Schubert's Final Journey

On April 28, 2012 Academy Concert Series presented our final concert of the 2011-2012 season, Schubert's Final Journey. The fabulous and remarkable Lumière Quartet played two of Schubert's greatest pieces of chamber music for a wonderful and appreciative (and growing!) audience. The Lumière Quartet is an incredibly talented group of this country's best and most experienced musicians with David Stewart and Paule  Préfontaine on violin, Stephen Marvin on viola and Christina Mahler on cello.

 Schubert's Final journey started with the Death and the Maiden string quartet. Schubert wrote this piece after he found out he was dying. It is a piece that seems to look at death in a searching way - looking for meaning and understanding. For the last part of the concert, I joined the Lumière  quartet to play one of my favourite pieces, the Cello Quintet in C major. Schubert completed it two months before his death. It is a monumental work that seems to transcend death. It is a work full of depth, transcendental beauty, humanity and hope. A remarkable work, it was definitely one of the highlights for this season!

We did it! The transition from Nicolai Tarasov to me of all Artistic Director duties has been completed, and my new board of directors and I, as well as a small army of volunteers and supporters (I love you all), are now well-underway towards ensuring that next season is another success.

The program for next year is all set – the music has been selected and the artists chosen. Next season will again feature three concerts at our beloved Eastminster United Church. While we have received requests to expand to four concerts next season, we are not yet in a position to fund an expansion of our season. We would love to add concerts and, with the tremendous support of our donors, are hopeful that we can consider it for upcoming seasons.

Another reason this concert was particularly special is that I played one of my favourite pieces with my mentor and friend, cellist Christina Mahler. I moved to Toronto from Edmonton, Alberta in 2005 in order to study with Christina. What a special and meaningful experience it was - a wonderful way to end our 2011-2012 seas!

Mozart: A year in Vienna

The Academy Concert Series held its second concert of the 2011-2012 season last Saturday, January 28, 2012 at Eastminster United Church (310 Danforth, near Chester subway station).  The program for the concert was all Mozart, and all pieces he composed while living in Vienna in 1788-1789.  A copy of the program and the program notes can be sent to you upon request.

As usual when playing with the Academy Concert Series, it was a real treat to play with such talented musicians.  On violin there were Edwin Huizinga and Emily Eng.  On viola was Charlene Yeh.  And on clarinet for the Clarinet Quintet in A Major “Stadler K. 581 was Nicolai Tarasv.  Nicolai was the Artistic Director for Academy Concert Series for 16 years before this transition year where he is handing off the reins to me.  It was fun and exciting to honor Nicolai by having him come back to play such a wonderful piece, and one which showcases his abundant talent as a musician!

The music is always the main event at our concerts, but in addition to that, as part of our ongoing efforts to share the joy of music with our community, Academy Concert Series invited students and their families from Axis Music to attend the concert for free.  Axis Music was founded in January 2011 to provide tuition-free violin, cello and piano music lessons to youth in Toronto Community Housing.  I am pleased to report that we had ten elementary aged students and their parents take up our offer and attend the last concert. They were so attentive and excited. One students was even asking for autographs at the end of the concert! (So cute!)

It is always a particular pleasure to hear from audience members after each concert.  Perhaps it bears reminding that we invite audience members to come and speak to the musicians after concerts and to email me with any comments, questions or feedback.  This time around I received a number of beautiful emails from beloved audience members.  Here are a few quotes from those emails, which I’d like to share with you.

“The concert was a warm, relaxing and wonderful experience, enhanced by the selection of the three pieces and the brilliant performance by your group.”

- Steve Gabhauer

“Just wanted to give feedback on last night's concert:

1.  program selection = wonderful

2.  performance = exquisite

3.  organization for entry and snacks = excellent

… 

A most enjoyable evening.  Thanks to you and your fellow performers.” 

- Richard Lee

Again, thank you so much to everybody who attended the concert.  I would also like to thank our sponsors, both individual and corporate as well as the Queen and Beaver Public House located at 35 Elm Street near Yonge and Dunas who donated dinner for two for our raffle, and the volunteers who helped make it all possible!  We couldn’t do it without your support! 

