LSM Newswire

Bachauer Competition Announces Competition

2010-02-07T15:46:00.002-05:00

The names of the competitors for the 2010 Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition have been announced:

First Name	Family Name	Nationality	Age
Charlie	Albright	USA	21
Yunjie	Chen	China	29
Stefan	Ciric	Serbia	23
Sara	Daneshpour	USA	22
Gregory	DeTurck	USA	27
Sebastian	Di Bin	Italy	28
Nazareno	Ferruggio	Italy	28
Roberto	Franca	Italy	23
Kotaro	Fukuma	Japan	27
Lukas	Geniušas	Russia	19
Pavlo	Gintov	Ukraine	23
Dorel	Golan	Israel	28
Yoonjung	Han	Korea	24
Fazliddin	Husanov	Uzbekistan	31
Daria	Kameneva	Russia	22
Benjamin	Kim	USA	26
Soyeon	Kim	Korea	27
Andrea	Lam	Australia	28
Viviana Pia	Lasaracina	Italy	21
Alexey	Lebedev	Russia	29
Dmitri	Levkovich	Ukraine	31
Steven	Lin	USA	20
Benjamin	Moser	Germany	28
Sejoon	Park	Korea	19
Hoang	Pham	Vietnam	24
Mayumi	Sakamoto	Japan	26
Serhiy	Salov	Ukraine	31
Nima	Sarkechik	France	26
Anastasiya	Solomatina	Russia	26
Konstantin	Soukhovetski	Russia	28
Ardita	Statovci	Austria	27
Olga	Stezhko	Belarus	24
Alexey	Sychev	Russia	21
Anastasya	Terenkova	Russia	28
Kateryna	Titova	Ukraine	26
Matei	Varga	Romania	29
David	Violi	France	28
Joshua	Wright	USA	22
Pavel	Yeletsky	Belarus	27
Zho	Zhang	China	21
Dizhou	Zhao	China	30
Darrett	Zusko	Canada	25

The XV Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition will be held June 17-July 1, 2010 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The competitors will vie for more than $80,000 US in prizes before a jury of 10 distinguished artists. The six finalists will perform concertos with the Utah Symphony in Abravanel Hall under the direction of Lawrence Leighton Smith.

The competitors were chosen from over 250 applicants who auditioned in Moscow, Hamburg, Venice, London, New York City, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

For a complete list of the International Jury and Prizes, visit www.bachauer.com. Photos of the competitors will also soon be on the website. The latest information about the Competition is also now available on our new Facebook page.

The event marks 35 years of Bachauer competitions bringing the best pianists in the world to Utah to compete for cash, prizes, and fame. Since beginning in 1976, the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition has become one of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions, and one of only four in the U.S. recognized by the World Federation of International Music Competitions.

Clavecin en concert présente:

2010-02-07T15:43:00.002-05:00

En grande première montréalaise !

LE CLAVECIN À PÉDALIER
(Yves Beaupré 2010)

avec

LUC BEAUSÉJOUR
claveciniste et organiste

Le vendredi 12 février 2010, 20 h

Chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours
400, rue Saint-Paul Est, Vieux-Montréal, Métro Champ-de-Mars

Prix des billets :
Entrée simple 28 $ / Aîné (65 ans et +) 25 $ // Étudiant, temps plein, 25 ans et moins 10 $
15 ans et moins accompagné d’un adulte : gratuit
Renseignements et réservations : 514-748-8625 – www.clavecinenconcert.org org>

Montréal, 14 janvier 2010 – Clavecin en concert vous invite à découvrir le clavecin à pédalier à travers un répertoire composé d’œuvres de Bach, Pachelbel, Buxtehude et Böhm. Le récital, donné par le claveciniste et organiste Luc Beauséjour, aura lieu le vendredi 12 février à 20 h, à la chapelle Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours dans le Vieux-Montréal.

Le clavecin à pédalier est un clavecin ordinaire posé sur un second clavecin qui est actionné par des touches de pédales. Les deux instruments sont donc totalement indépendants l'un de l'autre, le clavecin du pédalier disposant de ses propres cordes et registres.

Il ne subsiste aujourd’hui aucun exemplaire de ce type d’instrument, seules de nombreuses descriptions d'époque nous permettent de le reconstituer. Grâce au talent du facteur Yves Beaupré, qui a lui-même conçu les plans et l’instrument, le répertoire allemand d'orgue brillera sous un éclairage différent. Une première à Montréal!

PROGRAMME

Jean-Sébastien Bach                                  Prélude et fugue en do majeur, BWV 545
Johann Pachelbel                                       Choral Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her. (2 versions)
Dietrich Buxtehude (1637 -1707)               Wie schön leuchet der Morgenstern, BuxWV 223
Dietrich Buxtehude                                     Fugue en do majeur, BuxWV 174
Jean-Sébastien Bach                                  Choral Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (à 6 voix, double pédale, extrait de la Clavierübung III)
Jean-Sébastien Bach                                  Toccata en ré mineur, BWV 565
Jean-Sébastien Bach                                  Fugues I et VIII (extraits de L’Art de la fugue, BWV 1080)
Georg Böhm                                                  Choral Vater unser im Himmelreich
Jean-Sébastien Bach                                  Choral Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645
Jean-Sébastien Bach                                  Passacaille en do mineur, BWV 582

Clavecin en concert remercie le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, le Conseil des Arts du Canada
et le Conseil des arts de Montréal de leur soutien.

Gail Dubinbaum to Sing Role of Suzuki

2010-02-07T15:41:00.000-05:00

IN PHOENIX OPERA’S MADAMA BUTTERFLY

FORMER METROPOLITAN OPERA STAR CO-FOUNDED PHOENIX OPERA

Madama Butterfly

February 12, 14, 2010

Mezzo-soprano Gail Dubinbaum, who co-founded Phoenix Opera in 2006 with her husband, John Massaro, will take to the stage herself on February 12^th and 14^th as she performs the role of Suzuki in Phoenix Opera’s Madama Butterfly. Ms. Dubinbaum has performed the role many times at numerous opera houses, most notably in Israel with the Israel Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta. Of note also is the fact that this performance will be the first time, after many years of marriage, she and her husband will perform together in an opera as singer and conductor.

Gail Dubinbaum has performed both opera and concert works internationally. She has sung leading roles with some of the world’s most prestigious opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Israel Opera and L’Opera de Montreal. Nationally, she has appeared with Opera Pacific, Detroit Opera, Portland Opera and Arizona Opera. On the concert stage, Ms. Dubinbaum has sung with the Los Angeles, Israel, New York, Boston, Cleveland and San Francisco Orchestras ... and with such renowned conductors as Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gerard Schwarz, Carlo Maria Giulini and Leonard Bernstein. Known for her portrayals of Rossini and Mozart heroines, Ms. Dubinbaum has also distinguished herself in recital, having worked closely with the legendary soprano, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Beginning her studies with her mother, Ruth Dubinbaum, she continued her private studies with the great German mezzo, Mme. Herta Glaz. She appeared on television in the series “In Performance at the White House” and “Live from the Met.” Her DVD recordings include “Francesca da Rimini” with the Metropolitan Opera and the “Met Centennial Gala.” For nearly a decade, her private studio in Phoenix has produced singers who consistently win national competitions and land leading roles with major opera companies.

As Cio-Cio San, Phoenix Opera will present internationally renowned soprano, Mihoko Kinoshita. Mihoko has been hailed by critics as “the greatest Cio-Cio San” due to her rich and incomparably controlled voice and her unparalleled portrayal of the wide spectrum of emotions necessary for the role. Mihoko has sung the role of Butterfly throughout Europe, Japan, and several major cities in the United States to enthusiastic reviews:

Madama Butterfly premiered at LaScala, in Milan, in 1904 and has consistently been one of the most performed operas in the repertoire. In the opera, Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton marries a young Japanese girl, Cio-Cio San (Butterfly). Taking his marriage vows lightly, Pinkerton abandons Cio-Cio San and returns to America where he finds a new wife. Only realizing that she had been abandoned three years later, shortly before a return visit by Pinkerton and his new wife, Cio-Cio San begins to set the stage for the third act’s shocking conclusion. Gail Dubinbaum describes the character she will portray: “Suzuki provides a contrast to the character of Cio-Cio San. Suzuki is older, wiser, a long time companion to Cio- Cio San, a friend of the family for years. She sees the folly in Cio-Cio San's unfailing devotion to the hope that Pinkerton will return. She tries to reason with Cio-Cio San. She is the truest of friends, and when the tragedy becomes apparent, she shares the devastation of Cio-Cio San's disappointment. They would both be out on the street, impoverished together...but Suzuki never leaves her side. Suzuki is quite a powerful dramatic role...and I love it! She is Cio-Cio San's greatest protector, her truest friend, the one who must break the unbearable news about Pinkerton and the child to Cio-Cio San. I cry through almost the entire opera.....and spend most of my time on my knees.’

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly will be presented on February 12^th and 14^th, 2010 at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster or by calling the Orpheum Theatre at 602-262-7272.

Parsons Dance presents Remember Me

2010-02-07T12:33:00.000-05:00

an all-new version of the dance/rock opera
with the lead vocalists and music of the
Grammy Award-nominated
EAST VILLAGE OPERA COMPANY
The Joyce Theater

THIRD WEEK ADDED!

Now Running From February 2 - 21, 2010

Parsons Dance presents REMEMBER ME, an all-new version of last season's collaboration with the lead vocalists of East Village Opera Company (EVOC), featuring the music of the acclaimed rock opera band at The Joyce Theater from February 2-21, 2010. Following last season's World Premiere at The Joyce Theater, a PBS Special and a year-long national tour, REMEMBER ME returns to NYC with new choreography, lighting design by Tony Award-winning designer Howell Binkley and costume design by Project Runway designer Austin Scarlett. Program A features REMEMBER ME with EVOC's two lead vocalists live onstage with Parsons Dance. Programs B and C will feature Parsons Dance favorites including the stroboscopic Caught. Opening Night on February 2, 2010 will begin with David Parsons performing the first movement of Caught followed by the premiere of the all-new version of REMEMBER ME.
"Awesome dancing and a backbeat to knock it all home. Eye-popping digital effects. Excellent showbiz-savvy performers. Perpetually smoldering. Lusty, sensual movement."- Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice

David Parsons, Tyley Ross (lead male vocalist and co-founder of EVOC) and AnnMarie Milazzo (lead female vocalist) have created a storyline that connects EVOC's signature operatic arias (fourteen songs from the band's albums) with David Parsons' original choreography. REMEMBER ME is a thoroughly modern re-telling of a classic story of a tragic love triangle. With contemporary dance, aerial dance, live and recorded music, video projections, complex digital lighting and visual effects, REMEMBER ME is the most ambitious production created by Parsons Dance in its 23 year history.

"After completing our first national tour of Remember Me, we are thrilled to bring this show back to New York audiences, in a completely revamped version," said David Parsons, artistic director of Parsons Dance.

EVOC's signature works re-imagine opera arias as popular songs, including pieces by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart and Schubert. These classics collide with electric sounds from the golden era of rock and roll, pop, R&B, and soul, exploding into a mosaic of sound in a triumphant musical celebration. They have received commissions to pen new works from both the New York Public Theatre and New York City Opera, with whom they have also performed at Lincoln Center. EVOC alternately headlines in prestigious classical concert halls and rock clubs, and records exclusively for Decca/Universal records. They have released three CD's. "Pop-infused, hard-hitting arrangements of arias and ensembles from classic operas. The group has won fans among both opera buffs and rockers."- The New York Times

Parsons Dance creates American works of extraordinary artistry that are engaging and uplifting to audiences throughout the world. It is the goal of Parsons Dance to make contemporary dance accessible to the widest possible audiences. In addition to choreography and performance, Parsons Dance positively impacts children, students, and communities through student performances, lecture-demonstrations, master classes, post-show discussions and more. Parsons Dance has a company of eleven full-time dancers and maintains a repertory of more than 70 works choreographed by David Parsons, twenty of which feature originally commissioned scores by leading composers and musicians, including Dave Matthews, Michael Gordon and Milton Nascimento. Parsons Dance has collaborated with many other leading artists, including Julie Taymor, William Ivey Long, Annie Leibovitz, Donna Karan and Alex Katz (to name a few). The New York Times called David Parsons "one of the great movers of modern dance." New York Magazine referred to him as "one of modern dance's great living dance-makers."

Parsons Dance dancers are Julie Blume, Eric Bourne, Sarah Braverman, John Corsa, Zac Hammer, Lauren Putty, Miguel Quinones, Abby Silva, Billy Smith, Melissa Ullom and Steven Vaughn.

The three programs follow:

Program A:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Sundays at 7:30pm; Thursdays - Saturdays at 8pm

(Program C performed on February 17 and 18.)
REMEMBER ME featuring the music of EVOC: Overture, Maria, Mari!, Habanera, Che Gelida Manina, Flower Duet, La Donna E Mobile, Ave Maria, Nessun Dorma, O Mio Babbino Caro, Una Furtiva Lagrima, Ebben? Ne Andro Lontana, When I Am Laid in Earth, Butterfly Duet

Program B:
Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm - Family-Friendly Matinees
Wolfgang, Ebben, Nascimento Novo, Hand Dance, Caught,

Scrutiny

Program C:

Wednesday, February 17 at 7:30pm; Thursday, February 18 at 7:30pm

Wolfganag, Brothers, Swing Shift, Kind of Blue, Caught, In The End

Wolfgang (2005) juxtaposes the classical music of Mozart with the modern choreography of David Parsons. The three couples in Wolfgang create beautiful pictures throughout this piece, evincing their accomplished partnering skills. Various qualities subtly characterize each section of the piece. This dance highlights the dancers' technique and musicality, while underscoring their ability to make the constant motion seem effortless and fluid. Ebben is an excerpt from REMEMBER ME. Parsons Dance returns to the mesmerizing and exotic music of legendary Brazilian composer Milton Nascimento in Nascimento Novo (2006), exploring themes of sensuality, community and, above all else, the stunning cohesion of ensemble work. Hand Dance (2003), a playful work set to the vibrant music of Kenji Bunch, features ten "hands" that decide to take on a life of their own. Through gesture and mime, five dancers offer an endless variety of imaginative evocations, from grasping and forming pistons of a locomotive to playing air cello. Imaginative and fun, Hand Dance leaves audiences laughing and begging for more. Caught (1981) is an internationally renowned stroboscopic dance masterpiece that features a solo dancer performing more than 100 leaps in less than six minutes. Each leap is "caught" by the flash of a strobe light, to create a breathtaking illusion of flight. Caught has been performed thousands of times, worldwide, for more than 27 years. In Scrutiny (1987), David Parsons explores the societal pressures to conform. This work premiered with the Parsons Dance Company on August 25, 1987 in Beckett, Massachusetts, as part of Jacob's Pillow. Brothers (1982), "a physically charged duet that explores an ambivalent relationship without a wasted motion or gesture," is set to music by Igor Stravinsky and was choreographed by David Parsons and Daniel Ezralow. Swing Shift (2003), created for four couples and featuring compelling solos for female dancers, explores the human journey toward self-discovery through social interaction, as dancers "swing" and "shift" in order to couple, uncouple and couple again with another. A tribute to the 75 anniversary of the birth of jazz great Miles David, the quartet Kind of Blue (2001) was commissioned and presented at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy and features the music "So What" from Davis' "Kind of Blue," the best-selling jazz album of all time. A dynamic piece, the intense, theatrical and athletic In the End (2005), set to the music of the Dave Matthews Band, offers 18 minutes of high-energy, fast-paced, full-throttle dance as short bursts of pas de deux punctuate longer ensemble sections.

