2023
MARKHAM CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL
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 2023 Markham Contemporary Music Festival included the following events:
Concerts
LE JARDINS MOUILLÉS
Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 8 p.m.Cornell Recital Hall
3201 Bur Oak Ave, Markham ON L6B 0T2
Recital with works by J.S. Bach, Muczynski, Boutry, Schumann, Fauré, Hindemith and Jacques de la Presle presented by Adriel Sloss, Benjamin Liu, Michelle Yeh, Marie-Raquel Conceição, and Sebastian Gobbels.
FERVOR, FLAIR AND FANDANGO
Saturday, May 20, 2023
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
10268 Yonge St, Richmond Hill ON L4C 3B7
Markham’s 2023 Contemporary Music Festival is pleased to present a spirited journey of musical passion and panache. Master Russian orchestrator Rimsky-Korsakov brings Spanish flair to his musical travelogue filled with fun and fandango: Capriccio Espagnol. Composing out of pure inner-compulsion, and wherever his travels took him (Berlin, Paris, Rome and Russia) Tchaikovsky brings ingenuity and innovation to his virtuosic and unorthodox Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 2. Bruckner’s distinctive gradual-build of intensity, exuberant climaxes and powerful sudden pauses of silence is showcased in his Symphony No. 2 – the beginning of what audiences now call “Bruckneresque”.
Kristian Alexander | conductor, Michael Berkovsky | pianist, Michael Berec | host
7:10 p.m. Prélude (pre-concert recital)
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk in the foyer of Richmond Hill Centre
Intermission discussion with Jonás Joya and Michael Berkovsky
Post-concert Champagne reception and meet-and-greet the musicians
A SCOTTISH FANTASY
Saturday, June 23, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
10268 Yonge St, Richmond Hill ON L4C 3B7
Dance-like themes and lyrical folk melodies dominate Prokofiev’s Russian Overture – a charismatic miniature symphony for a zealous large-scale orchestra. American violinist Andrew Sords masterfully interprets boisterous reels and tuneful airs in the charming Scottish Fantasy by Max Bruch. Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 7 is a memoir of fantasy and imagination, encompassing the composer’s life in his final farewell to symphonic form.
Kristian Alexander | conductor, Andew Sords | violinist, Michael Berec | host
7:10 p.m. Prélude (pre-concert recital)
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk in the foyer of the Cornell Recital Hall
Intermission discussion with Jonás Joya and Andrew Sords
Post-concert Champagne reception and meet-and-greet the musicians
PROKOFIEV AND BRUCH
Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
CBC Glenn Gould Studio
250 John St. West, Toronto ON M5T 1X5
Markham Contemporary Music Festival proudly presents the Canadian début of Polish Maestro Bartosz Żurakowskiat the CBC Glenn Gould Studio in an evening of music to unite us all. Dance-like themes and lyrical folk melodies dominate Prokofiev’s Ouverture russe – a charismatic miniature symphony for a zealous large-scale orchestra. American violinist Andrew Sords masterfully interprets boisterous reels and tuneful airs in the charming Scottish Fantasy by Max Bruch. Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 7 is a memoir of fantasy and imagination, encompassing the composer’s life in his final farewell to symphonic form.
Bartosz Żurakowski | conductor, Andrew Sords | violinist, Michael Berec | host
7:10 p.m. Prélude: pre-concert recital.
7:20 p.m. Pre-concert talk.
Intermission discussion and Q&A with Andrew Sords and Jonás Joya.
Open Rehearsals
Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at 7 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Maestro Kristian Alexander leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal of works by Stravinsky and Hindemith.
Friday, May 19, 2023 at 7 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Israeli pianist Michael Berkovsky presents works by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Bruckner.
Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at 7 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Maestro Kristian Alexander leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal featuring pieces by contemporary composers.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023 at 7 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Maestro Kristian Alexander leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal featuring pieces by contemporary composers.
Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 7 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Maestro Kristian Alexander leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal featuring pieces by contemporary composers.
Tuesday, June 13, 2023 at 7 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Maestro Kristian Alexander leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal featuring pieces by contemporary composers.
Tuesday, June 20, 2023 at 7 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Maestro Kristian Alexander leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal featuring pieces by contemporary composers.
Thursday, June 22, 2023 at 7 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
American violinist Andrew Sords presents works by Prokofiev and Bruch.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at 7 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Maestro Jonás Joya leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal featuring 20th century works written for Broadway, film and theatre.
Exhibit
WORLD MUSIC INSTRUMENTS
May 21, May 22, May 25, May 28, May 31, June 1, June 2, June 3, 2023
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
Composition Workshop I
Tuesday, June 7, 2023 at 6 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Composition workshop (part 1 - artistic expression through contemporary writing techniques) for young Canadian composers.
Composition Workshop II
Tuesday, May 30, 2023 at 6 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Composition workshop (part 2 - exploring new ideas in collective writing of contemporary music) for young Canadian composers.
Composition Workshop III
Friday, June 6, 2023 at 6 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Composition workshop (part 3 - writing music for film and television) for young Canadian composers.
Composition Workshop IV
Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at 6 pm
Cornell Recital Hall, 3201 Bur Oak Ave., Markham ON L6B 0T2
Composition workshop (part 4 - writing music for musical theatre) for young Canadian composers.
Lectures and Films
SHOSTAKOVICH AGAINST STALIN
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 6 pmMCMF 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, May 29, 2023 at 7:30 pmMCMF 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
Sunday, June 24, 2023 at 5 pmMCMF 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.