I hope to see you April 28, 2012 for "Schubert's Final Journey" with the fabulous Lumière Quartet.

Vivaldi Visits Vienna

Thank you so much to everybody who attended our first concert of the season – Vivaldi Visits Vienna!  We truly appreciate your support.  We send particular love out to those who donated money.  The reality is that even though our concerts are well-attended, ticket sales alone do not cover the cost and we need that kind of support.  Thank you so much!

We were honoured in this particular concert to have with us Nathalie Paulin, Soprano. Nathalie is a very accomplished singer with a busy schedule and we are grateful she found time to accommodate Academy Concert Series.  Her voice is so beautiful.  As the cellist for this concert it was a real treat to play with her.  The role of the cello in a concert like this is to support the singer and make her shine – an easy thing to do when working with such talent!

It was also a thrill and an honour to play with such accomplished musicians as Emily Eng, Violin, and Sara-Anne Churchill, Harpsichord.  Both of these lovely ladies have extensive training playing baroque music and the beauty of their playing was evident for all to enjoy.  We will have the joy of hearing Emily Eng again in our second concert on January 28, 2012 – Mozart: A Year in Vienna.

We tried something new with this concert in that we had an actor – Vanessa AvRuskin – write an original script (together with yours truly and with contributions from playwright Linda Griffiths), and perform short vignettes between the pieces.  The purpose of the vignettes was to illustrate and parallel in a modern way the love story between Fileno and Elvira as recounted in the cantatas we performed.  While the script was excellent and the acting superb, we gather from your feedback that in the future any actors will have to wear microphones because it was difficult to hear.  Thank you for the feedback.  We will correct this for future concerts (although there will be no actor at our next concert; the program is too long to allow for it).

As always we welcome any other feedback you may have.  Please email me or simply tell us at our next concert.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Baroque in leather

This past weekend i furiosi started their season with the concert "Julie's Big Adventure." Violinist Julia Wedman took a sabbatical year last year and this concert highlighted her travels and experiences during her "Grand Tour." She got the inspiration from a program she played with Tafelmusik (she also plays full time with Tafelmusik) based on the concept that during the "17th and 18th centuries, as part of their education, English noblemen would travel to Europe (especially France, Italy and Germany) on a Grand Tour, learning about art, architecture, history, food, music, language and meeting the "right" people and becoming well-rounded people." In the concert we followed Julie on her own Grand Tour; there were great program notes about her personal experiences, the concert program was well rounded and beautifully executed and we got to travel around through Europe with her musically. It was also a bit of a homecoming and the rest of the group seemed genuinely happy to have her back.

i furiosi is a group that often presents concerts with a twist and this was no exception. There were gifts given out between pieces that highlighted some of the places she visited that correlated well with the music they performed. It was cute and enjoyable and it gave a sense that these are old friends happy to be reunited! Cellist Felix Deak, violinist Aisslinn Nosky, soprano Gabrielle McLaughlin and guest harpsichordist Lysiane Boulva all had fun and were game to wear Venetian masks, French berets and  drink wine while they all performed with spirit and passion. They also did a Baroque(ish) rendition of "I love Paris in the Springtime" by Cole Porter, complete with the Prelude from the first Bach cello suite weaved in as a cello accompaniment - and it worked perfectly for many bars! All this on period instruments while wearing leather - Baroque in the 21th century!

The other highlight of the weekend was Totem by Cirque du Soleil. Not exactly Baroque music, but there were live musicians (who were amazing!) and the entire show was mesmerizing! It is truly incredible what the performers can do with their bodies - and minds! Inspiring!

On other fronts, we are gearing up for the first Academy Concert Series concert of the season. The cards we have printed highlighting our entire season are beautiful and we are getting the word out in as many ways as we can.

Hope you are all having a great week and enjoying this beautiful weather!

Keep in touch through e-mail and now Facebook!

