by Cheryl Stone, Manager Advancement and Patron Engagement Villains, heroes and other characters are an integral part of opera. They act as our way into the story, connecting us with the worlds they are a part of. Two Odysseys is no exception to the operatic tradition, and even though the characters have new names and… Read More
The Three Woes Composed by Anna Pidgorna This piece is inspired by the end of the world prophesy in the Book of Revelations, in which seven trumpets bring in various catastrophes, which wipe out much of life on earth, herald the final judgement, and establish paradise on Earth. The last three trumpets are known as… Read More
In the forward to his score Claude Vivier describes Musik für das Ende as “a Ceremony – of the End”, an exploration of the relationships established between individuals at this “final stage of life”. The score for the piece uses unconventional notation to explore this interaction musically. Let’s take a look at this unusual score… Read More
Choral text for The Music of James MacMillan on March 8 PROGRAM Knut Nystedt, (1915 – 2014, Norway) Immortal Bach (1998) Choir 21 Virtuoso String Orchestra James MacMillan, (b. 1959, Scotland) Gallant Weaver (2002) Choir 21 James Rolfe, (b. 1961, Canada) When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d (2006) Choir 21 R. Murray Schafer, (b. 1933,… Read More
Soundstreams welcomes back preeminent Scottish composer/conductor Sir James MacMillan. Our first collaboration with MacMillan was in 2001 when we presented the North American premiere of his Raising Sparks, a work that reflects the deep affinities between Christianity and Judaism. And in 2006 Soundstreams’ University Voices toured his major choral composition revolving around St. Dominic, Sun… Read More
Soundstreams Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney told me recently that one of his favourite ways to feed his creativity when he designs concert programs is by thinking of “families of instruments in all their varieties.” Examples of the results in previous season have included Mass Brass (2011) and Piano Ecstacy (2013). And so tonight in Squeezebox… Read More
George Crumb American composer George Crumb (b. 1929) once described the essential acoustic of his music as “a kind of echoing, reverberant acoustic of haunting sounds that cross the river, and bounce between the hills.” Crumb likens this quality to one of the vocal styles used in his 1970 composition, Ancient Voices of Children, as… Read More
Jeffrey Beecher, Serouj Kradjian and Grisha Groyachev perform at Reimagining Flamenco, November 2013 Soundstreams welcomes back Serouj Kradjian, the versatile pianist and composer, with his newest collaboration in a series of genre-crossing adventures in the music of Latin cultures. In recent years Kradjian, at Soundstreams’ initiative, has created imaginative programs of newly composed and re-arranged… Read More
Tonight’s concert celebrates the Choral music of English composer Sir John Tavener (1944–2013) in the manner that Soundstreams has often presented him: in the company of other music with which he had certain affinities. The English choral tradition is represented, but also sounds from the East and from North America, both directions that interested Tavener…. Read More
Almost all the music you could ever want is on the internet right now, recorded perfectly and played perfectly and accessible immediately, 24 hours a day. On the one hand this is fantastic—I can hear huge amounts of music, from different genres and time periods and traditions and cultures, any time I want. On the… Read More
The Christian service of Vespers or evening prayers, refers to the earliest office in the Roman Catholic Liturgy, dating from the second century. It was also referred to as the Office of Lights, given that it was celebrated at the hour that candles were lit in the Church, not only for light, but for symbolic… Read More
Antonio Vivaldi’s Op. 8, published in 1725, is a collection of 12 concertos grouped under the collective title The Contest Between Harmony and Invention. The first four of these concertos are The Four Seasons. Harmony and invention can be understood in this instance as the interplay of absolute music and descriptive music. It’s arguable that… Read More
Music inspired by the seasons or by The Four Seasons. Nature, weather, the seasons, atmospheric phenomena… all have long been sources of inspiration for artists and composers. I can count myself on that list. I remember being a student and telling my composition professor at the time that I wanted to write a piece about… Read More
Airline Icarus was commissioned by a small Vancouver opera company, Opera Breve, in 2001. Soundstreams’ Artistic Director, Lawrence Cherney, was among those who witnessed the project’s first public workshop. The untimely death of Opera Breve’s co-founder John Juliani in 2003 cut short the company’s plans to develop the work. Lawrence and Soundstreams continued to support… Read More
A musical setting of the Passion of Christ can be an ambitious and possibly daunting undertaking. To reinterpret the greatest historical example of such a setting, namely J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, could perhaps be even more so. But this is exactly what tonight’s composers have done, and the results are compelling. The Australian Art… Read More
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, it was with the Bach Elgar Choir, an amateur choir based in Hamilton, Ontario. This season, as we celebrate 60 years of professional choral singing… Read More
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 China. Tonight, we are pleased to have the collaboration of Russian guitarist Grisha Goryachev, Armenian/Canadian pianist Serouj Kradjian, Spanish cantaora Antonia Contreras and Canadian composer André… Read More
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 his Berlin Mass, in a rare setting for solo voices and organ. Since then, Soundstreams audiences have heard a great variety of Pärt’s minimalistic music… Read More
We have been enchanted in the office by Haruka Fujii’s copies of the Japanese Children’s Letters to God books. On March 5 at our Fujii Percussion and Voices concert, Rika Fujii will perform Miyoshi’s piece inspired by these books with the Toronto Children’s Chorus, Chorale. Here is a little about the books and a peek… Read More
We have had a lot of great feedback about the concert last Sunday, and a lot of curiosity about the poetry and music presented, so we wanted to share some info here for you to investigate if you are interested. What was your favourite poem or piece from the concert? Let us know in the… Read More