Listen here. Buy here. Read about it here and here

Also, some more reviews for Toca Loca’s P*P. EYE Weekly and Johnson’s Rambler.

There’s also the world premiere of a TSMF commission by Glenn Buhr.

More info here

In July I’ll be at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada training session, playing great chamber music and corrupting the youth. More details here

On July 13th, I’m playing with the fabulous Mercer Grrlz. Akemi, Rachel and I will be continuing our Haydn Piano Trio Cycle for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society at the Music Room. Check it out here!

Saturday July 31st at the Tranzac, Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People will be releasing our new CD, Sacred Prune of Remembrance. Details here or on FB here.

On August 2nd, I’ll be at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, with a crack ensemble and the amazing DJ P-Love, playing the music of Nicole Lizee. Our show in Toronto garnered a rare standing O at the music gallery, thanks in part to the sweet stylings of Leanne Zacharias, the Karaoke mastery of Christine Duncan and the serious set drumming of Greg Samek. Other great contributors will include Tim Francom, Megumi Masaki and Justin Haynes. This show is one of my personal faves. More info here

I first attended the summer program in 1996, and from the very beginning Tom made me feel appreciated and supported. He was dedicated to making the Music and Sound program at the Banff Centre a welcoming place for artists. A simple idea, but in no other environment have I felt so well understood and free to learn. Tom and his wife Isobel knew that the greatest gift they could give to an artist was a place where they were treated like artists, trusted as artists and given everything they needed to function as artists.

Through his life and his ideals, he has touched the lives of so many people. He had so much love to give, and he receives so much love back in return.

Edit: Here’s an excerpt from a wonderful note by Myra Davies (full text here)

One of my earliest music presentations came about when Tom came to my office of UofA, introduced himself and suggested a series of lunch hour concerts with his Alberta String Quartet, at SUB Gallery. “Music to the people” Later at Banff, Tom & family formed the nucleus of the music program; interpretive artists, dedicated to classical rep, radiating the vibe, promoting continuity, generating energy, forming artists and producing concerts non-stop.

It was wonderful to work with them in their vibrant dedicated international community. Classical music isn’t dead. It’s closer to immortal. Constantly regenerating itself, it moves steadily through time on a conveyor belt of dedicated artists who serve it and pass it on to those they’ve trained. Through the Rolston years, I watched individual artist, rising and descending in power, and knew many of them. They’re amazing. They will play on until they drop, even when demented or terminally ill they keep on playing and doing concerts.

The subculture of contemporary arts tends to hostility to the classical music scene. I wonder if some of this attitude is because they have what we don’t; a rock solid belief in the lasting significance of the work they service. Each to his own. I’m so thankful that way back when, Tom Rolston invited me into his world.

Edit 2:

No obit in the Globe and Mail, but the Calgary Herald was the first to memorialize him.

Edit 3:

Obit in the Globe and Mail by Tamara Bernstein.

Giiwedin!

Conducting this First Nations Opera at Theatre Passe Muraille. Closing April 24, Wed-Fri eve, Sat mat. Fri and Sat PWYC. More info here.

Steve Reich Live with NEXUS and PSiDock. April 29, 2010, 8 pm @ Koerner Hall. Details here.

Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People are opening (middling) for Run With The Kittens CD Release at the Great Hall on April 30th. Should be a really fun show – RWTK are always fun. We should be on around 1030pm or so. I’ll be playing Farfisa and we’ll be playing some stuff from our new album, Sacred Prune of Remembrance. Details here.

We hope you’ll join us at the Music Gallery this February 27th for a bit of music and an afterparty (sponsored by our label, Centrediscs). We hardly ever play Toronto these days, and having already released our CD in Berlin and Vancouver, we’re glad to finally introduce it to our hometown. More importantly, it’ll be nice to see (hopefully) some friends and have a drink, yes?

We won’t actually be playing anything from the album – instead, we’ll be taking a rare solo turn, each playing some of our favourite repertoire, including:

That which is bodiless is reflected in bodies – Matthew Burtner
lliK – Christopher Fox
AK-47 – Matthew Hindson
Grains – Unsuk Chin
Prelude and Fugue – Andre Ristic

800-820 opening act TBA
830-915 Toca Loca plays
915- join us for nerdy good times in the fellowship room

Admission $10 or $15 with a CD. If you’re strapped for cash, lemme know and we’ll figure something out.

