Canada’s Music & Musicians Featured in Rome during Canadian Day, July 5, 2013
Each summer, Rome’s Accademia Filarmonica Romana invites countries to present their music and culture in a week-long Festival of one-day events, called I Nazione Festival of Nations. This year, for the first time, Canada will be hosted, Friday, July 5 in the Accademia’s elegant and historic home and gardens in central Rome.
Other countries invited to present their music and culture from July 1 to 4 are Norway, Brazil and Morocco .
Canadian Day will include two concerts, featuring artists from across the country: the Borealis String Quartet from Vancouver, violinist Guillaume Tardif of Edmonton; clarinetist Kornel Wolak of Toronto; and Montreal soprano Jana Miller and conductor/pianist Jordan de Souza. Complementing the classical music will be jazz, performed by two Ontario combos – the Mario Romano Jazz Quartet from Markham, and the Dominic Mancuso Quintet from Vaughan.
Films about Canadian icon Glenn Gould, courtesy of the Gould Estate and the Gould Foundation will be shown. Music critic William Littler, columnist with the Toronto Star, will speak about Gould’s legend and legacy. A special room, opening into the gardens, will serve as a video room, where the public can view DVDs of major Canadian artists and attractions.
Canada’s participation is being organized by the charitable, Toronto-based International Resource Centre for Performing Artists and produced by IRCPA Director Ann Summers Dossena.
For more information and to contribute, please visit:
IRCPA.net/canadian-day-rome-2013/
Kornel Wolak's CLARINET EXTRAVAGANZA in Oshawa and Port Perry March 2nd & 3rd
Members of the Wolak Clarinet Extravaganza Trio include: Kornel Wolak, clarinet, Michael Bridge, accordion/piano, and Michael Savona, guitar.
They will be heard in Oshawa's Regent Theatre on March 2nd and in Port Perry on March 3rd. They will be accompanied by the Ontario Philharmonic String Quartet, comprised of principal string players of the orchestra.
>> More about Kornel Wolak | Clarinet Extravanganza
>> Artist's Website
World Premiere Centrediscs CD Set Launch January 22 at the Gould
PIANIST CHRISTINA PETROWSKA QUILICO PERFORMS CONSTANTINE CARAVASSILIS’ VISIONS: RHAPSODIES & FANTASIAS
PIANIST’S PAINTINGS INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC PROJECTED AT THE CONCERT
Piano virtuoso Christina Petrowska Quilico performs a concert launching the world premiere of a two-CD Centrediscs recording, Visions: Rhapsodies & Fantasias, Tuesday, January 22, 2013, 7:30 p.m. at the Glenn Gould Studio, 250 Front Street W., Toronto.
The concert featuring the evocative, exhilarating and profoundly individual music of Constantine Caravassilis.
Tickets, $20, $15 students and seniors, are available from the Roy Thomson Hall box office, www.roythomson.com, phone 416-872-4255.
Released on the Canadian Music Centre’s Centrediscs label, the two-CD recording is the result of the awarding of the inaugural Harry Freedman Recording Award jointly to Petrowska Quilico and Caravassilis in 2010. It is also made possible by a recording grant from the Ontario Arts Council.
The January 22 concert promises to be an extraordinary evening of music and art. It features works from Constantine Caravassilis’ complete books of Rhapsodies and Fantasias for solo piano – most receiving their world premieres. As Petrowska Quilico describes them, “They are visions in sound, transcending lyricism to become a dramatic opera for the keyboard.”
> Download Full Press Release
> More about Christina Petrowska Quilico
Ontario Philharmonic delivers on promise of first-rate musicmaking
TORONTO STAR, Nov. 7, 2012
John Terauds
Special to the Star
On Tuesday night at Koerner Hall, the Ontario Philharmonic lived up to the bold challenge it has made to Toronto symphony lovers that they are an orchestra that must not be ignored.
For years, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has ruled unchallenged from Roy Thomson Hall as the city’s premier large ensemble. Pretenders have come and gone, but, unlike the Orchestre Métropolitain’s gentle rivalry with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, no single organization has managed to make a serious statement – until now.
Under music director Marco Parisotto, the Ontario Philharmonic—founded and long known as the Oshawa Symphony—showed that it has earned its spot at the resonant heart of Koerner Hall in a programme showcasing two favourite works by Russian composer Peter Ilytch Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).
