THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS

28

Wallis Giunta, mezzo-soprano

THE DECADESPROJECT 1930–1939

CONCERT PROGRAM

Andrew BalfourKiwetin-acahkos (North Star)—Fanfare for the Peoples of the North: Sesquie for Canada’s 150th (Jun 14 only; TSO PREMIÈRE/TSO CO-COMMISSION)

Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings

Béla BartókMusic for Strings, Percussion, and CelestaI. Andante tranquillo

II. Allegro

III. Adagio

IV. Allegro molto

IntermissionIn the North Lobby, join The Decades Project ancillary events curator Tom Allen in conversation with Professor Kim H. Kowalke, musicologist and trustee of The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, for a discussion on Kurt Weill’s work The Seven Deadly Sins.

Kurt Weill/libretto by Bertolt BrechtDie sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins)Prologue V. Unzucht (Lust)

I. Faulheit (Sloth) VI. Habsucht (Covetousness)

II. Stotz (Pride) VII. Neid (Envy)

III. Zorn (Anger) Epilogue

IV. Völlerei (Gluttony)

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

8:00pm

Thursday, June 15, 2017

8:00pm

Peter Oundjianconductor

Wallis Giunta* (Anna I)

mezzo-soprano

Jennifer Nichols* (Anna II)

dancer

The Family

Isaiah Bell* (Father)

tenor

Owen McCausland*

(Brother)

tenor

Geoffrey Sirett* (Brother)

baritone

Stephen Hegedus* (Mother)

bass-baritone

Joel Ivany*

stage director

Jason Handlighting designer

Krista Dowsoncostume designer

29

The Seven Deadly Sins Production Credits and Acknowledgements

English Translation by Joel IvanySURTITLESTM created and operated by John SharpeSURTITLESTM invented at the Canadian Opera Company in 1983 and introduced worldwide with their production of Elektra by Richard Strauss.

Filmed segments conceived and directed by Jennifer Nichols and Chris Monette.Photographed and edited by Chris Monette.

This performance is funded in part by The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., New York, NY.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra acknowledges the support of the Theatre Arts Residency program at

*The Participation of these Artists is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance Opera Theatre Policy (DOT).

Please note that the performance on June 14 is being recorded for online release at TSO.CA/CanadaMosaic.

COMMUNITY PARTNER

30

THE DETAILS

In 1937, renowned maestro Arturo Toscanini was planning

programs for the début season of the NBC Symphony

Orchestra. Wishing to include a short American work, he

consulted conductor Artur Rodzinski, who had recruited

and rehearsed the new ensemble. Rodzinski, who had

just conducted Barber’s Symphony No. 1 at the Salzburg

Festival to great acclaim, recommended Barber.

The composer responded with two pieces: the brand

new Essay for Orchestra and the Adagio for Strings,

the latter a string-orchestra transcription of the second

movement from his only string quartet written in 1935. He

dispatched them to Toscanini, but a short time later, they

were returned without comment. When Barber’s friend

Gian Carlo Menotti visited Toscanini in the summer of

1938, Barber refused to accompany him. Toscanini told

Menotti, “He’s just angry with me, but he has no reason to

be—I’m going to do both of his pieces.” Toscanini made

good on his promise. Barber’s works were broadcast

nationwide, bringing his name to a wide audience in the

most prestigious way imaginable. In 1967, Barber recast

it once again as a choral work, using the Latin Mass text

Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).

The eloquent simplicity and grave beauty of the Adagio for

Strings have led to its becoming not only an international

concert favourite, but an appropriate element of solemn

public ceremonies. This practice began with the funeral

of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, and came

to include Barber’s own memorial service and the funeral

of Princess Grace of Monaco. The Adagio has also been

used to poignant effect on the soundtrack of several

films, including The Elephant Man (1980), Platoon (1986),

Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), and Amélie (2001).

Program note by Don Anderson

Samuel BarberAdagio for Strings

Born: West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA, Mar 9, 1910 Died: New York City, New York, USA, Jan 23, 1981

Composed: 1936

7min

For a program note to Andrew Balfour’s Kiwetin-acahkos

(North Star)—Fanfare for the Peoples of the North: Sesquie

for Canada’s 150th, please turn to page 14 of the Sesquies

Canada Mosaic program.

