PERFORMANCES Amelia Curran (Tonight – Tuesday): The lovely and talented Amelia Curran returns for an intimate engagement at Glenn Gould Studio this evening and we are so excited to see her for a solo date after getting a taste of what she’s been up to when she opened for Whitehorse back in February. Also, have you seen this video (embedded above) yet? Ms. Curran debuts a stellar new song “Modern Man” on our own Soundboard, recorded at Toronto’s own Revolution Recording.
Jay Douglas (Friday): Jay Douglas is a Toronto and reggae music institution and he’s taking the Glenn Gould Studio stage with his 12-piece All-Star band this Friday night. You can read all about the impressive CV that Mr. Douglas has acquired on the event page and be sure to take a moment to view his recent visit to Revolution Recording where he recorded a cover of Bob Marley and The Wailers “Simmer Down” and listen to him on the Soundboard podcast. You can do both here.
On a sunny April afternoon, along with 3 members of his 10-piece All-Star band, Soul and Reggae mainstay Jay Douglas, performed the classic track “Simmer Down” in studio at Toronto’s Revolution Recording. Watch here from the Massey Hall soundboard:
PERFORMANCES TSO – The Hockey Sweater (Young People’s Concert Series) (Saturday): Saturday afternoon sees two matinee performances of this TSO Co-Commission based on Roch Carrier’s classic story. Roch Carrier himself narrates the piece and former Montréal Canadiens’ goaltender, Ken Dryden, hosts the performances. A very special afternoon for young fans of music and hockey alike! (Go Leafs Go!)
Glenn Gould Prize Gala Concert In Honour of Leonard Cohen (Monday): As we announced recently in the Buzz, this very special evening will fête Leonard Cohen with quite a list of those honouring him including Colm Feore, Basia Bulat, Cowboy Junkies, John Prine, Serena Ryder, and Gordon Pinsent with Travis Good & Greg Keelor (whom we present at Glenn Gould Studio later in June), among others. This celebration will include this, the Ninth Glenn Gould Prize, as well as the presentation of the City of Toronto Glenn Gould Protégé Prize winner as selected by Mr. Cohen, Sistema.
JUST ANNOUNCED
We’re thrilled to welcome back Lyle Lovett to Toronto and are excited to see him perform on the Roy Thomson Hall stage in support of his latest album, Release Me. This special presentation on Thursday, July 26 will be with his Acoustic Group and is sure to knock your socks off. FriendsFirst Members have access to purchasing tickets starting tomorrow (May 2) and tickets for the general public go on sale on Monday, May 7. As if that’s not enough, Steve Earle & the Dukes will be hitting Massey Hall on Tuesday, August 14. For this one tickets go on sale to our FriendsFirst Members tomorrow (Wednesday) and to the public Friday, May 4.
PERFORMANCES TSO – Sci-Fi Spectacular (Tuesday & Wednesday): Meme-making sensation (and, of course, actor who played Captain Sulu of the Starship Enterprise), George Takei plays host for this Pops Concert offered by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The program is set to feature suites from Star Trek (obviously), Star Wars, E.T., Avatar, and classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (I, for one, am curious to the treatment of its essential “five tone motif”).
Layla Claire (Thursday): Soprano Layla Claire provides us with the conclusion to the inaugural Canadian Voices vocal recitals series at Glenn Gould Studio. The recital will showcase a program featuring Purcell, Britten, Strauss, Debussy, and more (you can see the full program here). Worth checking out in advance, CBC Music, calls the concert a Hot Ticket this week and includes an excerpt from the Dame Kiri te Kanawa-hosted BBC documentary, “What Makes a Great Soprano.”
The Priests With Special Guest Patricia O’Callaghan (Friday): The “singing priests of Belfast” make their long awaited appearance on the stage of Roy Thomson Hall. The singers, Roman Catholic priests, hail from Northern Ireland and have been highly successful in their music careers in both religious and secular communities and, in fact, their self-titled debut album earned a Guiness World Record as the “fastest selling classical debut of all time.” Check out their blog (including audio-entries from the road) here.
JUST ANNOUNCED
Video Games Live is returning to Massey Hall this October. Disclaimer: Video Games Live is not a live Lana Del Ray performance. Instead it’s a symphonic orchestral experience where the music of your favourite video games are brought to life. This year’s presentation is all new and includes tunes from a diverse array of games like Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Warcraft, Earthworm, and of course, Zelda. Tickets to ourFriendsFirst members go on sale on Wednesday (tomorrow!) and to the public on Friday.
PERFORMANCES
The Amazing Kreskin (Tonight – Tuesday): As mentioned in last week’s Buzz post, we are fortunate to have not one, but two, presentations by The Amazing Kreskin with the second happening tonight (Tuesday) at Glenn Gould Studio. If you haven’t yet had a chance to see The Amazing Kreskin, now is your chance! As he is the World’s Foremost Mentalist – the performance promises to showcase some seriously impressive stuff.
Kellylee Evans (Friday): Kellylee Evans is the recipient of the 2011 JUNO Award for Vocal Jazz Album of the Year for her album fittingly entitled Nina (fitting, as it’s a homage to the wonderful Nina Simone) and prior to that a nominee in the same category in 2007. Earlier this year Ms. Evans also announced the exciting news that she signed to Universal Music (which the CBC show All in a Day points out is the same label as Canadian cohorts Diana Krall, Shania Twain, and Justin Bieber.) So suffice it to say that she’s got some fans who know music – come check out what everyone else is talking about on Friday at Glenn Gould Studio.
