The Royal Conservatory’s 2020/21 concert season has been announced..  It’s the usual eclectic mix of all kinds of classical music plus jazz and world music spread across the Conservatory’s three performance venues.  It looks like the provisional planning is for some kind of social distancing.  When that will be possible and how long it might go on is, of course, anybody’s guess but the planning assumes some kind of performances will be possible from October.

The classical side of the programme is built around the usual pillars plus a big nod to Beethoven 250.  So 21C is back along with Mazzoleni Songmasters, the usual Glenn Gould School fare and much more.

Here’s a list of the concerts that caught my eye:

• The Glenn Gould School Fall Opera: Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins and William Bolcom’s Lucrezia: Friday, November 6 & Saturday, November 7, 2020 at 7:30pm; Mazzoleni Concert Hall

• Dover Quartet with Davóne Tines; Sunday, November 15, 2020 at 3pm; Koerner Hall
  Beethoven: String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, op. 18, no. 2; Samuel Barber: Dover Beach, op. 3; Caroline Shaw: By and By; Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B flat Major, op. 130  including Grosse Fuge
• Elliot Madore: Troubled Times; Sunday, November 22, 2020 at 1pm; Mazzoleni Concert Hall.  Works by Benjamin Britten, John Musto, Jennifer Higdon, and John Adams
• Adrianne Pieczonka and Michael Schade with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra conducted by Johannes Debus; Thursday, December 3, 2020 at 8pm; Koerner Hall.  Works by Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Wagner, Weber etc.
• 21C Music Festival: Soundstreams presents: Choral Splendour: The Music of Pärt and Frehner; Friday, January 22, 2021 at 8pm; Koerner Hall; Arvo Pärt: Stabat Mater and
  Paul Frehner: LEX (world premiere)
• The Glenn Gould School Vocal Showcase; Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 7:30pm; Mazzoleni Concert Hall
• Jacqueline Woodley & Krisztina Szabó: In the Words of Women; Sunday, February 7, 2021 at 1pm; Mazzoleni Concert Hall.  John Taverner: songs of Anna Akhmatova.
• Angelika Kirchschlager with Julius Drake; Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 8pm; Koerner Hall; Franz Schubert: Winterreise
• Anne Sofie von Otter with Kristian Bezuidenhout; Sunday, March 7, 2021 at 3pm; Koerner Hall; Works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert and Adolf Lindblad
• The Glenn Gould School Spring Opera; Wednesday, March 17 & Friday, March 19, 2021 at 7:30pm; Koerner Hall; Benjamin Britten: The Rape of Lucretia
• Alexandra Smither, Russell Braun and Carolyn Maule; To the Distant Beloved; Sunday, March 21, 2021 at 1pm; Mazzoleni Concert Hall; Ludwig van Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte plus world premiere by Afarin Mansouri, commissioned by the Canadian Art Song Project
• Joshua Hopkins: Love and Loss; Saturday, April 17, 2021 at 8pm; Koerner Hall; works by Schubert. Duparc and Debussy plus Jake Heggie: Songs for Murdered Sisters (world premiere voice and piano version)

So far now, due to social distancing, there are many fewer tickets than usual available and any of the concerts rescheduled from the 2019/20 season are already at capacity.  It remains to be seen whether more will become available at a later date.