Concert Previews

Version française...

Flash version here.

Montreal

MUSIC MONDAY 2013
Launched by the Coalition for Music Educators in 2005, Music Monday unites over 600,000 music students and teachers across Canada in a simultaneous expression of music making on the first Monday in May (May 6, 2013) at 1 p.m. Eastern time. This year’s official song “Is Someone Singing”, composed by Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson with lyrics by Robertson and astronaut Chris Hadfield, is downloadable from makemusicus.ca/musicmonday. — WKC

MUSICIANS OF THE WORLD SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Montreal’s Musicians of the World Symphony Orchestra celebrates 7 years of music making with a Gala concert at the Rialto Theatre on Thursday, May 9, at 8:00pm, a tribute to the great jazz musicians of the 20th century with a symphonic twist and featuring pianist Julie Lamontagne. — WKC

TENOR MARCELLO BEDONI MASTERCLASS
For the first time in Montreal, Italian tenor Marcello Bedoni conducts a 7-day intensive masterclass, May 5 to 11. A concert on May 12 will showcase the participants. Information: www.evergreenjadeent.com. — WKC

Toronto

ANNA CHRISTY STARS IN LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
The Italian warhorse Lucia di Lammermoor opens the Canadian Opera Company’s spring season for nine performances (April 17-May 24). American soprano Anna Christy is Lucia in this production created for her. Tenor Stephen Costello is Edgardo. Atom Egoyan’s fascinating take on Salome returns for 8 performances (Apr. 21-May 22). Swedish-American soprano Erika Sunnegardh sings Salome, with Martin Gantner and Alan Held sharing duties as Jochanaan. Canadian tenor Richard Margison takes on the character role of Herod. Johannes Debus conducts Salome, as well as Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, which concludes the season (May 8-25). Robert Carsen’s deeply spiritual production premiered at the Chicago Lyric Opera with soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian as Blanche, a role she reprises here. Adrianne Pieczonka sings her first Madame Lidoine, Judith Forst reprises her justly famous Madame de Croissy, and Quebec soprano Helene Guilmette is Sœur Constance, a role she has sung in Munich. www.coc.ca — JS

TSO SOLOISTS AND VISITING CONDUCTORS: SHAHAM, DENEVE, FLITER, GERSTEIN, FINLEY
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has an excellent lineup, wonderful visiting conductors and soloists the likes of violinist Gil Shaham playing Mozart (Apr. 17-18), Stephane Deneve conducting Berlioz (May 1, 2, 4), pianist Ingrid Fliter playing Beethoven No. 2 (May 8-9), pianist Kirill Gerstein in Tchaikovsky No. 1 (May 15, 16, 18), and Gerald Finley in Brahms’s German Requiem (May 22,23, 25). www.tso.ca — JS

LUMINATO’S 5^TH ANNIVERSARY
Finally, from June 14 to 23, Toronto is home to the 5^th annual Luminato Festival of Art and Creativity. Now under the stewardship of Jorn Weisbrodt, important events include Joni: A Portrait in Song – a tribute to Joni Mitchell (June 18 & 19), Feng Yi Ting, a Chinese opera directed by Atom Egoyan, and the North American premiere of The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic, the “grandmother of performance art” staged by Robert Wilson. Willem Dafoe is the narrator. www.luminato.com — JS