10 Questions for Melissa Hood

Posted on July 20, 2013 by barczablog

Melissa Hood isn’t gun shy, even if she’s at the heart of “gun shy theatre”, the team responsible for Stop Kiss, one of the best shows at the Fringe Festival in 2013 held over next week as part of Best of Fringe.

Hood is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Actors Conservatory and co-creator of the Pangnirtung Youth Performance Project in the Eastern Canadian Arctic.  Stage work includes the one-woman show Jewel by Joan MacLeod.  Film and TV credits include:  Murdoch Mysteries, The Listener, Alphas, the award-winning web series My Pal Satan, and the feature film The Fishing Trip (TIFF).

Upcoming:  Melissa plays ‘Caprice’ in Shaftesbury’s romantic comedy feature Dirty Singles.

Melissa Hood as Callie in Stop Kiss by Diana Son. Photo by Shaun Benson.

On the occasion of Stop Kiss in Best of Fringe, I ask Melissa Hood ten questions: five about her, and five more about her work in Stop Kiss.

1) Are you more like your father or your mother?

That’s a tough one – I’m a physical composite of both of my parents and the spitting image of my grandmother on my mother’s side.  We’re a tall bony lot with old-fashioned features.  As for personality, I’m definitely the wildcard of the family and really can’t say where I got the artist gene.  We all agree it must have skipped a generation, or ten.  I’m quite different than my parents, but have been told by friends of the family that I betray myself on-stage, revealing recognizable mannerisms of both. I would say I’m more like my dad in terms of temperament, but I have my mother’s sensitivity to others and to details. My mother says I have picked up questionable habits from both sides!

2) What is the best thing or worst thing about being an actor?

The best thing about being an actor is getting to work on a new character.  Every job is a new challenge so there’s always new territory to explore and reveal.  I recently had the opportunity to work on Shaftsbury’s new romantic comedy feature film “Dirty Singles.”  It was great because I got to play a character – Caprice Van Wicken – who is more fierce and complex than your average female character.  When I first read the script, I got really excited to play this immaculately dressed, quick-witted and ballsy female character, who is essentially “the player of all players.” It’s fun to play powerful women and to find their vulnerability.  In the film, Caprice is a lawyer who gets what she wants most of the time, but rarely risks breaking her heart.  She’s a dangerous and feisty character, but underneath the cool exterior she has a heart of gold and is looking for love like everyone else. This film should be coming out soon.  I will keep you posted.

3) Who do you like to listen to or watch?

Tatiana Maslany of Orphan Black (photo: Steve Wilkie for BBC AMERICA)

Right now I’m catching up on BBC America’s “Orphan Black.”  I studied in LA with Tatiana Maslany a couple years ago and am just blown away by this show and her work.  It’s a dream role and she is doing such excellent work.  It’s inspiring and encouraging to see Canadian actors getting major opportunities in film and television.  There’s a lot of unknown talent here in Toronto. I’m so happy when I see hard-working actors getting the opportunities they deserve.

4) What ability or skill do you wish you had, that you don’t have?

I wish I were a more proficient musician.  I’ve always played a little guitar and love singing, but envy those who can pick up a fiddle, a mandolin, or any instrument and create music on the spot.  It’s such a beautiful form of communication, a true practice of being in the moment.  I often catch myself quietly bearing witness to musicians and secretly wish I could join in the conversation.

But as they say, it’s never too late to learn.

5) When you’re just relaxing and not working what is your favourite thing to do?

Go out on the land.  I spent many summers working with Inuit on Baffin Island in Nunavut and have a lot of experience in the “bush.”  My favourite thing to do is jump in a lake, hike on the tundra, or go boating out on the Cumberland Sound.

Well, that or a trip to New York City.  I’m equal parts city-girl.  I love going to NYC to catch the latest piece of theatre.  Last year I saw “Jerusalem” with Mark Rylance (a personal hero of mine) and “Death of a Salesman” with Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Not bad, if you like amazing theatre.

~~~~~~~

Five More Questions concerning participation in Stop Kiss:

1) How does playing a part like Callie challenge you?

The role of Callie challenged me in a number of ways.  Technically, she goes back and forth in time throughout the play, so there is a need to understand her arc and emotional growth throughout the show.  At first, I remember thinking I should play Sara, I’m a lot like Sara.  But the more I explored the play, the more I realized what a great challenge it would be for me to find myself in Callie. To me, Callie is someone who has it all together on the outside, but who is afraid of taking risks.  Although she may seem like it at the top of the show, I don’t think she’s a shallow person at all.  I think she’s someone who has been hurt in the past and has learned to fill her life with distractions in order to keep herself safe and secure.

Throughout the play Sara challenges Callie to confront her own patterns of avoidance and fight for what she wants in life.  I can identity with this as an actor who is fighting to have the career that I want and who has had to face a lot of fears in order to get to where I am now.

Some people have asked me about playing a character that discovers her sexual identity.  For me, the play is not so much about sexuality as it is about personal identity and empowerment. For me, there’s nothing challenging or different about playing a lesbian vs. a straight character. The play itself resists labels and boxes.  What it demands, is that the actors bring and reveal what they know about falling in love.  In the process of falling in love, my character has to confront her own internalized homophobia at times and fight to validate her own experience of love outside the box of how other people choose to identify her. And it’s a beautiful thing in the play, and in life I think, when we discover that we are the only ones who can validate our own relationships and our own experiences.

Kate Ziegler (left) and Melissa Hood (right) as Sara and Callie in Stop Kiss by Diana Son. Photo by Shaun Benson

2) What do you love about the play?

The writing.  Diana Son has created these two believable female characters.  She has written them in a way that is both natural and specific but also leaves their interpretation open to any given actor.  I can imagine a lot of different women playing these roles and bringing unique qualities to them. Callie and Sara’s relationship is central to the piece and it has been a joy to explore the relationship and find that chemistry that seems to be resonating with our audience.  I can count myself lucky to have found Kate Ziegler to play Sara because she’s a truly gifted actress and we had a great experience working on these characters together with our director, Shaun Benson.

Diana Son also does a beautiful job of balancing drama and comedy.

It wasn’t until we got in front of an audience that I realized how many funny moments are so nicely woven into a play that also deals with very intense dramatic material.  Some of my favourite moments happen early on between Sara and Callie as they are getting to know each other and realize they have great chemistry.  There’s a wonderful initial bonding moment when Sara says that she hates jazz and the sound of saxophones.  It’s this lovely moment when the two women realize they have something specific and unexpected in common and that they share the same sense of humour. Diana really does all the characters a great service by writing such detailed and believable dialogue.

3) Do you have a favourite moment?

My favourite moment (spoiler alert) is when Callie says “Lately I feel like there’s something…worth…winning.”  It’s a turning point for her and the moment in the play when she stands up for herself and stops “swerving” or avoiding confrontation.  It’s a moment that I can personally identify with as an actor.  The moment you decide to be ambitious and really go for what you want.  Produce a play.  Open your heart.  Risk failure.  That kind of stuff.

Director Shaun Benson

We were really lucky to work on a rehearsal process with Shaun that allowed for new moments to happen each night.  Shaun didn’t want our performances to feel bound by blocking.  I think as a cast we have really enjoyed knowing that each show will be a little different and that new moments will be created each night depending on how we are playing off of one another in the moment.

4) How do you relate to Stop Kiss as a modern woman?

To me, Stop Kiss is a kind of modern love story that de-categorizes love while also bringing out universal and relate-able themes about identity, commitment, courage and risk.
As both a producer and actor, the experience of doing this particular play has been empowering for a lot of reasons.  While I was at the Canadian Film Centre in 2012, I had the opportunity to study with Larry Moss, a teacher who challenged me to commit to myself and take more chances.  When I put my name in the Fringe lottery, I knew I was challenging myself to put something out there and from the moment my name was drawn to the moment we opened, I have been on a learning curve and have had to make a lot of decisions. The first thing I had to choose was a company name. I chose gun shy theatre because it suited my feelings at the time about doing theatre again.  Choosing the right play was the next really important thing.  I wanted to find a great script, 90 minutes or less, that had never been staged in Toronto.  And ideally, a great script with great roles for women.
When we first read Stop Kiss it resonated with me on a lot of different levels.  It’s a very special play with great female roles.  I also soon discovered there are a lot of parallels between Callie’s journey and my own experience of producing the play.  I think the overall experience has been so rewarding because I got to assemble a wonderful team of people to help produce and make it happen and because the audience related to the story just like we did.

5) Is there a teacher, actor, director or an influence that you especially admire?

Director Jeff Nichols.  I’m in love with his last two films, “Mud” and “Take Shelter.”  They are the kind of movies that I’ve always wanted to act in.  I think he’s a masterful storyteller.  He sets his films so beautifully within a given landscape.  They feel like recognizable genre films at first, but they delve into very deep universal themes.  Jeff also manages to get these powerful natural performances out of his actors.  He is definitely on the top of my wish list of directors to work with.

