Help Soundstreams fly two of South Africa’s top talents to Toronto for Music of the Rainbow Nation at Koerner Hall on November 23rd! When the Nelson Mandela University Choir cancelled their North American tour (due to the closure of their university NMMU, one of many affected by nation-wide protests and strikes), Soundstreams created a dynamic new program. Remaining… Read More
Soundstreams Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney recently traveled to Australia for the International Society for the Performing Arts (IPSA) Congress. Here in his own words is a travelogue of his trip and time spent both touring Australia and at the convention. I went to Australia to attend the ISPA Congress in Melbourne from June 1 to… Read More
Many in the arts community know Ben Dietschi well, whether as a curator of engaging music programming at Spectrum Music and the Music Gallery, board member at Theatre Passe Muraille, an inspired saxophonist with the Massey Hall Band, or through several years of senior responsibilities at Soundstreams. Ben has just added another accomplishment to his… Read More
Thanks to you, our adventurous music-loving family, it’s been a great year, so we wanted to share some highlights and recognize YOU for helping make these milestones possible. If you have not yet made your donation to Soundstreams, there is still time to donate before the end of the tax year! If you have $75, $150, or… Read More
The team at Soundstreams has expanded; we'd like to introduce our new Director of Development, Jessica Whitford! Jessica joins us with a breadth of experience, working in the arts for over 10 years, both locally and abroad. She's held various roles at several organizations, including Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, Hot Docs Film Festival, Dusk… Read More
Composer George Crumb (b. 1929) is well known for exploring unusual timbres in his compositions, as well as calling for instruments to be played in unique ways. He was initially influenced by Anton Webern, an Austrian composer and conductor known for his radical innovations in musical technique. In our season opening concert, we will explore… Read More
Our Executive Director Susan Worthington attended The Dora Mavor Moore Awards (otherwise known as The Doras), on Monday, June 22. Despite the threatening rain, she had a great time celebrating outstanding in achievements in the Toronto arts community, and shared her experience with us. On June 22 at the WestJet stage at Harbourfront Centre, the… Read More
2014/15 concerts: Daniel Hope performing in The Seasons; David Fallis conducting in Vespers; Claire Chase and Tony Arnold in The Whisper Opera; Patricia Rozario singing in Song for Athene; Maria Mulata, Jeffrey Beecher, and Grisha Goryachev, performing in Encuentros Thank you to our subscribers, patrons, donors, friends, and supporters, for a wonderful 2014/15 season! Read on… Read More
Bud Roach and Xin Wang, with Elmer Iseler Singers, in Pimooteewin The concert season might be over but new music creation never stops! This week, Soundstreams is holding a workshop for Gállábártnit, the companion piece to our opera, Pimooteewin. This workshop is a private event, to help the creators and artists develop the opera. While Pimooteewin… Read More
In every interview we conduct with various Soundstreams performers, conductors and composers, we always end with a “lightning round” of questions. To cap off an excellent year, we decided to do a staff edition of our lightning round! Find out what airport and concert hall were chosen by multiple people, plus our not-so-secret guilty pleasure… Read More
A message from Artistic Director, Lawrence Cherney Our next three concerts are a glorious back-to-back celebration of choral and vocal music: Vespers on November 25 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, The Whisper Opera at The Theatre Centre, February 26 to March 1, and Song for Athene on April 16 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. Each of these… Read More
Susan Worthington joins Soundstreams this week, officially taking over as Executive Director at the beginning of September. We chatted with her via email to find out about her inspiration for working in the arts, several of her favourite career moments, and passions outside of the office. Soundstreams: What inspired you to go into music and… Read More
In the summer we become much more active. The weather is nice and we feel the need to get outside and move around, or attend outdoor games. I know many musicians that are avid bikers, soccer players, swimmers and ultimate Frisbee players. Not to mention our collective obsession with events like Wimbledon and the World… Read More
This concert was very different for Soundstreams in that it was one of the first occasions were the music was a mixture of the composed and the improvised. This style of music, coming mainly out of Jazz, but with roots in lots of other music from throughout the world, is created in the moment–through real-time… Read More
The definition between improvisation and compositions isn’t as objective as you might think. There as many definitions of the two practices as there are people practicing them. There are two ideas that commonly come up: composition uses a pre-conceived idea and improvisation is something that happens in real time. But other than these two simple… Read More
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 on the musical and sonic potential of the human voice in counterpoint to the sound world of the sweatshop. Here are some thoughts from Juliet… Read More
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 a beautiful piece of music, but it also has some extra-musical meaning that influenced my choice. This work is a mixture of the sacred and… Read More
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, which first appeared in France around 1850 were of a colossal scale, and allowed the host nation bragging rights as a nexus of activity much… Read More
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 attempt to make the 21st century orchestra “relevant” by downplaying the importance of attentive listening in concert halls is damaging the very institution they hope… Read More
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 Bloom'd (2007). And before that came Four Songs (1989) and Come Lovely and Soothing Death (2000). What is it about Whitman that makes beautiful music?… Read More