Volume 4 Issue 6 - March 1999

usician in om· Midst
Ben Grossman . ~
It is a Sunday afternoon
in late February at the
Church ofSt. George
the Martyr just south of
the Art Gallery of
Ontario. The occasion
is a concert, one of the
Baroque Music Beside
the Grange series, but
the sounds that come
from the six musicians
sitting on the platform
in a semi-circle are
decidedly un-baroque!
Unfamiliarly modal
melodies blend with the
exotic twang of a qanun,
a plucked multi-stringed
Arab cross between a
harp and a guitar, and the supportive rhythms of a small drum. The
music, from the Spanish Llibre Vemie/1, predates the birth of Johann
Sebastian Bach by about two hundred years. After the next piece the
percussionist puts down his drum and picks up and plays an oud, an
Arab instrument.that looks rather like a large lut.e. On the floor next
to him is another stringed instrument, a Turkish saz and half a dozen
.drums of various shapes and sizes.
TI1e percussionist/oud/saz player
is twenty-seven year old Ben
Grossman, whose versatility goes
beyond playing different middleeastem
instruments. h1 mid
February he joined Cajun/Celtic
fiddler, Oliver Schroer's band,
Stewed Tomatoes, to accompany
singer-songwriter, James
Keelaghan. On March 13 he will
be at the Music Gallery to play
music by composer-inventor,
Barry Prophet, with the com~
poser, and on March 14 will be
perfonning medieval, renaissance
and contemporary folk music at
the Royal Ontario Musemn.
How did Ben become a
multi-faceted musician? To start
with, he grew up in a musical
home, with a guitarist mother
and an uncle who was a blues
guitarist. At seven he began
experimentii1g, by himself, with
the guitar, and, as a teenager,
studied double bass with Boris
Kurstig, who, after the official
lesson was over, would always
have a score of music by
Stravinsky or Bartok for his
precocious student to play.
He also became interested
in the music of minimalist
composers Steve Reich and
Philip Glass, surviving the high
school waste land by escaping to
the Metro Reference Library
where he absorbed Glass's operal
practice. "While 1love looking to
the past and to other cultures for
ideas and infonnation, ultimately
what one does must be satisfying."
hl the final analysis, it is
the late 20th century sensibility
that prevails, not the 13th or 14th
century sensibility. ·
And, speaking of such things,
Ben recently composed a work
for a high school percussion
ensemble, which has sparked his
interest in doing more writing.
With the resources literally at his
finger tips, medieval, contemporary,
Arab, Turkish and Balkan
musical traditions, what he
comes up with is sure to be
interesting.
Upcoming concerts with Ben
Grossman: March.6 at the
Transac Club, March 13 at the
Music Gallery, March 14 at the
ROM. ·
Musicians in our Midst is photographed by
Michael Shaw, Ashley & Crippen, Photographers
200 Davenport Road, Toronto (416) 925-2222
tlil .... cJ1.'lu.,te.-s W.-ae ...
All the King's Voices
recently perfonned with the
Mohawk Singers, a Food Bank
Benefit Concert of Traditional
Carols in Mohawk and English,
at Her Majesty's Royal Chapel on
the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory
east of Belleville. We hope
to retum to help celebrate "TI1e 1
Concentus Arts
announces the winners of their
Christmas Raffie. They were: 1.
Beatrice Verch, Eganville Ont.; 2.
Rick Nishumura, Toronto; 3.
Suzanne McClennan, Toronto.
WE EXTEND A WARM
WHOLENOTE WELCOME
to five additional new members:
Landing" and for workshops with
the Mohawk Singers.
The Academy Concert Series;
Einstein on the Beach, Canadian
Great Music at St. Annes;
Colin McPhee's book on the Esprit 0 rchestra' s Marilyn Gilbert Artists Management;
Patrons of Wisdom;
Gamelan, and the music of the Toward a Living Art is an
American composer/percussion- audience education/outreach and the Trillium Brass Quintet.
ist/inventQr, Harry Partsch. programme fostering lifelong
Guitar playing, odd meters and interest in the art of music, with OMITTED IN ERROR
the creation of music by building free admission to Toward a from the November 1998 edition
up layers of rhythmic patterns Living Art concerts, workshops the following ]998-99 profile
were among his musical inquiries and special events. TI1is benefits The CHOIRS OF GRACE
at this time.
students and cotnmm1ity mem~ CHURCH on-the-HILL
A little later he met Barry hers who ordinarily would not be Address: 300 Lonsdale Road,
Prophet, who introduced him to exposed to new music events. Toronto, M4V IX4
the Balinese gamelai1 and to Call416-815-7887.
Phone: 416-488-7884
Indian and African music, as a University Settlement Music Director: Melva Treffmger
result of which he became Music & Arts School offers a. Graham; Organist: Douglas Shalin
interested in tm1ings other tlmn · vibrant chamber music program Eighty choristers sing in t11e 3
the equal temperament commonly for student/amateur musicians of choirs of Grace Church on-theused
in traditional westem music. all ages and instruments, coached Hill, an Anglican parish:
When he became interested in by qualified instructors. TI1e next Gentlemen and Boys; Girls; and
medieval music, Toronto session begins the second week Women's. The choirs sing two
musician Judith Cohen advised of April. Registration deadline: Sm1day services, evensongs,
him to leam Arabic music, Wednesday, March 24. Fee: $60/ special services and concerts. A
because most of what modem session. Annette or Julie at 598- member of the Royal School of
medieval perfonnance practice 3444 or at 23 Grange Road. Church Music (UK), the Choir of
draws on is Arabic and Balkan
music. Her suggestion led to
Gentlemen and Boys is one of
The Canadian Child
' 0 Ch only eight in Canada. Four CDs
studies wit!! George Sawa. About ren S pera orus have been produced recently. TI!e
a year ago with the help of a is proud to be named among the Choirs tour in Canada, the US
Canada Council study grant he many acc