From July 20 to 22, Ottawa will welcome the fourth edition of the Capital Ukrainian Festival. More than 500 artists from all corners of the country as well as the United States and Ukraine will converge for this three-day weekend event. Jane Kolbe, the organizing committee’s president, wants the event to be a truly global and multicultural experience. There will be traditional music to be heard, songs to be sung and dances to be seen. But the program also offers a wide array of cultural activities for young and old, including a village market, a food court, a beer garden,…
Browsing: World Music
Well-established in Quebec’s cultural landscape for 30 years, the Carrefour mondial de l’accordéon invites musicians and music fans to gather in Montmagny and celebrate the rich heritage of the instrument. Although it’s often associated with the Parisian musette waltz, the accordion has spread across Europe and the Americas to become an integral part of many music traditions. Its 200-year history has seen several developments that have produced an extensive range of instruments with diverse characteristics. With the aim of preserving this heritage and inspiring the development of the practice, the Carrefour will gather more that 40 musicians from different geographic…
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat major Op. 75* Tchaikovsky arr. Stravinsky: The Sleeping Beauty: Act 3 – “Bluebird Pas de deux” Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D flat major Op. 10* Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 3 in A minor Op. 44 Olga Kern, piano* Austin Symphony Orchestra/Peter Bay Long Center for the Performing Arts Austin, TX May 18, 2018 In this second of two Russian programs this season, Peter Bay and the Austin Symphony offered works by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov, studiously avoiding the warhorses and settling instead on a decidedly odd assemblage of pieces. Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev…
“I wasn’t expecting a career,” Kiran Ahluwalia says from New York via telephone. “I just wanted to take one year out of my life and follow my passion.” “I was scared of the future that came with climbing the corporate ladder,” she says. A trip to her native India to study music proved to her that she wanted to pursue this passion even further. One year wasn’t enough. This Indian-Canadian singer-songwriter-composer moved to Canada with her family when she was 10. Having started her formal musical training at 5, she continued her studies. They have been a driving force in…
Tales of Two Cities: The Leipzig-Damascus Coffee House Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra/Jeanne Lamon. Trio Arabica. Alon Nashman and Maryem Tollar, narrators. Conceived by Alison Mackay. Tafelmusik Media TMK 1035 DVD & CD. Total Time: 97:15 (DVD); 70:00 (CD). A founding member of Tafelmusik, Alison Mackay has also developed such multi-disciplinary projects as The Four Seasons: A Cycle of the Sun, The Galileo Project, House of Dreams. The latest, Tales of Two Cities, draws together music, history and culture from Europe and the Muslim world, drawing attention to what we have shared for centuries. Leipzig and Damascus have long been important as…
The evolution of Western European music follows a pretty clear path. From Monteverdi to Gluck, Mozart to Wagner and Strauss to Schoenberg, the dominance of German (and Austrian) composers to the present looks very logical. A whole new world opens up if we dig deeper into the Eastern European classical music tradition. While the evolution of Western music had a progressive order, developing continuously and consistently, the music of the Caucasus – and Armenia in particular – is characterized by abrupt and inconsistent development. This is due to the history and background of the region. There are, however, some similarities…
A look at the 2017-2018 season shows how Montreal’s musical diversity is evolving. There’s now a wide range of shows and discussions focussing on world music with its amazing artistic cross-pollinations and fusions. Here’s a look at some of the highlights. Nuits d’Afrique: reggae, mande and … Canicule Tropicale! or autumn 2017, Productions Nuits d’Afrique offers a very diverse program including reggae, West African Mande music and vintage vinyl DJ sets. The new generation reggae roots band Danakil from France return to Montreal with their new album La Rue raisonne on September 29 at Théâtre Fairmount. On October 13, the…
Montréal, Thursday, June 15, 2017 — The Celebrating Our Diversity! Event—presented June 27 by Les FrancoFolies de Montréal and Canada 150 in collaboration with Radio-Canada—now unveils its performing artists. Alongside the multicultural picnic scheduled on the Parterre symphonique, 5 concerts and 4 dance performances will be presented from 3 p.m., offering an entire day of rhythm and groove! These concerts involve the participation of festival friends (Vision Diversité, the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique de Montréal and Mundial Montréal), while the dance performances will be presented in collaboration with Mondial des Cultures de Drummondville. This special event is scheduled outside the…
The Royal Conservatory of Music has announced their 2017-18 concert season. The season boasts close to 100 concerts! Highlights include: • Season Gala with beloved film star Bill Murray accompanied by cellist Jan Vogler and friends • Johnny Clegg – The Final Journey World Tour • TD Jazz: The Roots of Jazz features a six-concert gumbo of some of the ‘ingredients’ of jazz, including a reunion of sponsors iconic South Africans Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim • Violin superstar Joshua Bell makes his Koerner Hall debut • The Glenn Gould School celebrates 20 years and the Royal Conservatory Orchestra is…
Montreal St-Ambroise Fringe Festival Montreal, until June 18 The most convivial and bilingual event of the season, the Montreal St-Ambroise Fringe Festival takes place in the heart of the city on the Main. What makes it different? A program determined by lottery! Theatre, comedy, dance, music, and drag…no less than 153 talented companies from all over the world will be battling for your attention. The best way to pick is by reading the audience reviews posted in Parc des Amériques – an exercise that’s sure to make you a real fringier. My bets are on inVitro, by Pretium Doloris, the…