Speedlinking - 28 April 2008

Having completed my taxes for 2007 (with refund owing--yay), it's back to the blog with the latest batch of fascinating linkage:

• Check out Opera Chic for a picture of America's most famous non-conductor.
• Molly Sheridan examines one of the dinosaurs of classical music: the tuxedo.
• Hugh Sung has just launched The Prosperous Musician, a blog that will be looking at how to excel financially in a field not generally known for widespread monetary success.
• Those not yet convinced of the switch from traditional to social media might want to check out some fascinating stats on blogging and social networking at ReadWriteWeb.
  
• And finally, some beautiful words of inspiration from Grace Nikae at this busy time of year:
  

  An artistic life celebrates and values the courage needed to ask the question that allows us to continue searching and growing - not for “any prince’s gallery”, but because the question itself reveals the infinite dimensions of our relationship to the world around us.

Heather Lundstedt Sings I'm Not Afraid of Anything

One song that I'm coaching a lot these days is Jason Robert Brown's I'm Not Afraid of Anything from Songs for a New World. This YouTube video features soprano Heather Lundstedt--very little information about location or personnel is available from this video's page on YouTube but I'll try to rustle up some more info on this memorable performance and update as soon as possible.



Update 4/25:

This video was part of a concert of Jason Robert Brown songs put together by students at Azusa Pacific University in December of 2006. The singers were Colleen Ballinger, Caleb Shaw, Jordan Lamoureux, and Heather Lundstedt. Scott Douglas was the pianist for the production.

(Thanks, Heather!)

Recital Friday Evening in Milton

Tomorrow evening I head a few minutes north to play for Milton Concert Presentations' Broadway to Opera, an evening of opera and musical theatre favorites with soprano Elizabeth Beeler, mezzo soprano Deborah Overes, and baritone Lawrence Cotton. Broadway to Opera will take place in St. Paul's United Church on 123 Main Street East in Milton. Tickets are $35/30 (call 905-878-1526 for more information).

TOT's Mikado....Featuring Wendy as Katisha

I've hardly seen Wendy this month since she's been in rehearsals for the Toronto Operetta Theatre's production of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado, opening tomorrow night at the Jane Mallett Theatre in Toronto. Although Sunday's performance was technically a preview, the reviewers were there (as is increasingly becoming the norm at Toronto previews), and Richard Ouzounian's review of the show appeared in today's Star.

The full cast:

Peter McCutcheon - Nanki-Poo
Rory McGlynn - Pish-Tush
David Ludwig - Pooh-Bah
Gerald Isaac - Ko-Ko
Michele Bogdanowicz - Yum-Yum
Gillian Grossman - Pitti-Sing
Anna Bateman - Peep-Bo
Wendy Hatala Foley - Katisha
Sean Watson - The Mikado

The TOT's Mikado is directed by Guilliermo Silva-Marin with David Speers on the podium. Michael Rose is the repetiteur for the production.

Shows are April 22, 23, 25, and 26 at 8pm, and April 27 at 2pm. Tickets are $78/$58/$39. You can call to reserve tickets at 416-366-7723 or 1-800-708-6754.

Update 4/22:

Colin Eatock's review appeared this morning in the Globe and Mail. What he says about Wendy:

Mezzo Wendy Hatala Foley, as Katisha, burst on stage like a madwoman freshly escaped from an Italian opera: Her powerful voice and stage presence energized every scene she appeared in.

Update 4/25:

A very positive review from Christopher Hoile appeared in Eye Weekly. About Wendy:

Wendy Hatala Foley uses her lovely full mezzo to make Katisha, the woman also in love with Nanki-Poo, not the usual witch but a woman fearing a life without love, a feeling she strongly conveys in Katisha’s two solo meditations that clearly impressed the entire audience.

The Language of Music, The Music of Words: A Musical Evening with Joy Kogawa and Friends

For those that haven't noticed yet, we're right in the middle of the largest poetry celebration in the world, known as National Poetry Month. Those in the Vancouver area (fresh from discovering the newfound tradition of singing O Canada after CBC Radio Orchestra concerts) might want to check out The Language of Music, The Music of Words, A Musical Evening with Joy Kogawa and Friends this Friday, April 25 at 8pm.

