It’s coming towards the end of the traditional “season” but there’s sill plenty happening. Here’s how I see may shaping up at present (I expect more theatre listings will come in. They tend to be somewhat less notice!):
Thursday night’s Conflunce Concerts show at Heliconian Hall was titled Songs from Toronto and consisted of songs by Toronto singer-songwriters arranged for a larger ensemble by Andrew Downing. And by larger ensemble I mean various combinations of string trio, double bass, guitars of sundry varieties, vibraphone and piano. To further spice things up some of the songs were sung by Teiya Kasahara who is a rather different Fach than the average singer in this genre.
I have very limited exposure to Toronto’s singer-songer writer community (I didn’t even know it was a “thing”) and so it’s hard to assess where last night departed from some sort of norm or not or to assess whether arranging for a larger ensemble enhanced the experience or detracted from the intimate nature of someone singing their own stuff in their own way. FWIW I do have a fair bit of experience with singer-song writer music from the British isles and Atlantic Canada and I know that can work pretty well with a band. Think Liza Carthy or Billy Bragg for example.
The Confluence Concert series is noted for its imaginative and eclectic mix of musical styles so it’s no surprise that when they put on a programme of workshops for young artists and then let them loose on stage the only thing one can expect for sure is the unexpected. And so it was with Side by Side at the Heliconian Club on Thursday night.
Tuesday night at Heliconian Hall was the time and place for a concert curated by, and largely performed by, Confluence Concerts’ young associate artists; the KöNG duo. KöNG consists of two Toronto-Hong Kong percussionists; Bevis Ng and Hoi Tong Keung, pursuing doctoral studies in Toronto. They were supported on some numbers by Ryan Davis (viola) and Ben Finley (double bass).
The concert was very much in two parts. The first half was a series of fairly short pieces on the theme of “dreams”. Perhaps designed to be impressionistic and to leave far from clear memories. First up was the slightly jazzy, very complex My Missing Harbour by Fish Yu. It blended tuned percussion and both string instruments in a largely tonal, slightly shimmery sound world.
First some late calls for November:
There are a few adds for September. This Saturday (16th) you can catch Rachel Krehm in recital with Janelle Fung. That’s at 3pm. Details here. Saturday 30th is a busy day. At 7.30pm at Church of the Redeemer The Happenstancers have a concert.of mostly 20th century music for soprano and chamber ensemble. Details and tickets here. At the same time and repeated at 4pm on the Sunday Confluence Concerts have a concert of Irish music, both traditional and modern art song. That’s at Heliconian Hall. Details etc. Also from the 22nd to 24th Tafelmusik are performing Beethoven’s 4th and 5th symphonies at Koerner Hall. Their take on Beethoven symphonies is unusual and very interesting. And while Tafelmusik are absent from Jeanne Lamon Hall on the 22nd and 23rd, ther Toronto Mendelssohn Singers are presenting a programme including dance. A choreographed version of Handel’s Dixit Dominus is a rare event!
Confluence Concerts last show of the season; All the Diamonds, was dedicated to the night sky. It’s not easy to find new things to say about Confluence, unless there’s a new work or sometging on the programme. Every show is different but there are elements in common. The styles of the music vary from pop, to singer-songwriter, to jazz to classical to spoken word and the performance styles are equally varied and not always what one expects for the piece in question. So for instance, Don McLean’s “Starry Night” got the Suba Sankaran/Dylan Bell two part a cappella treatment and the traditional Ladino number “Yo menamori d’un aire” got full on jazz vocals from Patricia ‘Callaghan with instrumentals from Larry Beckwith n violin and Andrew Downing on bass. It was fun, varied and joyous and no two bits of the 23 item line up was quite like anything else.
More May listings…
Confluence Concerts’ show last night at Heliconian Hall was titled A Woman’s Voice. It was, after a fashion, a CD release concert in two halves. The first half featured music by Alice Ping Yee Ho from the album A Woman’s Voice and featuring the same performers; Vania Chan, Katy Clark, Alex Hetherington, Maeve Palmer and Jialiang Zhu. I’ve already reviewed the album and I don’t think last night changed my opinion much so I’ll not do a detailed rundown. What I can say is that last night it was mostly opera excerpts; Lesson of Da Ji, Chinatown, The Imp of the Perverse, and a live concert gave an opportunity for a bit of staging which was definitely an enhancement, especially in The Imp of the Perverse scene. “Café Chit Chat” and “Black” also benefitted from visual interaction between the singers. I like the CD a lot. Getting a chance to see some of the music live was great. Continue reading
To another excellent Confluence Concerts production last night at Heliconian Hall. This one was curated by Confluence’s Young Artistic Associate Ryan Davis; composer, violist and electronic Wunderkind. He was joined by a very talented group of young musicians; Kevin Ahfat (piano), Bora Kim (violin), Daniel Hamin Go (cello) and Jonelle Sills (soprano) plus the vocal talents of Confluence stalwart Suba Sankaran. The programme was built around English and French romantic music plus Ryan’s own compositions influenced by that tradition.
operaramblings 