Steve Reich, 80 this October, is perhaps the world’s most important living composer, a creative personality who almost singlehandedly brought music back from the brink of obscurantism that threatened to sink it in the late fifties and early sixties with his patterned, slowly moving, deeply emotional musical textures. He’s also, as it turns out, a… Read More
Most Minimalists don’t carry membership cards anymore. But they do know something about guilt by association. Just ask Russell Hartenberger. Picture yourself in SoHo, New York, in the summer of 1970. Psychedelia was dying out. There was violence and civil unrest reported in the news. Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated the year… Read More
New Music used to be the Buckley’s cough medicine of the classical world – it tasted awful, but it was good for you. There was a hint of the church about it – a celebration of obscure rites for the faithful, desperately clinging to their belief in the importance of the new, scorned and belittled,… Read More
Then: My first experience of meeting the renowned American composer Steve Reich was in a master class he gave for composition students at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. It was early in 1976 and he was in town as the guest of New Music Concerts who presented performances of his music during both… Read More
Lawrence Cherney’s Soundstreams is cementing its reputation for presenting some of the finest music in the city this season. Earlier this year, they gave us the superb soprano Adrianne Pieczonka in George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children. In a month or so, they’ll be presenting the famed Steve Reich in his 80th-birthday concert. On Tuesday,… Read More
Canadian premiere of Nelson Mandela University Choir, world premieres by Canadian composers and Philip Glass’s birthday. Soundstreams will present the Estonian Philharmonic Choir and Nelson Mandela University Choir, in its Canadian premiere, as part of its 2016/17 season announced Tuesday. There will be four world premieres by Canadian composers Anna Höstman, Gabriel Dharmoo, Riho Esko… Read More
Soundstreams have released their 34th season line-up that includes a variety of programming exploring new formats in music theatre, choral music, and chamber music. Most notable is Odditorium: an eclectic staging by theatre director Chris Abraham of excerpts from R. Murray Schafer’s Patria cycle, complete with circus carnival barker. Following last year’s genre-bending Electric Messiah,… Read More
Soundstreams have just announced their 2016/17 season. There’s quite a lot there for those with an experimental taste in vocal music as well as a bunch of instrumental stuff. Probably the biggest deal is a staging of “musical curiosities” from R. Murray Schafer’s Patria cycle. Odditorium will feature selections from The Greatest Show, Ra, and others, immersing audiences in a circus-like atmosphere, complete… Read More
It seems that accordions are making a comeback. That’s not only because the box-shaped instrument can be heard in new songs from Mumford & Sons, Arcade Fire, and The Lumineers. The trend goes deeper than that. The accordion, or squeezebox, is coming back into vogue after a generation of ridicule. New York’s Carnegie Hall had its… Read More
Squeezebox, stomach Steinway, accordion: this modest instrument from the folk fringes is preparing for its time in the spotlight. Just as the cello and organ have recently been jazzed up and introduced to music lovers beyond their traditional realm, the accordion is gaining new acclaim. Squeezebox, an evening of contemporary music presented by Soundstreams on… Read More
Squeezeboxes from all over the world take centre stage at the all-accordion concert Squeezebox, featuring classical and contemporary music. Three of the performers tell us a little bit about their squeezebox of choice. Héctor Del Curto “A bandoneón is a reed instrument invented in Germany and derived from the concertina. It was meant to replace the… Read More
‘We’re hoping the feel will be something like a mashup of Handel, Bjork, and Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey’ Every year around this time, there are a handful of Messiahs around Toronto to pick from. This year, George Frideric Handel’s 1741 English oratorio will also be offered in part in Maliseet, an Algonquian language spoken by… Read More
Soundstreams’ high concept show Electric Messiah opened at the Drake Underground last night. So what is Electric Messiah? It’s a potent mix of Handel/Jennens, four exceptional singers from varied backgrounds, electronics, turntable artists and electric guitars. It’s “staged” in the round in a dive bar with the audience and artists mixed up all over the… Read More
George Frideric Handel wrote Messiah toward the end of his life and it has become his lasting legacy. First performed in Dublin on April 13, 1742, followed by its London premiere nearly a year later, it became known as one of the most frequently performed choral works in Western music. Dipping into the St. James… Read More
The Globe & Mail’s Robert Harris writes about the Soundstreams / CanStage production of Julie. Check it out: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/canadian-stage-ready-to-woo-the-classical-music-crowd-with-julie-opera/article27256092/
The Whole Note takes a deep look at the Soundstreams and CanStage collaboration of Philippe Boesmans’ Julie. Check it out: http://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/newsroom/25703-boesmans-julie-comes-to-canstage
She reflects on the apparent chasm between pop culture and high art, her latest role in Canadian Stage’s Julie, and why she strayed from the predictable path of a rising opera talent. Check it out here: Q Interview: Soprano Sharleen Joynt on operatic bliss and life post Bachelor.