Highlights | Oldest Recording Pianist Dies at 109, Klein Competition Applications Open

This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: Francais (French)

Welcome to La Scena Musicale’s weekly Highlights, a roundup of classical music news from Canada and beyond. From the oldest pianist in the world to the founder of an international music competition that’s over 50 years old, the classical music world has lost many influential performers, composers, and teachers this week. Several Canadian mentorship programs and competitions are also open for audition.

The Classical Music World Mourns

The world’s oldest recording pianist, Colette Maze (Slipped Disc), has died at 109. Her last album, 109 ans de piano, which celebrates more than a century of piano with works by Debussy, Piazzolla, and Robert Schumann, was recorded in 2023.

American composer David Del Tredici (Opera Wire) died from complications due to Parkinson’s disease at 86. He was best known for his unique neo-romantic style and the influence of his LGBT+ identity on his work. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his Alice in Wonderland-inspired soprano solo and orchestra track In Memory of a Summer Day, which was eventually adapted for ballet and performed by the National Ballet of Canada.

Pianist Claude Kahn (Radio Classique) has died at 88. He’s performed at over 2,000 concerts, won 10 music prizes, and organized over 50 music International Claude Kahn Piano Competition events as its president.

Violin teacher and artistic director of the International Violin Competition Leopold Mozart in Augsburg, Petru Munteanu (Slipped Disc), has died. As has co-founder and longest-serving Artistic and Executive Director of Vancouver’s PuSh Festival, Norman Armour.

Quebecois rock fans are also mourning the loss of Karl Tremblay (CBC), lead singer for Les Cowboys Fringants. He had been fighting prostate cancer since January 2020 and finally succumbed to the disease at 47.

Recent and Upcoming Shows

Mayfield Dinner Theatre is rebooting one of its classics: Canada Rocks, a “musical review of Canadian artistry and culture” that hasn’t seen the stage in 5 years, according to CTV News. It’s on from Nov. 14 to Jan. 28.

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts will present 5 Piano Fantasy: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Holst, a display of symphonic grandeur associated with “magical realms, lightsabers, and distant planets,” on Nov. 26.

Otto Tausk and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

JoAnn Falletta will conduct the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Stir) in their performance of Ravel’s and other French symphonic composers’ music on Dec. 1 and 3.

Debuts

Violinist Naomi Dumas and harpsichordist Caitlyn Koester, who form the AKOYA duo, are making their ATMA Classique debut with Graupner: Complete Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord. The album releases Dec. 1.

Recordings

Linda Catlin Smith and Thin Edge New Music Collective released Dark Flower, a collection of some of Smith’s atmospheric compositions from the last 25 years, on Nov. 10.

Awards, Appointments, and Competitions

Applications are now open for the 39th Klein International String Competition, which takes place June 1 and 2, 2024. It’s open to violinists, violists, cellists, and bassists aged 15 to 23. The application period ends at the start of February. Zoe Lin has also been named the new deputy director (The Violin Channel) for the competition.

The NAC Mentorship Program is open to instrumentalists aged 18+ who “are completing their performance degree, are on the audition circuit, or have recently started a position in a professional orchestra.” National and international students alike are invited to submit recordings to apply for a position in the full string, full brass, full wind, and full percussion/timpani sections. The application deadline is Jan. 8, 2024.

Bryan Cheng has won the Virginia Parker Prize, awarded to “an outstanding young Canadian musician under the age of 32” and valued at $25,000, according to The Violin Channel.

Pianist Veola Sun (student of Ilya Poletaev) has won the 2023-2024 McGill University Concerto Competition, in Montreal, QC.

Auguste Descarries

The Auguste-Descarries Piano Competition has announced 2023’s finalists (Ludwig Van): Emmanuel Roberts Dugal, Emmanuel Laforest, and Antoine Rivard-Landry. They will compete on Nov. 26 for first prize ($5,000 USD and two weeks of advanced training at Orford Music).

Twenty semi-finalists – nine in the junior division and eleven in the senior division – have been chosen for the 2024 Sphinx Competition (The Violin Channel), which offers mentorship opportunities to Black and Latin string players. The first place Robert Frederick Smith prize comes with a $50,000 USD award and several opportunities to perform as an orchestral soloist with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra.

Local News

Conductor Daniel Barenboim has cancelled his North America tour (Opera Wire), leaving Giedrė Šlekytė to conduct Toronto’s Nov. 25 and 26 concerts of the Staatskapelle Berlin’s Brahms cycle. Yannick Nézet-Séguin will also have to fill in as conductor in New York on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony cellist Kendra Grittani shares her thoughts on the abrupt cancellation of the KWS’s 2023-2024 season, and their subsequent filing for bankruptcy.

Buffy Sainte-Marie

Buffy Sainte-Marie has responded (CBC) to the CBC’s “pretendian” investigation on The Fifth Estate. The singer-songwriter says, “Being an ‘Indian’ has little to do with sperm tracking and colonial record keeping: it has to do with community, culture, knowledge, teachings, who claims you, who you love, who loves you and who’s your family.” She has not responded to specific allegations.

The Association for Opera in Canada has just wrapped up their annual Opera Summit this week, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Canadian Soprano Charlotte Siegal, who starred as Musetta in the COC’s recent production of La Bohème, has been named a Rising Star by Toronto Life Magazine.