Parsons Dance will perform February 2-21, 2010 at The Joyce Theater, with performances Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday at 7:30pm; Thursday - Saturday at 8pm; and Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), NYC. Tickets start at $10 and are available by phone at 212-242-0800 or joyce.org.

Parsons Dance will present a Gala Opening Night Celebration, GET CAUGHT IN THE THRILL OF IT ALL, a Tribute to David Parsons, following the opening night performance on February 2, 2010 at The Joyce Theater. The Gala Celebration will be held immediately following the performance at 9pm at Espace, 635 W. 42^nd Street at 11^th Avenue, NYC. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be followed by a dinner and celebration. Honorary Chairs: Froma and Andrew Benerofe, Rita and Irwin Blitt. Chair: Linda Stocknoff. Co-Chairs: Richard Kielar, Vickie Morris, Barbara Rohdie. Honorary Committee: Jody and John Arnhold, Victor Barbee and Julie Kent, Barbara and Theodore S. Bartwink, Howell Binkley, Dr. Michael Blachly, Sally Bliss, Cora Cahan, Fiorenza Scholey Cohen, John Corigliano, Beverly D'Anne, The Honorable Thomas K. Duane, Fe and Alessandro Saracino Fendi, Kelly and Alan Ginsburg, Lois Greenfield, Judy Grunberg, Paloma Herrera, Denise Roberts Hurlin, Susan Jaffe, Neil Klein and Susanne Jones, Terrence D. Jones, Ellsworth Kelly, The Honorable Liz Krueger, Toby Devan Lewis, William Ivey Long, Sharon Gersten Luckman, Kevin McKenzie, Judy and Luca Missoni, Stephen B. Morris, Milton Nascimento, Bebe Neuwirth and Chris Calkins, Moses Pendleton, Judith and Samuel Peabody, William A. Perlmuth, Hal Prince, Lawrence Rhodes, Martin Richards, Suellen Richmond, Antonio Gnecchi Ruscone, Robert A. Schulman, Stephen Schwartz, Margaret Selby, Jack Shear, Linda Shelton, Susan Stroman, Edward Strong, Patsy Tarr, Dr. Billy Taylor, Paul Taylor, Carol Walker, Bob Yesselman, Christian Zimmermann. Tickets begin at $700 and are available by calling Parsons Dance at (212) 869-9275 or online at nycharities.org/parsonsdance.

Parsons Dance is committed to building new audiences for contemporary dance by creating American works of extraordinary artistry that are engaging and uplifting to audiences throughout the world. The company tours regionally, nationally and internationally. Since 1985, Parsons Dance has toured an average of 32 weeks per year, to a total more than 235 cities, 30 countries, six continents and millions of audience members. Many others have seen Parsons Dance on PBS, Bravo, A&E Network, and the Discovery Channel. Millions watched Parsons Dance perform live in Times Square as part of the internationally broadcast, 24-hour Millennium New Year's Eve celebration. In New York City, Parsons Dance has been featured at The Joyce Theater, City Center, New Victory Theater, Central Park Summerstage, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and The World Trade Center.

David Parsons (Artistic Director/Founder) has enjoyed a remarkable career as a performer, choreographer, teacher, director and producer of dance. Mr. Parsons was born in Chicago and raised in Kansas City. He was a leading dancer with The Paul Taylor Dance Company, where Mr. Taylor created many roles for him in works such as Arden Court, Last Look and Roses. He is a recipient of the 2000 Dance Magazine Award, as well as the 2001 American Choreography Award, for his work as a co-producer of AEROS, a production featuring the Romanian Gymnastic Federation that was featured on Bravo. Mr. Parsons has created more than 70 works for Parsons Dance. He has received commissions over the years from The American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the American Dance Festival, Jacob's Pillow, the Spoleto Festival and Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, to name a few. His work has been performed by Paris Opera Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Nederlands Danse Theatre, National Ballet of Canada, Hubbard Street Dance and BatSheva Dance Company of Israel, among many others. In June 2007, Mr. Parsons was honored to be the very first contemporary choreographer ever to stage work at the centuries-old Arena di Verona, in Verona Italy, where he choreographed Verdi's Aida. The Arena is one of Italy's most respected operatic venues. In September 2007, he directed and choreographed Gotham Chamber Opera's production of María de Buenos Aires, which made its world premiere at a sold-out engagement in New York, at NYU's Skirball Center for the Arts.

East Village Opera Company was formed in New York City's East Village in 2004 by Canadians Peter Kiesewalter and Tyley Ross. The East Village Opera Company turned the heads of New York's music community with a series of electric genre defying shows at Joe's Pub, the intimate venue housed by the Public Theatre. Initially meant as a one-off project, they were quickly signed to Decca/Universal records and met with universal praise from both classical and rock critics and fans. The Washington Post proclaimed that "Opera crossover acts are becoming a veritable cottage industry, but the East Village Opera Co. is markedly different." They have toured the world with a unique live show, combining a seemingly incongruous classical string section with a powerhouse rock band. Time Out New York stated that the group "electrifies the classics for a new generation." The Associated Press mused the band was "dramatic" and "mesmerizing" while the Wall Street Journal agreed, noting "The band rocks hard, and deranges the opera stuff with savvy skill." In a rare feat not many artists can claim, EVOC headlines around the world in both eclectic rock clubs as well as some of the most prestigious classical concert halls. The band's appeal is evident in both cases. The Chicago Tribune raved "Nobody puts a fresher, friskier contemporary spin on opera's greatest hits than the East Village Opera Company." The band has also performed at esteemed events such as the Sundance Film Festival, the Miss USA pageant (nationally televised on NBC), and the world-premiere of "The Da Vinci Code" in Hong Kong. EVOC's PBS Special "EVOC LIVE" was celebrated with an Emmy at the 2006 Emmy Awards. Their most recent Decca album entitled Olde School was nominated for a Grammy in the Classical Crossover Album category.

Tyley Ross (Male Vocalist / EVOC co-founder) A native of Ottawa Canada, Tyley started performing professionally in his early teens while still a student at Canterbury's school of the Arts. In the years since then, has been a street busker, a cartoon and voice artist, acted for the small and large screen, written and recorded two solo albums (his composition You Take My Breath Away was featured in the film Woman Wanted directed by Kiefer Sutherland and starring Holly Hunter), and he has performed as a guest soloist with orchestras across Canada and in the USA. After being discovered by Pete Townshend of The Who in 1994, Tyley was cast in the title role of the Canadian premiere of the Who's Tommy. For his work in that show, he was honored with the Dora Award for Outstanding Performance in a Musical. He spent the next ten years on musical stages across North America, including starring roles at the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, and on Broadway. In 2001, Tyley was introduced to Peter Kiesewalter and they began experimenting with recording opera arias in a variety of modern contexts. This project led to the release of the CD La Donna and the unveiling of the East Village Opera Company in 2004 with a series of acclaimed performances at New York's Joe's Pub. Within a year the band had signed a multi-record deal with Decca/Universal, and has since released two CD's: East Village Opera Company (2005) and Olde School (2008). Tyley has his master's degree in voice studies from London's Central School of Speech and Drama.

AnnMarie Milazzo (Female Vocalist) is a singer, arranger, composer and lyricist living in NYC. She has done the vocal arrangements for Spring Awakening, the Broadway musical at the Eugene O'Neill Theater; Next To Normal, which premiered Off Broadway at Second Stage Theatre; Bright Lights, Big City at New York Theatre Workshop; and the Paramount feature film "The Marc Pease Experience" starring Ben Stiller. Some of her most recent work includes a new musical Pretty Dead Girl, which premiered at The Sundance Film Festival and is now being produced by the Araca Group in New York City, book by David Henry Wang. Also currently in progress is the musical Sea Change based on the Lois Gould novel, book by Karen Hartman. AnnMarie is the lyricist for Franco Dragone's Carmen, which premiered at The Jolla Playhouse and opened in Madrid in 2009. She is currently writing lyrics for Cirque du Soleil's, Le Reve, at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. AnnMarie's singing credits include working with artists such as Angelique Kidjo on her Black Ivory Soul Tour also singing with Carlos Santana. She also toured with Jonatha Brooke and performed on her DVD Back In The Circus, shot live in NYC.

The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization, has proudly served the dance community and its audiences since 1982. The founders, Cora Cahan and Eliot Feld, acquired and renovated the Elgin Theater in Chelsea, which opened as The Joyce Theater in 1982. The Joyce is named in honor of Joyce Mertz, beloved daughter of LuEsther T. Mertz. It was LuEsther's clear, undaunted vision and abundant generosity that made it imaginable and ultimately possible to establish the theater. One of the only theaters built by dancers for dance, The Joyce Theater has provided an intimate and elegant New York home for more than 290 domestic and international companies. The Joyce has also commissioned more than 130 new dances since 1992. In 1996, The Joyce created Joyce SoHo, a dance center providing highly subsidized rehearsal and performance space to hundreds of dance artists. New York City public school students and teachers annually benefit from The Joyce's Dance Education Program, and adult audiences get closer to dance through pre-engagement Dance Talks and post-performance Humanities discussions. The Joyce Theater now features an annual season of approximately 48 weeks with over 340 performances for audiences in excess of 135,000. Additionally, for the last five years The Joyce has co-produced Evening Stars as part of the River To River Festival in Battery Park.

The stage production of Remember Me is made possible by lead commissioning support from The Ellsworth Kelly Foundation; and Dr. and Mrs. Edward J. Prostic, in honor and memory of their daughter Elizabeth Anne Prostic.

For more information, visit parsonsdance.org and eastvillageoperacompany.com.

PARSONS DANCE
The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), NYC
February 2-21, 2010
Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday at 7:30pm; Thursday - Saturday at 8pm; Saturday and Sunday at 2pm
Tickets start at $10
JoyceCharge: 212-242-0800
joyce.org

Portland Symphony Orchestra Hires Leah Robertson as New Associate Director, Development & Special Projects

2010-02-02T16:47:00.002-05:00

PORTLAND, Maine - The Portland Symphony Orchestra (PSO) today announced the appointment of Leah Robertson as the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s new associate director, Development & Special Projects. In her work with the PSO, she will oversee the operations of the Symphony’s fundraising and donor stewardship strategies. Robertson previously served as the development coordinator for the Gulf of Maine Research Institute where she was responsible for Development communications, Board support, donor stewardship, and its highly successful Lunch & Learn series. From 2004 to 2006, Robertson served as development assistant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. A graduate of Colby College , Leah led the 2003 Women's Crew team to a NCAA Championship Title.

For information on the Portland Symphony Orchestra, visit www.portlandsymphony.com.

Le choix du public 2008-2009 : L'Ensemble Caprice

2010-02-02T16:41:00.000-05:00

POUR SON CONCERT VIVALDI ET LES GITANS

Montréal le 14 janvier 2010 – Dans le cadre du concours « Le choix du public » du Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée, c’est l’Ensemble Caprice qui a conquis le public de sa 26e saison (2008-2009) avec son concert Vivaldi et les gitans.

Le nom de l’organisme lauréat a été dévoilé aujourd’hui par la présidente du Conseil des arts de Montréal, Louise Roy, lors de la rencontre annuelle du Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée qui réunissait une centaine de professionnels, artistes, agents de tournée, conseillers culturels et diffuseurs municipaux, pour préparer la prochaine saison 2010-2011.
Une gravure intitulée Prospection d’un jeune artiste de la relève, Arthur Desmarteaux, a été remise comme prix de reconnaissance à Matthias Maute et Sophie Larivière. Ensemble, ils dirigent, avec doigté et passion, cette formation musicale reconnue pour l’esprit novateur qu’il insuffle au répertoire baroque.

L'Ensemble Caprice oeuvre depuis près d'une vingtaine d'années dans le milieu de la musique ancienne. Fondé en 1989 en Allemagne par son directeur artistique et flûtiste Matthias Maute, l'Ensemble est maintenant établi à Montréal. Sophie Larivière en assure la codirection artistique depuis 1997. Les membres de l'Ensemble Caprice sont à la recherche de nouvelles formes d'interprétation du répertoire baroque qui conduit à l'élaboration de programmes thématiques inusités et captivants. L’Ensemble Caprice connaît un rayonnement international important. (www.ensemblecaprice.com)

Le concert Vivaldi et les gitans, qui a été enregistré sous étiquette Analekta, allie la musique gitane de l’Europe centrale du XIIIe siècle à celle de Vivaldi.

Le choix du public est le résultat du vote des participants au concours qui invitait les citoyens des villes et arrondissements de l’île de Montréal à donner leur appréciation sur les activités (spectacles, expositions, films) présentées près de chez eux par le Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée. Le résultat du vote a été pondéré selon les taux de participation et de fréquentation.

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra & Opera New Jersey Present Bizet's Carme

2010-02-02T16:38:00.002-05:00

OPERA SUPERSTAR DENYCE GRAVES PERFORMS TITLE ROLE

NJPAC PARTNERS ON NEWARK PERFORMANCE

FRI., FEB. 5, 2010 IN PRINCETON

SUN., FEB. 7, 2010 IN NEW BRUNSWICK

FRI., FEB. 12, 2010 IN NEWARK

Newark, NJ—Continuing a partnership that thrilled New Jersey audiences last summer, Opera New Jersey and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra present Carmen, Bizet’s immortal opera of passion, jealousy and murder, in three venues across the state. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center partners with the two organizations to present the Newark performance.

Internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves will perform the opera’s iconic title role. Metropolitan Opera veteran Richard Leech performs the role of Don José, and Luis Ledesma performs that of Escamillo, the dashing toreador. Joseph Rescigno conducts. The performance will be sung in French with English supertitles.

Maestro Rescigno says he is always excited to make the well-known work feel fresh. “The ongoing challenge for a conductor—especially one who has conducted this work repeatedly—is to cut through its great audience familiarity and rediscover the magic that caused this opera to become, and remain, the most popular in the French repertoire. Very carefully, I try to strip my mind of the many performances I’ve conducted and recordings I’ve heard, and cultivate a personal connection to the printed page.