From the event's press release:

Vancouver composer Leslie Uyeda presents two song cycles written to accompany five of Joy Kogawa’s most exquisite poems. "Stations of Angels" will be performed by soprano Heather Pawsey and flutist Kathryn Cernauskas and "Offerings," by Heather Pawsey and pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa. These performances are the world premiere of both song cycles, which were composed especially for these three artists. To complement the musical performance, poets Joy Kogawa, Heidi Greco, Marion Quednau, and Vancouver’s poet laureate George McWhirter will read. The evening will close with a stellar presentation: the Vancouver Public Library will award Joy the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding literary career related to British Columbia.

The event takes place April 25 at 8pm at the historic Kogawa House, the childhood home of legendary Canadian novelist and poet Joy Kogawa, who grew up in Japanese internment camps in the BC interior and later wrote about the experience in Obasan, her most widely read novel

Kogawa House is located at 1450 W. 64th Avenue in Vancouver (just east of Granville). Admission is by donation and tickets are limited, so be sure to RSVP ahead of time to kogawahouse [at] yahoo dot ca. Proceeds from the concert will go towards the house's first writer-in-residence.

Speedlinking - 21 April 2008

Here are a few links that I've found interesting in the last while:

• Kate writes about 7 Reasons for Pianists To Play Music Together.
• Those who are required to travel for engagements might want to check out the Gig After Gas Online Calculator to see how much of your pay you're actually keeping after factoring in your gas costs.
  
• The Kurosawa Piano Music Foundation looks like a very worthwhile organization whose mission is to support the art of the piano duo (via WTB).
• Interested in reading novels about pianists? From the bench has a list of several that you may want to check out.
• An article in today's Toronto Star by James Rolfe (president of the Canadian League of Composers) is perhaps the most eloquent and blunt recounting of the tragedy that has befallen Canada's cultural life with the CBC's near-abandonment of classical music.
• And finally, (via Dark Roasted Blend), a vintage television clip of an argument between Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray set to Beethoven's 5th Symphony:

Pavarotti Sings Ah dispar vision - in 1970

This is one of my favorite Pavarotti recordings of all time. The audio here isn't of a very high quality (and isn't much better on the CD of the same recording I heard a few years ago), but gives an impression of just how great a singer Pavarotti must have been in his prime.

Last Letter Home Available Through Classical Vocal Reprints

A big thanks to Josiah Gulden for leaving the following comment on a previous posting about the continuing search for places to purchase the score of Lee Hoiby's Last Letter Home for baritone and piano.

The voice/piano version of the piece is available under the title "Pfc. jesse Givens" through Classical Vocal Reprints.

For those who don't haven't heard about Classical Vocal Reprints, they are a fine company that's been around a long time that specializes in out of print and hard to find vocal music. I did some checking and the piece is indeed available on page 39 of the 2008 CVR Catalog (warning: 10MB pdf file) with the following info:

Private First Class Jesse Givens (to the fallen in Iraq) Voice: BAR CVR#: 8023 Price: $10.00

What would I do without such great readers and commenters?

The Core Repertoire: Sonatas for Viola and Piano

Here is a list of the most commonly played sonatas for viola and piano. For more in-depth lists, check out the following links:

• Viola Sonatas in Wikipedia
• Another list at andritsch.at
• Donald McInnes' Representative List of Viola Repertoire, organized by level
  

Sonata In A Minor For Viola And Piano, D 821 (Arpeggione) By Franz Schubert (1797-1828), arranged by Ulrich Von Wrochem. D 821. Set of performance parts (includes separate pull-out viola part) for viola and piano. Urtext of the New Schubert Edition. Published by Baerenreiter-Ausgaben (German import). This sonata provides ample opportunities to bring the intimacy of the Schubertian lied into the arena of the sonata. See more info...

Sonatas for Piano and Clarinet (or Viola) op. 120, 1 and 2 (Version for Viola) By Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), edited by Monica Steegmann. Collection and set of parts for Viola and piano. Urtext edition-paper bound. 71 pages. Published by G. Henle. Brahms' two late sonatas (originally for clarinet and piano) are two of the cornerstones of the viola and piano repertoire. See more info...