This week has been a busy one for the Academy Concert Series. We have launched our new website, designed so beautifully by our Webmaster and board member Ryan Thomson!

www.academyconcertseries.com

We have sent out the link to a few friends to get feedback and have had some wonderful responses. We will soon be sending out an e-mail to let everybody know about our new look and our new season! 

We are also now on Facebook! Visit our page and hit the “like” button at the top of the page to get status updates in your newsfeed about upcoming events.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Academy-Concert-Series/255203551185681

We also have printed some beautiful poster size cards with information about this years concert season. We are trying to get the word out! If anybody has any ideas, let us know!

I'd love to hear from you! If you want to be added to the ACS e-mail list, or you have any comments, send me a message at kerri.mcgonigle@academyconcertseries.com

Have a great weekend!

Concerts this week!

It’s been a busy week of attending concerts! There are so many wonderful concerts happening all over Toronto!

The first performance I attended was the COC dress rehearsal of Iphigenia in Tarus by Gluck. The staging is absolutely stunning and incredibly effective, the music is beautifully sung, performed and played, and the Four Season's Centre for Performing Arts is a true gem of a hall. Run, don't walk, to get your tickets.

http://www.coc.ca/

Next up was the Classical Revolution at Dave’s bar on St. Clair West. The Classical Revolution is an amazing phenomenon that started in San Francisco and has spread like wildfire throughout the world. The basic concept is a chamber music reading party in a bar that invites any musician interested in playing to participate and anybody interested in listening to enjoy live on the spot chamber music making. Musicians bring their instruments and chamber music scores and read through music with whoever wants to play, often throwing together musicians that have never even met, in a relaxed setting that creates a completely different bar experience than you would normally expect! I ended up playing a movement from the Dvorak piano quintet and a couple of movements from one of the Mozart string quintets with some musicians I had never met. It was a blast! The bar was packed with musicians and music lovers - what could be better on a Tuesday night! Here is a link to the Classical Revolution's Facebook group page. Join the group to be find out when more about upcoming events!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/123649201008137/

Last night I went to hear the first Tafelmusik concert of the season, “Music Fit for a King” And music fit for a King it was! It was a wonderful way to herald in a new season of music with a wonderful selection of music written for courts all over Europe, including Sweden and Russia (not exactly the countries you associate with Baroque music!). It was a wonderful and diverse concert. It may come as no surprise to some of you, but I am a HUGE fan of Tafelmusik! They are the reason I moved to Toronto - after attending the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute many moons ago, I fell in love with Baroque cello and shortly after moved to Toronto to study with Tafelmusik principal cellist, Christina Mahler, who is an amazing cellist, teacher and mentor! Needless to say my life and music career has changed course completely because of this and I couldn’t be happier – it has led me, among many other exciting opportunities, to this new position as Artistic Director of the Academy Concert Series!

http://www.tafelmusik.org/

Meeting an ACS Alumnus

Fall is in the crisp, cool air and that means Toronto's incredibly rich music scene is swinging into full gear with regular season series starting to shine! Last night I went to hear the Aradia Ensemble play a great concert titled "Music of the English Chapels Royal" at Glenn Gould studio. Aradia is one of a (large) handful of Baroque groups in Toronto and definitely worth checking out. Their programming is original and interesting and last night's English themed concert unearthed hidden gems not often heard. The concert featured a small string contingent lead beautifully by Cristina Zacharias and featured a lush, delicious continuo with cello, organ and theorbo. The choir was rich and colourful and the soloist were strong and clear. It was a great concert!

www.aradia.ca

After the concert, I met an Academy Concert Series alumnus! Christopher Haritatos is a Rochester based cellist that played Baroque cello on an ACS concert about 10 years ago. He remembers the concert fondly, which included a little known chamber piece by Rodolphe Kreutzer. They were to repeat the concert in Rochester shortly after playing at ACS's home, Eastminster United Church, but when they got to the venue there was no piano - so at the last minute there was a repertoire change. Talk about added stress for the musicians! Christopher now has a permanent position in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, though continues to play Baroque cello. He made a special trip up to Toronto yesterday just to see Aradia! Great to meet you yesterday Christopher!