~~~~~~~

Stop Kiss is presented July 26, 28 & 30th as part of Best of Fringe at the Studio Theatre in the Toronto Centre for the Arts.  Click for tickets.

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Misanthrope

Posted on July 19, 2013 by barczablog

One of the great joys of classical theatre is to be able to revisit works that one knows: or thinks that one knows.  A good play always has something new to show you.

Case in point tonight, seeing the opening of Guild Festival Theatre’s production of Molière’s The Misanthrope.

This is the third season for GFT under the leadership of Sten Eirik, an astute Artistic Director.  They began with Chekhov in 2011, followed by Aristophanes in 2012 and now? Molière. In a time of fiscal restraint, the company seems to be growing, helped by partnerships with the community & supportive politicians.

It’s a pleasure seeing how Eirik uses the outdoor amphitheatre space to advantage, a space of wonderful classical resonances due to its stunning stone backdrop salvaged from an old Toronto bank.  Many moments were simply perfect due to the magical setting.  At one point we watch two lovers playing hide and seek in a semi-lit playing area, illuminated by the moon above, serenaded by cicadas and bird-song. We’d begun near sunset, watching in twilight and finally darkness in this unique location. Eirik’s understanding of the Molière was very clearly delineated in this reading.  We began with a very slow, even pompous encounter between Alceste (Bruce Beaton) & Philinte (Rick Persich).  The character types are self-consistent, as we shall see, and therein lies the wonderful tension that energizes the work and this production, in the meeting of these extremes..

Oronte (Ryan Egan) arrives, one of the most delicious fops I’ve seen in awhile, and as far away from Beaton’s seriousness as you can get.  I would have burst out laughing in Beaton’s place, but he was always gravely deadpan in the face of Egan’s pretentious poses & faces.

Wonderful as Beaton & especially Egan (who had me roaring throughout) were, the two female leads were as good or better.  The scene between Célimène (Sochi Fried) and Arsinoe (Tina Sterling) was hair-raising, and considering this was opening night, wonderfully precise in the timing of their exchanges.  Fried & Sterling seemed most comfortable with the language –a witty translation in couplets by Richard Wilbur— in their deliciously acid exchanges.

The additional delightfully attired foppery supplied by Clitandre (Andrew Pimento) & Acaste (John Chou) pushed us happily into several moments of wild laughter.  The other somewhat serious person present, Célimène’s cousin Eliante (Leslie DosRemedios) had several beautiful moments, so much so that one might have wished her part were larger.

Guild Festival Theatre’s production of The Misanthrope continues until August 11th.

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The French Answer–Toronto Summer Music

Posted on July 17, 2013 by barczablog

What’s the question, you may ask.

But it’s not that there is an answer (a noun). It’s a verb in that headline.  Swimmers swim, runners run, and for a period of time, I believe the French answered.

Artistic Director of Toronto Summer Music, Douglas McNabney (photo Bo Huang)

It’s how I came to the opening concert of Toronto Summer Music (aka “TSM”), a festival themed around “La Belle Epoque”.  Tonight we heard a brief but passionate introductory talk from TSM’s Artistic Director Douglas McNabney, including exciting previews of the innovative ideas TSM have added this year, such as “shuffle” concerts arbitrarily combining pieces the way a smart-phone might, and a special TSM app you can download. Mainly we heard him  explain the importance of this period.

La Belle Epoque is many things, but for me it is chiefly a time of conversations, discourse and counter-discourse, argument and rebuttal.  For Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy their music was often reticent, and clearly influenced profoundly by the ghost of old Klingsor, as Debussy ironically called Wagner and his inescapable influence upon everyone who followed.  How could it be otherwise, when Wagner seemed to re-invent opera and culture at the end of the 19th Century?

And so the first stream of answering concerns German music & Wagner.  Fauré, Debussy (not programmed in the concert but still an important influence) and Ravel do many things, but often they seem to be presenting a counter-argument, an alternative pathway for music & culture.

If one considers the various “isms” –some listed by McNabney in his introductory talk—one sees an ongoing conversation about the nature of art & music.  Onstage Naturalists were answered by Symbolists.  On the canvas, impressionists (a word that’s a misnomer applied to music: but who am I to argue with millions of people?) were answered by cloisonists (who could also be called symbolists, depending on who you follow / believe) and post-impressionists.  Later we have several more –isms, often in a kind of reaction against what came before.  For a time, “answering” was the French national gift to the world, an innovation soon to be exported (and imitated) all over Europe.

The concert by Trio Pennetier Pasquier Pidoux is itself a kind of answer, a breath of fresh air (especially with my ears, that had been filled with Wagner earlier today).  The playing exploited the wonderful acoustic of Koerner Hall and an attentive audience who, while they may have applauded each movement of the opening Trio from Gabriel Fauré, sat very quietly throughout.

L-R Régis Pasquier, violin; Jean-Claude Pennetier, piano; Roland Pidoux, cello

This trio has a remarkable chemistry.  If I don’t miss my guess, cellist Roland Pidoux is the leader, considering both the dynamics of the performances and the body language of the trio.  It was Pidoux who announced the encore, a delicate gossamer soft reading of the finale of Beethoven’s opening trio: in other words another subtle answer to the loud weighty question—a question uttered in German—that lurked in the psyche of French musicians of that era.