Sonata By Rebecca Clarke. Arranged by Martha Schleifer. For Viola, Piano. Published by Hildegard. This late romantic work is truly one of the wonders of the viola and piano repertoire. See more info...

Sonata in F, Op. 11, No. 4 (1919) Viola and Piano. By Paul Hindemith. Schott. Softcover. 36 pages. Published by Schott. This sonata (nicknamed "11/4") is much more romantic than Hindemith's later work, and is the most performed of his works for viola and piano. Highlights include the hybrid theme and variations form which straddles the last two movements. See more info...

Sonata (Piano/Viola) By Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975). Op. 147. Viola solo single for viola solo and piano accompaniment. Published by G. Schirmer, Inc. Shostakovich's enigmatic last work, which requires a great deal of thought from both violist and pianist, especially in the building of longer musical gestures. See more info...

See the entire Core Repertoire series-in-progress.

Next in the series: more works for viola and piano.

Recital With Jonathan Liebich This Sunday in Uxbridge

On Sunday April 20, I will be performing Ralph Vaughan-Williams' Songs of Travel with bass/baritone Jonathan Liebich as part of the Monday Morning Singers program at St. Paul's Anglican Church on 59 Toronto Street South in Uxbridge. Tickets are $15/$12 students or seniors. Free admission for children under 12.

My TAFTO 2008 Article

The article I wrote for Drew McManus' Take a Friend To Orchestra 2008 is up on the Adaptistration site. My contribution looks at the world of the new opera creation process based on my adventures at Tapestry New Opera Works.

More Info on Lee Hoiby's Last Letter Home

Many readers have expressed a great deal of interest in Lee Hoiby's Last Letter Home, a song based on a text by Pfc. Jesse Givens, a soldier in the US Army who perished in Iraq. I would like to express my thanks to Norman Ryan, Vice-President of Composers and Repertoire at Schott Music for sending word that Schott will indeed be publishing the version of Last Letter Home for voice and piano shortly. Norman also mentioned links to recent press releases with more info on the song:

Lee Hoiby's Last Letter Home is the setting to music of a letter by US Army tank crewman, Jesse Givens, who had been in Iraq for just a month when, on May 1, 2003, his tank crashed and fell into a canal off the Euphrates River. The rest of the crew escaped through a hatch, but Givens perished trapped inside the tank. Hoiby's intention was to set Givens' words as clearly as possible, writing it in three-part form for one tenor and two baritone parts. Last Letter Home is also available in versions for solo baritone and piano as well as string quartet and orchestra.

Stay tuned for more info on the publication of the voice and piano version...

On Getting Those Recitals Ready 2 Rumble

It's now mid-April and the peak of the recital season is now upon many of us. Here are some quick links to previous articles that might be of use to those of you preparing for recitals, competitions, juries, master classes, auditions, recordings, and festivals.

• Run the Program
• Record Yourself
• Work Backwards
• Making Endings Work
• Take Your Performance for a Test Drive...Every Day
• 5 Ways to Add Length to Your Practice Session

And above all:

• Find Your Muse, Find Your Process
  

The CBC Rally in Toronto Part 3: Russell Smith's Speech

By the time the well-known journalist, novelist, cultural commentator, and Globe and Mail columnist Russell Smith spoke, the crowd had reached at least 250 by my estimate. Kudos to everyone that showed up in the cold and rainy weather outside the CBC building, including a fair number of students from both the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatory of Music. Here is Russell's speech in its entirety:




If you want to check out the first two speeches at the April 11 rally, you can view them here and here. After Russell Smith spoke, I filmed less than a minute of composer James Rolfe's speech when my camera's card registered that it was full. Other speakers on Friday included Ivars Taurins of Tafelmusik and composer Ruth Watson Henderson.

The CBC Rally in Toronto Part 2: Bob Stevenson's Speech

Here is more footage I took on Friday afternoon at the rally in Toronto to save classical music at the CBC. This speech is from Robert W. Stevenson, Artistic Director of Arraymusic and head of the Toronto Coalition of New Music Presenters.



