June 5
|
 
Ali Massoudi and Padideh Ahrarnejad
|
A Celebration of Persian Music
Persian traditional music is a rich and intricate art
form that has developed over centuries in Iran and the
surrounding regions. It is characterized by a
combination of melody, rhythm, and poetry, with a strong
emphasis on improvisation and individual interpretation.
Traditional Persian instruments include the tar, setar,
tombak, and daf, among others, and the music often
features complex rhythmic patterns and ornamentation.
Persian traditional music has had a significant
influence on other musical traditions in the Middle East
and beyond, and continues to be appreciated and
performed by musicians and enthusiasts around the world.
Join us for our opening concert of the 2023 season as
Ali Massoudi and Padideh Ahrarnejad return to Music
Mondays in a celebration of Persian music!
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June
12 |

Warren Nicholson
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Plucked Music from Caccini to Bach
Winner of the ”Artists International Auditions” in NYC
,leading to his Carnegie Recital Hall debut in 1998,
Warren Nicholson returns to Music Mondays to perform
music from the Italian Renaissance and beyond, with
works by: Caccini, Gesualdo/Pritsker, John Dowland, and
Bach's Suite BWV 1007 in D major for solo
guitar…
“Polished and confident…gave the Villa Lobos etudes
sensitive and shapely readings…” New York Concert
Review |
June
19
|


Odin Quartet with Alex Panizza |
Odin Quartet with pianist Alex Panizza
Odin Quartet will be joined by Canadian-born Alex
Panizza - Piano Professor at Catholic University in
Buenos Aires - in an exciting selection of last
movements from some of the best known string quartets
and piano quintets of the classical repertoire, as
well as contemporary Canadian music.
Works will include: Haydn - Sunrise Quartet op.
76 Finale, Mozart - Dissonance Quartet KV
465 Allegro Molto, Beethoven - String
Quartet Op. 18 Allegro, Runcie - String
Quartet No. 2 Gioco con parafrasi variegate,
Brahms - Piano Quartet No. 1 Rondo: Allegro,
Isaac Zee - Connotations, Beethoven - String
Quartet No. 2 Finale, and Schumann - Piano
Quintet Op. 44 Allegro ma non troppo.
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June
26
|

The Ezra Duo |
Classically Jazz
The Ezra Duo (Jacob Clewell, violin/viola and Sasha
Bult-Ito, piano) has
appeared in Carnegie Hall and Koerner Hall, performed
as special guests for a G7 Summit
event, and toured through the United States and
Canada. Formed while students at The
Glenn Gould School, the duo has become known for
compelling programming
highlighting the depth and virtuosity of true duo
performance.
From classic Gershwin to Nikolai Kapustin's
virtuosic, be-bop-laden
Sonata for Viola and Piano, The Ezra Duo steps all the
way over the line separating
classical and jazz. This program features indomitable
classical technique coupled with the
colorful unpredictability of jazz, showcasing the
versatility of duo performance.
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July 3
|

Conrad Gold
|
Amazing Organ Pipes
Conrad Gold holds B. Mus. and M. Mus. degrees in
organ from Oberlin College and McGill University,
where he studied with David Boe and William Porter. He
attended Smarano Early Keyboards Academy in Italy to
further his interest in historical keyboard
instruments and baroque improvisation.
Music Mondays is pleased to offer this organ recital
during the Royal Canadian College of Organists
Festival of Pipes, Canada 2023. General audience
members as well as organists, organ builders and
enthusiasts will enjoy a program that shows off the
many colours of Holy Trinity's superb Casavant Frères
tracker-action baroque organ in variations on the
American hymn Amazing Grace and the German
Chorale Freu dich sehr. Attend the concert to
hear this wonderful instrument, also to learn the
intriguing story of how it came to be at Church of the
Holy Trinity.
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July
10
|
  
Trio
Coriolis |
Aspiration and Inspiration
Trio Coriolis (cellist Rebecca Morton, pianist Tomoko
Inui, and violinist Jung Tsai) is pleased to make
their Music Monday debut with a program entitled
"Aspiration and Inspiration".
The concert opens with a composition by the American
composer Joan Tower. Written in 2000, her trio "Big
Sky" depicts a wild horseback adventure into the
mountains of the Andes. This is followed by Gaetano
Donizetti's Piano Trio in E flat Major, an
early work which shows Donizetti's early development
and even his budding operatic ability. The final piece
on the program is Ravel's Piano Trio, a work
rich in texture which showcases the group's virtuosity
and musicality.
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July
17
|

Ensemble Elatós |
"Femmetastique!"
Canadian cellist, Noémie Raymond-Friset (named to the
CBC's 30 hottest Canadian classical musicians under 30
list) returns to Music Mondays with Primrose
Prize-winning violist Matthew Cohen and pianist and
Steinway Artist Zhenni Li-Cohen.
Follow down the dark and mysterious path less traveled
as they traverse two centuries of unjustly neglected
masterpieces. From overlooked women of the 19th Century
to rightfully celebrated dames of the present day, we
invite you to join them for a poignantly intimate
journey. Musical compositions inspired by the light of
day are paired with those evoking the tranquility and
mysteries of night, accompanied by poetry by Ella
Higgonson and Sylvia Plath.
The journey culminates in Lera Auerbach’s magnificent Trio
#2, entitled “This mirror has
three faces”, concluding a sonic voyage that
travels through day into night and plumbing the depths
of a mirror into the very soul.
|
July
24
|
  
