Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
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2010-2011 Season
February 9, 2010, 12:00 am
February 9, 2010:
For Immediate Release
Tafelmusik Announces the 2010/2011 Season:
The Galileo Project premieres in Asia
New Galileo Films for the Internet
Bravo! Canada television broadcast of Tafelmusik’s Sing-Along Messiah
Return Engagements: Kent Nagano’s Reate Festival in Italy;
Klang und Raum Festival in Irsee, Germany
Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Bruno Weil
Chopin on Period Piano with Janina Fialkowska
Bach Mass in B Minor
"One of the world's top baroque orchestras"
- Gramophone Magazine
Toronto (Canada) … Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir announced the details of the 2010/2011 season, which sees Tafelmusik’s reach extend further than ever before. Thousands of new audience members worldwide will have access to Tafelmusik through new ventures, including the television broadcast of Sing-Along Messiah on Bravo! Canada, and a new film version of the internationally hailed Galileo Project to be launched online. Reaffirming its role as Canada’s cultural ambassador, Tafelmusik takes The Galileo Project to China and Malaysia before returning for five encore performances on the Toronto season. Tafelmusik continues to break new ground, exploring 19th-century repertoire in its first-ever performances of music by Frédéric Chopin with guest pianist Janina Fialkowska performing on an 1848 Pleyel piano, and landmark performances of Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 9 directed by Bruno Weil at Koerner Hall. Tafelmusik’s international calendar includes return engagements to the Reate Festival in Rieti, Italy at the invitation of Kent Nagano, and its 18th year as Orchestra-in-Residence at the Klang und Raum Festival in Germany. Music Director Jeanne Lamon has also invited Eric Hoeprich, chalumeau, Richard Egarr, guest director and fortepiano, countertenor Daniel Taylor, and Stefano Montanari, guest director and violin — artists who delight music-lovers with their unique take on repertoire from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
A leader in artist training and education programmes, Tafelmusik is investing in the future by developing artists and audiences through the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Free Education Concerts and in-school visits, Baroque Education Day and the web-based Baroque Learning Centre. The orchestra also reaches millions of people through its award-winning recordings and online presence. On tour, Tafelmusik animates smaller communities with live performances, education and artist training, and provides study guides and other tools to open doors for continued exploration long after the applause has ended.
Music Director Jeanne Lamon says, “I am very excited about the upcoming season. I love all the newness in the programming. We continue to push our boundaries (Chopin and Beethoven 9), and explore new aspects of our core repertoire (chalumeau, Rameau choral works, Mozart's first symphony). We are thrilled to bring our Galileo Project back to Toronto audiences, to be returning to Asia, Italy and Germany, and to continue our collaboration with Opera Atelier and the University of Toronto. 2010-2011 promises to be a stimulating season for artists and audiences alike.”
“Tafelmusik’s stature as the most active period performance orchestra in North America is all the more extraordinary considering the organization has also remained deficit-free, producing balanced budgets for ten consecutive years, and almost doubling its revenues over the past decade while expanding its artistic activities and excelling on the world stage throughout its history,” says Tricia Baldwin, Managing Director. “Continued growth in Tafelmusik’s artistic, strategic and endowment activities and funds provide for a strong foundation and a remarkably vibrant future.”
During the 2010/2011 season, Tafelmusik continues its two decade-long collaboration with Opera Atelier and joins the company for its 25th anniversary season at the Elgin Theatre with performances of Handel’s Acis and Galatea from October 30 to November 7, 2010, and Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito from April 22 to May 1, 2011.
TAFELMUSIK REPRESENTS CANADA ON THE WORLD STAGE
As one of Canada’s most highly-regarded cultural ambassadors, Tafelmusik receives new and renewed invitations each season, including its return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s series at Walt Disney Hall in February 2010, and its sold-out Carnegie Hall debut in February 2009. Next season, Tafelmusik will perform concerts in 20 cities in six countries.
Tafelmusik’s touring season begins in August 2010 with its debut performance at the Orford Festival in Québec, followed by an encore performance at the Reate Festival in Rieti, Italy at the invitation of the Festival’s Artistic Director Kent Nagano. Tafelmusik performs three different programmes, including Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, and music by Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart in Rieti’s splendid Teatro Flavio Vespasiano. In late August, Tafelmusik returns to Irsee, Germany for its 18th year as Orchestra-in-Residence at the Klang und Raum Festival under Artistic Director Bruno Weil. Irsee repertoire includes Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony (no. 7), “Great” Symphony (no. 8), and Mozart’s Missa solemnis.
Tafelmusik’s creative multidisciplinary concerts continue to open doors around the world. In October 2010, Tafelmusik embarks on an ambitious Asian tour of The Galileo Project, with debut performances at the Beijing International Music Festival, Guangzhao, and Kuala Lumpur, followed by a five-day residency in South Korea. A culturally relevant Mandarin-language version of The Galileo Project is being prepared for the Chinese leg of the tour.