The next speech from Friday's protest I'll be posting is by Russell Smith, columnist for the Globe and Mail.

Kathleen Rudolph's speech
Russell Smith's speech

Take the poll: Do you agree with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's decision to dismantle the CBC Radio Orchestra?

Peter Aidu Plays Reich's Piano Phase - On Two Pianos

No need for a piano duo partner in this performance: Peter Aidu plays both parts of Steve Reich's Piano Phase on two pianos.

The CBC Rally in Toronto Part 1: Kathleen Rudolph's Speech

Here is footage of CBC Radio Orchestra principal flutist and Glenn Gould School faculty member Kathleen Rudolph speaking at Friday's Toronto rally to save classical music at the CBC, filmed by myself in front of the CBC building on Front Street. Kathleen was the first speaker this afternoon, and most of the people present at the rally so far were behind me on the street, since we had moments before been asked by CBC security to congregate away from the building. Once more people arrived, the entire area was filled with at least 250 people, as subsequent videos will show.



See also:

Bob Stevenson's speech
Russell Smith's speech

Piano Surfing

piano surfing, of course

(Via freemoore's photostream on Flickr)

More weird piano stuff:

Piano-flinging Trebuchet at Burning Man 1007
Jazz Garden with Piano Fountain

More tricked-out pianos:

M. Liminal, the NYT Line Fazioli
The Schimmel Pegasus

Complete Beethoven Violin and Piano Sonatas at Bard College This Weekend

Those of you in the Annandale-on-Hudson area of New York might want to check out a unique event this weekend: the complete Beethoven violin and piano sonatas played by Collaborative Piano Fellows at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. The sonata cycle will happen over three concerts, the first two on April 11 and 12 at 8pm, and the last at 3pm on the 13th. The concerts will be at Olin Hall and admission is free.

Also check out the Beethoven faceoff: MK vs. WK

Lee Hoiby's Last Letter Home from Pfc. Jesse Givens

While on duty in Iraq, Pfc. Jesse Givens wrote a letter to his wife and two children that he wished to be only opened in the event of his death. Unfortunately, Givens died in battle and his wife consented to American composer Lee Hoiby setting his letter to music. Here is the transcription for voice and piano, as performed by baritone Andrew Garland and Lee Hoiby on piano.



Note on getting hold of the music: The score of Last Letter Home for male choir is published by Schott. I inquired about the availability of the score for voice and piano and the word was that this version hasn't been published yet. Stay tuned for more updates on where to find the score of this lovely and heartbreaking song.

(Via Sequenza21/)

Update 4/10:

Lee Hoiby has very kindly informed me that the voice and piano version is currently in the process of publication, but he can send you a score for $8 if you email him at Aquarius [at] pronetisp dot net.

Speedlinking - 9 April 2008

Here are some interesting links on various subjects:

• In case you're learning Schumann's Dichterliebe, you might want to check out Robert Fertitta's essay on tonal relationships in the cycle.
• Stefan Kutrzeba has assembled a very useful site on matters of piano technique and pedagogy.
• Question: How do you play a burning piano? Answer: With a firesuit.
• Question: What do you do when the parts for your performance of Verdi's Un giorno di regno are unreadable? Answer: Transcribe them using Finale, a feat accomplished by none other than WTO's Kim Witman.
• And finally, Wichita piano teacher Megan Decker has stumbled upon a great way to give her students at-home assignments: write them on a blog! (Via Natalie)
  

Take A Friend To Orchestra 2008

I'm honored to have been asked by Drew McManus of Adaptistration to write an article for Take A Friend To Orchestra 2008. My contribution will be coming out next Wednesday and will look at my experiences in the new opera creation process with Tapestry New Opera Works. Until then, take a look at the contributions so far this year by Carlos Kalmar and Matt Heller.

North vs. South of the 49th Parallel

Kyle Gann has just written an interesting article on his perceptions of the new music scenes in Canada and the United States. His view of the new music scene in Canada and opportunities for composers up here is generally optimistic:

But I'll tell you the advice I've been most often giving my composing students lately: go to grad school at McGill, or York University, or the University of Toronto, or Simon Fraser, establish residence, and spend the rest of your life writing music and getting it played, and waving bye-bye to your indigent, day-job-slaving American cousins.

