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Thu Dec 4, 2008 8:29pm

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Salvation Army special event in the Concert Lobbyarrow icon

Posted November 20th, 2008 by webmaster

Join us on Friday, December 19th from noon to 1pm for a very special fundraiser: The Salvation Army Christmas Concert, Live from the Concert Lobby. Proceeds from this live-to-air concert and reception will be donated to The Salvation Army’s Christmas Appeal. Tickets are $100.00 each and include a delicious lunch at our radio station following the performance. For more information about this event, or to purchase tickets, call The Salvation Army at 416-321-2654, extension 204.

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It didn’t take long, but the art world has already celebrated the historic American election and the new residents-to-be of the White House. A painting of Michelle Obama and her daughter Sasha was unveiled this week at a New York exhibition of contemporary artist Elizabeth Peyton. Peyton first became widely known in the 1990s as a portrait artist of historical figures such as the Kennedy family and Napoleon, as well as contemporary celebrities. Her exhibition will travel next to galleries in the U.S. and Europe. The latest oil painting depicts Mrs. Obama in the audience at her husband’s convention speech as the couple’s daughter rests her head in her mother’s lap. It has already been sold and also will appear in W magazine in November.
- The New Classical 96.3 FM News Team

Woodstock has more than “peace, love, and rock and roll” to its musical credit. The small New York town was also home to the Creative Music Studio, a makeshift school that gave birth to great names in jazz and contemporary music in the 70s and 80s. Informal recordings of Lee Konitz, Anthony Braxton, and Roscoe Mitchell -- among other contemporary jazz greats -- are being restored by the husband and wife who founded the school. Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso are digitally remastering 400 hours of tape to the tune of about $120,000. An upcoming benefit concert — not to mention sales of sampler CDs -- will raise money toward that end. The couple plan to donate the entire collection to the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University. The original tapes will go back to their individual artists.
- The New Classical 96.3 FM News Team

A large cache of classical music from the dawn of the recorded age is about to be accessible to music lovers. Hundreds of recording cylinders incised on a Thomas Edison phonograph from the 1890s -- once a music lover's private collection -- resurfaced years ago in a Russian archive. Three CDs of excerpts are to be released soon by the Marston label, with the claim that they contain the earliest existing recordings of works by Bach, Wagner, Verdi, Chopin, Schumann and others. The performers include composer-pianists from the turn of the 20th century, including pupils of Tchaikovsky and Franz Liszt. The surface noise is heavy and would not be enjoyed by the casual listener. But the cylinders have musical value as a glimpse into the way music was played in the time of Tchaikovsky and Brahms. The recordings were mostly made at informal social occasions, with listeners applauding and yelling “Bravo!” One recording bears the high-pitched voice of an 11-year-old by the name of Yasha Heifetz.
- The New Classical 96.3 FM News Team

The Joffrey Ballet will open its own education and training center called the Academy of Dance on January 5th. The training program will be led by Ashley C. Wheater, the artistic director of the ballet. It will offer instruction from Joffrey faculty members to students, ages 3 and older, in ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop and Latin dance. There will also be classes for adults in ballet, jazz, tap and Pilates.
- The New Classical 96.3 FM News Team

David Cronenberg's Russian gangster movie Eastern Promises is the big winner at this year's Directors Guild of Canada Awards. The violent mob drama triumphed in each of the five categories in which it was nominated. They included best feature film, production design, picture editing, sound editing and best director for Cronenberg.
- The New Classical 96.3 FM News Team

If the violin sounds good, it might be the mushrooms. A Swiss researcher says that treating maple wood with a certain mushroom improves its sound quality. Francis Schwarze says his maple violin, a replica of a 1698 instrument made by the Italian master Antonio Stradivari, has a sound comparable to the elusive quality of an original Stradivarius. Schwarze is with the Zurich-based Federal Materials, Science and Technology Institute. He treated the wood with X ylaria longipes, a mushroom that grows on the bark of trees. He says the mushroom nibbles lightly on the wood, reducing its density and intensifying the sound. Many researchers believe the unmatched sound of Stradivarius violins comes partly from the instruments' age. They have studied the density of the wood, the quality of the finishes and the shape of the violins and other string instruments made by the Stradivari family in an effort to determine why their sound is so rich. As of yet, the sound has proved irreproducible. Because of the high value placed on the violins, which can sell for more than $1 million, numerous con artists have tried to pass off other instruments as a Strad.
- The New Classical 96.3 FM News Team

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra visits the National Arts Centre in ottawa on November 13th with a repertoire that includes Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten. But here's the rub: the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra will perform that piece four days later -- in the very same room, Southam Hall. The NAC apologized this week, but Ottawa Symphony officials still fear the TSO performance of the headline piece just days earlier will cut into ticket sales for their concert. It's the second time in recent years that the NAC failed to cross-reference the programs of the Ottawa Symphony and a touring orchestra. Such a conflict might not be troublesome in London or New York, but in smaller cities, where orchestras often draw from the same pool of potential ticket buyers, such duplication can hurt. It's the responsibility of the NAC to inform orchestras about duplications in programming in time to make changes. Unfortunately for the Ottawa Symphony, the lead-time needed to prepare an orchestra to play such a piece makes it impossible for either orchestra to change its plans. Christopher Deacon, NACO's managing director, apologized to Ottawa Symphony officials on Monday, and said the oversight was clearly the fault of his staff, who didn't catch the duplication in the musical programs. The Ottawa Symphony has sold about 1,400 tickets in the 2,100-seat hall for its November 17th concert. He is worried potential ticket buyers may opt to see the TSO performance of Britten, and not return to hear the same key piece on the same stage a few days later.
- The New Classical 96.3 FM News Team

