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Toronto Consort Launches 09/10 Season: Highlights include Suzie LeBlanc, Les Voix humaines on Hart House viols, Lutefest
“This dear band — so expert, so rhythmically alive, so humourous, at times so touching — has such an infectious good time doing what it does so well, I just sit and smile.” — Globe and Mail Toronto, August 28, 2009 — Artistic Director David Fallis has announced plans for The Toronto Consort’s 2009/2010 season, its 37th year of outstanding period music. One of Canada’s premiere period music ensembles, The Toronto Consort is known for inventive programming that breathes life into the music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and early Baroque. This season’s concerts offer a wide range of contrasts: The Primadonnas, a tribute to four genuine singing stars of the 17th century with guest soloist, the superb soprano Suzie LeBlanc joining the Consort’s own singers; Oh Henry!, a performance of Purcell’s Fantasias by Les Voix humaines on the exquisite Hart House Viols; A Spanish Christmas — a seasonal celebration featuring music from the Spanish-speaking nations of the world; A German Baroque programme, From Praetorius to Bach: Visions of Darkness and Light; and the first ever Lutefest with guest soloists, Bassam Bishara, oud, and Wen Zhao, pipa. 2009-10 subscriptions and single tickets are available through the box office at (416) 964-6337, and online beginning September 8 at www.torontoconsort.org The Consort hits the road in January 2010 for a six-city tour to Western Canada, and a February stop in Port Hope, Ontario. The Western tour begins on January 15 at Eckhardt-Gramatte Hall in Calgary, AB, and proceeds to Edmonton, AB on January 16; Trail, BC on January 19; Creston, BC on January 20; Kamloops, BC on January 22, and Victoria, BC on January 23. The Port Hope run–out concert takes place on February 6 at the Capitol Arts Centre. New this season! The Toronto Consort launches Club Consort, a new youth-based program. Club Consort offers concert tickets to people age 30 and under, for only $10 each (with valid photo ID). Club Consort members can bring a friend — of any age — for another $10! 2009/2010 SEASON AT A GLANCEThe Primadonnas A sequel to The Sopranos? Not exactly. The Toronto Consort opens its season with a warm tribute to the original divas of the early opera world. The Consort’s own primadonnas Michele De Boer and Katherine Hill, sopranos, and Laura Pudwell, mezzo-soprano, are joined by soprano Suzie LeBlanc, whose voice is “flexible and pearly, with a voluptuous undertone … ” (Globe and Mail) Together, these four singers inhabit the roles of leading ladies of the 17th century opera stage. With music by Monteverdi, Caccini, Strozzi, Rossi and Frescobaldi, The Primadonnas are guaranteed to make vocal sparks fly. This programme will be presented at Barrie’s Colours of Music festival on Toronto’s Istituto Italiano di Cultura is the October 2 Performance Sponsor. Oh Henry! “Les Voix humaines interpret this music with a sincerity that takes your breath away. Absolutely everything is here: the discourse, the dialogue, the intelligent musical direction, the transmission of spine-tingling emotion.Pizzicato (Luxembourg) The incomparable Montreal-based viola da gamba ensemble Les Voix humaines returns to the Toronto Consort’s series with a landmark concert of Henry Purcell’s haunting Fantasias marking the 350th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Susie Napper and Margaret Little’s world-renowned gamba duo expands to an ensemble of seven to perform Purcell’s music on the Hart House viols, a magnificent collection of 300 year-old instruments acquired in 1929 by Vincent Massey, now housed at the University of Toronto’s Hart House and considered a national treasure. Oh Henry! marks the first time all six viols have been played together in public in Toronto for more than 30 years. A Spanish Christmas Complex rhythms and sensuous melody are hallmarks of Christmas celebrations in the Spanish-speaking nations of the world, on both sides of the Atlantic. This year, the Consort turns to 16th and 17th century Spain and Latin America for its Yuletide concert with a full range of textures — guitars, percussion, winds, harp, keyboard and voices. The music on this program is by turns haunting, boisterous, and soulful, and includes villancicos and dance music from Latin America, as well as motets by Spanish composers Victoria and Guerrero. The Consulate General of Spain of Toronto is the December 11 Performance Sponsor. From Praetorius to Bach: The music of Praetorius, Schütz, Schein, and early works by J.S. Bach define the soundscape of the early German Baroque, known for its magnificent sacred works performed by massed forces of voices and instruments. This mid-season concert includes an excerpt from Bach’s transcendent cantata Christ lag in Todes Banden, and features a large ensemble of rarely heard instruments including sackbuts and cornetti, in addition to singers, strings, lutes and keyboards. The Consort’s performance of similar repertoire last season was greeted with praise by the Toronto Star: “Toronto Consort music director David Fallis is a magician. Without any props, projections or lights, he and the 52 instrumentalists and singers took listeners to the Germany of 400 years ago …” Lutefest World music, Toronto Consort style! For its 2009-10 season finale, The Toronto Consort presents Lutefest, a concert featuring the lute and its far-flung cousins — the Middle Eastern oud, and the Chinese pipa. The Consort’s own lutenist Terry McKenna takes centre stage in this concert. The Consort is joined by two virtuoso guest soloists: on oud, Bassam Bishara, musical director for Arabesque ensemble and a member of York University’s Middle Eastern Music faculty; and returning following her Consort debut last season in The Marco Polo Project, Wen Zhao, “the Jimi Hendrix of the Chinese pipa." (WholeNote magazine)
All concerts begin at 8:00 pm and take place at Trinity St. Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor Street West
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The Toronto Consort
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