[May 2008] Updates at La Scena Musicale's website

[Version franˆßaise]

La Scena Musicale's website (http://www.scena.org) has been updated for May 2008:

• La Scena Musicale May 2008 National Issue, focused on Jazz with our annual Guide to Jazz, World and Folk Festivals is now online in PDF format. See the Editorial below for more contents. Note the print magazine has been in circulation at selected points including targeting residences in Montreal, and will be in the newsstands as of May 16.
• Our blog (http://blog.scena.org) has been very active with news, reviews, commentary and birthdays. Come back often for updates!
• Our newswire service (http://newswire.scena.org) continues to publish music and arts press releases. Over 280 published since December 2007.
• We have started a new Jazz blog to cover Summer Jazz Festivals. See http://jazzblog.scena.org
• Jobs: La Scena Musicale has received funding for summer students in marketing, sales and editorial. La Scena Musicale seeks a part-time freelance graphist. See http://jobs.scena.org for more details.

Makes a great Mother's Day Gift. FREE DVD.

Upcoming May 24 fundraiser for La Scena Musicale. Tickets to Madama Butterfly in Montreal. More information at: http://www.scena.org/blog/newswire/2008/02/next-fundraising-activity-la-scena.html

Upcoming in La Scena Musicale: Summer Classical music and Arts Festivals.

See http://festivals2008en.scena.org

La Scena Musicale continues its leading coverage of festivals in Canada.

For more info on advertising, visit http://ads.scena.org

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May 2008 Editorial

What better way to forget the long winter than to spend the spring and summer months combining fresh outdoor air with beautiful tunes offered by Canada's many music festivals. For the twelfth straight year, La Scena Musicale, Canada's most wide-reaching and well-respected classical music and jazz magazines, will once again celebrate the summer season in music. Our festival coverage began last month with our first International Festival Guide. This month, we feature our annual national focus on over 120 Canadian jazz, world and folk music festivals (plus twelve of the earlier classical music festivals). Next month, our June national issue will be dedicated to over 90 classical music festivals, plus for the first time a Guide to Canadian arts festivals.

It was last year that we launched our special jazz focus issue as a means of drawing our readers' attention to the wealth of Canadian summer jazz festivals staged across the land. This month, our resident jazz editor Marc Chˆ©nard and his team have put together a feature on jazz orchestras. Starting with our lead story on the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra by Paul Serralheiro and a companion piece by Chˆ©nard on other groundbreaking ensembles, our writers have also chipped in with some personal top jazz festivals picks (see p. 17). You'll also find record reviews of bands playing at one or the other of the 40-plus jazz festivals hosted in our country (see our extensive jazz festival calendar listings in these pages).

The sweeping changes to the role of classical music at the CBC are cause for concern to everyone in Canada's artistic community. An outpouring of general dissatisfaction has come from across the country to protest the bleak future of CBC's record label, the sudden dissolution of the 70-year old Vancouver-based CBC Radio Orchestra, as well as the radical changes to Radio Two programming. Michael Vincent examines these issues in-depth on p. 16 and tracks the fallout of these most unfortunate developments.

Also this month, we have asked some of Canada's most esteemed conductors to share their thoughts on the legacy of Herbert von Karajan, a subject that has garnered a great deal of attention this year, the centenary of his birth. While his influence on the world of orchestral performance and the classical music recording industry is practically unchallenged throughout history, his ties to the Nazi party during the early part of his career has raised some eyebrows and heated a debate on the issue.

Laurier Rajotte investigates this year's edition of the highly prestigious Montreal International Musical Competition, which focuses on piano. Given the competition's track record of producing internationally acclaimed artists, we can certainly expect to hear some extraordinary performances. Renˆ© Bricault catches up with director Michel Lemieux and conductor/arranger Simon Leclerc as they discuss the challenges and rewards of converting Starmania, a well-established rock opera, into a classical setting for Quebec City's 400th anniversary celebrations.

As Mother's Day approaches, we celebrate this special time by featuring Giacomo Puccini and his timeless opera, Madama Butterfly, presented this month by Opˆ©ra de Montrˆ©al. The story is, of course, one of the great tragedies of the operatic canon, but also tells of a mother's ultimate sacrifice. Don't forget that LSM's next fundraiser is opening night of Butterfly on the 24th! Call 514-948-2520 for tickets and more information about this great event.



Wah Keung Chan

Founding Editor/Publisher,
La Scena Musicale
La SCENA
The Music Scene