Christie's is auctioning off a handwritten copy of the 1864 speech Abraham Lincoln delivered at the White House after being reelected in the midst of an unpopular Civil War. The four-page manuscript, which remained in the family's hands until 1916, will be sold on the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, which is February 12th. The speech is expected to fetch more than $3 million US.
- The New Classical 96.3 FM News Team

Britain's Royal Opera House has never seen anything quite like this. Some of its star performers have posed starkers for a racy charity calendar. They include Royal Ballet dancer Sian Murphy, posing in one of the boxes at Covent Garden wearing nothing but diamonds. She dedicates her appearance to her father, who is a cancer survivor. Other brave souls include two members of the orchestra, principal harpist Emma Granger and violinist Caroline Clarke. They posed in memory of Keitaro Takayama, a fellow orchestra member who died of cancer. The male performers include dancer Eric Underwood and tenor Charles Castronovo. The calendar is available directly from the Royal Opera House shop.
- The New Classical 96.3 FM News Team

One of the world's most innovative television pioneers, Moses Znaimer, has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award recognizing an outstanding individual who has contributed to the growth and advancement of the Canadian music industry. Znaimer will be presented with the honour during the JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 in Calgary, Alberta and further feted during a special segment in The 2008 JUNO Awards, Sunday, April 6 on CTV."It's very sporting of [the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences] to confer this honour upon me," says Mr. Znaimer.
- Juno Awards

The McGuinty government is creating scholarships in memory of Oscar Peterson to help young people study music at York University. The government is providing an endowment of $1 million to create five annual $10,000 music scholarships for talented students from underprivileged backgrounds. There will also be a $4-million endowment for the Oscar Peterson Chair in Jazz Performance that will allow professors to conduct in-depth music studies. "...Oscar Peterson was passionate about educating and encouraging the next generation of musicians," said Mamdouh Shoukri, President and Vice-Chancellor of York University.
- Yahoo News

After several tests on Beethoven's hair and bone samples, forensic scientists found large amounts of lead, causing them to believe Beethoven died of lead poisoning. …
- classicalmusic.about.com

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tsoplanets_190x108.jpgGet tickets to see the Toronto Symphony Orchestra perform Holst's The Planets for $20 & $33. This Afterworks series concert happens on Dec. 3 at 6:30pm at Roy Thomson Hall. Visit tso.ca/weboffers and use the promotional code "PLANET" when ordering.

96.3_ZoomersChoice_190x108.gifPick up Zoomer’s Choice -- the new CD presented by Moses Znaimer -- and check out some of the other fantastic CD collections of the music you hear on the New Classical 96.3 FM, and on our sister station, AM740.

salvationarmy_190_108.jpgThe New Classical 96.3 presents Christmas with The Salvation Army on December 13th at 7:30 pm at Roy Thomson Hall. Tickets at ticketmaster.ca or call the Roy Thomson Hall Box Office at (416) 872-4255.

sondra_190x108.jpgCanadian operatic star Sondra Radvanovsky will perform Live from our Concert Lobby on Tuesday, December 16th at noon.

agaboom190_108.jpgThe New Classical 96.3 FM presents AGA-BOOM. This clown show by veterans of Cirque du Soleil combines physical comedy, mime, poetry, circus arts and experimental theatre. Dec. 30th to Jan. 3rd at the Bluma Appel Theatre. Details at showoneproductions.ca.

MorningTrivia_190x108.gifListen and Play every morning on Good-day GTA with Mike Duncan & Jean Stilwell. Show off your knowledge and win prizes!

canadiantenors_190_108.jpgThe New Classical 96.3 FM presents Christmas with The Canadian Tenors on December 15th and 16th at The Winter Garden Theatre. Tickets are available at ticketmaster.ca, or by calling (416) 872-1000.

squareone_190_108.jpgThe New Classical 96.3 FM is the official radio sponsor of Melody and Magic -- a synchronized light show set to holiday classics, running nightly from November 20th to December 24th at Square One in Mississauga. Santa's there, too! Details at shopsquareone.com.

marilynmongolia190x108.jpg"My Trip to Mongolia" is an exhibition of photographs by Marilyn Lightstone of "a country which turns 'vast' into an understatement." On display until Jan. 4th at Bending Spoons Gallery at Vesuvio, 3010 Dundas Street West in Toronto.

Zoomer_190x108.gifLiving well is the best revenge. The Zoomer Report with Libby Znaimer. Brought to you by The McLennan Group.

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