Blog

Guest Post: Alec Hall and ‘Death in Venice’

Community Engagement and Outreach

Alec Hall, one of the participants in the 2014 Soundstreams Emerging Composer Workshop, discusses Death in Venice, his new work composed expressly for the workshop and gives us clues that… Read More

Guest Post: André Mestre on ‘Corpo Confesso’

Community Engagement and Outreach

André Mestre is one of the 6 participants in the upcoming Soundstreams Emerging Composer Workshop under the direction of composers Ye Xiaogang, Juliet Palmer and the Cecilia Quartet as resident… Read More

Artist Q&A: R. Murray Schafer

Composer Spotlight

Soundstreams: Most of the works you've composed for Soundstreams have been for multiple choirs (Death of Shalana, The Soul of God, and The Fall Into Light), how are your choices… Read More

Behind the Scenes: Juliet Palmer’s Sweat

Behind the Scenes

Sweat takes place in a contemporary sweatshop, the multilingual libretto conveying the global nature of the garment industry. Departing radically from traditional opera, this piece sheds the orchestra and focuses… Read More

Program Notes: Canadian Choral Celebration

Program Notes

Presenting the masterworks of contemporary choral music has been a priority for Soundstreams from its very beginning. In 1994, when Soundstreams mounted the first Canadian performance of Henryk Górecki’s Miserere,… Read More

Q&A with Anton Piatigorsky

Artist Spotlight

Anton Piatigorsky is an award-winning writer of fiction, plays and librettos. As a playwright, he is the recipient of two Dora Mavor Moore awards for best new play, the Summerworks… Read More

Creating a Hybrid Bach

Behind the Scenes

When Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (or Weihnachts-Oratorium) was brought to my attention I knew that it had to be the source material. It was not only timely for the season and… Read More

The Sharing of World Cultures before Planes, Trains, and Internet Fame

Behind the Scenes

Before the internet had wired us together, one of the ways that people were able to experience art and ideas from around the globe was at international expositions. These events,… Read More

Artist Q&A: Serouj Kradjian

Artist Spotlight

We have been developing our relationship with pianist Serouj Kradjian over the past four years, as a performer in Ashes in the Wind (2010) and Piano Ecstasy (2013), as well… Read More

Program Notes: Reimagining Flamenco

Program Notes

One of Soundstreams’ aspirations is to offer our audiences a rich concert experience displaying contrasting musical styles and cross-cultural creative connections, such as the Tango! presentation in 2011 or last season’s Music for… Read More

Are Orchestras in Crisis?

Behind the Scenes

In his article America's Orchestras are in Crisis,  Philip Kennicott raises a number of valid issues in his critique of programming by American orchestras and others. He argues that the… Read More

Composer Q&A: Riho Esko Maimets

Composer Spotlight

Lawrence has been following the work of Riho since attending a performance of his Karen Kieser Prize-winning composition, squall, in 2011. He was immediately struck by the young composer’s talent… Read More

What’s With Walt Whitman?

Behind the Scenes

I guess I like working with Walt Whitman. My new work Open Road is our fifth collaboration. Soundstreams has commissioned Six Songs (2001) and When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard… Read More

Meet Grisha Goryachev: Reimagining Flamenco

Artist Spotlight

A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Grisha Goryachev is renowned for his extraordinary musical sensitivity and technical virtuosity in both classical and flamenco styles. Grisha is one of very few… Read More

Airline Icarus, a new opera: Inspiration & History

Behind the Scenes

Airline Icarus is about the intersecting thoughts of passengers aboard a commercial airplane. It explores themes of hubris mixed with technology, the forced intimacy of strangers and flying too close… Read More

Salon Thoughts: Audience and the New Development Process

Behind the Scenes

In November, we will spend a week developing Juliet Palmer’s opera Sweat and in June we will present a fully staged version of Brian Current’s Airline Icarus at the Daniels… Read More

Program Notes: The Music of Arvo Pärt

Program Notes

Soundstreams first brought the music of Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) to audiences in 1993. That earlier concert of music by the world famous Estonian composer included the Canadian premiere of… Read More

Storytelling through Music: A Discussion on Musical Theatre with Mitchell Marcus

Community Engagement and Outreach

Kyle Brenders: I have a tendency to think of musicals as Fosse and Broadway but I have a feeling this isn’t what Acting Up Stage produces. Could you tell us… Read More

Nic Gotham

Community Engagement and Outreach

Nic Gotham, a wonderfully inventive composer and performer, died last Thursday, July 25, 2013. Nic had an insatiable curiosity about all things musical and otherwise – his enthusiasm was infectious –… Read More

So You Think You Can Listen?

Behind the Scenes

Deep Listening is a practice that is intended to heighten and expand consciousness of sound in as many dimensions of awareness and attentional dynamics as humanly possible. Pauline Oliveros from… Read More

A Little Furniture Music

Behind the Scenes

Erik Satie has become a darling of the avant-garde. Brought back from obscurity by John Cage, the 20th century composer enfant terrible, Satie has been an important influence on American… Read More

A Backstage View of Some of the Finest Concert Halls in Asia

Behind the Scenes

My role on the recent Soundstreams tour to Taiwan and China gave me a different perspective than most of the others. My official role was production manager; in some cases… Read More

Learn About Traditional Chinese Instruments

Behind the Scenes

Our Music for China concert on May 14 features performances by Taiwan’s acclaimed Chai Found Music Workshop. Here are some fun facts about the types of instruments that they play,… Read More

Minimalism, Radiohead, and a store full of pianos: Steve Reich’s Six Pianos comes to Toronto

Press Releases

On April 26, an ensemble of six acclaimed Canadian pianists will perform Six Pianos, a composition by revered American composer Steve Reich, as part of Soundstreams’ 30th Anniversary season. The… Read More