Tag: classical-music

Renée Silberman reviews London Symphonia, The Brahms Effect with Tom Allen; London Symphonia, Beethoven, Shostakovich and Marsh; The Jeffery Concerts, James Ehnes, violin, Andrew Armstrong, piano.

by Richard Young

The Beat Magazine 2025 is thrilled to introduce its newest volunteer contributor, Renée Silberman, founder and director of London’s Serenata Music. Alongside Daina Janitis, who previews coming concerts, Renée will be reviewing selected Classical Music events. Renée offers a roundup of recent Classical Music concerts in her first story for The Beat Magazine.

Dear music-loving friends and those who wish to join this august circle of the concert-going public. I offer you a report on the final three events of the 2025-26 season and hope it will give cause to rejoice in the kind of offerings now regularly available here in London.

In quick succession, London Symphonia presented a pair of concerts showcasing the artistry of their musicians, who performed cleverly curated programs.

On April 18, Graham Lord, principal clarinet and London Symphonia’s String Quartet, explored works from the clarinet repertoire that represent the gamut of expressive language and technical complexity inherent in the instrument’s nature. Without question, musician, raconteur, CBC broadcaster Tom Allen, enriched the experience, having first of all helped shape the evening’s format, and then enlarged upon the historical development of the clarinet in its many aspects – discussing many of its uses, as an orchestral voice, as a solo instrument in art music and jazz, and more.

(Pictured: Tom Allen.)

The first half of the program took us on a tour of the musical magic the clarinet produces with samplings from works by four composers: Gerald Finzi (1901-1956),  Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), Mozart (1756-1791), and Steve Reich (b. 1936). Tom Allen elucidated the characteristics of each piece with his unique combination of knowledge and storytelling skill, always engaging, never didactic. Graham Lord’s consummate musicianship drew the audience in – his sensitivity to style,  especially in the tenderness of the second movement, Larghetto of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet and in the exhilarating New York Counterpoint multi-voiced tape plus live line – prepared us for the emotional heart of the concert, the Brahms Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in B Minor Op. 115. The Quintet, Brahms’ valedictory work written for Richard Mühlfeld, in Brahms’ opinion, the most outstanding wind player he had ever heard, traverses a grand range of feeling, mood, tones and textures.

There is an elegiac quality, a sense of retrospection, and yet, in this remarkable gift to the generations, the artist’s creative drive evidently had lost none of its energy. On hearing the Quintet, Clara Schumann wrote to Brahms, “The joy that I had survives in my heart, and for that I am grateful.” And so it is that we, too, find renewal in this epic, Protean composition.

On May 2, London Symphonia wrapped up its season with “Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Marsh,” a program of disparate compositional traditions and voices.

Under the leadership of Conductor Tania Miller, the orchestra produced a stimulating journey through time and spirit, a reflection of the type of programming that presents a combination of the contemporary with the tried and true. Moreover, London Symphonia provides a generous opportunity for its members to savour the limelight. This was notable in singling out Laura Chambers, Principal Flute, to take a solo turn in a World Premiere commissioned by the orchestra, with funding support from SOCAN Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council. Composer Alexis Dyan Marsh and flautist Laura Chambers became colleagues at the University of California and have continued a working relationship over the years.

(Pictured: Laura Chambers.)

View of a Cartwheel From An Ascending Plane for Flute Solo and Orchestra is written in six parts, “as a collage of lived experience. The work is woven from three distinct threads: the vastness of the Canadian West grounded in the Manitoban landscape, the evolution of human connection, and the vertical trajectory of personal ambition.” The composition is atmospheric, depicting landscapes and human connections. The element of friendship sets humans in the vast landscape, and may describe the friendship between Marsh and Chambers, linking people to place; furthermore,  Marsh acknowledges her personal motivation in developing her artistry as a composer. Laura Chambers plays with great warmth and vitality, a strong personality within the wind section and in the orchestra.

(Pictured: Alexis Marsh.)

The Chamber Symphony in C Minor, Op. 110a (after String Quartet No. 8), orchestrated by Rudolf Barshai, inevitably reminds citizens of the 21st century of the tragic circumstances in which Dmitri Shostakovich lived. The tale of Shostakovich, and indeed of Rudolf Barshai, who was eventually declared persona non grata in the Soviet Union, is a cautionary one – to endure the horrors of authoritarianism is a problem not strictly relegated to the past. Tania Miller fielded this powerful work with deep understanding – her intellectual energy is supported by kinetic energy which pulsated through her body, a driving force that animated the orchestra. Maestra Miller spoke of the composer’s view that the Eighth String Quartet, the point of departure for Barshai’s orchestration, was in fact a requiem for himself. 1960, the year of the Quartet’s publication, was a time of distress and depression for Shostakovich, for although he believed he had betrayed his principles in joining the Communist Party, he lived in continuing fear of arrest or execution, incessantly hounded by the director of cultural policy, Andrei Zhdanov. No amount of abasement was enough for the Soviet authorities. Shostakovich was trapped in the Soviet Union, and his music conveys his pain. But in the devoted hands of Tania Miller, the music becomes the instrument for vindicating Shostakovich’s suffering.

Every good performance of a work by Shostakovich is an almost sacred act that validates yet again all those who were or are caught in a vortex of evil. By contrast, a performance of Beethoven’s  Seventh, which he referred to as “a grand symphony in A Major (one of my most excellent works),” is essential life affirmation! Rhythmic intensity is written into the score, but still, there is a requirement that the conductor will truly sustain the orchestra’s propulsive momentum. Wagner identified the symphony as “the apotheosis of the dance.” Tania Miller danced in joy as she partnered with the buoyant musicians of London Symphonia! The dynamic range, the sophisticated play of key signatures, and the studied wildness of the Finale animated the finale of the orchestra’s 2025-26 season!

On Monday, May 4, The Jeffery Concerts brought its season to a remarkable conclusion with a recital by James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong.

(Pictured: James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong.)

Mr. Ehnes is billing the programs this year as a “50th Canada Birthday Tour,” and what a celebration it is! James Ehnes is Canada’s foremost violinist, a peerless artist, dedicated to his profession and a musical ambassador who is renowned for performing on major stages internationally and with a particular commitment to bringing music to communities across Canada.

Ehnes brought his wonderful vitality to a full house at the Wolf Performance Hall with works by Christian August Sinding (1856-1941), Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), Carmen Braden (b. 1985), and Bela Bartók (1881-1945). Each of these pieces is close to Ehnes’ heart, and each speaks in a distinctive voice.

The first movement of Sinding’s Suite for Violin in A Minor, op. 10, set the pace and tone for the recital, beginning as it did with a dizzyingly swiftly moving Presto. For an audience member who began studying the violin at an advanced age, it was both daunting and instructive to watch Ehnes’ bow glide efficiently across the strings. But there was more to the playing than mere technique – The Brahms Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, op. 108, intense and dramatic, reveals a powerful side of Ehnes’ playing style. Two years ago, Mr. Ehnes performed the Brahms Violin Concerto with London Symphonia, and on that occasion, showed, as he did the other night, that these big works with significant content are well suited to his musical personality. The playing is both dazzling and refined.

And there is always an interest in the new, as evidenced in Carmen Braden’s Imaginal. Braden composed this piece in honour of James Ehnes’ fiftieth birthday, to celebrate “…anything that held us together in this crazy world, it’s music, friends, curiosity and caterpillars.” (“Imaginal” cells are the catalysts for the transformation of caterpillar cells into butterflies, according to Carmen Braden). And Bartók’s Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin and Piano, Sz. 86 makes full use of traditional Hungarian verbunkos dances, transforming folk music into high art.

