Remembering Larry Earlix

Posted on July 11, 2019 by barczablog

It’s a day for sentimentality.  My mom’s had her birthday, which is of course a wonderful occasion: but I won’t talk about that here as it’s a bit too private for the blog.

Yes Virginia there are things I don’t babble on and on about. I also don’t talk about why I’ve been somewhat quiet the past few months, blogging far less than usual.  I don’t want to complain other than to say I’ve been busy due to a flood in my basement.  We’re very lucky with how it has turned out (and thank goodness for insurance coverage) but that doesn’t change the fact that one gets preoccupied with all sorts of details.  I’m going to write a long personal blog today because of how I feel about Larry and mortality and the necessity of grabbing life when you get the chance.

I hadn’t thought of Larry Earlix in ages and ages.

And he pronounced it so that it rhymes with “girl—ix” or “swirl-ix”, no matter how you might think he—a guitar player after all—should have pronounced it… No not “Ear-licks” or “beer licks” apt as that might be for a really good lead guitar.

But I was reminded of Larry listening to the radio yesterday, as we were invited on “Here & Now” (an afternoon drive-home program) to remember the Volkswagen Beetle and to share our memories.  I didn’t call because I knew at the time that what I was remembering would be impossible to capture in a little phone-call to the kind folks curating the contributions for Here & Now.  Indeed I wondered how sentimental I might become recalling Larry, the coolest person I knew at the time if not the coolest person I ever met.

Of course one man’s cool is another person’s faux-pas, so it’s relative.  Others from that era might roll their eyes at the thought. Larry was not tall.  Larry was not imposing. Larry was gentle and kind, articulate but not an imposing academic. Many knew him for his background support work, not any starring roles.

So, in the process of thinking about the car I remembered a lot of other things about someone who was for a time my best friend.

I remembered that I phoned Larry awhile ago. It must have been the 1990s, I realize now. Wow times flies.  I looked him up through something that might have been the internet.  Was there a google? No, it was long distance directory assistance. Yes I remember now you used to be able to ask for phone numbers, if you had the right part of the world.

But I found a phone number and called him up. I remember a friendly chat, with someone I’d known long before, the voice so familiar.

He suggested I come visit him in California.

If you have that impulse to call someone, to chat or talk? Do it.  Go with it. Don’t hesitate, wondering if there will be a next time.

That call was the first time in a long time, and it turns out, the last time we would or could speak.

Googling today I couldn’t find very much.  If I had, I’d do what I usually do, I’d make a list with bullet points. By now people know me for that, right? I do what I do blogging as in my life as a manager at the university, whether I’m talking to my customers or my staff or my boss.

But when you find next to nothing, bullets are out.

So what did I find?  The first link Google offered, I wasn’t even sure it was him at first.  The name Earlix is uncommon, just like Barcza, which is a huge advantage when you’re googling.  If your old pal from the 1970s is Smith or Jones or Mancini or Singh: you will have a much harder time.

Google gave me three possibles, and in each case I was skeptical (feel free to search for yourself, using “Larry Earlix”).  The second seems only marginally possible, but I’ll come back to #2 in a moment.

#1? The first thing that caught my eye was disheartening especially if I admit to myself that yes, I was hoping to talk to an old friend.  The first phrase is

“Unfortunately, Lawrence Earlix passed away at the age of 51, the date of death was 07/26/1998.”

Hm could it be the right Larry Earlix? Reading those words I was hoping it was the wrong one.

The site came up as

Lawrence Earlix (Larry), 51 – Monterey, CA Background Report

I don’t know about background reports. And I was just curious about an old friend. IS this him?  Larry was older than me.  In 1998 I was 43. Hm, 51? I didn’t know how much older he was, but that sounds totally plausible.  I saw Larry regularly in the latter 1970s when I was connected to the University of Toronto’s Varsity newspaper.  I was the classical music editor –a free job—and also the proof-reader –a paid gig. Larry used to drive me and the layouts to the plant up on Lesmill Rd. We used to go up the Don Valley.

Jeepers it’s all coming back to me, in a stream of banal details that are rich with associated memories.

I remember the guy who ran the plant where they printed the paper, who used to call the Varsity’s layout editor “Alex Alphabet”: because he had a long Ukrainian name, and in those days it was normal to mock anyone ethnic.  I don’t think there were any persons of colour, and speaking of colours, LGBTQ was barely on the horizon on a campus with perhaps one or two openly gay professors, one of whom I admired very much & studied with (although he –the brilliant Douglas Chambers –challenged me & my miserably mixed up attitude saying “why are you here”?..a question I still haven’t fully answered to this day. I’ll have to talk about him in another blog).

The only other thing I found on the internet about Larry that I’m certain is him –and which sadly corroborates the fact of his death in the first URL I shared– was a tiny page with a photo from 1995.  Because it’s again mentioning Monterey California, I have to think it’s the same guy in both and yes this is him in the photo.  It’s the third of the three things that come up on Google,, with this URL: https://www.qsl.net/kc6jev/

aaa_LARRY__imageTV0

Ham Radio operators Greg Pool, WH6DT, and Larry Earlix, KC6JEV, During the 1995 Monterey Floods

Larry is the nerdy looking fellow on the right.  He’s likely posed standing because the fellow on the left who is seated is probably much taller.  I can hear his accent in my head, a very American intellectual kind of accent that brands him as a northerner, even if I should associate him with the mid-west.  He told me of his time in SDS, Students for a Democratic Society, the Chicago riot at the democrats convention in 1968 (a time like our own?  Nixon would win that election) but I don’t know what state he actually came from, was born in where that accent originated.

…where his mother and father had lived.

So #2 is much more ambiguous. No wait, having looked more closely I’m sure it’s him also. He’s politically active back in 1987 which is the date of a news report.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-11-sp-18712-story.html

I am going to quote this piece from LA Times because links have a way of ending or changing & then ceasing to work:

  • just like the phone numbers of old friends with whom we lose touch, or
  • just like the beating hearts of our friends.

The piece is written by Pete Thomas, Dec 11 1987.  And I quote:

The Alliance for Resource Management announced that an initiative to ban gill nets along the California coastline did not reach the 550,000-signature goal required to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot for June of 1988.

This is the second time such an initiative has fallen short of the necessary signatures. The first was sponsored last year by editor Ken Kukuda of South Coast Sportfishing magazine.

The final count is incomplete, but ARM spokesman Larry Earlix estimated the shortfall at 250,000 signatures.

Despite the failure, Earlix said he was optimistic about next year.

“We’re already prepared for next time,” he said. “We know there is a broad-based general concern and we feel confident that we have the public mandate to take our position to the California state legislature. A whole state-wide organization of activists is now in place.”

Should it fail again?

“If there continues to be a lack of commitment by the state in protecting the fragile ocean environment, we’re just going back to the people and do it again,” Earlix said.

