Under the artistic direction of cellist Kristine Bogyo, Mooredale Concerts’ 17^th season has it all - music from Bach to Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Bartok, violinists Erika Raum and Scott St. John, pianist Anton Kuerti and other great artists, and spectacular young talent. Plus engaging commentary, and the Canadian premiere of Mendelssohn in London: Letters Home featuring acclaimed American pianist Gwendolyn Mok.

The season launches Saturday and Sunday, September 24 and 25 with the return of the Mooredale Concerto Players. Conducted by Eric Paetkau, this zestful ensemble of 14 string players - most of them young award-winners at the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School - and organist Paul Jenkins performs dazzling Baroque concertos by Bach, Handel, Telemann and Vivaldi.

The Concerto Players were the brainchild of Kristine Bogyo, who was recently awarded the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal for her work in inspiring and educating young musicians. The ensemble debuted in autumn 2004 at the close of Barrie’s Colours of Music Festival, and at the season opener of Beaver Valley Concerts in the Collingwood area - where audiences brought them back for so many curtain calls that the players almost couldn’t leave! At Mooredale Concerts in Toronto, they also received enthusiastic standing ovations.

Mooredale Concerts take place Saturdays at 8 p.m. at Willowdale United Church, 349 Kenneth Avenue (four blocks south of Finch, one block east of Yonge), and Sundays at 3 p.m., at Walter Hall, University of Toronto, 80 Queen’s Park Crescent, (south of the R.O.M.; Museum subway).

Single tickets are $25; seniors and students, $20. SUBSCRIPTIONS for a season of imaginative and outstanding chamber music concerts are only $95 (save $55 over single ticket price); students and seniors $75 (save $45). To order, send a cheque payable to Mooredale Concerts, addressed to Mooredale Concerts, 146 Crescent Road, Toronto ON M4W 1V2. For more information, phone 416-922-3714, ext. 103 or visit www.mooredaleconcerts.com.
 

The remainder of the 2005-06 season features the following concerts (N.B. Subject to change):

October 15/16, 2005: Brahms’ Piano Quintet, with violinist Denise Lupien, concertmaster of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain; her sister, Montreal violinist Francine Lupien; Katalina MacDonald, violist in the Saarbrucken, Germany, Radio Orchestra; and Young Artist, pianist Ben Smith (a student of James Anagnoson). The program also includes a String Quartet by Jacques Hétu.

November 26/27, 2005: Bach and Bartok - Bach’s solo cantata Ich habe genug, featuring young baritone Jason Nedecky; and Bach’s Solo Cello Suite No. 6, played by Kristine Bogyo; as well as Bartok’s String Quartet No.3 and Rhapsody #1 for Violin & Piano with Etsuko Kimura, violin.. Young oboist Tamsin Johnston plays C.P.E. Bach.

February 25/26, 2006: Bruckner’s rarely-heard but beautiful Quintet in F for Two Violas, featuring violinist Erika Raum, violists Scott St. John and Sharon Wei, cellist Kristine Bogyo, and young artist, violinist Sarah Nematallah, (a student of Scott St. John.)
The artists also premiere a commissioned work - Larysa Kuzmenko’s Rhapsody for Cello and Strings.
Ms. Nematallah plays Schubert’s Rondeau in B minor.

March 19, 2006: Mendelssohn in London: Letters Home - American pianist Gwendolyn Mok brings her successful show from London, New York and other capitals to Mooredale Concerts. Actor John Slavik reads letters written by Felix Mendelssohn and Ms. Mok plays favourite Mendelssohn piano solos related to them. Toronto violinist Nathanial Anderson-Frank, a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, is featured Young Artist, and joins Ms. Mok and cellist Kristine Bogyo in the beloved Mendelssohn Trio in C minor. (Note: One performance only, at Walter Hall.)

April 1/2, 2006: An All-Beethoven concert with Pianist Anton Kuerti and Cellist Kristine Bogyo: Sonata in A, Op. 69 for cello and piano; 12 Variations on a Theme from Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus; and Piano Sonatas No. 2 in A, Op, 2, No. 2; and Op.81 in E Flat (Les Adieux).

MUSIC & TRUFFLES, Mooredale’s innovative and highly successful concerts for children 4 and up, precedes five of the six Sunday concerts, 1-2 p.m. at Walter Hall. See separate release.

Mooredale Concerts are presented with the assistance of the Toronto Arts Council.