Aradia performs 'Cappricio Stravagante' in Old Ottawa South

Toronto Baroque Ensemble performs inaugural concert in Old Ottawa South concert series.

The newly-refurbished Ottawa South Firehall Community Centre is about to become the venue to a new concert series in town. Beginning this Saturday, the 25th, Sirens of Firehall will have three concerts this season, each a month apart. 

Toronto's Aradia Baroque Ensemble, directed by Kevin Mallon, will kick off the series with a program entitled Cappriccio Stavagante. The program will include the title work by Farina, as well as works by Strozzi, Vivaldi, Castello, and, notably, two commissioned works for period instruments by Rose Bolton and Chris Meyer. 

Aradia, since its creation in 1996, has recorded 50 CDs under the Naxos label and performs regularly in Toronto. The period-instrument ensemble has toured both nationally and internationally and has a regular summer residency in Italy.

Mallon, also the new director of Ottawa's Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra, is "extremely interested in exploring the idea of Aradia having a series in Ottawa," and this concert looks to give him a good feel for things to come. Mallon says he's pleased with "having a relationship with a specific community like Old Ottawa South," as it would help develop a following for Aradia within the city. 

Full details on the concert can be read here.

8pm, Saturday, February 25th, 2012, Ottawa South Firehall Community Centre, 260 Sunnyside Ave.

Tickets for this OSCA event ($25/15s&s) are available at the Firehall, www.oldottawasouth.ca, & at The Leading Note, 370 Elgin.

Bourbon Baroque Drinking the Kool-Aid?

Louisville Baroque ensemble to perform one act Entrée in collaboration with local puppet troupe.

Louisville, Kentucky - a town whose has been holding its breath recently when it comes to its classical music scene can breath easy next weekend. Its first 18th century French opera experience in quite some time, Louisville will be in for quite a show.


If puppets and music excite you, read on.

Concert Review: "I think, I can" Says the Little Opera That Could, and Did

The Theatre of Early Music

Dido and Aeneas

Knox Presbyterian Church, 155 Lisgar St., Ottawa

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

What was an excellent performance at Knox Presbyterian yesterday evening; Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas nonetheless contained one or two quirks throughout, in the spirit of the work's already peculiar characteristics.

The lofty acoustic was both a blessing and a curse for the seven-strong orchestra, with finite articulations easily lost, but the ‘boom’ from the stone-walled sanctuary giving the illusion of a much larger ensemble. Fortunately for the TEM choir, who sang frequently in the Opera as well as three other selections by Purcell and Tallis, the hall could only make their clear, almost angelic, voices and, consequently, the spirits of their audience; soar even higher.

Baroque Week in Ottawa Feb 15-19

The Theatre of Early Music, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Ottawa Baroque Consort perform on Feb. 15th, 16th, and 19th.

If there are other crows out there squawking about Ottawa's non-existent early music scene, their beaks will be shut come the 15th of February. Between next Wednesday and Sunday, three concerts featuring great canadian early music ensembles will showcase the great variety of style and instrumentation to be found in baroque music.

Inside Out: People Power

In this first article in theheckeler.ca's "Inside Out" series, Marion Harrington, clarinetist, guest blogs.


People Power: The Reasons Why Marketing is an Ensemble’s Collective Responsibility - No Exceptions!

Should you care to trawl through history, you’ll find numerous examples of the importance of connection:

• English poet John Donne (1572-1631) wrote “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main”
• The Russian revolution in the early 20th century did not come about as the result of the actions of  an individual
• And since the invention of the Internet, no lasting change has ever been achieved by a single web site orbiting alone in cyber-space

Similarly, deciding to leave all public relations and marketing to one person, you may be a member of the the most talented classical music groups this side of the Orion Nebula but you’ll find that the ensemble’s opportunities and, ultimately, its success is going to be severely limited.