Editorial

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Frank Zappa is best known today as a pop and rock star, but he was also a serious composer of concert music, as Réjean Beaucage tells us in our cover feature commemorating the 20th anniversary of the icon’s death. This is part of La Scena Musicale’s continuing celebration of music creativity, which this month runs eight pages including composer Michel Gonneville’s look at great works by 10 living Quebec composers (the start of a new series on great compositions), and articles on Canadian composer Auguste Descarries and the art songs of Francis Poulenc on the 55th and 50th anniversary of their deaths respectively.

This is also our Rising Stars issue as we feature nine winners of recent Canadian and international competitions (from the Montreal International Music Competition, and Prix d’Europe to the Queen Elisabeth and Cliburn), along with our annual Competition Guide.

As Quebec’s largest arts magazine (this issue’s 45,000 copies reach 90,000 readers), LSM has been defending music and the arts for the last 17 years. This month, with the Montreal municipal elections scheduled for November 3, we encourage readers to vote and make a difference. Check out the mayoral candidates’ positions on arts funding.

Finally, look out for LSM’s regular features, including our extensive concert listings (also searchable online at SCENA.org), concerts picks, news in the world of classical music and fine arts, our jazz section, and the La SCENA Arts Xpress page for our dance, theatre and visual arts picks.

La Scena Musicale is brought to you by a dedicated team of staff and volunteers driven by our charitable mission to promote music and the arts. Our 2013 Fundraising Fund campaign continues towards our goal of raising $80,000 for our Endowment Fund; each dollar donated will then be matched with an additional two dollars from Placements Culture.

Please join our LSM Ambassadors, the growing number of prominent musicians and artists who have already donated. Or participate in our first Online Auction: items include signed batons from Charles Dutoit and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as well as concert tickets and paintings. Lastly, through an exchange, we have tickets to the Opera de Montreal for sale. Visit www.lascena.ca.

Have a great October full of music and the arts!