As I quote Pete Thomas’s piece from 1987, over 30 years ago, I think I’m honouring my mother and my old friend Larry who is fading away in my dim brain.  I suppose I’m honouring myself as I meander through memories of long ago.

Larry was a political animal. I mentioned SDS right? Larry had been in Canada for awhile. I don’t know if it’s accurate to say he was a draft dodger—that bizarre epithet of another time—because I don’t know the full timelines of Larry’s life.  Given that he was at least 5 years older than me and was doing graduate work in Psychology (ah yes, I am remembering that he was involved with the student union for Psych, that was in the basement of Sidney Smith Hall), it was entirely possible that he had come here—or somewhere in Canada—during the Vietnam War.

He had been in Chicago in 1968, a decade before I met him.   Argh, there’s so much I don’t know, and will never know about him.

I remember riding in that Volkswagen Beetle, not just the twice a week runs up to the plant (hm was it twice a week? Or was it three times? I can’t remember) but a trip up north. I had told him about the Perseids, one of the great pleasures to be had in the summertime.  This year the Perseids peak on August 13th, by the way.  Larry was enthused, and so we went north on Hwy 400 until we decided we’d reached someplace that was indeed dark enough.  The Perseids are wonderful, but even more so when you travel out of town, away from the bright lights of the city.

I also remember the last chapter of our relationship, when I guess I became impossible.  I was music-directing a show at the U of T, a production of Joker of Seville with texts by Derek Walcott, music by Galt MacDermot. Ron Bryden had worked with Walcott at the Royal Shakespeare and was enthused about the show.  Ah this is one period of my life when I wish I could have a do-over (!).  I learned a great deal about middle-management working on this show, trying to cope with the acoustics of Hart House Theatre, singers of varying skill levels (there was at least one tone-deaf singer whose song was eventually cut, at least one rhythm-deaf singer trying valiantly to sing something syncopated). They were working without amplification, accompanied by a band who were perceived as too loud and therefore felt unwelcome and alien in a show where they should have been the heart & soul of the story.  I saw the hurt in their faces (Larry wasn’t the only one) and didn’t know what to do. I was young and innocent and had not yet learned that most valuable of skills, knowing when & how to keep my mouth shut.  It didn’t matter that Larry was a fine guitarist, not when we were seeking to reconcile the impossible acoustic & the unamplified voices.  I think this is where we parted company, where Larry was kind & gentle & loyal even though he had committed to something that was a lot less fun than we had expected.  But Larry was a great stabilizer, like the heavy water in a reactor that keeps things from over-heating.  He was cool and ironic and yes, distant: while perhaps nursing slights that I didn’t properly address, being swamped with demands from all sides.

But there are some great memories.

We saw Animal House together the first week it opened, possibly the day it opened.  Yes it’s the quintessentially sophomoric sexist film that is like a best friend who keeps making jokes to make a Donald Trump proud, a film packed full of talent & funny lines and also moments so politically troubling that I find the film hard to watch.  Larry saw it as a very political film; I remember he said it was about the birth of the counter-culture.  It’s very much about the end of an era of innocence when you consider that the last scene takes place on November 21st 1963: the day before Kennedy was shot.  Good or bad, I associate the film with my own youthful times with Larry. Funnily enough I was reading about this film, and the many tales of its creation on this IMDB page, which reminds me—again—of this whole process of remembrance and forgetting:
and mortality.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077975/trivia

But there’s no question that people like Larry punched above their weight-class, influential beyond what you might expect.  I recall a few American exiles of the 1970s, who influenced my life & influenced others in our city.  I met Kip at this time, a pacifist Quaker who had come to Toronto with his wife to avoid the draft, taking me to the Friends House.  I recall Jane Jacobs coming north with her children to keep them out of the war.  I wonder if anyone has tried to capture the cumulative influence on Toronto of this exiled group, some of whom would return to America when it was permitted.  Larry went back and had a whole life in California, trying to stop gill-netting: and who knows what else…? I hope our bad time in Joker didn’t persuade him to stop playing the guitar. He had a lovely sound, wonderfully musical.

I remember him for one clever thought he shared, that could epitomize him. He kept his valuable guitar in a beat-up case, so that one would under-estimate what might be inside.

Larry himself was easy to under-estimate, so much more than what he seemed.

If you see this and knew Larry in any capacity please feel free to get in touch. I’d love to know more.

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays, Politics, University life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Operatic thought for Canada Day

Posted on June 29, 2019 by barczablog

Is it true that Alexander Neef, General Director of the Canadian Opera Company is headed back to Paris?

Today I read Michael Vincent’s news report  via Ludwig-van.com that was a natural segue from the conversation I had with my companion at the symphony, based on a report in Le Figaro.  Note that it is not confirmed yet.

“Une rumeur insistante court à tous les étages de la Bastille”

It’s hard to know, so while we’re on our Canada Day holiday weekend, why not let our imaginations run wild? Tuesday morning things will be back to normal (the global climate catastrophe, election talk on either side of the border, scandals & rumours).

I speculated last night as to whether we should be concerned that Neef is going to leave and poof she told me this morning about Michael’s scoop.

Later I googled “Neef Paris opera” and both Michael’s piece came up AND a piece from June 26 2008 in the Toronto Star from Martin Knelman announcing that

“The Canadian Opera Company has named Alexander Neef, the 34-year-old casting director of the Paris Opera, as its new general director.” 

Was it really 11 years ago?  But the rumour certainly makes sense given that there’s already a relationship & connections going back more than a decade.

neefLR_SamGaetz

Alexander Neef (Photo: Gaetz Photography)

In the wake of last night’s concert I find myself asking questions that hopefully will occur to others in powerful positions.  Michael stated the likely impact, namely that Neef might leave before the end of his current contract.

When would he go?

And who follows? That’s where my headline comes into it. Will the next General Director of the COC be a Canadian?  I wonder if I’m the only one posing the question. It comes on the heels of last night’s concert, when I couldn’t help noticing that Peter Oundjian –a Canadian music director for the Toronto Symphony–is to be succeeded by Gustavo Gimeno, who is not Canadian.  There’s a time & place for nationalism, but loyalty to one’s own country doesn’t necessarily get you the most talented person.

So in other words I wonder: is there a Canadian who is up to the job?

And one may ask whether nationality matters, given that the German-born Neef has at times been a strong champion of Canadian talent, on either side of the footlights.  Earlier this week we saw Doras awarded to COC productions composed, directed, designed by and starring Canadians (Rufus Wainwright, Robert Carsen, Michael Levine and Gerald Finley).

Could a Canadian-born artistic director do any better than that?

Happy Canada Day.