Where To Go and When for This Friday's CBC Protests

Tanya Battaglia of the Elektra Women's Choir has generously sent along this press release with the latest information on Friday's cross-Canada protests against the cuts to classical music and the CBC Radio Orchestra:

This email is to inform you of “A National Day of Action to save CBC Radio 2 and the CBC Radio Orchestra” taking place on April 11 in major cities across Canada, mainly in front of CBC buildings. There are over 15,000 Canadians involved in this grassroots movement.

Please relay Friday’s nationwide rally information to your groups, students, friends, family, fellow musicians, and whomever you think is interested. Forward this email to your contacts too.

They will be short, but very energetic rallies. Bring signs and songs! Tell your local media!

Full list of rallies happening in sync across Canada on Friday April 11

Victoria
9am Pacific: Victoria: 1025 Pandora Avenue
Contact: Cecilia Porter - ceciliap [at] uvic.ca

Vancouver

9am Pacific: Vancouver: 775 Cambie Street
Contacts: David Taylor Gill - dtg1 [at] sfu.ca
Jocelyn Morlock – jocelynmorlock [at] yahoo.ca
John Oliver – joliver1 [at] earsay.com
Michael Vincent – info [at] michaelvincent.ca

Calgary

10am Mountain: Calgary: 1724 Westmount Blvd. NW
Contact - Andrew Nowry Andrewnowry [at] gmail.com
Darren Young - silentearth66 [at] hotmail.com

Edmonton

10am Mountain: Edmonton: 23 Edmonton City Centre, 10062-102nd Avenue
Contacts - Scott Bursey - scottbursey@gmail.com
John Brough – jsbrough@shaw.ca
Peter McGillivray radio2@petermcgillivray.com

Saskatoon

10am Sask: Saskatoon: CBC 144 2nd Ave South
Contacts: Lorraine McGrath Khachtourians
Brendan McLean - bjm384 [at] mail.usask.ca

Regina

10am Sask: Regina: 2440 Broad Street
No contact yet

Winnipeg

11am Central: Winnipeg: 541 Portage Avenue
Contact: Jonathan Klassen - jklasse [at] gmail.com

Toronto

12pm Eastern: Toronto: 250 Front Street West
Contacts: James Baldwin jamesmichaelbaldwin [at] rogers.com
Chris Foley collaborativepiano [at] gmail.com
Kathleen Rudolph Jkrudolph5 [at] aol.com
Julia Mah - fairside61 [at] hotmail.com

London

12pm Eastern: London, ON: 208 Piccadilly Street
Contact: Forrest Pass - fpass [at] uwo.ca
Durval Cesetti - durval.cesetti.cbcprotestlondon [at] gmail.com

Ottawa

12pm Eastern: Ottawa: 181 Queen Street, Ottawa - Meeting at Sparks Street entrance
Contact: James Wooten - cbcradiotwoandme [at] hotmail.com
Gary Hayes - cansona [at] rogers.com

Montreal

12pm Eastern: Montreal: 1400 Rene Levesque East
Contact-Alexandra Fol - alexandra.fol [at] mail.mcgill.ca
Emily Gray - contra_alto [at] hotmail.com
Michael Shannon - michael.shannon [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Saint John

1pm Atlantic: Saint John: 560 Main Street
No contact yet

Halifax

1pm Atlantic: Halifax: 1601 South Park
Contact: Christian Stalley - cspstudio [at] yahoo.ca
Stephanie Moore - st886157 [at] dal.ca
Janet Brush - thunderbug22003 [at] yahoo.ca

Charlottetown

1pm Atlantic: Charlottetown: 430 University Avenue
Contact Kate Huston - drummingdiva [at] hotmail.com

St John

1pm AST: Saint John: 560 Main Street
No contact yet

Newfoundland

1:30pm Newfoundland: St John's: 25 Henry Street
Contact: Heather Joyce - livingabundance [at] hotmail.com

For more rally details, please visit one of these websites:
http://michaelvincent.ca/Newsblog/?p=71
http://savecbcorchestra.com/2008/04/05/cbc-national-day-of-action/
For more information on the movement, please visit composer John Oliver's comprehensive site:
http://standonguardforcbcradio.earsay.com/?cat=5

Kind regards,

Tanya Battaglia

Vancouver

Member of Elektra Women's Chorus

If you happen to have any regional updates on the protests, please feel free to contact me and I can post any additional information!

