***SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT***

Rosedale Presbyterian Church is proud to present

RECITALS at ROSEDALE: A NEW VOCAL SERIES

In partnership with Artistic Directors RACHEL ANDRIST & JOHN GREER, and featuring renowned Canadian singers. Special Launch Concert "An Enchanted Summer Evening of Song and Opera" on June 1st 2013 at 7:30pm. Tickets at Door 

Come enjoy the talent and artistry of some of Canada's finest singers! For more information, please contact RPC by email: office@rpcc.ca

Gillian Keith as Zerbinetta on CHANDOS

Described by the Guardian as exuding "bird-like charm as Zerbinetta", Gillian Keith delivers a spectacular performance on record as the flighty heroine in Strauss' masterpiece. This recording is well worth buying and listening to! Featuring the wonderful Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conductor Sir Richard Armstrong (Full review here: http://bit.ly/bU6z28 )

KEITH WEBER (conductor, pianist, orgainst)

Next Saturday Feb 9 at 7:30pm, Rosedale Presbyterian presents Gillian Keith in recital, accompanied by Keith Weber. 

Recent Grammy-nominated Producer Keith Weber is a choral and orchestral conductor, vocal coach, choral clinician, organist, pianist, harpsichordist and collaborator is widely known for his musical versatility and excellence.  

A native of western Pennsylvania, he holds a B.M., cum laude, in Organ Performance from Southern Methodist University, an M.M. also from SMU and an M.S.M. from Perkins School of Theology. 

He was Director of Music at St. Phillip Presbyterian Church in Houston, TX and at Christ Church in Tyler, TX.  He has served as Chair of Music Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, is Past Dean of the East Texas Chapter, American Guild of Organist and has served on the Board of Directors of the Tyler Civic Chorale.  As a recital collaborator and accompanist, Keith has worked with singers and instrumentalist across the United States. 

As an organist, Keith won the Dora Poteet Barclay Award (Outstanding Undergraduate, SMU), the Roy and Sue Johnson Award (Outstanding Senior, SMU), and 1982 B'nai B'rith Music Scholarship, the Ninth Annual Organ Competition of the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation, the 1991 Region VII National Young Artists' Playing Competition of the American Guild of Organists, was named finalist of the 1992 Spivey International Organ Competition and is widely known for his engaging organ recital programming.  He served as Interim Organist at The Myerson Symphony Center in Dallas, TX.

As a pianist, Keith made his formal orchestral debut in 1997 with the East Texas Symphony Orchestra, Kate Tamarkin, conducting, and as keyboardist-of-all-kinds is a frequent guest artist with Ars Lyrica Houston, Mercury Baroque, Musiqa, Cantare, The Victoria Bach Festival and the International Festival-Institute at Round, Top, TX.  Keith was named keyboardist of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra for the 2002-2003 season.

Keith is Artistic Director of Grace Song, Inc., a wide-ranging, non-profit production company.

Tickets available at the door. (RPC is located at 129 Mount Pleasant Road, two blocks north of Bloor, by Sherbourne station)

A CIRCLE OF SONG, MIRTH, MAGIC, AND MOONLIGHT:

Rosedale Presbyterian is proud to present our very own Gillian Keith, internationally recognized Soprano, in recital on FEB 9 '2013, at 7:30pm.

She will be accompanied by distinguished guest pianist, Keith Weber. Music will include works by Schumann, Britten, Purcell, Copland and more!

Tickets available at the door ($20). Rosedale Presbyterian is located at 129 Mount Pleasant Avenue, two blocks north of Bloor, by Sherbourne station.
We hope to see you there!

Toronto Brass Quintet: A beautifully played concert

Last Sunday (Jan 20' 2013), the TORONTO BRASS QUINTET shared their music making with an attentive and happy audience. The program 'Classics for Brass' featured music by Bach, Gesualdo, Calvert, and Ewald. I especially enjoyed the virtuosic playing in a rendition of Bach's 'My Spirit be Joyful', from the great master's Cantata 146. The rhythmic theme was brilliantly treated by the TBQ's five instrumentalists, and  articulation details were always brought out with fine care (particularly the coordinated ornamented trills with the two trumpeters that seemed so easy).

Next were four madrigal by Gesualdo. Who knew he was such a colourful character? Apart from being an aristocrat, Gesualdo was a highly imaginative composer. This was evident in the wild turns of harmonies throughout the four madrigals. (note: History also tells us that Gesualdo had an extra-ordinary personal life, and was particularly vengeful towards a cheating spouse...)     The Suite from the Monteregion Hills by Morley Calvert had a distinctive "contemporary" feel to its energetic dance-like tunes and passages. The music was fun, and some children in attendance were highly animated during movements like the 'marche'. 

The second half of the program consisted of Quintet no.3 by Victor Ewald, an original member of the groupf of five Russian composers called "The Mighty Handful"  (including Balakirev, Cui, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov). The four movement work is cast in the mold of the classical symphony, and is full of beautiful melodies (of Russian romantic flavour) that sticks with the listener long after the performance.

Special thanks to the TBQ's members for the wonderful afternoon of music! We hope to hear them again in the future ! 

Canadians and the Brass Quintet

Rosedale Presbyterian is hosting the Toronto Brass Quintet this coming Sunday (Jan 20 3pm), and I got curious about the origins of the brass quintet. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Canadians have been a champion of this terrific brass ensemble medium !

A brass quintet is a five-piece musical ensemble composed of brass instruments. The most common instrumentation is two trumpets or cornets, one horn, one trombone or euphonium/baritone horn, and one tuba or bass trombone.
As an ensemble type, the brass quintet is very flexible, with a repertoire encompassing musical genres from madrigals to jazz and everything in between. The instrumentation for a brass quintet is very flexible. Often trumpets will double on piccolo trumpets and flugelhorns. In some pieces the horn is replaced by a trombone. In some ensembles a euphonium substitutes for the trombone part. While a tuba is considered standard, the range and style of many pieces lends themselves to being played on bass trombone. Additionally some pieces call for the use of percussion instruments, particularly tambourine, snare drum and especially timpani.
The contemporary brass quintet was started in the late 1940s by two different groups operating independently—the Chicago Brass Quintet and the New York Brass Quintet. Two members of the Chicago Brass Quintet can arguably be credited with helping plant the seed for today's success of the brass quintet medium: Arnold Jacobs, tubist of the CBQ was teacher to the two founders Daellenbach and Watts of the Canadian Brass, while Renold Schilke, trumpet player in the CBQ and master craftsman, was mentor to the entire group, successfully crafting the first-ever matched set of gold-plated quintet brass instruments. Canadian Brass has gone on to establish both the style and popularity of the quintet medium throughout the world having performed more than five thousand concerts and having sold more than 500,000 quintet music books for performers around the world, affirming the rise of the brass quintet as a worldwide phenomenon. The wealth of new music for brass quintet can be attributed to the American Brass Quintet with over 100 premieres of new quintet works.

TORONTO BRASS QUINTET at RPC !

Rosedale Presbyterian Church is pleased to present the TORONTO BRASS QUINTET in concert with CLASSICS for BRASS! (Sunday JAN 20' 2013 at 3pm). Works by Bach, Gesualdo, Calvert, Ewald etc.
Wine & cheese reception to follow !