Tag Archives: nelson

The King’s Grief

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The King’s Grief is the latest show from the Happenstancers who performed it at Redeemer Lutheran on Friday and Saturday evenings. Like pretty much all Happenstancers’ shows it takes a number of works with multiple acts/movements/etc and combines them in unconventional ways. This programme was built around Judith Weir’s King Harald’s Saga, Thomas Adès’ Court Studies, from The Tempest and the only three songs that survive by Lady Mary Dering with some Oliver Knussen, George Benjamin, John Dowland and Colin Matthews thrown into the mix.

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GentleFreak’s Slaying My Demon Lover

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I’ve been complaining fior ages that the sort of curated artsong concert by young singers disappeared with COVID.  Monday night gave me cause for hope.  The first concert in Tapestry Opera’s Free Underground Concert series was given on Monday evening by a new initiative called GentleFreak.  It’s led by Danika Lorèn who has form in this area.

Slaying My Demon Lover is a concept by Daevyd Pepper and consists of readings and music around the idea of loss or break up (romantic or otherwise).  Monday’s show was a cut down version of the whole thing which can be seen on the evening of the 15th at Arrayspace (tickets here).  It’s very varied with some very lyrical pieces like Hahn’s L’heure exquise (sung beautifully by Queen Hezumuryango) and much mor abrasive material like Weill’s Je ne t’aime pas (sung forcefully by Reilly Nelson).  There was musical theatre material on the same theme; for example Sondheim’s Losing My Mind (Danika) and some weirder or more playful numbers like George Aperghis Récitation 14 (Danika) and Vernon/Ivor’s 715 CRΣΣKS sung into the piano by Daevyd.  Accompaniment throughout was by Claire Harris on piano.  Bottom line it all worked and came together to make a most satisfying and very welcome show.

Tapestry’s Free Underground Concerts programme runs on selected Monday evenings from 6pm to 7pm at the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre.  Next up on the 23rd is a preview concert of Kevin Wong’s new musical In Real Life.

Songs of Glass and Iron

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On Thursday evening soprano Reilly Nelson and composer/keyboardist Friedrich Kern presented an intriguing programme based around songs by Kurt Weill.  Songs were interleaved with composed passages for electronics based on glass harmonica and texts in English and German.  It was a “celebration” of impermanence and of the never quite dying hope that there is something more substantial out there somewhere.

The songs were a mix of the familiar; Youkali, Surabaya Johnny, and the less familiar; Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib? and Ballade vom ertrunkenen Mädchen, for example.  All of it was sung in the original language (French or German) with keyboard accompaniment and Reilly made no attempt to make it lovely.  This was Weill at his cabaret rawest which is just the way I like it; gritty not pretty  Crooned, bowdlerized English translations be damned! Continue reading →

The Happenstancers at 21C

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Regular readers will be familiar with the Happenstancers.  They are a shifting group of young musicians convened by Brad Cherwin who have been presenting innovative chamber music concerts in an assortment of venues for a few years now.  Last year Brad was selected to curate a concert for Soundstreams at the Jane Mallett Theatre which was very like a Happenstancers concert in many ways with the advantage of exposing the approach to a wider audience.  On Friday night they were back under their own flag at Temerty Theatre as part of the 21C festival.  Which is a long winded way of saying this is a very happening and innovative group who are emerging as a significant player in the Toronto chamber music scene.

Friday’s concert, as you would expect, consisted mostly of 21st century music but in line withe theme of “exploring the space between two people” and in typical Happenstancers’ style there was music from the Renaissace plus Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht.  The ensemble consisted of sopranos Danika Lorèn and Reilly Nelson, Julia Mirzoev, Russell iceberg and Christopher Whitley on violin, Hezekkiah Leung and Hee-See Yoon on viola, Peter Eom on cello and Brad Cherwin on clarinets with constantly changing combos across the evening. Continue reading →

Tapestry Briefs: Under Where?

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So LIBLAB is back and the pick of the fruits of the latest version form Tapestry Briefs: Under Where? currently playing at the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre.  There are eleven sketches involving four composers, three librettists, three singers plus Keith Klassen who does all three.  Also two pianists and two directors.