“Especially in Carmen, the opera’s rhythms are life’s rhythms, and the conductor must have a total command of pacing to bring this opera to life,” he says.

Performances take place on Friday, February 5, (7:30 p.m.) at the Matthews Theatre Auditorium at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, Sunday, February 7, (3 p.m.) at the State Theatre in New Brunswick and Friday, February 12 (8 p.m.) at NJPAC in Newark. Tickets range in price from $25 to $125 in Princeton and from $25 to $109 in New Brunswick and Newark.

Tickets for all performances are available for purchase from the NJSO Box Office by phone at 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476) or online at www.njsymphony.org. Tickets for the NJPAC engagement may also be purchased through the NJPAC Box Office by phone at 1.888.GO.NJPAC (466.5722), online at www.njpac.org or in person at 1 Center Street in Newark.

About the Music

Panned by several critics at its opening run in Paris in 1875, Carmen’s popularity launched after an acclaimed Viennese production later that year. The fiery opera has since become one of the most widely performed operas in the world.

The music is as zealous as its story, which chronicles the titular character—a beautiful gypsy—and her romances with the soldier Don José and toreador Escamillo. The tale of passion, jealousy and murder inspired some of Bizet’s most daring work; he brings to the French opera a distinctly exotic musical palette.

Carmen features some of opera’s most famous compositions, including the title character’s Act I Habañera aria, a lilting tease of Latin rhythms and a chromatic vocal line based on the melody of a Spanish song. Escamillo sings the bold Toreador Song as he flirts with Carmen early in Act II.

Of interpreting the music of this operatic masterpiece, Rescigno says: “I lead the chorus of cigarette girls in Act I more slowly than it’s often done nowadays. This tempo is more in line with Bizet’s original indications. It very clearly emphasizes the sensuality of these women. The Act II quintet, on the other hand, is like a symphonic ‘scherzo and trio,’ and profits from brisk pacing, with only a slight relaxation in tempo in the middle section.

“In the climactic duet in Act IV, one must pay attention to the many tempo changes that mirror the growing instability of Don José. The development of their love-hate relationship transforms Carmen from comedy to tragedy, from opéra comique to what some consider the first verismo opera.”

About the Artists

Joseph Rescigno has served 28 years as artistic advisor and principal conductor of the Florentine Opera Company in Milwaukee, where he will conduct the world premiere of Don Davis’s Río de Sangre in 2010. In addition, he has conducted symphonies, concertos, operas and oratorios, from Bach through contemporary works, in the Americas, Asia and Europe. Rescigno has made six recordings, and he is working on his first book.

A frequent guest conductor, Rescigno has conducted some 50 opera companies and symphony orchestras throughout the world, among them the New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Seattle Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opéra de Marseille and l’Opéra de Montréal. The symphony orchestras that he has conducted include the Montreal Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony orchestras, both of which he has conducted in regular subscription concerts and opera productions.

Dubbed “an operatic superstar of the 21st century” by USA Today, Denyce Graves continues to gather unparalleled popular and critical acclaim in performances on four continents. Her rich vocalism, elegant stage presence and exciting theatrical abilities allow her to pursue a wide breadth of operatic portrayals and delight audiences in concert and recital appearances. Her signature roles—those of the title characters in Carmen and Samson et Dalila—have brought her to the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Real in Madrid, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles Opera and the Festival Maggio Musicale in Florence.

This season, Graves celebrates the opening of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts in a gala concert with Thomas Hampson and the Dallas Opera Orchestra and Chorus. She reprises her acclaimed portrayal of Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle in concert performances of the opera with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra.

Graves appears continually in a broad range of repertoire with leading theaters and orchestras worldwide; she is one of the world’s most sought-after recitalists. In addition to multiple Metropolitan Opera engagements, Graves has recently appeared with the Washington Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera and Théâtre Musical de Paris, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, the Bregenz Festival and festivals in Italy and Spain. Graves gave her first performances of Adalgisa in Norma for Opernhaus Zürich. She performed a rare double-bill of El amor brujo and La vida breve specifically mounted for her by Dallas Opera. She has appeared with the Israel and Los Angeles Philharmonics and the National, Chicago and BBC Symphony Orchestras.

Graves has garnered awards including the Grand Prix du Concours International de Chant de Paris, the Eleanor Steber Music Award in the Opera Columbus Vocal Competition and a Jacobson Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation.

For more than 20 years, Richard Leech has been singing many of the most demanding and well-known roles of the Italian and French repertoire, both on disc and on the stages of the world’s leading opera houses. Of his much anticipated 1989 debut with Metropolitan Opera as Rodolfo La Bohème, The New York Times wrote: “Other than Pavarotti on his best night, I can’t think of another tenor I’d rather hear in the part.” Since then, he has sung nearly 200 Met performances in a dozen leading tenor roles—many for the popular Texaco Radio Broadcast Series.

In addition to appearances with the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the opera companies of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington and San Diego, Leech has regularly performed with Opèra National de Paris, Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro alla Scala, Florence’s Teatro Comunale and Deutsche Oper Berlin. Leech has appeared with orchestras including the Vienna and New York Philharmonics and the National and Montreal Symphonies.

His televised performances include a production of Madama Butterfly and the James Levine 25th Anniversary Gala with the Met and a “Live from Lincoln Center” Rigoletto with the New York City Opera, as well as appearances on the annual Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala. Leech was the recipient of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award in 1989 and The Voice Foundation’s “Voice Education, Research and Awareness” (VERA) Award.

His discography boasts more than a dozen recordings; a 1991 Berlin performance of Les Huguenots was recently released on DVD (Arthaus).

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra is comprised of some of the country’s finest musicians. The Orchestra is proud to have Jacques Lacombe as its Music Director Designate and Neeme Järvi as its Conductor Laureate. Artistic excellence, innovative programming and community engagement are hallmarks of its mission. To best serve the people of New Jersey, the orchestra brings its programs to seven different venues throughout the state. Education and outreach programs enrich the listening experience for children and adults alike. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Broadcast Series, presented in part by the Merck Company Foundation, is a syndicated radio program broadcast regionally and throughout North America. Continental Airlines is the official airline of the NJSO.

For more information about the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, visit www.njsymphony.org or e-mail information@njsymphony.org. Tickets are available for purchase by phone 1.800.ALLEGRO (255.3476) or on the Orchestra’s website.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s programs are made possible in part by The New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, along with many other foundations, corporations and individual donors.

Opera New Jersey

Opera New Jersey is recognized nationally as a leader among regional opera companies, providing high-quality opera performances and exceptional educational offerings. Opera New Jersey seeks to stimulate, promote and satisfy interest in opera, build a strong and diverse audience base for the art form and foster the development of emerging artists. Opera New Jersey has received three prestigious Citations of Excellence from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (NJSCA). The Citation is NJSCA’s highest honor and recognizes arts organizations that “exhibit the highest standards of excellence in artistry, operations, governance, public benefit and fulfillment of areas of Council priority. Opera New Jersey is honored to be the recipient of multiple National Endowment for the Arts grants in recognition of its outstanding programming. For more information, visit www.Opera-NJ.org.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), located in the heart of an emerging downtown Newark, New Jersey, is the sixth largest performing arts center in the United States. Home of the Grammy Award-winning New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, NJPAC has been widely cited as a catalyst in the revitalization of New Jersey’s largest city, attracting more than 6 million visitors (including more than one million children) in its first 12 years of operation.

Programming has been made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.

NJPAC is a wheelchair accessible facility and provides assistive services such as TTY ticket purchase, designated seating, Sennheiser infrared listening devices and seat cushions. For more information, visit www.njpac.org.

The Cleveland Orchestra presents “The Fancy Flute” Musical Rainbow concerts on February 12 and 13 in Severance Hall’s Reinberger Chamber Hall

2010-02-02T16:32:00.000-05:00

Cleveland Orchestra flute and piccolo player Mary Kay Fink will be featured in program

PNC is new sponsor of the Musical Rainbow Series

CLEVELAND, January 14, 2010 – Cleveland Orchestra flutist Mary Kay Fink will introduce children ages 3-6 to “The Fancy Flute” in the February 12 and 13 PNC Musical Rainbow concerts, held in Severance Hall’s Reinberger Chamber Hall. Local actress and singer Maryann Nagel hosts the 30-minute, age-appropriate programs, which include narration, demonstration, short solo selections, and audience participation. Biographical information on Ms. Fink follows at the end of this release.

This season, as part of its Grow Up Great initiative in Cleveland, PNC is sponsoring the Musical Rainbows Series for preschoolers as well as a wide range of other activities and programs designed to give very young children “A Great Early Start in the Arts.” PNC Musical Rainbow programs introduce very young children to the instruments of the orchestra, one at a time.

Friday, February 12, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. SOLD OUT

Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance Hall

PNC Musical Rainbow: “The Fancy Flute” (ages 3-6)

MARY KAY FINK, flute

MARYANN NAGEL, host

NICHOLAS UNDERHILL, piano

The PNC Musical Rainbow Series is endowed by the Pysht Fund.

TICKETS: $7 for adults and children; general admission

To order tickets by phone, call (216) 231-1111. Tickets are also available online at clevelandorchestra.com.

PARKING – For PNC Musical Rainbow concerts at Severance Hall, Standard Parking provides parking in the underground garage adjacent to Severance Hall at a special Rainbow Concert rate of $4.50 per vehicle. Clearly marked school buses and vans may park for free on the west side of East Boulevard. Metered parking is also available on some side streets near Severance Hall.

The Cleveland Orchestra’s PNC Musical Rainbow Series is part of a broad array of educational programs designed to foster a love of music and a lifetime of participation in the musical arts. Other programs include Cleveland Orchestra Family Concerts for ages 7 and up, Cleveland Orchestra Education Concerts (which bring more than 25,000 school children to Severance Hall each year), the Learning Through Music school partnership program, Concert Previews and Music Study Groups for adults, and several programs to nurture aspiring young musicians (Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, Youth Chorus, and Children’s Chorus). For more information, call the Orchestra’s Educational and Community Programs Department at (216) 231-7355.

Mozart’s Requiem Features World Premiere at Merrill Auditorium March 30

2010-02-02T16:24:00.000-05:00

Presented by The Choral Art Society and Portland Ballet Company

PORTLAND, Maine – The Choral Art Society and Portland Ballet Company are joining forces once again to explore an already world-renowned choral and orchestral work with the beauty of dance. The two organizations will present Mozart’s powerful masterpiece, the Requiem, on Tuesday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Merrill Auditorium in Portland.

This riveting performance will feature the world premier of new choreography by Kennet Oberly; the Choral Art Society singers; Portland Ballet Company dancers, and musicians from the Portland Symphony Orchestra. The dancers embody the emotion of the piece, its sense of grief, resurrection and hope. The Requiem celebrates the beauty and strength of life, and the power of belief in the face of death. The dance will visually enhance the majesty and spirituality of the music.

The Portland Ballet and the Choral Art Society have partnered in the past, in particular their productions of Carmina Burana received rave reviews from fans and press.

"Every composition has a story, even if it is only, 'I want to write a song,'” said Robert Russell, music director of the Choral Art Society. “The story of the genesis, and eventual synthesis, of Mozart's Requiem still grabs me. And I have read it a dozen times. We hope many will want to be taken in by its mesmerizing spirit."

The Maine Arts Commission (MAC) awarded Portland Ballet and the Choral Art Society a Good Idea Visibility Arts Grant of $1,500 to create a video element to promote its collaborative performance. MAC awards the grant with the goal of increasing the visibility of a specific artistic project.

“Our joint performance of Mozart’s Requiem with the Choral Art Society will be a truly extraordinary experience for audience members,” notes Eugenia L. O’Brien, artistic director of Portland Ballet. “This grant will help us reach a broader audience and share information about the performance with those who know and love Mozart, as well as those who might want to be introduced to his work through a powerful and emotional performance of music and dance.”

Tickets are available through PortTix at www.porttix.com or by calling 207-842-0800 or in person at 20 Myrtle St., Portland, Monday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. Tickets purchased over the phone or online will be assessed a $5 per ticket handling charge; tickets range in price from $17- $62.

The concert is sponsored by Tenney UBS Inc. This production has also received funding from the Libra Foundation, the Davis Family Foundation, the Rines/Thompson Fund of the Maine Community Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.

About The Choral Art Society:
The Society has more than 150 members who perform in three distinct ensembles: the symphonic Masterworks Chorus, the mid-sized Choral Art Singers, and the intimate a cappella Camerata. All singers are skilled amateurs, selected by audition. The Society offers an annual concert series and appears regularly as guests of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. Robert Russell, professor of music at the University of Southern Maine, is the conductor and artistic director of The Choral Art Society.

For more information about The Choral Art Society and the season of performances visit www.choralart.org or call (207) 828-0043.

About Portland Ballet: 
Portland Ballet was founded in 1980 with a mission to enrich the community through classical ballet training, education, outreach, and performance. This small professional company performs throughout the year in southern Maine, presenting full-length classics as well as highly regarded contemporary choreography under the direction of Artistic Director Eugenia L. O'Brien.

For more information about Portland Ballet, its school and programs, visit www.portlandballet.org or call 207-772-9671.  

The Band of the Irish Guards and The Pipes, Drums and Dancers of the Royal Regiment of Scotland

2010-02-02T16:21:00.002-05:00

(Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders)

Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 2 PM / Roy Thomson Hall

$69.50 - $39.50 - Call 416-872-4255 or buy online at www.roythomson.com

or visit the Roy Thomson Hall Box Office

Toronto, ON. January 14, 2010

The Band of the Irish Guards and The Pipes, Drums and Dancers of the Royal Regiment of Scotland (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) bring all the pomp and grandeur of the British Empire to Roy Thomson Hall with a rousing presentation of pageantry and music called “Hands Across the Sea” on Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 2 PM. The Toronto performance is part of the company’s extensive 2010 North American tour and features over 80 performers and a stirring program of marches, anthems, fanfares, bagpipe medleys, jigs and popular songs from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

In 1900, Queen Victoria formed The Irish Guards to commemorate the bravery of the many Irish Regiments that had fought in the South African campaigns. The Band of the Irish Guards was formed about the same time and quickly gained a reputation for excellence. In 1905 the Band made the first of many tours of Canada and the people of Toronto were so impressed that they presented the Band with a Silver Cup that even today remains a cherished possession of the Band. With a current roster of 49 musicians, the Band’s main duty is to play for the Mounting of The Queen’s Guard at Buckingham Palace (alternating with the other four Foot Guards Bands), and for official ceremonial occasions such as State Visits, Royal Weddings, Royal Garden Parties and, of course, The Queen’s Birthday Parade. Over the years the Band of the Irish Guards has toured Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Germany, Hong Kong, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Japan. During this 2010 North American tour, the Band makes its U.S. debut.