Pidoux plays like the alpha male of the group, his cello sound extraordinarily powerful for an ensemble such as this, with a penetrating & passionate tone.  Violinist Régis Pasquier, in contrast, is all about the blend, leaning his body & his instrument in towards the rock-solid Pidoux throughout, beginning each work perhaps a bit quieter than one might expect, but building to powerful climaxes.  Jean-Claude Pennetier was upstage but never upstaged at the piano, and to me was the most impressive of the three (but then again I’m a pianist, and probably prejudiced).  Like Pasquier, Pennetier was often self-effacing, and produced a wonderfully consistent flow of notes in the challenging Ravel Trio, often without rising above pianissimo.  In the final work of the program –Rachmaninoff’s Trio élégiaque—Pennetier played enough notes for a piano concerto, yet with a wonderful restraint in all but a few passages.

It was an auspicious beginning to TSM. The festival runs until August 3rd. 

Posted in Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | 1 Comment

Parlour trick

Posted on July 14, 2013 by barczablog

A few days ago I wrote about ear-worms, as an example of photographic (or “eidetic”) memory, and said there’s another kind as well.  I don’t mean to limit things by saying there’s one other kind, when there may be more than one. But I know of one other at least, namely “absolute pitch”.  I have always been a bit uncomfortable with that name, as I don’t believe in absolutes.  I am especially uncomfortable about it, speaking as someone who thinks he has absolute pitch.

As I speak of this phenomenon, I want to take a stab at putting it in historical context.  We occasionally get indirect evidence of how people might have been different in another time:

  • Julian Jaynes hypothesized that moderns think differently than ancients in his The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. 
  • Is it also possible that we listen and understand differently in the 21st Century? It’s an especially poignant consideration when we encounter producers considering whether they should allow audiences to use social media, tweeting & facebooking during performances: in other words, at a time when moderns seem to exhibit an ever shrinking attention span.
  • When recorded music is ubiquitous it seems reasonable to ask how our processing of music might be different from the time before recordings.  How well do we hear, compared to a time when the only recordings were piano rolls mechanically reproducing a performance..? Should we expect that “absolute pitch” would be more or less common nowadays?  I’ll speak about that in a moment.

First, let me offer my first-person account.  It’s introspective psychology, as I am not sitting down with anyone to verify what I’m saying.  Still I expect as I run into acquaintances in the GTA over the next little while that I’ll be challenged to put up or shut up on this one.

I feel very comfortable after having quickly googled, and seen two links immediately proposing the same thing I want to say: that it’s not really absolute.

Whew…

Even so, it’s at least a reliable parlour trick.  Recalling that “eidetic memory” is a kind of photographic trace that stays in the head, if we recall a tune or a note, it may indeed lead us to a pitch.  In fact it works quite nicely.  Some notes are stronger than others.

What do I hear?  I suppose whatever I want to hear.  It depends what I seek to recall.  I rely upon certain tunes that have found a permanent home in my psyche for certain pitches.

  • “G-flat”, a note one hears rarely, is one I conjure using the opening phrase of “Oh paradiso” (“Oh paradis” if sung in the original French).  It’s reliable because of where it sits in my voice, sliding up to a B-flat.  If i am too high it won’t be a B-flat, although hahaha, i will indeed be flat: flat on my face! But I also hear Chopin’s black-key Étude and “Oh terra addio” from Aida, which also arpeggiates to that same B-flat in short order. If it’s to float out properly it has to be in the right place.  I applaud Verdi, whenever i think of this, a passage designed for singers exhausted by a full evening’s singing.
  • When I was younger –spending all my time accompanying my brother—“G” used to mean “Andiam. Incomin- cia- te!” …being the closing phrase of the Pagliacci Prologue.  Nowadays it’s the opening chord of the Beethoven 4th piano concerto.
  • “A-flat”?  When I was young it was always the first part of the Grand March in Aida, and the high note Tonio sang in the aforementioned Prologue:
    “al pari di voi spiriamo l’aere!”
    But lately it’s more likely to be Beethoven’s sonata #31, or possibly the first and last note of Parsifal.
  • “A”? Most solid has been that powerful chord beginning Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, although if you’re a regular concert-goer you may have a recollection of an oboe playing a solo “A” to tune up the orchestra.  Can you hear it? Surely you can.  It’s the most commonly played ‘tune’ in the world.  Either way: you’ve got your “A”.
  • “B-flat”? it’s sometimes the fast part of the Queen of the Night’s first aria. I’ve been listening to it since I was a little boy, still one of the most scintillating pieces I know.  When I think about it, I also hear the majestic intro to the aria. And the middle section of the Magic Flute overture.  And –as mentioned—there are those floated B-flats I aim for in the Meyerbeer and Verdi, cited opposite the first bullet above.
  • “B” is a funny one. Again, like G-flat, it’s not a note that gets played tons and tons.  I can hear the lovely slow movement of the Emperor concerto, that figures so prominently in the Immortal Beloved soundtrack.  It’s there in the G chord I mentioned from the 4th Concerto.  I feel much more confident in notes happily connected to notes I hear a lot such as…
  • “C”. Yes this is literally a note central to my life. I used to hear the opening chord of Die Meistersinger, whether orchestrated or in Glenn Gould’s transcription.  But nowadays I am more likely to connect it to Beethoven’s sonata in C, a fanciful name I gave to the three piano sonatas + a set of variations all exploring the key of C.  The tinkly closing passages of Op 2 #3, the Waldstein’s coda, the last variation in op 111, and the last of the Diabelli variations are as inter-connected as if Beethoven were a painter looking again at the face of a well-known friend.  It’s no fluke that Weber comes to this chord for the redemption motif in Der Freischütz, revisited by Wagner in the brilliance of the mountain top at the end of Siegfried.  I wonder what they felt in making this concrete allusion.
  • I call it D-flat, not C-sharp, and I don’t claim they’re the same thing, even if –on a piano—that’s what some would say.  I can hear the C-sharp if I think of Debussy’s flute, the first tender note of the “Prelude to the afternoon of a faun”, or Chopin’s third Scherzo; but I prefer to find the note via Chopin’s second scherzo (it begins darkly in B-flat minor, but moves to brilliant passages in D-flat).  D-flat is how the Ring cycle ends, and is a key note in the last phrase of Parsifal as well.  I am less confident of its sharp incarnation.
  • “D” or “C”? which is more important? I am not sure, although this year, particularly once I started playing Beethoven sonatas, it was C.  But overall I think I’ve been inclined to call D the most important note of all. It started with Don Giovanni, (and pardon the pun, isn’t it funny that conversely, Don Giovanni starts with a “D”? musically and otherwise, it’s a chicken-and-egg kind of situation), that chord you can hear in your head when you begin Miloš Forman’s Amadeus followed immediately by F Murray Abraham’s plaintive scream “Mozart!”   Or did it start with Figaro?  And then there’s Mozart’s Requiem.  We can’t forget the 20th piano concerto, and that’s still just Mozart.  Beethoven and Mahler seem to love D as well, both making a big deal of it (Beethoven on Symphonies #2 and 9, Mahler on Symphonies #1 & 9)
  • E-Flat is another central note.  I used to know it from the hammer-blows opening the Eroica Sympony of Beethoven, although I am less certain of this now that I have multiple recordings, some in modern pitch, some using the slightly older pitch of historically informed performance.  I am more confident of the opening to Das Rheingold, the big climactic passages in the Prologue to Götterämmerung and the opening of Schumann’s Third Symphony.  When I think of it I can also hear Ein Heldenleben, a work that has often felt like Strauss’s gloss upon the heroism of Beethoven and Wagner.  Did Wagner see himself emulating Beethoven?  I have to wonder what was in their heads as they composed, what echoes of the earlier works that each one hoped we would hear.
  • “E” is another oddity, not quite as common as the few notes clustered at the centre of the keyboard.  Does familiarity breed contempt? Not on a keyboard, I’d say. Familiarity breeds intelligibility, fame, importance.  E is not quite so favoured. I think of the slow movement of the 4th piano concerto of Beethoven, or Wotan’s Farewell in Die Walküre.  Chopin is helpful, with his 1st piano concerto and 4th Scherzo; did he like the key? i wonder.
  • “F” is again central, related to other important works.  I can hear the powerful motto opening Fidelio, the steps into the countryside opening Beethoven’s sixth symphony and the hymn at its conclusion.  And “Oh Isis und Osiris”, particularly that F to which it descends at its finish also.

