Harbourfront Centre - Toronto Music Garden 2008

Let's make beautiful music and dance this summer!

Presented in the gorgeous setting of the Toronto Music Garden, the annual Summer Music in the Garden series and tours are produced by Harbourfront Centre in partnership with City of Toronto Parks Forestry and Recreation, with the generous support of Toronto Culture, and Margaret and Jim Fleck.

Concerts are Thursdays at 7pm and Sundays at 4pm (weather-permitting) and are approximately one hour in length. Bench seating is available, but limited, so please feel free to bring a lawn chair. We also advise bringing a hat or umbrella and sunscreen as shade is limited. Please call our info desk at 416.973.4000 for the most up-to-date concert rain dates.

Summer Music in the Garden is curated for Harbourfront Centre by artistic director Tamara Bernstein.

CelloFest

Sunday 29 June | 4pm

In a Music Garden tradition, four of Toronto's finest (cellists, that is) perform music from Bach to Zappa. Ensemble director Paul Widner is joined by Peter Cosbey, Alastair Eng and Garrett Knecht.

Fanfares by the Lake

Thursday 3 July | 7pm

You may know them from Tafelmusik, but tonight they are "The Queen's (Quay) Trumpeters" — John Thiessen, Norman Engel and Andras Molnar, and baroque timpanist Edward Reifel. Performing on an array of period instruments, they take us on a glittering tour, from the renaissance courts of England to the great cathedrals of Venice and onwards to the present.

Dancing Drums of Korea

Sunday 6 July | 4pm

Samulnori Canada celebrates nature's rhythms with high-energy, traditional Korean drumming. With guests Han-Soo Jung (p'iri, or bamboo reed flute) and So-Sun Suh (hae-geum, or Korean fiddle.)

The Secret of the Good Life: The Chaconne's Dance to Fame

Thursday 10 July | 7pm

Violinist Geneviève Gilardeau, Lucas Harris (lute, theorbo, baroque guitar) and cellist Kate Bennett Haynes take us on a toe-tapping journey, on period instruments, through the evolution of the chaconne: from its origins as an illicit dance in sixteenth-century Mexico, through to its apotheosis as a virtuoso variation form in the High Baroque. Find out why Miguel de Cervantes claimed, "The secret of the good life is hidden in the dance of the chaconne."

Down by the Sally Gardens: Songs of Summer, Nature, Love and Loss

Sunday 13 July | 4pm

Visit a sidewalk café in Paris, climb a mountain with a Japanese Empress, fish for squid off the coast of Newfoundland! Soprano Meredith Hall and guitarist Bernard Farley present an eclectic and beguiling program of folk, classical and popular songs. With works by Rorem, Schubert, Ovalle, Burns, Nakada, Hirai, and Farley.

The Sunniest of All Keys

Thursday 17 July | 7pm

The Windermere String Quartet presents two takes on the key of C Major: Haydn's Quartet Op. 20 No. 2 (the "Sun" Quartets) and Mozart's Dissonance Quartet, K. 465. Performed on period instruments by Rona Goldensher and Geneviève Gilardeau (violins), Anthony Rapoport (viola), and Laura Jones (cello).

Strong Winds and Occasional Thunder

Sunday 20 July | 4pm

NOT a weather forecast! The superb brass and percussion sections of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada present a delightful, varied program that showcases Canada's outstanding young artists.

Percussion in a Suitcase

Thursday 24 July | 7pm

Find out what happens when a percussionist — the spectacular Aiyun Huang of Montreal — creates a program for which all the instruments fit into her suitcase. Music by Matthew Burtner, Alvin Lucier, Javier Alvarez, Roberto Sierra, Georges Aperghis and John Adam.

Blowing/Bowing in the Wind

Sunday 27 July | 4pm

Folia returns with a concert featuring two of the most unusual and beloved instruments of the 17^th century — the cornetto, which people once considered the instrument closest to the human voice, and the dulcian, ancestor of the bassoon. Kiri Tollaksen, North America's foremost cornettist, joins Toronto's own dulcian virtuoso, Dominic Teresi. Baroque violinist Linda Melsted and harpsichordist Borys Medicky complete the dream team for this program of glorious music from 17^th century Italy and Germany. Presented with the generous support of the Toronto Early Music Centre.

