We're making history this Tuesday

Posted September 15th, 2007 by admin

On Tuesday, September 18th, The New Classical 96.3 FM is making history.

Tune in as we present a 20-hour on-air celebration of our new look and new sound, featuring live perfomances by an unbelievable lineup of Canadian classical music superstars:

5:20am SEAN KELLY, GUITARIST
Nylon or steel, nickel plated or wound round, Sean Kelly has strummed and plucked many a guitar string, but his grounding is in the classics. He studies with Eli Kassner and Andres Segovia and has performed with some of the biggest names in Rock ‘n’ Roll, including a recent tour with Alice Cooper. His soon-to-be-released recording, The #1 Classical Guitar Album, plays homage to his classical roots with pieces by Bach, Albeniz and Mason Williams, to name but a few.

6:20am TODD YANIW, PIANIST (RCM / The New Classical 96.3 FM Scholarship winner)
Todd is this year’s winner of the Classical 96.3 FM Scholarship fund, given every year to an exceptional student at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Two-time national winner at the Canadian Music Competition, and silver medallist at the Eastman International Piano Competition, 21-year-old Todd Yaniw is increasingly in demand as a soloist and a chamber musician. He is completing his Bachelor’s degree with James Anagnoson at the Glenn Gould School, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

7:20am QUARTETTO GELATO
Quartetto Gelato have been dazzling audiences and critics for over a decade with their exotic blend of musical virtuosity, artistic passion and charismatic presence. Quartetto Gelato established themselves as dominant forces on the emerging “new classical” scene early in their career by winning the coveted title of NPR Performance Today’s Debut Artist of the Year in 1996. Today, Quartetto Gelato continues its reign as an international sensation with repeat sold-out performances throughout the globe.

8:20am CANADIAN BRASS, BRASS QUINTET
The virtuosi of Canadian Brass have made the brass quintet an exciting vehicle for serious concert music. The quintet, having just celebrated its 35th season, has announced the creation of a trumpet “Dream Team.” Joining Bernhard Scully, horn, Gene Watts, trombone, and Chuck Daellenbach, tuba, in concert will be trumpet performers Joe Burgstaller, Stuart Laughton, Ryan Anthony, Jeroen Berwaerts, Manon Lafrance, Brandon Ridenour, and Ron Romm. The group has a long history of recording classical repertoire. They have a special affinity for Baroque music, which requires the brilliance and musical structure that has become the Canadian Brass trademark. Their more than 60 recordings to date include works by Purcell to Wagner and Ragtime to Rock — all in meticulously crafted transcriptions that are setting new musical traditions in brass performance.

9:20am JEAN STILWELL, MEZZO-SOPRANO & PATTI LOACH, PIANIST
Jean Stilwell, hailed on three continents for her complex portrayal of Carmen, is at the forefront of this generation's mezzo-sopranos. In Keith Warner's daring production of CARMEN for Minnesota Opera and Opera Ontario, Ms. Stilwell's "riveting" performance of the title role was praised for "mesmerizing stage presence and her dangerous sounding, husky mezzo ... vocally rich and powerful." Since first assuming the role in Vancouver, Bizet's fascinating gypsy has opened many doors for Ms. Stilwell and she has appeared with the Buxton Festival, New York City Opera, Welsh National Opera, English National Opera, Opera Zuid of Holland, Connecticut Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and all the opera companies of Canada. Now, together with pianist and writer Patti Loach, Ms. Stilwell steps out of the opera hall and onto the cabaret stage with all of her usual elegance, wit and aplomb. The result is Carmen Unzipped, a CD and live show that unzips our perceptions of how a diva should sound...or look...or behave.

10:20am MAYUMI SEILER, VIOLINIST
Mayumi Seiler, Artistic Director of Via Salzburg, began her musical upbringing in Osaka, Japan, where she was born of Japanese/German parentage. She began playing the violin at three years of age, and studied at the Mozarteum while growing up in Salzburg. She is busy as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, Japan and North America. Mayumi teaches at the University of Toronto and Glenn Gould School, and has a daughter, Hana, and a son, Seiji. She has recorded numerous violin concertos and sonatas on the Virgin Classics and JVC Victor labels, as well as other chamber music works on Hyperion and Capriccio. She has performed with conductors and orchestras from around the world and regularly appears as a guest soloist on the New Classical 96.3 FM.

