Volume 27 Issue 4 - February 2022
Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.
Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.
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Some of the musicians in the Fusion Point concert at salle<br />
Claude-Champagne, Université de Montréal,, November 2021<br />
7x Picanto Festival: Trichy Sankaran, Robin Layne and<br />
Curtis Andrews, in The Offering of Curtis Andrews<br />
Hodgins, CMC president, “for a cohesive digital dissemination strategy<br />
for Canadian music.” For the CMC’s wheelhouse genres, yes, but for<br />
all music with discovery at its heart in the way that discovery has<br />
always been at the heart of the Canadian Music Centre.”<br />
So enter Picanto. With a mandate that dovetails neatly with the<br />
CMC’s role as a publisher, record label, and champion of Canadian<br />
music, it (so far) showcases nine music categories: jazz/improvised;<br />
Indigenous; inter-cultural; sonic exploration/musique actuelle; electroacoustic;<br />
vocal/choral; chamber music; opera; and orchestral<br />
music. Lots of doors marked push, I’d say!<br />
What’s in the name? According to its media release, Picanto is a<br />
crafty blend of the words “piquant” (having a pleasantly sharp taste or<br />
appetizing flavour) and “canto” (“sing” in Italian), with an additional<br />
emphasis on the “can” for Canada. The service intends to provide a<br />
place for enthusiasts who seek musical experiences beyond the shortform<br />
and song-based music already available everywhere else.<br />
At the fall virtual launch, the show hosts sampled some of Picanto’s<br />
diverse musical content: drumming from Uzume Taiko; music for<br />
three trumpets and orchestra by Vancouver composer Anna Pidgorna;<br />
and Soundstreams’ All Could Change composed and performed by<br />
Montreal-based jazz vocalist Sarah Rossy. A new work by Indigenous<br />
composer Raven Chacon performed by Vancouver’s Black Dog String<br />
Quartet segued to a vibrantly coloured video serving as the visual<br />
foil to composer Frank Horvat’s A Little Loopy performed by harpist<br />
Sharlene Wallace.<br />
Then, literally the day of this story deadline I received an update<br />
from the CMC – announcing its 7X Picanto Festival running<br />
<strong>February</strong> 4 to 11, <strong>2022</strong>. Sometimes life just works that way.<br />
The Festival will showcase seven newly produced Canadian music<br />
videos – which two of their nine Picanto music categories are missing,<br />
I wonder? – the production of each sponsored by the CMC. This pilot<br />
new music video creation project is promised to be the first of “many<br />
such projects to support artists on the new platform,” including<br />
exploration of future initiatives such as pay-per-view video and<br />
livestream performances.<br />
Meantime, in the digital media, eyeballs are currency, so take yours<br />
to the Picanto website. There’s more about 7X Picanto there, along<br />
with a slowly but steadily expanding universe of Canadian music<br />
videos with discovery at their heart.<br />
Andrew Timar is a Toronto musician and music writer.<br />
Piano, Voice, Guitar, Harp<br />
Strings, Woodwinds, Brass<br />
Conducting, Composition<br />
Awards, Prizes and Scholarships<br />
Recitals, Concerts, Workshops<br />
Career advancement<br />
Marketing and promotions<br />
InterMusic.ca | 905.604.8854 | office@InterMusic.ca<br />
Choose between in-person or via recorded performance.<br />
thewholenote.com <strong>February</strong> <strong>2022</strong> | 23