John Pinette (Postponed): This event, originally scheduled for April 27, has been postponed.
Massey Hall lost two treasures last week, a promoter and a performer. They were both important to me at a formative stage of my teenage experience. Dick Clark, in the early 60s not only produced television shows but took artists on tour. One of those tours, specifically the first live concert I ever saw, was at Massey Hall. It was “The Gene Pitney Show” starring Gene Pitney with opening acts including The Outsiders (“Time Won’t Let Me”) and a group from England who were one of my favourites, Chad and Jeremy(“Willow Weep For Me”, “A Summer Song”) *CORRECTION As I recall this was actually Peter and Gordon, another duo that were one of my favourites.
Then shortly after, my second show, I was perched up in the first row of the Gallery at the side, for Bob Dylan at Massey Hall. The first half was solo acoustic with a harmonica around his neck on a wire frame, and the second half, which is more of the show I confess I came out to see, was Bob backed by a local Toronto group called Levon and The Hawks. “Positively 4th Street” and “Like a Rolling Stone” were what I was there to experience live. A wonderful show despite a round of audience boos (because he was playing electric) but I do remember Levon smiling away with that famous grin. He was a great performer and obviously loved Bob Dylan and the music.
I would like to thank Honens International Piano Competition for the most intensive, sensible and accurate support I could ever have over the last couple of years. Being a Honens winner, I received the whole package of different engagements, projects and interesting collaborations. This kind of support gave me real source for development, for creative growing, for finding myself, my artistic and human personality.
With Honens I got another beautiful possibility that I appreciate a lot – the possibility of traveling, exploring new places, new people and new cultures. For example, just a few months after Honens 2009 I took part in quite an intensive 10 city tour in Germany: I performed almost every day and always in new places, new cities and it was a very interesting and cognitive experience. Considering the fact that now I live in Berlin I would say that this concert tour helped me, not only in a way of studying how the musical world works generally but also CONTINUE READING >
JUST ANNOUNCED
Last week we announced two very exciting additions from the Bureau of legendary Canadians to the line-up of our presentations. Leonard Cohen will be honoured at the Glenn Gould Prize Gala Concert on May 14 . Tickets are now available for this exciting event where Mr. Cohen will be present but not perform. Performances will come, however, from the likes of Basia Bulat, Cowboy Junkies, John Prine, Serena Ryder, and others. This promises to be a very special night indeed.
Also very special should be a presentation at Glenn Gould Studio of “Good, Pinsent, & Keelor” – that is Travis Good of The Sadies, Greg Keelor of Blue Rodeo, and acclaimed actor Gordon Pinsent. The trio have just released an album, Down and Out in Upalong, and are hitting the Glenn Gould Stage to show off their new stuff. You can read the 4-N album review in NOW (where Sarah Greene reports that “[t]he album is reminiscent of Billy Bragg and Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue, but with strong Canadian flavour.” You can also read about the project in the National Post. While the three will be performing as part of the aforementioned Leonard Cohen tribute, you can see their full length show at the Glenn Gould Studio on June 19.
PERFORMANCES There is a lot happening at the Halls this week, not least of which Chilly Gonzales tonight at Glenn Gould Studio, Colin James at Massey Hall on Friday, and Georgy Tchaidze at Glenn Gould Studio on Saturday. If that’s not enough, check out these other great shows:
Happy Home Opening Series to the Toronto Blue Jays!! Good luck this season boys!
Just Announced
Joe Bonamassa comes to Roy Thomson Hall on Saturday November 17 in support of his forthcoming 12th studio album Driving Toward the Daylight. The blues rock guitarist was last here at Massey Hall in early 2011. Tickets are onsale Wed Apr 11, 11am to FriendsFirst members and Fri Apr 13 10am to the general public.
Performances
We’ve got some great shows coming up that we’re really excited about…
Bob Newhart (Friday): The comic legend, joins us at Roy Thomson Hall on Friday, April 13. Mr Newhart is an icon from the golden era of American comedy. The dry, stammering delivery he has cultivated over the years has worn quite well with age. I was fortunate enough to catch his last show here in 2009 and it was real treat. This is not to miss! CONTINUE READING >
JUST ANNOUNCED
LOVE OVER AND OVER The songs of Kate McGarrigle is an evening presented by Luminato at Massey Hall on June 15, when they bring together singer-songwriter legend Kate McGarrigle’s family and friends to celebrate her inspiring life and work. The show will feature Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Emmylou Harris, Bruce Cockburn, Peggy Seeger, and more than a dozen others. Tickets go on sale to FriendsFirst on Monday, April 9 and to the general public on Saturday, April 14 at noon.
We are just thrilled to relay news if you missed it last week, that An acoustic evening withNorah Jones has been announced at Massey Hall on July 6, 2012. The multi Grammy Award winner will perform songs celebrating her forthcoming album Little Broken Hearts. Tickets are on sale now.
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
A sincere congratulations go to Toronto’s own Blue Rodeo, who in addition to The City of Ottawa proclaiming March 30, 2012 “Blue Rodeo Day”, were inducted into the JUNO Hall of Fame this past weekend. CONTINUE READING >
Soundboard is the official community of musicians, music fans, and friends of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Canada. It’s your behind-the-scenes source for related music news, recommendations, and rewards.