Update 4/10:

Tanya sends along updated information for the St. John (New Brunswick) St. John's (Newfoundland), Regina, and Fredericton gatherings:

St. John St. John's: "Update!! Apparently we had the wrong address for the CBC in St John's. Henry street is the old abandoned building. The protest will meet at 1:30pm at the NEW building on Prince Phillip Drive and someone will post a notice at the old location.

Regina: Also Regina has a new contact: Pauline Minevich of the Regina Symphony has graciously accepted this position: Pauline.Minevich [a] uregina.ca.

Fredericton: And there seems to be a lot of concern that the Fredericton demo was left off the press release. We say if people want to go - go! We suspect there will be a lively if small crowd there."

Quote of the Day

There will be five, count 'em, five hours of classics every weekday, four on Sunday afternoons and the opera program on Saturdays, which is five hours long. That's what, 34 hours of classical music a week by my count. How much more do these people want?

--Ken Rockburn in the Ottawa Citizen, reprinted in the Calgary Herald

(Via Michael Vincent)

Save the CBC Radio Orchestra Printable Posters

Here's yet another way to show your support for both the CBC Radio Orchestra and the cause of classical music on the airwaves in Canada: put up posters. Bill Horne has very generously created and made available several posters on pdf files that you can easily print out and copy:

-the poster shown at left
-another poster with a list of organizations and public officials to contact
-a Northerners Support the CBC Radio Orchestra poster (watch it in action on this video)

And while you're at it, please don't forget to sign the petitions to Save the CBC Radio Orchestra and Restore CBC Radio 2. Then fill out the CBC Radio Orchestra poll and learn the truth about where public opinion stands regarding this matter.

Los Marimbistas de Wells

One of the saddest outcomes of the CBC classical music cuts is that residents of small towns across Canada and the northern United States will lose much of their access to classical music. Here are two amateur percussionists from the northern British Columbia town of Wells playing a short piece (in the snow, no less!) in support of the CBC Radio Orchestra.



(Thanks, Bill!)

Faerie's Aire and Death Waltz

Via conradh's photostream on Flickr, here is your sight reading assignment for the week.

You can find more extreme musical scores on this classic post from Dark Roasted Blend.

The Top 50 Classical Music Blogs--Served Up 4 Ways

Ben at Classical Convert has compiled a list of the top 50 classical music blogs, as arranged by Google Reader subscriptions (where the CPB is #23), Bloglines subscriptions (#30), Technorati authority (#19), and Google incoming links (didn't make the list).

A big thanks to Ben for take the time to compile the stats on a huge number of classical music blogs. I hope that he'll be willing to update this list on a regular basis (monthly? quarterly?).

Colin Miles at the Save the CBC Radio Orchestra Rally in Vancouver

From the rally held Tuesday morning in Vancouver, here is footage of a speech by Colin Miles, BC Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre, on the impact that the loss of the CBC Radio Orchestra will have on the musical life of Canada.



From an account of the demonstration in the Vancouver weekly The Georgia Straight:

A national uproar has ensued from the news that the Vancouver-based CBC Radio Orchestra is to be dismantled, with protesters lobbing accusations of censorship at the national broadcaster.

(Thanks, Cindy!)

CBC Radio Orchestra Poll Results

Last week, I started a poll that asked the question:

Do you agree with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's decision to dismantle the CBC Radio Orchestra?

Vizu polls are designed so that they can be replicated (click on the Copy Poll link after you've voted and you can customize and copy the html code) Thanks to John Oliver for reposting the poll on his main site as well as his standonguardforcbcradio blog (did anyone else copy the code?)

As of the time of writing, here are the poll's results so far after 398 votes:

• 3% Yes
• 97% No

Pictured at left is a Google Map of the North American votes so far from the results page of the poll (Red=Yes, Green=No). Although I guessed that the Yes votes would be less than 50%, I had no idea that there would be not even 5% support. A big thanks to everyone from the US who voted!

