#32 | CANNOPICKS: EVENTS NEAR YOU
PLUS: Detlev Glanert, Jim White, Kalya Ramu and more!
Refer your friends to read TORPA, and you can win up to 6 months of free subscription to our Performing Arts Package, or even a free print issue!
March 22-24 | Tafelmusik presents “Staircases”
We typically think of staircases ─ if at all ─ as a means to a necessary end, merely an architectural convenience that gets us from one floor to the next. And in those cases where staircases rise beyond their functional value to reveal their social significance, they’re often seen as hindrances to accessibility and symbols of the ableism that’s been the foundation of architecture for so long. In her latest multimedia creation for Tafelmusik, Staircases, musician and programmer Alison Mackay has found a third rail in relation to the power and status associated with some of the most famous staircases: the topic of slavery. The staircases she’s selected for this triply-layered concert experience ─ featuring music, images, and narration ─ tell complex stories of freedom, social status, platforms for musical performance, “theatres of power,” and more. — Keep reading
Women’s Musical Club of Toronto | Mar 7 | Toronto — Dominic Desautels, clarinet and Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, piano, with guest Zsófia Stefán, bassoon. Walter Hall.
Magisterra at the Museum: Masterworks | Mar 8 | London — Award-winning pianist Medhi Ghazi will be once again returning to Museum London with Magisterra Soloists to play a selection of chamber music delights. Museum London
Women in Song 10 | Mar 8 | Toronto — On International Women’s Day, FabCollab presents the 10th edition of their spectacular concert series with a powerful international line-up. Lula Lounge
Word of Taras | Mar 9 | St. Catherines — The Canadian Bandurist Capella presents Word of Taras – The Poetry of Taras Shevchenko. This concert is dedicated to celebrating 210 years of Ukraine’s greatest poet, writer, artist, and kobzar – Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko. FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre – Recital Hall
PianoFest | Mar 9 | Toronto — A full day celebration of the piano, featuring hour long recitals by some of Canada’s preeminent pianists: Luke Welch, Cheryl Duvall, Dr. Katherine Dowling and Dr. Younggun Kim. Small Arms Inspection Building
Clefs of Moher | Mar 16 | Waterloo — Adam Bowman, drums; Jerzy Kaplanek, fiddle; Jim Edwards, trombone; Mark McIntyre, bass; Paul Gribbons, uillean pipes & whistle; Paul Stouffer, keyboards; Ralf Buschmeir, guitar; Tim Moher, saxophones. Jazz Room, Huether Hotel,
Peter Pan and the Wendy Lady | Mar 8-23 | Toronto — An immersive glimpse of Edwardian Toronto featuring the music of Strauss, Rachmaninoff, and Vivaldi, Peter Pan and the Wendy Lady invites you to take flight and join Wendy on a journey of self-discovery amidst the historic backdrop of Campbell House Museum.
The Great Bach Marathon | Mar 23 | Kingston — Bach: Fugue in E-flat BWV 552b "St. Anne"; Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue in d BWV 993; Toccata in F BWV 540; Prelude & Fugue in a BWV 553; Violin Sonata in g BWV 1001. St George's Cathedral
Speaking with German composer Detlev Glanert, one gets the feeling of speaking to an artist at large, and a poet at heart. With passing quips such as “I have doubts about simple music,” and “I don't reinvent the wheel, but I'm interested to travel,” his penchant for the written word is apparent. This penchant derives perhaps from his prolific output as one of the foremost opera composers in Europe—his latest, The Jewish woman of Toledo, premiered at Dresden’s Semperoper this February, with Robert Carsen in the director’s chair. That’s just one of the notable debuts for the tireless composer this year. When he joined me from Berlin, the subject of our conversation was not opera but his equally sizable compositions for orchestra. His newly commissioned Cello Concerto premiered on January 19 at the Luxembourg Philharmonie under the baton of their conductor Gustavo Gimeno (also conductor of the Toronto Symphony). —Audio interview
Initially, the prospects of an art magazine that catered both to the visual and performing arts seemed dim, but there are artists whose output regularly reminded me of why cultivating a more omnivorous appetite in the arts is important. Kalya is certainly one of them. Her illustrations of a few of the jazz artists we’ve interviewed for our Ellington series (including Samara Joy) carry an extra specialty as they’re the few instances where an artist is engaging her expertise across two very different art forms. Last month, she released a single with guitarist André Valério, and flutist Rob Christian, titled “Hold Me Close”. Following last year’s “Algo Contigo”, it’s the second such collaborative fusions between Kalya’s retro-jazzthetic and Valério’s bossa nova and samba-infused compositions. —Audio Interview
Atlantic Ballet Atlantique Canada has been a cultural staple in New Brunswick for over 20 years. As the largest professional performing arts organisation in the province, its stated goal is to serve and represent dance in the Maritime provinces. Its flagship production for the summer and fall seasons, Ballet by the Ocean, looks to highlight the natural landscape of Canada’s Atlantic region. The production is presented outdoors on the Grande-Digue wetland property of co-founder Susan Chalmers-Gauvin, and features original choreography created specifically for the location by Artistic Director Igor Dobrovolskiy. —Keep Reading
There are quite a few unique features to Jim White’s All Hits: Memories. For one, the thirteen songs on the album average a length of about 120 seconds—ranging from short kinetic explosions of sound to full atmospheric orchestrations. For a drum album, it is noticeably un-drumlike, at least in the conventional sense of what a kit can do and what White has done across three decades of collaborations with the like of Cat Power, Mary Margaret O’Hara, PJ Harvey, Bill Callahan, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and others. A decidedly unconventional concept album is, of course, not novel, but sifting through the layers of All Hits will reveal to the listener an album that isn’t trying to be unconventional. For White, it came easy. From the experimental song-lengths, synthetic arrangements, and meandering percussions that staggers all over the album’s soundscape—all of it felt seemingly effortless and native to a musician that’s embodied a lifetime of hits across kit and keyboard. —Audio interview
Ask Houck and he’d tell you that “Revelator”, which opens the album, is probably the best song he’s ever written. Long-time listeners of Phosphorescent might bristle at the thought that anything new could top the sprawling list of songs that feature Houck singing with this spleen in that jaded and frayed tenor he’s perfected over the last twenty years. First-time listeners might hear in Revelator a hint of the “sad dad rock” that’s become the fashionable detour for once-raging troubadours now climbing gently into their forties. —Keep reading
LEARN MORE ABOUT CANNOPY:
