Definitely not the blogging high season (cont.)

In hindsight, I should have done this earlier, but I am correcting my early oversight by adding oboeinsight to the list of blogs on the sidebar.


The next few days: more recitals (two of them with oboists), auditions, etc...

Artists in Canadian Cities

From an article by James Adams in Wednesday's Globe and Mail, the results of a recent study by Hill Strategies Research provides an interesting look at Canada's arts scene, with data collected from the 2001 census.

The report takes the definition of an "artist" as belonging to one of nine groups:

• actors
• artisans and craftspersons
• conductors, composers and arrangers
• dancers
• musicians and singers
• other performers (such as circus performers and puppeteers)
• painters, sculptors and other visual artists
• producers, directors, choreographers and related occupations
• writers

(Hey, singers are musicians too!)

From the report's conclusions, Toronto artists were found to have the highest annual earnings ($34,100) and Vancouver was found to have the highest number of artists in its population (1.7% versus a national average of .8%).

Another important statistic are the growth rates of the arts industry:

In Canada, the number of artists grew by 29% between 1991 and 2001, close to three times the rate of growth of the overall labour force (10%).

Of the 92 large cities examined in this report, Barrie (ON) had the largest percentage increase in the number of artists. The number of artists in Barrie more than tripled, increasing from 105 in 1991 to 340 in 2001.

...the number of artists in six other cities at least doubled between 1991 and 2001, including Coquitlam, Richmond and Port Coquitlam in British Columbia, Whitby and Newmarket in Ontario, as well as Moncton, New Brunswick.

Rounding out the list of cities with the highest percentage increase in artists between 1991 and 2001 are: Richmond Hill, ON (86% increase), Norfolk, ON (85% increase), Langley and New Westminster, B.C. (each with an 82% increase).

These are pretty astonishing numbers and reinforce what many arts lobbyists have been saying for quite some time.

Also bear in mind that these numbers are for the 2001 census--five years have passed, with almost certainly even more growth in the sector.

Full report by Hill Strategies

March 23 Recital with Tess Menet

Here is the program for this Thursday:

Tess Menet, oboe and english horn
Christopher Foley, piano

Thursday, March 23, 8pm
Victoria Chapel, University of Toronto

Concerto in C minor by Benedetto Marcello

I. Allegro moderato
II. Adagio
III. Allegro

Sonatine pour piano by Maurice Ravel, arranged for oboe and piano by David Walter

I. Modéré
II. Mouvement de Menuet
III. Animé

Fantasia for oboe by Georg Philippe Telemann

Intermission

Parable for English Horn by Vincent Persichetti

Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for solo oboe by Benjamin Britten

I. PAN who played upon the reed pipe which was Syrinx, his beloved
II. PHAETON who rode upon the chariot of the sun for one day and was hurled into the river Padus by a thunderbolt.
III. NIOBE who, lamenting the death of her fourteen children, was turned into stone.
IV. BACCHUS at whose feasts is heard the noise of gaggling women's tattling tongues and shouting out of boys.
V. NARCISSUS who fell in love with his own image and became a flower.
VI. ARETHUSA who, flying from the love of Alpheus the river god, was turned into a fountain.

Nocturne for english horn and piano by Andre Jutras

Concertante for oboe and piano by Emile Paladilhe

Definitely not the blogging high season

These last few weeks have seen a nosedive in terms of the number and depth of posts here. Well, it's that time of the year again when auditions, recitals, academic, and departmental duties are at their peak season. A steady stream of calls for a pianist for various auditions on the 24th and 25th would seem to suggest that this is the time of year when demand exceeds pianistic supply--even calling and emailing various people to inform them that I will be unavailable to play at their auditions takes up a large amount of time, and I pride myself on being one of the few that makes a point of returning (nearly) all calls.

One of the toughest decisions this time of the year is finding the moment at which I cannot take on any more recitals and auditions in order to keep up a high level of quality and commitment in my playing and teaching, even if that means turning away an enourmous amount of work. That's just one of the balancing acts that is required in order to survive this time of the season, so as not to be one of those unfortunate pianists who, being overbooked and totally swamped, begin to bail on commitments, and I've been getting an awfully large number of calls from those who are their unwitting victims...

Bio night

The bios needed to be revised to reflect the last few months, so here are the latest versions in full and short form.

Robert Moog's last invention

According to a recent article from the Star-Ledger by Kevin Coughlin and blogged by Xeni Jardin on BoingBoing, electronic keyboard pioneer Robert Moog left a mysterious and unfinished final project at his death last year, the Eaton-Moog Multiple-Touch-Sensitive Keyboard, currently residing in the attic of composer John Eaton. A description of its keyboard mechanism:

What is unique -- and challenging -- about the Eaton-Moog keyboard is how many ways each key can be programmed to respond. How far you depress a key matters. The actual area covered by your finger changes the sound. Sliding your finger across a key's length or width can approximate, say, a vibrato effect on a violin string. How hard you push a depressed key matters, too.

Tablet PCs for Musicians

One of the shining new lights of the classical music blogosphere in the last while has been Hugh Sung, whose technical expertise in the field of footswitch-enabled tablet PCs and their applications by performing musicians as a substitute for traditional paper scores is an indispensable resource. Tablet PCs may very well be the wave of the future for performing musicians. Here are links to his series thus far on Putting a Tablet PC System together for Musicians:

• Part 1 Hardware
• Part 2 Software
• Part 3 Scanning Music
• Part 4 Music Readers and Annotators
• Part 5 Music Readers and Annotators continued
• Part 6 Maintenance

One of the only questions I have about this medium regard copyright. Sites such as CD Sheet Music and Everynote have large collections of public domain digital scores, but music currently under copyright is generally only available in paper versions and music retailers I have talked to regarding digital copies of printed music tend to err on the conservative side of the law, ie. it contravenes copyright law. It is probably only a matter of time before the legalities of this medium are sorted out and it will be possible to purchase both digital and paper copies of current musical releases.

However, it appears that the page-turner gods have not been with me in the last year or so in various recitals--perhaps a stable and well-maintained tablet PC might be an answer to my current woes regarding finding reliable page turners.


Note on 3/18: Many of the issues regarding copyright are addressed in:

• Part 7 Building a Digital Music Library
  

Bathroom Divas Season 2 Announced

The most challenging thing about appearing on CityTV's Breakfast Television is the rather early call time (6am) and the wake-up time that is required to make such a feat possible (4:15am for me). However, the advantage of driving into downtown Toronto on the Gardiner Expressway at 5:20 in the morning is that there is almost no traffic, a rare sight indeed.

After a short sound check we had a long wait, enhanced by some fine complementary sausages and pancakes while we saw some truly astonishing balloon sculptures being made for the kids present on the show. After heading to the Bravo!Canada studio at the back of the main floor, BDivas Season 1 winner Elton Lammie and I finally performed "Una furtiva lagrima" from Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore around 8:26, at which time it was officially announced that the hit Bravo!Canada show Bathroom Divas will be going to a second season. The announcement on BT this morning was a lead-up to the official press release that comes out this Friday.

An early night, and a early morning

Elton Lammie and I will be performing on CityTV’s Breakfast Television tomorrow morning.  Our call—6am.  Off to bed.

Clara revisited

From the Independent, an article by Jessica Duchen on recent views on Clara Schumann, with opinions from such luminaries as Graham Johnson, Roger Vignoles, and Steven Isserlis. An excerpt:

It appears that Clara - who did not see her husband again until he was on his deathbed - could have brought him home when his condition improved, but chose not to. The writer Bettina von Arnim visited him in Endenich and found him in good health, but in the care of doctors who verged on the sadistic.