Clara Yoon, Julia Tom, and Megan Chang
|
Romanticism from Germany to Argentina
Toronto-based piano trio (Clara Yoon, violin; Julia
Tom, cello; Megan Chang, piano) will be treat us to an
afternoon of romantic music. The program will showcase
one of Mendelssohn's most well-known works Piano
Trio in D minor and end with Piazzolla's The
Four Seasons of Buenos Aires in the style of
passionate Argentinian tango idioms.
|
July
31 |
  

Marco Verza
and the TCO String Quartet
A Tribute to Kerry Stratton
|
A Tribute to Maestro Kerry Stratton
Italian clarinetist Marco Verza returns to Music Mondays
with the Toronto Concert Orchestra String Quartet in a
tribute concert to the late Maestro Kerry Stratton,
Music Director of the Toronto Concert Orchestra and
noted broadcaster.
The program will include Mozart's beloved Clarinet
Quintet in A Major K.581, Maria Molinari's “Loss”
for string quartet, Stravinski's “Three pieces”
for solo clarinet, Molinari's “Non ti
appartiene”, and a new work by Daniele Colla “Requiem
for Kerry Stratton” for soprano, string quartet
and clarinet.
|
August
7 |

Tamar Ilana
|
Tamar Ilana & Ventanas Quartet
Tamar Ilana & Ventanas is a six-piece Toronto-based
global music ensemble fronted by powerhouse vocalist and
dancer Tamar Ilana and featuring the city’s finest world
musicians. Drawing inspiration from such legendary
artists as the Silk Road Ensemble, Paco de Lucía, and
Yasmin Levy, they re-imagine Mediterranean melodies and
flamenco grooves, and mix contemporary interpretations
of ancient ballads with original compositions.
They’ve released three Canadian Folk Music Awards
nominated albums and are recording their 4th. They’ve
toured throughout North America and Colombia, and this
fall they will be embarking on their first European
tour. “I’m a huge admirer,” says Leslie Feist."
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August
14
|
|

Victoria
Wong
|
A Midsummer's Tale
Named as one of "Canada’s Top 30 under 30 musicians of
2022" by CBC, Victoria Wong made her concerto debut with
orchestra at age five. She is the First Prize winner of
Lancaster International Piano Competition, International
Fringe Award, EPTA International Piano Competition, San
Francisco International Music Competition, and is a top
prizewinner in the Canadian Chopin Competition. We are
thrilled to host her for this Music Mondays performance.
A collection of little pieces, this program promises to
be a refreshing hour of storytelling. The first three on
the program are all Romantic works, and reminiscent of
ancient legends: Chopin's Nocturne Op 27 No 1,
Clara Schumann's 4 Piece fugitives Op. 15 No.1,
and Chopin's Fantasy in F, Op. 49.
The last three are all composed in the 20th century, but
conjure up equally exciting narrations: Mathieu's Printemps
Canadien reminds us of the brief but beautiful
Canadian springtime, Gyorgy Ligeti - Music
Ricercata No. 3, 4, and 9, and Ravel's Gaspard
de la Nuit movements are poems describing
mythical creatures.
This
performance will be recorded for broadcast by
CBC MUSIC.
|
August
21 |

Jesse Dietschi
Trio |
Jesse Dietschi Trio - "Gradient"
With performance credits ranging from orchestral soloist
to jazz session player, Toronto bassist Jesse Dietschi
is a truly versatile musician and composer equally
experienced in jazz, classical, and popular music. We
welcome him back to Music Mondays with his trio: Ewen
Farncombe- piano, and Ethan Ardelli- drums, in a program
"Gradient."
A gradient is a “change in magnitude of a property
observed in passing from one moment to another”. It
implies constant re-positioning on a sliding scale
between two seemingly opposing factors. In their program
Gradient, the Jesse Dietschi Trio places themselves on a
sliding scale between modern jazz and contemporary
classical chamber music, constantly adjusting their
position as they navigate compositions that balance
those two styles.
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August
28 |

La Fiammata Piano Duo
|
Heart to Heart
We are thrilled to welcome back La Fiammata Piano Duo
(Linda Ruan and Charissa Vandikas) to Music Mondays,
this time for a live, in-person performance! Praised for
their “dizzying musicality” (Süddeutsche Zeitung),
Canadian piano duo La Fiammata are the Second Prize
winners, the Henle Urtext Prize winners and the youngest
piano duo finalists of the 70th ARD International Music
Competition. Named to the CBC's "30 hottest Canadian
classical musicians under 30" list they have been
featured on CBC's In Concert.
La Fiammata invites you to join them in a "Heart to
Heart", let by the music of Beethoven - 8 Variations
on a Theme by Waldstein, Alice Ho - Heart to
Heart, Schubert - Lebensstürme in A
minor, D. 947 and John Corigliano - Gazebo
Dances. The intimate nature of four-hands piano
explores what it means to have a personal and candid
conversation between two, in a way that no other
instrumentation can.
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September
4 |
 
Aaron Hodgson and Nikola Locatelli
|
Intercâmbio - Brazilian and Canadian Music
for Trumpets
Trumpeters Aaron Hodgson and Nikola Locatelli visit
Music Mondays before heading out on a tour of South
America! They will present a musical exploration of
Canada and Brazil. The concert will showcase notable
historical voices such as Calixa Lavallée and Santana
Gomes alongside the new generation of leading composers,
including Cait Nishimura and Fernando Morais.
Works by: R. Murray Schafer - Wolf Music,
Aubade and Nocturne; Calixa Lavallé - Meditation;
Cait Nishimura - Golden Hour; José Ursicino da
Silva “Duda” - Suite Recife; Santana Gomes - Andante
e Bolero
|