Mssrs. Ehnes and Armstrong finished the program with three encores, which they announced from the stage. Scherzo-Tarentelle by Henryk Wieniawski; La Guitar by Moritz Moszkowski, arranged by Pablo de Sarasate; and La Ronde des Putins (The Dance of the Goblins)  byAntonio Bazzini.

This scintillating, thrilling recital rounded out a remarkable season of music making!

I  encourage one and all to discover the profound satisfaction of hearing extraordinary live performances here in London! There is first-class music to be enjoyed in our city! Come out to some of the wonderful concerts London offers! Support our city’s art scene!

Renée Silberman, May 2026

To learn more about London Symphonia, visit Concerts | London Symphonia

To learn more about The Jeffery Concerts, visit The Jeffery Concerts

To learn more about Serenata Music, visit Serenata Music – Home

Where were YOU in the winter of 2015?

by Richard Young

Previewed by Daina Janitis

(Pictured: London Symphonia Guest Conductor Tania Miller.)

If you recall the disaster of that season – and were part of the London spirit that helped to rebuild – you really should join in celebrating the spirit of resistance and revival that has taken London Symphonia toward its 10th anniversary.

And the program of the final concert of the 9th season – as well as the musicians – of Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Marsh will be an evening of three survival strategies: a spinning cartwheel, a searing letter from a war‑torn city, and a symphony that refuses to stop dancing.

I was the Volunteer Committee Chair in 2015 when Orchestra London formally filed for bankruptcy, ending decades of orchestral history in the city. And I had the joy of seeing London Symphonia incorporated later that year, picking up the tradition that began back in 1937 and continuing as the only professional orchestra to offer a full season in the region. Many current players, including concertmaster Joe Lanza, bridge both eras, having performed with Orchestra London and now with London Symphonia. And the community helped with trust and creativity. The glorious concert space of “The Met” would not have happened without Londoners’ belief in all the gifts of the spirit.

This concert is music about resilience, played by an orchestra that had to prove its own.

(Pictured: LS Principal Flute Laura Chambers.)

And what a dazzling group of talents our London orchestra has brought together in these nine years. Laura Chambers is the LS Principal Flute. Her solo work, ensemble contributions, and innovations are renowned across Canada- but did you know …

  • She’s a lover of the outdoors. Her performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for an audience of over 30,000 at sunset in the Nevada desert is her most memorable to date.
  • She’s a passionate educator. Laura’s studio of students spans in age from 5 to 85, and she is welcomed as a guest clinician at schools, music camps and festival workshops throughout Canada.
  • In addition to her performance and private teaching, Laura is a PhD candidate at York University, where her research is focused on the recontextualization and sustainability of classical music in today’s world.
  • She currently holds a sessional lecturer position at the University of Toronto and is a faculty member of the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Oscar Peterson’s School of Music.

And because you supported us for the last nine years, LYS has thrived. You can now be part of a world premiere- the flute concerto that Laura Chambers commissioned from Alexis Marsh just for Laura by London Symphonia.

(Pictured: Composer Alexis Marsh.)

Alexis Marsh, a Canadian composer from Winnipeg, built her career in Los Angeles, scoring films and series like TNT’s Animal Kingdom, animated feature Next Gen, and numerous indie projects. She’s used to writing music that lives inches away from the camera, following tiny facial expressions and shifts in mood. A concerto lets that language move into the open, onto a stage.
You’ve heard Laura Chambers in countless moments this season—now imagine an entire work tailored to the way she phrases a single line. The concerto’s title, View of a Cartwheel from an Ascending Plane, sounds like a film shot: a spinning shape seen from above, slowly receding.

And Tania Miller is one of London Symphonia’s favourite guest conductors. Of course, the musicians like her; they know what it means to rebuild something, and so does she. In her writing on leadership, she talks about being “the fuel and the fire,” about creating a spark and then “sometimes letting them play and standing back to enjoy the performance. She sees orchestral work as a “collective search for the meaning in the music,” emphasizing fresh ideas and connection rather than top‑down control.

(Pictured: Tania Miller.)

She is a builder herself, renewing ensembles, most famously as music director of the Victoria Symphony for 14 years, where she developed a reputation as a visionary leader and innovator. She was the first woman to lead a major Canadian orchestra, appointed to Victoria at 33, and now directs the Brott Music Festival and its training programs, all of which underscore her comfort with change and institution‑building. She’s a creative risk-taker — leaving a secure position in Victoria to become, as one article suggested, a guest conductor for hire exploring ‘uncharted waters.

Beginning to sound like a feminist manifesto? No apologies from me- but even the Old White Dead Guy pieces chosen for this program are exciting expressions of resistance and revival.

Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony Op. 110a came to life as a string quartet dashed off in three days in bombed‑out Dresden, dedicated ‘to the victims of fascism and war’ and packed with his own musical initials like a secret signature—a grief‑stricken protest from someone who knew all about other kinds of terror. It was a piece written amid literal rubble, carrying both an official dedication to war’s victims and a coded act of resistance from a composer who knew about other kinds of terror in his life under Stalin’s iron rule.

Ludwig Van’s Seventh? He composed it in 1811–12, and it was first heard in Vienna in 1813 at a benefit concert for soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau, one of the late‑war clashes that helped drive Napoleon’s army out of German territory. No wonder the symphony feels like resistance turned into rhythm—an entire orchestra insisting on life while a collapsing empire limps away in the background.

Its rhythms carry little melancholy. Wagner called it “the apotheosis of the dance” – and other musical worthies of the time said it was “exuberant,” “boisterous,” and “life-affirming”. Don’t we need something right now to remind us that we can choose to dance in the face of pointless war and the threat of domination?

Londoners … every ticket bought since 2015 has been a small act of faith, and on this night the orchestra pays that faith back in music about survival, defiance, and hard‑won joy. You helped the rebuilding – now come to the concert and celebrate this local source of pride.

IF YOU GO:

What: London Symphonia presents Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Marsh

When: Saturday, May 2, 2026, at 7:30pm.

Where: Metropolitan United Church, 468 Wellington Street, London, Ontario.

Tickets: Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Marsh | London Symphonia

Previewed by Daina Janitis

The Brahms Effect with Tom Allen: The Clarinet and the Art of Being Human

by Richard Young

Previewed by Daina Janitis

The Brahms Effect with Tom Allen, London Symphonia, Saturday, April 18, 2026, 7:30 PM

At a time when the world can feel heavy with noise, how comforting it is to gather for an evening devoted to listening — not only to music, but to the stories that live inside it. The Brahms Effect brings together two artists who understand that sound and story are human languages made from the same yearning: the desire to be understood.

Storyteller, broadcaster, and master communicator Tom Allen has long revealed the hidden pulse beneath great music, helping audiences hear composers not as distant figures but as people alive with wit, frailty, and imagination. Alongside Graham Lord, London Symphonia’s principal clarinetist, Allen explores the clarinet as perhaps the most human of instruments — an instrument that can sigh, laugh, ache, and console, often within a single breath.

(Pictured: Tom Allen.)

Tom Allen is well known to Canadians through his CBC story broadcasts – but did you know?

  • He planned to be a professional trombonist and worked hard at it into his late twenties
  • By around age 30, he realized that, in his own words, “storytelling and language were where my greatest strengths were,” so his career began to pivot toward radio and narration rather than full‑time performance.
  • A formative moment was a 1982 music history class at Boston University with John Daverio, whose vivid, funny stories about composers convinced Allen that classical music history could be anything but boring. That realization—that extraordinary music comes from very ordinary, messy human lives—became the core of his storytelling approach.
  • Tom and harpist Lori Gemmell are life partners (married), living in Toronto; their personal partnership is the foundation for the artistic one. Around 2010 they began creating staged shows together that mix storytelling, history, and chamber music, which they themselves started calling “chamber musicals.”