Do we hear better now? I’m inclined to think so, considering that our young musicians achieve levels of mastery unreached by anyone two centuries ago.  I’ve alluded before to an article in NYTimes asserting that virtuosos are a dime a dozen nowadays.  Perhaps the kind of hearing I describe would be a prodigious feat were it reported in 1800. But now? We’re not absolute. We have to cope with two competing tunings, throwing us off, nevermind the vicissitudes of actual performances.

We’re fortunate.  I can pull so many magnificent recordings from youtube, let alone what I can purchase.  My hearing should be good, right?  In Mozart’s time E-flat heroism hadn’t even been invented yet.  All that music continues to rattle around in my head, and millions of other heads too.

Posted in Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays, Psychology and perception | 1 Comment

You say “tomato”

Posted on July 11, 2013 by barczablog

I love analogies.  Sometimes I push them too far –beyond the point where they’re helpful illustrations—simply because I enjoy the game so much, of making one thing represent another.

Today I was thinking about tomatoes & voices.  Tomatoes don’t usually sing.  People don’t usually eat voices or put vocal sauce on their pasta, so in some respects it may seem like a pointless metaphor.

Speaking of voices & food, this is a bit like what a cow does, with its multiple stomach, digesting and digesting.  I am thinking out loud, my brain a bit like a cow. These are ruminations I guess, and far from finished.

For those of you who are young, the following assertion may come across as folk wisdom or science fiction.  But I believe my memories of tomatoes can be verified by tomato experts.  If any of you reading this actually are tomato experts please weigh in on the matter (I almost said “weigh in on tomato”…).

I have no idea what sort of credentials would define one as a tomato expert.

Once upon a time, there were many sorts of tomatoes.  Indeed this may still be so. One found different tomatoes in different parts of the world.  But in stores? One now sees a small assortment of tomatoes (and other items too).

I see this as a reflection of biodiversity: or lack of same.  Biodiversity is a vitally important attribute of an ecosystem.  The more different sorts of tomato? Well it’s not just about the flavour of tomato you eat, but that’s a start.  More importantly, diversity means that if one tomato is struck by a disease, we have something in reserve. When we have too few species to draw upon for our food or wood or any other need met by agriculture, we’re vulnerable.  A parasite, a virus, or a bad summer can be devastating; variety makes those challenges more survivable.

I have the impression –from what I see when I shop and from what I understand in my reading—that all the fruit looks the same, like clones.  I use that word advisedly, because I don’t claim to know the real genetics of our fruits & vegetables. But I have the impression sometimes, when I look around in the store, that we’re all experimental subjects, that corporations are rolling the dice with our collective future.

And maybe the same sort of thing is underway with voices, if my analogy has any merit.

Speaking of metaphors, we’re in a global village.  At one time regions didn’t know of one another.  Our cities & separate cultures were as distinct and remote as Galapagos Island was isolated from the rest of the world.  The quirky species found there –unfamiliar looking to the Europeans who voyaged there in the 19th century—were not inter-bred with the species we knew, and so they were different.  With the growing inter-connectedness of markets & ecologies, there are fewer and fewer distinct places.  Just as The Gap or McDonalds offer standard products no matter where you encounter their stores, so too, it would seem, with Mother Nature.  I can’t claim to have sampled tomatoes in Milan or Manchuria, but from what I understand, the local divergence is shrinking.

The assertion is to set up the analogy.

At one time voices were completely regional, different and distinct according to countries & cultures.  There was a particular sound that was partly a product of the phonetics of a language, partly due to local pedagogy.

I’m not saying that local diversity is gone, but voices are more and more uniform wherever you go, like the tomatoes.  Vocal pedagogy –thinking at least of the classical-operatic world, although I am willing to bet that it also applies to popular music—is no longer local & quirky, as more and more information is shared.

Voice teachers are like all teachers. One of their primary functions is to socialize their students, to create uniformity. Sorry if this hurts anyone’s feelings.

I am thinking about the quirky voice, the off-beat voice that doesn’t sound like everyone else, and how teachers respond.  Are teachers in a position to empower and encourage voices that are different & original? Or do they instead seek to persuade singers to abandon that original sound, to make them sound more like everyone else…?

I am feeling as though I’m in a world of clones, both in the produce section or when I watch singers on youtube, whatever the country of origin.

See for yourself.  It’s reassuring in some ways, when you hear kids from Korea or Argentina sounding like Americans.  What a big happy world.  But what happened to real diversity? I liked the regional sounds.

But is it any wonder that there’s a world-wide shortage of some voice-types?  We don’t have very many people who can sing the roles of Aida or Tannhaüser.  When someone comes along who might sing that way, they need to be careful, because singing teachers will do their best to teach them how to sing Pamina or Tamino: roles where we’re already overflowing with talent.

I am a bit of an agnostic.  I don’t believe teachers know how to teach a singer how to undertake one of those super-difficult roles (ie Wagner or Verdi).  The best singing teachers seem to be like good baseball coaches or good directors, staying out of the way, not too invasive.

I’ve been fortunate to encounter a few of those quirky original voices in my time.  But they’re rare, and it seems they’re getting rarer all the time.  I wonder, is their biggest accomplishment –those who manage to nurture such a voice to maturity—in resisting the tampering of voice teachers?

Posted in Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ken Gass’s Inaugural CANADIAN REP THEATRE season

Posted on July 9, 2013 by barczablog

“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.

Venues, Dates & Cast announced for Ken Gass’s
Inaugural CANADIAN REP THEATRE season
 
TORONTO (JULY 9, 2013)   Artistic Director Ken Gass today announced venues, casting and dates for three Canadian Rep Theatre productions that will comprise its 2013/14 inaugural season. The playbill features new works by three of Canada’s leading playwrights: the English-language premiere of PACAMAMBO by Wajdi Mouawad (translated by Shelley Tepperman); the world premiere of WATCHING GLORY DIE by Judith Thompson; and the Canadian premiere of DEAD METAPHOR by George F. Walker.

The season will run from January to June, 2014 in three venues in Toronto and one in Vancouver, including a co-venture with Mirvish Productions for the Off-Mirvish Season.