(the song is dedicated to Alexander)

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays, Politics, Press Releases and Announcements | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

TSO & Gimeno: a question of leadership

Posted on June 29, 2019 by barczablog

Tonight was the first concert in the Toronto Symphony’s last weekend of the season, giving us a glimpse of their new music director Gustavo Gimeno. Will he come to be known as GG? While last week’s concert with Donald Runnicles suggested a proposition, tonight was QED with GG. My hypothesis: that the TSO were in need of leadership, hungry for it, starving;  the proof can be seen in their enthusiastic and committed playing, especially with GG.

incoming

Incoming Toronto Symphony Music Director Gustavo Gimeno

Forgive me, this is one of those nights screaming for a preamble, for context above & beyond the concert: which was amazing by the way. Hurry and get your tickets before they’re all gone. The pieces are great but the performances were exceptional, the chemistry unmistakable.

I keep hearing people in Toronto musing about the magic of team leaders, that je ne sais quoi that propels a Kawhi Leonard or a Nick Nurse to victory: taking the team along with them. It’s at least a bit of a chicken & egg thing, though, when you consider that the one person can’t do it alone, that you have to assemble the key parts of the team before the special individual leads them to the promised land.

I want to properly recognize where the TSO have been and where GG puts them. Under their last long-term music director Peter Oundjian they were sometimes a remarkable collection of talented players including some brilliant young section leaders, building towards a wonderful future. You might well ask, when is the future?

I relate at a deep level to the conundrum, where we found Oundjian especially good leading the orchestra in concerti –accompanying a soloist—yet lacking some essential vision when playing big works. And in the meantime those young talents were nurtured by Oundjian the mentor, a man of wonderful kindness and generosity but perhaps not enough of an egomaniac, or whatever it is that a conductor requires, to put them over the top.

What is a leader after all? Do we know them by what they do, or by the results of those who are being led? We see this over and over, that the skills of a star player –whether in hockey or basketball OR opera or symphonic music or theatre—don’t necessarily translate into the skills to lead. They’re not the same skills are they? The assumption that a good actor makes a good director, or that a good stick handler or goal-scorer makes a good coach has been shown to be wrong over and over, because of course the skills of a leader are totally different than those of a star. The baton handling is the least of it. We watch Mayor Pete or Kamala Harris or Donald Trump tell us what they believe, and for some reason some people are moved by person X more than they’re moved by person Y, let alone what they manage to achieve if/when they’re put in charge. But I’ll leave off about leadership for the time being, although I suspect I’ll come back to it again in the next little while, because it’s such an important question.

So my first observation is simply that the TSO were hungry for what GG has got and what he gives them. They played really well tonight. The response of the members of the orchestra is a symptom, like children bouncing out of bed early on Christmas morning, or a cat running towards the sound of the can-opener. I believe they were primed and ready, given that they were brilliant last week with Runnicles.

What does GG do to get that response? I can only go by the de facto evidence, both of the performances and in Jonathan Crow’s comments in the post-concert interview, when he confirmed the rapturous response of the TSO, a curious sort of chemistry.

20190628_213655_resized

(l-r) Concertmaster & soloist Jonathan Crow, TSO’s CEO Matthew Loden and conductor Gustavo Gimeno

Tonight we heard three works:

  • Sibelius’ violin concerto, with Crow as soloist
    (intermission)
  • Prokofiev’s symphony #1
  • Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite

As a former percussionist GG brings a steady hand to the tiller. I’m not suggesting he’s metronomic. But there is the matter of meter, a word I haven’t heard anyone speak of in awhile. Let me illustrate with reference to tonight’s concert.

Do you ever wonder how a band or a soloist avoids speeding up or slowing down? It’s a dreadful thing if you notice a change, unless it’s a deliberate effect such as you might get at the breathless ending to a Rossini Overture. While one mustn’t seem like a machine one wants an organic steadiness, a natural flow. GG gave me a new perspective on that Prokofiev symphony tonight, one I’ve heard many times but never quite like this. The first & last movements are sometimes taken so fast as to seem rushed, as though we’re watching a circus performance, virtuoso excellence balancing on the edge. What I found especially breath-taking about these four movements tonight was how everything seemed easy, relaxed, unhurried. The inner voices were not just clear, but seemed to be part of a conversation, as though the parts were answering one another, as though the players were not just playing their parts but listening to one another. The result was lusciously beautiful like a voluptuous salad, where every part enticed you. The Larghetto was slower than I’ve ever heard it, exquisitely articulated throughout. GG’s approach to the gavotte was especially interesting, as he played with the tempo, the phrases feeling like thoughtful gestures back and forth. If I didn’t know better I’d say that this is an orchestra who are feeling a great deal of trust, for their new leader & for one another, given the transparent textures & the precise entrances. There was no sign of any fear or indecision in the playing, reflecting their confidence in their leader & his tempi. For the Firebird, it’s the same quality but on a larger scale. I found that at times GG employed a slower tempo than what I’d previously encountered, in other places, faster: but in every respect, it hung together, collegial & alive. I don’t think it matters sometimes what vision the leader has, so long as they’re decisive and specific. The orchestra followed and for now at least it’s a love-fest, one you can likely see at all the concerts coming up this weekend at Roy Thomson Hall Saturday night & Sunday afternoon.

Before intermission we heard a different sort of work, namely Sibelius’ violin concerto with concertmaster Jonathan Crow as soloist.

RESIZED TSO June 28 Photo Credit Jag Gundu

Violinist Jonathan Crow with the TSO led by Gustavo Gimeno (photo: Jag Gundu)

As orchestra & conductor get to know one another –given that we’d expect this to be the beginning of a long-term relationship—it’s a great idea to have the orchestra’s resident virtuoso play a concerto, as a kind of act of calibration. They’re getting the feel of one another, right? So there they were out on the dance-floor together, getting comfortable with one another.  They reported in their post-concert Q & A that they’re speaking the same language.

Speaking of which I couldn’t help wondering: how many languages does a cosmopolitan artist like Gimeno speak? In the Q & A he spoke articulately in accented English, but I’m sure he also speaks Dutch (he had a position in Holland), Spanish, perhaps also German & French & Italian?

We have to wait awhile for the GG era to begin, not until in the fall of 2020. Our appetites have been whetted.  Argh I can’t wait.

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

Questions for Dahlia Katz

Posted on June 22, 2019 by barczablog

Dahlia Katz is the Artistic Director of Solar Stage, a director/dramaturg with a lifetime interest in puppets, and a photographer.

If I exclude those who get written up in reviews (the actors-musicians-directors etc) Dahlia Katz may have appeared in my blog more than anyone, her photos often serving as the best advertisement for operas & plays.  If you’re a regular reader of blogs or reviews you have probably seen and admired her work.

Dahlia might be the best photographer I’ve ever encountered.

kaplan

Dahlia Katz’s iconic photo of Jon Kaplan

Yes there are other people who take perfect beautiful pictures, but what she appears to do better than anyone I know is capture the essence of a show.

