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Kerson Leong. Photo: Marco Borggreve

Newswire | Ladies’ Morning Musical Club Announces Its 2023-2024 Season

By Newswire on 29 May 2023 Montreal, Newswire

Montreal, May 29 2023 – The Ladies’ Morning Musical Club is pleased to announce the 2023-2024 season. Dates of the 132nd season September 10, 2023 Kerson Leong, violin October 1, 2023 Jerusalem Quartet, strings October 22, 2023 Rémi Geniet, piano November 12, 2023 Danish String Quartet December 3, 2023 Hermitage Piano Trio, piano and strings February 14, 2024 Javier Perianes, piano February 25, 2024 Escher String Quartet with Roman Rabinovitch, piano March 17, 2024 Pavel Haas Quartet, strings April 7, 2024 Stewart Goodyear, piano April 28, 2024 Doric String Quartet Concerts will be…

Photo: Raoul Manuel Schnell

Quatuor Despax: All in the family

By Justin Bernard on 29 May 2023 Chamber Music, Interviews, Ottawa, Strings

The kinship that unites the members of the Quatuor Despax has stood the test of time—20 years, to be exact. Dedicating itself to a wide range of musical genres over the years, the group has kept its momentum going by maintaining its ties to kin, friends and music lovers alike. For those who may not know them, they are brothers and sisters (two of each) who play the required instruments for a standard string quartet comprised of two violins, a viola and a cello. A recent meeting with them for a conversation left no doubts about the family…

Mary-Jane Puiu (1950 – 2023)

By Wah Keung Chan on 27 May 2023 Choral, Education, Montreal, Obituaries

My first choral conductor Mary-Jane Puiu (b. March 8, 1950) passed away on May 16, 2023 at the age of 73. According to tenor Eduardo Aparicio, “despite battling a long devastating disease, she heroically managed to keep conducting her choir till the last minute of her life.” We pay tribute to Puiu by republishing a profile/interview I conducted of her in La Scena Musicale in 2010 for her 60th birthday. According to the McGill Choral Society’s Facebook page, here are the details of the service on June 12, 2023: An Orthodox service for close friends and family will be held…

Photo: Jag Gundu

Review | Toronto Symphony Orchestra: Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky Masterworks Elevated by Star Power

By Denise Lai on 26 May 2023 Classical Music, Orchestral, Toronto, Violin

How do you top a musical program of a world premiere paired with two classical warhorses? You add a star soloist from violin royalty. This week’s program is true to music director Gustavo Gimeno’s vision for the TSO’s centennial to introduce new commissions along with the familiar. The TSO commission and world premiere entitled “Hwa (Flowering)” is a new work from its own Affiliate Composer, the young Alison Yun-Fei Jiang. Jiang wrote this piece as a tribute to her grandmother and all the women who shaped her life. She describes the piece as a musical painting, an orchestral canvas on…

Fire at Chapelle du Bon Pasteur

By Eva Stone-Barney on 26 May 2023 La Scena Online, Montreal

Montreal mourns devastation at the Monastère du Bon Pasteur this morning. Over 150 firefighters were called to control a five-alarm fire yesterday evening, around 4:30pm. While no one has been seriously injured, 27 people have been displaced, with one man (age 80) sent to hospital. Predominantly located on the roof, the fire has created so much smoke that Environment Canada has issued a special air quality statement for the Montreal region. While the extent of the damage remains unclear, the fire department currently believes that the building will not be completely lost. Built in 1846, the historic building is both…

John Rutter (Photo provided)

Music and Beyond: The Big Comeback!

By Charles Geyer on 26 May 2023 Classical, Contemporary, Indigenous, Ottawa

It’s back! And it promises to be as big and bold as ever. It’s Music and Beyond, Ottawa’s summer music and arts festival which—every July since its inception in 2010—has blossomed across the capital in a gloriously scatter-cast profusion of musical sounds, styles and intriguing interdisciplinary programming. “The public is ready to return,” says Julian Armour, the festival’s plucky and indefatigable founder and artistic and executive director. “We’re doing a big festival! We’re going to do about 64 different major concerts.” It’s a bracing and welcome assertion of renewal, after the scaled-back famine years of global pandemic. Rock and a…

Concert de plein air au festival de Lanaudière en 2022 (Photo fournie)

Lanaudière Festival 2023

By Eva Stone-Barney on 26 May 2023 Classical, Montreal

Canadian classical music will make a home for itself in Joliette, Que., from July 7 to Aug. 6. The festival will include 14 concerts at the beautiful Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay, and a variety of other performances at the town’s churches, outdoor cultural venues and agritourism sites. The OSM and Rafael Payare will open the festival with a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (July 7), and will return the following night to pay homage to the 150th anniversary of Rachmaninoff’s birth (July 8). William Christie and Les Arts Florissants will present Handel’s Partenope (July 15). Canadian superstar conductor Yannick Nézet-Séquin and the…

Pablo Ziegler and Masae Shiwa (Credit: São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra)

Pablo Ziegler: Music and Beyond Welcomes Back the Piazzolla Pianist

By Zenith Wolfe on 26 May 2023 Contemporary, Ottawa, World Music

This summer, composer and Piazzolla quintet pianist Pablo Ziegler is bringing experimental Argentine tango to Ottawa. On July 4, Ziegler will host the Opening Gala: Homage to Piazzolla concert for his third Music and Beyond season. It’s his first time as the festival’s gala performer, and his first time back since the start of the pandemic. But he’s kept busy with international performances in the meantime. During lockdowns, Ziegler and his wife Masae Shiwa started experimenting as a piano duo before visiting Japan, Brazil, and Argentina for duet concerts, with New York lined up later this year. Their concert at…

Jazz Festivals 2023: Behind the Scenes

By Marc Chénard on 26 May 2023 Montreal, Scena Jazz, Toronto

New Man in Charge at Markham In the wake of its 25th edition last summer, the Markham Jazz Festival announced the appointment of Ernesto Cervini as its new artistic director. No stranger to this event for having played there previously as a bandleader and sideman, the native Torontonian is also blessed with good business acumen, managing his artistic career and record label while promoting new releases of Canadian groups via his public relations company Orange Grove Publicity. In a recent talk, Cervini recalled his Markham debut in 2003, fresh out of school and in an upstart band that snatched top…

Summer 2023 Canadian Festival Guide

By La Scena Musicale Team on 26 May 2023 Classical Music, Guides, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver

Newfoundland Camber Arts Woody Point, Corner Brook, May 1 to September 30 www.camberarts.ca Nickel Independent Film Festival St. John’s, June 12 to 18 www.nickelfestival.com Canada’s Big Birthday Bash St. John’s, June 30 to July 1 www.georgestreetlive.ca Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival St. John’s, July 7 to 9 www.nlfolk.com Shakespeare by the Sea Festival St. John’s, July 7 to August 20 www.shakespearebytheseafestival.com Salmon Festival Grand Falls-Windsor, July 13 to 17 www.evsalmonfestival.com Stephenville Theatre Festival Stephenville, July 14 to August 13 www.stephenvilletheatrefestival.com Annual Southern Shore Shamrock Festival Ferryland, July 22 to 23 www.ssfac.com George Street Festival St. John’s, July 27 to August…

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