Ken Gass states, “I am incredibly honoured to present these extraordinary works from three of Canada’s most iconic playwrights for my inaugural season. These vital and important artists represent the emphasis of strong and brave Canadian creative voices that will clearly fuel Canadian Rep Theatre’s future.”

The 2014 Winter/Spring schedule at a glance:

PACAMAMBO – The Citadel (Toronto) Jan 17 – Feb 2
WATCHING GLORY DIE – The CULTCH (Vancouver) Apr 24 – May 3
WATCHING GLORY DIE – Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs (Toronto) May 15 – 31
DEAD METAPHOR – Panasonic Theatre (Off-Mirvish Season, Toronto) May 24 – Jun 15

In January of 2014, Canadian Rep Theatre presents the English-language premiere of Wajdi Mouawad’s Pacamambo, translated by Shelley Tepperman and directed by Ken Gass.  Pacamambo will showcase at the intimate 72-seat venue, The Citadel at 304 Parliament St. (near Dundas) previewing January 17-19, opening January 21 and running until February 2. Starring Karen Robinson, Kyra Harper and others TBA. Set design by Marian Wihak; lighting by Rebecca Picherack; original music & sound by Wayne Kelso.

Premiered in 2000, Pacamambo is a remarkable achievement. Conceived as a play for children about death, the work is lyrical, emotionally powerful, and hugely life-affirming. It tells the story of Julie, who disappeared for three weeks and was discovered in her grandmother’s apartment storage locker with her dog, Growl, and the perfume-laden body of her grandmother. Gass states, “I have been passionate about this work for years and am thrilled to finally produce it. Pacamambo is a magical theatrical experience for audiences from 9 to 90.”

In April/May 2014, Canadian Rep Theatre proudly presents the world premiere of Judith Thompson’s tour-de-force solo play, Watching Glory Die, performed by Judith Thompson and directed by Ken Gass. Lighting design by Andre du Toit (other designers TBA), Watching Glory Die will have its premiere performance at Vancouver’s venerable The CULTCH on April 24, 2014 (preview on April 23) and run until May 3. The production will then open at the Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs in Toronto on May 15 and run until May 31.

Though deliberately fictional, Watching Glory Die takes a bold dramatic leap from recent news stories-the treatment of chronically disturbed young women in our prison system-to forge the kind of visceral lyricism that is the hallmark of Judith Thompson at her most powerful. Gass adds, “This riveting yet deeply compassionate portrait of three women-a prisoner, a mother and a guard-inextricably linked by shared helplessness in the face of tragedy-yields a disturbing but unforgettable theatrical experience. Not to be missed.”

In May/June 2014, the Canadian premiere of George F. Walker’s Dead Metaphor, a Canadian Rep Theatre production co-produced with Mirvish Productions, will open as part of the Off-Mirvish Season at the Panasonic Theatre. Directed by George F. Walker, Dead Metaphor will star Nancy Beatty, Jerry Franken, Michael Healey, Haley McGee, Noah Reid and Julie Stewart. Set and Costume design by Shawn Kerwin, Lighting Design by Rebecca Picherack, original music and sound design by Lesley Barber. First performed at the prestigious A.C.T. (American Conservatory Theater) in San Francisco, Dead Metaphor will preview May 24-25, open on May 27 and run until June 15,2014.


“HilariousŠ. Dead Metaphor brings [Walker] to San Francisco in stunning form.”  Huffington Post

“Dead Metaphor is dead serious, but it’s still seriously funny.” San Francisco Examiner

Dean is a young ex-sniper, just back from Afghanistan, struggling to find work. His family is disintegrating before his eyes; his wife is ready to divorce him a second time, yet players on both ends of the political spectrum find Dean’s special talents oddly appealing. Gass states, “This startling dark comedy is destined to become a Walker classic, a play that sits dangerously, eerily and hilariously on the razor edge between desperation and disaster.”

Stay tuned for further announcements of the fall Canadian Rep Reading Series and special events such as a public workshop of excerpts from a major new opera, SAVITRI & SAM (music by John Mills-Cockell, libretto Ken Gass) in September, 2013 at The Citadel.

Canadian Rep Theatre mandate:
The long-term vision is to build Canadian Rep Theatre into a permanent ensemble focusing on innovative approaches to established works from the contemporary Canadian canon, along with challenging new plays that resonate with the diverse face of Canada in the 21st century.

Visit the Canadian Rep website at www.canadianrep.ca for information.

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Stop Kiss

Posted on July 9, 2013 by barczablog

Let your friends suggest what to go see.  You’ll end up in places you might never have found otherwise.

Led by my friend, tonight I went to see Stop Kiss, Diana Son’s play at the 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival, directed by Shaun Benson, from gun shy theatre.  I’m far more familiar with the travails of gay men in western culture than the female equivalent.  But knowing the play’s trajectory I was immediately implicated, watching a beautiful naked woman dancing onstage, knowing that the chief problem in this story comes from the male response to that beauty.

Melissa Hood (left) and Kate Ziegler (right) as Callie and Sara in Stop Kiss by Diana Son. Photo by Shaun Benson.

Without giving it all away, let me simply quote from the director’s note, when Benson says he’s not happy to be directing this play:

“A play about two women falling in love and being beaten into a coma for it ought to be so obscure and irrelevant that only pedants and perverts know of its existence”.

I don’t know this work or the playwright, but was impressed by the natural ear Son shows for dialogue.  This is not a display of ego from a writer, indeed the writing is so subtle you could lose track, she makes it seem so effortless, so understated.  The one tiny affectation –if you can call it that—came in moments when exchanges of incomplete phrases between characters brought the absurd minimalism of Pinter to mind.  In those pauses we were suspended not by some authorial tour de force (those moments when Pinter shows off his craft), but the gravity of the situation and the pure passion of the characters.

The dialogue alludes briefly to the TV series Law & Order, a metaphor that seems to underlie the play’s structure, looping back and forth in time before and after the catastrophic events.  Much of the first half of Stop Kiss uses attempts by the police to make sense of a crime, while supplying us with plot exposition.  The further we get into the play, the less it’s about forensics, and the more it probes feelings & consequences.

There’s so much to celebrate in this production, from the tightly written play-script, given an air-tight reading in performances that are all dead on –due to astute casting—and wonderful chemistry between the principals.  Melissa Hood’s Callie is a difficult role to portray, because we’ve all met women like her, easy to underestimate; the further we get in the play, the deeper Hood takes us into Callie, quite an astonishing portrayal.  Kate Ziegler is a wonderful contrast to Hood, the articulate teacher, disabled by the attack.

There’s one aspect I’m struggling with, as I try to decide whether I saw something that’s in Son’s script or possibly Benson’s directorial invention; I wonder who deserves the credit.  As we move back and forth in the action, the scenes are set through the wonderfully artificial device of having the characters come in and out in character at that instant, which means for example, that Sara is helped in and out for those scenes where she is in a coma, then five seconds later in the next scene–from a few days before the assault—she’s suddenly the vibrant woman she was before the attack.  The meta-drama of those set-ups was at times every bit as gripping as the play itself, problematizing not just what we’re seeing, but our understanding of consciousness itself.  I found the suspense and the surprise overwhelming at times.

