Randy Bachman
This coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Glenn Gould Studio welcomes the legendary Randy Bachman, for special two-hour live tapings of his award winning radio show “Vinyl Tap”.
His website promises the shows will showcase history unfolding and recreated “from Fender Telecaster, Gibson Les Paul to Gretsch…from echo, flanging, distortion to overdrive – to showcase effects heard on some of the greatest records in the world.”
Truly, a rock n’ roll lecture straight from the source!
All shows are completely sold out but you’re able to hear them on CBC radio one, Saturdays at 7pm (8pm AT, 8:30pm NT) and you can check out previous shows here.
CBC,Randy Bachman,vinyl Tap
Brooklyn Rider and two members of Masters of Persian Music.
Ancient and refined, Persian classical music remains one of the hidden gems of world traditions -- hidden until recently, that is. With beautiful poetry by Rumi and other Sufi poets, soaring vocals, exquisite melodies and powerful rhythms, this music is now winning an increasing number of listeners among classical and world music enthusiasts.
One of the key reasons for this growing audience? The Masters of Persian Music, an ensemble that has produced several sold-out North American tours and a Grammy award-winning CD. CONTINUE READING >
Brooklyn Rider,Hamid Reza Nourbakhsh,Hossein Alizadeh,kayhan Kalhor,masters Of Persian Music,small World Music
Portrait of Mozart painted posthumously by Barbara Kraft, 1819.
Five years ago, when Peter Oundjian was relatively new in his position as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Music Director, he announced the Mozart@249 festival at the TSO’s annual season media conference. He explained that he didn’t think we had to wait until the all important 250th birthday to have an excuse to have a Mozart festival so he was going to get a head start on everybody else. It was rather endearing, although we all knew it was really just clever marketing. But who cares? What’s not to love about Mozart, especially in the dark cold days of January?
Well here we are five years later and the annual January Mozart Festival is so popular that the TSO artistic team just keep programming it – hence Mozart@254. The festival opened last night and runs until January 24 at Roy Thomson Hall and CONTINUE READING >
Mozart,Mozart Festival,Mozart@254,Roy Thomson Hall,Toronto Symphony Orchestra
I hated New Year’s Eve when I was growing up.
The enforced frivolity drove me crazy and every emotion seemed fake. After midnight, when the horns had been blown and the noisemakers had been discharged, I would wander around the party muttering to anyone who would listen, “Well, do you feel any different? I sure don’t.”
I swear one of the reasons I got into show business was to have something I could stand to do on New Year’s Eve. Producing comedy shows at my comedy clubs gave me a context for my fun. Then, when Massey Hall approached me to produce a “comedy extravaganza” nine years ago, I leaped at the chance. Surely there was an audience who wanted to laugh -- without being totally liquored up -- in an august environment, a place that had been a venue for some of the greatest comedians of our time? CONTINUE READING >
comedy,Gerry Dee,Glen Foster,Mark Breslin,New Year's Eve,Nikki Payne,Yuk Yuk's
Conductor Roberto Paternostro
Did you ever think it was possible to watch Mozart’s Papageno in the Magic Flute prance through the forest looking for his Papagena, and the very next minute become entranced by Calaf in Puccini’s Turandot performing Nessun Dorma? It didn’t even occur to me that I could until I found out about Bravissimo! Opera’s Greatest Hits. CONTINUE READING >
holidays,opera
Ivars Taurins as Herr Handel. Photo by Johnnie Eisen and courtesy of Tafelmusik.
The first time I heard about
Tafelmusik‘s
Sing-Along Messiah was last year when I was on the subway and I noticed a poster. I thought “hmmm, sounds interesting,” but the holidays swept me up and I never made it to the concert.
The world is a funny place, and this year I found myself in the position where I was the one ordering those same posters for Tafelmusik, and negotiating the signage for the subway ad campaign as Tafelmusik’s Marketing Coordinator. From the day I started working here I’ve been Messiah crazed, in fact, coordinating the advertising campaign for a Toronto tradition that I have yet to see!