Peter OundjianMusic Director

Our second concert exploring the rich variety of music created in the 1930s is truly eclectic. Barber’s Adagio for Strings is a richly Romantic poem, but there are harmonic and rhythmic twists and turns that could only have happened in the 20th century. Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is a masterpiece, almost as influential as The Rite of Spring in its evocative textures, powerful rhythmic vitality, and sheer emotional intensity. The second half of the concert is a real treat: Wallis Giunta, with dancer Jennifer Nichols and four extraordinary male singers, present Joel Ivany’s ingenious reimagining of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins. This gripping creation is a dramatic powerhouse, a dark satire written during the most sinister time in Germany’s history. It is lyrical, greatly influenced by cabaret music and jazz, but there is a kind of frantic desperation in the music, despite the wonderful melodies and appealing harmonies.

31

Béla Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta

Born: Nagyszentmiklós, Hungary (now Sinnicolau Mare, Romania), Mar 25, 1881Died: New York City, New York, USA, Sep 26, 1945Composed: 1936

Bartók composed this remarkable work on

commission from Paul Sacher, music director

of the Basel Chamber Orchestra of Switzerland,

to celebrate the ensemble’s 10th anniversary.

In the course of Sacher’s lengthy career, this

enterprising maestro requested works from

many illustrious composers, including Igor

Stravinsky (Concerto for Strings), Richard

Strauss (Metamorphosen), and Paul Hindemith

(Harmony of the World Symphony). He would

go on to commission Bartók’s Divertimento for

Strings in 1939.

Sacher conducted the première of Music for

Strings, Percussion, and Celesta on January

21, 1937. It is one of Bartók’s most immediately

engaging works—rigidly organized, yet still

spontaneous in feeling. Firmly rooted in the

rhythms of eastern European folk music, it is

as polished and sophisticated as any music of

its time.

He provided exact timings for each movement,

and a detailed physical layout for the

instruments. He situated the members of the

percussion section between the two identical

bodies of strings, the better to emphasize the

score’s directional elements (and making it a

natural for stereophonic recording).

The music charts a satisfying emotional

progression from severity to exuberance. The

first movement is both a slow, intricate fugue

and an exercise in controlled dynamics. It rises

gradually, sinuously from a quiet start to a

searing central climax, then dies away to resume

the mood of the opening. Bartók gave the entire

work a sense of continuity by quoting the fugue

theme in the latter part of the final movement.

The second movement unleashes an explosion

of dynamic, frequently irregular dance rhythms.

The percussion section, piano included, comes

much more strongly into play than before.

The third movement is an eerie, atmospheric

night piece. Bartók filled it with unusual

sonorities, among them the brittle click of the

xylophone, the unsettling “slides” between notes

on the timpani, and the eerie rippling of the

celesta (lying at vast distance from Tchaikovsky’s

Sugar Plum Fairy). Master director Stanley Kubrick

made effective use of this movement on the

soundtrack of his 1980 horror film, The Shining.

Bartók’s finale matches the second movement in

drive, but its syncopated, almost jazzy rhythms

give it a warmer, more humorous personality.

Program note by Don Anderson

32min

ARCH FORMAll of the movements (except the second) in

Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and

Celesta are in arch form, in which the first

two sections are repeated in reverse order

after the middle section, thus creating

a mirror symmetry (e.g. ABCBA; see the

Visual Listening Guide). Bartók also applied

this “mirror” concept to the fugue subject

in the second half of the first movement,

where it appears in its inverted version.

36

THE DETAILS

Kurt Weill is best known for his theatre music,

from the satiric scores for the early Berlin piece

The Three-Penny Opera (1928), to the more

romantic but still individual Broadway shows and

Hollywood film scores he composed after his

arrival in America in 1935. His theatre music is

more substantial than the average stage show

of the day, without sacrificing its sharp wit and

melodic flair.

The saucy, diverting hybrid piece Die sieben

Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins) was

commissioned for the début of a Parisian dance

company. Headed by the celebrated Russian

émigré choreographer George Balanchine, the

troupe was known as Les Ballets 1933. Weill,

who had just arrived in the city, hit upon the

idea of a “sung ballet”. He invited author Bertolt

Brecht, with whom he had already collaborated

on several projects, to write the libretto. The

première took place on June 7, 1933. It drew a

largely puzzled reaction, hardly surprising given

its innovative style and contents. It did not return

to the stage until it was revived in New York in

1958. The challenges of producing it effectively

have led to its being performed most often in a

concert format rather than a theatrical one.