Geoffrey Sirett as Akakiy in The Overcoat A Musical Tailoring_Photo Credit Dahlia Katz_preview

Geoffrey Sirett as Akakiy in The Overcoat A Musical Tailoring (Photo: Dahlia Katz)

Over and over I have used one of her images that epitomizes a piece (go see her website for more examples). I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she understands her subjects from the inside because as a practitioner she’s not merely snapping pictures.

rocking_horse_winner

Carla Huhtanen (left at the piano) and Asitha Tennekoon in Rocking Horse Winner (photo: Dahlia Katz).

On social media she shares her excitement, humble enough to sometimes seem genuinely star-struck by the talent she encounters. Yet she is always helping the people she works with be better, the consummate team player.

Early this year, many months ago, I asked her about doing an interview, long before Solar Stage were nominated for ten Dora awards. However many of those nominations actually lead to awards, the attention changes very little. She will continue to be very busy on multiple fronts. I’m sure the recognition is appreciated, but Dahlia will keep working hard, will keep being humble.

I’m so glad she was able to find some time to answer a few questions.

Are you more like your father or your mother?

I’m entirely my mother’s daughter. She raised me and continues to raise and protect and challenge and care for me. Rachel Katz is well known amongst those who studied theatre at York University… she’s an administrator there, but a mother to all, a safe space and a caregiver and a tough-lover and a listener and a profoundly insightful influence. She will fight for what’s right, she’ll fight for you to get what you deserve, she fights for her own rights, she fights for women and young people and the frightened and the lost and the under-resourced. She doesn’t care where you came from, just how much you can dream and how hard you can work. She asks for little in return. She takes after her mother too (a refugee and survivor of World War II).

mom_daughter

Dahlia & Rachel Katz

What is the best or worst thing about what you do?

Best thing is getting to be in all the rooms, and having the warm acquaintance of so many people in the theatre community. The worst thing is only getting to wear one hat at a time.

Who do you like to listen to or watch?

Other than theatre? TV. I don’t watch movies, they make me fall asleep. I prefer short/episodic storytelling, and these days I keep it optimistic or light-hearted. Right now I’m all about Letterkenny, The Good Doctor, Killing Eve, Star Trek: Discovery, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Grace and Frankie, Cheers. Always re-watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager. No, not Deep Space Nine.

When I listen to music it’s typically just classical or jazz while I’m photo-editing. Except for when I feel like some show-tunes.

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

Drawing. And keeping plants alive.

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

These days, to be honest, I am not doing much of this. I work all the time. I do cook really well, and like to get back to it when possible.

More questions about the busy Artistic Director of Solar Stage, a self-described “puppetry coach” moonlighting as one of the most in-demand photographers in the city.

Where & how does puppetry fit into your sensibility?

Puppetry showed me how to be a rigorous student of human physical behaviour, which, as you can imagine, has many applications in what I do. It’s the basis of my theatrical sensibility, and helps me direct body language in my photography subjects. I trained in the US with Sandglass Theater and in the Czech Republic with Miroslav Trejtnar as well as with Pete Balkwill of the Old Trout Puppet Workshop and Rob Faust of Faustworks. I almost completed an MA in Theatre Studies at York University, but I felt the study of directing for theatrical puppetry was something I didn’t want to just write a hundred-page paper about, I wanted it to be my life’s work. I teach puppet manipulation intensives once in a while and I hope to get back to it again soon. In a way, puppetry taught me everything I needed to know about acting, and how to make theatre a truly visual experience, a spectacle of human behaviour and universal gestures.

In a photography context, it helps me capture moments that truly translate through the still, and to anticipate moments even before they happen.

So you’ve studied the training and preparation of actors for theatrical puppetry. If money were no object, is there a project on the back burner that we might see one of these days?

Well, unrelated to puppetry, I always wanted to direct a production of Hair (the musical).

But I have always wanted to see puppets do something we’ve never seen them do before, like butoh or aerials or Mamet. Something that highlights the form but also challenges it to be done so realistically it almost becomes mundane. However I believe strongly that puppets should never be used to do something that an actor can do better; so in these modes they need to do something an actor could never do, like pop their own heads off or something. Or die. I love a good puppet death.

I love your photography. Your photos seem to genuinely channel the best moments of the shows you’re shooting. What’s your secret?

Thank you very much. I think the “secret” of any seasoned professional is just experience, but I definitely benefit from the overlaps and interactions of my various backgrounds. And some really good reflexes.

What is your mission at Solar Stage?

I’m the Artistic Director.

dahlia008

Dahlia’s photo on Solar Stage’s website

My husband is the Artistic Producer.

M_john

M John Kennedy, Solar Stage’s Artistic Producer: partner to Dahlia Katz in more ways than one.

This is our joint artistic statement.

“We believe in exposing audiences to diverse theatrical works which instil a sense of wonder, arouse optimism and empathy, and celebrate playing and the spirit of play. We believe theatre available to young people should fortify community and family relationships across age groups through the shared experience of performed stories. We believe in works of diversity in style, tradition, ethnicity, ability, gender, and age. We work to distill the concept of the ‘all-ages’ experience with critical, discerning artistry. We stand for community engagement, artistic enrichment and professional development. We want Solar Stage to be a part of the village that raises a child.”

mr_and_mrs_closeup

M John Kennedy & Dahlia Katz: the Artistic Producer & Artistic Director of Solar Stage in a more relaxed moment.

If we were to put you on a desert island with your partner, a theatre, plus another 3 wishes, what would you wish for?

It’s a funny question because being on a desert island means being away from audiences. One of the biggest wishes I have is for strong marketing for whatever I do. And the money to pay someone to do it for me. What I most want to do is work on great text with great talent. As a director, I prefer published plays to new works. As a dramaturg, I love new plays… These are separate parts of my brain.

KEEPER

Jillian Jiggs’ cast (L-R) top: Megan Starkman, Dahlia K, Gabriel Vaillant. Bottom: Ann Paula Bautista, April Leung

Going by your gut feelings of pride & pleasure: what is the favourite thing you’ve done ?

There’s been a couple huge highlights this year, like directing Nora McLellan and my husband in Caryl Churchill’s ‘A Number’, shooting the new portraits for the Grand Theatre (London)’s artistic director Dennis Garnhum, getting featured in NOW magazine as a theatre photographer, and just today getting to shoot the promo images for Ronnie Burkett’s incredible new show “Forget Me Not”, but my favourite thing I’ve ever done was marry M. John Kennedy – my muse, my partner in crime, my lifeline, and my very favourite actor.

taken_by_hubby

Photo taken by M John Kennedy

What part do you enjoy most?

To be frank, one of the things I have to admit enjoying most is being an artist and being financially stable at the same time. As a photographer I also work outside of theatre doing corporate gigs, weddings, events and other stuff, but I pay my bills being creative and that feels really really good. Making my own hours and being able to change and evolve as a professional according to my own design is also really valuable to me.

Is there a teacher or influence you’d care to name that you especially admire?

