Volume 19 Issue 4 - December 2013

interdisciplinary performance. It weaves into the score not onlyhuman stories — a mixture of the indigenous Nuxalk Nation, descendantsof Norwegian and Japanese settlers — but also the ever-presentsonic backdrop of the place: the river and the forest. The ContinuumEnsemble’s skilled septet, conducted by Gregory Oh, is joined bymezzo Marion Newman.December 5 the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, presentsits regular bi-annual “World Music Ensembles Concert” at 7:30pmin Walter Hall. This particular concert includes the (Balinese SemarPegulingan) Gamelan Ensemble directed by Annette Sanger. They’rejoined by Brian Katz’s Klezmer Ensemble; the Japanese TaikoEnsemble directed by Kiyoshi Nagata rounds out the early evening.Women take stage centre: Rounding out the first week of themonth on December 7 the Batuki Music Society showcases “Songsof My Mother: A Celebration of African Women” at the Ada SlaightHall, Daniels Spectrum. The Batuku Music press release notes that intraditional African music male voices are often privileged while thefemale voice “is not given [the] prominent role that it deserves” eventhough it is ever present. Moreover “women are often ... discouragedfrom assuming leading roles especially as bandleaders. Toronto has agood number of African female singers: some of them lead their ownbands and others are vocalists in various groups.” This concert seeksto redress an evident gender inequality and to shine “a light on therich talent and the diversity of music that these women possess.” Thefeatured singers are: Tapa Diarra, Evelyn Mukwedeya, Memory Makuri,Blandine Mbiya and Ruth Mathiang. They are supported by five (male)musicians and the choreographer/dancer Mabinty Sylla.December 7 and 8 another concert examines the female diasporicexperience, this time from an Asian perspective. The Raging AsianWomen Taiko Drummers, aka RAW performs “From Rage Comes” onthe spacious stage of the Betty Oliphant Theatre. RAW promises thisconcert “will not be your typical percussion event.” Toronto’s selfdescribed“well-loved ensemble of Asian women activist drummers”has collectively created an evening-length work which aims to telltheir stories as diasporic Asian-Canadian women in the 21st centurythrough music, movement and storytelling. They mine personalexperiences which “explore the theme of rage ... and what comes fromit. When it is unleashed ... when it is muted ... when it must be swallowed... and when it empowers women to transcend.” The core taikodrumming practice of RAW, as it has evolved in North America, is ajumping off point “for an artistic journey to explore racial, sexual andcultural identities ... with a special focus on social activism, educationand community building.” They’re well worth seeing.The same night, December 8, the Echo Women’s Choir raises its 80strong voices at the Church of the Holy Trinity with a social activist,community and world music focus in a program titled “Rise.” TheEcho performs Appalachian, Croatian klapa — a form of traditional acappella singing from Dalmatia, gospel, South African songs, as wellas compositions by several composers. The choir is joined by guestguitarist and fiddler Annabelle Chvostek. Becca Whitla and AlanGasser conduct.More picks: December 14 the African Catholic Community Choirpresents songs from a variety of African traditions, plus works inEnglish and French. Conducted by Serge Tshiunza, the concert is atthe Holy Name Catholic Church.We skip more than a month, and into a new year, to January 18,2014. “Send me a Rose” is the concert by the Lute Legends Ensembleat the Glenn Gould Studio. Bassam Bishara, oud (‘ud), Lucas Harris,lute, and Wen Zhao, pipa, present music for three prominent instrumentsof the venerable and widespread lute family. Some scholarstrace the lineages of the modern Near-Eastern ‘ud and Chinese pipa toa common ancestor about 1,100 years ago. The European lute and the‘ud are also related. Both appear to have descended from a commonforbear via diverging evolutionary paths. The Lute Legends trio aimsto bend the direction of these divergent geographic paths back towardthe unified goal of making music together on the cozy stage of theGlenn Gould Studio. Their program includes music from Turkey, Italy,Iraq, China and Scotland. Sweetening the Can-con, the Canadiancomposer Andrew Donaldson has written a work for them too.January 18 Amanda Martinez, no stranger to our column, bringsher signature eclectic Latin-centred music to our 905 neighbours inMarkham. Martinez and her band will offer a generous mix of Afro-Cuban beats, bossa nova, flamenco and Mexican folk music at theFlato Markham Theatre.Already into the second month of the New Year, on February 1,Fatoumata Diawara and Bassekou Kouyate perform the excitinghybrid music of Malian blues at Koerner Hall. Co-presented by theRoyal Conservatory, Small World Music and Batuki Music, Maliansinger Diawara was singled out by Time magazine in 2012 as a singerto watch. “Her well-crafted songs are often light and breezy, buther soulful voice brings a bluesy depth and potency ...” Sharing thestage is Mali’s Kouyate, the jeli ngoni virtuoso, whose music hasbeen compared to the “electric desert blues” of Tinariwen and AliFarka Touré.I look forward to continuing my personal observations of theGTA world music scene in these pages next year. May you have abanner 2014.Andrew Timar is a Toronto musician and music writer.He can be contacted at worldmusic@thewholenote.com.32 | December 1, 2013 – February 7, 2014 thewholenote.com