The evening started with a flourish as star Russian-Israeli violinist Shlomo Mintz marked his 50th anniversary on stage with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. It was a vigorous, sharp-edged performance that highlighted the virtuosic side of this concert hall warhorse. In the final movement, out came Mintz’s dancing shoes as he reminded us of the Russian hoedown buried in this oft-played piece of music.
We have heard more graceful and polished renditions, namely by Canadian star James Ehnes, but Mintz was all about making a strong statement. Judging from the audience’s boisterous reaction, they wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Parisotto and the orchestra were with their soloist every step of the way as his flawless accomplices.
The second half of the programme was devoted to the massive Symphony No. 5, which allowed the Ontario Philharmonic to show off the full breadth of its abilities, from sweet, delicate pianissimos to full-out, roof-lifting blasts of Tchaikovsky’s late-Romantic angst and, finally, triumph.
Parisotto conducted the piece from memory, showing total command of every detail and, numerous times, showing great skill in building the sound in graceful arcs.
All told, this was a concert that would not have felt out of place at Roy Thomson Hall. In fact, it was a particular pleasure to hear this larger-than-life music at Koerner Hall, which is slightly less than half the older auditorium’s size.
Yes, the music was downright loud at times, but it was also possible to hear every nuance in the score, giving the music particular interest and making it sound vividly alive.
And that’s what the thrill of a live performance is all about.
The Ontario Philharmonic is offering a series of three concerts at Koerner Hall this season. The second one is due on Dec. 4, an all-Brahms programme featuring piano soloist Anton Kuerti.
Praise for Haiou Zhang's Canadian Recital Debut at Richmond Hill Performing Arts Centre May 2nd
"to call him brilliant would be an insult. He was the finest pianist I have ever had the good fortune to hear - it truly was an experience no one who attended will ever forget!"
General Manager, Richmond Hill Performing Arts Centre, Canada.
Zhang returns to Canada in 2013/14 in a program with the Ontario Philharmonic.
>> More about Haiou Zhang
>> Artist's Website
Christina Petrowska Quilico
Christina Petrowska Quilico is a leading interpreter of the 20th and 21st Century music. with over 26 cds available in recital and in live performances with orchestras, In 2010, Petrowska Quilico and composer Constantine Caravassilis were jointly named the first winners of the 2010 Harry Freedman Recording Award. The Glenn Gould Studio is the site on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 for the launch of this new cd entitled: VISIONS, the complete Book of Rhapsodies & Book of Fantasias. In 2013 Christina will be heard in recital at the Canadian Operas Company's noon concert series March 6, and in Soundstreams' Piano Ecstasy concert on April 26, in Koerner Hall.
>> More about Christina Petrowska Quilico
>> Artist's Website
IRCPA Opera Week 2012 Postponed
Due to funding cuts, International Resource Centre for the Arts "Opera Week" is postponed until the Fall this year.
Details will be posted on IRCPA.net as soon as they are available.
Toronto Artist Manager ANN SUMMERS DOSSENA HONORED JANUARY 9 in New York with NAPAMA AWARD
Legendary Canadian artist manager Ann Summers Dossena of Toronto was honored by her peers from across North America, Monday in New York City.
Ms. Summers Dossena, who operates Ann Summers International in Toronto and Rome, was presented with the first Manager of the Year Award at the annual Awards Ceremony and Luncheon of NAPAMA – the North American Association of Performing Arts Managers and Agents – and APAP – the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The presentation was made by Robert Baird, Toronto artist manager and president of NAPAMA, at the Hilton New York.
Ms. Summers Dossena was actually a founding member of NAPAMA, in the late 1970s. As well, she is an honorary life member of ISPA, the International Society for the Performing Arts, which has member arts presenters in 42 countries.
>> More about Ann Summers Dossena
GRAMMY-winning conductor and composer JosÉ Serebrier is one of most recorded classical artists in history. He has received thirty-eight GRAMMY nominations in recent years. All his recent recordings have received multiple GRAMMY nominations.
Serebrier has made international tours with the Juilliard Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Spain and others. His upcoming tours in 2011/12 are: China with the Orchestra of the Americas, Bermuda Festival and other festivals with the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra, South America with the Russian National Orchestra and Central and South America with the English Chamber Orchestra.
Ann Summers International
43 Bright St.
Toronto M5A 3H5
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