The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders came into being in 1881 with the amalgamation of two distinguished Scottish regiments (which had been formed during the reign of George III): The 91^st Argyllshire Highlanders and the 93^rd Sutherland Highlanders. The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders last appeared on a North America concert tour with the Black Watch in 1989 and with the 1^st Battalion Queens Regiment in 1993. In March 2006 the Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders became the 5^th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and are due to receive new colours in 2010. The Battalion recently returned from Helmand Province in Afghanistan, where the Pipes and Drums were deployed as part of the Heavy Machine Gun platoon, working closely with the U.S. Marine Corps. The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5^th Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland, are now based in Canterbury, Kent.

This performance is co-presented by Attila Glatz Concert Productions and Roy Thomson Hall

The Band of the Irish Guards and The Pipes, Drums and Dancers of the Royal Regiment of Scotland Sunday, February 7, 2010 at 2 PM / Roy Thomson Hall $69.50 - $39.50 - Call 416-872-4255 or buy online at www.roythomson.com

Vancouver Opera Takes Major Step In Social Media Innovation and Information Technology

2010-02-02T16:18:00.000-05:00

Vancouver, BC ~ Vancouver Opera has intensified its commitment to developing community engagement and infrastructure through cutting-edge technologies with two important staff appointments in the areas of social media and information technology.

Ling Chan has been promoted to the newly-created position of Social Media Manager and Hali Autio has been promoted to Director of Information Technology.

Vancouver Opera is one of a very few arts organizations in North America with full-time staff dedicated to Social Media initiatives. VO is proud to be a leader in the use of Social Media in the Vancouver arts community and in the performing arts world and is pleased to show its commitment to growth and innovation in this area with Chan’s promotion.

Since joining VO in 2007 as an executive assistant, Ling Chan has been responsible for many groundbreaking social media marketing innovations. Chan’s Blogger Night @ The Opera was the first of its kind and has subsequently been adopted by opera companies worldwide. Chan has also built a strong online fan base for VO through a very active Twitter presence (including live tweeting from backstage during performances), a Fashion at the Opera Flickr stream, the OperaBot animation contest, and the popular VO blog, which includes regular features such as “Operamania 101”.

Hali Autio joined VO in 2004 and since then, as Manager of Information Technology, has worked to advance and improve VO’s technological infrastructure. In her new capacity as Director of Information Technology, Autio will continue to expand VO’s use of emergent technologies.

“I am very pleased to announce these promotions,” said Christopher Libby, Managing Director. “Ling Chan has been instrumental in establishing VO on the cutting-edge of the social media realm world-wide. Hali Autio’s commitment to new technologies has built a solid infrastructure for VO and under her management I expect we will continue to see improvements.”

Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières Avis d'Auditions Nationales

2010-02-02T16:16:00.000-05:00

Trois-Rivières, le 14 janvier 2010 – L’Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières annonce la tenue d’auditions nationales afin de combler deux postes de violon I de section et un poste de violon II de section.

Les violonistes intéressés devront déposer leur candidature au plus tard le 13 février 2010. Le comité de sélection, présidé par maestro Jacques Lacombe et composé de musiciens de l’OSTR, entendra les candidats retenus le 27 février 2010 au Conservatoire de musique de Trois-Rivières (587, rue Radisson).

Pour en savoir plus sur les modalités d’inscription, consultez le www.ostr.ca ou contactez le 819 373-5340 poste 0.

L’Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières reçoit l’appui du Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, de la Ville de Trois-Rivières et du Conseil des Arts du Canada.

Ben Heppner to Perform Special Solo Recital on September 11, 2010

2010-02-02T16:07:00.000-05:00

Toronto, Ontario – The Canadian Opera Company (COC) and celebrated Canadian tenor Ben Heppner are pleased to announce that Mr. Heppner will perform a special solo recital with piano on Saturday, September 11, 2010 at 4:30 p.m. at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The recital is free for all ticket buyers of the COC’s November 7, 2009 Diamond Anniversary concert at which Mr. Heppner was to have been featured.

Diamond Anniversary concert ticket buyers can redeem their same seats by contacting COC Ticket Services at 416-363-8231 by Friday, May 21, 2010. All unredeemed and available tickets will go on sale to the public Monday, May 31, 2010.

Accompanying Mr. Heppner is Canadian pianist and co-artistic director of Queen of Puddings Music Theatre John Hess, who works regularly with Mr. Heppner in Canada.

“I am pleased that we have found a date for this special recital that works both with the COC’s and Ben’s full performance schedules,” says Alexander Neef, General Director. “We are very happy that this special recital can take place at the Four Seasons Centre, and we all look forward to a highly personal concert from one of the world’s greatest artists.”

Ticket prices range from $20 to $120 and can be ordered online as of May 31, 2010 at coc.ca or by calling 416-363-8231, or in person at the Four Seasons Centre Box Office (145 Queen St. W., Toronto).

Mr. Heppner last performed with the COC as part of the Inaugural Gala Celebrations for the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on June 14, 2006.

The Nylons are “Putting It Together” with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

2010-02-02T16:03:00.003-05:00

Winnipeg, MB – January 13, 2010 –The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) welcomes veteran vocal group The Nylons this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Centennial Concert Hall!

The Nylons, a four-member vocal group with a 30-year history, has seven gold and six platinum recordings and over three million albums sold. A global institution and one of Canada’s top international success stories, they have performed more than 1000 concerts in dozens of worldwide tours.

A legend in the world of a cappella music, The Nylons are renowned for their vibrant live shows, featuring dazzling harmonies, smooth arrangements, tight choreography, and fabulous showmanship. Their rapport with their audiences makes them perennial favorites for all age groups. The Nylons continue to perform worldwide to passionate audiences and critical acclaim.

Guiding the smooth show will be special guest conductor Charles Cozens, an internationally known arranger, composer, conductor, and producer, with credits including The Nylons, The Canadian Tenors, Eagle & Hawk, David Foster, and many Canadian Symphony Orchestras. He is a past recipient of the Established Performing Artist Award from the Mississauga Arts Council and has been nominated for a Juno Award for his album “Balance” (Instrumental Album of the Year).

The Nylons: Putting It Together will feature favourites like Putting It Together, Lovers Never Say Goodbye, Small Town Boy, If You Could Read My Mind, Time of the Season, and more!

The WSO performs the Pops concert, The Nylons: Putting It Together, on Friday, January 15 and Saturday, January 16 at 8 pm and on Sunday, January 17 at 2 pm at the Centennial Concert Hall. Tickets range from $18 to $75 and are available through the WSO box office at 949-3999, online at www.wso.ca or through Ticketmaster 780-3333 or ticketmaster.ca.

Click here to listen to The Nylons’ tenor Garth Mosbaugh speak with executive director Trudy Schroeder and composer-in-residence Vincent Ho on Musically Speaking with the WSO on CJOB about how it feels to perform with a full orchestra.

Augmentation de la contribution au Conseil des Arts de Montréal

2010-02-02T15:48:00.000-05:00

La présidente Louise Roy remercie le maire Tremblay

Montréal le 13 janvier 2010 - Le Conseil des arts de Montréal remercie le maire Gérald Tremblay et son équipe pour la majoration de 250 000$ de la contribution qui lui est versée. Cette augmentation s’ajoute à l’indexation et porte la contribution de l’administration municipale à 10 950 000 $ dès cette année, soit une hausse totale de 4,8 %.

Pour la présidente du Conseil des arts de Montréal, Louise Roy, « c’est une bonne nouvelle pour le Conseil des arts et les artistes de Montréal ! Cette augmentation de près de 5% s’inscrit parmi plusieurs actions budgétaires concrètes en culture de la part de l’Administration Tremblay. Le maire démontre ainsi la volonté de la Ville de poursuivre, malgré la conjoncture difficile, le développement de ce secteur et de soutenir les créateurs. Cet investissement témoigne également de sa confiance dans nos actions et initiatives nouvelles et il permettra au Conseil d’encourager davantage la création artistique dans la métropole. »

Les artistes et les organismes artistiques améliorent la qualité de vie de Montréal tout en contribuant à son développement économique et à son rayonnement international. Rappelons que le secteur des arts et de la culture est en forte croissance (4,6% en 2008*) et a des retombées économiques importantes pour Montréal (7,8 milliards $ annuellement*)

*Source : La culture à Montréal : impacts économiques et financement privé étude de la Chambre de commerce du Montréal métropolitain, nov. 2009.

La place des nouveaux médias sociaux dans la stratégie marketing des organismes culturels

2010-02-02T15:43:00.000-05:00

Avec : Philippe Ravanas

Mardi 16 février 2010
9 h à 16 h
HEC Montréal
(3000, chemin de la Côte Ste-Catherine, Montréal)

La Chaire de gestion des arts, en collaboration avec Culture Montréal, propose un séminaire qui vise à mieux comprendre comment les nouveaux médias peuvent contribuer à l’identité de la marque de l’organisme, à la fidélisation des publics et à la personnalisation de la relation entre artistes et publics. Venez participer de l'expertise de Philippe Ravanas, spécialiste en marketing et professeur à la maîtrise au Département de gestion des arts, du spectacle et des médias du Columbia College à Chicago

Tarifs
Régulier : 200$ + tx
Réduit* : 100$ + tx

*Nombre limité de places à prix réduit offert aux organismes culturels de petite taille. Premier arrivé, premier servi !

Information et inscription

Django: World’s Greatest Jazz Guitarist

2010-02-02T15:37:00.000-05:00

“When I think about the best guitar players ever, the first name that comes to mind is Django Reinhardt. No one has ever equaled his sound or technique.”

—Willie Nelson

«The story of Django Reinhardt is a natural for younger audiences…Christensen supports the inspirational story with rich, vibrant paintings that capture the texture and tone of the landscapes in Django’s life. The art steals the show here, but the text works fine, too, describing the essence of Django’s story without overwhelming middle-graders with too much detail. (starred)

—Booklist

“Christensen’s soft, rhythmic prose echoes her evocative images….A sensuous tribute to an illustrious musician.

—School Library Journal

Jazz Americain, jazz like Django--

Moving bending changing blending

Try that rhythm, stretch that measure

Syncopation. Twist that line.

With a haunting, rhythmic, jazz-inflected text and lush oil paintings, Bonnie Christensen captures the spirit of Django Reinhardt . Although he is considered the world’s most acclaimed jazz guitarist, he is little known to young readers and musicians. Now, children can get to know the great Django Reinhardt whose personal story is as riveting as his music. Born into extreme poverty, in a gypsy encampment, Django overcame tremendous obstacles, including a debilitating injury to become a legend in the annals of jazz.

Through evocative prose and paintings Christensen illuminates an extraordinary life and introduces a masterful musician to a new generation. Christensen also includes an informative afterword, notes, bibliography and a selected discography.

BONNIE CHRISTENSEN is the author-illustrator of Woodie Guthrie: Poet of the People, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and a New York Times Notable Book. Her illustrations also appear in the London Folio Society's edition of The Grapes of Wrath and over ten children's books, including Pompeii, Lost and Found by Mary Pope Osborne. Most recently, she illustrated Ida B. Wells: Let The Truth Be Told, with text by Walter Dean Myers. Bonnie's fine art prints have been exhibited internationally. When she’s not working on books or making prints, Bonnie can be found playing violin and gloating over the fact that she shares a birthday with Django Reinhardt. The day, NOT the year! She lives in Wilson, North Carolina.

DJANGO: World’s Greatest Jazz Guitarist • by Bonnie Christensen

A Neal Porter Book/Published by Roaring Brook Press • ISBN: 978-1-59643-422-6

Hardcover Picture Book • Ages 5 to 9 / Grades K to 4 • 32 pages • $17.99 • On Sale September 2009

Roaring Brook Press is an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

Treizième Édition du Gala des Prix Opus : Les Résultats !

2010-02-01T16:17:00.000-05:00

Animé par André Papillon et Mario Paquet, le treizième gala des prix Opus a eu lieu aujourd'hui à la Salle Claude-Champagne, à Montréal. Réunis dans le cadre de cet événement incontournable, artistes et artisans ont été récompensés par 27 prix soulignant leur talent, pour la saison s'échelonnant du 1er septembre 2008 au 31 août 2009. Ponctuée par des prestations musicales, la cérémonie de remise de prix a suscité beaucoup d'enthousiasme. Plusieurs couleurs et styles musicaux ont été mis à l'honneur par des artistes de renom : l'Ensemble Caprice, Louis Dufort, Mathieu Gaudet et Karina Gauvin, Christine Tassan et les Imposteures, Normand Forget et le Jazz Trio, le tout sous la direction artistique de Mathieu Lussier.

Le prix Hommage a été remis au compositeur Jacques Hétu. Compositeur, pianiste, hautboïste et pédagogue, Jacques Hétu est l'un des patriarches de la composition au Québec. Originaire de Trois-Rivières, il est reconnu pour son style unique qui donne une place importante au lyrisme, à la poésie et à l'émotion, étant sensible à la rigueur structurelle des contemporains. Son répertoire inclut cinq symphonies, une quinzaine de concertos, un opéra, ainsi que plusieurs oeuvres de musique de chambre. Ses oeuvres ont été interprétées internationalement par des ensembles prestigieux tels l'Orchestre Philharmonique de New York et l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France. Tout au long de sa carrière, M. Hétu reçoit les plus grands honneurs de la musique. Huit fois récipiendaire du Prix Jan V. Matejcek pour la musique de concert de la SOCAN, sa musique continue d'être choyée par les interprètes. Il a été élu membre de la Société Royale du Canada et nommé Officier de l'Ordre du Canada ainsi qu'Officier de l'Ordre national du Québec.

À l'initiative du Conseil québécois de la musique, le gala des prix Opus souligne le travail des artistes, artisans, créateurs et diffuseurs, qui ont rayonné au cours de la saison 2008-2009. Tout en célébrant l'excellence de la musique de concert, cette fête nous rappelle la vitalité et la diversité de notre communauté culturelle. Le Québec foisonne de musiciens de talent et la qualité des lauréats de cette année nous a permis encore une fois de le constater, tout en offrant aux mélomanes le goût de la découverte de ces musiques.

Le Conseil québécois de la musique salue chaleureusement ses partenaires, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Musicaction, le Conseil des Arts du Canada, le ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine du Québec, la Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec, le Conseil des arts de Montréal, Galaxie, Espace musique, la radio musicale de Radio-Canada, Le Devoir, la Faculté de musique de l'Université de Montréal, la Librairie Monet et La Scena Musicale.