The scenario is an absurdist, anti-capitalist

morality play. The pressures of a money-centred

society have split Anna’s personality in two.

Anna I, the singer, is calm and entirely practical.

Anna II is an impulsive dancer. The two halves

of Anna’s personality do what is good for each

other. Throughout the seven-year quest that

takes Anna to seven American cities in search

of enough money to build a home in Louisiana

for her family (who are represented in the score

by a quartet of male singers), Anna II is tempted

by the seven deadly sins: sloth, pride, anger,

gluttony, lust, greed, and envy. Anna I resists

them all by enforcing self-denial. Perversely, she

sees nothing wrong with Anna II’s committing

the equally toxic sins necessary to gain the

desired fortune: prostitution, robbery, and

blackmail among them. Weill wraps every surreal

twist and satiric jab of the lyrics in an aptly, at

times deliriously, irreverent musical equivalent.

Program note by Don Anderson

Kurt Weill/libretto by Bertolt BrechtDie sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins)

Born: Dessau, Germany, Mar 2, 1900Died: New York City, New York, USA, Apr 3, 1950Composed: 1933

39min

This performance is

funded in part by The

Kurt Weill Foundation

for Music, Inc., New

York, NY.

The Kurt Weill

Foundation for

Music, Inc. administers, promotes, and

perpetuates the legacies of Kurt Weill

and Lotte Lenya. It encourages broad

dissemination and appreciation of Weill’s

music through support of performances,

productions, recordings, and scholarship,

and it fosters understanding of Weill’s

and Lenya’s lives and work within

diverse cultural contexts. Building upon

the legacies of both, it nurtures talent,

particularly in the creation, performance,

and study of musical theatre in its various

manifestations and media. kwf.org

Kurt Weill, 1932

37

Peter Oundjianconductor

A dynamic presence in the conducting world, Toronto-

born conductor Peter Oundjian is renowned for his probing

musicality, collaborative spirit, and engaging personality.

Oundjian’s appointment as Music Director of the Toronto

Symphony Orchestra (TSO) in 2004 reinvigorated the

Orchestra with numerous recordings, tours, and acclaimed

innovative programming as well as extensive audience growth, thereby significantly

strengthening the ensemble’s presence in the world. He led the TSO on a tour of

Europe in August 2014, which included the first performance of a North American

orchestra at Reykjavik’s Harpa Hall. In May 2017, he led the Orchestra in its first-ever

touring appearances in Israel, with performances in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and in

Europe with appearances in Vienna, Prague, Regensburg, and Essen.

Oundjian was appointed Music Director of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra

in 2012, and was previously Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony

Orchestra (2006–2010) and Artistic Director of the Caramoor International Music

Festival (1997–2007). Since 1981, he has been a visiting professor at the Yale School

of Music, and was awarded the university’s Sanford Medal for distinguished service to

music in 2013.

THE ARTISTS

Wallis Giuntamezzo-sopranoWallis Giunta made her TSO début in April 2014.

Praised by Opera News for her “delectably rich, silver-

toned mezzo-soprano,” Canadian Wallis Giunta has begun

an exciting and diverse international career. In the 2017/18

season, she will début the role of Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti

and the title role in L’enfant et les sortilèges with Opera

North, as well as appear in Lulu, La cenerentola, and Das Rheingold for Oper Leipzig.

Wallis also returns to Koerner Hall for the Bernstein Centenary Gala, and to the Munich

Radio Orchestra in concert.

Her recent company/role débuts include Olga (The Merry Widow) for the Metropolitan

Opera, Sesto (La clemenza di Tito) and Dorabella (Cosí fan tutte) for the Canadian Opera

Company, Mercédès (Carmen) for Oper Frankfurt, Tiffany (I Was Looking at the Ceiling

and Then I Saw the Sky) for Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Théâtre du Châtelet, and

Candide with the Hamburger Symphoniker, among others. Wallis is a Naxos recording

artist and recitalist worldwide. She is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann

Young Artist Program, the COC Ensemble Studio, The Juilliard School, and The Glenn

Gould School, and is a grateful recipient of support from the Canada Council for the Arts.

