2018-2019 Season is Announced
We are very excited to launch our 2018-2019 season, with several brand new additions to the program as well as the usual favourites. Over 600 performances by members of Schulich’s vibrant musical community are on offer, presentations by our world-class researchers as well as visiting guests, masterclasses by international guest artists, a new concert series, and a new composition competition to add to our long-established list of student competitions.
In with the New:
One of the new series for 2018-2019 is Intermezzo, a collection of free concerts designed to be enjoyed during a lunch break. These feature our students and faculty performing interesting repertoire in a range of instrumentations. The first concert is on October 30th, with violinist Amy Hillis and pianist Katherine Dowling.
Another exciting special event for this season is Piano Homecoming, which will celebrate alumni of Schulich's Piano Area as part of McGill Homecoming weekend this October. During the three days, a variety of concerts, panel discussions, and masterclasses will feature a line-up of visiting artists as well as current students.
New to the list of annual competitions on offer at Schulich is the Graham Sommer Competition for Young Composers. In September, five finalists will premiere their new works for piano quintet live in concert with the Molinari Quartet and pianist Sara Laimon, with prizes for the competition totalling $45,000. This concert and prize gala is free admission, and presented as part of Les Journées de la culture.
Season Highlights in All Areas:
As well as these exciting new additions to Schulich, we of course also have the regular offerings of high-quality concerts and events.
The McGill Symphony Orchestra returns with an varied program, including a centennial tribute to Leonard Bernstein who would have turned 100 this year, and Debussy who died 100 years ago this year. They also perform in Kingston for the first time, and feature both faculty and student concerto soloists. The fifth symphonies of both Beethoven and Mahler are both presented during the Winter semester.
Opera McGill offers an array of comedy this season, with Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring presented as part of the Lisl Wirth Black Box Festival, and Mozart's ever-popular The Magic Flute staged at Monument-National. Francesca Caccini's La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina - the earliest surviving opera written by a woman - will be staged with the McGill Baroque Orchestra accompanying.
The jazz area is thrilled to welcome Juno Award-winning saxophonist and composer Christine Jensen as the new Artistic Director of McGill Jazz Orchestra I – their first concert of the season will feature her compositions. Later in the year many esteemed faculty members will join with the ensemble in performance, including Joe Sullivan, Kevin Dean, Rémi Bolduc, Jean-Michel Pilc, John Hollenbeck and André White.
Choral music is alive and well at Schulich, with the McGill Concert Choir joining forces with the Vanier College Choir for an homage to Rossini on the 150th anniversary of his death; and the Schulich Singers performing with I Musici de Montréal for The Spirit of a Woman at Maison Symphonique. Schulich Singers and the McGill Concert Choir will perform Arthur Honegger's Le Roi David in the final concert of the year.
Audiences can expand their horizons with the dynamic performances on offer from McGill’s Contemporary Music Ensemble. Works by faculty, resident student composers, and music from both the 20th and 21st centuries are explored in rare live performances. Schulich’s Digital Composition Studio also collaborate in concert, and this ensemble is also involved in the International Conference on Mixed Music Pedagogy in November, which will bring many international guests to our campus.
Research Alive is a series that continues to highlight for our audiences the many wonderful connections between performance and research. This year Prof. Martha de Francisco, renowned music producer, will give a presentation about the intricacies of recording for piano, complete with piano soloist. Lena Heng, winner of last year's Research Alive student prize, will perform and discuss how to find meaning in the gestures and timbres in Chinese music; and Prof. John Rea will present Secrets, lies, and memory sticks in the art of composition.
We are thrilled to be continuing our many fantastic partnerships at both the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur and the McCord Museum here in Montreal, and the COC's Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in Toronto. These venues will all be showcasing the next generation of both classical and jazz musicians; as well as a selection of concerts being part of Les Journées de la culture.
More to Explore:
These season highlights are only a fraction of what is on offer during 2018-2019. Be sure to visit our online events calendar for a complete list. If you can't attend an event in person, we have a long list of webcast concerts happening throughout the year, so that you can enjoy what the Schulich School of Music has to offer regardless of where you may live in the world. If you're on social media, please join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our YouTube channel to enjoy behind-the-scenes content and never miss any of our news.
