Violin Magic with Schubert and Sarasate

Violin Magic with Schubert and Sarasate

Sinfonia Toronto will present a Masterpiece Series concert on Friday, November 14 at 8 pm in the Grace Church on-the-Hill (300 Lonsdale Road). Music Director, Nurhan Arman will conduct.

The concert titled 'Violin Magic' will feature the orchestra's concertmaster Violinist Mary-Elizabeth Brown in Schubert's playful Rondo and Sarasate's virtuoso showpiece 'Gypsy Airs'.

In addition to her position as concertmaster of Sinfonia Toronto, Mary-Elizabeth is currently Associate Concertmaster of Orchestra London Canada as well as Concertmaster of the Youth Orchestra of the Americas and of the Britten-Pears orchestra in Aldeburgh, England. She has played under distinguished conductors such as Kryszstof Penderecki, Lorin Maazel, Benjamin Zander, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Isaac Karabtchevsky and Placido Domingo.

She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants from the University of Toronto, the City of London, DePaul University, the Hazel Crydermann-Wees Foundation, the Université de Montréal, Fonds des Amis de l'Art and the American Suzuki Foundation. She has soloed in masterclasses with Regis Pasqier, Pierre Amoyal, Sylvia Rosenberg, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Pamela Frank, Pinchas Zukerman and the late Lorand Fenyves, among others. She has appeared with the London Youth Symphony, Orchestra London Canada and the Banff Festival Chamber Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, she has been heard on CBC Radio and at major festivals across Canada including the Scotia Festival, Le Festival Internationale du Domaine Forget and the Banff Summer Arts Festival. She has worked with members of the St. Lawrence, Orford, Artur Leblanc and Brentano Quartets as well as the Gryphon Trio, William Aide and Laurence Lesser. A two-time laureate of the Canadian Music Competition National Finals, she plays on a 1737 Guidantus violin and an F.N. Voirin bow on loan from the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Other works on the program are Janacek's brilliant Suite and Dvorak's romantic Serenade.

There will be a free post-concert reception, giving audience members a chance to meet the orchestra members, conductor and soloists.

Online discount tickets are $35 adult, $27 senior, $7 student (16-29) and can be purchased at www.sinfoniatoronto.com or at regular price by phone 905-825-8477 or at the door.

Bernard Labadie Conducts the Classic Landmark Masters featuring Soprano Allyson McHardy- May 3 (8PM) & 4 (2PM)

Edmonton, AB … A weekend of classical elegance and melody awaits, as Bernard Labadie makes a welcome return on the ESO podium. Hailed for his "full-bodied" and "strongly dramatic" interpretations that manage "to preserve a sense of transparency" (Toronto Star), Bernard Labadie has established himself as one of the leading conductors of the Baroque and Classical repertoire.

He leads the ESO in two great symphonies, Schubert's Fifth and Haydn's "Military," as well as some treasured Mozart vocal works, sung by rising Canadian mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy, who has been called "a singer of enormous imagination and versatility," by the San Francisco Chronicle. The performance also includes concert and opera arias and features Edmonton pianist Michael Massey for Mozart's Ch'io mi scorid di te?... Non temer, amato bene.

Ticket prices for this performance range from $36 to $53 (agency fees apply). Tickets are available through the Winspear Centre Box Office. Saturday evening's 7:15pm Symphony Prelude features Edmonton Mezzo-Soprano Michelle Milenkovic.

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The next performance of The Masters takes place on May 23^rd and 24^th with Conductor David Atherton and Pianist Anton Kuerti.

Saturday, May 3^rd is generously sponsored by Classic Landmarks Master Builder

Media Sponsors: CKUA Radio Network and the Edmonton Journal

Hotel Sponsor: The Westin Hotel Edmonton

Winspear Centre Box Office:

(780)428-1414 or 1-800-563-5081

www.edmontonsymphony.com

#4 Winston Churchill Square

Biographies

Bernard Labadie completed most of his musical training in his native Québec City at the School of Music of Laval University as well as the conservatories of Quebec and Montreal.

Much of Labadie's unique reputation is the result of his work with Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec, which he founded in 1984 and 1985, respectively, and continues to lead as music director to this day. With the two ensembles he regularly tours Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Passionate about opera, Bernard Labadie was Artistic Director of L'Opéra de Montréal through the end of the 2005/06 season. Between 1994 and 2003, Labadie was also Artistic and Music Director of L'Opéra de Québec. He embraces the entire Baroque, Classical and Romantic opera repertoire.

Equally at home on the concert stage, Labadie has become a sought-after guest conductor with the major orchestras. Ever since his triumphant debut with the Minnesota Orchestra in 1999, he has conducted the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, as well as symphonies including the symphonies of San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle, Toronto, and Vancouver. 2007-08 is another season full of noteworthy appearances with such top orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, and the Houston Symphony. His extensive discography includes many recordings on the Dorian label. Other recordings feature his own arrangements of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations and The Art of Fugue, among others. He also appears regularly on radio and television broadcasts on the CBC/Radio-Canada network.