See also Jessica Duchen's classical music blog.

No thanks, I'm allergic

Thanks to My Other Life, here are links to a couple of interesting oddities--Kircher's Cat Piano of 1650 and Intelligent MIDI Sequencing with Hamster Control of 2003.

73 Bars Rest?

Ever experienced frustration when reading a part for a work that neglected to contain important cues? You're not alone. From a discussion thread initiated by Frank Oteri on NewMusicBox:

With the exception of parts for accompanying pianists in chamber music—which thankfully contain everyone else's part, too—parts for almost all classical music repertory only contain the notes for that particular individual to play. It is a foolish tradition that lives on in most contemporary music.

One of the finest examples of a properly cued work is Maurice Ravel's Chansons madécasses. Both the flute and violoncello parts include the vocal line, without which this difficult group of songs would be impossible to perform. Kudos for the obsessive compulsive Ravel for realizing what needed to be put in the parts in order for performers to navigate the work as efficiently as possible. I've noticed that a few composers are beginning to write additional cues in parts after they are generated from programs such as Finale and Sibelius. So much time can be saved in rehearsal with concise and informative parts...

Doppelgangers

One of the more interesting discoveries of the last while was finding other people on the web that share my name, and there are quite a few of them, and they all seem to be relatively successful, which certainly puts a bit of pressure on for me to excel as well as my namesakes seem to be doing.

This one is a guitarist, I think.

Another (female) plays drums in heavystud, formerly with Star Ghost Dog, Jen Trynin, and Society System Decontrol.

Another was the 2002 Minnesota Section PGA Teacher of the Year.

Yet another is an independent member of the Queensland State Parliament in Australia.

Another seems to have recently moved to Sweden.

I now know where to go if I'm in the market for real estate in Carlton. Or for that matter, in San Fransisco.

Here's a distance runner.

And finally, a sensei:

Chris Foley is the holder of a 5^thdan (Godan) Black belt in Ishi-Ryoku Jutsu (2&3)and also holds a 4th dan Black belt in Tuite Grappling (USKA) (4), a 4th dan Black Belt in Seigi Bushido Ryu (1&2), a 3rd dan Black belt in Shinto Yoshin Ryu Jui-Jitsu (4&5), a 3rd dan Black belt in Shorinji Ryu Kyohkai Kempo (4), a 2nd dan (Nidan) Black belt in Keedok Kyo (2), and a 1st dan Black Belt in Karate (Ryushido). Full Combat Instructor Pachivas Pankration.(4)

So you see the kind of pressure I'm under to succeed with such illustrious company. More namesakes to follow in the coming days.

Women in Music at Eastman

Here is the program for Two Continents Meeting, the Monday noon program of the 2006 Women in Music Festival at the Eastman School of Music Main Hall. Wendy and I will be performing songs of Barbara Pentland and I will be playing two short pieces by Laura Schwendinger. Other composers featured on the program include Barbara Strozzi, Lili Boulanger, Amy Beach, Beata Golec, Margaret Bonds, Florence Price, Rebecca Clarke, and Joni Mitchell. The rest of the week also features an enormously varied lineup of composers and performers in various venues at Eastman.

Press release

Image hosted by the Eastman School of Music

More Opera To Go Reviews

Two more reviews have appeared in the last few days, both in the Toronto entertainment weeklies--a mixed review (third one down on linked page) by Paul Isaacs in eye, and a mostly positive response from Jon Kaplan in Now.


Star and Globe reviews
Classical 96.3 review

More Links, and a Farewell

I've just added a couple more blog links to the sidebar. They are Campbell Vertesi's Adventures in Opera Singing and Hugh Sung. What I like about both these blogs is the way they combine news and information about their corners of the classical music world with cool tech tools in clever and interesting ways.

-----

And an extremely fond farewell to canadienne, who is calling it quits in the blogosphere. Thank you for your honesty and candor in your all-too-short-lived blog, qualities that are far too rare in this profession.