So, the honest answer is he didn’t so much abandon the trombone as discover that his strongest instrument was language. The trombone training, the practicing, and the orchestra life became the soil out of which the storyteller grew.

A native of the Vancouver area, clarinetist Graham Lord has made Southwestern Ontario his musical home as principal clarinetist of both London Symphonia and the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. A sought‑after guest principal with orchestras from Toronto and Vancouver to Winnipeg, Edmonton, Kitchener‑Waterloo, Nova Scotia, and Thunder Bay, he brings a national Canadian perspective to the clarinet’s most human voice.

(Pictured: Graham Lord.)

For The Brahms Effect, Graham Lord not only performs but also curates the program, guiding listeners through music that has shaped his own artistry — from the intimacy of Finzi and Mozart to the shimmering urban chorus of Steve Reich and the deep, autumnal glow of Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet.

And what an uncanny gift for curating- as well as performing- Graham Lord has. Tom Allen will involve you in the music before the clarinet begins, and I hope he tells you that Gerald Finzi’s Five Bagatelles for clarinet and piano were composed initially in 1941 as Finzi was drafted into war service. He added to the composition in 1943 and premiered it in London’s (the Big One) National Gallery during the Blitz. The clarinet is heard at its most versatile here – nostalgic, playful, and intimate.

Their program is as emotionally varied as any engrossing story. You’ll be delighted by the lyrical ease of Mozart and the big-city tension of Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint. Graham’s choices are a musical trip through history, genius, and feeling. Samuel Coleridge‑Taylor’s Clarinet Quintet sets the stage for Brahms’s late‑life masterwork — the Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115 — music born from an unexpected friendship with a clarinetist that rekindled Brahms’s creativity and deepened his faith in beauty.

Graham Lord, principal clarinetist and curator of The Brahms Effect with Tom Allen and Andrew Chung, Artistic Producer of London Symphonia discuss why the clarinet is such a magical pairing with the string quartet, the genius of Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, how Graham chose the repertoire for the concert, and Steve Reich’s rarely performed New York Counterpoint, which creates the texture of a clarinet choir of 11 voices: https://youtu.be/rlJgMLWSFX0?si=YE-TRUe7BtISTgBv

Through Lord’s expressive artistry and Allen’s narrative insight, the concert invites listeners to rediscover what music can do when it’s shared in real time — the way it draws us closer, reminding us of our capacity for empathy, wonder, and joy. By Saturday, April 18th, who can predict the noises of aggression, resentment, and hatred that will be filling our social media and news reports? What lies will we have to decipher and expose?

But in our London, a city that values its creators, The Brahms Effect will offer exquisite music and enchanting stories — a concert that reminds us that art, at its best, recalls to us our most human selves.

IF YOU GO:

What: London Symphonia presents The Brahms Effect with Tom Allen.

When: Saturday, April 18, 2026, at 7:30pm.

Where: Metropolitan United Church, 458 Wellington Street, London, ON.

Tickets: The Brahms Effect with Tom Allen | London Symphonia

Previewed by Daina Janitis.

Why I should NOT be writing about Classical Music for The Beat:

Well, judge for yourself from the photo. I’m 80. I took Latin in high school instead of keyboarding. I am not a performer or a specialist in classical music (a few curling RCM diplomas for Grade 8 and 9 Piano notwithstanding). I played Highwaymen CDs for my kids when they were in the bathtub, and I love Linda Ronstadt songs. I asked for a ticket to the Elvis Presley concert in Maple Leaf Gardens for my 12th birthday, and attended in my choir accompanist uniform, clutching my leather satchel of sheet music. A nerd.

Why I want to Write for The Beat Magazine 2025:

I miss it since the print version retired. I admire its hard-working, eclectic editor, Rick Young, and its many volunteer writers for the kind, informative, and enthusiastic pieces they wrote about our London arts scene.

What I Think I Can Bring:

I taught high school English for thirty-three years- and have been retired for over twenty. Because I was grateful for the people who provided my children experiences and adventures in school music- and in the London Youth Symphony and Amabile – I started volunteering for these heroic people with talents I couldn’t match. I’m on the board for LYS and Magisterra Soloists, I was on the AHMAA board for saving the Aeolian Hall, I assemble newsletters for my union and for the classical music events in London, and I attend every concert I can manage.

But to my mental peril, I have been caught up in the political turmoil of our time. In just the last few months, I’ve read in horror about the denigration of DEI, the turning of the Kennedy Center into a “massage music” emporium, the selling off of public education and public journalism, the incitement of hatred for immigrants, and the finest relief for this anger I feel is in classical music.

What is the source of that solace? It’s a living genius in the musicians who play classical music for us in London, Ontario. Attending a pop music concert is certainly enjoyable, but attending a classical concert is intellectually stimulating and emotionally immersive. It requires sustained focus, careful listening for structure and nuance, and an openness to delayed gratification and complexity. Your emotional responses can be profound and spiritual. The concert offers a contemplative experience, with less overt physical movement and a stronger emphasis on collective listening and silent appreciation. Thank you, London musicians, for the courage you put into your work.

Maud: Jeffery Music Foundation- What have you DONE????

by Richard Young

Ethel: You look distraught. Whatever is the matter?

Maud: Have you SEEN the chamber group The Jeffery Concerts has brought to London for Friday, March 13th? AAAAARGH!!!

Previewed by Daina Janitis

(Pictured: The Poiesis Quartet.)

Ethel: Yes, Maud- and how lucky are we in London to have this Jeffery Foundation board of music lovers, music teachers, and music performers bringing amazing talents that we’d otherwise have to travel to see and hear. That’s the Poiesis Quartet. As the newly crowned winners of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Poiesis Quartet’s arrival in London is a momentous point in their career, bringing the kind of risk-taking, collaborative artistry that keeps chamber music alive for new generations.

Their Jeffery debut at Metropolitan United Church is not our grandmothers’  “subscription” recital, but a chance for Londoners of all ages to encounter four young musicians who treat the string quartet as a living laboratory for sound, story, and social connection.

Maud: But just LOOK at their outfits and piercings- and their use a mixed bag of pronouns. And the program? Chamber concerts are for the B’s- Bach and those other gentlemen of classical music! What kind of name is Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate?

Ethel: I don’t know where he was born- but the Jeffery Foundation bringing that music and those musicians to London, Ontario is enacting Canadian core values: public access to culture, support for emerging talent, and a belief that serious art belongs not in gated institutions but in the shared spaces of a city. In a world where U.S. arts centres are increasingly entangled with partisan politics and boycotts, the Jeffery series offers something different: a locally rooted, not-for-profit platform where excellence is measured in artistic integrity and community impact, not donor glamour.

Maud: Are they at least going to dress up in dignified concert black as they play?

Ethel: Oooh- I doubt it. And I hope they let their freedom in concert dress reflect the freedom in bending and improving traditions of all kinds, bring that beautiful stage at The Met to new life! Try meeting some of them first … look up their own website: Poiesis Quartet

Or, let’s let one of them tell us about him/her/they!

(Pictured: Drew Dansby.)

