Home     Content     Articles      La Scena Musicale     Search   

La Scena Musicale - Vol. 17, No. 3 November 2011

Notes

November 1, 2011

Version française...


Flash version here.

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...

(c) La Scena Musicale