11:20am BEN HEPPNER, TENOR
Ben Heppner is recognized as the finest dramatic tenor active today. He performs frequently with the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Vienna State Opera, Opéra National de Paris and Royal Opera, Covent Garden. He has been recorded by every internationally renowned record label, and recently became an exclusive artist for Deutsche Grammophon. His first solo CD for the Yellow Label, Airs Français, was released in 2001. In 2003 Deutsche Grammophon released Ideale, a CD of songs by Tosti. DG also inaugurated its new series of live-recorded Metropolitan Opera performances on DVD with Mr. Heppner as Florestan in Fidelio and in the title role of Tristan und Isolde. In the current season, Mr. Heppner joined the Dresden Staatskapelle to record the arias of Siegfried and Siegmund from Wagner’s Ring Cycle. The CD was released by DG in April of this year. He returned to the Berlin State Opera to sing Die Meistersinger with Daniel Barenboim, to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Lohengrin, Fidelio and his first performances of Parsifal, and to Vienna to sing Tristan und Isolde. In October he will be touring with the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra with one concert at Roy Thomson Hall under the direction of Riccardo Chailly.

12:20pm ANGELE DUBEAU, VIOLINIST

This year Angèle Dubeau celebrates 30 years of great music-making, and is one of Canada’s most prominent violinists. Winner of several important international competitions, she has performed in prestigious concert hals in more than 25 couintries. To date, Angèle Dubeau has sold more than 300,000 recordings, and she is one of the few Canadian soloists in classical music to have a certified Gold Record for 50,000 albums sold in one year. On November 8, Angele and her orchestra La Pieta will celebrate their 30th and 10th anniversaries, respectively, with a concert at the Winter Garden Theatre.

1:20pm SOPHIE MILMAN, JAZZ SINGER / PIANIST

Barely 24 years old, jazz singer Sophie Milman has already seen and done more than many people twice her age. Since her self-titled debut was released in 2004, it has sold almost 100,000 copies worldwide, hit the Billboard Top 5 in Canada and the Top 15 in the United States, and topped the iTunes jazz charts in five different territories. Meanwhile, Sophie has maintained a rigorous touring schedule — headlining sold-out shows in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Japan, and throughout Europe — and continued to balance her burgeoning music career with her commerce studies at the University of Toronto.

2:05pm ANTON KUERTI, PIANIST (interview)

2:20pm KERRY STRATTON, conductor & the GRAND SALON ORCHESTRA

Kerry Stratton is Conductor and Music Director of the Toronto Philharmonia, the orchestra-in-residence at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. Since 1992, he has also been Music Director for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, Ontario. In January 2001, he became the first Canadian to conduct the St. Petersburg Camerata in the Hermitage Theatre at the Winter Palace. He has also conducted performances with the Janacek Philharmonic, as well as the Prague Radio Orchestra. For his services to Czech and Slovak culture, Stratton is the 2000 winner of the Masaryk Award.

3:20pm RUSSELL BRAUN, BARITONE & MICHAEL SCHADE, TENOR

Individually, baritone Russel Braun and tenor Michael Schade are undoubtedly are amongst the greatest singers ever. Together, they are breathtaking musicians. They have regularly performed and recorded together throughout their celebrated careers.

4:20pm LEAHY, CELTIC FUSION ENSEMBLE

Born in Lakefield, Ontario, the group made up of 4 brothers and 4 sisters has a strong Irish and musical background. The group combines traditional Celtic and Canadian folk music with French Canadian step-dancing. The family goes back five generations in Lakefield, where they took part in the hard profession of farming. Along with the rugged climate the family made playing and dancing a discipline and a vivacious experience. In All Things is the latest in a series of exceptional recordings by this extraordinary family of artists.

5:20pm LARA ST. JOHN, VIOLINIST

Lara St. John has been featured in People, US News and World Report, on CNN’s Showbiz Today, Fox News, and NPR’s All Things Considered, as well as an hour-long Bravo! Special entitled Live At the Rehearsal Hall. Lara St. John began playing the violin when she was 2 years old. She made her first appearance as soloist with orchestra at age 4, and made her European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon when she was 10. She toured Spain, France, Portugal and Hungary at ages 12 and 13, entered the Curtis Institute at 13, and spent her first summer at Marlboro three years later. Her teachers over the years have included Felix Galimir, David Takeno, Arnold Steinhardt, and Joey Corpus. Currently, she performs on the 1779 “Salabue” Guadagnini thanks to an anonymous donor and Heinl & Co. of Toronto. Upcoming releases include the six solo sonatas and partitas of Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as a recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, featuring two world premiere works by Matthew Hindson and Martin Kennedy, and The Red Violin Suite by John Corigliano.

6:20pm INNA PERKIS & BORIS ZARANKIN, PIANISTS

Renowned Russian-Canadian pianists Inna Perkis and Boris Zarankin have performed internationally as soloists and chamber musicians, collaborating with such distinguished musicians as Ofra Harnoy, Michael Schade, Measha Brueggergosman and Isabel Bayakdarian. Mr. Zarankin has released several recordings, featuring music by Chopin, Schubert and his latest, Beethoven? Beethoven! Inna and Boris are Co-founders and Artistic Directors of Off Centre Music Salon.

