February always seems to be a busy month and the first half is shaping up that way.  Things kick off on the 1st with the Sellars staging of di Lassus’ Lagrime di San Pietro at Koerner.  On the 3rd Danika Lorèn is curating a concert at Heliconian for UoT Music.  It’s called A Few Figs from Thistles, it’s at 7.30pm and it’s free.  We are promised new songs by Danika based on poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Tekahionwake (E. Pauline Johnson) and Lorna Crozier.

The following day there’s a. lunchtime concert in the RBA.  Percussionist Bob Becker presents four of his own compositions: Cryin’ Time (1994), Never in Word (1998), To Immortal Bloom (2017), and Clear Things May Not Be Seen (2019). He is joined by soprano Lindsay Kesselman, mezzo-soprano Andrea Ludwig, pianist Midori Koga, marimbist and conductor Christopher Norton, and percussionist Louis Pino, in addition to string quartet and winds.  Not sure how they will; fit them all in but…

Then on the 5th Brandon Cedel Basilio in the current COC Barber of Seville) has a recital at 5.30pm in the same spot.  The followFebruary 7th.ing night the new COC production of Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel opens at the Four Seasons Centre.  If you can’t make that there’s the monthly Opera Pub at 9pm at the Amsterdam Bicycle Club.

The 8th at 7.30pm sees the Glenn Gould School put on its Vocal Showcase in Mazzoleni Hall.  And then on the 10th the COC is doing its “Season Reveal” at the Four Seasons Centre at 6pm.  I think that one is just invites and subscribers though.  Watch this space for wildly inaccurate predictions!

The COC’s excellent Barber of Seville continues at the Four Seasons Centre until February 7th.