Welcome to a reimagined 2020/21 season! The pandemic has taught us to expect the unexpected, so while we hope to offer more concerts to smaller audience groups in airy surroundings, we know that plans may change with little notice. If … Continued
Motherhood, music, and the pandemic Balancing motherhood and a full-time music career can be challenging enough under normal circumstances. In the midst of a pandemic, the task seems Herculean. “To be perfectly, honest I haven’t touched my violin very often!”, … Continued
“Well, you can’t really hear Rachel at all,” MCO Rachel Kristenson violinist recalls people saying after her rehearsal of Vivian Fung’s Double Violin Concerto at Festival de Lanaudière in 2019. (She and Karl Stobbe were performing the concerto’s solos, alongside … Continued
Canadian-Armenian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian is turning into something of a scholarly sleuth. One hears stories of people digging through dusty archives and rediscovering lost or nearly forgotten musical masterpieces, and this image comes to mind when I hear about her … Continued
When the Czech composer Antonin Dvořák began speaking publicly on the state and future of American music he was something of an outsider wandering naively into fierce debates among America’s cultural elite. Dvořák, who’d recently moved to America, argued that … Continued
Recitatives: the nerve-wracking part of operas no one talks about (Cellist Guy Fishman and Anne Manson discuss) Even those whose classical music education is limited to Bugs Bunny and Saturday morning cartoons can probably name or hum at least a few … Continued
Why was JS Bach’s son CPE once more famous than his father? Cellist Guy Fishman discusses. W.A. Mozart once referred to Bach as “the father of us all.” The rub is that he wasn’t referring to JS but rather son CPE, … Continued
What could musicians do in Bach’s era that we can’t? Aisslinn Nosky discusses with Anne Manson Concert musicians enjoy advances in kinesiology, materials science, and other technologies in the same way athletes do. Violin strings, as with athletic shoe-laces, are … Continued
The oboe as snake charmer: Caitlin Broms-Jacobs in conversation with Kevin Lau and Anne Manson From Bugs Bunny to the Nutcracker—why are snake charmers so often depicted as playing an oboe? Last week, MCO oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs spoke with MCO … Continued
Jurassic Park, cluster chords, and Writ in Water: Kevin Lau in conversation with Anne Manson In March 2019, the MCO premiered Canadian Kevin Lau’s gorgeous Writ in Water. We were so looking forward to reprising this work at our April … Continued