MONDAY
- Euphonia at Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St W.
Simon Capet and his lively band of concert pioneers continue their residency on the dancefloor at Lula Lounge with a very nice programme of baroque and classical works played on modern instruments.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
You can eat and drink while the music plays — but tables tend to go fast. You’ll find all the details here. Admission is only $10.
TUESDAY
- Soprano Simone Osborne with pianist Anne Larlee at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, noon. Free.
Osborne, fresh from the Canadian Opera Company’s La Bohème, presents a gorgeous recital programme in honour of Maureen Forrester. The centrepiece is Robert Schumann’s cycle Frauenliebe und Leben, as well as some particularly tasty favourites by Reynaldo Hahn and Richard Strauss. The programme includes the premiere of two new songs by Toronto’s Brian Current, based on poems by bp nichol and Christian Bök. Details here.
WEDNESDAY
- JunctQín Keyboard Collective at Chalmers House (20 St Joseph St), 5:30 p.m.
A collaboration between Niagara’s 13th Street Winery and the Canadian Music Centre has resulted in a great ongoing series of late-afternoon concerts on the 13th of every month. This one, featuring pianists Stephanie Chua, Joseph Ferretti and Elaine Lau, comes with a wicked sense of humour, starting with The Little Mermaid from Disney Princess Disasters by Aaron Gervais and ending with Chess Suite for two toy pianos by Monica Pearce. Check out the details here. Advance tickets are but $15 — and include a glass of fine wine.
Want a sample? Here is Pearce’s Chess Suite:
- Soundstreams reimagines flamenco at Jeanne Lamon Hall (Trinity-St Paul’s Centre), 8 p.m.
This is flamenco as seen through the filtre of art music, presented by a stage full of excellent performers, and presented by the ever-inventive folk at Soundstreams. There will be live streaming online (as well as on-demand viewing afterward) for those who can’t make it to Trinity-St Paul’s. Details here.
You can read an interview with one of the concert’s key performers, pianist Serouj Kradjian, here.
THURSDAY
- University of Toronto Opera Division students at Walter Hall, 12:10 p.m. Free.
This is a highlights preview of the music faculty’s upcoming production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
- Pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico at Tribute Communities Hall, York University, 7:30 p.m.
This indefatigable pianist presents live solo highlights from works by two Torontonians she has released on disc in recent years: the late Ann Southam, and the up-and-coming Constantine Caravassilis. This is part of York University’s faculty recital series, presented in the intimate recital hall at the Accolade fine arts building. Details here. Tickets are only $15 — $5 for students and seniors.
FRIDAY
- The Group of 27 orchestra at Jeanne Lamon Hall (Trinity-St Paul’s Centre), 8 p.m.
There are a lot of disparate elements being assembled for this concert, including a narrative (Adam Grow from Cash Cab), dance (Zata Omm’s William Yong) and visual art (by Paula Arciniega). Who knows how this is going to work. But at least we can be assured that this small orchestra, a Toronto all-star assembly led by conductor Eric Paetkau, is going to play well. It’s a attractive, eclectic programme featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2, Eric Honegger’s 1920 symphonic poem Pastorale d’été and Gerald Finzi’s forgotten mid-1950s cycle of miniatures, Love’s Labour’s Lost, which showcases individual instruments in the orchestra. Concert details here.
SATURDAY
Two very different ways of celebrating Benjamin Britten:
- Aradia Ensemble at the Music Gallery, 8 p.m.
Kevin Mallon and his elusive Aradia Ensemble present Britten’s Simple Symphony, some song settings, an arrangement of a chaconne by Henry Purcell and a tribute to Britten by Arvo Pärt in a concert featuring soprano Johane Ansell — as well as the young string players of the Kingsway Conservatory. Details here.
- Pianist Adam Sherkin at the Jane Mallett Theatre, 8 p.m.
I think this recital — the first in Adam Sherkin’s solo series at the St Lawrence Centre — should be called It Takes a Pianist-Composer to Know a Pianist-Composer. It’s an attractive century programme that interweaves Sherkin’s own compositions with Britten’s Holiday Diary, Aaron Coplan’s fierce wartime Piano Sonata and Colin McPhee’s Four Balinese Transcriptions, arranged by Sherkin for two-handed playing. You’ll find the details here.
Sherkin has written an interesting account of how Britten and McPhee’s paths crossed in 1941 here.
SUNDAY
- Trio Arkel at the Church of the Holy Trinity (Eaton Centre), 7 p.m.
Three of Toronto’s orchestral star string players — Canadian Opera Company Orchestra concertmaster Marie Bérard, Toronto Symphony Orchestra principal viola Teng Li and associate principal cello Winona Zelenka — have decided to present three concerts this seasons as Trio Arkel. This first features musical treats by Gabriel Fauré, Jean Françaix and Gerald Finzi. Tickets are $20 — 410 for students and seniors. (Not many more) details here.
- Esprit Orchestra at Koerner Hall, 8 p.m.
In a week of echoing concert programmes, Toronto’s new music orchestra and conductor Alex Pauk focuses on gamelan and related inspirations in a concert that also includes the Everygreen Club Contemporary Gamelan ensemble. Details here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