38

Jennifer NicholsdancerThese performances mark Jennifer Nichols’s TSO début.

Jennifer Nichols is a dancer, choreographer, and director,

who was born in Collingwood, Ontario. She completed her

classical training at the Quinte Ballet School and L’École

superieure de danse de Québec. With post-graduate studies

at the National Ballet School and Ballet BC, she went on to

dance with such companies as Banff Festival Dance and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens,

and for choreographers such as Robert Desrosiers and Newton Moraes.

Jennifer has been a member of the Atelier Ballet of Opera Atelier since 2008. She

choreographed Against the Grain Theatre’s Dora Award–winning Messiah, and has

also been commissioned as choreographer for Opera 5, FAWN Chamber Creative,

The Canadian Art Song Project, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and The Glenn Gould

School of The Royal Conservatory of Music. Jennifer is also a choreographer for film

and television, including the hit CW show Reign and the award-winning feature film

Barney’s Version. She is Co-Artistic Director of Hit and Run Dance Productions and the

founder/director of the Extension Room, home to renowned ballet fitness program,

The Extension Method.

THE ARTISTS

Isaiah BelltenorIsaiah Bell made his TSO début in March 2015.

Canadian-American tenor Isaiah Bell returns to sing with the

Toronto Symphony Orchestra for the third time, following

Messiah in 2016 and Written on Skin in 2015. Isaiah recently

starred opposite Stephanie Blythe in Mark Morris’s double-bill

production of Curlew River/Dido and Aeneas at the Brooklyn

Academy of Music. In his review of the production for The New York Times, Brian

Seibert wrote, “amid an excellent cast, the tenor Isaiah Bell as the Madwoman gives a

performance of exquisite poignancy....” Shortly afterward, Isaiah made his Carnegie Hall

début, winning third place in the Oratorio Society of New York’s solo competition in

Weill Recital Hall.

Isaiah has sung with every major Canadian orchestra, and is appearing increasingly on

international stages, including the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh Festivals (Owen Wingrave),

l’Opéra-Théâtre de Metz in France (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and the Mostly

Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center (Acis and Galatea). This season, he débuts with the

Nashville Symphony, Opera Atelier, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Seattle

Symphony, among others. Isaiah is also a composer and librettist.

39

Owen McCauslandtenorOwen McCausland made his TSO début in December 2014.

New Brunswick tenor Owen McCausland is an alumnus of

the COC Ensemble Studio, and has been featured on the

Canadian Opera Company main stage in such roles as Tito

in La clemenza di Tito, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Testo in

Il combattimento di Tancredi et Clorinda, and Lurcanio in

Ariodante. He débuted for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in The Bear and he has

appeared with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Regina Symphony Orchestra,

Symphony Nova Scotia, Hamilton’s Bach Elgar Choir, and Kitchener-Waterloo’s Grand

Philharmonic Choir in repertoire including Messiah, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9,

selected Bach Cantatas, Elijah, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Recent and upcoming

appearances include Rodolfo in La bohème for Against the Grain Theatre, and Pedrillo

in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the Fisherman in Le rossignol for the Canadian

Opera Company.

Mr. McCausland studied music at Dalhousie University. He was a finalist and winner of

the Canadian Encouragement Award at the 2015 George London Singing Competition,

and was also a semi-finalist in the 2015 Montreal International Music Competition.

Geoffrey SirettbaritoneThese performances mark Geoffrey Sirett’s TSO début.

A native of Kingston, Geoffrey Sirett has emerged as one of

Canada’s leading young baritones. In addition to Weill’s The

Seven Deadly Sins with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra,

highlights of this season include Oreste in Elektra and Ping

in Turandot for the Edmonton Opera, Elijah for the Pax

Christi Chorale, Messiah for the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s

Missa solemnis for the Grand Philharmonic Choir, and Mozart’s Requiem with the

Bach Elgar Choir of Hamilton. His affinity for the music of our time can be seen in his

performances of Put’s Silent Night for Opéra de Montréal, and the world premières of

The Bells of Baddeck by Dean Burry and Lorna MacDonald and Rolfe’s Against Nature

for Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie. Next season he takes the role of Akaki in the

world première of The Overcoat by James Rolfe and Morris Panych, a co-production of

Canadian Stage, Tapestry Opera, and Vancouver Opera.

