JUST ANNOUNCED
We’re pretty excited that the new album from Stars, The Five Ghosts, hit the streets yesterday but we’re even more excited that yesterday also brought with it the announcement that Stars will be hitting Massey Hall on October 23. Stars currently has a pretty sweet contest where they are asking you to remix their song “We Don’t Want Your Body” (the single off the new album) with “complete artistic freedom” and then post it on the world wide web (on Stars’ site, of course) for all to hear, enjoy, and vote on their favourite. All the details are here.
PERFORMANCES
Shout Out For Global Justice (Friday): We’re just days away from the G20 now and the people at Council of Canadians have put together this event which will include guest speakers Maude Barlow, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Dr. Vandana Shiva, and others. For more information about the Council of Canadians, check out their website.
Cesaria Evora (Cancelled): A performance by Cesaria Evora, originally scheduled for Monday June 28 at Roy Thomson Hall, was cancelled due to artist illness. Roy Thomson Hall is thinking of Cesaria and looks forward to hearing that she will once again return to Toronto to perform. Get your fix by enjoying the Exclaim!-recommended new album by the “Barefoot Diva,” Nha Sentimento.
AUDIO-FILE
Last week’s superb Canadian Songbook event honouring Bruce Cockburn was recorded by Canada Live and will air on CBC Radio 2 June 30.
For more live concert listening – Elvis Costello and the Sugarganes appearance at Massey Hall last summer is now available for your audio-consumption over at CBC Concerts on Demand.
And worth noting: we’re pretty excited about the Juno Awards coming to Toronto next March to celebrate their 40th anniversary. Exciting Juno events include Ovation: Celebrating 40 Years of the JUNO Awards at Roy Thomson Hall as part of our Virtuoso Performances series. The event will celebrate Juno nominees and winners in classical music and will include Peter Oundjian of the TSO, the Gryphon Trio, Tafelmusik, as well as others. Until then if you’re looking for some live Juno entertainment, Concerts on Demand also has a live recording of the Juno Songwriters’ Circle from 2009 featuring Dallas Green, Bahamas, Amy Millan, Lights, Alex Cuba, Amelia Curran, Ron Hynes, and Michael Kaeshammer. Listen to Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
ACCOLADES
The Polaris Music Prize longlist was announced last Thursday. Congratulations go out to all of the forty nominees on the list but special shout-outs to these artists who have recently appeared on our stages: Blue Rodeo (who performed three shows last February,) Amelia Curran (who just appeared as part of Canadian Songbook,) Elizabeth Shepherd (who headlined a set at Glenn Gould Studio in March,) Tegan and Sara (who visited Massey Hall in January), and Hawksley Workman (who also appeared as part of Canadian Songbook last week and had his own performance at Massey at the end of April).
Congratulations to the Royal Conservatory of Music Telus Centre for Performance Learning (which houses Koerner Hall) for the Pug award for best commercial and institutional building! Read about the awards given out last Wednesday night here and check out the awards website if you don’t know about the People’s Choice Awards for Architecture.
Stefania Paterak is programming coordinator at Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall
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