Anatol Schlosser, a professor of non-European theatre and puppetry at York University… he was a huge father-figure-like influence on me, my husband, and many other friends, students who had the great honour of being in his classes before he passed away in 2002. He was – like my mother – parental in his teaching, he cared more about inspiring you than grading you. He made you feel seen as a human being. He wanted you to respect rigour and high discipline in art, but he wanted you to play and experiment, too. He made sure while I was passionate about theatre, that I got a “real education” so I would have something to say as an artist.

I wanted to also include a picture of Claudia Jean Apricot Katz-Kennedy, an important member of the family, and one of Dahlia’s favorite photographic subjects.

kitty

*****

Well that was fun..!

And by the way, the Dora Mavor Moore Awards will be given Tuesday June 25th.

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Dance, theatre & musicals, Interviews, University life | Leave a comment

Pathways to the past with TSO Carmina Burana

Posted on June 20, 2019 by barczablog

Some concerts are put together so well that you can’t help admiring the clever curator, combining compositions.

Ai caramba I didn’t mean to be so alliterative.

But even so they made magic at Roy Thomson Hall tonight in a Toronto Symphony program featuring different approaches to the past. Korngold’s Violin Concerto (premiered in 1947) was followed by Orff’s Carmina Burana (premiered in 1936). To hear the pieces you might never guess which is the more recent composition. While Korngold wrote a three movement concerto using stunning melodic moments that the composer had employed previously in his films (his recent past, if you will), Orff set a series of medieval texts, in music that for me never gets old and never sounds old.  I feel as though the middle ages come vividly to life.  Each piece might be what we would identify as “popular”, whether in the lush melodies in the Korngold or the crowd-pleasing sounds of Orff’s piece.

Speaking of past, I know I’m not the only one who gets nostalgic listening to the Orff. I ran into Joseph So after the concert, who reminisced about his associations from his undergraduate days listening to the piece. It has multiple associations for me, whether in the nerdy Latin scholars I recall from high-school who loved its bawdy text, or the room at St Hilda’s College I recall vividly from my undergrad, where we smoked up to one of the finest pieces of stoner music ever written. As I looked around at the audience, I saw at least a few people tapping their feet and jerking their heads as though they were at a rock concert.

And maybe I should talk about the concert.

James Ehnes gave us a stunning reading of the Korngold from the very first note of the piece.  Conductor Donald Runnicles kept the orchestra’s sometimes thick texture completely out of Ehnes’ way, enhancing a spectacular performance. There was a bit of additional drama in the last movement when for some reason Ehnes & concertmaster Jonathan Crow traded instruments (tuning problems?

RESIZED Mendelssohn Choir-06-2019- Nick Wons--20

Jonathan Crow (left) and the TSO sharing the applause after the concerto with soloist James Ehnes and conductor Donald Runnicles. Photo: Nick Wons

A string needing to be adjusted or fixed? I can only guess, but will ask and if I find out I’ll let you know: see below) for about a minute. While I’m sure Ehnes plays an exceptional instrument, Crow’s violin ain’t chopped liver, from what I heard last week when he played a gorgeous Meditation from Thais at a benefit concert next door in St Andrew’s Church. The drama –concluded when Crow & Ehnes traded back shortly after—suited the high spirits of the concerto’s finale.

Donald Runnicles close up (@Jag Gundu)

Conductor Donald Runnicles leading the Toronto Symphony (photo: Jag Gundu)

I’ve heard a lot of versions of Carmina Burana and must recommend Runnicles’ distinctive interpretation. He connects the sections together rather than making big pauses, he pushes the tempi in the quicker passages, which is especially electrifying if you get your percussion & brass to opt for clear & crisp attacks. You won’t hear a better performance. This orchestra is in fine form coming towards the last few concerts of the year (this week & next).

Credit too must go to David Fallis, who has the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir matching Runnicles’ requirements for clarity. The text was pristine, the dynamics sometimes beautifully restrained except in the big climaxes, so that the performance had more shape than usual (more than last time certainly). The soft singing still had great intensity, diction and consonants and energy but without being loud all the time. As a result? Extraordinary. If I could go see every concert this week, I would.

The TSO will be playing the Korngold Violin Concerto with James Ehnes followed by Orff’s Carmina Burana, including the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Toronto Youth Choir & Toronto Children’s Chorus, baritone Norman Garrett, tenor Sunnyboy Dladla & soprano Nicole Haslett: 8:00 pm Thursday June 20th and Saturday June 22nd plus a 3:00 matinee Sunday June 23rd at Roy Thomson Hall.

RESIZED Mendelssohn Choir-06-2019- Nick Wons--37

Tenor Sunnyboy Dladla (seated at left) and baritone Norman Garrett (singing), photo: Nick Wons

Posted in Music and musicology, Popular music & culture, Reviews, University life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Making a FUSS

Posted on June 15, 2019 by barczablog

Last night there was a big fuss downtown about a big sporting event. Traffic may have been slow but there was jubilation in the air. And although the game and championship were milestones for Toronto, yet that’s not the FUSS I am talking about in the headline.
“F.U.S.” also stands for focused ultrasound (FUS). The focused ultrasound at Sunnybrook Hospital is FUSS, where several different projects are underway.

THEM

Ann & Errol

The concert last night, titled “LET’S MAKE A FUSS!” was a fund-raiser for research at Sunnybrook, organized by Ann Cooper Gay, whose husband and life-partner Errol Gay has ALS.

ALS may be known to you as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”, an ailment that so far has been incurable. It eventually claimed the life of physicist Stephen Hawking. Errol Gay, pianist, conductor, composer & Toronto Symphony librarian has ALS. Recently we’ve heard that conductor & radio personality Kerry Stratton has ALS.

Dr Agessandro Abrahao spoke to us briefly about the exciting research that I’ll attempt to describe with the help of text I have borrowed from the Sunnybrook website:

Transcranial MR-guided focused ultrasound has been approved as a therapeutic alternative for treatment-resistant essential tremor. This noninvasive technique is being tested clinically as a drug delivery platform in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and brain tumours, by safely and temporarily opening the blood-brain barrier in targeted brain regions.
In collaboration with the Centre of Excellence in Focused Ultrasound at Sunnybrook, Dr. Abrahao’s research aims to expand the clinical testing of MR-guided focused ultrasound to treat neurological diseases.
Dr. Abrahao’s research interests also include clinical trials and epidemiological studies of ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases. He is also interested in the development of biomarkers for motor neuron function using transcranial magnetic stimulation and motor unit count techniques.

The concert was an uplifting & inspiring event.

Members of the Toronto Symphony began the event with Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man.

Richard Margison sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” accompanied by pianist Monique de Margerie.

Lauren Margison sang “Tu che di gel” from Turandot accompanied by pianist Monique de Margerie.

Nora Shulman, Julie Ranti and Winona Zelenka played Haydn’s Trio I for two flutes & piano.

The Canadian Youth Opera Alumni Men’s Chorus, accompanied by Gergely Szololay sang first “My Funny Valentine” –showing us an arrangement by Errol Gay—followed by the “Soldiers’ Chorus” from Laura’s Cow: The Legend of Laura Secord, an opera composed by Errol Gay.

