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The Music Garden Concerts
July 1 - Sept. 16
Concerts take place Thursdays at 7:00 PM, and Sundays at 4:00 PM (weather permitting). Toronto Music Garden, 475 Queens Quay W. | Admission: FREE For directions to The Music Garden,
please click here Free tours of the Toronto Music Garden, led by volunteers from the Toronto Botanical Garden, commence June 2 and take place Wednesdays at 11:00 AM through September
29, and on Thursdays before every concert at 5:30 PM from June 30 through September 18. Visitors to the garden can also enjoy an audio tour, with commentary from the Toronto Music Garden's designers Yo-Yo Ma and
Julie Moir Messervy. Hand-held audio players are available for $6 at Harbourfront Centre's Marina Quay West office, 539 Queens Quay West.
Sunday, July 1, 4pm Orfea and the Golden Harp
A
delightful retelling of the Orpheus myth for the whole family, from Theatre Cotton Robes. A little girl named Orfea shoulders her golden harp and journeys to the Underworld to bring her beloved grandfather back to life.
Thursday, July 5, 7 pm
Fiddlers and Firebrands: Music from Old Ontario
To mark the bicentenary of the War of 1812, Canadian music legends Muddy York and friends
regale us with songs and dance tunes from early Ontario. Through newly-arranged songs and dance tunes from 19th-century Ontario, they will take us from the War of 1812 through the Upper Canada Rebellion of
1837, and musically tell the story of a new country finding its own identity. Thursday, July 12, 7pm Wassho!
Toronto's thrilling taiko drumming troupe, Nagata Shachu,
celebrates summer at their annual appearance at the Music Garden. Nagata Shachutaiko ensemble brings this joyous energy to the Music Garden with their thrilling drumming, rooted in tradition and embracing the new.
Sunday, July 15, 4 pm From the Gardens of India
Bageshree Vaze (voice) and Vineet Vyas (tabla) present North Indian classical ragas, drawing on traditional
Indian rustic themes and stories, including the great love story of Krishna and Radha in the garden of Vrindavan. Thursday, July 19, 7pm
Jayme Stone's Room of Wonder
Two-time
Juno-winning banjoist, Jayme Stone, makes music inspired by traditions from around the world, bridging folk, jazz, chamber and world music. Performed by Jayme Stone (banjo), Kevin Turcotte (horns), Andrew Downing
(cello) and Joe Phillips (bass). Sunday, July 22, 4pm
Hitting the Waves: Electronic Percussion by the Lake
Rick Sacks mixes sounds of nature, industry and percussion to fill time and space with
delightful, intriguing music, including his theatrical "Le Bateau" invoking sounds and sights of the waterfront.
Thursday, July 26, 7pm Music from the Natural World
Erosonic brings virtuosity touched with mysticism to an evening of music inspired by the natural world. Music from the Natural World with David Mott (baritone saxophone) and
Joseph Petric (accordion), which includes the world premiere of But, Even so… Sunday, July 29, 4 pm Wild Reeds
Clarinetist Kornel Wolak and accordionist Joseph Macerollo team
up for an entertaining, sometimes dramatic, musical reunion of these two distant relatives of the reed family, with music ranging from Rossini to Benny Goodman, and including the world premiere of Quay Quodibet
, by Norbert Palej. Thursday, August 2, 7pm
From L'Acadie to the Land of Faerie
Drawing from Celtic and French-Canadian roots, From L'Acadie to the Land of Faerie creates
vignettes of New England mill towns' Irish and French communities at the height of the industrial revolution through earthy dance tunes and haunting airs. With fiddler Donna Hébert, guitarist Max Cohen, and vocalist
Molly Hebert-Wilson. Thursday August 9, 7pm
Arcadian Visions
Montreal violist Pemi Paull performs visionary music from the 17th
century to today, by Heinrich Biber, Michael Oesterle, Katia Tiutiunnik, Georges Enescu, and Gustav Mahler. Sunday, August 12, 4pm Among Friends
The award-winning Cecilia String Quartet
performs music by the young Beethoven, and teams up with clarinetist Peter Stoll to perform Mozart's sublime Clarinet Quintet, and three Preludes by George Gershwin. Thursday, August 16, 7pm Voice of the Heart
The Castle Quartet follow some of their favourite composers in their search to find their own unique creative voices, including Arnold Schoenberg's lushly romantic Quartet in D;
the "Rosamunde" variations from Schubert's Quartet in A Minor, and music by Michael Oesterle and Carina Reeves. Sunday, August 19, 4pm
Nymphs, Masques and Madness
The Montreal duo, Les Amusements de la Chambre perform glorious music from 17th-century Italy and England, interspersed with new music inspired by Baroque forms by Canadian composers, including
the world premiere of a work by Toronto composer Linda C. Smith, commissioned by Canada Council and Harbourfront Centre. Thursday, August 23 at 7pm
Songs for Cello
Rufus Cappadocia performs his
transcendent, world-influenced music on his five-string cello. A Hamilton, Ontario native, Cappadocia is a performer, composer and recording artist of incredible range and diversity. Sunday, August 26, 4pm Songs from an Ancient Garden
Classical Persian music performed by the Shiraz Ensemble, with percussion virtuoso Pedram Khavarzamini. Inspired in particular by performing traditions from the era of the Qajar
dynasty (1785-1925), their concert includes both composed tunes and improvised music. Thursday, August 30, 7pm Klezmer en Buenos Aires
From Argentina, Marcello Moguilevsky and Cesar Lerner bring their electrifying klezmer improvisations, embracing elements of Argentine folk music, jazz, contemporary music and even tango. Co-presented with the
2012 Ashkenaz Festival. Thursday, September 6, 7pm
Bach at Dusk
Baroque cellist Kate Haynes continues her cycle of J.S. Bach's suites for solo cello with the soulful, dark-hued Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008. Sunday, September 9 at 4pm 49th Parallel
The Ton Beau String Quartet returns to the Toronto Music Garden with a lively programme exploring the nature of cultural identity in music by Haydn, Dvorak and Kevin Lau.
Sunday September 16, 4pm One Hundred Years of Venice
Glorious music from Baroque Venice, performed by Christopher Verrette (baroque violin), Kate Bennett Haynes (baroque cello) and Matthew Wadsworth (theorbo). _____________________________________ TORONTO MUSIC GARDEN BACKGROUND
The Toronto Music Garden is one of Toronto's most enchanting public park locations. The Garden was conceived by internationally renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and designed by Boston-based landscape artist Julie
Moir Messervy. Its design interprets Bach's Suite No. 1 in G Major for Unaccompanied Cello, with each movement of the suite corresponding in both name and spirit to a different section of the Music Garden: Prelude,
Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Menuett and Gigue. We know of no other public garden in the world that reflects a specific piece of music in this way.
The Toronto Music Garden opened in 1999; concerts have
been held there every summer since 2000. Since 2001, the concerts have been produced by Harbourfront Centre in partnership with City of Toronto, under the artistic direction of Tamara Bernstein. The Garden itself is
maintained by City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation.
The Toronto Music Garden, located on Queens Quay West at the foot of Spadina Avenue, is easy to reach by public transit. From Spadina
Station take the 510 (Union Station) streetcar south. From Union Station take the westbound Harbourfront LRT (509 or 510 streetcar). Call the Toronto Transit Commission at 416-393-4636 for transit information. |