Stop Kiss is a fabulous piece of work, and notwithstanding the brutality at its core, an affirmation of love & humanity.  I recommend it without reservation.

Stop Kiss continues at the Toronto Fringe until July 14th. 

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Toronto Consort 13-14 Season

Posted on July 8, 2013 by barczablog

“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.

2013-14 season unveiled

Highlights include Swedish Folk Baroque, Ensemble Lucidarium from Italy,
and Cavalli’s opera Giasone

“As led by its Artistic Director, David Fallis, the Toronto Consort lavishes luminous clarity, lightness and vitality on the music.”
— Gramophone Magazine

Toronto, July 4, 2013 … Under the artistic leadership of David Fallis, the Toronto Consort has announced its 2013-14 season, consisting of an array of unusual and beautiful early music concert programs that speak to contemporary audiences. The line-up includes Swedish Folk Baroque; special guests from Italy, Ensemble Lucidarium in a program called La Istoria de Purim; biennial Christmas favourite Navidad; Carnival Revels; and Francesco Cavalli’s opera-in-concert Giasone.  2013-14 subscriptions are available through the box office at (416) 964-6337. Individual concert tickets go on sale in early September. For more information, visit www.torontoconsort.org or the Consort’s Facebook page.

Founded in 1972, The Toronto Consort was one of the city’s first professional period music ensembles specializing in the music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and early Baroque — roughly 1200 to 1675. Over the past four decades, the Toronto Consort has continued to expand listeners’ appreciation through inventive programming that breathes life into period music. The ensemble has become internationally recognized for its excellence in live and recorded period music, and has collaborated on a number of film and television projects including Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter and two Showtime series, The Tudors and The Borgias.

This summer, the Toronto Consort’s home venue of Trinity-St. Paul’s is receiving an ambitious overhaul. Phase One of the renovations will be completed in late September 2013 and include acoustical improvements, the installation of a permanent stage, and more comfortable seating. The two-phase, $3 million project is being undertaken in partnership with long-time collaborators Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, which is spearheading the initiative.

 

2013-14 SEASON AT A GLANCE

Swedish Folk Baroque

October 18 & 19, 2013
The Consort launches its 2013-14 season in the newly revitalized Trinity-St. Paul’s with an unforgettable journey into the world of early and traditional Swedish music. Consort member Katherine Hill, who recently spent a year in Sweden studying traditional music, guides this smörgäsbord of rarely-heard songs, ballads, chorales, dance tunes and herding music. The Swedish court of the 16th century welcomed artists from Italy, Poland, England, France and beyond. The resulting confluence of styles and traditions resonated in both court and countryside throughout the baroque period and into the 19th century, in hauntingly beautiful and exuberantly toe-tapping ways. Hill will perform on the nyckelharpa, a traditional Swedish keyed fiddle.

Ensemble Lucidarium presents La Istoria de Purim

November 22 and 23, 2013


Ensemble Lucidarium is the world’s leading ensemble bringing early Jewish music to life. A hit at last year’s Ashkenaz Festival, they return to Toronto with La Istoria de Purim – Music and Poetry of the Jews in Renaissance Italy.  Lucidarium’s joyful improvisation and energetic music-making has brought both popular and critical acclaim to the ensemble. The award-winning program La Istoria de Purim is a celebration of the musical and poetic legacy of the Jewish communities of Renaissance Italy. A vast and entertaining repertoire with material in Italian, Hebrew and Yiddish, the centrepiece of the evening is a set of early Italian Purim songs. “Pure energy on period instruments.”

Navidad: Christmas Music from Latin America and Spain

December 13, 14 & 15, 2013
The Toronto Consort celebrates Christmas with a Latin flavor with Navidad. “Terrific” is how Gramophone magazine described the program, which the Consort recorded and released in 2012 on the Marquis label. Navidad is a fiesta of early music from the Spanish-speaking nations on both sides of the Atlantic, and features harp, guitars, percussion, winds, keyboards and voices. From the solemnity of motets by Francisco Guerrero, to the intricate cross-rhythms of villancicos and dance tunes from Latin America, this is Christmas celebration at its most exuberant.

Carnival Revels

February 28 and March 1, 2014

From Epiphany to Mardi Gras, the streets of Renaissance Europe resounded with the sounds and songs of Carnival. The long nights were chased away with disguises, revelry and feasting, all laced with wonderful music-making. The Toronto Consort takes audiences to Italy, Spain, England and France for music both outrageous and intoxicating.

Giasone

by Francesco Cavalli

April 4, 5 & 6, 2014
The Toronto Consort has enjoyed great success with an ongoing series presenting masterworks of early opera in concert, including those of Francesco Cavalli. This season, the Consort presents the most popular opera of the 17th century, Cavalli’s comic masterpiece Giasone, telling the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece with some decidedly irreverent plot twists. Sung in Italian, Giasone features mezzo-soprano Laura Pudwell in the title role, with Kevin Skelton as Aegeus, and Michelle DeBoer as Medea, and full continuo, strings and winds.

Friday and Saturday evening concerts begin at 8:00 pm and Sunday matinee concerts begin at 3:30 pm. All concerts take place at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor Street West

Full subscriptions are available now and prices range from $97 to $227; Regular individual concert tickets go on sale in early September, 2013 and regular prices range from $23 to $61.

Club Consort tickets: $10 for those age 30 and under with valid photo ID.

Box Office: (416) 964-6337 On-line ticketing at www.torontoconsort.org Follow us on Facebook

The Toronto Consort gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and the Toronto Arts Council.

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TSM: INSIDER EVENTS

Posted on July 8, 2013 by barczablog

“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   July 8, 2013

Toronto Summer Music announces INSIDER EVENTS at 2013 Festival

TORONTO…New at this year’s Toronto Summer Music Festival are behind-the-scenes Festival Insider Events, including film screenings, Musicians Up-Close interviews, guest lectures, masterclasses and open rehearsals.  Beginning July 16, Festival Insiders Events run Tuesdays to Fridays starting at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $20 per day ($15 for 65+,  $10 for under 35) or in advance purchase a Festival Insiders Pass for $75 ($55 for 65+, $35 for under 35) at www.torontosummermusic.com .  Festival Insider Events take place at various downtown locations including Innis Town Hall, Rotman School of Management, Koerner Hall, Walter Hall, and the Geiger-Torel Room in the Edward Johnson Building (80 Queen’s Park).

