Volume 23 Issue 6 - March 2018
In this issue: Canadian Stage, Tapestry Opera and Vancouver Opera collaborate to take Gogol’s short story The Overcoat to the operatic stage; Montreal-based Sam Shalabi brings his ensemble Land of Kush, and his newest composition, to Toronto; Five Canadian composers, each with a different CBC connection, are nominated for JUNOs; and The WholeNote team presents its annual Summer Music Education Directory, a directory of summer music camps, programs and courses across the province and beyond.
In this issue: Canadian Stage, Tapestry Opera and Vancouver Opera collaborate to take Gogol’s short story The Overcoat to the operatic stage; Montreal-based Sam Shalabi brings his ensemble Land of Kush, and his newest composition, to Toronto; Five Canadian composers, each with a different CBC connection, are nominated for JUNOs; and The WholeNote team presents its annual Summer Music Education Directory, a directory of summer music camps, programs and courses across the province and beyond.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir who was chosen in 2015 as the New<br />
York Philharmonic’s Kravis Emerging Composer. The Philharmonic<br />
will give the world premiere of Thorvaldsdottir’s latest commissioned<br />
work, Metacosmos, on April 4 to 6.<br />
(Coincidentally, during the writing of this column, I received a press<br />
release regarding the Chicago Sinfonietta’s concert on <strong>March</strong> 11 celebrating<br />
women composers. This orchestra is dedicated to modelling<br />
and promoting diversity, inclusion and racial and cultural equity<br />
in the arts. In light of these initiatives, it feels like Toronto is lagging<br />
behind; all the more reason why the Caution Tape Sound Collective is<br />
a much-needed voice in the city.<br />
An important footnote to<br />
this conversation about orchestral<br />
programming: I would<br />
be remiss not to mention two<br />
upcoming orchestral performances<br />
of works by composer<br />
Vivian Fung. On <strong>March</strong> 24, the<br />
National Arts Centre Orchestra<br />
will give the Toronto premiere<br />
of her newly commissioned<br />
piece Earworms, and on<br />
<strong>March</strong> 3, Fung’s 2011 piece<br />
Dust Devils will be performed<br />
by the TSO as part of the New<br />
Vivian Fung<br />
Creations Festival.<br />
Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto-based composer and electrovocal<br />
sound artist. sounddreaming@gmail.com.<br />
Beat by Beat | World View<br />
Subway Extension<br />
Is a Two-Way<br />
Musical Street<br />
ANDREW TIMAR<br />
From its earliest years York University fostered a unique music<br />
environment which embraced what was then the fringe.<br />
Experimental music, research into biofeedback as a musical<br />
controller, interdisciplinary performance studies, jazz, improvisation,<br />
period musical performance and world music were all on the<br />
curriculum. Did geographic isolation encourage and help incubate<br />
such an adventurous and exploratory musical spirit?<br />
York’s Keele campus is located in northwestern Toronto. Back when<br />
I first attended, it felt a world apart from the downtown classical<br />
music scene anchored in the established programs at the University of<br />
Toronto’s Faculty of Music. The sheer distance between the two institutions<br />
and the time it took to travel between them emphasized the<br />
cultural gulf. Yet in the traffic between the two universities’ world<br />
music ensembles there are threads we can trace, via the public transit<br />
web that connects both institutions.<br />
There has been talk of a York University subway station on the Keele<br />
campus ever since the Music Department was incorporated in 1969<br />
as part of the Faculty of Fine Arts. Rumours continued to rumble as<br />
the decades rolled on about a York subway stop until the new TTC<br />
Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE), finally opening to<br />
great fanfare on December 17, 2017, made it a reality. For the first time,<br />
downtown travellers can take the subway beyond the city limits – and<br />
vice versa. Significant reductions in travel time are being touted by the<br />
TTC for their beneficial long-term impacts. Asked for her comments<br />
as to what these longer-term impacts of the TYSSE may be on music<br />
and other kinds of performances at the Keele campus, York University<br />
media relations spokesperson Janice Walls put a positive, if fairly<br />
obvious, spin on things in an email: “Now that the subway stops at<br />
York University, it makes it much easier for people to access the many<br />
music and theatre performances available on campus.”<br />
Equally obvious, perhaps, but perhaps less spin-worthy, York<br />
students can now also take the subway to an evening concert at a<br />
downtown venue and then get back home at a reasonable time!<br />
The Advantages of New Frontiers<br />
Already evident during its foundational 1970s decade, among the<br />
York Music Department’s strong suits were its world music ensembles.<br />
In 1970, the first year they<br />
were offered at York, I took<br />
the Carnatic, Hindustani and<br />
kulintang ensemble classes.<br />
But what exactly are the roots<br />
of this kind of ensemble?<br />
The concept of the world<br />
music ensemble can be traced<br />
back to the late 1950s at UCLA,<br />
when it entered the discipline<br />
of ethnomusicology<br />
partly being developed there.<br />
It was introduced by American<br />
ethnomusicologist Mantle<br />
Hood (1918-2005), a specialist<br />
in Indonesian music, who took<br />
on the mission of bringing the<br />
YOUNGJIN KO<br />
24 | <strong>March</strong> <strong>2018</strong> thewholenote.com
Change language