2022
MARKHAM CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVALS
Markham Contemporary Music Festival has been promoting, since 2011, the performance by local artists of music written worldwide in the 20th and the 21st centuries. An annual event, the Festival also includes lectures and seminars in both English and French, workshops, master-classes, pre-concert chats, intermission discussions, post-concert receptions, documentary films about the life of contemporary composers, and networking events. The Festival encourages local community engagement through activities that celebrate and preserve performing arts.
The 2022 Markham Contemporary Music Festival included the following events:
Concerts
CELEBRATION OF CULTURE AND HERITAGE
Saturday, June 4 and Sunday, June 5, 2022
10 am, 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, 4 pm, 5 pm and 6 pm
MCMF Rehearsal Hall
3a-50 Innovator Ave (2nd fl.), Stouffville ON L4A 0Y2
Over 100 local young artists perform musical pieces written by various composers worldwide.
METAMORPHOSIS
Friday, June 24, 2022 at 7 pm
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
10268 Yonge St, Richmond Hill
Inspired by the sixteenth century fresco by Raphael, Hindemith paints his own endearing musical picture depicting the myth of Amor and Psyché. Dedicated and first performed by his son on his nineteenth birthday, Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 2 is a joyful work filled with youthful vitality and the romance of the prior century brought to life by acclaimed pianist Sheng Cai. Written during the years after the Second World War, Prokofiev‘s Symphony No. 6 is a tragically ominous reflection of society and the composer’s own inner turmoil.
Open Rehearsals
Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 7 pm
SMSV Cultural Centre | 3300 Highway 7, MarkhamInternationally renowned Chinese Canadian pianist Sheng Cai discusses his work on Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Free admission.
Tuesday, June 28, 2022 at 7 pm
SMSV Cultural Centre | 3300 Highway 7, MarkhamMaestro Michael Berec leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal featuring 20th century works written for Broadway, film and theatre. Free admission.
Exhibit
WORLD MUSIC INSTRUMENTS
Thursday, June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23, and June 30, 2022
from 12 pm to 3 pm
MCMF Rehearsal Hall
3a-50 Innovator Ave (2nd fl.), Stouffville ON L4A 0Y2
Open visit of the World Musical Instruments Collection. Includes authentic instruments by Indigenous artists. Tickets are required for a specific day and time.
Workshops
Orchestral instruments Workshop I (strings)
Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at 7 pm
SMSV Cultural Centre | 3300 Highway 7, Markham
Open to the general public, this workshop is led by Aurora violinist Alexander Gangurean and explores the history and performing technique of the Western stringed instruments (violin, viola, cello and contrabass). Limited to 10 participants registered in advance through the MCMF Office.
Orchestral instruments Workshop II (woodwinds)
Tuesday, June 10, 2022 at 7 pm
SMSV Cultural Centre | 3300 Highway 7, Markham
Open to the general public, this workshop is led by flutist Rodney Grey and clarinetist Carmen Gassi and explores the history and performing technique of the Western woodwind orchestral instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon). Limited to 10 participants registered in advance through the MCMF Office.
Orchestral instruments Workshop III (brass)
Friday, June 14, 2022 at 7 pm
SMSV Cultural Centre | 3300 Highway 7, Markham
Open to the general public, this workshop is led by Métis trombonist Léon Racine and explores the history and performing technique of the Western brass orchestral instruments (French horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba). Limited to 10 participants registered in advance through the MCMF Office.
Piano Solo Concerto Workshop
Tuesday, June 17, 2022 at 7 pm
SMSV Cultural Centre | 3300 Highway 7, Markham
Open to the general public, this workshop is led by internationally renowned Canadian Chinese pianist Sheng Cai and explores the technique and interpretation of Shostakovich’s Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 2. Limited to 10 participants registered in advance through the MCMF Office.
Lectures and Films
SHOSTAKOVICH AGAINST STALIN
Monday, June 6, 2022 at 1 pm
MCMF Rehearsal Hall
3a-50 Innovator Ave (2nd fl.), Stouffville ON L4A 0Y2
Larry Weinstein’s film examines the harrowing subject of Stalin’s bloody purges and Shostakovich’s musical response. Described by the composer as his “tombstones”, Symphonies 4 to 9 represent the composer’s weapons against Stalin’s tyranny, and remain powerful testimony to a great artist’s struggle against oppression.
WE WANT THE LIGHT
Monday, June 13, 2022 at 1 pm
MCMF Rehearsal Hall
3a-50 Innovator Ave (2nd fl.), Stouffville ON L4A 0Y2
A film about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation. A film about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos. A film about Richard Wagner, his essay “The Jews in Music” and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich. Most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people even in the direst circumstances.
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
Monday, June 20, 2022 at 1 pm
MCMF Rehearsal Hall
3a-50 Innovator Ave (2nd fl.), Stouffville ON L4A 0Y2
A 1951 American musical comedy film inspired by the 1928 orchestral composition by George Gershwin. Starring Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron (her film debut), Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary, and Nina Foch, the film is set in Paris, and was directed by Vincente Minnelli from a script by Alan Jay Lerner. The music is by George Gershwin, with lyrics by his brother Ira, with additional music by Johnny Green, and Saul Chaplin, the music directors.
The 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 festivals have been supported by the Tourism Industry Partners, a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, administered by the Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation.