TUESDAY, JULY 16

1:30 p.m. – Festival Welcome by Artistic Director Douglas McNabney & Festival Insider co-host Rick Phillips (Walter Hall)

2:00 p.m. – Masterclass: Elly Ameling (Walter Hall)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 17

1:30 p.m. – Free Film Screening: A Late Quartet featuring the Bretano Quartet on the soundtrack

(Desautels Hall, 2nd Floor, South Building, Rotman School of Management, 105 St. George Street)

4:00 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Brentano String Quartet hosted by Douglas McNabney (Walter Hall)

THURSDAY, JULY 18

1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Elly Ameling hosted by Rick Phillips (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30 p.m. – Masterclass: Pedja Muzijevic (Geiger-Torel Room)

FRIDAY, JULY 19

1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Paul Coletti hosted by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30 p.m. – Lecture: “The Rite of Spring’s 100th Anniversary” by Rick Phillips & Michael Crabb, Dance Critic, Toronto Star (Geiger-Torel Room)

4:00 p.m. – Open Rehearsal: The Rite of Spring, Anagnoson & Kinton (Walter Hall)

TUESDAY, JULY 23

1:30 p.m. – Lecture: “The Ravel & Debussy String Quartets” by Rick Phillips (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30 p.m. – Masterclass: Julius Drake (Walter Hall)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24

1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Pacifica String Quartet hosted by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30 p.m. – Film Screening:  Un Coeur en Hiver (Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue)

THURSDAY, JULY 25

1:30 p.m. – Lecture: “What is Impressionism?” by Rick Phillips (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30 p.m. – Masterclass:  André Laplante (Walter Hall)

FRIDAY, JULY 26

1:30 p.m. – Lecture: “La Belle et la Bête: Wagner and Wagnerism in La Belle Époque” by Robin Elliot (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30 p.m. – Lecture and Demonstration: “French melodies of La Belle Époque” with Rick Phillips and Michael McMahon (Geiger-Torel Room)

4:00 p.m. – Open Rehearsal: Mozart Clarinet Quintet, Pacifica Quartet and Alexander Fiterstein (Walter Hall)

TUESDAY, JULY 30

1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Cédric Tiberghien hosted by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30 p.m. – Lecture: “Minimalism in Music: From Satie to Radiohead” by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)

4:00 p.m. – Open Rehearsal: Hahn Piano Quintet, Jonathan Crow, Martin Beaver, Steven Dann, Marc Coppey, and Ian Brown (Walter Hall)

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31

1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Steven Dann hosted by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30PM – Film Screening: Tous les matins du monde (Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 1

1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Jonathan Crow hosted by Rick Phillips (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30 p.m. – Masterclass: Ian Brown (Walter Hall)

FRIDAY, AUGUST 2

1:30 p.m. – Festival Wrap-Up with Douglas McNabney & Rick Phillips (Geiger-Torel Room)

2:30 p.m. – An Insider’s Tour of Koerner Hall hosted by Douglas McNabney (Koerner Hall)

4:00 p.m. – Open Rehearsal: Brahms Piano Quartet (Walter Hall)

Now in its eighth year of bringing outstanding classical music experiences to the city in the summer, Toronto Summer Music Festival (July 16-August 3) features renowned Canadian and international artists performing in 12 mainstage concerts at Koerner Hall and Walter Hall, plus masterclasses, lectures, interviews, workshops, and free outreach concerts.  The theme of the 2013 Festival, Paris La Belle Époque, celebrates the unrivalled cultural phenomenon that swept turn of the century Paris and showcases great musical works by French composers performed by renowned artists including France’s distinguished Trio Pennetier Pasquier Pidoux, pianist Cédric Tiberghien, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Brentano String Quartet, Juno award-winning Gryphon Trio, and bass-baritone Philippe Sly.  For information on all 2013 Festival activities call 416-408-0208 or visit www.torontosummermusic.com .

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10 Questions for Douglas McNabney

Posted on July 6, 2013 by barczablog

Born and raised in Toronto, violist  Douglas McNabney is one of Canada’s most distinguished chamber musicians.  He has enjoyed an international performing career with appearances in Holland, Belgium, France, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, as well as performances throughout Canada and the U.S.A. He has recorded for, among others, BRT (Brussels), Radio Bremen, RTE (Dublin), Finnish Broadcasting (Helsinki), Sudwestdeutscher Rundfunk (Karlsruhe), Norwegian Radio (Oslo), Radio Sweden (Stockholm), NPR (USA), and the CBC. His recording on the Oxingale label of the Mozart Divertimento with Jonathan Crow and Matt Haimovitz was nominated for a Juno in 2007 and his Dorian recording of Mahler with the Smithsonian Chamber Players was nominated for a Grammy in 2008. He has recorded for Dorian, Amberola, Marquis, Oxingale, and CBC Enterprises labels.

As one of Canada’s most active chamber musicians, he has appeared as guest artist with the leading chamber music groups and societies across Canada. His chamber music partners include Canadians Marc-André Hamelin, Louis Lortie, André Laplante, Anton Kuerti, James Ehnes and internationally renowned soloists Menachem Pressler, Steven Isserlis, Jamie Buswell, William Preucil, Miriam Fried, among many others. He has performed with the SuperNova Quartet, the Crow-Haimovitz-McNabney Trio, the Orfordto.org/”; Quartet, the Penderecki Quartet, the Alcan Quartet, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the St Lawrence Quartet, Sante Fe Pro Musica, Millennium, the Gryphon Trio, the Allegri String Quartet, le Quatuor Artur Leblanc, Amici, New Music Concerts (Toronto), the Toronto Chamber Players, Amadeus Ensemble, Scotia Chamber Players, the Acadia Chamber Players, the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society, Musica Camerata de Montréal, and Les Chambristes de Montréal. He has appeared in most of the major festivals in Canada including le Festival international du Domaine Forget, le Festival international de Lanaudière, Orford; International Festival, Galway International Festival (Ireland), Music at Speedside, Festival du Bic, the Scotia Festival, Kammermusikfest Kloster Kamp, Linfort (Germany), Festival of the Sound, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, BargeMusic, (New York), Festival Canada, Music at Blair Atholl (Scotland), Festival de musique de chambre de Montréal, le Club musical de Québec, and many others.

Also renowned as an arts administrator, Douglas McNabney was Artistic Director of the Domaine Forget Music Festival and Academy from 2001 until 2005. He was Chair of the Department of Performance of McGill University from 2004 to 2008 during a period of extensive renewal and growth of the Faculty. In 2009, Douglas McNabney was responsible for the artistic direction of the Haydn 2009 project at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal where the complete cycle of all 68 String Quartets was performed in one week. The event featured guest quartets from across North America and Europe and renowned Haydn scholars in conference with a total public attendance in excess of 6,000 entries.
Douglas McNabney is currently Professor of Chamber Music at the Schulich School of Music of McGill. He also pursues a busy schedule of appearances as soloist and guest artist in festivals and with chamber music societies and ensembles across Canada and Europe. He was appointed Artistic Director of Toronto Summer Music in August 2010.

As we approach the opening of the 2013 Toronto Summer Music Festival on July 16th I ask McNabney 10 questions: five about himself and five more about the TSM.

1) Are you more like your father or your mother?

Violist – teacher – administrator Doulas McNabney

Neither…. (Although my wife might have a different opinion!) I was very much the black sheep of the family, and although our family was a large one, there was no background in music or the arts and no role models. If pressed, I would say I have my father’s sensitivity and my mother’s stubbornness, in equal measure.

I think I am not alone among musicians who wonder where the consuming passion for their art comes from. It defines us and sets us apart, on occasion, even from our families. Unless it is a family of musicians – like my wife’s! Both of her parents are musicians and they have four children, all musicians who married other musicians. And now my two children are musicians! My daughter is a harpsichordist, like her mother, and grandmother before her. Third generation of harpsichordists… It’s like the Bach family – but, sign of the times, all women!

