World Music - my/maSCENA

A scene from DEMON by Anton Rubinstein; Bard SummerScape; photo by Stephanie Berger.

Rubinstein’s Demon Lover Stalks Bard SummerScape 2018

By Charles Geyer on 2 August 2018 Classical Music, Interviews, La Scena Online, La Scena Spotlight, Opera, Romantic, Vocal, World Music

REVIEW: of the 2018 Bard SummerScape production of Anton Rubinstein’s 1871 opera Demon; and INTERVIEW: with Dr. Leon Botstein (American Symphony Orchestra founder and SummerScape festival artistic director). A warning to all princes of the Caucasus – lock up your daughters! The devil is on the prowl, and he’s feeling amorous. Russian composer Anton Rubinstein’s 1871 opera, Demon, weaves a fascinating yarn of ultimate forbidden love. Based on an earlier, censored poem by Russian poetic genius Mikhail Lermontov, a demon (depicted as the very model of the proud, lonely, passionate Byronic tragic hero) finds himself smitten by the beauty of…

Le Chimera Project Winterreise at domaine forget : A Winter journey in Summer

By Adrian Rodriguez on 23 July 2018 Art Song, Chamber Music, Classical, Concert Reviews, Vocal, World Music

A warm summer evening at Domain Forget provided the setting for the premiere of Canadian baritone Phillippe Sly’s latest musical venture: Schubert’s Winterreise (A Winter Journey) Klezmer version. The show also marked the debut of his newly formed band “Le Chimera Project” featuring Karine Gordon (trombone), Jonathan Millette (violin) Samuel Carrier (accordion), Félix de l’Étoile (clarinet and bass clarinet) and Roy Rallo (staging). The band was formed about two years ago. Sly was inspired after hearing Samuel Carrier and Félix de l’Étoile perform one piece from Winterreise in an informal setting. He was also fascinated by the theme of an…

Small World Music Festival: Huge changes for Small World

By Gregory Finney on 8 June 2018 Toronto, World Music

In the mid-to-late-1990s, the music scene in Toronto was growing more aware of what was happening multiculturally. Toronto, known as one of the most diverse cities on the planet, is home to the Small World Music Festival. Alan Davis started Small World to engage more in this trend. “I don’t have any academic training in music,” Davis says. “However, music has always been a constant in my life.” Now in its 17th year, the Small World Music Festival has undergone remarkable growth. Starting “from home,” it has expanded into a 10-day concert series with its own venue as well as…

Capital Ukrainian Festival: A Global and Artistic Experience

By Hassan Laghcha on 8 June 2018 Dance, Folk, Multimedia, Popular Music, Theatre, World Music

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,…

Carrefour Mondial de l’Accordéon: Thirty Years of Passion

By Arnaud G. Veydarier on 7 June 2018 Folk, Mainstream Jazz, Popular Music, 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…

Pianist Olga Kern

“The Mighty Russians: Part II”

By Paul E. Robinson on 31 May 2018 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Uncategorized, World Music

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…

photo: Sahiba Kaur Chawla

Kiran Ahluwalia: Looking for the Love

By Gregory Finney on 4 April 2018 Canadian Music, Vocal, World Music

“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…

CD review – Tales of Two Cities: The Leipzig-Damascus Coffee House

By Paul E. Robinson on 7 February 2018 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Classical Music, Contemporary, World Music

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…

Hidden Treasure Project: Music of the Caucasus revealed

By Nuné Melik on 5 February 2018 Classical Music, Contemporary, World Music

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…

New season: World Music

By Hassan Laghcha on 1 September 2017 La Scena Spotlight, World Music

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…

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