Drew Dansby, cello, Drew Dansby (he/him) is a recent double-degree graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, with degrees in cello performance under Darrett Adkins and chemistry with minors in Comparative American Studies and sociology. Drew joined the cello section of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra full-time beginning in the 2023-24 season, becoming the youngest member of the orchestra at 22. He has served as an acting cellist in the Charlotte Symphony, associate principal cellist of the New York String Orchestra, and principal cellist of the Verbier Festival Orchestra. Originally from Charlotte, NC, Drew made his solo debut with the Charlotte Symphony at age 15. Drew is also a founding member of the Charlotte Piano Trio, which has performed 14 concerts over 5 years across North Carolina, and was the founder and director of the 2022 Myers Park Summer Series. Drew has been recognized as a National YoungArts winner and gold medalist in the Cleveland Cello Society competition. Drew was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA for three summers, including as a violinist in 2018 and as principal cellist in 2019, and he was the first member in the history of the orchestra to be accepted on two instruments. As a winner of Oberlin’s concerto competition, he performed David Baker’s Concerto for Cello and Jazz Band with the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble in April 2024.

And the rest of them are just as impressive in their achievements – so with the Poesis Quartet, we are getting a quadruple whammy of inspiration!

Maud: But the music? Will I be able to tolerate any of it?

Ethel: Listening to music of any era should not be centred on your pain threshold, honey. You may have to adjust your hearing aids and your expectations a bit, but the piece that won THE 2025 Banff Festival prize certainly didn’t scare those judges!

Maud: I didn’t know about that Banff Festival. Is it a big thing???

Ethel: A biggie, indeed. The Banff International String Quartet Competition was organized in 1983. It is now recognized as one of the world’s major string quartet competitions. 

Ten quartets from around the world are selected to take part in the semi-final competition. All members of the quartets must be under the age of 35. After playing various styles of both traditional and modern chamber music before audiences over a period of several days, three finalist groups are chosen. After further performances, these are judged and a winner chosen.

And here’s a photo of them receiving the 2025 Banff award.

As arts reporter Keith Powers said about the 2025 competition, “Each repertoire choice had a tell: of a quartet’s confidence, technique, history — all subtle, all different. For the Poiesis Quartet, this competition was not only a test of mettle, but it was also a forum for identity. The eventual competition winner cemented a place in the finals with a spectacular performance at the conclusion of the open competition: Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5 (the first work the group ever learned!). Then Poiesis stole the finals with royally inclusive and distinctive choices: quartets by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, Brian Raphael Nabors, Ken Hisaishi, and Kevin Lau.

“The final round presents our ensemble, our values,” cellist Drew Dansby said. “We feel like everything we’ve done is being fulfilled with this.”

Want to hear the piece they played in the final round, Maud? Get ready …

Maud???  Maud???  Maud???

IF YOU GO:

What: The Jeffery Concerts presents the Poiesis Quartet

When: Friday, March 13, at 7:30pm.

Where: Metropolitan United Church, 468 Wellington Street, London, ON.

Tickets: The Jeffery Concerts – 2025/26 Season | The Grand Theatre

Previewed by Daina Janitis.

Magisterra Masterworks featuring the Magisterra Piano Trio, Thursday, March 5.

by Richard Young

Previewed by Daina Janitis

Here is the poster for Thursday night’s Magisterra Concert. So, you already know lots about it- but I’ll tell you more!!!

First, though, I’m going to come clean about what may keep people from flocking to some exquisite chamber music- and in THIS city, that is one opportunity among a flood of riches.

It’s PARKING, isn’t it???

Almost sixty years ago, when we came to London, I was vaguely amused by the horrified mentions of PARKING in the city- the warnings about downtown dying if those malls were built in the suburbs offering free space for cars. And now- I’ve also become the kind of Aged Karen who would hurl epithets at City Council from the gallery, bewailing what I must pay to park my Mazda close to the classical music event I want to attend.

I’m going to offer a few suggestions for the similarly enraged:

  • Point your car to Fullarton St. between Talbot and Ridout. Use the street- it’s after 6:00 p.m. and barely a block from Museum London
  • Make an evening of it. Yaya’s Café has replaced the Rhino- and offers an intriguing Thursday night African meal until 7:00 p.m.

Home – Yaya’s Café

Contact Info

    So, what else do you need to know?

    Piano trios? Three pianos on that small auditorium stage?

    Au contraire, mon frere… as famous poet George Carlin used to say.

    A piano trio is a small chamber group of three musicians – piano, violin, and cello – playing together as equal musical partners. In a piano trio, each instrument has its own voice: the piano provides richness and colour, the violin often sings the melody, and the cello adds depth and warmth. Composers have admitted they love writing for piano trio because this intimate setting lets listeners hear every musical “voice” clearly, like three characters in a vivid, wordless conversation. 

    And the ones chosen for Thursday night are masterpieces:

    Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E‑flat major is an early piece from his “new kid in town” years in Vienna. It’s bright and energetic, with clear tunes that bounce quickly between piano, violin, and cello, plus a gentle, slow movement and a witty, fast finish.

    Brahms’s Piano Trio in B major is big, warm, and emotional. It opens with a long, singing melody, then moves through music that can feel stormy one moment and comforting the next, always with rich, lush harmonies.

    Turina’s Piano Trio No. 2 is a short, colourful work with a strong Spanish flavour. In just three movements, it shifts between dreamy, atmospheric writing and lively, dance‑like rhythms that give the trio a vivid, distinctive character.

    (Pictured: Magisterra Solists violinist and music director, Annette-Barbara Vogel.)

    You know that violinist and music director, Annette-Barbara Vogel, is brilliant- but her guest musicians are certainly no slouches!

    Anya Alexeyev, born in Moscow into a family of concert pianists, trained at the prestigious Gnessin School and Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory before earning a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where she won major prizes. She has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Moscow State Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and Quebec Symphony.

    (Pictured: pianist Anya Alexeyev.)

    She is a genuine musical explorer who has recorded widely for international labels, yet she is equally passionate about unearthing hidden gems of the piano repertoire. In Magisterra’s trio, she brings the depth of a truly global career together with a restless musical curiosity.

    Three things about Belgian cellist Tom Landschoot are especially intriguing for concertgoers: he has an international solo career, is a sought‑after teacher, and he has a deep chamber‑music pedigree.

    • Landschoot has appeared as a soloist with orchestras across Europe, North and South America, and Asia, including the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Frankfurt Chamber Orchestra, and symphonies from Taiwan to Ecuador, with performances broadcast on radio and television worldwide.
    • He has held a leading professorship at Arizona State University, is on faculty at elite summer institutions such as Meadowmount, and will join the Cleveland Institute of Music as Professor of Cello in 2026
    • And … be still my heart … 
Tom Landschoot has been involved in interdisciplinary public service projects through his music, such as raising funds and awareness for the need of building an orphanage and hospital in Tamil Nadu, India. As part of this humanitarian project, Landschoot was featured in a documentary film of a cellist performing across India, integrating photography, culinary, journalism and original music compositions.


    (Pictured: cellist Tom Landschoot.)

    And on this day, when wars are beginning yet again, when there is so much to mistrust and fear in our world, let’s be grateful for the wonderful people who bring us music in this chaos  
    


    IF YOU GO:

    What: Magisterra Soloists present Masterworks featuring the Magisterra Piano Trio.

    When: Thursday, March 5, at 7:00pm.

    Where: Museum London, 421 Ridout St. North, London, ON.

    Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/magisterra-at-the-museum-masterworks-piano-trios-tickets-1647395346829?aff=oddtdtcreator

    Previewed by Daina Janitis

    London Community Orchestra presents Romantic Echoes, March 1

    by Richard Young

    Previewed by Daina Janitis

    “In an orchestra, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Together, we can create something truly extraordinary.” – Yo-Yo Ma

    And with the London Community Orchestra, you get COOKIES!!!