LAURÉATS DU TREIZIÈME GALA DES PRIX OPUS - SAISON 2008-2009

CONCERT DE L'ANNÉE - MONTRÉAL (prix accompagné d'une bourse de 3 000 $ du Conseil des arts de Montréal)
La porte du ciel, Société de musique contemporaine du Québec et Faculté de musique de l'Université de Montréal, 7 novembre 2008

CONCERT DE L'ANNÉE - QUÉBEC
Plácido Domingo à Québec, Orchestre symphonique de Québec et Festival d'été de Québec, 17 juillet 2009

CONCERT DE L'ANNÉE - RÉGIONS
Chopin et Liszt, André Laplante, piano, Centre d'arts Orford, 20 juin 2009

CONCERT DE L'ANNÉE - MUSIQUES MÉDIÉVALE, DE LA RENAISSANCE, BAROQUE
Le Faste de la France , Ensemble Caprice et Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, 3 mai 2009

CONCERT DE L'ANNÉE - MUSIQUES CLASSIQUE, ROMANTIQUE, POSTROMANTIQUE, IMPRESSIONNISTE
Impressions russes, Les Violons du Roy, 5 décembre 2008

CONCERT DE L'ANNÉE - MUSIQUES MODERNE, CONTEMPORAINE
La porte du ciel, Société de musique contemporaine du Québec et Faculté de musique de l'Université de Montréal, 7 novembre 2008

CONCERT DE L'ANNÉE - MUSIQUES ACTUELLE, ÉLECTROACOUSTIQUE
Psukhô en concert 2, Productions Totem contemporain, 4 octobre 2008

CONCERT DE L'ANNÉE - JAZZ, MUSIQUES DU MONDE
Oliver Jones Jazzmen québécois, Journée Oscar Peterson, Festival de musique de chambre de Montréal,
15 mai 2009

CRÉATION DE L'ANNÉE
Chorals ornés , Yves Daoust, compositeur, Festival Orgue et couleurs et Réseaux des arts médiatiques, Remix de classiques, 2 octobre 2008

PRODUCTION DE L'ANNÉE - JEUNE PUBLIC
(prix accompagné d'une bourse de 5 000 $ offerte par le ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine du Québec)
Aventure en mer , Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, 9 septembre 2008

DISQUE DE L'ANNÉE - MUSIQUES MÉDIÉVALE, DE LA RENAISSANCE, BAROQUE
Handel Arias , Karina Gauvin, soprano, Tempo Rubato, Alexander Weimann, direction, ATMA Classique

DISQUE DE L'ANNÉE - MUSIQUES CLASSIQUE, ROMANTIQUE, POSTROMANTIQUE, IMPRESSIONNISTE
Bruckner 9 , Orchestre Métropolitain, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, direction, ATMA Classique

DISQUE DE L'ANNÉE - MUSIQUES MODERNE, CONTEMPORAINE
Messiaen - Chants de terre et de ciel, Suzie LeBlanc, soprano, Lawrence Wiliford, ténor, Laura Andriani, violon, Robert Kortgaard, piano, ATMA Classique

DISQUE DE L'ANNÉE - MUSIQUES ACTUELLE, ÉLECTROACOUSTIQUE
Les arbres , Nicolas Bernier, No Type

DISQUE DE L'ANNÉE - JAZZ, MUSIQUES DU MONDE
Now What, Julie Lamontagne, Justin Time Records

LIVRE DE L'ANNÉE
Collectif, Claude Vivier, 25 ans après - une introspection, Circuit, musiques contemporaines, vol. 18, no 3 - Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 2008

ARTICLE DE L'ANNÉE
Marie-Thérèse Lefebvre, Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux et Marcelle Deschênes : pionnières dans le sentier de la création électroacoustique, Circuit, musiques contemporaines, vol. 19, no 1 - Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 2009

LAURÉATS DES PRIX SPÉCIAUX

COMPOSITEUR DE L'ANNÉE
(le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec remet 10 000 $ au récipiendaire du prix Opus du compositeur de l'année du Conseil québécois de la musique)
Analia Llugdar

DÉCOUVERTE DE L'ANNÉE (prix accompagné d'une bourse de 3 000 $ offerte par Galaxie, et d'une année en résidence à la radio de Radio-Canada)
Jean-Michaël Lavoie, chef d'orchestre

DIFFUSEUR SPÉCIALISÉ DE L'ANNÉE
L'OFF Festival de jazz de Montréal, 10e édition

DIFFUSEUR PLURIDISCIPLINAIRE DE L'ANNÉE
L'Auditorium d'Alma

DIRECTEUR ARTISTIQUE DE L'ANNÉE
Guy Soucie, Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur

ÉVÉNEMENT MUSICAL DE L'ANNÉE
Automne Messiaen 2008

INTERPRÈTE DE L'ANNÉE (prix accompagné d'une bourse de 5 000 $ du Conseil des Arts du Canada)
Louise Bessette, pianiste

RAYONNEMENT À L'ÉTRANGER
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, chef d'orchestre

RECONNAISSANCE À UN FACTEUR D'INSTRUMENTS
(prix accompagné d'une bourse de 5 000 $ offerte par la Société de développement des entreprises culturelles du Québec)
Hellmuth Wolff, facteur d'orgues

Show One Presents Hvorostovsky and Radvanovsky in Toronto March 20

2010-01-28T21:01:00.002-05:00

A Show One Presentation – Saturday, March 20 at Roy Thomson Hall

HVOROSTOVSKY& RADVANOVSKY: INTERNATIONAL SUPERSTARS

IN AN ITALIAN OPERA SPECTACULAR

He has been called “the supreme singing actor” “with a virtuoso display of smoky tone and sensual, forthright phrasing.” With her “rich, tremulous soprano voice and affecting intensity,” she is hailed as the top Verdi soprano of our age.

Show One Productions presents the first joint North American concert by two of the world’s operatic superstars, baritone DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY and soprano SONDRA RADVANOVSKY, Saturday, March 20, 2010, 8 p.m. at Roy Thomson Hall.

An Italian Opera Spectacular features an evening of passionate arias and duets from Un Ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball), Simon Boccanegra, and other great stage works by Verdi, along with such favorites as the Song to the Moon from Dvorak’s Rusalka, and the final scene from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

Hvorostovsky and Radvanovsky will perform with the Orchestre de la Francophonie, under the baton of Constantine Orbelian. Jean-Philippe Tremblay, the orchestra’s music director, will conduct some of the finest orchestral selections from opera, by Verdi, Puccini and Mascagni.

Tickets, $65-148.75, are available via www.RoyThomson.com or by calling 416-872-4255. Information is also available at www.ShowOneProductions.ca.

“This concert is certain to be a highlight of 2010,” promises Svetlana Dvoretskaia of Show One Productions. “When you get two talents of this magnitude in the finest operatic music ever written, it is both a rare and unforgettable experience!”

Hvorostovsky and Radvanovsky first performed together in Russia in 2009. The Toronto concert marks the start of a North American tour that takes the artists to Montreal’s Place des Arts March 26 (also presented by Show One Productions), Washington’s Kennedy Center March 29, and New York’s Carnegie Hall April 1.

BOTH STARS FEATURED IN NEW VERDI RECORDINGS: In addition to regular performances at the Metropolitan Opera, both Hvorostovsky and Radvanovsky have toured widely. Their recent joint concerts of Verdi scenes and duets in Russia were recorded and will be released shortly on Delos. As well, Radvanovsky’s Moscow performances led to her first solo recording of Verdi arias, also on Delos and scheduled for release in April.

HVORSTOVSKY’S SIMON BOCCANEGRA: While the versatile Russian baritone is a great interpreter of Russian opera and music of his homeland, he is in demand worldwide as a recitalist and for his Verdi roles. When he first performed the title role in Simon Boccanegra in 2006 with the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Chronicle praised his “magnetic” stage presence and “lustrous” sound, marveling at “his ability to convey the emotional point of words.” When he reprised the role for the San Francisco Opera in September 2008, the San Francisco Chronicle raved, “His vocal production was superb, a virtuoso display of smoky tone and sensual, forthright phrasing.” The Bay Area Reporter summed him up at the “supreme singing actor.” This year (2010) sees Hvorostovsky again at the Met, as well as the Covent Garden and Vienna opera houses, and touring extensively in Russia, North America and Canada. www.hvorostovsky.com

Vanity Fair wrote that Hvorostovsky “is sending aficionados the world over into a collective swoon, inviting an adulation that recalls the advent of Baryshnikov in the dance world of the seventies.” And he was a rare classical musician to be named one of People Magazine’s 50 most beautiful people.

RADVANOVSKY’S FIRST TOSCA & AIDA: One month after her Toronto performance, Sondra Radvanovsky will sing her first Tosca in the Opera Colorado production of the Puccini melodrama (www.operacolorado.org/operas/tosca-artists). In October 2010, she will make both her Canadian Opera Company and role debuts in the title role of Verdi’s Aida. On March 20, audiences will enjoy a foretaste when she includes Aida’s aria O Patria Mia in the program.

The New York Times has praised her “rich, tremulous soprano voice and affecting intensity,” while The Times (UK) hailed her as “a true Verdian, with a big, juicy, vibrato-rich sound.” San Francisco’s Chronicle summed up her September 2009 performance in Il Trovatore: “Even if nothing else happens during the rest of the San Francisco Opera’s 2009 fall season, soprano Sondra Radvanovsky has already provided us with at least one extraordinary and indelible musical memory.” (Hvorostovsky alternated as Count di Luna in that production.)

This January has seen her as Lina in the Metropolitan Opera’s remount of Verdi’s Stiffelio, with Plácido Domingo conducting – in what the New York Times described as “a richly expressive performance as Lina, Stiffelio’s guilt-stricken wife… She sang with utter integrity, supple phrasing, nuanced colorings and aching vulnerability. Her bright, strong voice filled Verdi’s lines and penetrated the orchestra without forcing… She won me over, and the cheering audience, with her impassioned performance.”

Radvanovsky is also appearing this season as Elisabetta in Don Carlo at the Paris Opera; and in the Verdi Requiem with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. www.imgartists.com/sondraradvanovsky

David Sherman’s “The Daily Miracle”

2010-01-21T13:06:00.000-05:00

While a winter storm threatens to shut down the city and the corporate big wigs meet behind closed doors across the hall to decide the fate of the newspaper, four copy editors hammer out tomorrow’s edition. It's just another night on the news desk, where the battle-scarred and overworked wrestle with fractured syntax and crushed ideals to get the next edition out. Tempers frayed from layoffs, cutbacks and corroded ambitions; it's a miracle they can get the paper out at all … a miracle that happens every day.

Performance Information
Dates & Times Jan. 26 – Feb. 14
Previews Jan. 26 & 27
Opening Night Jan. 28
Tues. through Sat. 20:00
Sunday Matinée 14:00 (Jan.31 PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN)
Monday DARK

Tickets
General Admission $20
Seniors & Students $15
Groups (6 or more) $10

Venue
Bain St-Michel
5300, St-Dominique

Box Office
(514) 987 – 1774
box-office@infinitheatre.com
www.infinitheatre.com

To the Sea in Ships

2010-01-20T16:52:00.002-05:00

Songs and stories of sailors, adventurers and fishers the world over

Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at 8 pm

Wednesday, February 10, 2010, at 8 pm

Trinity St. Paul’s Centre

For Immediate Release – Toronto, January 13, 2010: Toronto’s Talisker Players return to Trinity St. Paul’s Centre on Tuesday & Wednesday, February 9 and 10 with To the Sea in Ships. Offering concert-goers an escape from Toronto in winter to adventure on the high seas, this is an evening of music about sea-faring from across the ages and around the world. Mezzo-soprano Vicki St. Pierre, tenor Keith Klassen and baritone Alexander Dobson are the renowned guest artists joining the instrumentalists of Talisker Players.

The programme starts with British composer John Ireland's setting of the famous John Masefield poem, Sea Fever ("I must down to the sea again / To the lonely sea and the sky") for baritone and piano. It also features Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe's evocative Island Dreaming, for mezzo soprano and string quartet, and American Lee Hoiby's Bermudas, a gorgeous setting of a poem by Andrew Marvell about the first British sailors to come upon the Caribbean islands, for tenor, baritone and piano quartet.

The Talisker Players have a strong commissioning programme, and always take pride in featuring Canadian composers. To the Sea in Ships features the premiere of a new work by the promising young Toronto composer Juliet Hess. The Mariner's Albatross is a setting of an excerpt from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the famous narrative poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, for an unusual combination of tenor, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and double bass. The evening also includes Sir Ernest MacMillan's rollicking setting of Three French Canadian Sea Songs, for baritone and string quintet. As always, this Talisker Players production includes the spoken word. Readings will be from the great seafaring classic Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana.

Vicki St. Pierre’s lush voice is both dark and brilliant, an unusual combination. Still at the beginning of her career, she has distinguished herself in a wide variety of styles and genres. An acclaimed interpreter of early music, she is also at ease on the opera stage, and is in great demand as an oratorio and recital artist.

Tenor Keith Klassen has emerged as one of Canada's busiest and most versatile tenors. His voice has been described as "pure honey, with its ease of high notes and lyrical grace of phrasing", and his acting as passionate and dramatically convincing. He is a member of the studio company of Tapestry New Opera Works, and has appeared in numerous workshops and premieres. Keith is also a sought-after oratorio singer, and has performed across Canada and abroad.

The British-Canadian baritone Alexander Dobson has been praised for his musicality and dramatic awareness on the opera, concert and recital stage. Recent highlights include his portrayal of Wozzeck conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Montreal, a performance lauded for his "gripping embodiment of Wozzeck", which he later reprised at the Orford Festival, and debuts at Covent Garden (U.K.) and New York’s Bard Festival. Alexander is also a noted performer of new music; he has premiered several roles with Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, Tapestry New Opera and Toronto Masque Theatre.

To the Sea in Ships

Songs and stories of adventure on the high seas

Tuesday & Wednesday, February 9 & 10, 2010, 8 PM

Trinity St. Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor Street West

Vicki St. Pierre, mezzo soprano; Keith Klassen, tenor; Alexander Dobson, baritone; The Talisker Players

TICKETS: $30 / $20 (seniors) / $10 (students)

Tel: 416-978-8849

Email: words.music@taliskerplayers.ca

Information: 416-466-1800

www.taliskerplayers.ca

Talisker Players Chamber Music offers one of the most imaginative and exciting concert series in Toronto. In collaboration with some of Canada’s finest young singers, Talisker Players present the rarely-heard repertoire for voice and chamber ensemble. Their unique programming includes readings that illuminate the music and delight audiences with a stimulating, theatrical concert experience. The music, engaging and varied, includes both celebrated works and unknown gems from all styles and periods, with a strong presence of Canadian compositions.

