Arts & Culture

New Music 101: Experience contemporary classical music @ Toronto Reference Library (Part 1 and 2)

New to "New Music"? Curious about "Contemporary"? The Globe and Mail's music critic Robert Everett-Green and the members of the Toronto New Music Alliance will serve as your personal tour guide to the world of contemporary classical music, combining performance and discussion.

Joins us for this free series of four programs at Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Str.), every Monday night from April 23 to May 14, 7-8pm at the Beeton Auditorium, main floor. Everyone is welcome, no registration is required. Each program will showcase performers and composers that are active in Toronto. Prepare yourself for a sonic adventure!

• SERIES HOST: RobertEverett-Green, Music Critic, The Globe and Mail.

1. Monday April 23, 7-8pm ARRAYMUSIC and NEW MUSIC CONCERTS.
2. Monday April 30, 7-8pm SOUNDSTREAMS and THE CANADIAN MUSIC CENTRE.  
   
3. Monday May 7, 7-8pm CONTACT CONTEMPORARY MUSIC and CONTINUUM CONTEMPORARY MUSIC.         
   
4. Monday May 14, 7-8pm NEW ADVENTURES IN SOUND ART and junctQín KEYBOARD COLLECTIVE.

 

 

Joseph Macerollo and Ina Henning perform Andrew Staniland's Pentagrams. Part 1 of 2. (Video Courtesy of Moving Headshots Productions.)

 

Below is the detailed program for the first two evenings in April 2012. We will blog about the third and fourth concerts in another post in May. For the entire four-part series - Download the New Music 101 folded program brochure 2012.

 

Program 1: Monday April 23, 7-8pm, ARRAYMUSIC and NEW MUSIC CONCERTS

Arraymusic's program will reveal works from the Array Ensemble's upcoming April 28th concert at the Music Gallery.

This collaboration between Arraymusic and the Toy Piano Composers will present a compelling in-depth look into the processes and techniques in the preparation and execution of new music. Not only will the performers be on hand, the composers themselves will attend and speak about their material. [Photo credit: Arraymusic ensemble.]

 

New Music Concerts - "Pentagrams" - Five pieces for two accordions by Andrew Staniland.

Like many of Staniland's works, Pentagrams draws inspiration from some of the fascinating cultural aspects of numbers. Each of the five movements explores a specific musical inspiration drawn from the number five.

"Pentagrams" was commissioned by New Music Concerts and is dedicated to Joseph Macerollo and Ina Henning. [Pictured on the right.]

 

 

Program 2: Monday April 30, 7-8pm SOUNDSTREAMS and THE CANADIAN MUSIC CENTRE

Soundstreams will illustrate its approach to programming new music through a combination of audio/video excerpts and live performance.

The live performance will focus on contemporary repertoire for voice including a discussion about extended vocal techniques. [Photo credit: mezzo soprano Krisztina Szabo]

 

The Canadian Music Centre - "Shi" (poetry) - a new music/dance composition for solo dancer and electronic tape by Toronto composer Alice Ping Yee Ho, commissioned by Little Pear Garden Collective with the assistance of the Toronto Arts Council. "Shi" was choreographed by Emily Cheung, artistic director of Little Pear Garden, and will be performed by Bridgett Tsang. [Photo credits below: Left: composer Alice Ho; Right: choreographer Emily Cheung]

             


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We at the Arts Department of Toronto Reference Library are very excited to offer New Music 101: Pushing the Boundaries of Sound and Performance for a second year and partner with the wonderful artists from the New Music Alliance. It was a very successful and enthusiastically received program series last year and we have invited them again with different performances and discussions of contemporary classical music. (If you are curious about the "New Music 101" performers and program in Spring 2011 - we blogged about them.)

Toronto has a rich and diverse "new music" scene. The members of the New Music Aliance are unique organizations collaborating to promote and share the art of contemporary music with broad audiences. They are bold and creative, multi-disciplinary and experimental, they push the boundaries of musical expression. COME AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!

 

Library Books at Home

I brought these library books home this week.

Now I finally get to sit down and have a good look at them. 

I put a hold on this book Shoot: Photography of the Moment without knowing much about it. Let's have a look.

We're going to see work by seventeen contemporary photographers who are new to me.

Let's open it at random. Oh, I like these cherry blossoms by Hiromix.

I like these too -- by Jason Nocito. It says Nocito divides his time between New York and Vancouver.

I like this taped-up thing. Another Nocito. Funny. This works for me. Nocito has gotten something out of nothing.

Here's a page by Glynnis McDaris (another New Yorker). What's that at the lower left?

Oh, it's a cat. Pulling some kind of plastic cord? I like this a lot. Those whiskers! Very inspiring!

When I first noticed this McDaris picture I thought it was too pretty and conventional to be interesting. But now that I've seen her picture of the cat I think it looks mysterious and beautuful. 

Let me give you the quickest look at this great collection of Thomas Ruff's photographs. Do you know Thomas Ruff? He's active now, working mostly in Germany.

He's famous for taking formal pictures of his friend's faces and exhibiting then as highly detailed prints seven feet high. He did dozens of these portaits -- all deadpan like these. 

Reproduced in a book without the seven foot high effect they're still fascinating.

I'll finish with two pictures from a series Ruff took at night with infrafed film. I love these.

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Looking at these books made me want to get out my camera and take more pictures.

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More: Library Books at Home 2 and Library Books at Home 3.

Origami and Design

Origami is a centuries old art form beginning at the latest in the 1600s.

If you would like to pursue origami as a craft, these books may interest you.

 

     

                                                 
    
                                                 

Check out the Origami Society of Toronto website for some additional inspiration.

The wonder of creating with paper.

 

A New Look for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

 

To celebrate his 80th birthday Sir Peter Blake has modernised his iconic album cover with new faces.  It's a patriotic collage, a bit safer than the original perhaps - no Karl Marx, no Lenny Bruce. I mean, good grief, it's got Delia "how to cook an egg" Smith and Vidal Sassoon taking up space. But it's nice to see Vivienne Westwood and Elvis Costello (before he became Mr. Diana Krall) in the new work.  And the Monty Python foot. Personally, I'd have liked to have seen the future Queen of Scotland, Susan Boyle, make the cut.  The Guardian has a wonderful interactive version of the piece so you can see who's who.

But, what's this? Only one Beatle.  I don't know why John, George and Ringo were excluded; it may have something to do with the fact that Blake does not own the copyright to this work.  

It's a bit peculiar that he decided to re-make his best-known collage, as he always grumbled that Sgt. Pepper overshadowed the rest of his work.  Lest we be accused of doing the same, here are some books of Peter Blake's other  works in Toronto Public Library's collections.

          

       Peter Blake:about collage                       PB                          Peter Blake: collagen

           Oh, and the library does own the work the collage was originally created for, too.