    No, not the kind you have to accept, reject, or manage, the kind you can share with musicians and audience members at Dundas Street Centre United Church after each concert. Because, as all great musical experiences are, it’s a community event, one in which we are participants, even if we sit on the church benches and applaud our hearts out while some of London’s good people enrich our lives with exquisite music.

    WE ALL share in the opportunity to quicken our minds and deepen our emotions.

    Yes, this organization has been around for fifty-two years, encouraging talented non-professionals to endow their busy lives with the discipline and rewards of symphonic music. And in those fifty-two years, most of the faces have changed, but the quality of performance has evolved to make every season better than the last.

    Len Ingrao has conducted LCO since 1998 and has built this city’s large symphonic ensemble to take on artistic challenges and share them graciously with Londoners- for a very reasonable ticket price.

    (Pictured: London Community Orchestra Conductor, Len Ingrao,)

    I’ll bet you know many of them.

    Carolyn Martinelli, who has taught generations of young people at Catholic Central High School, has been a lovely concertmaster since 2005.

    (Pictured: Carolyn Martinelli, London Community Orchestra, Concertmaster.)

    Steve, who adds fire to the local community orchestra while completing his epidemiology degrees.

    Ana, who is a dedicated therapist but still plays her violin in LCO.

    Mary, the oboist and member of the FIRST London Youth Symphony over 60 years ago, who still often sets that tuning A for the community orchestra.

    Some local music teachers and profs, continuing to aspire and learn with material they love.

    And one of those teachers will be the soloist for the March 1st program – Brian Donohue.

    (Pictured: Brian Donohue, London Community Orchestra Soloist.)

    Brian is the kind of teacher who does the profession proud:

    • He’s been a member of LCO for twelve years, while teaching at Sir Frederick Banting High School, conducting bands, starting a French horn choir, and teaching the board’s first Music and Math combo course.
    • He’s always ready to help other musical ensembles with coaching and standing in when he’s needed- and devotes time to raising his three kids with his wife, Christine.
    • To keep his musical skills growing, he has long-standing involvement in London community ensembles, including playing French horn with the London Community Orchestra and Encore: The Concert Band.​
    • He has taught private horn through Western University’s New Horizons Band program, which focuses on adult and lifelong learners returning to music—he really believes that music is for everyone.
    • No, no gold medal in hockey – but he has won the Dawson Memorial Award in Music Education, Western Music Award in his final undergraduate year. Chamber of Commerce Award for excellence in Western’s Wind Ensemble, Kiwanis Music Award (festival recognition).

    And he is performing music that he LOVES, from the “easy listening” Camille Saint-Saens.  

    (Pictured: Caricature of Camille Saint-Saens.)

    Andromaque: Overture and Prelude to Act IV  is a film score before there were films! S-S wrote it in 1902 for Sarah Benrhardt to bring the Trojan War story to life, politics, grief, unwanted suitors – daily stuff in Troy, 17th-century France, and in our current relationship with the US.

    And the Morceau de Concert is going to be a showstopper. S-S originally wrote it for a horn that is no more … the “cor omnitonique,” with four pistons that promised to play easily in any key. The gadget did not survive, but the virtuoso showpiece it gives to a great horn player – with lots of dazzling acrobatics – will hold your attention on Sunday.

    (Watch this video clip of Brian Donohue speaking about Sunday’s concert: https://www.facebook.com/reel/4436111049950652)

    Speaking of virtuosi, the full orchestra will be giving us Franz Liszt and his Tasso: Lament and Triumph. Liszt was pioneering the symphonic poem by 1849 – telling a story in a single, continuous movement (so no more worries about when to clap!).

    (Pictured: Caricature of Franz Liszt.)

    The poem is apparently based on the tortured life of Torquato Tasso in the 16th century as he goes through instability in Ferrara, wanders – in a boat, I presume – on the lagoons of Venice, and finally receives recognition in Rome after his death. All of this tumult is conveyed by the constant transforming of a gondolier’s song that Liszt once heard in Venice.

    And after the concert? COOKIES and the chance to tell the musicians what generous, inspiring Londoners they are!

    IF YOU GO:

    What: London Community Orchestra presents Romantic Echoes.

    When: Sunday, March 1, at 3:00pm.

    Where: Dundas Street Centre United Church, 482 Dundas Street, London, ON.

    Tickets: https://www.lco-on.ca/eng/concert-season/tickets/

    Previewed by Daina Janitis

    Help! I don’t know what to write about the London Symphonia Concert on February 14th

    by Richard Young

    Previewed by Daina Janitis

    My first problem is the fabulous team that works for, loves, and supports London Symphonia. Look at their website – https://www.londonsymphonia.ca/event/love-and-romance-denise-pelley, where you’ll find everything you wanted to know – and more – about the creator of the program and the soloists.

    And then it’s Black History Month, and here we are in Canada creating a musical program featuring two black soloists. Haven’t we heard that our more powerful neighbour has done away with DEI – and isn’t it embarrassing that we still toe the line for that acronym? And is it pointless virtue signalling that seems to praise London for being aware of our People of Colour?

    (Pictured: London vocalist Denise Pelley.)

    And, finally, am I being condescending to point out the achievements of our program originator and soloists as though Londoners needed educating about them? We know about Scott Good’s composing career, we know about Denise Pelley’s medals and her opening for Aretha Franklin, and her YM-YWCA Woman of Distinction award. If we’ve been to Stratford in the last 16 years, we know that Roy Lewis is a 16-year veteran of the Festival stage.

    But here’s the thing, and it’s raw right now. I admit to everyone that I have too much time, doubt and fear on my hands right now to ignore the horrors of authoritarianism, ignorance, and greed that are happening in our neighbourhood. At 80, I’m not going to run for office, but I want to reveal that London’s live art music scene has been my harbour of hope.

    Sitting in those Met pews – no cushion, I get the cheaper seats – and watching the faces of our Symphonia musicians and their featured guests renews hope. The evidence of their work and commitment, and the joy they show in bringing them to us in live performance, is something that no recording can do. I multiply the effect by chatting to strangers beside me, to students at the reception (who can attend for FREE, for God’s sake) and hugging the performers afterwards (very few have pushed me off). Those are gifts I never expected to receive in life.

    Because we are in the presence of souls who have battled racism and every kind of insidious discrimination, have given up lucrative jobs for their art, and have honed their talents to the utmost just for US. Bearing witness to their courage as well as their art makes US better!

    (Conductor Scott Good and guest artist Denise Pelley share their insights into the upcoming February 14th performance.)

    Do you know that Denise Pelley has inspired young people in Junior Achievement for 19 years, has performed at the Grand in musicals, and has travelled to Sudan twelve times to establish a music and arts camp for 400 kids? Did you know that her son, Jason Edmonds, was killed in a road rage accident, and she created a Foundation to tell young people about that rage as one of the many dangers facing them?

    Did you know that Roy Lewis is from the UK, came to Canada, and founded the Obsidian Theatre  (focusing on Black Canadian stories) – as well as painting, sculpting, teaching Elizabethan Literature at several universities, and co-founding “Shakespeare in the Rough”? His poetry tackles the death of love, the struggle for understanding, and redemption in the face of grief.

    (Pictured: Roy Lewis, Poet and Narrator)

    Conductor Scott Good is not Black, but he’s a genius of music with a soul that encompasses the rhythms, aspirations, and hopes of all humanity. I can only hope that London hears more of his oratorios, symphonies, jazz masterpieces and chamber music. He is a creator of music and of bridges that support our shared humanity.

