September 2007 - Nr. 9
The COC Celebrates
the
75th Birthday of
R. MURRAY SCHAFER
Toronto, Ontario – As part of the Canadian Opera Company’s highly successful Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, the COC is pleased to announce Schafer@75: A Celebration of the Work of R. Murray Schafer. This mini-festival of five concerts commemorates the 75th birthday of one of Canada’s foremost living composers.
Raymond Murray Schafer, writer, music educator and environmentalist is best known for Patria (a monumental cycle of 12 revolutionary music-theatre works), his book The Turning of the World, and his well-known World Soundscape Project, which studies the relationships between people and their acoustic environment. This year-long celebration explores the more intimate side of Schafer’s oeuvre, with a selection of some of his finest chamber and vocal works.
Hymn to Night, an evocative voyage of the soul inspired by a text of the German Romantic poet, Novalis, is presented by The Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble under the direction of Brian Current, November 27, 2007 at 12 p.m.
Schafer’s String Quartet No. 6, "
Parting Wild Horse’s Mane," considered one of Schafer’s most important chamber works, is performed by the Four Seasons String Quartet (Via Salzburg’s Mayumi Seiler and COC associate concertmaster Benjamin Bowman, violins; Hamburg Opera principal violist Naomi Seiler; and Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer). The quartet will be accompanied by a series of 108 movements of the Chinese martial art T’ai Chi, which forms the structural basis and inspiration for the work,January 9, 2008 at 5:30 p.m.
A contemplative work with ecstatic outbursts, Schafer’s Music for the Morning of the World is based on texts from various poems and discourses by Jahal-al-Din Rumi (13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian).
It takes the form of an extended meditation for solo voice, surrounded by a four-track electronic accompaniment, with Katarzyna Sadej, mezzo-soprano; Dennis Patrick, electronics,
January 16, 2008 at 5:30 pm.
Under the direction of Kathleen Rudolph, young artists of The Glenn Gould School present Minnelieder, a cycle of 13 songs based on poetry of the German minstrels. "Minne" is the medieval German word for "love" and the poems deal with love in all its states: impassioned, unfulfilled, bruised, unrequited, jealous, etc., January 22, 2008 at 12 p.m.
COC harpist Sanya Eng performs Schafer’s dazzling work for harp and percussion instruments, The Crown of Ariadne, which recounts the classical myth of Theseus and Ariadne, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth, May 8, 2008 at 12 p.m.
The Free Concert Series, which features free concerts, interactive workshops, and dance events, is presented at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts and encourages people of all ages and backgrounds to experience the artistic excellence and cultural diversity of the city in one of Toronto’s most vibrant spaces. With an increase to 100 performances, this year’s series runs from mid-September to mid-June most Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. or from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tickets are distributed at the door 30 minutes prior to the performance on a first-come first-served basis. For more information on the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre and a complete calendar of events, please visit
www.coc.ca.Based in Toronto, the Canadian Opera Company (COC) is the largest producer of opera in Canada and one of the largest in North America. The company enjoys an international reputation for artistic excellence and creative innovation.
The Vocal Series is made possible by a generous gift from Massey College through the Fellows’ Fund endowed by Vincent Massey Tovell, O.C. in tribute to Richard Bradshaw.
