From the Editor

Version française...

Welcome and welcome back. La Scena starts the new year as Montréal’s leading reference for music and the arts, providing insight and information, serving both music lovers and the music and arts industry, telling the stories of music-making and musicians, and helping make music accessible. Our focus is to be topical and current, and we approach our task with insatiable curiosity.

Our February/March issue emphasizes new ways of presenting classical music: cover artist Cameron Carpenter is breaking down stereotypes while collectif9 is reaching out to new audiences. Our tribute to International Women’s Day is a profile of two female violinists, Yukari Cousineau and Julie Triquet. With the return of the Star Wars franchise with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Alexy Shegolev analyzes the evolution of themes in the film score.

Our series on the art song continues with Richard Turp’s look at three great love songs in time for Valentine’s Day. Don’t forget to vote for your favourite art song at www.nextgreatartsong.com.

January has seen the passing of many prominent figures in the music industry. We pay tribute to composer and conductor Pierre Boulez with memories from several prominent musicians while Caroline Rodgers examines the legacy of David Bowie. Since Boulez helped pushed the boundaries of music, we also pay hommage to him with the start of our series of colouring pages portrait, which we hope enthusiasts will use to express their artistic side. Send us your creations to editor[at]lascena.org and we’ll post them to our website and publish the best ones.

La Scena’s 19th annual summer music and arts camp guide includes a complete list of over 100 arts camps. Don’t forget our standard features: the Jazz column, the Regional Calendar, and CD and book reviews. This month, we include a review by Norman Lebrecht, who returns to LSM as a regular contributor to the reviews section and for a weekly online column.

White Paper Version

Many subscribers told us that they really enjoyed the new whiter photocopy-like paper (whiteness factor of 90) in the subscriber copy last month. Thanks to our printer Payette & Simms, paying subscribers will continue to get this new feature in addition to full translations and bi-weekly Discovery CD downloads. Subscribe now and get a chance to win prizes.

Singing Valentines

Our 2016 Fundraising Campaign begins with our 6th annual Singing Valentines Fundraiser featuring sopranos Chantal Dionne and Janice Goodfellow, mezzo Priscilla-Ann Tremblay, and tenors Wah Keung Chan and David Menzies, and baritone Simon Fournier. For a donation of $30 to $60 ($20 for students), offer your loved ones a unique Valentine from February 11 to 14, a song sung by trained opera singers over the telephone. This year’s celebrity singer is baritone Gino Quilico, December’s cover artist, who will be available for $75 to $100. Visit www.lascena.ca to see the song list (which includes such favourites as “Mon Coeur s’ouvre à ta voix,” “Che gelida manina,” and “My Funny Valentine”), see singer availabilities, listen to clips, and read the testimonials before you place your order at 514-948-2520 or don[at]lascena.ca. The first 100 donors will be entered to win a tickets to a musical weekend in Montreal (May 28-29).

On behalf of our dedicated team of staff and volunteers, I wish you a Happy 2016, the year of the Monkey.