Upcoming: Illuminations

Tuesday, May 11, 2010 & Wednesday, May 12, 2010 – 8 pm

A window on the world of mystics, visionaries and seers

Featuring Meredith Hall, soprano; Lawrence Wiliford, tenor

EMI Classics and Virgin Classics Highlights for January 2010 Include Solo Recordings and a DVD

2010-01-20T16:51:00.000-05:00

From Some of Today’s Hottest Singers, Including Diana Damrau, Philippe Jaroussky, and Natalie Dessay

Plus, an All-Ravel Album from Fast-rising Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and a Veritable (and Danceable) Feast of Ballet Music

Virgin Classics Artist Philippe Jaroussky Makes NYC Solo Recital Debut, Performing His Opium Program Live at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall (Jan 14)

COLORaturas

Diana Damrau, soprano

Münchner Rundfunkorchester / Dan Ettinger

CD and downloads available January 12 from Virgin Classics

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. It’s impossible to know whether Diana Damrau was born great, but she has – without question – achieved greatness; Damrau has firm technical command, unaffected mastery of characterization, and beauty of tone… . More, please.” – Opera News

After two highly-praised Virgin Classics releases of 18^th-century repertoire, the superb German soprano Diana Damrau adds a dazzling new title to her Virgin Classics discography: COLORaturas. With the support of the Münchner Rundfunkorchester conducted by Dan Ettinger, Damrau is showcased in repertoire that ranges from Rossini (including “Una voce poco fa” from Barber of Seville) and Verdi to Stravinsky and Bernstein; from comedy to tragedy; and covers four languages: German, Italian, French, and English. It includes Zerbinetta’s marathon coloratura aria from Ariadne auf Naxos, one of the operas that spearheaded Damrau’s international career.

Opera News has named COLORaturas its Critic’s Choice selection for February 2010. Under the headline “Shattering Expectations,” Judith Malafronte’s review begins with this observation: “Diana Damrau is one of those singers who gobble up the music only to spit it back out with more originality, verve, precision and ease than seems possible. Listening to such a smart singer is an absolute delight as well as a challenge; expectations are shattered by authoritative readings that leave the listener amazed at this artist’s imagination and the inevitability of the results.”

Diana Damrau’s operatic engagements in the U.S. for the current season include starring roles in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment (Feb) and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at New York’s Metropolitan Opera (Feb – March), as well as Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet in Washington, D.C. (May). She will also take center stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall on January 24, performing orchestral songs by Richard Strauss with the MET Orchestra and James Levine.

J.C. Bach: La Dolce Fiamma – Forgotten Castrato Arias

Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor

Le Cercle de L’Harmonie / Jérémie Rhorer

CD and downloads available January 12 from Virgin Classics

“The countertenor Philippe Jaroussky wields his sweet-toned, radiant voice to emotive effect, displaying both a rapid-fire coloratura technique and a poignant, lyrical expressiveness.”– New York Times

Philippe Jaroussky’s previous operatic recital for Virgin Classics was a collection of arias written for a castrato singer, Carestini, whose star had been somewhat eclipsed by his contemporaries Farinelli and Senesino. In this newest release, the young and charismatic French countertenor turns to a composer who – despite his famous last name, his celebrity during his lifetime, and his influence on the young Mozart – is still not given his full due: Johann Christian Bach (1735-82). The repertoire comprises arias from six of his operas, written for Milan, Mannheim, and London, the city in which he spent the last 20 years of his life and where, in 1764, he met Mozart, then a touring child prodigy.

La Dolce Fiamma – Forgotten Castrato Arias is Jaroussky’s seventh solo disc for Virgin Classics. Reviewing the new album, a critic for the Toronto Star observed, “France’s Jaroussky, 31, is probably the finest of the younger generation of countertenors. Here, he tackles 13 airs and arias originally written for castrati by Johann Christian Bach… . J.C. wrote a lot of operas, all of them forgotten – which may change, given the impressive performances by Jaroussky and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie under conductor Jérémie Rhorer. This beautiful music spans the full emotional spectrum.

In the Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns praised Jaroussky’s “electrifying treble voice” and “pinpoint brilliance” in a recent review of this and other important new vocal albums. He calls La Dolce Fiamma “a must,” noting, “On Jaroussky’s disc, Johann Christian Bach sounds so good that one can only assume his music simply got lost in the historic shuffle. The Jaroussky disc is necessary for anyone interested in pre-Mozartean opera.”

Jaroussky’s star is already high in the firmament in Europe, especially in France, where his albums have been extraordinary bestsellers. Audiences in two American cities will have the opportunity to hear his work in a broad range of repertoire early in the New Year. On January 14, Jaroussky will give a recital of sensuous and seductive French melodies from the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries – the so-called Belle Époque – at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall; it will mark his New York City solo recital debut. Jaroussky recorded many of these songs on his Virgin Classics album Opium, which was released this past spring.

Much of the Opium repertoire will also appear on a program Jaroussky will give at the Cleveland Institute of Music on January 16 with the dynamic young ensemble Apollo’s Fire. Writing about Opium, a critic for All Music Guide observed, “Jaroussky rose as a star of Baroque opera not only because of his flawless technique and the exceptional clarity and purity of his voice, but for his ability to bring life, through the depth and emotional honesty of his characterizations, to cardboard roles that had primarily served as vehicles for coloratura fireworks. It’s not surprising, then, that he excels in this intensely personal and emotionally transparent repertoire.”

Additional information about the album is available on-line at www.jarousskyopium.com.

Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
Natalie Dessay, Laurent Naouri, Stéphane Degout
Arnold Schoenberg Choir
Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien / Bertrand de Billy
DVD available January 12 from Virgin Classics

“Natalie Dessay admitted that Mélisande poses few vocal challenges, noting that the role lies comfortably enough for both sopranos and lightweight mezzos. Indeed, the role is vocally a good fit for her – splendid, in fact.” – Opera News

“There’s more to life than top notes,” Natalie Dessay has said. She has, of course, made her reputation with the florid, stratospheric heroines of Romantic French and Italian opera, but in this new DVD from Vienna she portrays a heroine who presents few opportunities for vocal display, but many for subtle characterization – Debussy’s Mélisande. Dessay had sung the role just once before, in concert in Edinburgh in 2005. Pelléas et Mélisande is full of ambiguity and its vocal lines closely reflect Maurice Maeterlinck’s hauntingly enigmatic text. A few unaccompanied, ballad-like phrases are the closest Mélisande comes to an aria.

For this production, premiered in January 2009 at the Theater an der Wien, Dessay’s French and French-Canadian colleagues included stage director Laurent Pelly – celebrated for riotous comedy (notably La fille du régiment with Dessay, also a Virgin Classics DVD) – and his preferred designer, Chantal Thomas; Dessay’s real-life husband, bass-baritone Laurent Naouri, as her jealous stage husband, Golaud; the lyric baritone Stéphane Degout as her Pelléas; and the contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux as his and Golaud’s mother, Geneviève. Conductor Bertrand de Billy completes the high-caliber Gallic line-up.

A preview segment from the DVD is available at this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANSOGaoJOFs.

Natalie Dessay’s ever-rising profile in the U.S. has been fueled by a series of critically-acclaimed performances with the country’s leading opera companies, particularly New York’s Metropolitan Opera. She returns there in March to star as Ophelia in the company’s production of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet (eight performances, March 16 through April 9). Listeners can preview that performance on Virgin Classics’ recently released Mad Scenes, which features Dessay going off the rails – emotionally, but with perfect musical precision – in works from five 19^th-century operas, along with a surprising live performance from Bernstein’s Candide. In his review of the album for the Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns calls Dessay, “a modern-day Sills: her sense of theatrical comprehension wins the day.”

Ravel: La Valse, Mother Goose, Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2, etc.

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra / Yannick Nézet-Séguin

CD and downloads available January 12 from Virgin Classics

“In everything, Nézet-Séguin – who is flashy and hyper-expressive in his gestures – got a sound I had never quite heard before from the Angelenos. It was lean, sleek, tart in the French manner, yet also very bold and forward. It reminded me of the sound of the Montréal Symphony during the Charles Dutoit era, but with more punch.”– Los Angeles Times

A new album of orchestral works by Ravel marks Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s debut recording with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The French-Canadian conductor finds Maurice Ravel to be the greatest orchestrator that French music has ever had, which is what he and the orchestra want to showcase on this recording. “It’s all about colors,” Nézet-Séguin explained, “[and] the contrast between intimacy and grandeur, Valse being one of his greatest and most powerful symphonic poems, and yet the Valses nobles et sentimentales being much more in the intimate way… . In Ma mère l’Oye, we are being so intimate, while Daphnis and Chloé is also one of his most uplifting and triumphant [works]. There’s a lot of contrast.”

In the 2008-09 season, Yannick Nézet-Séguin succeeded Valery Gergiev as Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and also became Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2000, he has been Artistic Director of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, gaining many awards for his work there. He has worked with all the leading Canadian orchestras and returns regularly to the Toronto Symphony. He made his European debut in late 2004 with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and has since been invited back by all the orchestras with which he has worked.

Nézet-Séguin has been busy in New York this winter, making his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting a new production of Bizet’s Carmen, which opened on December 31 (six performances through Jan 21), and will soon head across the Lincoln Center plaza to lead the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in two orchestral concerts at Avery Fisher Hall (Feb 17 and 19).

Schubert: String Quintet in C (D.956); String Quartet No. 15 in G (D.887); String Quartet No. 14 in D minor (D.810), “Death and the Maiden”
Belcea Quartet; Valentin Erben, cello
Two-CD set and downloads available January 12 from EMI Classics

The Belcea Quartet adds three late masterpieces by Franz Schubert to their impressive discography on EMI Classics: the String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, “Death and the Maiden” (D.810), the luminous and transcendent String Quartet No. 15 in G (D.887), and the life-affirming String Quintet in C (D.956) with Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg String Quartet as the second cellist. The Belcea Quartet has garnered much praise for their take on Schubert, with the New York Times recently stating, “In the Belcea’s account [of ‘Death and the Maiden’] the work seemed so formidable and emotionally complex that there was nothing more to say.”

Chopin: “Journal Intime”
Alexandre Tharaud, piano
CD and downloads available January 12 from Virgin Classics

“Alexandre Tharaud plays Chopin with superlative technique…[his] intelligent playing …matches its clarity with perception and sensitivity, and variety of touch with sonic beauty. Tharaud is unfailingly responsive to melodic nuance and seems to relish every new twist of the texture. But there is also immense power when the dark energy beneath is unleashed. His concept plumbs the depths of Chopin’s musical psyche with humility… a brilliant and original performance.”

– BBC Music magazine

Already established as one of today’s most individual and thoughtful pianists, Alexandre Tharaud makes his debut on Virgin Classics with a diverse and very personal collection of pieces by Frédéric Chopin, just in time for the celebration of the 200^th anniversary of the composer’s birth (he was born on March 1, 1810).

“Journal intime” (Private diary) features works by Chopin – mazurkas, nocturnes, ballades, the famous Fantaisie-impromptu, and a number of other, lesser-known works that have special importance and significance to Tharaud, who cites the pianism of Vlado Perlemuter and Sergei Rachmaninov as a particular influence on his approach to the music of Chopin. Many of these pieces have been in Tharaud’s repertoire since his student days. “I let time work for me,” he explains. “It is extraordinarily enriching to study a work when you are young and then revisit it in the course of your life. It becomes part of you.” A preview video for the project is available at the following link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ0835-S67M, and a full track listing follows below.

Tharaud, born in Paris in 1968, takes a discerning approach to repertoire, highlighting and often juxtaposing composers such as Bach, Rameau, Couperin, Chabrier, Satie, Ravel, Poulenc, and Thierry Pécou (b.1965). His catalogue of recordings for Harmonia Mundi has contributed substantially to his reputation.

This winter and spring, Tharaud will give a number of recitals in America, including performances at the Frick Collection in New York City on March 7 and at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on March 12 (these and other dates are listed in the artist tour section at the end of this news release).

Track list

1. Mazurka, Op. 63, No. 3

2. Ballade, Op. 23, No. 1

3. Mazurka, Op. 17, No. 2

4. Mazurka, Op. 68, No. 2

5. Fantaisie, Op. 49

6. Nocturne posthumous

7. Mazurka, Op 7, No. 2

8. Ballade, Op. 38, No. 2

9. Mazurka, Op. 17, No. 4

10. Largo

11-13. Trois Écossaises, Op. 72, No. 3 (I-III)

14. Contredanse

15. Fantaisie-impromptu, Op. 66

16. Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2

Lehár: La veuve joyeuse (The Merry Widow)

Véronique Gens, Ivan Ludlow, Gordon Gietz, Magali Léger

Opéra de Lyon / Gérard Korsten

DVD available Janaury 12 from Virgin Classics

The heroine of La veuve joyeuse is called Missia Palmieri, but she had started off in 1905 as Hanna Glawari in Vienna, where this operetta is known as Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow); its French premiere followed in 1909. The story of the merry widow and her rekindled romance with dissipated diplomat Count Danilo takes place in Paris – notably Chez Maxim’s in the final act – and in fact has its roots in a French play, L’attaché d’ambassade by Henri Meilhac. With Ludovic Halévy, Meilhac was the librettist of Carmen, a number of Offenbach’s operettas and a play called Le Réveillon, which forms the basis of that other supreme Viennese operetta Die Fledermaus. Johann Strauss’s waltzes and polkas were clearly an influence on Lehár, but his sumptuous and often touching score also frequently furnishes reminders that he was a contemporary of both Richard Strauss and Giacomo Puccini.

This production, mounted in December 2007 at the Opéra de Lyon (the source of Virgin Classics’ DVD of Offenbach’s La vie Parisienne in a riotous contemporary updating by Laurent Pelly) is by the French director Macha Makeieff. She treats the work as the masterpiece it is: “Macha Makeieff’s reading … turns its back on the conventions of operetta frippery, of musical champagne bubbles to keep the crowds happy … . In defining the personalities of the two lovers – two wounded birds who have put up barriers to protect themselves from love – she brings depth and gravity to the work, giving it new stature” (Le Progrès).

In the title role is the leading French lyric soprano, the graceful Véronique Gens, whose two Tragédiennes recitals are on Virgin Classics; her Danilo is the dashing British baritone Ivan Ludlow, while the roles of the secondary pair of errant lovers are played by the Canadian tenor Gordon Gietz and the delightful Magali Léger, with the latter’s long-suffering husband portrayed by baritone François Le Roux. Conducting is Gérard Korsten, born in South Africa but with long experience as both student and performer in Austria, notably Salzburg.

Special compilations, boxed sets, and reissues

Aldo Ciccolini: The Complete EMI Recordings 1950-91
Specially-priced 56-CD set available January 12 from EMI Classics

Beyond Aldo Ciccolini’s two bestselling complete Satie recordings and other proofs of his natural affinity with the French repertoire (which put him very much in tune with the artistic policy of French EMI under the leadership of René Challan, Eric Macleod, and Gréco Casadesus), and his unflashy Liszt – the ideal alternative to someone like Georges Cziffra – the public knows surprisingly little of the recordings that Ciccolini made for EMI between 1950 and 1991.