Russell Braun sang “Sure on This Shining Night” by Morten Lauridsen, accompanied by pianist Carolyn Maule.

Then we heard from Dr Abrahao.

abrahao

Dr Agessandro Abrahao

Peter Barcza sang “The Impossible Dream” accompanied by Ann Cooper Gay at the piano.

Pianist Linda Ippolito played Arlequin et Pantalon by Pierre-Max Dubois.

Adi Braun sang the “Cheeky Little Swing Tune” composed for her by Tony Quarrington, and accompanied by him as well on his guitar.

Jonathan Crow played the “Meditation” from Thais accompanied by members of the TSO.

And to close we heard “Make Our Garden Grow” from Bernstein’s Candide, sung by Tessa Laengert & Paul Williamson, plus the Canadian Youth Opera Alumni Chorus & Friends, accompanied by members of the TSO.

While the concert was very inspiring, so too was hearing about this research, that holds great promise.  The link is still live for you to make a contribution to support this exciting project: in search of a breakthrough.

Posted in Music and musicology, Press Releases and Announcements | 4 Comments

Isaiah Bell: The Book of My Shames

Posted on June 9, 2019 by barczablog

Should I have said “The book of HIS shames”? Isaiah Bell’s one-man show is about his shames, right?

But no. He is everyman, every-person, and so these are your shames & my shames too.

I couldn’t imagine a more apt show for PRIDE.  While I was all gung-ho to suggest that one should go see The Book of My Shames presented by Tapestry Opera, it’s over, tonight was the last performance. Sorry about that.

As I sat there watching & listening, I did what I often do when reviewing a show, trying to create a mnemonic to remember everything I might want to say. This fell into a perfect A- B – C.

A for Antinous, B for Book, C for comparison, D for dead.

And early on I was again thinking of G, as in Grand Opera and its dramaturgy. For the second consecutive night I’m feeling that Grand Opera is almost D-for dead. Bell was Antinous in the Canadian Opera Company production of Hadrian, a courageous and expensive attempt to make a grand opera, yet so stiff and limited when compared to the works I’ve seen over the past year that are done on a smaller scale, such as Pomegranate last night or tonight’s The Book of My Shames. I was reminded of my petty irritation at Hadrian when Bell gave the name a four syllable pronunciation (An-tin-o-us), even though some in the cast plus the chorus gave the name a three syllable pronunciation (An-tin-oose). Back at the time, I asked myself “When you’re spending all that money shouldn’t somebody make sure you’re all pronouncing the name the same way?” But now I am just sad as I speculate that it’s all so complex and so big, a grand opera is so impossibly detailed of a thing, a vast machine that’s difficult if not impossible to control.

headshot-isaiah-bell-2017-websized

Composer & tenor Isaiah Bell

Yet with this one-man show? Okay, nobody said Book of My Shames is opera. Bell’s writing is confessional text with some music, supported ably by pianist Darren Creech & Director/dramaturge Sean Guist. The flexibility on display, the ease with which Bell could connect, have us laughing our heads off? very impressive.

darren-creech-square-1024x1024

Pianist Darren Creech

But maybe what Bell originally roughed out at his piano was then taken up by Creech in rehearsal before Guist’s observant eye / ear. The 80 minutes of this piece, some spoken, some sung, some accompanied by piano solo are all coherent minutes, emerging from a clear-headed objective.

sean.biggaycab

Director / dramaturge Sean Guist

B is for Book. It took me awhile to decide that the book we see is actually a metaphor and not literally true as the book in Bell’s life: because Bell’s presentation was so authentic. For awhile I was persuaded (like the Ghostbusters… my slogan could be “i’m ready to believe you”… and yes maybe I’m gullible) that this funky old book full of pictures was a real album from the youth of this person presenting his life to us, telling us horror stories and silly stories, and laying himself bare. But wow, what a brilliant image, this idea that our bad moments could be collected this way. Forgive me for hitting you over the head with the impact of the show, but it was very effective. This book is us, who we are and where we have been. The opposite of Pride is Shame. To get to self-acceptance one must at least begin the journey through self-judgment and on towards making peace with oneself and one’s past.

C is for comparison, as in, what’s the difference between last night & tonight? Eros (okay we’ll do E in the same paragraph with C) was surely there last night in the lesbian opera, as it was tonight, in the gay man’s one-man cabaret show. I was struck by something I didn’t properly air last night (when I alluded to Erlanger’s operatic setting of Pierre Louýs’s Aphrodite), namely that it’s a huge difference when a man writes an opera about lesbians, and women (lesbian or otherwise) undertake such a project as we saw last night. And when we watched the opening of Act III of Hadrian (if I am remembering correctly… Act III is after intermission, right?),  we see Hadrian & Antinous are in bed together. There were similarities between what we saw last night between the lesbian lovers and what we saw in Act III of Hadrian. Tonight’s solo show had some very intensely erotic recollections, even if there was a great deal of ambiguity in what we were hearing about. I think the key to all of these examples is what happens in our heads, that beauty & eroticism is in the eye/ear of the beholder/listener.

This was the closing performance of The Book of My Shames at Ernest Balmer Studio in the Distillery District . I hope there will be another opportunity to see/ hear Bell’s fascinating creation.  Whatever show he might bring to town, I’ll be sure to go see it.

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Politics, Reviews | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Pomegranate

Posted on June 8, 2019 by barczablog

Less is more.

Pomegranate, bearing the epithet “a lesbian chamber opera,” is the latest specimen suggesting that grand opera is all but dead. Small is beautiful whatever your sexual politics, both for the lower price-tag and the ideal connection you make in a smaller space such as Buddies in Bad Times Theatre where the buzz is genuine, the enthusiasm palpable. Working with a seven member ensemble led by Jennifer Tung, Director Michael Hidetoshi Mori created a powerfully dramatic evening.

teiya

Teiya Kasahara in her modern incarnation as a bartender (photo: Dahlia Katz)

It was interesting to see mention in the program of the rarity of a lesbian opera. I was reminded of the only one I could think of, Erlanger’s adaptation of Pierre Louýs’s novel Aphrodite. Louýs also wrote the Chansons de Bilitis, adapted a couple of times by Debussy. There are some parallels between the stories for Aphrodite and Pomegranate. Besides the lesbian content, both stories go back to classical times, both concern a power struggle between male & female, that can also be seen as a kind of contest between two different faiths or cultures (for instance when the oppressive centurion Marcus keeps blustering about Apollo). As one might expect, the political aspect is front & centre.

