Volume 26 Issue 7 - May and June 2021

FEATURE
Summer Music in the Garden Bids
Farewell to Founding Artistic Director
TAMARA BERNSTEIN
CATHY RICHES
BC folk fusion duo Qristina & Quinn Bachand
TAMARA BERNSTEIN
Anyone who witnessed the first concert in June 2001 –
a miserable rainy evening with only a handful of
people in the audience – might have been forgiven
for thinking the Summer Music in the Garden series was
doomed to failure. But that first concert didn’t daunt
Tamara Bernstein, the founding artistic director of the
series. Nor were the audiences deterred. In its 20-year
history, the free concert series grew to become one of the
most popular on the Toronto summer festival roster.
By its name, you would think that a venue called the Toronto Music
Garden was made for live music, but that wasn’t the case. Perched on
the inner harbour of Lake Ontario near the foot of Spadina Avenue,
and designed in consultation with famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, the Toronto
Music Garden interprets, through the landscape of its six different
garden sections, the six movements of J.S. Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G
Major for Solo Cello.
It’s an idyllic natural setting with the breezes off the lake and the
rustling of the trees, or so it seems, but for some of the performers
it could be both a blessing and a curse. Flamenco dancer Esmeralda
Enrique, who has been a regular performer there from the early days
of Summer Music in the Garden, remembers how challenging those
first performances were.
“At first, it was quite difficult technically. Outdoors, the sound dissipates
and it’s difficult for musicians and dancers to hear each other,
which is vital in live flamenco performances,” said Enrique. “The mist
coming in later in the afternoon muffled the sound quite a lot and at
times there were a lot of bugs flying around. I remember one flew into
my mouth once! Ugh!
“As we came to know the physical limitations and sound level
limits, we programmed performances more suited to the environment
and temperature,” Enrique explained. “Despite some challenges,
I have always loved performing outdoors. In the Music Garden we
were inspired by the trees and the wind and felt like they were part
of our set.”
8 | May and June 2021 thewholenote.com