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Welcome to La Scena Musicale’s weekly Highlights, a roundup of classical music news from Canada and beyond. It’s a busy week for awards! This year’s JUNO nominees include a wide range of talented musicians and ensembles, from Alexandra Stréliski and Elisapie to La Pietà and the Orchestre classique de Montréal. The winners of the 66th Grammy’s have been announced as well. Finally, we’ve published our latest magazine issue complete with cover stories about Barbara Hannigan and Ema Nikolovska, and we’re selling our annual Singing Valentines serenades.
Notable 2024 JUNO Award Nominees
Canadian classical composer and pianist Alexandra Stréliski is on the ballots for Album of the year and Instrumental album of the year for her latest release, Néo-Romance. It’s a dynamic work with piano and strings that emphasizes the emotional weight and impact music can have.
Elisapie has been nominated for Contemporary Indigenous artist or group of the year for Inuktitut, which includes covers of pop songs in the Inuk artist’s mother tongue. As has two-spirit Ontario performer Shawnee Kish for Revolution.
Two albums named Portrait are being considered for the Classical album of the year (small ensemble) category: one by Angèle Dubeau and La Pietà with music by London-based composer Alex Baranowski, and the other by Cheng² Duo that explores their Chinese heritage through works by various Asian artists.
The Orchestre symphonique de Montréal has been nominated for three awards, including Classical album of the year (large ensemble) for Mahler: Symphony No. 5, and Francophone album of the year for En concert avec l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (sous la direction du chef Simon Leclerc), in collaboration with Les Cowboys Fringants. Art director Nicolas Lemieux, designer Mykaël Nelson, and photographer Albert Zablit are also being considered for designing the OSM’s Riopelle Symphonique album artwork.
Other nominees for Classical album of the year (large ensemble) feature Yannick Nézet-Séguin as conductor: Orchestre Métropolitain’s Sibelius 3 & 4, and Philadelphia Orchestra’s Rachmaninoff: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3; Isle of the Dead. Orchestre classique de Montréal, as conducted by Jacques Lacombe, is being considered in this category for Maxime Goulet: Symphonie de la tempête de verglas.
A full list of this year’s nominees is available here.
66th Annual GRAMMY Awards
Montreal’s own Yannick Nézet-Séguin (CP24) accepted the GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording, along with Ryan Speedo Green, Latonia Moore, Eric Owens, and producer David Frost, for the Metropolitan Opera’s premiere recording of Terence Blanchard’s Champion.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Photo by Denis Germain – Orchestre Métropolitain)
Outside the realm of classical music, Montreal’s Allison Russell (Globe and Mail) took home the Best American Roots Performance award for her song “Eve Was Black.”
See here for a full list of this year’s winners.
Recent and Upcoming Shows
La Scena Musicale reviewer Denise Lai describes the performers in Canadian Opera Company’s current production of Don Giovanni as producing “faultless singing.” The opera runs Feb. 2 to 24.
A scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Don Giovanni (Photo by Michael Cooper)
Two La Scena Musicale writers – Paul E. Robinson and Andrea Rush – have also offered their perspectives on the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Pines of Rome.
La Reine-garçon closes this weekend at Opera de Montreal, after a highly successful (Opera Canada) première run.
On Feb. 16, Early Music Vancouver (Stir) will perform works by Vivaldi, Monteverdi, and Strozzi alongside soprano Myriam Leblanc and Ensemble Mirabilia.
Clavecin en concert has announced that its first concert of the season, FÊTE INSTRUMENTALE SIGNÉE BACH, will be held March 3 at Bourgie Hall.
Festivals and Events
The documentary Casques bleuEs by Louise Leroux, produced by Shootfilms, will premiere at Rendez-Vous Québec Cinéma festival on Feb. 29.
Casques bleuEs (Photo fournie)
Festival du Bois, an annual celebration of francophone music in Vancouver, will celebrate its 35th year with a focus on Acadian Music (Stir) from March 8 to 10.
Nouvel Opéra Métropolitain and the Orchestre classique de Montréal have announced that they’re collaborating for the first time on a symphonic production of the famous rock opera Starmania. The work will be performed at Festival Classica on June 8 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the work’s symphonic arrangement.
Recordings and Debuts
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has released its first recording as part of a long-term, multi-disc partnership with Harmonia Mundi. Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, recorded last year, was released on Feb. 2.
On Feb. 16, ATMA Classique will release the first recording of La Flambeau, an opera about a dysfunctional couple composed by David Bontemps in 2020. The recording features Suzanne Taffot, Brandon Coleman, and the Orchestre classique de Montréal.
That same day, Montreal violinist and composer Vanessa Marcoux is releasing her album Cendres. The first movement of her sonata for violin and piano, arranged with a string orchestra, is already available. Marcoux will tour Nova Scotia to promote the album at seven concerts, with an additional March concert in Lasalle and an April concert in Prévost.
Opera and Choral News
Vancouver Opera is grappling with third-party resale (Stir) of their concert tickets. In a statement on Feb. 7, general director Tom Wright said these sellers are inflating the prices of tickets and potentially selling counterfeits, which jeopardizes the integrity of the process.
Ensemble ArtChoral, under the direction of Matthias Maute, has announced its 2024-2025 season at the Maison symphonique de Montréal.
Business and Politics in the Arts
Leeds International Piano Competition CEO Fiona Sinclair recently told The Observer that career pianists are far less likely to be women despite their equal representation in conservatories. The article observes that only two women have won the Leeds Competition since its founding in 1963: Sofya Gulyak and Anna Tsybuleva. To that end, the Leeds Competition is implementing “‘blind’ pre-selection rounds to disguise genders and ‘unconscious bias training’ for the jurors,” The Observer’s article says.
The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec has acquired and archived thousands of documents, including composition notes, letters, photos, and videos belonging to the late pianist, composer, and conductor André Gagnon (La Presse).
Obituary
Seiji Ozawa
Soprano Wilhelmenia Fernandez, known best as the “star of the 1981 French thriller movie, Diva,” has died at 75 according to Slipped Disc.
American country singer-songwriter Toby Keith has died (Globe and Mail) of stomach cancer at 62. He’s had 20 number one Billboard hits, including his 1993 song Should’ve Been a Cowboy, which has been streamed hundreds of millions of times.
Classical music lovers everywhere mourn the death of Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, who died on Feb. 6, at the age of 88. His passing was announced this morning, on the Seji Ozawa International Academy of Switzerland website.
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