Looking over the recently announced RCM 2015-16 season is enough to make you run for your wallet to start booking tickets sooner rather than later. Case in point, the RCM Season Gala with Meryl Streep and Takács Quartet on October 17 has been sold out for weeks.
In an interview with RCM Executive Director Mervon Mehta, he explained “We have arguably one of the great actresses of our time, arguably the great string quartet of our time, and arguably one of the great novelists of our time, Philip Roth, and if I might, arguably one of the great halls of the world. So if you put that all together, it’s no surprise that it sold out very quickly.”
The season includes over 85 concerts that span classical, jazz, world, popular and contemporary music. Mehta said he tried to “keep to our core mission of bringing the best musicians to Toronto regardless of genre […] Whether is a jazz concert or a piano recital, that’s always been our guiding principle.”
Upcoming season highlights are many, and include bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, The Tallis Scholars, organist Cameron Carpenter, pianist Jan Lisiecki, violinist Vilde Frang, Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club, Los Lobos, Youssou N’Dour, as well as a number of birthday celebrations including Frank Sinatra, Yehudi Menuhin, Edith Piaf, and Oscar Peterson.
“I always try to shake things up a little bit and do something a little different – have a couple of themes and series,” Mehta added.
This season there will be a Jazz series dedicated to the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. There will also be a new series called “Quiet Please, there’s a Lady on Stage” (a title Mehta confesses, he stole from a Peter Allan song). The series includes Lisa Fischer, who was a backup singer for legacy artists The Rolling Stones, Sting, Chris Botti, the late Luther Vandross. Mehta explained that he first heard her which watching the Oscar-winning documentary, 20 Feet from Stardom, which has provided a much-needed spotlight on this incredible artist. He walked out of the film, knowing her just had to bring her to Toronto.
The series will also include the classically trained Canadian vocalist Patricia O’Callaghan and the American Jazz vocalist Lizz Wright. “My mother is a singer, and I guess I have grown up with a soft spot for great women voices,” Mehta said, “and I’m thrilled to present this series.”
The young organist Cameron Carpenter will be returning to Koerner Hall, but this time with his new organ in tow. Mehta described him as a bit of a wild child, but a serious musician who has continued to develop and grow into a consummate virtuoso.
The second year of the family concert series (something which Toronto seems lack outside of kitschy sing-a-songs for the 2-5-year-old age range) seem to fit right into the RCM mandate as a music school, with a large body of young students. This season they will present Toronto trumpeter David Buchbinder for a multicultural look at routes of Andalucia, African-American a cappella group, Sweet Honey In The Rock, and East L.A’s renowned Los Lobos, who will play an all-acoustic concert, titled Disconnected.
Following last year’s one-hundred-year birthday celebrations for Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington, the centennials continue this season with nods to Sinatra, Menuhin and Piaf. “There must have been something in the water in 1915,” Mehta laughs. The list also includes Billie Holiday, but Mehta said there was just not enough room to fit her in.
As far as classical music (which were announced last January) performers include bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, violinist James Ehnes, violinist Augustin Dumay and cellist Mischa Maisky. Pianists include Simone Dinnerstein, Jan Lisiecki, Valentina Lisitsa (hopefully under better circumstances), Sir András Schiff and Paul Lewis.
The 21C Music Festival will return for its third year. “We are finding our niche, and the audience is slowly coming,” Mehta said. “The good news is that our great benefactor Michael and Sonja Koerner and their foundation have pledged to keep this festival going for five years, and we just finished two, so we have at least three years with their support, and buy that time I hope we will be able to be self-sustained and continue.”
With a wide variety of programming, it could be said the RCM are trying to hit all their targets at once. The varied approach could be a criticism were it not for the view that diverse programming reflects Toronto’s broad cultural swath. Classical one day, jazz the next, either way it is fair to say the RCM seems to have found it’s stride.
Tickets are on sale now to subscribers, but for the general public tickets will be available starting June 19th. http://performance.rcmusic.ca/
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