7:20pm MEASHA BRUEGGERGOSMAN, SOPRANO

Noted by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a singer of rare gifts and artistic intensity” and by the Miami Herald for possessing “a superb voice capable of just about everything,” Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman has emerged as one of the most magnificent performers and vibrant personalities of the day. She is critically acclaimed by the international press as much for her innate musicianship and voluptuous voice as for a sovereign stage presence far beyond her years. Her extraordinary versatility, intuitive musicality, and radiant star quality have yielded an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Her first recording on the label, Surprise, is released in North America in autumn 2007.

8:20pm GRYPHON TRIO, PIANO TRIO

The Gryphon Trio has been delighting audiences around the globe for the last 15 years. Their celebrated recordings include works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Dvorak, Lalo, and Shostakovich. With a strong commitment to expanding the piano trio repertoire, the trio has commissioned and premiered over 40 works. Their 2004 recording, Canadian Premieres, features the work of leading Canadian composers and was awarded a Juno. The recording of Schubert’s complete piano trios represents the group’s tenth CD for the Analekta label.

9:20pm I FURIOSI, BAROQUE ENSEMBLE

I FURIOSI Baroque Ensemble is one of world’s most innovative Baroque groups, comprised of four of Canada’s leading early music specialists: soprano Gabrielle McLaughlin, violinists Aisslinn Nosky and Julia Wedman, and cellist/gambist Felix Deak. These daring musicians bring their skill and expertise to this edgy new voice in the early music world. For almost a decade, I FURIOSI’s Toronto concert series has been revitalizing the face of early music in Canada, inspired by the practice of the Baroque era while invoking the “bizarre and unnatural” aesthetic both cherished and despised in its time. Intelligent and inspired programming, in addition to a captivating performance style, has garnered this group a reputation as a revolutionary force in the Canadian and international early music scene.

10:20pm SONDRA RADVANOVSKY, SOPRANO
Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky’s dramatic stage presence and stunning vocal qualities have firmly established her as one of the rising stars on the international stage today. She has been hailed as one the great Verdi singers of the new generation, critically acclaimed for her performances as Leonora in Il Trovatore, Violetta in La Traviata, Hélène in Les Vêpres Siciliennes and Elisabetta in Don Carlos. Her performance as Hélène at the Paris Opera took the opera world by storm. Sondra’s 2007-2008 begins with her debut at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa in one of her signature roles — Elena in Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani. In November, Sondra makes her first appearance in the role of Elvira in Ernani at the Teatro Verdi di Trieste, a role she reprises later in the season at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In January, she will make her debut at Milan’s famed La Scala in another of her favourite roles — Roxanne — in Cyrano de Bergerac, with Placido Domingo in the title role. May takes her back to Oper Leipzig for Manon Lescaut and to the Vienna Staatsoper where she again appears as Elena in I Vespri Siciliani. In June, Sondra took Toronto by storm with her appearance in the LUNA Opera Gala presented by the Luminato Festival. Sondra and her husband make their home in Toronto, Canada.

11:20pm STEPHAN MOCCIO, PIANIST

For years, the music of Toronto composer/pianist Stephan Moccio has been heard primarily through the voices of other artists. Having written songs for international superstars such as Céline Dion (“A New Day Has Come”), Sarah Brightman (“What You Never Know”) and Josh Groban (“My Heart Was Home Again”), he is now ready to make a name for himself as a talented performer in his own right, with the launch of his debut album of solo piano compositions, entitled Exposure. It is a collection of 22 sophisticated and subtle piano compositions that endeavour to bring Stephan’s pop and classical backgrounds together in a manner that will appeal to a wide audience, from the seasoned aficionado to those discovering music for the very first time.

12:20am THOMPSON THOMPSON EGBO EGBO, PIANIST

Thompson Thompson Egbo Egbo has been playing piano from the tender age six. The Nigerian-born pianist started his studies at the Dixon Hall Music School (a subsidized music school in the heart of downtown Toronto). There, he learned the basic piano skills to start what has been an incredible journey for the young man. Now only twenty years of age, he has graced the presence of figures such as Quincy Jones, H.R.H. Prince Phillip and many others. Thompson was the 1998 inaugural recipient of the Hagood Hardy Protégé Award and was a recipient of a bronze and silver Duke of Edinburgh Award. In addition, he won the Alliance for Canadian New Music, Clifford Elliot Scholarship for his composition Improv in Variations, and Thompson continues to inspire students in his old neighborhood as an instructor at the Regent Park School of Music.

Don't miss it. Dial us up this coming Tuesday as we relaunch The New Classical 96.3 FM on-air and online in grand style!