My son is a wonderful double bass player. As a family, when we have occasion to all play together, (it is rare – not a lot of repertoire for harpsichord, viola and double bass!) – we are no longer parent and child, we are three musicians. Music is what knits my family together.

2) What is the best thing or worst thing about being Artistic Director of an annual music festival?

After struggling all year with the logistics and the constant preoccupation of funding to bring the artists, the music and the public together, the best part is unquestionably witnessing the moment of the creative act – a performance. Watching and listening to a musician, whether seasoned pro or young artist, discover on the spur of the moment, a new sound, turn of phrase, timing or significance to the unfolding of the music, is a thrill. And it’s equally satisfying to see the audience appreciate that moment. The lives of the artists and the audience are immeasurable enriched by the experience. As musicians, we all live for those moments; as audience we’re touched by a grace that takes us out of our more ordinary lives…. That’s a bit heavy, but true!

3) Who do you like to listen to or watch?

I hardly watch tv. When I have the chance, I will try to watch a good film (which excludes most Hollywood fare!)

The act of listening to music is not something I can do casually. I’m drawn in and cannot do or think about anything else when there’s music being played. So I don’t listen to music when I sit back and relax. I hope this doesn’t shock people – but I prefer silence! When I’m too tired to do anything productive, I’ll watch Mad Men on itunes. It’s a sixties thing, a world I grew up in and there’s something very subversive about it that appeals to me. I feel like layers of significance to all kinds of inexplicable things of my childhood are being revealed.

4) What ability or skill do you wish you had, that you don’t have?

Sometimes I wish I was a better singer. But then, maybe I would not have become a string player? I think I’ve reached the stage in life where I feel there’s nothing to be gained nor lost by pretending to be anything other than what I am, deficiencies included!

5) When you’re just relaxing and not working what is your favourite
thing to do?

I would say my other passion in life, apart from family, food, and fine wine, is architecture. I like to study buildings and read about the people who designed them. I also like to design and build things myself. I’m finishing a summer house at the moment that I designed from the ground up. I like the sense of completion in construction and renovation. Once a room is painted, it’s done, finished. I never get that sense of completion in my professional life. There’s always more music to practise, another festival season to plan, etc. It’s endless. Which is also a good thing of course, because there’s always an excellent reason to get up in the morning and get going!

Douglas McNabney (photo: Bo Huang)

Douglas McNabney (photo: Bo Huang)

 ~~~~~~~

Five more concerning Douglas McNabney’s ongoing commitment to Toronto Summer Music Festival as their Artistic Director

1) Please talk about how you reconcile the disparate aspects of your life: as a performer, a teacher and academic, and as an administrator & impresario.

It’s interesting. I feel all the various roles I’m fortunate to play are complementary, not incompatible. Being a teacher helps me reflect upon what I do as a performer. Being an academic at a university like McGill has made me a more efficient administrator, etc. And the various tasks require a different energy. After a day full of rehearsing and practicing, I can turn to writing or reading and email feeling quite fresh. I could never do another 4 or 5 hours of rehearsing, but easily manage to do that in administrative tasks. And vice-versa.

2) what do you love about programming a Festival such as TSM?

Programming the TSM Festival is a tremendously satisfying challenge to meet every year. I can draw upon years of experience from every facet of my career. A degree in Musicology from U of Toronto, my performing career as a chamber musician, my administrative career at McGill and 10 years in the Artistic Direction at Domaine Forget in Charlevoix, QC, – every one of those roles and that collective experience informs my choices. I have also had the good fortune to meet and perform with some incredibly gifted colleagues. Bringing these musicians to Toronto for the first time and sharing their particular genius with the public is very rewarding.

I also love following the trail of an idea through the research it inspires and discovery of repertoire that I’ve never come across. There is so much great music out there and programming repertoire that is new to me is one of the most gratifying aspects of planning a season.

I am by nature very curious. I’m always looking for ‘why did this happen?’, ‘where did this come from?’ and ‘what was the inspiration behind this?’ No artist works in a vacuum! There is a context – historical, social, political, and cultural – for every great work of art. Discovering connections and threads of commonality in works of art is, to me, endlessly fascinating. I try to encourage our public to share that sense of discovery and I hope the programming inspires a curiosity to find connections of their own.

3) Do you have a favourite program in the Festival?

Apart from the obvious answer that a parent can have no favourite children, I am particularly proud that we were able to manage to produce the concert with Katia and Marielle Labèque on August 1st entitled The Minimalist Dream House project.

Katia et Marielle Labèque (photo by Brigitte Lacombe): click on photo and then click “The Labèques’ Minimalist Dream House” for more information

This is perhaps the most daring programming we have ever presented at TSM. The MDH project is a retrospective of Minimalism in music– a style many love to hate but that had undeniable impact on music of the last half of the 20th century. It is a unique, intelligent and multi-genre presentation that traces minimalism in music from its origins in the music of Satie, through Cage, Glass and Reich to Arvo Pärt. The program will be a marathon in three parts. The first features the Labèque sisters performing Satie, Glass, Cage and Pärt. They are fabulous performers. In the second and third parts of the program, they will be joined by their band from Paris and will trace the influence of minimalism even through popular genres including rock music. Yes, the music of Radiohead and Sonic Youth with a rock band onstage backing up the Labèque sisters will be part of this year’s TSM Festival! I hope our traditional audience will forgive me – but I am a long-time fan of Radiohead. Having their music as part of the TSM Festival represents a personal triumph of sorts…

(One of many Radiohead transcriptions for piano one can find on youtube)

4) How do you relate to the world of classical music as a modern man?            

I suspect I relate to classical music the way people always have and always will! I refuse to despair that it is a dying art. To paraphrase Charles Rosen, the death of classical music is perhaps one of its longest continuing traditions! There are chamber music festivals springing up in every corner of the continent. There are clearly difficulties and we are in a period of transition and upheaval, especially for the corporate/business model of ‘delivering the product’(!) And yet, despite the omnipresence of music everywhere in our lives today (elevators, Loblaws, and hospital corridors), people still crave the intimacy and connection to a performer that only comes from live performance.

Not long ago I came across an amazing anecdote (not yet verified!), that of the 25 billion songs downloaded from the itunes store as of February 2013, 15% were classical. I believe people intuitively can recognize a great work of art and can distinguish between a performance of great quality and something that is fake or false, regardless of genre. Classical music will never have mass appeal (it never did!) but great works of art will continue to be presented to an appreciative audience. We have to ensure the ‘opportunity of exposure’ is offered to those susceptible to forming the audience of tomorrow.

Bruno Giuranna

5) Is there anyone out there who you particularly admire, and who has influenced you?

My teachers and coaches are the formative influences. From the very first violin lesson at age 16! They only encouraged me to pursue my dream – although in retrospect, they probably had their doubts! Then there are the musicians that I met in masterclasses: Bruno Giuranna in Sienna and England, William Primrose for successive summers in Banff; the great conductors I played under when I was Principal Viola of the Quebec Symphony. It is no secret, the musicians I engage for the TSM Festival, many of them good friends and colleagues, are the musicians I admire the most. Come join us at the 2013 festival, and you’ll see why!

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Toronto Summer Music runs July 16th until August 3rd.  For further information click here.

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