At two hours long Pomegranate is a full meal. Composer Kye Marshall and librettist Amanda Hale created two very different acts. For the first act, when Hale & Marshall were establishing a ritualized sub-culture of Isis worshippers in Pompeii at the time of Vesuvius’s eruption, the back and forth between characters did not have the usual discursive alternation of dialogue, but instead was more like two people telling the same story together, as though they were both staring in wonderment at the same beautiful sunset. I’m reminded of a term Keir Elam used to describe the discourse of Maeterlinck’s plays (and emulated in Debussy’s setting of Pelleas et Melisande), namely “monological”. That’s what we were hearing, the rapturous exchanges between members of the same cult as though one person was singing. While it was not very dramatic, but why should it be? The effect was largely hypnotic, spell-binding and other-worldly.

Where the first act takes us to a magical world of ritual in the second act the magic has faded, as we’re very close to home, a fallen modern world that feels more like a musical than opera. The exception was a tight ensemble among family members that was the most interesting music of the night.

As I said, less is more. The text was completely intelligible, the score allowing space for the performers to act & interpret with ease. Teiya Kasahara was the most impressive presence of the night, even if her powerful voice was rarely exploited, in a score that never sounded difficult. Aaron Durand made the most of his part, especially in the modern sequence. I was intrigued by Marshall’s choices, especially in orchestration featuring a big cello sound from the small ensemble, making for a wonderful soulful effect, especially when she turned Dobrochna Zubek loose for several powerful cello solos, the nicest music of the night. Librettist Hale opted for recognizable phrases such as “My heart broke in a thousand pieces”, so that it was easier for the listener to anticipate what was being sung.  I’ve seen some choices in other libretti recently that highlight the wisdom of Hale’s choices.  I recall the longer and more poetic lines from Yvette Nolan in Shanawdithit and Sky Gilbert in Shakespeare’s Criminal, had me wishing for surtitles, because there was just too much to take in all at once. Hale’s directness is more in the tradition of Meredith Oakes in her bold adaptation of Shakespeare in The Tempest (daring to shorten iambic pentameter into brief little lines that are ideal to sing). I’m inclined to think that too much poetry in a libretto gets in the way, given that we’re listening to voices, words, instruments, watching a performance. The choice to be simple and get out of the way of your collaborators is the one that usually works the best.

For me the most important aspect of the work is underlined by the space (Buddies) & the time (Pride), namely the political implications of the work, showing the struggle against oppression in different centuries.  That’s the most compelling aspect of the work.

Pomegranate continues until Sunday June 9th at Buddies.

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Mikolaj Warszynski—Piano Solo

Posted on June 5, 2019 by barczablog

As I’ve been listening to a 2015 solo piano studio recording by Mikolaj Warszynski, I’ve found myself wondering about the process, about how music is made and how it comes to be heard.

If a pianist plays brilliantly and no one hears: is there a career? Is there even music?

Not for the first time, I’m pondering how it all works. I’ve heard stories of singers walking into auditions, knocking it out of the park but being ignored ultimately because they’re not famous. In an industry that needs stars the arrival of an unknown can be a destabilizing force, a threat to those big names. While there was a time when recording labels & publishing companies were custodians of art, stewards of excellence, lately I wonder whether anyone cares.

But these thoughts came later. First came the CD, a series of performances to raise such questions.

  • A Haydn Sonata
  • A piece by Szymanowski
  • Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz #1
  • Four pieces by Chopin

We went from the unknown (unknown to me that is… meaning both the Haydn & the Szymanowski) to the familiar (the Liszt & Chopin), all the while making something fresh & new. When I looked more closely inside the jacket, the label is Anima in Paris, but I saw that there was a crowdfunding initiative to make the recording happen. Warszynski has roots in Poland (where he was born), Alberta and Québec, and has performed all over the world. While I may have missed something what I didn’t see was even one mention of anywhere in Ontario: relevant only because I ponder this question of process. Ontario is sometimes perceived as vainly self-important by the rest of the country, and no wonder when—for example—the operas we see downtown are from the “Canadian Opera Company”, shows that then get reviewed by The Globe & Mail who proclaim themselves to be Canada’s National Newspaper. While I laugh at the idea we are the centre of the world (especially when we endure mockery not just from Canada but Americans, particularly New Yorkers), I wonder about the career process, and whether Warszynski would be advised to appear in Toronto, where we’d all be lining up to proclaim his brilliance to anyone who’s listening.

Warszynski

Okay enough about the process, and yes I can’t deny I am mystified when I listen to a CD that’s so original and so excellent that seems to have come and gone without fanfare, under the radar.

The Haydn Sonata is a glowing advertisement for the composer. A good performance should be like a speech in a courtroom advocating for the immortality of the piece & its creator, if not a testimonial to the player’s love of the music. Haydn and Mozart sometimes give us phrases that sound like people laughing aloud, full of the visceral pleasure of youthful beauty. Warszynski makes me think of Haydn on a late-night talk show, the composer’s comic phrases sounding new in the moment. The middle movement—especially in Warszynski’s pointed phrasing—makes me appreciate early Beethoven slow movements in a new way (because I should have realized the influence, made clear in Warszynski’s fascinating program note). I should have known:  that Beethoven isn’t quite as original as I thought, that maybe he’d heard something like this already from Haydn.

Warszynski could have spoken up at the keyboard and said aloud “and now for something completely different”. Perhaps in Polish?  as we went from Haydn to the first movement of Szymanowksi’s op 34 Shéhérazade. As in Prelude à l’après-midi d’un faune or Le sacre du printemps we begin with something almost improvised, like a preamble to what’s to follow, a delicate provocation to be elaborated with commentary & complication, both of the dramatic and harmonic as well. At times there are suggestions of what might in later decades be called “jazz”, even though I think it’s Szymanowski’s playful approach to sonorities & voices that takes us to that place. Need I add, where the Haydn is far from easy to execute, with Shéhérazade complex & virtuosic pianism suddenly rears its dazzling head. We are in a realm that is at times exotic at other times terrifying, which is only befitting an adaptation of this life & death love story. I wish I knew the piece better (and I’ll chase it down and attempt to play through it to see for myself), to have more of a sense as to what’s usually asked of the interpreter, and what’s original / added via the magic fingers of Warszynski.

But Shéhérazade is a very different sort of work from the Mephisto Waltz #1, not just because one was brand-new to me and the other is among the most well-known, well-worn, frequently programmed and if truth be told, critically under-estimated pieces. I put this piece in the same category with la boheme and the 1812 Overture, namely pieces so well-loved & overplayed that it’s hard to get back to the music sometimes and see it objectively. It’s in that context especially –where the music is almost like an aging movie queen in need of a makeover, turning up on late-night TV (uh oh I am repeating myself in my metaphors… perhaps this is the same show that had Haydn, as a guest? and the old dowager is on in the last 10 minutes), when the audience is all shutting off their TVs. It’s not Liszt’s fault that this piece became like the Sabre Dance or the flight of the bumblebee, an ear-worm haunting your head like Mephisto himself.  Although I suppose if you’re going to write an ear-worm (no mean feat!… what composer wouldn’t dream of this?), could the haunting ever be more purposeful? more symbolic?