This poll has no end date, so the results are ongoing. I invite all bloggers and webmasters to post the code for this poll so we can get a more accurate picture of the popularity of the CBC's decision to fold the Radio Orchestra.

No matter what your opinion is, there's still plenty of time to vote, which you can do on the sidebar to the right or on the poll's original post.

Recital with Stuart Graham This Saturday in Toronto

On Saturday, April 6, I will be performing with baritone Stuart Graham as part of the Atеlίεя S Art of Song series. Here is the full advertisement from the Atеlίεя S press release:

The Art of Song

Saturday April 5, 2008 7:30pm

College St. United Church

454 College St., Toronto, ON

Stuart Graham, baritone
Christopher Foley, piano

With guest

Jennifer Rasor as Brünnhilde

Performing:

Maurice Ravel’s Don Quichotte à Dulcinée
Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel
Act 2 scene 2 of Richard Wagner’s Die Walküre

Tickets are $30 advance/$35 door/$15 students. Call 416-927-9105 to reserve.

2008 1st Quarter Stats

Here are some statistics on how people used the Collaborative Piano Blog in the first three months of 2008, via Google Analytics.

• 18,407 visitors (28.3% increase over Q42007)
  
• 34,907 pageviews (22.7% increase over Q4 2007)
• Average visit time on site was 1 minute 54 seconds per visit
• 64.65% of visits were from search engines, 20.56% from referring sites, and 15.79% were direct visits

Here are the top 10 referring sites:

• Facebook
• Netvibes
• Get Free EBooks
• Google (not search traffic, probably a combination of iGoogle and Google Reader traffic)
• Blogger front page
• Google Images
• CBC.ca (via trackbacks)
• blogcatalog
• The Well Tempered Blog (Thanks, Bart!)
• Music Matters Blog (Thanks, Natalie!)
  

Here are the top incoming search terms:

• collaborative piano
• piano blog
• collaborative piano blog
• collaborative piano employment
• piano blogs
• the piano by aidan gibbons
• university of colorado boulder collaborative piano two positions
• composer-librettist laboratory
• aidan gibbons
• the piano aidan gibbons

Here are the top countries from which people visited:

• United States
• Canada
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• France
• Germany
• India
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Italy

Thanks for making this the Collaborative Piano Blog's most successful three months to date, and rest assured that this morning's April Fool's Day post was indeed an ill-conceived and completely irresponsible act of cultural vandalism.

The Collaborative Piano Blog Will Relaunch...as a Pop Music Blog

I'm very excited to share this exciting news with you. The time has come for this blog, hitherto known as the Collaborative Piano Blog, to more adequately reflect a much wider scope of music important in the lives of so many people. Rather than limit myself to only the limited world of classical music, I have decided to encompass the intelligence, diversity, quality, and commitment of popular music, as exemplified by important artists of our time such as Madonna, Paris Hilton, Michael Jackson, and some of the past winners of American Idol.

At this time, I would also like to introduce the Collaborative Piano Blog's new name as of April 15:

Populr

Some of you might seem a little disconcerted by this new direction. Some of you might think that, with the current fracas about CBC Radio 2's rebranding initiative, I'm replacing my emphasis on writing about accompanists with pap.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

It has merely been my intention to more adequately reflect the intelligent musical tastes of my readership, their intelligent choices when it comes to music, their emphasis on listening to quality and in an intelligent format. That is why instead of focusing so heavily on Bach, Beethoven, and Babbitt, I will be looking at the music of such intelligent artists as Devo, Vanilla Ice, and Milli Vanilli. Contrary to what those Facebookers may tell you, this type of music is every bit as intelligent as, say, the 1812 Overture.

I would also like to retain my commitment to classical music. In fact, I will even be adding to what is currently the dominant genre on the Collaborative Piano Blog. That is why, on the second Thursday of every other month, I will be writing a short feature about the world of classical music. On May 8, look for the first article in this series, "At Your Service: How the Lowly Accompanist Became One of the Hottest Service Industries in Classical Music".

It's time for a change. It's time for Populr.