic version of her latest album, 2021’s Hurricane Coming, at Westboro Masonic Hall in Ottawa on Mar. 19. She’s accompanied by harmony singer and backup guitarist Sarah Hiltz, with an opening act from Renfrew County’s Khloe B. Caspi’s journey began in early 2000s Ottawa at renowned folk music venue Rasputin’s Folk Cafe. A dedicated singer and guitarist since her high school years, Caspi found…

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Medicine is an important element of composer Andrew Balfour’s creative pursuits. “People think of music as a refuge, but music can also be a powerful entry point to healing,” he says. The notion of healing is one close to the Cree composer’s heart. His work is characterized by the combination of polyphony and Indigenous themes related to history and identity. He skilfully pokes holes in the Eurocentric narrative of classical music even as he uses its foundations to explore serious issues. Such a creative instinct has painful roots. As an infant, Balfour was taken away from his Cree mother as…

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After two years of pandemic, La Nef is taking to the sea again this fall with a very eclectic program, between world and early music. Their 2022-23 season opens in October with Per violino e liuto, an intimate evening of baroque and popular repertoire from the 17th century, followed in November with a program  inspired by Nordic and Middle Eastern musical traditions. For violin and lute Presented on Oct. 16 at the Maison de la culture Maisonneuve, Per violino e liuto will feature two of the city’s finest baroque music performers, multi-instrumentalist Sylvain Bergeron and rising violin star Marie Nadeau-Tremblay.…

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Shanties! Live: La Nef & Chor Leoni La Nef, Chor Leoni, vocal ensembles; Seán Dagher and Erik Lichte, artisticc directors Leaf music, 2022 Canada’s motto A mari usque ad mare (From Sea to Sea) would suit this recent Leaf Music release to a T. On Feb. 22, 2020, Vancouver’s Chor Leoni and Montreal’s La Nef joined forces at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in B.C for a concert of sea shanties, arranged for the occasion by one of the event’s artistic directors, Seán Dagher. Shanties! Live recaptures the magic of that evening. La Nef is well versed in…

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Baratin d’marins Seán Dagher, conductor, arranger; Pierre-Alexandre Saint-Yves, Alexander Kehler, Amanda Keesmaat, Kate Bevan-Baker, Éric Breton, Jean-François Daignault, Claire Gignac. Socan, 2022 For its new album, La Nef has put together a repertoire of folksongs dedicated to seafarers. When one considers the numerous ship-related metaphors designating its past projects, it should not be that surprising to see yet another one appear in this offering. The Baratin d’marins, roughly translated as “seaman’s twaddle,” comprises a selection of songs dealing with the hardships of seamen from the north of France and Quebec who are confronted by the harshness of the elements and…

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La Nef is continuing its 30th anniversary celebrations under the general and artistic leadership of Claire Gignac. Though La Nef will present many concerts featuring various musical styles this season, it is currently being noted for its disc production at the start of a new year. On February 5, a concert will take the form of an album presentation, featuring Long Way Home by Andrew Wells-Oberegger, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Six musicians will join him at Montreal’s Maison de la culture Ahuntsic in the Concerts au bout du monde series. On March 10, another production will be led by Artistic Codirector…

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No fewer than three events are on the horizon between now and February. The musicians of La Nef will first present a concert on Nov. 11, another on Dec. 14 and, finally, a new album, which is due early in the new year. This is how the 30th-anniversary celebrations of this cultural organization unfold. In an interview, La Nef artistic director and co-founder Sylvain Bergeron shared some of his most vivid memories of the adventure: “Our first trips took us to Spain in the days of Jeanne la Folle, to the Cathars of southern France and even to the Middle…

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Last Sunday, La Scena Musicale and CORONA Serenades celebrated Father’s Day with a special virtual broadcast through Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, a couple of songs were not included. We have therefore recompiled all the songs into a Father’s Day Concert featuring only the performances (duration: 30 mins). Here is the link to the concert. Repertoire: — Hugo Laporte, baryton/baritone, La mort de l’ours, Félix Leclerc — Valérie Poisson, soprano, Tu che di gel sei cinta  (de l’opéra Turandot), Giacomo Puccini — Anne-Marine Suire, soprano, Cheek to Cheek, Irving Berlin — Yara Zeitoun, soprano,…

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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…

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Born in Roncole, Italy, on Oct. 9 or 10, 1813, Verdi was named in French, Joseph François Fortunin. At that time, that part of Italy was still under French dominion. He was the son of Carlo and Luigia Verdi. Verdi’s parents owned a tavern close to Busetto in the Parma region of northern Italy. His parents were middle-class, educated Catholics. His father even bought a spinet piano for his young son, which indicates both that they were people of means and that they supported Verdi’s talent from a young age. Verdi received his main musical education as a child from the…

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