    Being in the very presence of artists like this is a privilege and a healing.

    (Pictured: London Symphonia Conductor, Scott Good.)

    I can only ask you to read, before you attend the concert, the words of an American poet, Joseph Fasano, whose word-compositions are as powerful as the music of our London performers this weekend:

    (Pictured: American poet and novelist, Joseph Fasano.)

    “How does Authoritarianism happen? It starts slowly, in slogans and small acts. It starts in the eroding of decency and empathy.

     It starts with a “Leader” undermining faith in any “Truth,” the deliberate disorientation of the citizen’s mind.

    And then? It stirs in the heart of the common man, whose world has become too complex for him. He looks around and finds a world that is frightful, complicated, new. He sees his falling bank account. He loses his job. New media bombards him with changes he cannot understand. He despairs. He is filled with an unnameable terror.

    When he can take the fear no longer, he abandons his reason. He hands his mind over to a Leader—a Fü*rer, a Chairman, a Figure He Never Had—who promises to simplify his thoughts, his feelings, his life; to tell him the one, concocted, state-sponsored Truth he wants to hear. And that Leader will do exactly that.

    Authoritarianism, therefore, thrives on the one-sided mind: the individual, and ultimately the group, that has become alienated from, or has repressed, a part of itself, usually in an attempt to avoid feeling what it is terrified to feel. The one-sided person seeks to control the ways in which others express themselves, and he does so for precisely this reason: he unconsciously envies those who can feel what he cannot feel.

    Authoritarianism always begins with a reductive philosophy that despises empathy, that views tenderness as a weakness, that seeks to police how others love. Dostoevsky once wrote that hell is nothing other than the state of being unable to love. Authoritarianism is nothing but the small mind’s fear of the myriad beauties of this world. Even as its rulers acquire material wealth, they wish to deprive the world of the spiritual riches they cannot have.

    Thus, as a movement, the ultimate unconscious wish of Authoritarianism is always destruction, self-destruction, s*icide. It longs for stillness, not growth; its nationalistic fervor is a not-so-hidden desire to be alienated, to sever its bonds with other nations and peoples. It ends as H*tler did in Berlin: alone, isolated, taking everyone with it into the dark.

    It is predicated, always, on a false nostalgia: a longing for an ideal, imagined past. Its slogans are vague enough to inflame the fantasies of the one-sided mind be great again, blame others, your life is hard because of Someone Else. Most catastrophically, then, the one-sided mind projects its repressed half (its shadow or its tenderness, its darkness or its heart) into this Other, and seeks to oppress it, then ultimately to destroy it. Genocide, tyranny, oppression: these are acts of the fractured, one-sided mind, afraid of encountering and experiencing the other side, the other opinion, the Great Other, in whose presence it would be challenged to face the whole of what it means to be human.

    Art, mystery, poetry, education: these things reconnect us to our wholeness, to the varied voices within us. When we act from that grace, that state of openness, of listening, of synthesis and integration, we practice the lost arts, the arts that all power structures inherently desire to devalue and repress empathy, compassion, creativity, love.

    Where is the wise way between societal extremes? Where is the movement that supports the worker, the common citizen, without stoking his deepest fears and using them to divide society and conquer it? Where is the form of government that wishes for its citizen to be whole?

    A fractured, one-sided mind is a mind that can be controlled, sold reductive narratives, induced to want and to purchase any artificial fulfillment. A whole mind, even a mind that strives for impossible wholeness, is free. And that is why real, radical wholeness is a threat to the status quo, to tyranny, to propaganda.

    As is art. As is grace. As is empathy. And that is why love, radical love, common love, even in the darkness between two bodies, is a revolution that can bring kings to their knees.”

    — Joseph Fasano

    IF YOU GO:

    What: London Symphonia presents Love and Romance with Denise Pelley.

    When: Saturday, February 14, at 7:30pm.

    Where: Metropolitan United Church, 468 Wellington Street, London, ON.

    Tickets: Online at https://ci.ovationtix.com/36746/production/1248187?performanceId=11679476

    For more information about this concert and London Symphonia, visit https://www.londonsymphonia.ca/

    Follow London Symphonia on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/londonsymphonia and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/london_symphonia/

    Here’s a recent Facebook post about the concert by conductor Scott Good, shared with his permission:

    “Dear friends,

    On February 14 at 7:30 PM at Metropolitan United (London, ON), I’ll be joined by my colleagues at London Symphonia, R&B/Jazz vocalist Denise Pelley, and poet/actor Roy Lewis to present Love and Romance.

    Yes — it’s Valentine’s Day, and we are going deep!

    The seed for this concert was planted almost two years ago when I noticed Valentine’s Day landing on a Saturday evening. As a concert designer, I love an occasion — a focal point that shapes an evening’s arc. Valentine’s Day is ideal: music across all styles is saturated with romantic passion, longing, joy, and vulnerability. It’s an excuse for genres to mix and make sense together, and for audiences to encounter both the familiar and the unexpected. I like to think of occasion concerts as community-oriented — something many can enjoy.

    I knew early on the program had to include Mahler’s Adagietto from his Fifth Symphony. I remember the first time I heard it; I’ve never known a piece of music to evoke the sensation of a loving, gentle touch quite like it. Later, I learned it was written as a love letter to his wife. It had to be here.

    Around that time, I had recently worked with Denise at the Forest City London Music Awards, where we presented Stevie Wonder’s You and I. It went beautifully. Denise brings such generosity and depth to performance, and the song – with its tender, yet vulnerable lyric – aligns perfectly with this theme. The following year we returned with You Don’t Know Me, this time with horns, strings, and rhythm section. That collaboration allowed me to shape the orchestration around her expressive vocal language, and it became clear we had the beginnings of something larger.

    Roy’s role in guiding the evening through poetry and poetic prose became unexpectedly profound. After a remarkable performance with Symphonia last year, he joined us with poems written specifically for Valentine’s Day — fourteen of them. As I read through his work, I realized something deeper was at play: these poems weren’t only about love found, but love lost. With great love comes great grief, and the concert gradually reshaped itself around that truth.

    Nine of Roy’s poems ultimately frame the program, each leading into a song or instrumental work — the pain of Cupid’s arrows illustrated by Ellington’s Good Morning Heartache, a thrilling glance explored in Bacharach’s The Look of Love, the electricity of being with the one you adore caressed by Carmichael’s The Nearness of You. Instrumental moments include Ravel’s sensuously flirty “Pantomime” from Daphnis et Chloé, featuring Laura Chambers on flute, and the king of romance, Barry White’s orchestral hit Love’s Theme.

    As the concert turns toward loss and reflection, we arrive at Autumn Leaves, performed without rhythm section, just orchestra and voice – followed by an up-tempo moment of melancholy in an orchestral rendering of Radiohead’s Weird Fishes I created for the concert, a song that aptly describes, through driving rhythm, evocative chords, and a spacious yet unrelenting melody, a feeling of loss and the difficulty of moving on.

    We close with Here’s to Life, in the Shirley Horn arrangement — a true bucket-list piece for Denise, and the perfect sentiment to end the evening:

    “May all your storms be weathered.

    And all that’s good gets better.

    Here’s to life, here’s to love, here’s to you.”

    With solos from Nevin Campbell, Joe Phillips, Rob Stone, and Shawn Spicer, and an orchestra navigating classical lyricism, jazz harmony, and blues grit, + original arrangements alongside renditions made classic by Ella Fitzgerald, Dianna Krall, and Matt Monro, this promises to be a rich, emotionally charged night of music. Join us if you can!”

