July, 2012
Here are a few things happening in the lives of the performers who you see and hear at our concerts each season.
Some performers told us about their careers, while others wrote about themselves. We’ve presented them to you as received.
Pianist and harpsichordist David Louie will be performing a solo piano recital of sonatas of Beethoven and Rachmaninoff this summer at the International Klaviersommer in Cochem, Germany. This will be followed with performances with the Grammy-nominated ARC Ensemble (recordings on SONY BMG Masterworks) in Hannover and Stuttgart. In September he returns to the Toronto stage as a harpsichordist presenting a recital of solo and chamber works celebrating Bach and Glenn Gould at the Royal Conservatory. In that program he will be joined by Gallery Players ‘cellist and Artistic Director Margaret Gay (and other period instrumentalists) for a performance of Bach’s monumental Musical Offering. Later in the year the ARC Ensemble presents world premiere performances of Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer’s Piano Quintet, and embarks on its latest recording project: a disc devoted to works of Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim, including the world premiere recording of his Piano Quartet (to be released on the Chandos label). In 2013 ARC will make its London Wigmore Hall debut and returns to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw for a live web-cast concert celebrating its 125th anniversary.
Julia Wedman writes:
"This year has been a busy year for me! After being on sabbatical (traveling in Europe) for the 2010-2011 season, I jumped right back into a hectic performing schedule. The highlights of this past season included tours and residencies with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra to northern Ontario, Banff, AB, our first tour to Australia and New Zealand, and performing Lully's Armide at the Royal Opera in Versailles, France. On my sabbatical I fell in love with Paris so I extended my stay a couple of weeks to enjoy the beautiful spring weather in Paris. Summer highlights always include teaching for me, this year at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute and the Kingsway Conservatory's first summer chamber music workshop. It was heartwarming for me to get to introduce French baroque music to elementary school students!
This fall will see cd releases for two projects I worked on last year. With the Eybler quartet we will be releasing our much anticipated Haydn op.33 Quartets recording, which we have been planning for several years. I am also part of a beautiful recording of French baroque music by Francois Chauvon, recorded last summer with several wind playing friends that I don't often get a chance to play with, and which was a real treat. The music of Chauvon is not well known, but it is very beautiful so it is wonderful to have the chance to introduce it to the world. "
Doug Miller performance highlights from the past year: 2011/12.
--Performed with American actress/singer and Broadway star, Idina Menzel . The orchestra was conducted by Marvin Hamlish and recorded for, and broadcast on the PBS network and later released in April 2012 on DVD titled: “Live Barefoot at the Symphony”
--Performed with Canadian pop star Chantal Kreviazuk at Jackson Triggs winery, with the Niagara Symphony. The concert was later broadcast on the HBO network, and then released as a live CD/DVD in July 2012.
--Performed Mozart’s concerto for Flute and Harp to rave reviews, with harpist Deborah Braun and the Niagara Symphony in March 2012.
--Released 5 new videos on You Tube including his new composition
“Flute Loops”/”Into the Pool” Listed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIb7Fq4xufo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH0xy2-es9g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmhCJ0fdl60
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0fv-oyHq5Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlln03TEUC8
--Doug Continues to perform in the Shaw Festival productions of “My Fair Lady” & “The Admirable Crichton” in 2011 and “Ragtime” in the 2012 season.
David Braun writes-
I love a good mix. A good summer day starts with running the dogs early in the morning.
(I have three: two border collies and a chihuahua) This may be followed by a project on the summer to-do list, some time at the driving range chasing the perfect golf swing, and an hour or two in the late afternoon reading a good book or doing some score study. The latest few reads include Morgan's Run, Grisham's The Litigators, and Opera, What's all the screaming about? Saint Saens Christmas Oratorio and Verdi's Requiem are on the summer score study list. In the evening we'll fire up the grill and get ready to enjoy some Blue Jays baseball. All of this of course well seasoned with dishes, laundry, vacuuming and floor washing. This summer (August) our family will travel to Delaware for a get-away and some R & R with my wife Deborah's immediate family. And before we know it we'll be in full swing at Welland Centennial teaching music by day and Niagara Symphony Orchestra, Glissandi, and Choralis Camerata by night. Several performances I'm looking forward to include our Glissandi Christmas concert for the Gallery Players in December, a spring recital with Glissandi north of Huntsville in March, and a high school music trip to Manhattan in May. Of course the Oratorio in December with Choralis and the Requiem in May with Choralis and Chorus Niagara will be superb.
In the 2012/13 season, Aisslinn Nosky looks forward to performing with Tafelmusik baroque orchestra at home in Toronto and on tours to western Canada and the US. She will also be directing several concerts with the Handel and Haydn Society Orchestra on tour in California in which she will be performing Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons. In February, Aisslinn will perform Haydn’s G major violin concerto with H&H in Boston and the performance will be recorded for future commercial release. Closer to home, Aisslinn is very excited to be part of an exciting season of Toronto concerts with her baroque chamber ensemble, I FURIOSI and is looking very much forward to the release of the Eybler Quartet’s latest CD “Haydn String Quartets Opus 33” this fall on Analekta.
From Julie Baumgartel -
July is a busy month for us. I will be back at the Elora Festival where I am a regular in that Festival Orchestra. After that stint, we (my oboist husband Jim Mason and I) are off to Parry Sound where we both are members in The Festival of the Sound. Later, a family vacation inmy hometown, Vancouver. And then it all starts up again. Lots of performing is on the agenda, including a piano trio program with Margaret Gay and David Louie in November in St. Barnabas Anglican Church, St. Catherines. However, this coming year my focus will be increasingly on teaching, which I do at the Wilfrid Laurier University String Academy. This is my new obsession and is taking up most of my time and energy these days. It is hard to juggle family and performing but the teaching element is really adding a new and interesting twist.
Deborah Braun writes:
In addition to the time I spend performing regularly with Glissandi and the Niagara Symphony, I occupy my time being a volley ball and baseball mom shuttling our kids from event to event (both sons drive now though so that helps!). We have 18 year old Matt who finished college and is training to be a firefighter, 17 year old Nick in grade twelve and looking to pursue a career in music (he is a drummer) and 14 year old Jessica, now in grade nine.
I am also a full time REALTOR with Royal LePage in St. Catharine’s. This is a career that has always interested me and so four years ago I took my licensing courses and jumped in! I love the diversity it brings to my life. My life is never boring!
Patrick Jordan -
After a hectic but successful 2011-12 season which included tours to Australia and New Zealand with Tafelmusik, Patrick spent the month of June teaching at Tafelmusik's Baroque Summer Institute, and July in Carmel, California, as principal violist with the Carmel Bach Festival. After appearances in August at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival with the Eybler Quartet, and at the Stratford Summer Music Festival with Tafelmusik, he tried to do as little as possible, squeezing in a few Toronto Blue Jays games, biking, enjoying the garden, throwing a baseball around with his 10-year-old son Benjamin, and almost perfecting his technique of cooking paella on an open fire. And petting the cats.
