Editorial

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Welcome to our 14th annual national issue dedicated to higher education. This year, including both our English and French editions, 17 schools are included, the highest participation in five years, showing that La Scena Musicale continues to be the national magazine for musicians and music students. The issue is chock-full of education news and profiles.

As we have done in our September and October issues, we continue our celebration of music creativity with young composer Michael Vincent’s cover profile of Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer who recently celebrated his 80th birthday. Art Director Adam Norris’s cover illustration adds some colour. We present Suzie LeBlanc’s Elizabeth Bishop Project, a seven-year journey to set ten of Bishop’s poems to song, and visit with young composer Eric Champagne as he premieres a new work inspired by Calvin and Hobbs.

Giuseppe Verdi, whose bicentenary took place October 10, is known for great melody and arias, so why do musicologists consider Falstaff his crowning opera? I asked Joseph So to explain. Operatic performance is enjoying a Canadian grass-root resurgence, as eight Canadian startups are reaching out to new audience.

This fall, the Chapelle du Bon-Pasteur celebrates 25 years of being Montreal’s public access to classical music, and we profile the cultural centre and its founding director Guy Soucie. The celebration’s high point is a benefit concert on December 1, uniting Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Karina Gauvin. It’s only the second time Yannick and Marie-Nicole have performed in solo recital; the first time was 12 years ago at La Scena’s Fifth-Anniversary Gala (People’s Choice), when both were just beginning their careers. I can clearly remember Marie-Nicole’s moving opening the concert with Duparc’s L’Invitation au voyage on that day following 9/11.

Don’t forget to check out LSM’s other regular features, including our extensive concert listings (also searchable online at SCENA.org), concert picks, news in the classical music and fine arts world, and our jazz section.

La Scena Musicale is brought to you by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers driven by our charitable mission to promote music and the arts. This month, our Endowment Fund campaign draws to a close towards our goal of raising $80,000. Each dollar is matched with an additional two dollars from Placements Culture. This is our only source of government operating funding, so please join our LSM Ambassadors, the growing number prominent musicians and artists who have already donated.

Or participate in our first Online Auction: items include signed batons from Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Charles Dutoit and Fabien Gabel, concert tickets and paintings. Interested in attending Opera de Montreal performances? We also have tickets for sale. Visit www.lascena.ca.

Finally, in November, La Scena Musicale will be vying for an Aviva Community Fund grant for The Next Great Art Song, our novel contest to discover the next great art song. Please go online and vote for us.

Have a great musical November.