Closer to home, Tafelmusik travels to Western Canada in February 2011 for a tour that includes concerts in Victoria, Salt Spring Island, Vancouver, Kelowna, White Rock, Edmonton and Calgary. An Ontario tour later that month brings The Galileo Project to communities in Eastern Ontario.
RECORDING + BROADCASTS
Tafelmusik’s impressive discography of 76 CDs has brought the orchestra international recognition, including nine JUNO Awards and a Grammy Award nomination. The orchestra’s recordings — available world-wide through iTunes and other digital distributors — represent a permanent legacy and their excellence continues to resonate around the globe. Plans for the 2010/2011 season include two recordings: one with countertenor Daniel Taylor, and the other with violinist Stefano Montanari.
Tafelmusik’s broadcast recordings will make a huge national and international impact during the coming season. The national broadcast of a live performance of Sing-Along Messiah on Bravo! Canada is slated for the 2010 holiday season. Maestro Handel (aka Chamber Choir conductor Ivars Taurins) leads Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Chamber Choir and soloists Suzie LeBlanc, soprano, Daniel Taylor, countertenor, Rufus Müller, tenor, and Locky Chung, baritone, in this historic television event. Directed by Dave Russell, produced by Stuart Coxe and executive produced by Gordon Henderson of 90th Parallel Productions, Sing-Along Messiah will also be available on DVD in 2011.
CTV Limited’s Charlotte Engel, Production Executive, Documentaries & Alternative Programming, remarked, “Bravo! is extremely pleased to collaborate with Tafelmusik on Sing-Along Messiah. The performance for broadcast was stellar and we are thrilled to share this great experience with our Bravo! audience from coast to coast. Sing-Along Messiah will become a classic holiday special which all of Canada will come to love.”
The Internet brings Tafelmusik to the world through live performances, recordings and interviews, and many fans who have never heard the orchestra and choir perform live have nonetheless expressed their devotion through comments on Tafelmusik’s YouTube channel, Facebook and MySpace pages, Twitter and personal blogs. Next season, Tafelmusik’s “breathtaking” (CBC.ca) Galileo Project will reach thousands more when a film version of the concert experience will be available on YouTube.
TORONTO SEASON
As period music specialists who regularly collaborate with some of the world’s leading artists, Tafelmusik musicians continue to bring fresh perspectives to a range of music that spans more than 200 years. The orchestra’s 2010/2011 season balances baroque repertoire with forays into masterpieces by classical and romantic composers such as Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Chopin. The vitality of Tafelmusik’s artistic vision clearly resonates with its audiences at home, which continue to grow and diversify, contributing to an extraordinary subscription renewal rate of more than 80 percent.
The Toronto season opens with Lyrical Baroque September 22 to 26, featuring Eric Hoeprich on chalumeau (early clarinet). A founding member and principal clarinet of Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Hoeprich will be featured in a programme that showcases the chalumeau in several works by North German baroque composers. Joining Hoeprich is “breathtaking” soprano (Halifax Chronicle Herald) Shannon Mercer, who performs arias by Vivaldi and two of the composer’s Italian contemporaries, Conti and Ziani.
From October 7 to 10, Tafelmusik breaks new ground with Chopin on Period Piano – its first-ever performances of music by the 19th-century composer who wrote almost exclusively for the piano. Guest soloist Janina Fialkowska, once described as “a born Chopin interpreter” by legendary pianist Arthur Rubinstein, makes her Canadian period instrument ensemble debut on this programme. Playing an 1848 Pleyel piano, Fialkowska joins Tafelmusik for Chopin’s Piano Concerto no 1. in E minor, arranged for chamber ensemble. Spohr’s popular Nonet in F completes this 19th-century programme.
Composed in Rome in 1707 when Handel was just 22 years old, Dixit Dominus is often cited as the first of the composer’s great choral masterpieces. The extreme technical demands on both the singers and instrumental forces reflect the composer’s youthful exuberance and desire to impress a new public in Italy. Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir bring this “concerto” for voices and strings to life under the direction of Ivars Taurins November 11 to 14. The programme includes Rameau’s Grand Motet In convertendo.
Following rave reviews for his 2006 Tafelmusik performances, “the brilliant, energetic” (Toronto Star) guest director and fortepiano soloist Richard Egarr returns December 1 to 5 with a classical programme entitled Mozart and Haydn: Concertos and Symphonies. Egarr leads the orchestra in Mozart’s Symphony no. 1 in E-flat Major and Piano Concerto in A Major. Two works by Haydn, the Piano Concerto in D Major and his Symphony no. 44 in E Minor, complete the programme.
