Elaine and members of junctQín previously gave the installation its Canadian premiere at Artspace during Peterborough’s Artsweek in September of 2009 without the optional cello part.   Kerri McGonigle will brave as the all-night cello soloist, playing alone in the Jacobs lounge, while her sound gets mixed and fed by sound artist Peter Olsen into the Al Green Theatre where junctQín perform from 7 oversized technicolour abstracted scores.  This event is free!

For more info, click here.

Tickets for the concert are $10 and can be reserved in advance at 416 487 0705.   In addition to the two premières, this concert features junctQín keyboard collective performing music by John Cage, ice cream trucks, toy piano and toy boombox, Thierry de Mey’s Musique de tables, and Tristan Perich’s qsqsqsqsqqqqqqqqq for 3 toy pianos and 3 channel 1 bit tones!

“Big Keys, Little Keys” will take place in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre of the Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre on March 23 at 12 noon.  Admission is free.

Our program:

• Chad Martin’s exotic andante Balinese for toy piano gamelan

• Moritz Eggert’s hysterical tour de force, Hämmerklavier XX: One Man Band 2 for solo piano, harmonica, squeaky object and foot pedal with woodblock

• 4 hands at ONE toy piano (an arrangement of Purcell’s Rondeau from Abdelazer)

• Selections from Jay Reise’s hauntingly beautiful and colourful suite, The Devil in the Flesh

• André Ristic’s Prélude and Fugue in honour of Glenn Gould

• Karlheinz Essl’s charming Listen Thing for music box and ethereal Kalimba for toy piano and playback

• Julia Wolfe’s quirky East Broadway for toy piano and toy boombox (aka iDog in the 21st century)

The performance will take place at the Queen’s Square location of the Cambridge Galleries in Cambridge, Ontario at 2:45pm.

The program:

• Chad Martin’s exotic andante Balinese for toy piano gamelan

• Moritz Eggert’s hysterical tour de force, Hämmerklavier XX: One Man Band 2 for solo piano, harmonica, squeaky object and foot pedal with woodblock

• Selections from Jay Reise’s hauntingly beautiful and colourful suite, Six Pieces for Piano

• André Ristic’s Prélude and Fugue in honour of Glenn Gould

• Karlheinz Essl’s charming Listen Thing for music box and ethereal Kalimba for toy piano and playback

• Julia Wolfe’s quirky East Broadway for toy piano and toy boombox (aka iDog in the 21st century)

• Keith Kirchoff’s picturesque musical setting of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Jumping Competition for toy piano and narrator

Along with Joseph Ferretti, Elaine will also give Eggert’s Vexations II its Canadian debut.  The duo will offer a program of music for two pianos, piano duet, solo piano and toy piano by composers Karlheinz Essl, Moritz Eggert, Mary Gardiner, Jay Reise and Gavin Bryars.  This concert is free and will take place at noon at the Maureen Forrester Recital Hall on campus.

Presented by Gallery 345 and Quintimacy, Expressionists in the Melting Pot! will feature songs and solo piano works from the early 20th century on January 31st at 4pm, located at Gallery 345: 345 Sorauren Avenue in Toronto, Ontario. The concert will be followed by a brief reception and includes entertaining, informative anecdotes mixed with the music. Tickets are available at the door for $25 (regular) and $15 (seniors, artists and students).

The program will trace the impact of historical events on music from the early 20th century in Vienna to the strange realities of the New World after the escape or expulsion of many composers from the Nazi regime:

• Korngold’s Opus 22 Lieder
• Berg’s gorgeous Sieben Fruehe Lieder (Seven Early Songs) and “Lulu’s Aria,”
• Scriabin’s lush and poetic Prelude and Nocturne for Left Hand Alone
• Schoenberg’s colourful miniatures Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke (Six Little Piano Pieces)
• FUN & FISHNET-WORTHY cabaret-theatre gems by Kurt Weill.

Quintimacy is a Toronto-based group dedicated to rebuilding a close working relationship between composer, performer and audience through intimate salon-style performance of new, rare and beautiful solo and chamber works. It was founded in 2008 by musicologist Eleanor Johnston, composer Chad Martin, mezzo-soprano Ramona Carmelly and pianists Joseph Ferretti and Elaine Lau.

The McMichael Gallery, situated in Kleinburg, Ontario, is home to many of the Group of Seven paintings; admission to the gallery ($15 adult; $12 stdt/snr; $30 family) includes admission to my recital.

The afternoon will feature 2 of Schumann’s most epic works, as well as some more contemporary fantasies:

Kreisleriana (Fantasien), Op. 16 by Robert Schumann
Eight Memories in Watercolor by Tan Dun
Mosaic by Mary Gardiner
Fantasy in C, Op. 17 by Robert Schumann

Directions to McMichael can be found at www.mcmichael.com

Invention in Three Parts is comprised of three toy pianists interpreting seven scores projected onto three walls.  The piece, originally composed as a film score, explores the relationship between Dada-ism, musical indeterminacy, and movement.