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The Two Deaths of Ophelia

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The latest Happenstancers gig, which took place at 918 Bathurst on Thursday evening, was an exploration of the death of Ophelia and related ideas with works for assorted chamber ensembles plus/minus voices.  Ten composers; all of whom could at a stretch be considered “contemporary”, were featured in a programme that, with interval, lasted two and three quarter hours.  That’s a feat of stamina for performers and audience alike as none of the music performed was “easy” and no notes or introductions were provided.

Each half of the programme started off with a piece by Linda Catlin Smith, who was in the audience.  Stare at the River for piano, string bass, trumpet, clarinet, violin and percussion was quite sparse and open textured while The River was more obviously lyrical with guitar, cello and Danika Lorèn replacing piano, trumpet and bass.

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Tapestry officially opens 877 Yonge Street

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Tapestry Opera and Nightwood Theatre’s new digs at 877 Yonge Street are now officially open.  I was unable to attend Saturday nignt’s opening gig and party but I did get to attend the free concert for the local community in the afternoon and get a tour of the premises.

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I Saw a New Heaven

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wemmf-isawanewheavenThe second programme in this year’s West End Micro Music Festival had its first performance at Redeemer Lutheran on Friday night.  It was a mix of contemporary instrumental and vocal works with some unusual Hildegard von Bingen and some interesting lighting (Billy Wong) and staging.

First up was a set for Lenny Ranallo on electric guitar and soprano Danika Lorèn wrapped in a sheet.  It was certainly different, and surprisingly effective, to hear von Bingen on electric guitar.  This was followed by Danika singing Sofia Gubaidulina’s Aus den Visionen der Hildegard von Bingen with electronic backing.  This sets short fragments of german text and was presented with great precision.

Next was Cassandra Miller’s Perfect Offering.  This is scored for chamber ensemble (violins – Julia Mirzoev, David Baik; viola – Hezekiah Leung, cello – Peter Eom, flutes – Sara Constant, clarinets – Brad Cherwin, piano – Joonchung Cho with Simon Rivard conducting). It’s based on a peal of bells from a convent in France and is rather beautiful in a minimalist sort of way as you might expect fro something based on bells. Continue reading →

Ecstatic Voices

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ecstaticvoicesjpegThis year’s West End Micro Music Festival opened on Friday night at Redeemer Lutheran with a programme titled Ecstatic Voices.  It was a mix of works for eight part a cappella vocal ensemble and a couple of solo tuned percussion pieces.

There’s something a bit special about unaccompanied polyphony.that has fascinated composers ever since the (probably apocryphal) debate on the subject at the Council of Trent.  I think a good chunk of it is the sheer versatility of the human voice which can do so much more than sing a tone.  It can laugh, whistle, speak, grunt, chatter and all manner of other things and if the composers of the Renaissance were happy to stick to tonal singing more recent composers certainly haven’t been.  Both were in evidence n Friday.

The ensemble was made up of eight singers  (Sydney Baedke, Reilly Nelson, Danika Lorén, Whitney O’Hearn, Marcel d’Entremont, Elias Theocharidis, Bruno Roy and Graham Robinson with Simon Rivard conducting) all well capable of singing major solo roles.  This was no semi-pro SATB group!

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Babes in Toyland

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babesintoylandThe Happenstancers ended their 2023/24 season last night at 918 Bathurst with a concert called Babes in Toyland.  It consisted of mainly late 20th and 21st century chamber works with one unusual Mozart piece (K617 for glass harmonica (Kevin Ahfat), viola (Hee-Soo Yoon( ,cello (Peter Eom), oboe (Aleh Remezau) and flute (Tristan Durie) to spice things up.

The main interest for me was that there was plenty of vocal music featuring soprano Reilly Nelson who not only sang some highly technical music but played bells, scattered playing cards and carried a boom box.  The first substantial vocal work was Unsuk Chin’s acrostic-wordplay which is in seven movements with texts created from fragments from Michael Ende’s The Never Ending Story and Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. (Chin seems to have a bit of an Alice fixation).  It’s a complex piece for soprano and a fairly large chamber ensemble with no clear musical structure.  The textures vary from spooky and ethereal to aggressively loud and dissonant.  Great work here from Reilly and the ensemble conducted by Simon Rivard. Continue reading →