Volume 24 Issue 5 - February 2019

ecently added to the TCOCP roster.
Their varied program celebrates the Year of the Pig with a mix
of traditional and contemporary Chinese music. It continues with
Colourful Clouds Chasing the Moon composed by Ren Guang,
the traditional Purple Bamboo Tune, Jiang Xianwei’s Journey to
Gusu, Lu Wencheng’s Rising Higher Step by Step, and Romance
on the Grasslands by Wang Luobin/Patty Chan. The program then
concludes with Dance of Yi Tribe by Wang Huiren, Hand in Hand
by Su Shi/Patty Chan, and the popular Racing Horses composed by
Huang Haihuai.
ROM Gods in My Home: Chinese New Year
The TCO remains active during the New Year season playing public
and private events. For example on February 16, 17 and 18, mornings
and afternoons at the Royal Ontario Museum, its youth and small
ensembles perform ensemble pieces and instrumental solos. They will
also offer demonstrations and opportunities for the audiences to try
playing selected instruments.
These interactive performances are part of the ROM’s current
exhibition Gods in My Home: Chinese New Year. Drawn from the
Museum’s permanent collection, the exhibition features a selection of
ancestral portrait paintings and deity prints that were an integral part
of Lunar New Year observances in Chinese households. Gods in My
Home “explores the connections between the domestic, material and
spiritual life of Chinese society…during the late Imperial period to the
early 20th-century Republic era.”
New Year. Please see their website for more details.
Perhaps, as the temple suggests, you will be among those fortunate
enough to “bring home auspicious blessings and wisdom.”
In this KonMari-fuelled “tidying and purging” era, those are two
possessions I wouldn’t mind more of.
WORLD VIEW QUICK PICKS
Jane Bunnett and Macqueque
Fo Guang Shan Temple of Toronto
Plenty of other events
I’ve focused attention on just two Chinese Orchestras in this
account of Chinese New Year music in the GTA. Of course there
are plenty of other events taking place in Chinese communities
throughout the GTA. For example the Chinese Cultural Centre
of Greater Toronto holds its signature Year of the Pig Banquet on
February 8 at its sprawling Scarborough facility, featuring an evening
of community entertainment, many including Chinese music.
Finally, for those seeking musical experiences with a spiritual aim,
the Fo Guang Shan Temple of Toronto marks the Chinese New Year
with several activities in its Mississauga Mahayana Buddhist temple.
In a message from the Venerable Master Hsing Yun, the founder of
Fo Guang Shan, the Year of the Pig both symbolizes endings and
brand new beginnings. “One homophone for pig is ‘all’ or ‘everything,’
which also represents a good wish for everyone to have a wellrounded
and auspicious year.”
From January 26 to February 10, the Temple hosts Chinese New Year
Festival activities such as lighting lamps to the Buddhas, sounding the
bell of peace, and participating in Dharma services to welcome the
New Year.
The Chinese New Year’s Eve Chanting Service is on February 4
starting at 8pm, while the New Year Chanting Service is on February 5
and 10 at 10am. The Temple invites everyone to visit during Chinese
!!
FEB 2, 8PM: Lemon Bucket Orkestra and Aline Morales at Koerner Hall, Royal
Conservatory of Music. Toronto’s guerilla-punk-Balkan-folk-brass band shares the
stage with Aline Morales, the Brazilian-Toronto singer, percussionist and member of
KUNÉ – Canada’s Global Orchestra.
!!
FEB 7, 12:30pm: York University Department of Music presents music professor
Rob Simms playing a rare concert of tanbur and setar solos in its Faculty Spotlight
Series in Room 235, Accolade East Building, York University.
!!
FEB 9, 7:30PM: The “Queen of Klezmer” Alicia Svigals, a founder of the Grammy
Award-winning Klezmatics and “the world’s foremost klezmer violinist” takes the
stage of the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston, with her band.
!!
FEB 9, 8PM: The Royal Conservatory of Music presents Cuban-Canadian piano
giant Hilario Durán and his Latin Jazz Big Band with Horacio “El Negro” Hernández and
Sarita Levya’s Rumberos; at Koerner Hall.
!!
FEB 21, 22, 23 AND 24: Tafelmusik restages its moving transcultural Tales of Two
Cities: The Leipzig-Damascus Coffee House at Koerner Hall. Maryem Tollar serves
as the gracious narrator and vocalist while Tafelmusik guests, Persian percussionist
Naghmeh Farahmand and oud specialist Demetri Petsalakis, musically illustrate the
Damascus end of the tale. Elisa
Citterio conducts from the
violin.
!!
FEB 23, 8PM: The powerful
Cuban female bolero, canción
and son vocalist Yaima Sáez and
her group splits the night with
Jane Bunnett and Maqueque,
her band of deep-groove, earlycareer
Cuban women musicians,
at the RBC Theatre, Living
Arts Centre, Mississauga.
!!
MAR 3, 1PM: The Royal
Conservatory of Music presents
Padideh Ahrarnejad, Iranian tar
player and member of KUNÉ,
performing a free concert
(ticket required) with her sextet
Partow at Mazzoleni Concert Hall,
Padideh Ahrarnejad
RCM.
Andrew Timar is a Toronto musician and music writer. He
can be contacted at worldmusic@thewholenote.com.
26 | December 2018 / January 2019 thewholenote.com