Geoffrey Sirett is a founding member of The Bicycle Opera Project, winner of the

Norcop Song Prize, and a University of Toronto alumnus. His recordings include

Vagabond – English Art Song, Airline Icarus (Brian Current), The Heart’s Refuge, and The

Vale of Tears (Theatre of Early Music).

40

Stephen Hegedusbass-baritoneStephen Hegedus made his TSO début in December 2010.

Hailed by the Chicago Sun as a “superb narrator with a

strong and attractive voice,” bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus

is frequently heard with leading orchestras and opera

companies in the United States, Canada, and abroad. A prize

winner in the New York Oratorio Society’s Lyndon Woodside

Competition, Mr. Hegedus has appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, Houston

Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Messiah), Vancouver

Symphony (Mozart’s Requiem), Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (Haydn’s The Creation),

the Grant Park Festival (Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Berlioz’s La damnation de

Faust), Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Bernstein’s A Quiet Place), and Orchestre

symphonique de Québec (Bach’s Magnificat).

His 2016/17 season includes Mozart’s Requiem (Mercury Houston and Seattle

Symphony), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Florida Orchestra), Bach’s Weihnachts-

Oratorium (I Musici de Montréal), Masetto in Don Giovanni (Opéra de Montréal), Alidoro

in La cenerentola (Edmonton Opera), and Creon in Medée (Opera Atelier/Versailles).

Highlights for next season include appearances with Pacific Opera Victoria and Opera

Atelier. Trilingual, Hegedus is an alumnus of Atelier lyrique de l’opéra de Montréal.

THE ARTISTS

Joel Ivanystage director

Joel Ivany is the Founder and Artistic Director of Against

the Grain Theatre (AtG) in Toronto, and is the program

director of Banff Centre’s Open Space: Opera in the 21st

Century. His directing credits include productions of Verdi’s

Macbeth (Minnesota Opera), Carmen (Vancouver Opera

and the Canadian Opera Company), Les contes d’Hoffmann

(Edmonton Opera), Gavin Bryars’s Marilyn Forever (Adelaide Festival in Australia), and

Le nozze di Figaro (revival at Norwegian National Opera). He is the author of five (and

counting) original librettos including Opera on the Edge’s upcoming #UncleJohn

(an adaptation of Don Giovanni). He was a Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee for

Outstanding Direction (AtG’s Figaro’s Wedding) and Outstanding New Opera/Musical

(AtG’s #UncleJohn), and the recipient of the same prize for Figaro’s Wedding. Recent

mainstage directing credits include new productions of Brundibár (Canadian Children's

Opera Company) and Dead Man Walking (Vancouver Opera). For more information,

please visit joelivany.com.

41

Jason Handlighting designer

Jason Hand is a Toronto-based designer working in theatre

and opera. He has lit operas for the Canadian Opera

Company and Vancouver Opera (Carmen), Edmonton Opera

(The Tales of Hoffmann), and Minnesota Opera Company

(Macbeth). He has worked with acclaimed opera directors

Tim Albery (Imeneo, Dido and Aeneas, M’Dea Undone),

Paul Curran (The Rape of Lucretia), and Tom Diamond (The Marriage of Figaro,

Oksana G.). As Resident Lighting Designer for Against the Grain Theatre, Jason has

lit La bohème, Turn of the Screw, Figaro’s Wedding, Pelléas et Mélisande, Death and

Desire, #UncleJohn, AtG’s Messiah, A Little Too Cozy, and Ayre. His theatre designs

include productions for Young People’s Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Canadian Stage, the

Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival, Theatre Calgary, and Soulpepper.

Jason is a guest instructor at the National Theatre School of Canada and Banff Centre

for Arts and Creativity. On a team with director Joel Ivany and designer Camellia Koo,

Jason won third prize in the 2011 biennial European Opera-Directing Prize. He has

been nominated for three Dora Awards, and is a protégé recipient of the prestigious

Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. Upcoming projects include Kopernikus at Banff Centre,

and a new adaptation of Hamlet at the Tarragon Theatre.