In 1950, as winner of the 1949 Marguerite Long Competition, the 25-year-old Ciccolini recorded his first 78; it was devoted to Scarlatti, a composer to whom he later returned. Following soon afterwards was Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, conducted by André Cluytens – the pianist asked for the tapes of the second concerto to be destroyed, since he did not like the piece – and then produced an anthology of Mozart sonatas which has a finesse, balance, and sonic splendor still typical of Ciccolini’s concert performances today.

EMI’s new 56-CD collection contains numerous items which have become available for the first time (such as Mozart sonatas and Bach inventions previously only released in Japan, or his first Debussy disc, dating from 1969), or which have never before been released, such as the magnificent Pictures at an Exhibition recorded in 1976. With particular care taken over the transfers, including re-masterings of all the late recordings, this box will convince any remaining skeptics that Aldo Ciccolini, though born in Naples, holds a place at the very summit of French pianism.

The Complete Chopin Edition – 200^th anniversary
16-CD set and downloads available January 26 from EMI Classics.

To celebrate the 200^th anniversary of Frédéric Chopin’s birth in suitably grand fashion, EMI Classics is proud to release the Polish composer’s complete works in an exclusive, specially-priced 16-CD boxed set. The collection brings together all of the works – the piano sonatas, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, études, impromptus, preludes, and other works – that established Chopin as one of the greatest Romantic composers and virtuosos who ever lived. Featured artists include Leif Ove Andsnes, Claudio Arrau, Daniel Barenboim, Andrei Gavrilov, Benjamin Grosvenor, Garrick Ohlsson and Ronald Smith.

American Classics series – five new titles
Various artists
Single and two-CD sets and downloads available January 26 from EMI Classics

EMI Classics expands its attractively-designed and smartly-programmed American Classics series by five new and diverse titles this month, spanning the characteristically wide spectrum of the American music scene, from music theater and spirituals to minimalism and the avant-garde.

The five programs and their contributing artists are as follows:

AMERICAN COUNTERPOINT
John Adams: Harmonielehre; John Cage: Three Dances; Conlon Nancarrow: Three Canons for Ursula
Michael Tilson Thomas, Ralph Grierson, Thomas Adès
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle

LEONARD BERNSTEIN: Wonderful Town
Kim Criswell, Audra McDonald, Thomas Hampson
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group; London Voices / Sir Simon Rattle

RIDE ON, KING JESUS
Florence Quivar sings black music of America
Florence Quivar, Larry Woodard, Joseph Joubert, Harlem Boys’ Choir

AMERICAN CLARINET
Elliott Carter: Clarinet Concerto (“Gra”); Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint; Howard Sandroff: Tephillah; John Adams: Gnarly Buttons
Alain Damiens, André Trouttet
Ensemble InterContemporain / David Robertson

GEORGE GERSHWIN
Porgy and Bess – A Symphonic Picture; Second Rhapsody for piano and orchestra (“Rhapsody in Rivets”); Concerto in F
Cristina Ortiz
London Symphony Orchestra / André Previn

Two New Titles in “100 Best” series:

Best Violin 100

Best Chopin 100

Various Artists

Two six-CDs-for-the-price-of-one sets available January 26 from EMI Classics

EMI Classics adds two titles to its enormously popular “100 Best” series (now numbering 23 titles with a combined total sales of two million sets worldwide). Like its predecessors, each of the new titles features a plethora of superb artistry from the catalogues of EMI Classics and Virgin Classics at an unbeatable price: six CDs for the price of one!

The first contains 100 violin masterpieces, performed by some of the world’s greatest artists past and present, including Renaud Capuçon, Sarah Chang, Kyung-Wha Chung, Augustin Dumay, Christian Ferras, Leonid Kogan, Fritz Kreisler, and Gidon Kremer.

Each CD is themed by eras and genres, as follows:

CD 1: Vivaldi and the Italian Baroque

CD 2: Bach and Mozart

CD 3: Beethoven and Brahms

CD 4: The 19^th-Century Violin

CD 5: The 20^th-Century Violin

CD 6: Encores and Showpieces

The second new title, Best Chopin 100, features a glittering galaxy of keyboard stars performing the most beloved and famous works by the great Polish composer. Featured artists include exciting new performers, established stars, and legendary artists such as (in alphabetical order): Dmitri Alexeev, Leif Ove Andsnes, Martha Argerich, Claudio Arrau, Daniel Barenboim, Stanislav Bunin, Georges Cziffra, Youri Egorov, Ingrid Fliter, Samson François, Andrei Gavrilov, Nelson Goerner, Stephen Kovacevich, Dinu Lipatti, Garrick Ohlsson, Mikhail Pletnev, Maurizio Pollini, Arthur Rubinstein, Maria Tipo, and Alexis Weissenberg.

Three special ballet titles:

The Ballet Edition (ten two-CD sets)

A Festival of Ballet (50-CD boxed set in luxury packaging)

I Love Ballet (Greatest hits on two mid-price CDs)

Available January 26 from EMI Classics

Some people love the total experience of the ballet. Others just love to listen to the glorious music – romantic, dramatic, tragic, comic, charming, exhilarating – composed for the theater by supreme figures like Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Ravel; by lesser masters such as Glazunov, Delibes, and Adam; or by the “one-hit wonder” specialists, like Lovenskiold and Drigo. With this winter’s three complementary ballet strands, EMI Classics draws on its rich catalogue to present releases for the balletomane, the new ballet enthusiast, or simply the lover of enthralling music, all superbly performed.

The Ballet Edition

This new series, with a special focus on complete ballet scores, is launched with ten two-CD sets. It includes a number of landmark performances: Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Nutcracker and Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet and Cinderella from the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn – interpretations that have long set the standard in these magnificent works; Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Debussy’s Jeux from the Orchestre de Paris under Jean Martinon, a master of French style; and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Petrushka, Firebird, and Apollo – the kind of repertoire that first established Sir Simon Rattle’s international reputation – with the British maestro and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The collection also includes Delibes’ Coppélia and Sylvia, performed by Parisian forces; Adam’s Giselle and Lovenskiold’s La Sylphide; and extracts from Glazunov’s Raymonda, Minkus’s La Bayadère, and Drigo’s Le Corsaire, all in the hands of expert ballet conductors.

A Festival of Ballet

This sumptuously-packaged 50-CD set provides an epic survey of ballet music as a genre, from its origins in the Baroque era with composers such as Purcell and Rameau, through its establishment in the 18^th and 19^th centuries in France and Russia, to the great narrative works of the late-19^th and early-20^th centuries, and the works of modernism, some jazz-inspired. Many rarely-heard scores are included alongside essential repertoire.

The array of Russian music exemplifies the set’s impressive scope: beyond substantial highlights from the great Tchaikovsky ballets and other works by the composer, there is music by Glazunov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky (from Firebird of 1910 through to Agon of 1957), Prokofiev, Khachaturian, Shostakovich and a number of lesser-known figures such as Liadov and Glière. The discs devoted to French, British, German, and American repertoire also yield a plethora of scores, and there are even four CDs of dances from operas, oratorios, and plays.

Among the fascinating rarities in the set are John Antill’s Corroboree (1950), a spectacular work inspired by the Aborigines of Australia; Charles Koechlin’s tone poem Les Bandar-Log (based on Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book), which underpinned Antony Tudor’s 1967 ballet Shadowplay; and Constant Lambert’s Horoscope. Presented beside much-loved scores by Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland is songwriter Cole Porter’s only classical ballet, Within the Quota.

The recordings feature the world’s great orchestras under leading conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Muti, André Previn, Simon Rattle, Carlo Maria Giulini, Thomas Beecham, John Barbirolli, Charles Mackerras, Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner, Leonard Slatkin, Kent Nagano, and Michel Plasson, and also leading ballet specialists such as John Lanchbery, Barry Wordsworth, Terence Kern, and Robert Irving.

I Love Ballet

These two richly-filled CDs provide a perfect introduction to the joys of ballet music, with many of its greatest hits included: highlights from Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, Romeo & Juliet, Giselle, Les Sylphides, Sylvia, Cinderella, La fille mal gardée, Gayaneh (the soaring theme from the BBC TV drama The Onedin Line), and the charming Tales of Beatrix Potter; the complete “Dance of the Hours” from the opera La Gioconda (made famous by Disney’s Fantasia), the can-can overture from Gaité Parisienne, and the sparkling opening dance from Pineapple Poll (set to the music of Sir Arthur Sullivan); two numbers from Façade, and The Dying Swan, so closely identified with the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova. The impressive line-up of conductors includes Herbert von Karajan, André Previn, Sir Malcolm Sergent, and Sir Charles Mackerras.

EMI Classics and Virgin Classics: Artists on tour – Winter 2010

Jan 14

Philippe Jaroussky: Opium program

Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall (New York, NY)

Jan 15 and 16

Ingrid Fliter: Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major

St. Louis Symphony (St. Louis, MO)

Jan 16

Philippe Jaroussky: Songs from Opium program and other works

Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland Baroque Orchestra)

Mixon Hall, Cleveland Institute of Music (Cleveland, OH)

Jan 21

Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (New York, NY)

Jan 22

Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Mandel Hall, University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)

Jan 23

Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

First Congregational Church (San Francisco, CA)

Jan 24

Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Beekman Auditorium (Los Angeles, CA)

Jan 24

Diana Damrau: R. Strauss orchestral songs

MET Orchestra / James Levine

Carnegie Hall (New York, NY)

Jan 26

Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Cabell Hall, University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)

Jan 26

Capuçon-Angelich Trio

Schwab Auditorium, Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA)

Jan 27

Capuçon-Angelich Trio

Rockefeller University (New York, NY)

Jan 28

Capuçon-Angelich Trio

University of Connecticut (Storrs, CT)

Jan 29

Capuçon-Angelich Trio

Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY)

Jan 29

Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Struthers Library Theatre (Warren, PA)

Jan 30

Fabio Biondi: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

Southern Theatre (Columbus, OH)

Jan 31 and Feb 1

Capuçon-Angelich Trio

Music Room, Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, DC)

Feb 1

Fabio Biondi: recital

Carnegie’s Zankel Hall (New York, NY)

Feb 2

Capuçon-Angelich Trio

La Maison Française (Washington, DC)

Feb 5-23

Quatuor Ebène: North American tour

Appleton, WI (Feb 5); Columbia, MD (Feb 6); Toronto, ON (Feb 8); Tucson, AZ (Feb 10); Los Angeles, CA (Feb 12-14); New York, NY (Poisson Rouge, Feb 16); Burlington, VT (Feb 19); Athens, GA (Feb 21); and Washington, DC (Feb 23)

Feb 6 (six performances through Feb 22)

Diana Damrau: title role in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment

Metropolitan Opera (New York, NY)

Feb 17

Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Messiaen, Liszt, Strauss

Avery Fisher Hall (New York, NY)

Feb 19

Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Brahms, Verbey, Bartók

La Scena Musicale numéro de février 2010 - publicité

2010-01-20T13:08:00.005-05:00

[English Version]

La SCENA Hiver 2010 / La Scena Musicale Décembre 2009/Janvier 2010

La Scena Musicale novembre 2009

The Music Scene Hiver 2010

Bonjour !

Au nom de toute l’équipe d’employés et de bénévoles de La Scena Musicale, je vous souhaite une bonne et heureuse année 2010. Nous amorçons l’année avec un nouveau blogue, Vidéo de musique classique d’aujourd’hui, qui s’inscrit dans notre nouvelle stratégie de communications électroniques et qui propose chaque jour une nouvelle vidéo.

Malheureusement, l’année musicale compte déjà ses mauvaises nouvelles. Le producteur de disques Pierre Dionne (des Disques XXI), un grand ami de LSM et de la musique classique canadienne, a perdu la semaine dernière son combat contre le cancer. Voir plus bas les précisions sur les obsèques.

En février, La Scena Musicale tourne les projecteurs vers les jeunes musiciens prometteurs.

En couverture, le pianiste Wonny Song et la violoniste Alexandre da Costa, qui ont tous deux commencé leur carrière musicale au début de l’adolescence et qui sont aujourd’hui des modèles pour d’autres
Notre CD Découverte du mois est consacré à des interprétations de Wong (lesTableaux d'une exposition de Moussorgski) et da Costa (les Quatre Saisons de Vivaldi).
Nous mettons ce mois-ci l’accent sur l’enseignement de la musique au primaire, au secondaire et privé.
Ce numéro comprendra notre guide annuel des écoles ainsi que leurs calendriers, des conseils et des articles, entre autres des conversations avec de grands professeurs, des musicologues, des adultes professionnels et de jeunes musiciens.
Entrevue avec le pianiste de 14 ans Jan Lisiecki
Les lecteurs en sauront un peu plus sur la toute première tournée nord-américaine de Yannick Nézet-Séguin et de l’Orchestre philharmonique de Rotterdam qui commencera en février.
À Montréal, le festival MusiMars approche et l’Orchestre de chambre McGill célèbre un important anniversaire en 2010.
La Scena Musicale rencontre le gagnant du Prix d’Arts-Affaires Maurice Forget et la gagnante du grand prix d’Apéro à l’Opéra de l’Opéra de Montréal Annie Sanschagrin.
Aria du mois : « Vissi d'arte » de Tosca de Puccini

Tout cela et plus encore en musique classique, en jazz et en musique du monde – y compris nos indispensables critiques, concerts à venir et calendriers mensuels.

La date de tombée pour les annonces dans le numéro de février est le 25 janvier, les maquettes devant nous parvenir au plus tard le 26 janvier.

Promotion « Abonnements » de janvier – Pourquoi pas s’abonner ?
Jusqu’au 31 janvier 2010, les nouveaux abonnés obtiendront une réduction de 10 $ sur un abonnement à LSM s’ils s’abonnent en ligne. Cette économie équivaut à 4 numéros gratuits et l’abonnement comprend des privilèges comme l’accès à la Discothèque Naxos et le téléchargement gratuit de le la collection écouverte en format MP3 (10 CD). À noter : à partir de 2010, seuls les abonnés payants recevront le CD Découverte matériel.
Nous recommandons aux lecteurs à l’extérieur du Canada notre option écologique, la Carte verte La SCENA, vendue seulement 25 $/année. Voir les détails ci-dessous.

Collecte de fonds
Enfin, nous commençons l’année 2010 en lançant notre Campagne Fonds de dotation : pour chaque dollar de don, nous recevrons 1,50 $ du programme Placement Culture du gouvernement du Québec. Notre objectif est de recueillir 100 000 $ afin de créer un fonds de dotation de 250 000 $ qui maintenira l'excellence et assurera la pérennité de nos magazines. Veuillez faire un don ou vous joindre à notre comité de financement. Voir ci-dessous.

Pour nos lecteurs montréalais, nous levons aussi des fonds en vendant des billets pour la présentation de Tosca de l’Opéra de Montréal du 11 février 2010 (billets de 46 $ à 99 $).

