It’s the time of year when people start to make season announcements.  First out of the blocks is the Royal Conservatory of Music with the Koerner hall line up.  It’s more a teaser than a comprehensive announcement but there’s some interesting dope in it.  On the vocal front Peter Sellars is back with the LA Master Chorale; this time with music by Heinrich Schütz.  That’s on February 7th 2024.  There’s also a recital by Ema Nikolovska with Charles Richard-Hamelin on March 24th 2024.  If you haven’t erased all memories of the pandemic you will probably remember that Ema’s streamed recital with Steven Philcox was the highlight of the grim summer of 2020.  The Glenn Gould spring opera will be on 2oth and 22nd March 2024.  There are also some pretty classy orchestral visits with Daniel Barenboim conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin and Yannick Nézet-Seguin bringing the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Full details of the season will be released in June but tickets go on sale next Tuesday.  There’s more information on programming and ticket options here.

The Women’s Musical Club of Toronto have also announced a spring season of three concerts and two of them are, at least in part, vocal,  On February 23rd 2023, Icelandic Canadian composer Fjóla Evans performs with an ensemble that includes vocalist Krista Kais-Prial,  Looks like this will be mostly contemporary rep including a new work by Evans.  Then on April 6th 2023 Marion Newman, Evan Korbut and Melody Courage will be singing with Gordon Gerrard at the piano.  It’s a program of classical and contemporary Indigenous inflected music.  Both concerts are at 1.30pm in Walter Hall.  Tickets are available here.

Not a season announcement but one I heard about too late to get in my last listings post.  On February 26th at 6pm at Grace Church on the Hill OPUS Chamber Music presents OPUS II: Kaleidoscope.  It’s chamber music by Poulenc’, Ysaÿe, Ravel and Dvorak played by a pretty exciting line up of musicians; Kevin Ahfat,  Serena Chuang, Brannon Cho, Barry Shiffman and Erika Raum.  Full information and tickets are here.