Notes
November 1, 2011
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NEWS
COC RADIO: NEW
ONLINE RESOURCE
The Canadian Opera Company has launched COC Radio, a variety of
audio and digital features available for downloading and live streaming
from www.coc.ca. Through this online resource, visitors can listen
to recordings of productions, enjoy interviews with singers and members
of a production’s creative team, listen to podcasts of COC-hosted
talks, from pre-performance opera chats to Opera 101, access listening
guides on opera, and watch specially-created production videos. COC
will also include playlist recommendations. LJA
NAXOS RECORDS
DISTRIBUTES CANADIAN COMPOSERS WORLDWIDE
Canadian
composers are about to gain a new global platform. Naxos Records is
launching Canadian Classics, a series of recordings of Canadian
repertoire from 1800 to the present, kicking off with an album of works
by Vancouver’s Jeffrey Ryan. The series came at the suggestion of
Vancouver City Opera artistic director Charles Barber, who proposed
the project in 2007 and created the label’s popular American Classics
series in 1997. “Canadian Classics will start by releasing between
six and eight CDs a year,” said Barber. LJA
IN MEMORIAM: MARYVONNE
KENDERGI
On September
27, the Montreal music community learned with sadness of the passing
of Maryvonne Kendergi at the age of 96. Considered one of the grand
dames of contemporary music, she was a professor at the University of
Montreal’s Faculty of Music for 15 years. In 1969 she created a series
of public interviews with contemporary composers called “Musicalogues.”
She also worked for Radio-Canada, where she presented over 200 interviews
with composers she met while traveling the European festivals as part
of her series, “European Festivals”, from 1957 to 1963. “Her innumerable
interviews allowed Quebecois audiences the opportunity to discover many
cultural riches from Quebec and from abroad,” said Marie-Thérèse
Lefebvre, professor emeritus at the Faculty of Music at the University
of Montreal. CR
EVENTS
HISTORY OF RCA-VICTOR
“The RCA
Victor Years” is the current exhibition at the Emile Berliner Museum
in Montreal, running until December 18. The exhibit chronicles the history
and technical and artistic influence of the famous company located in
Montreal in the heart of the Saint-Henri district. It recalls, through
its themes, the great periods of the company: the birth of RCA-Victor;
the story of its employees, the daily life in the plant “the old smokestack’’,
the evolution of recording techniques, and the RCA artists. The visitor
makes a journey through time surrounded by artefacts: radios, record
players, television sets. The Emile Berliner Museum, which is devoted
to sound technology, is a tribute to Emile Berliner, inventor of the
record and the gramophone, and displays all kinds of objects related
to the history and development of sound creation, production, reproduction,
recording and broadcasting. www.berliner.montreal.museum LJA
WEBER TURNS 325
On November
18, we’ll be celebrating the 325th birthday of romantic
composer Carl Maria von Weber. The Orchestre Symphonique de l’Isle
will play the overture from the opera Der Freischütz, one of
the German composer’s best-known works. The concert will take place
November 26, 2011 at the Oscar Peterson concert hall in Montreal. For
more information, visit www.osimontreal.ca PM
CONGRATULATIONS
SAINT-EUSTACHE
OPERA FESTIVAL WINS CYBÈLE
The FestivalOpéra
de Saint-Eustache recently brought home the 2011 Cybèle award for a
cultural event with regional significance. The city of Saint-Eustache
wishes to emphasize the excellent planning and hard work of the festival’s
organizers. Created in 2010 by soprano Leila Chalfoun and husband Meti
Jori, this summer festival is the first of its kind dedicated to opera
in Quebec. PM
GRAMOPHONE AWARDS
2011
The 2011
Gramophone Awards, the world’s most influential classical music prizes,
have been announced in London, with major accolades going to the Pavel
Haas Quartet, which won both the Recording of the Year and the Chamber
Music Award for its performances of Dvořák string quartets, Dame
Janet Baker, the Lifetime Achievement Award and Venezuelan conductor
Gustavo Dudamel, the Artist of the Year Award. Sir John Eliot Gardiner
received the Special Achievement Award for his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage
project, Miloš Karadaglić received two Awards, Young
Artist of the Year, and the Specialist Classical Chart Award, in recognition
of the sales of his debut disc ‘The Guitar’ and Italian-British
conductor Antonio Pappano was part of three prize-winning recordings:
Editor’s Choice, Recital and DVD Performance. LJA
SLY WINS JEUNE
SOLISTE
Ottawa bass-baritone
Philippe Sly recently brought home the prix Jeune soliste 2012, awarded
by the Radios francophones publiques in Brussells. The depth and beauty
of his voice charmed the jury, composed of the directors of various
music stations including Radio-France and Radio-Canada. The prize promises
a bright operatic future for the young singer, who can be heard this
year in J. S. Bach’s The Passion of St. John with the Orchestre
Symphonique de Montreal. PM
LANE TAKES HOME
CIOC 1ST PRIZE
The Canadian
International Organ Competition Results are as follows: 1st
Prize: American Christian Lane, assistant university organist at Harvard;
2nd Prize: German Jens Korndörfer, doctoral student at McGill,
plus the Liszt Prize; 3rd Prize: Shared by German Balthasar
Baumgartner and Frenchman (currently Montreal resident) Jean-Willy Kunz.
Kunz also won the Richard Bradshaw audience prize; Bach prize: Russian
Yulia Yufereva; Alain prize: German Andreas Jud; Royal Canadian College
of Organists prize: American Jared Ostermann Version française... |
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