Nos meilleurs vœux pour 2010.

Salutations amicales,

Wah Keung Chan
Éditeur et rédacteur en chef fondateur
La Scena Musicale
La SCENA
The Music Scene

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La Scena Musicale février 2010

Thème : Éducation musicale
En couverture : le pianiste Wonny Song et la violoniste Alexander da Costa
Sortie : le 29 janvier 2010
Tombée (publicité) : le 25 janvier 2010
Maquettes : le 25 janvier 2010
Tirage : 25 000 exemplaires
Québec : 2 500
Montréal : 18 500
En kiosque : 2 000
Abonnements : 2 000
Public visé : artistes amateurs et professionnels, passionnés de musique et d’art
Contact : 514-948-0509 ou sales@scena.org
Trousse Média : http://ads.scena.org/

À venir : La Scena Musicale mars 2010 et The Music Scene Printemps 2010

Thème : Camps d'été

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Funérailles pour Pierre Dionne
Date : le samedi 23 janvier 2010
Lieu : Trois-Rivières
La famille recevra les amis et collègues de Pierre au Centre Funéraire Rousseau, 445 rue des Volontaires (juste en face de la cathédrale), le samedi 23 janvier dès 10 h 00. Les funérailles suivront à 13 h 30 à la cathédrale de Trois-Rivières, 362 rue Bonaventure.
Contact : Olivier Godin, oligodin@yahoo.com

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Promotion« Abonnements » de janvier – Pourquoi pas s’abonner ?
Jusqu’au 31 janvier 2010, les nouveaux abonnés obtiendront une réduction de 10 $ sur un abonnement à LSM s’ils s’abonnent en ligne. Cette économie équivaut à 4 numéros gratuits et l’abonnement comprend des privilèges comme l’accès à la Discothèque Naxos et le téléchargement gratuit de le la collection écouverte en format MP3 (10 CD). À noter : à partir de 2010, seuls les abonnés payants recevront le CD Découverte matériel.

Nous recommandons aux lecteurs à l’extérieur du Canada notre option écologique, la Carte verte La SCENA, vendue seulement 25 $/année.

http://www.scena.org/LaSCENACard/index_fr.html

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NOUVEAU : la Carte verte La SCENA

Tout disponible en ligne

Versions électroniques de La Scena Musicale/La SCENA (10 numéros) et The Music Scene (2 numéros)
CD Découverte mensuels téléchargeables (10 / année)
39 000 CD @ Discothèque Naxos
Réductions
Seulement 25 $ (taxes incluses)
514-656-3947, sub@scena.org
http://www.scena.org/LaSCENACard/index_fr.html

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Prochaine activité-bénéfice LSM

Montréal, le jeudi 11 février 2010 à 20 h
Opéra de Montréal
Puccini : Tosca
Distribution: voir ce lien
Billets : 99 $, 71 $, 46 $
Réduction de 10 % pour les abonnés de La Scena Musicale
À noter : autres dates disponibles sur demande.

Réservations* 514-656-3947, sub@scena.org

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Lancement du Fonds de dotation LSM

Notre demande au programme de subventions de contrepartie, Placement Culture, a été officiellement approuvée. Par conséquent, le gouvernement du Québec versera 1,50 $ pour chaque dollar de don reçu par LSM. Le programme Placement Culture exige que La Scène Musicale crée un fonds de dotation. Notre objectif est de recueillir 100 000 $ au cours des douze prochains mois. Si l’on y ajoute la subvention de contrepartie du gouvernement, le montant du fonds s’élèverait à 250 000 $. L’atteinte de cet objectif est d’une extrême importance pour maintenir l'excellence et assurer la survie de nos périodiques, et c’est pourquoi nous annonçons maintenant le lancement de notre campagne 2010 de contributions au fonds de dotation. Veuillez faire un don ou vous joindre à notre comité de financement.

Info : 514-948-2520 ou info@lascena.org

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Dons et bénévoles demandés

La Scena Musicale/The Music Scene est un organisme de bienfaisance enregistré qui fait la promotion des arts et de la musique en publiant trois magazines et un site Web. Nous rapprochons les musicien(ne)s et les artistes avec la communauté artistique, les mélomanes et les amateurs d'art. Aidez-nous à poursuivre notre travail avec un don (d'argent ou de biens) ou par du travail bénévole. Communiquez avec nous au 514-948-2520 ou à info@scena.org

Donnez à CanaDon.org

N^o d'organisme de bienfaisance à l'ARC : 14199 6579 RR0001
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La Scena Musicale February 2010 Issue Details

2010-01-20T11:19:00.004-05:00

[Version française]

La SCENA Winter 2010 / La Scena Musicale December 2009/Jan. 2010 Issue

La Scena Musicale November 2009

The Music Scene Winter 2010

Hello!

On behalf of La Scena Musicale’s dedicated staff and volunteers, I want to wish you a Happy 2010. We began the New Year with a new blog Today’s Classical Music Video as part of our 2010 digital strategy, which presents a music video pick each day.

Unfortunately, the year has already its share of sad music news. Record producer Pierre Dionne (of XXI Records), a dear friend to LSM and the Canadian classical music community, lost his battle with cancer last week. See below for funeral details.

In February, La Scena Musicale shines the spotlight on the young and budding musician.

Gracing our cover are pianist Wonny Song and violinist Alexandre da Costa, who both started their musical careers as young teens and serve as role models for other young musicians.
The monthly Discovery CD (in collaboration with XXI Records) will feature a double program by both Song (Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition) and da Costa (Vivaldi's Four Seasons).
This month’s focus on primary, secondary, and private music education includes our annual guide to schools plus related calendars, tips and articles, including conversations with top music educators, musicological scientists, professional adult and young performers.
Interview with 14 year old piano prodigy Jan Lisiecki.
Readers will also learn more about Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra’s first ever North American tour which begins in February,
Montreal news such as the upcoming MusiMars Festival and the McGill Chamber Orchestra, which celebrates an important anniversary in 2010.
La Scena Musicale sits down with Prix d’Arts-Affaires winner Maurice Forget, Apéro à l’Opéra of the Opéra de Montréal winner Annie Sanschagrin and soprano Danielle de Niese.
Aria of the Month: The heart wrenching "Vissi d'arte" from Puccini's Tosca

All this and more from the worlds of Classical, Jazz, and World music – including our indispensable monthly reviews and concert previews and calendars.

The deadline for advertising in the February 2010 issue is January 25 with artwork due on January 26.

January Sale - Why not consider a subscription?
Until January 31, 2010, new subscribers will get $10 off an LSM subscription if they subscribe online. This savings is equivalent to receiving 4 free issues, and the subscription include benefits such as the Naxos Music Library and free MP3 downloads of the Discovery CD Collection (10 full CDs). Note: New for 2010, only paying subscribers will receive the physical Discovery CD.
For non-Canadian readers, we recommend the new environment-friendly La SCENA Green Card for only $25/year. See below for more details.

Fundraising
Finally, we are launching our Endowment Fund Campaign: For every dollar we raise, the Quebec government Placement Culture program will match it with $1.50. Our goal is to raise $100,000 to create a $250,000 endowment fund that will ensure the continued excellence and longevity of our magazines. Please donate or join our fundraising committee. See below. For Montreal readers, we are also raising funds by selling tickets to the Montreal Opera’s production of Tosca for February 11, 2010 (Tickets: $46 to $99).

All the best for 2010.

Yours sincerely,

Wah Keung Chan
Founding Publisher and Editor
La Scena Musicale
La SCENA
The Music Scene

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Upcoming Issues:

La Scena Musicale February 2010

On the Cover: Wonny Song and Alexander Da Costa
Theme: Music Education
Distribution: January 29
Deadline for ad reservations: January 25
Deadline for artwork: January 26
Total 25,000 copies, 50,000 readers
Montreal: 18,500
Quebec City: 2,500
Newsstands: 2,000
Mailing: 2,000
Target Readership: professional and amateur artists, music and art lovers
Contact : 514-948-0509 or sales@scena.org
Media Kit: http://ads.scena.org/

Upcoming: La Scena Musicale March 2010 Issue

Theme: Summer Camps

The Music Scene: Spring 2010

50,000 readers
Theme: Summer Camps

English Canada

circulation: 25,000 copies

Toronto : 15,000
Ottawa : 5000
English Canada (Schools): 3,000
Mailing: 2,000

Distribution date: March 15
Advertising deadline: March 5
Materials deadline: March 8

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Funeral for Pierre Dionne
Date: Saturday, January 23, 2010
Place: Trois-Rivières
The family will receive friends and colleagues of Peter Rousseau Funeral Center, 445 rue des Volontaires (just opposite the Cathedral), Saturday, January 23 at 10:00. The funeral will follow at 13:30 at the Cathedral of Trois-Rivieres, 362 rue Bonaventure.
Contact: Olivier Godin, oligodin@yahoo.com

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JANUARY Subscription Sale
January Subscription Sale - Why not consider a subscription?
Until January 31, 2010, new subscribers will get $10 off an LSM subscription if they subscribe online. This savings is equivalent to receiving 4 free issues, and the subscription include benefits such as the Naxos Music Library (39,000 CDs streaming) and free MP3 downloads of the Discovery CD Collection (10 full CDs). Note: New for 2010, only paying subscribers will receive the physical Discovery CD.
http://www.scena.org/LaSCENACard/index_en.html

Already receive the magazine? We recommend the new environment-friendly La SCENA Green Card for only $25/year. Also ideal for non-Canadian readers.

NEW: The La SCENA Green Card

All available online

Electronic versions of La Scena Musicale/La SCENA (10 issues) et The Music Scene (2 issues)
Downloadable monthly Discovery CDs (10 / yr)
39,000 CDs @ Naxos Music Library
Only 25 $ (taxes included)
514-656-3947, sub@scena.org
http://www.scena.org/LaSCENACard/index_en.html

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Next LSM Benefit Activity

Montréal, Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Opéra de Montréal
Tosca by Puccini
Tickets: $99, $71, $46
10% discount for La Scena Musicale subscribers / La SCENA Card members
Note: other dates available upon request.

Reservations
* 514-656-3947, sub@scena.org

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NEW Endowment Fund:
Our application for the matching program, Placement Culture, has formally been accepted: for every dollar donated to LSM/TMS, the Québec government will contribute one dollar and fifty cents. Placement Culture is designed to create endowment funds for charitable arts groups like La Scene Musicale/The Music Scene. Our goal is to raise $100,000 until November 30, 2010, which combined with the government contribution, will create a $250,000 endowment. This will help us continue our magazines's excellence and innovation for years to come. We are therefore launching at this time our 2010 endowment fund campaign. Please join our fundraising committee or make a donation.

Please contact 514-948-2520 or info@lascena.org
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Donations Requested:

La Scena Musicale/The Music Scene is a registered charity promoting music and the arts through three magazines and a website. We connect musicians/artists, the arts community and music/art lovers together through education and information. Help us continue our work with a donation (cash or goods) or by volunteering.

Please contact 514-948-2520 or info@scena.org

Donate at CanadaHelps.org or through Paypal

Charitable tax no. 14199 6579 RR0001

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Ross Reynolds, former Universal Music Canada President/Chairman, honoured with 2010 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award

2010-01-19T23:45:00.000-05:00

Founding Director of CARAS to receive the prestigious award at
the 39^th Annual JUNO Awards in St. John's, NL

St. John's, NL (January 13, 2010) - The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) is very pleased to be honouring one of its own today as it announces Ross Reynolds as the 2010 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award recipient. For more than four decades, Reynolds has been a major player in the music industry, notably as a founding board member of CARAS and long-time Universal Music Canada President and Chairman.

"On behalf of the CARAS board, we are so proud to see our friend and colleague honoured in this capacity and recognized for his tremendous contributions to the Canadian music industry," said Melanie Berry, President & CEO of CARAS. "Not only has he been instrumental in helping to steer CARAS to where it is today, Ross Reynolds has wholeheartedly dedicated his career toward fostering Canadian talent on a variety of levels."

"Receiving this award is the result of me having the extraordinary good fortune of timing and being supported by wonderful people, particularly my wife, Jane," said Ross Reynolds. "Nevertheless I'm thrilled to be honoured. It's an exciting ride."

Reynolds is a respected music industry veteran who once held the position of President at GRT Records for 10 years (from the label's inception in 1969), where he signed such Canadian artists as Dan Hill, Dr. Music, Ian Thomas, Lighthouse and Moe Koffman. His resume also includes five years as Executive VP in Canada for WEA (now Warner Music Canada).

He is perhaps best known for his long and outstanding tenure as President then Chairman of Universal Music Canada (formerly MCA) for nearly two decades from 1983 to 2001, during which he oversaw the development of a Canadian roster that included soon-to-be global stars such as The Tragically Hip. Under his leadership, Universal Music Canada experienced exponential growth to achieve a market share of approximately one-third. Today it is still considered one of Canada's most influential music companies. In 2001, Reynolds moved to the position of Chairman Emeritus where he was responsible for administering Universal's multi-million dollar commitment to the support of Canadian culture, which came as a result of the Universal/Polygram merger.

Reynolds' involvement with CARAS dates back to 1975, initially as one of the organization's founding directors. Years later in 2001, he was elected by his peers to the full-time position of Chairman, and immediately made an impact by expanding the focus of the JUNO Awards and setting out to create a brand that Canadians from coast to coast could be proud of. He was instrumental in taking Canada's Music Awards show "on the road" for the first time to St. John's, NL, in addition to growing the singular celebration into a full weekend of events that showcases the successes of Canadian music. In 2006, Stephen Stohn succeeded Reynolds as Chairman of CARAS.

His experience and expertise in the music industry has him currently acting as an advisory board member for the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame; MusiCounts, Canada's music education charity associated with CARAS; in addition to serving on the board of St. Lazarus Hospice. Reynolds is also a past Chairman of the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) and has served on the boards of the Starlight Children's Foundation, Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall, The Audio Visual Preservation Trust Fund, and Canada's Walk of Fame.

For more information about the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award, or to download photos of Ross Reynolds, go to www.junoawards.ca.

JUNO Week takes place April 12-18, 2010, in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, culminating in the live broadcast of THE 2010 JUNO AWARDS, Sunday, April 18, on CTV.

Sponsors of the 2010 JUNO Awards include FACTOR, Canada's Private Radio Broadcasters and the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage's "Canada Music Fund," with commitments from The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the City of St. John's and Radio Starmaker Fund.

Sponsors of THE 2010 JUNO AWARDS broadcast on CTV include Chevrolet, Garnier, Pepsi and Rogers.

Web Links:
Official JUNO Awards website: www.junoawards.ca
CTV's JUNO Awards website: www.junos.ctv.ca
St. John's Host Committee: www.ruckusontheedge.com
CARAS website: www.carasonline.ca
CTV website: www.ctv.ca