What Warszynski gives us in his performance of the Liszt is counter-intuitive in its originality. Yes he plays it perfectly (like everything on this CD, regardless of its difficulty). But it’s not about the circus act element we sometimes see in a virtuoso performance, aiming for higher- faster – louder- wilder. Where I was mostly lost in the sound & fury of Shéhérazade shenanigans, again because I don’t know the work yet well enough to really experience it as a text or as a tone-poem with a story or scenario underlying its structure, Warszynski is story-telling with the Liszt. It’s a very segmented piece that can seem very wooden when there is no sense of an organic flow from one segment to the next, like a skater going from their double lutz to their triple axel double toe-loop combination. If the skating / dancing / piano-playing is really serving Liszt it must not be a series of stunts but a flowing story, a sound that serves to seduce us rather than impress us. I’ve heard a great many versions of this piece, and frankly became immune to the work for awhile: until hearing Warszynski.

And then we come to the four Chopin pieces that Warszynski would have you think of as a sonata, according to the program notes:
• Polonaise op 26 #2
• Scherzo #1
• Nocturne op 48 #1
• Polonaise op 53

It’s an interesting idea, one I don’t quite buy, but still: I love the ambition behind it. For recordings, for concerts, for church services: we are curators. Music is selected & organized for an effect. When I read the program note I don’t necessarily agree with what the music is doing, because of course we’re different people. Funnily enough I align the Chopin more with Haydn, for its neoclassical elegance & symmetry, for the delicate lines & clarity of composition, in sharp contrast to the density of the Szymanowski & Liszt. And of course the more obvious contrast is that Szymanowski & Liszt offer us program music or at least a romantic music with literary associations whereas the Chopin & Haydn are much more absolute in their conception, pure music not music seeking to tell a story. Being a Magyar I am also disinclined to see Chopin as a revolutionary, and more as an exile –not so very different from Liszt actually—which means I hear the Heroic Polonaise differently. I hear torment & conflict & celebration, as one finds in some of Liszt’s works, such as his Hungarian Rhapsody #15 (the Rakoczy March, a tune you would have heard orchestrated in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust). After Byron, the romantic sensibility is always a painful mixture of passions.

MikolajWarszynski

Pianist Mikolaj Warszynski

There are four performances here, all fascinating for different reasons. I’m especially moved by the Scherzo. Chopin’s four scherzi are a funny set. As with so many of these compositions, one may open the book and play through them, but one doesn’t necessarily encounter them that way in recital. The four scherzi are all stunning pieces, but the first is a quantum leap in difficulty beyond the other three. Warszynski plays what I am fairly certain is the most impressive reading of this challenging piece that I’ve ever encountered. It opens with a wild gesture that could be like a paroxysm or the grunts of animals having sex, one of the most passionate things ever written for the instrument. Warszynski makes the most of this. It’s in some ways the most frustrating piece (all four scherzi really, although for the first one, especially true), because Chopin puts his most beautiful music, bar none, in the middle of these phenomenally challenging passages. I was thinking of Brunnhilde, placed on her mountain surrounded by fire that can only be reached by a hero who does not know the meaning of fear. What did Dryden say? None but the brave deserve the fair? One must scale this rough mountain to come out into the serenity of the mountain peak where Chopin has placed his beautiful melody in all its pristine clarity. Of course the Ring cycle wouldn’t appear for decades after Chopin. But it’s the same. We can’t get to the serenity of that stunning melody in B major without transgressing the fire of the outer section in B minor, and if you just CHEAT and play it out of context it loses much of its beauty, because it is that drama, that struggle that makes that calm serenity meaningful. I’m grateful that on top of everything else Warszynski gives us a program note telling us where that charming tune came from, its associations for Chopin in his exile.

So there you have it. Warszynski is a young piano player and a professor of performance who deserves to be heard, whether in a master class or in recital. I hope he comes to Toronto sometime. He has another CD (a live performance) that I’m working at acquiring and I’m sure there will be more, as he’s yet young. The solo piano CD can be found via Amazon (click link).

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

LET’S MAKE A FUSS: A concert to benefit ALS research

Posted on May 24, 2019 by barczablog

image

SAVE THE DATE!
June 13, 2019, 7:30 PM
St. Andrew’s Church
73 Simcoe St., Toronto

LET’S MAKE A FUSS!

A concert to benefit ALS research at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

Sunnybrook is pioneering the use of focused ultrasound to treat brain disorders and cancers. With donor support, Sunnybrook is healing previously unreachable parts of the brain, and reducing risk of life-altering side-effects – no cutting required. With the most clinical trials in focused ultrasound of any site in the world, Sunnybrook scientists and clinicians are leading the application of focused ultrasound to diverse areas including ALS, Alzheimer’s, brain tumours, Parkinson’s disease, major depression and more.

OUR STORY
My husband, Dr. Errol Gay, and I want to share our journey with you, but more importantly we want to make sure that other families won’t have to make this journey, if at all possible. This concert has been a journey of love together with members of the TSO, COC, & various musical groups we have served in the past 35 years. All donations will go towards ALS Research at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a progressive nervous system (neurological) disease that destroys nerve cells and causes disability. Presently there is no known cure, but the ALS research team at Sunnybrook is on the brink of a possible treatment for the disease and we want to help spread the word and enable the team to continue this vital research.

“Research really is hope, and collaboration is the only way we’re going to find a cure for this horrible disease. Philanthropic investment will help break down silos and facilitate academic collaboration.”
– Dr. Lorne Zinman

ABOUT ERROL & ANN

THEM

Ann & Errol

Errol worked as a music librarian for 24 1/2 years with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, earned a doctorate from Stanford University (CA) in instrumental conducting, taught music at various universities in Canada and the USA, served as music director-conductor for the Canadian Opera Touring Company, conducted various community and university orchestras, and is the composer of three operas written for the Canadian Children’s Opera Company. I was an organist, opera singer, conductor, taught music at the university, community, and public school levels in Canada and the USA, founded two children’s choirs in Toronto, & was Executive Artistic Director/Conductor of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company from 2000-2015. Because music has been such an important part of our lives, we are grateful to all our musician friends for their willingness to present this concert for such a worthy cause. Errol was diagnosed with ALS in July of 2016 and the journey has been a challenging one. We are grateful to be in Toronto near family and dear friends. We have recently welcomed a second baby boy into the family, so this is a joyful time in spite of the challenges. There was a sign burnt into a piece of wood in the Texas ALS clinic and it serves as a good mantra…”Keep on keeping on.” ❤️Ann & Errol

As we “Keep on keeping on,” we ask you to join us for this concert and/or make a donation to support world leading research in ALS. This will not be a ticketed event, but we do suggest a minimum $20 donation.

If you are unable to attend, donations can be made online (click here)

Please feel free to share our story and the event details with your friends and family — every bit counts.

*****

“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment

Posted in Press Releases and Announcements | Tagged | Leave a comment