Filumena Television Premiere

John Estacio's opera Filumena has its world television premiere tomorrow night on the CBC Television program Opening Night. Laura Whalen will be starring in the title role of the last woman in Canada ever to receive the death penalty. Also appearing are Gaetan Laperierre, David Pomeroy, Gregory Dahl, Elizabeth Turnbull, Torin Chiles, Keith Boldt, Michael Meraw and Christine Ledig in an Edmonton Opera production.

More info on Filumena

Image hosted by filumena.com

Another OTG review

Another positive review of Tapestry's Opera To Go, this one by Paula Citron, arts reviewer at Classical 96.3FM.

Link

Previous reviews

New Opera Funding

From newmusicbox, a list of recipients of the 2005-06 Audience Development Awards from Opera America and Opera.ca.

Link

Back to the practice room

With the opening of the show and a return to a somewhat normal schedule, at least during the day, now is the time for a lot of learning and rehearsing for upcoming stuff, as well as responding to an inordinate number of queries about playing for auditions.

Among the numerous upcoming concerts I have on deck, one of the most interesting is an appearance with Wendy at the Women in Music Festival at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. The brainchild of Eastman faculty member Dr. Sylvie Beaudette, this five-day festival celebrates "women involved in all aspects of music, including composition, performance, teaching, scholarship, and administration." Wendy and I will be performing three songs of Barbara Pentland, and I will be playing a few short piano works by Laura Schwendinger.

And it seems that my posting of a week ago regarding extended techniques rattled Andy at Piano and Synth.

Am I a purist (or maybe I’m not a purist in these enlightened days) ?

This strikes me as odd, and almost sacrilegious. Why do we have to do things to the piano that it wasn’t intended for?

Have no fear. While these techniques were considered shocking in the mid-60's (and before) when they were first used, it's no big deal any more for a pianist to stand up and go inside the piano to make a sound or two. I've been playing new music for the last 15 years with hardly a shudder from the audience as I have reached inside the keyboard to make sounds in clever and nefarious ways. These techniques no longer have any shock value, but tend to blend seamlessly into the overall thread of the work, with much less strain on the mechanism of the piano than, say, playing a Romantic piano concerto.

Really?

It's difficult to believe that the two reviews of the show to come out so far could be so completely different. Witness Robert Everett-Green's invective in his Globe and Mail review vs. John Terauds' glowing praise in the Toronto Star.

"Having the critics praise you is like having the hangman say you've got a pretty neck." -Eli Wallach

Opera To Go Opens Tonight

Tonight will be the industry opening of Tapestry New Opera's Opera To Go at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto's Distillery District. The show begins at 8pm.

Showtimes and ticket info

Sound Waves at the Vancouver Aquarium

The trio Three-Part Invention (with soprano Heather Pawsey, flutist Kathryn Cernauskas and pianist Karen Shumka) will be among a number of performers playing at a unique environmental concert at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre in Vancouver. From the Sound Waves press release,

This limited-seating concert sees audience and musicians roaming the Aquarium together, from the Amazon Gallery to Arctic Canada and points in-between. Form and functionality, structure and sonority are explored, as differing locations, changes in temperature and humidity, light and colour, and the Vancouver Aquarium’s specific creatures and acoustics are reflected in Canadian repertoire on a marine and coastal theme chosen deliberately to highlight and complement these unique elements.

Some of the works performed will include R. Murray Schafer's The Aria of the Princess (in the Arctic Canada exhibit), Harry Somers' Kuyas (in the Amazon Rainforest exhibit), as well as the world premiere of Leslie Uyeda's Whales for soprano, keyboard, flute, and belugas (in the Beluga viewing gallery).

Sound Waves will be held at the Vancouver Aqarium Marine Science Centre at 7:30pm on Saturday, March 25. Admission is free, with limited seating--to book, call 604-659-3527.