From December 15 to 19, Tafelmusik rings in the festive season with five performances of Handel’s Messiah, a cherished annual tradition that includes Sing-Along Messiah at Massey Hall. Ivars Taurins directs the Orchestra and Chamber Choir and guest soloists Christina Brandis, soprano; Rufus Müller, tenor; and Brett Polegato, bass. A perennial favourite, Tafelmusik’s Messiah prompted one critic to remark, “I cannot remember a Messiah presentation as uniformly “spot-on” as this year’s by Ivars Taurin’s Tafelmusik Chamber Choir and Baroque Orchestra … As for the choir, they, if anything, outdid the soloists in the crispness and brilliance of their coloratura.” (The Globe and Mail)
Bach at the Coffee House January 13 to 18, 2011, proves that café culture was alive and well long before Starbucks: Bach’s popular series of weekly concerts at Zimmerman’s Coffee House in Leipzig are the inspiration behind this programme. The orchestra’s own Charlotte Nediger joins Oliver Fortin for Bach’s Concerto for 2 harpsichords in C Major. The Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 and Telemann’s Concerto for flute, violin and cello, published as part of a collection called Tafelmusik, will be part of a programme that includes other works by composers that Bach admired.
From February 9 to 13, Ivars Taurins directs the combined forces of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir in Bach’s Mass in B Minor, a profound work of transcendent spirituality. Tafelmusik’s most recent performances of the Mass in B Minor were directed by Kent Nagano in Montreal in 2009, and led to the orchestra’s first invitation to the Maestro’s inaugural Reate Festival in Italy.
Back by popular demand! Following its Toronto premiere two seasons ago, the awe-inspiring, multi-media concert experience The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres returns to Toronto March 2 to 6, 2011. Created by bassist Alison Mackay to commemorate the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, The Galileo Project was a co-production with the Banff Centre, and celebrates the fusion of arts and science. Actor Shaun Smyth narrates a fully-integrated programme that combines projected images with music from the time of Galileo and astronomically-themed music by baroque composers. “Simply put, this is one of the best, most imaginative shows based on classical music seen here in years … the audience is left with a true taste of the awe, wonder and optimism…” (Toronto Star)
Canada’s star countertenor Daniel Taylor returns to Tafelmusik March 24 to 29, 2011. Known for his “pure, smooth, ethereal, and evocative” sound (BBC Music Magazine), Taylor joins the orchestra for five concerts of baroque music that include Bach’s Cantata No. 170, Vergnügte Ruh. His recent SONY recording The Voice of Bach has amassed a number of international distinctions, including a JUNO Award nomination and top marks from Billboard Soundscan, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone and Classical Music Magazine. A favourite of Tafelmusik audiences, Taylor is a featured soloist in the live recording of Sing-Along Messiah for national broadcast on Bravo! Canada.
The concerts on April 7 to 10, 2011 at Koerner Hall represent a milestone in Tafelmusik’s history, when the combined forces of the orchestra and chamber choir led by Bruno Weil perform Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 on period instruments for the first time. These concerts are the culmination of a critically-acclaimed, decade-long cycle of the complete Beethoven symphonies, and promise to transport “the listener into aural heaven.” (National Post). Weil and the orchestra have also recorded four of the Beethoven symphonies on the Analekta and Sony Classical labels, including the JUNO Award-winning Beethoven 5 & 6 CD.
Tafelmusik concludes its 2010/2011 season with a spectacular finale May 11 to 17, 2011. Virtuoso Violin features the thrilling performances of guest director and violinist Stefano Montanari, who galvanised audiences, critics and musicians alike with five sold-out performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons earlier this season. His Tafelmusik debut in 2008 was equally impressive: “Stefano Montanari … electrified the musicians and had them playing as if their lives and happiness depended on every twitch of his volatile elbow, every swish of his bow ...” (Globe and Mail)
Tafelmusik’s other GTA performances for 2010/2011 include a three-concert series at the George Weston Recital Hall at the North York Centre for the Performing Arts. The series includes Bach at the Coffeehouse on January 18, 2011; Daniel Taylor on March 29, 2011; and Virtuoso Violin with Stefano Montanari on May 17, 2011. As well, the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival will include a number of free community concerts in June, 2011.
ARTIST TRAINING
Committed to building an international centre of musical excellence while making baroque and classical music fully relevant in a 21st-century context, Tafelmusik continues to develop and invest in ongoing music education and outreach programmes for music lovers of all ages. These include Baroque Education Day, the online Baroque Learning Centre with its curriculum-based study guides for teachers and students, and interactive educational web games. The Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute organized by Charlotte Nediger offers pre-professional musicians the opportunity to learn about period performance practice. Tafelmusik is also the Baroque Orchestra-in-Residence at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. Tafelmusik continues to develop the next generation of local, national and international musicians, together with the audiences that will support and appreciate their endeavours for decades to come.
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Tafelmusik is thrilled to welcome back Sun Life Financial as
Season Presenting Sponsor for the ninth consecutive year.
Tafelmusik’s Season Radio Sponsor is THE NEW CLASSICAL 96.3 FM.
Tafelmusik’s Face the Musik programme is supported by
TD Canada Trust Music.
Tafelmusik gratefully acknowledges the support of its partners in government:
For media information or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Luisa Trisi, Media Relations Manager, Big Picture Communications
tel: 416 481-1161 | e-mail: ltrisi@sympatico.ca
High-resolution photos of Tafelmusik and Jeanne Lamon are available for download in the Media Room at www.tafelmusik.org.
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