Tafelmusik’s Messiah concerts and Sing-Along Messiah are the heart of Tafelmusik’s Toronto performance season. We have an audience of dedicated Sing-Alongers who have been coming annually for as many as eighteen years. These dedicated followers stand in line outside Massey Hall in the cold, sometimes for hours, to ensure that they get the seats they want with their friends and family. We handed out flyers recently at Union Station, and had people thank us for reminding them to buy a ticket. That’s what really convinced me there has to be something magical about this – being thanked for a flyer!
CONTINUE READING >
choral Music,Handel,holidays,Messiah,Tafelmusik
Photo courtesy of: John Beebe of John Beebe Photography
There’s definitely no place like home for holiday music. Home to Toronto are an array of Christmas concerts — some are new, but others, such as Nathaniel Dett Chorale’s “An Indigo Christmas…,” return every year.
As is tradition with this holiday concert, now in its 11th year, the chorale performs at the Glenn Gould Studio.
The 21-member chorale will perform a blend of contemporary and traditional compositions, featuring carols, spirituals and folk songs.
While the concert retains its main “An Indigo Christmas…” concept every year, its theme, repertoire and guest performers are different. For example, in 2008, the concert’s theme was ‘great joy.’
The founder and artistic director of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, founded the chorale in 1998, naming it after acclaimed African-Canadian composer R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943). CONTINUE READING >
Brainerd Blyden-Taylor,Indigo Christmas,Nathaniel Dett Chorale
Matthew Good is as Canadian as Hockey Night in Canada — though,the fact that I just compared him to a commercial enterprise owned by a media conglomerate would make his head spin. Yes, Matthew Good is as much a political activist and engaged human being as he is a musician. There is not a lot that he does not discuss on his official website. From the Iraq war to global warming to the Middle East and the war in Afghanistan, Matthew has something to say.
And his fans love it.
Here is a musician who has embraced changing technologies instead of challenging them. He has his own YouTube channel, MySpace and Facebook pages, and tweets regularly. Matthew uses all of these outlets to share his take on everything from politics, activism, celebrity, his disdain for the media, and everything in between. Love him or hate him, give him your ear and he will challenge you to think, to speak up and to be heard.
Matthew Good is playing two shows at Massey Hall, on December 18 and 19. His fans know what to expect…the unexpected. A stage-diving Panda, an expletive-driven rant on the evils of capitalism, perhaps a burning teddy bear. The world is strange indeed.
Caroline Hall is the Marketing Coordinator for Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall.
Matthew Good
Sir Colin Davis, who was a conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra for fifty years, discusses Handel’s Messiah.
There’s an excellent chance at this time of year of seeing people on the subway or in your local coffee shop with bright orange (usually tattered) choir books tucked under their arms. What are those books? If you have ever sung in a choir, you know – it’s time for Handel’s Messiah and across the land thousands of choral enthusiasts are dusting off their scores for the annual Christmas rite. I admit it. I am an unabashed Messiah enthusiast. I have been singing it (badly) since I was a 12-year-old church chorister and Christmas just isn’t Christmas without it.
What gives Messiah its enduring popular appeal at Christmastime? Well, the first thing you should know – it wasn’t written for Christmas. Handel wrote it for Lent, but because the story includes the advent and birth of Christ (Part 1 of 3), over the years choirs, especially in North America, have adopted it as the choral work at Christmas. In continental Europe you are more likely to hear Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at this time of year and Messiah at Easter. Handel probably doesn’t mind either way. He was a masterful marketer in his day. When he conducted the premiere in Dublin on April 3, 1742, he cannily arranged for a public rehearsal to take place the day before. It caused a sensation. As a result, hundreds of eager listeners had to be turned away from the official performance.
CONTINUE READING >
choral Music,Handel,Messiah
