The Bloor-Annex Brass Ensemble will carry out a live performance title Asturias on February 11. It’s the third annual efficiency for the student-led ensemble, and it takes place on the Timothy Eaton Memorial Church as a part of the Musical Mosaic collection.
The Ensemble is made up largely of scholars and alumni of the College of Toronto School of Music and the Glenn Gould Faculty on the Royal Conservatory of Music, led by Creative Director and co-founder Ilan Mendel.
This system options a wide range of works from Sibelius to Albeniz and Bjork, and features a efficiency of Florence Worth’s Octet for Brasses and Piano with pianist Adella Li.
The Music
This system consists of works from the usual repertoire for brass, and new items organized for brass, and spans centuries from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. The ensemble will carry out music by Gabrielli, Whitacre, Bjork and Sibelius.
The piece that impressed the title of the live performance, Asturias, (additionally is aware of as Leyenda), by Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz was organized for brass ensemble by Steven Verhelst for Brass of the Royal Concertgbouw Orchestra within the Netherlands.
Florence Worth: Octet for Brasses and Piano
Worth wrote the piece in 1930, nevertheless it remained unperformed, and actually gathering mud, for many years earlier than its current rediscovery.
Florence Beatrice Worth was a pianist, organist, music train and composer. A local of Little Rock, Arkansas, she studied on the New England Conservatory of Music, and was subsequently energetic in her profession in Chicago from about 1927 proper up till her loss of life in 1953. She was the primary African-American whose composition was carried out by a significant orchestra, the Chicago Symphony.
She composed greater than 300 works, together with 4 symphonies, choral works and artwork songs, 4 concertos, chamber music, and items for solo devices. A few of that physique of labor, nevertheless, was misplaced to time. With out help, her items languished for many years.
However, that modified fairly not too long ago.
In 2009, an Illinois couple have been set to renovate an previous and deserted property they’d bought simply exterior St. Anne, a small city. The property was in very poor situation; there was a gap within the roof the place a tree had fallen inside, and the home had been vandalized.
Fortunately, nevertheless, a portion of the construction remained intact, and most significantly, dry. That’s the place the couple found a trove of handwritten music manuscripts and different paperwork.
On researching the property, they found it had as soon as belonged to Florence Worth as a summer season residence — and her title seems on the manuscripts. They contacted the librarians on the College of Arkansas, and the method of rediscovery started in earnest. Together with the Octet, the cache of works contained her fourth symphony, and two violin concertos.
Bloor-Annex Brass Ensemble: Conductor Ilan Mendel
Trombonist and conductor Ilan Mendel is a conductor and trombonist is a local of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He at present makes Toronto his residence.
Ilan is the Assistant Conductor of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (TSYO), and the co-founder and Creative Director of the Bloor-Annex Brass Ensemble. A former member of the TSYO, he carried out the ensemble in Shostakovich’s ‘Festive Overture’ at their ‘Titan’ fiftieth Anniversary live performance in Roy Thomson Corridor, which he repeated in Cleveland, OH on the Blossom Music Middle.
His expertise as a conductor consists of co-founding and main the Toronto Chamber Symphony, a student-led orchestra, as its Managing Creative Director, in addition to conducting the College of Toronto Modern Music Ensemble, College of Toronto Trombone Choir, and different ensembles.
As a trombonist, he as carried out with the Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory Orchestra on the Glenn Gould Faculty, the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, and others, and took part within the Brott Music Pageant (Nationwide Academy Orchestra of Canada), the Berlin Opera Academy, Domaine Overlook and MusicFest Canada.
After incomes a Bachelor of Music in Trombone Efficiency from the College of Toronto, Ilan is at present enrolled within the Artist Diploma Program on the Glenn Gould Faculty.
Pianist Adella Li
Adella Li is a local of Australia, at present finding out music a the Glenn Gould Faculty.
Adella is an skilled soloist and collaborative pianist, and has been performing throughout North America, Europe, and Australia for a decade. She made her nationwide debut as a soloist in Australia in 2022, performing Prokofiev’s third Piano Concerto with Penrith Symphony Orchestra, led by Dr Paul Terracini. As a chamber musician, she not too long ago created a string quintet association to accompany a efficiency of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in G at a efficiency in Mazzoleni Corridor.
She is in her third 12 months of examine on the Glenn Gould Faculty as a full scholarship scholar.
- Admission to the live performance is by donation, with a livestream hyperlink obtainable. Extra particulars and details about the February 11 live performance at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
