Celebrating Canada’s 150th Anniversary through Great Music Making and the Launch of Our First Commercial CD Recording, “A Canadian Panorama”
Welcome to the Scarborough Philharmonic’s 37th Concert Season, celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017 through great music making and the launch of our first commercial CD recording, A Canadian Panorama.
During the season, we will be giving six world premieres by five Canadian composers. For the opening concert of Let’s Dance, Bruno Degazio, our new composer-in-residence, will be presenting his Ontario Pictures, based on traditional folksongs. Sam Bisson, our principal cellist and personnel manager has composed an enjoyable waltz for the same concert. For the Canadian Family Holiday Concert, we will be presenting a variety of different types of music found in Canada, from classical and jazz (Kye Marshall’s new work) to Celtic and traditional. As well, Chris Meyer has composed an engaging holiday work for narrator and orchestra to engage the children in all of us. For my Fantasia on Canadian Christmas Carols, the SPO has cooperated with four other orchestras (Symphony New Brunswick, Niagara Symphony, Brantford Symphony, and the International Symphony of Saria/Port Huron) to give audiences the opportunity to hear a variety of traditional Canadian Christmas Carols. This medley will include the famous Huron carol as well as lesser known ones.
For A Canadian Panorama Concert, the SPO will include a special CD launch as part of the event. The SPO has been planning this project since 2013, and we are excited that all the hard work is paying off. A Canadian Panorama CD features world premiere recordings by seven Canadian composers (including myself) performed by members of the SPO. Our recording will be released on the Cambria Master Recordings label (www.cambriamus.com) and will be distributed worldwide by NAXOS. People will be able to buy the CD, download the music or listen through numerous streaming services. Based in the Los Angeles area, the owner of Cambria Master Recordings, Lance Bowling, writes, “A Canadian Panorama will represent Canadian music and music making very well in the United Stated and throughout the world. I believe this recording will find a large interested audience worldwide.” To make this project a reality, the SPO received funding from FACTOR* (The Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings, with support from Canada’s Private Radio Broadcasters). The SPO is thrilled that we can share our wonderful music making featuring Canadian music to listeners throughout Canada and beyond.
For the rest of the season, the SPO will present an opera excerpt concert in collaboration with the Toronto Choral Society, a concert featuring the music of Brahms and Rachmaninoff and a string concert featuring prominent Canadian cellist Shauna Rolston, a young talented violinist (Delores Bing) and the students of Sistema Toronto.
For the 2016-2017 season, all our soloists are Canadian, but most of our music will still be drawn from the great masterpieces of classical music, including Beethoven, Bizet, Borodin, Brahms, Debussy, Mozart, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Vivaldi and more!
Enjoy our inviting, friendly and relaxed atmosphere, the wonderful acoustics of the Salvation Army Scarborough Citadel, and the high-quality performances of our musicians. Please come and chat with our players and me during intermission, and feel good to be supporting Canadian music and culture. Your presence is important to the SPO.
Ronald Royer
Music Director