Radical Masters: Unconventional Works by Mozart, Bartok and Beethoven

Thursday 31 July | 7pm

The charismatic Kirby String Quartet performs works that pushed the boundaries of their day: Bartok's Quartet No. 3, Beethoven's Quartet Op.135, and selections from Mozart's sublime Quartet in E flat Major, K.428. Performed by Aisslinn Nosky and Julia Wedman (violins), Max Mandel (viola), and Carina Reeves (cello).

Persian Music for a Summer Night

Thursday 7 August | 7pm

Pirouz Yousefian and Farzad Yousefian return with more spellbinding traditional and original music on the santur — a Persian hammer dulcimer of ancient origin — and Middle-eastern percussion.

Orfea

Sunday 10 August | 4pm

In this touching adaptation for the whole family of the ancient Orfeo myth, a little girl shoulders her golden harp and journeys to the Underworld to bring her beloved grandfather back to life. Along the way we hear music from four hundred years of opera, including Monteverdi, Mozart and Offenbach. Written by baritone Lawrence Cotton and Greg Robic; performed by Cotton, soprano Brooke Dufton, Rachad Feizoullaev (keyboards), and Colin Maier (woodwinds).

Cecilia String Quartet

Thursday 14 August | 7pm

The globe-trotting Cecilias return to perform Schumann's passionate yet intimate Quartet No. 3, and give the world premiere of a quartet written for them by Liam Wade. Violinists Sarah Nematallah and Min-Jeong Koh, violist Caitlin Boyle and cellist Rebecca Wenham.

Five Gods, Two Kings and the Frog Princess

Sunday 17 August | 4pm

InDance, under artistic director Hari Krishnan, presents the world premiere of an exciting work for ten dancers and six musicians that fuses traditional and contemporary approaches to Bharatanatyam dance. Commissioned by Harbourfront Centre for the Toronto Music Garden.

Evening Ragas in the Garden

Thursday 21 August | 7pm

Aruna Narayan returns with her eloquent and virtuosic interpretations of North Indian ragas, performed on the 40-string sarangi. With Akshay Kalle, tanpur and Vineet Vyas, tabla.

A Tale of Two Lutes

Sunday 24 August | 4pm

Two musical cousins — the European lute and the Chinese pipa — meet and converse as the renowned baroque lutenist Lucas Harris and pipa virtuosa Wen Zhao bring their respective traditions together.

Mizu to Ki no Uta (Voices of Wood and Water)

Thursday 28 August | 7pm

Nagata Shachu taiko ensemble (formerly known as Kiyoshi Nagata Ensemble) drum in the change of season with exuberant music rooted in ancient spiritual practices and revitalized with the members' contemporary vision. With special guest, dancer-choreographer Keiko Kitano.

Bach at Dusk

Thursday 4 September | 7pm

Winona Zelenka performs the piece that inspired the Toronto Music Garden: Bach's Suite No. 1 in G Major for unaccompanied cello. Note: Half-hour concert due to early sunset.

Soul/Saule-Mates: Reflections under the willow tree

Thursday 11 September | 7pm

On a date that invites reflection, cellist Shauna Rolston performs Soulmate for solo cello, by Chan Ka Nin; composer Barbara Croall (traditional native flutes and hand drum) and trumpeter Anita McAlister perform the world premiere of Calling from Different Directions; and dancer-choreographer Keiko Kitano and musician Aki Takahashi present the world premiere of a piece inspired by Japanese tales of ghosts and willow trees (saule in French), commissioned by Harbourfront Centre for performance beneath the Music Garden's weeping willow. Note: Half-hour concert due to early sunset.

Your Eyes Have Their Silence

Sunday 14 September | 4pm

The acclaimed Rosetta String Trio — Abigail Karr (violin), Sarah Darling(viola), and Kate Bennett Haynes (cello) — brings our season to a close with Schubert and Mozart, music from the Renaissance, and Your Eyes Have Their Silence, a piece written for them by contemporary U.S. composer Christopher Hossfeld.