Krista Dowsoncostume designer

Krista Dowson learned to sew at her parents’ dining room

table during her 14-year tenure as a ballerina with The

National Ballet of Canada. From the stage to behind the

scenes, this self-taught costumier enjoys making spandex

look beautiful and the challenge of turning two-dimensional

designs into three-dimensional apparel.

Dowson has had the privilege of designing and building costumes for ProArteDanza,

The National Ballet of Canada, the Hillside Beach Club in Turkey, Casa Loma’s

Legends of Horror, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, and Hit and Run Dance

Productions, in addition to a number of independent artists locally and internationally.

42

THE TSO CHAMBER SOLOISTS CONCERT PROGRAM

Milton BarnesLadino Suite

Oskar MorawetzSonata for Brass QuintetI. Allegro moderato

II. Andante moderato

III. Allegro

Morley CalvertSuite from the Monteregian HillsI. La Marche

II. Chanson Mélancolique

III. Valse Ridicule

IV. Danse Villageoise

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

6:45pm

Andrew McCandlesstrumpet

Steven Woomerttrumpet

Audrey Goodhorn

Vanessa Fralicktrombone

Mark Tetreaulttuba

THE DECADESPROJECT 1930–1939

43

This concert program features music written

for brass quintet by Canadian composers Milton

Barnes (1931–2001), Oskar Morawetz (1917–2007),

and Morley Calvert (1928–1991). Although these

works were composed several decades after

the one under exploration this month by the

TSO in its orchestral concerts (Ladino Suite and

the Sonata are from 1977, while the Suite from

the Monteregian Hills is from 1961), you might

hear them as a continuation of compositional

styles from that period that infused traditional

expressiveness with modernist approaches.

As a composer, Barnes rejected the 12-tone

approach of the academic avant-garde and

sought a more tonal, romantic idiom, imbued

with jazz and pop influences, as well as music of

his Jewish heritage. His Ladino Suite, exhibiting

various Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) melodies, is a fine

example of his “eclectic fusion” style. It opens with

an improvisatory-like “Spanish fanfare”, played by

the first trumpet, which returns two more times

throughout the course of the suite. A succession

of melodies of varying styles follows, including

sombre, lively, and stately (a few of them evoke

Baroque dances like the sarabande).

Chromaticism and polyphony lends Morawetz’s

Sonata its kaleidoscopic colour and rhythmic

drive. The first movement is in a free sonata

form, very rhythmic in character. In the second

movement, an impressionistic, dream-like section

with a melancholy trumpet melody bookends a

contrasting, expressive middle section. Rhythm

and counterpoint return in the final movement,

which ends with a brilliant coda.

Calvert’s professional career as a bandmaster

informed his work as a composer. His Suite from the

Monteregian Hills, a commission by the Montreal

Brass Quintet, is based on French-Canadian folk

songs and named for the eight-mountain range

that spans from Mount Royal to the American

border. With its pleasing, folk-like quality, it is one

of his most popular works, having been performed

worldwide and recorded by notable ensembles.

Program note by Hannah Chan-Hartley

Founded in 2014, The Toronto Symphony

Orchestra Chamber Soloists came together

with a mission to create programming

featuring a diverse and varied range of

instruments. Acclaimed as an ensemble of

distinguished virtuosi, The Chamber Soloists’

unique combination of winds, strings,

keyboard, and percussion gives it the flexibility

to present a wide range of unusual and

infrequently performed repertoire, along with

some of the best-loved works in the chamber

music literature.

Comprising principal players from the

Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The TSO

Chamber Soloists have already performed

around the world, from Roy Thomson Hall

to the iconic Harpa Hall in Iceland, with such

distinguished guest artists as Emanuel Ax,

James Ehnes, Barbara Hannigan, and John

Storgårds. Curated by TSO Concertmaster

Jonathan Crow, The Chamber Soloists seek

to bring audiences closer to the musicians

of the Orchestra—personally and musically.

As the chamber ensemble could be seen as

a microcosm of the symphony orchestra,

the intimate nature of chamber music invites

the audience to a close encounter with

the distinct personalities and talents of the

TSO’s individual musicians, while the works

performed offer a different perspective into a

particular composer’s craft.

THE DETAILS THE TSO CHAMBER SOLOISTS