Volume 23 Issue 4 - December 2017 / January 2018
In this issue: composer Nicole Lizée talks about her love for analogue equipment, and the music that “glitching” evokes; Richard Rose, artistic director at the Tarragon Theatre, gives us insights into their a rock-and-roll Hamlet, now entering production; Toronto prepares for a mini-revival of Schoenberg’s music, with three upcoming shows at New Music Concerts; and the local music theatre community remembers and celebrates the life and work of Mi’kmaq playwright and performer Cathy Elliott . These and other stories, in our double-issue December/January edition of the magazine.
In this issue: composer Nicole Lizée talks about her love for analogue equipment, and the music that “glitching” evokes; Richard Rose, artistic director at the Tarragon Theatre, gives us insights into their a rock-and-roll Hamlet, now entering production; Toronto prepares for a mini-revival of Schoenberg’s music, with three upcoming shows at New Music Concerts; and the local music theatre community remembers and celebrates the life and work of Mi’kmaq playwright and performer Cathy Elliott . These and other stories, in our double-issue December/January edition of the magazine.
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Q & A<br />
FINDING<br />
THE BALANCE<br />
PIANIST<br />
GEORGE LI<br />
PAUL ENNIS<br />
The 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition<br />
produced a motherlode of talent, sparking concert<br />
careers by each of its top four prizewinners. This past<br />
March, Show One Productions brought gold medallist<br />
Dmitry Masleev to Koerner Hall; on February 4 they will<br />
complete the Koerner circle with George Li’s recital there.<br />
Boston-born Li – the son of Chinese immigrants – shared<br />
second place with Lithuanian-Russian pianist Lukas<br />
Geniušas, whom Show One presented in a memorable<br />
2016 Koerner Hall concert with fourth-place winner<br />
Lucas Debargue of France.<br />
A student of English Literature at Harvard now in his fourth year,<br />
Li explained in an email exchange with me in mid-November that<br />
his non-musical studies have affected his approach and led to a<br />
deeper understanding of the music he plays, echoing what he told the<br />
Harvard Gazette in September 2016: “With music, there’s a balancing<br />
of different qualities and you have to have control and finesse and<br />
technique. There’s always a fine line between too much control and<br />
technique with being overly emotional, overindulgent. With literature,<br />
it’s not always an outpouring of emotion. It never goes overboard. It’s<br />
on the cusp of going overboard, but it never does.”<br />
Elsewhere in this issue in his Editor’s Corner, DISCoveries editor<br />
David Olds calls Li a “fabulous young performer” in his review of Li’s<br />
debut CD, Live at the Mariinsky.<br />
WN: How important a role did music play in your home<br />
growing up?<br />
GL: It was definitely a big part of my life ever since I was little. I was<br />
always surrounded by music, whether it be listening to the classical<br />
CANZONA<br />
THE MUSIC SPEAKS<br />
SUN DEC 3 - ISLAND |<br />
MON DEC 4 - CITY<br />
A collaboration of musicians<br />
from the Toronto Symphony<br />
Orchestra and the National<br />
Arts Centre Orchestra.<br />
Mendelssohn’s miraculous<br />
String Octet in E Flat Major<br />
Opus 20 and Brahms’s first<br />
string sextet, Opus 18.<br />
SAT JAN 27 - CITY |<br />
SUN JAN 28 - ISLAND<br />
TRIO INK<br />
Yosuke Kawasaki, violin;<br />
Wolfram Koessel, cello; and<br />
Vadim Serebryany, piano;<br />
play works by Schumann,<br />
Brahms, and Shostakovich.<br />
<strong>2017</strong>-18<br />
CHAMBER MUSIC<br />
SERIES<br />
ON TORONTO<br />
ISLAND at St Andrew<br />
by the Lake Church:<br />
2pm, brunch at 12:30,<br />
by reservation.<br />
IN THE CITY<br />
at St. George the Martyr<br />
Anglican Church,<br />
197 John St., Toronto.<br />
7:30pm<br />
UPCOMING CONCERTS:<br />
FEB 25/26, MAR 18/19, APR 15/16, MAY 27/28<br />
SINGLE CONCERT TICKETS $25<br />
SEASON TICKETS $150<br />
With brunch (Island concerts only):<br />
$45 (single concert) $270 (season)<br />
reservations@canzona.org 416-822-0613<br />
SIMON FOWLER<br />
16 | <strong>December</strong> <strong>2017</strong> / <strong>January</strong> 18 thewholenote.com