    Previewed by Daina Janitis

    Bows Up, Canada! When have you been called upon to protect Canadian unity? And when have you been able to do it by attending a concert?

    by Richard Young

    Previewed by Daina Janitis

    On the eve of the 1980 referendum, (PET) Pierre Eliott Trudeau (not PP, that’s for sure) reminded Canadians that they were facing a tipping point:  “We must now establish the basic principles, the basic values and beliefs which hold us together as Canadians so that beyond our regional loyalties there is a way of life and a system of values which make us proud of the country that has given us such freedom and such immeasurable joy.”

    A quarter-century later, it’s not Quebec making secession noises- it’s Alberta. But if you seize the opportunity to be in the presence of some Alberta talent – certain to bring you immeasurable joy – maybe you can be part of some Canadian culture that keeps Canada together for another twenty-five years.

    The Jeffery Concerts on Sunday, February 8, at the Wolf Performance Hall, at a comfortable 3:00 in the afternoon, features two icons of Canadian music – the young violinist Jacques Forestier and seasoned pianist Arthur Rowe. The CBC has already included Jacques in its “Top 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30” – and Arthur is …uh …slightly older and already loved by London audiences.

    So, who is this Forestier chap? I was about to credit his musical vibe to Montreal – but he’s an Alberta kid, born in Edmonton in 2004 and already starting to learn the violin at age TWO. By the age of 11, he made his debut with the Edmonton Symphony at the Winspear Centre – and remains one of their favourite soloists. I’ll place-name-drop a bit:  He’s been at the Curtis Institute on full scholarship since 2022, picked up some pointers at the Mount Royal Conservatory, and been a student-artist at Juilliard.

    (Pictured: Jacques Forestier with violinist Itzhak Perlman.)

    His parents’ home in Edmonton must be bursting with prizes ~

    • From the “Olympics” of violinists, the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International in Geneva (the only Canadian to qualify)
    • A multitude of medals from major competitions in Canada
    • Winner of the Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Germany

    And Arthur? He’s my age.

    Just kidding. He’s also a world-class talent, Professor and Inspiration Manager at The University of Victoria. But BC is not seceding, so you can be nice to him after the concert- no need to go overboard.

    (Pictured: Pianist Arthur Rowe.)

    And if you’re new to this classical music thing – and you don’t want to appear like a thickie-thickie dumb-dumb in front of the mates on either side of you – here are a few elitist phrases you can share about the program.

    When the Dvorak Sonata in G Major begins, you can ask, “That sounds familiar. Didn’t that performance win Jacques the Joachim competition?” or “I can hear the influence of Dvorak’s American sojourn, can’t you?” Or, “It’s all I can do to keep from humming along with those Bohemian folk melodies.” Don’t forget to mention it’s “intimate and dazzling – I’m going to hold my breath for all 18 minutes of it”

    As for the Brahms Sonata in A Major, try this: “Isn’t it amazing- that young man received the Joachim prize – and Brahms actually wrote this sonata for his FRIEND, Joseph Joachim.” (Chuckle warmly at this point). Or involve your seatmate with “I can hardly wait for the Allegro Grazioso of the finale- those Hungarian dance rhythms make me want to kick my red leather boots while holding a perfect squat.”

    If you’re not confident in the Strauss Sonata in E-flat Major, you can express relief that Strauss was in his post-Wagnerian phase. You can say, “This is going to be a thrilling capstone for this recital” and poke him or her in the ribs when you hear the “stormy passion” of the Allegro molto appassionato. Or you can just sigh deeply when the final Allegro begins, recognizing aloud the “dazzling runs and double-stops.” Don’t ask me what double-stops are. Google it.

    Each of the sonatas Jacques and Arthur are performing is considered a gem of late nineteenth-century Romanticism. Perhaps you can only play them brilliantly when you are young and brilliant.

    Don’t miss this opportunity to bear witness to the early career of a Canadian phenomenon. And tell him after the concert that you don’t want a Canada without Jacques Forestier – and Alberta- in it.

    IF YOU GO:

    What: The Jeffery Concerts presents violinist Jacques Forestier and pianist Arthur Rowe.

    When: Sunday, February 8, 3:00pm.

    Where: Wolf Performance Hall, 251 Dundas Street, London, ON.

    Tickets: Online: https://www.grandtheatre.com/event/jacques-forestier-and-arthur-rowe

    By phone: 519-672-8800

    In person: 471 Richmond Street, London, ON

    At the Door: Credit Card, Debit Card, or Cash.

    For more information, visit https://www.jefferyconcerts.com/season2526/index.html

    Previewed by Daina Janitis

    Daina Janitis previews Lara St. John: The Ancient Flame

    by Richard Young

    by Daina Janitis

    “Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music.” – Jimi Hendrix

    The concert I want to tell you about won’t involve rock, open rebellion, or active protest. It involves Lara St. John, a brilliant violinist, a Londoner, a personality who fills a concert hall, and a champion of honesty whose very presence is a gift to London this Saturday evening at Metropolitan United Church.

    Sometimes we just NEED great music.

    “Your brain responds to music like it’s a survival tool. When music plays, almost the entire brain ignites. The motor cortex drives your body to the beat. The hippocampus ties melodies to memories. The amygdala unleashes waves of feeling. And in the orbitofrontal cortex—the brain’s reward and decision hub—the same circuitry that flares in OCD lights up with music’s cycles of tension and release.” (Attributed to Harvard Medicine: The Magazine of the Harvard Medical School.)

    Listen to Lara and Matt Herskowitz in this video from her Shiksa album. It’s not on Saturday night’s program- but her passion for truth and music will be.

    Meanwhile, what has the London kid who picked up a violin and joined her older brother Scott in playing done with all of that talent?

    As for most musicians’ bios, you’ll need an atlas and incredible patience to follow the list:

    • She debuted with an orchestra at age 4 – and with Lisbon’s Gulbenkian when she was 10.
    • AT 12, she toured Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Hungary
    • She’s studied at Curtis, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Guildhall, Mannes College, and the New England Conservatory
    • She has been a soloist with the major orchestras of every continent.
    • She created her own label – Ancalagon – in 1999
    • She received the Order of Canada in 2021 – for “service to society and innovations that ‘ignite our imaginations’.”

    It was Sting who said, “The truth is like a sword. You have to hold it with an open hand.”

    And Lara St. John’s devotion to truth has been as inspiring as her music. In 2019, she told a Philadelphia newspaper that she had been abused and raped as a student at Curtis Institute of Music in 1985. That distinguished school had covered up the crime when she reported it. She is currently finishing a documentary film about the abuse of young music students. Read about the documentary here: https://theviolinchannel.com/lara-st-john-to-release-documentary-about-sexual-abuse-in-classical-music-industry/

    Her hope for the documentary, Dear Lara, is not a selfish one: “They need to admit to wrongdoing and take every possible precaution to never let these things happen again. Predator Whack-A-Mole (my term for allowing depraved men to quietly resign, enabling them to simply take their behavior elsewhere) must stop. It’s unconscionable, and it’s everywhere,” Lara appealed.

    Saturday’s Program:

    Lara’s chosen concerto to perform with London Symphonia is Avner Dorman’s Concerto No.2, which premiered in 2018 when it won the Azrieli Prize. The composer tells an intriguing tale about the piece. The 92nd Street Y (and Gil Shaham) approached him to write a piece for their Jewish Melodies program. He admits his research surprised him in finding common modes and melodies in Jewish music from various parts of the world. One of these, he said, is the Nigun – a melody that can be sung in Yiddish and understood by an Arabic speaker: “The Nigun has no beginning and no end and is eternal.”

