125th Anniversary Women’s Musical Club of Toronto May 4 Concert

Shirlene Courtis
24 Apr 2023, 12:31 (2 days ago)
to newsroom

Hello,
I am writing to advise you of an event being held on May 5 at Walter Hall, Faculty of Music, U of T.

About WMCT
In 1898 a group of women musicians and music lovers founded the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto. Members performed for each other in weekly morning recitals. By 1919 the club presented professional artists such as Ernest MacMillan and Harry Adaskin as well as varied ensembles. During the 1930s a special series of three concerts grossed $772.37 – the root of a scholarship fund which continues today supporting undergraduate scholarships, a graduate fellowship, and the national $25,000 Career Development Award. 125 years later it still enhances the cultural life of Toronto, sponsoring a recital series and providing performance opportunities and scholarships for young Canadian musicians. Over the years it changed from a “women only” club to an arts presenter welcoming everyone.

Concert Series
Music in the Afternoon, an annual series of five chamber music concerts, showcases both established and emerging artists. International stars Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Andres Segovia, and Leontyne Price made their Canadian debuts. James Ehnes, Russell Braun, Glenn Gould, and Maureen Forrester are among the illustrious Canadians who have been presented. The History of Concerts and Performers of the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto is a complete searchable record of performers and repertoire presented from 1898 to 2022.

Career Development Award and Commissions
Integral to the WMCT’s programming are the presentation of its Career Development Award winner every three years, and the Commission each season of a new chamber work by a Canadian composer for performance during that season’s Music in the Afternoon concert series.

We wish to invite a member of the newsroom to attend the concert and write a piece on the event with photos. The concert will run from 1.30 pm until 3.15 to be followed by a brief reception. Concert featuring Mark Fewer, violin

Chris Whitley, violin, and the Thalea Quartet *
Jeanie Chung, piano

If you are able to promote on line and ideally cover the event please contact me.

Best regards

Shirlene Courtis

Volunteer Committee

shirlenecourtis50@gmai.cm

416-9307234

https://www.wmct.on.ca/

A description for your information:

Our focus and concert series:
125 years is a significant anniversary – an anniversary worthy of significant celebration! Throughout those 125 years of Music in the Afternoon, the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto has demonstrated a continuous and substantial connection to our city, to Canadian and international artists, and to the global canon of musical creation. Our anniversary celebration highlights these connections in contemporary format and explores the continuity of our committed approach in integrated and immersive style. We continue our practice of inviting significant artists at various stages in their careers to perform. However, for the 125th, these artists “anchor” their concert and invite their mentors, or those they themselves mentor, to perform alongside them. Our performers establish our view of the present; through their mentors we explore their history, and through those they mentor, the future. The achievement of 125 years of musical history will be divided chronologically into 5 blocks of 25 years with each concert in our series featuring a representative work from one of these periods. GREETINGS from SIMON FRYER Xenia Concerts Presents in two family-friendly concerts that embrace neurodiversity and disability. Sunday May 7th Tickets: $5 xeniaconcerts.com Thalea String Quartet Meridian Hall 1 Front Street East Toronto, ON 11 AM Sensory-friendly concert 2 PM Dementia-friendly concert I am delighted to be writing about the WMCT’s 125th season, having begun my association with the Club by writing its centennial history, Counterpoint to a City (1997), then following that up with Counterpoint Continued (2008) to bring the story up to the 110th season. Counterpoint Three, covering the past 15 years, will be launched at the reception following this concert. For this special season, WMCT artistic director Simon Fryer has created an imaginative series that constitutes a reflection upon the past 125 years of the WMCT, of the city of Toronto, and of international music history. To accomplish all of this within just five concerts, he has divided that 125-year span into five 25-year blocks. As 25 years is the length of a generation, Simon had the additional creative idea of including, in each concert, musicians who are in a mentor/mentee relationship, thus reflecting the past, present and future of the invited guest artists, as well as of the WMCT itself. For each concert, an anchor work is drawn from one of the five 25-year blocks of time, which provides an opportunity to reflect upon that period in WMCT and world history. -Robin Elliott WMCT at 125 The context of this work in local and international events will be featured in the program and elaborated online by dedicated WMCT historian Robin Elliott. We close our epic anniversary season with a program featuring the immense talents and influence of favourite Canadian violinist Mark Fewer. Mark brings the Thalea String Quartet and pianist Jeanie Chung (winner of the WMCT’s Career Development Award in 1997) to perform the magnificent Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet by Chausson, alongside a companion work commissioned by Mark from Yellowknife composer Carmen Braden. Our gateway work is the extraordinary string quartet by Erwin Schulhoff and we may find some unusually theatrical content courtesy of Mark and his former student Chris Whitley (of the Thalea Quartet) who demonstrate their shared eclectic musical tastes and “genre bending” abilities in the violin duo Schattenwerk written for Mark by John Rea.

For more information please visit our website: https://www.wmct.on.ca/

Shirlene Courtis
24 Apr 2023, 12:31 (2 days ago)
to me