At a time when countless concerts and performances have been cancelled across the country, Sonic Boom, Canada’s beloved record store has created an online venue for Canadian artists to launch their Spring record releases.
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Canadian Music Week announced today the incomparable Buffy Sainte-Marie as the 2020 recipient of the Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award.
“Buffy Sainte-Marie sets the bar for everything the Allan Slaight Humanitarian Spirit Award stands for,” said Gary Slaight, CEO and President of Slaight Communications/Slaight Family Foundation. “For [Sainte-Marie], worldwide success and the status of music legend was not a personal goal, but an opportunity – an opportunity to try to right wrongs, an opportunity to give back to the planet, and an opportunity to alter the course of Indigenous lives through education.”
As part of my birthday month celebration, I have always wanted to attend a Mozart concert by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. This year, I was a able to attend two concerts… Mozart’s Requiem, with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and his Symphony No. 40. A total treat!
Here’s some details about the concerts and my recap of my lovely time spent with Mozart’s music.
The Ward Cabaret, a sold-out work-in-progress hit at last year’s Luminato Festival, premiered at Harbourfront Centre Theatre this past weekend.
From the 1840s until the Second World War, ‘The Ward’ was a place where Jewish, Chinese, African-American and Italian immigrants, among others, lived and struggled – an area loosely bordered by College and Queen, University and Yonge Streets – and was the seeding ground for this city’s cultural diversity. The Ward Cabaret musically and through storytelling explores how that remarkable process of mixing and imagining and sharing began, at the turn of the last century.
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Some of the most majestic music ever conceived. Alexander Shelley, Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, conducts Handel’s Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and four dazzling Canadian soloists. Experience music’s most inspiring message of faith—in Mozart’s colourful orchestration. This is one of Toronto’s favourite holiday musical traditions and you do not want to miss out!
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Echo Women’s Choir offers a rousing and inspiring alternative to holiday season fare in its December concert When She Won’t Back Down. Special guests for the evening are the Latin American band Las Brujas del Barrio.
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The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) continues its season with bold symphonic masterpieces to audiences this month. Highlights include Vivaldi, Samuel Barber, Fjóla Evans, Tchaikovsky, and many others.
As many of you know, I always enjoy my time at the TSO. Below are my picks for concerts this month. Which are yours?
Last night, I had the pleasure of attend The Musical Stage Company‘s Uncovered: Stevie Wonder And Prince — an opportunity to enjoy some of the greatest works by these two artists reimagined under Reza Jacobs‘ direction. The night included Thom Allison (Broadway), Colin Asuncion (singer & cabaret performer), Aimee Bessada (multi-instrumentalist & songwriter), Jully Black (Juno award-winner), Michelle Bouey (2018-19 Banks Prize winner), Divine Brown (Juno award-winner), Alana Hibbert (Stratford & Shaw Festivals), Lydia Persaud (singer-songwriter) Jackie Richardson (Gemini & Dora award-winner), Cary Shields (Broadway) among others. Accompanying Jacobs were Jamie Drake, Justin Gray, and Erika Nielsen.
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The Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) welcomes another visit from incoming Music Director Gustavo Gimeno this week, October 9, 10 & 12! Gimeno Conducts Daphnis et Chloé features four works by French and Russian composers that give the entire Orchestra the opportunity to shine.
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The sonorities of France and Mexico perfume the air the last day of summer, when Canadian soprano Renée Bouthot and Mexican-American pianist Ana Cervantes, in her Canadian debut, join forces in concert. Their performance, Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir: Music by French and Mexican Composers.
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