    Lara discusses Avner Dorman’s Violin Concerto No. 2, “Nigunim,” with Andrew Chung, Artistic Producer, London Symphonia, in this Behind The Music video clip: https://youtu.be/t6FuSbI_5fw

    On Saturday night, London Symphonia will also perform Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Suite and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring.

    It’s January – the month of miserable weather, broken resolutions, and depressing realizations. This year, the news from our neighboring country shatters our trust and brings even more dismay into our lives. And January 27th is the annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Each year, Canadians and individuals all over the world take this opportunity to remember the victims of the Holocaust and to reflect on the dangers of anti-Semitism.

    Sometimes, just being in the presence of truth-tellers and creators of incredible beauty can remind us of our power to change the world. Lara St. John and London Symphonia will be at Metropolitan United on Saturday night to keep us from forgetting.

    IF YOU GO:

    What: London Symphonia presents Lara St. John: The Ancient Flame.

    When: Saturday, January 17, at 7:30pm.

    Where: Metropolitan United Church, 468 Wellington Street, London, ON.

    Tickets: https://www.londonsymphonia.ca/event/lara-st-john-ancient-flame

    To learn more about Lara St. John, visit https://www.larastjohn.com/

    Follow Lara on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AncalagonRecords and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/stjohnlara/

    To learn more about London Symphonia, visit https://www.londonsymphonia.ca/

    Previewed by Daina Janitis

    Magisterra Soloists: Ten Years of Excellence Enriching London’s Cultural Mosaic

    by Richard Young

    Previewed by Daina Janitis

    Magisterra Soloists are honoured to begin 2026 with their annual Holocaust remembrance concert, dedicated to commemorating the victims of the Holocaust and honouring the survivors on Sunday, January 11, at Museum London.

    —

    Nine years ago, I picked up the phone. When the call comes from a former student (and former member of the London Youth Symphony), I’m curious to see where innate talent and hard work have taken a person like this. It was a request: “Daina, my Western professor is starting up something unique. She’s brilliant, and the idea is great. Can you help?”

    An irresistible request. Through months of meetings with Annette-Barbara Vogel and some of the most brilliant young people in London, Magisterra Soloists International acquired the documentation to become a non-profit charitable organization, with the mission of playing a significant role in invigorating and enriching the local artistic experience.

    And what has happened in the last ten years?

    • Magisterra at the Museum: An annual series of accessible, educational chamber music experiences that strengthen community ties in London.
    • Sensory Concerts: Inclusive shows for those with sensory sensitivities, led by emerging Magisterra Fellows to promote disability awareness in the arts.​
    • Magisterra in Schools: Outreach reaching thousands of youth, especially in underprivileged and rural areas, with live classical music exposure.​
    • Fellows Mentorship: Trains nearly two dozen young artists in performance and operations for professional careers.​
    • Young Performer’s Award: Annual auditions for local string players, offering stipends and solo spots at events like the Christmas Baroque concert.​

    What makes a Magisterra chamber concert unique? I’d have to credit that to Annette-Barbara Vogel’s amazing vision and circle of friends in the varied professions of music. Each program is assembled from a trove of world literature, and the performers are assembled for intense days of rehearsal before the concert. The result is a freshness, energy, and connectedness that is breathtaking. 

    (Pictured: Artistic Director, Annette-Barbara Vogel)

    This year’s program for the annual Holocaust Remembrance Concert brings together some chamber musicians you will long remember.

    Joining Magisterra’s Artistic Director Annette-Barbar Vogel will be:

    Brett Kingsbury: Dr. Kingsbury is a Canadian classical pianist and educator known for his work as a soloist, chamber musician, and professor.​ He serves as pianist for the Madawaska Chamber Ensemble and holds the position of assistant professor at Western University’s Don Wright Faculty of Music, teaching studio piano, Performance Research, and Piano Literature

    Vera Sherwood: Vera is a Russian-Canadian violinist and educator active in the classical music scene, particularly in Ontario.​ She began her violin studies at the Perm Music School in Russia, continued at Moscow Gnessin High College, and completed her education at the M. Glinka Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory. Her work includes recitals and concerts in Canada, reflecting her transition from Russian training to a prominent role in North American classical music circles.

    Jutta Puchhammer: Let me try to condense her bio! Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot is a Viennese-born violist renowned for her exceptional performances and dedication to the viola repertoire, now residing in Canada.​ She has served as a full professor of viola and chamber music at the Université de Montréal since 2002, with prior teaching at institutions like Juilliard, Curtis Institute, and international festivals including Orford Music and Sarasota. Puchhammer-Sédillot has also led masterclasses worldwide and held leadership roles such as president of the Canadian Viola Society (2006-2014) and the International Viola Society since 2020.​She earned the International Viola Society’s Silver Alto Clef Award (2019), the highest honor from IVS, where she has served as president since 2020, plus the Maurice Riley Prize (2006) and Canadian Life Achievement Award (2022).

    Miriam Stewart-Kroeker: The versatile Canadian cellist from Hamilton, Ontario, is known for her work with regional orchestras and chamber ensembles.​  A graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University (Honours BMus in Cello Performance and Chamber Music Diploma) and McGill University (MMus with Matt Haimovitz), she studied under Paul Pulford and the Penderecki String Quartet. Founding cellist of the Andromeda Piano Trio and Kestrel String Quartet, she performs regularly in prominent Southern Ontario series, including Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society, Guelph Connections, and Toronto Chamber Players. Her Banff Centre residencies, chamber awards, and innovative events like “Yoga with Cello in the Park” highlight her engaging, community-focused artistry that resonates locally.​

    THE PROGRAM:

    • Blues for piano by Simon Laks

    Simon Laks (1901–1983), known for surviving Auschwitz as conductor of the prisoners’ orchestra, composed this likely in the interwar period amid his Parisian output of chamber works and songs. The “Blues” evokes a moody, syncopated idiom fitting his blend of Polish lyricism and French elegance.

    • Sinfonia Concertante op.68 by Walter Braunfels

    The piece spotlights virtuosic interplay among the soloists against a string backdrop, evoking a “curmudgeon grotesquery” alongside hearty peasant vigor and high emotional torque. Its edginess and folk-lyric passages reflect Braunfels’ influences from Berlioz, Mahler, and Schoenberg, while rooted in his conservative tonal world.

    • Quintet No. 1 by Ernest Bloch

    The opening Agitato surges with a gruff motto theme amid whirling rhythms and anxious microtonal shadings, cycling Brahmsian motifs into thorny, powerful exchanges. A haunting Andante mistico offers lyrical respite with long-breathed lines, flowing into the Allegro energico finale’s rippling currents and consoling C-major close. Extended techniques like harmonics, sul ponticello, and col legno amplify its raw, visceral string writing.

    Every time I attend a Magisterra concert myself, I thank the fates for that phone call nine years ago.

    What Magisterra has developed in our relatively small “City of Music” is a testament to the incredible powers of music. I was going to quote Martin Luther about those powers, but Billy Joel fits the bill about Magisterra:  “I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by.”

    IF YOU GO:

    What: Magisterra Soloists present Silenced, Survived, Holocaust Remembered.

    When: Sunday, January 11, 2026, at 3:00 pm.

    Where: Museum London – 421 Ridout St. N

    Tickets: Purchase your tickets at the door or click the following link to buy them in advance: https://tr.ee/KN2HMuPE7C

    For more information about Magisterra Soloists, visit https://www.magisterra.com/index.php

    Follow on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MagisterraSoloists

    Follow on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/magisterrasoloists/

    Previewed by Daina Janitis