For his achievements, the Canadian government honored him with the appointment as "Officer of the Order of Canada" in 2005 and Quebec made him a "Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Québec" in 2006.

Striking mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy made her debut with New York City Opera as Marquise Melibea in Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims. Recent concert engagements have included Messiah for the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Elijah in Montréal, Les nuits d'été in Bielefeld, Germany and Alexander Nevsky for Orchestra London. Ms. McHardy will appear with the Toronto Symphony in Messiah. In Toulouse, she appears as Phèdre in a rare staging of Hippolyte et Aricie. Minnesota Opera patrons hear her in May of 2009 as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and she returns to Vancouver Opera for a reprise of Olga in Eugene Onegin.

Born in Oshawa, Ontario, she studied voice at Wilfrid Laurier University, earning an Honours Bachelor of Music Degree in Performance and an Opera Diploma. She is an alumna of the Merola Programme at the San Francisco Opera the Ensemble Studio of the Canadian Opera Company. This is Ms. McHardy's official debut with the ESO, however she has sung several roles for Edmonton Opera, with the ESO performing, most recently as Mallika in Lakmé in October 2004.

Michael Massey was born in England and emigrated to Canada in 1957. Studies at the University of Alberta earned him a Bachelor of Music degree and the gold medal in piano performance of the Western Board of Music. Following his graduation he spent two years studying at the Geneva Conservatory where he was unanimously awarded the "Premier Prix de Virtuosité." Mr. Massey has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Canada, England and Scotland. He has been the orchestral pianist with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra for over 25 years. Since 1977, he has been Music Director of the Edmonton Youth Orchestra program. In 1988 and 1996 Mr. Massey wrote and published The Canadian Repertoire Manual, a source book and analysis of Canadian music suitable for youth orchestras. In 2002, for his contribution to the cultural life of the city, Mr. Massey was inducted into the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame as an Artist–Builder and also received the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal.

[CD] Winterreise sur ATMA disponible en magasin dès le 8 janvier

SCHUBERT: WINTERREISE

Pour diffusion immédiate: 8 janvier 2008

NOUVEAUTÉ - JANVIER 2008

ATMA entame la nouvelle année avec le lancement du célèbre Winterreise - Voyage d'hiver - de Franz Schubert dans une version de chambre inédite qui fera les délices des mélomanes. Composé à l'origine pour piano et voix, Winterreise se déploie ici dans un arrangement de Normand Forget pour voix, accordéon et quintette à vent. L'enregistrement met en vedette Christoph Prégardien, internationalement reconnu comme l'un des meilleurs ténors de notre époque, l'accordéoniste virtuose Joseph Pétric et bien sûr, l'ensemble montréalais Pentaèdre. « Avec seulement trois flûtes et trois clarinettes [...] un cor, un basson, le seul hautbois d'amour pour sa propre participation et un mélancolique accordéon comme élément unificateur, Forget a retrouvé l'intimité de Winterreise. [...] Le ténor allemand Christoph Prégardien [...] amena les musiciens qui l'entouraient et les 300 personnes qui les écoutaient à vivre ce tragique Voyage d'hiver aussi intensément que l'antihéros de Müller et Schubert. » (Claude Gingras, La Presse, critique du concert inaugural de la saison 2007-2008 de Pentaèdre) Cycle de 24 poèmes écrits par Wilhelm Müller, Winterreise inspire à Franz Schubert des lieder sombres et magnifiques qui constituent un chef-d'oeuvre du genre. Winterreise exprime la détresse d'un homme brisé à la suite d'une rupture amoureuse. Voyageur errant sans but et sans espoir, ses pas s'enfoncent dans la neige et ses larmes, brûlantes, gèlent son visage. À travers ces lieder, c'est sa propre souffrance que Schubert confie. Plusieurs compositeurs, fascinés par les couleurs du piano de Schubert, ont orchestré quelques-uns de ces lieder. En 2005, Normand Forget en réalise une toute première version de chambre, dont la création en concert fut assurée par le ténor Rufus Müller. Fondé en 1985, Pentaèdre se consacre à la redécouverte d'un répertoire de musique de chambre varié, original et souvent moins connu. L'ensemble collabore avec des artistes de renom, entre autres, Russell Braun, Karina Gauvin et Naida Cole. Il s'associe à l'occasion à des ensembles comme le Quatuor Arthur-Leblanc et le Penderecki String Quartet. Winterreise sera disponible à compter du 8 janvier 2008. Pour plus de détails: www.atmaclassique.com Contact média : Communications Lise Raymond 450 640-0500 Contact ATMA : Michel Ferland | 514 731-4297