THE CRITICS LOVE US

“Toca Loca…clearly believe that contemporary music should grab the listener as much as any other kind…they put on a passionate, disciplined performance that at times rocked harder than many shows I’ve heard in clubs.” – Globe and Mail

“The overall feel is of overhearing a reading of an off-Broadway musical…it’s great to hear new music experts let their hair down.” – Exclaim

“between the trio’s classical chops and its newfound techno soul, minds may well be blown.” – The Georgia Straight

“stands to be an explosive, brain-busting highlight” – EYEWEEKLY

“By far, one of my favourite shows from the past season…the musicianship of the trio is really unprecedented” – the Wholenote

(3.5 stars out of 4) “There’s no shortage of amusing gambits on this album…” – Globe and Mail

“The ensemble Toca Loca offered a vibrant short set of works by Georges Aperghis, Dai Fujikura, Louis Andriessen, and Andrew Staniland” – The New Yorker

LIKE US…

“Depending on your feelings towards Barbie rape, it’s either the best or worst of the fest.” – EYE WEEKLY

“one of the most unique if also convoluted shows at this year’s festival. There is something disturbingly contemplative about the show’s final moments…kudos for being so adventurous even if the end result is more of a misadventure. – Plank Magazine

“I must confess I don’t quite know what to make of the latest Centrediscs release…from Toca Loca” – the Wholenote

JUST WANT TO BE FRIENDS?

“self-referential, abstraction for its own sake, and the listener ends up feeling lost, left out or perhaps not smart enough.” – The Coast

“The best parts on this album were when they were screaming “Chiiii-iiiiii-iiiii-iiiii-na!” and “Chicken shit! Chicken shit! Chick! Chick! Chicken! Shit!” over and over. Everything else was just like the soundtrack to a bad horror movie, except the music would have been more horrific than anything in the film.” – Chart Attack

“I take no pleasure in saying this, but mean it very seriously: stop. All of you involved in this production, please, please, stop making this type of rubbish. Whatever you think you are doing, whatever mores you think you are challenging: you aren’t. You’re making shite that neither conforms to typical standards of pleasure nor challenges convention; all you succeeded in doing was gratifying your selfish needs to be on stage. You have robbed me of whatever eloquence I may possess: Just stop.” – Mondo Magazine

More details here

Please note that the extra players mentioned are involved in the Grisey, not in the first show.

Witness our blog: xxxlivenudegirls.blogspot.com

Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson Ave, presented as a part of the Summerworks Festival.

August 6th 4:30pm :: August 12th 10:30pm
August 8th 8:30pm :: August 15th 6:30pm
August 10th 6:30pm :: August 16th 12:30pm

Starring Patricia O’Callaghan, Christine Duncan, Ginette Mohr and Kate Fenton.
A Barbie Opera for the 21st Century! (click below for more information)

Though partly inspired by the marionette operas of Mozart and Haydn, Jennifer Walshe’s XXX Live Nude Girls will never be seen at the Four Seasons Centre. Her gritty, lo-fi score drives this exposé into the shiny plastic world of Barbie.

Produced by Toca Loca and directed by Graham Cozzubbo in conjuction with the Summerworks Festival, XXX dispels the stereotype of boys making war while girls host garden parties. Truth is, when playing with Barbies, cruel abuses are often closer to the rule than the exception. Sometimes the sweet girls just ain’t that sweet.

After stops in England, France, Germany and Austria, don’t miss the First North American Performance of this unique new opera!

The Company
Graham Cozzubbo – Stage Director
Gregory Oh – Music Director
Jennifer Walshe – Composer
Nan Shepherd – Stage Manager
Lina Marques – Costume Design
Derick Greenly – Video/Technical Director
Yesim Tosuner – Graphic Design
Daryl Banks – Photographer
Ginette Mohr – Puppets
Kate Fenton – Puppets
Christine Duncan – Vocals
Patricia O’Callaghan – Vocals
Max Christie – Clarinets
Mary-Katherine Finch – Cello
John Lettieri – Accordion
Steve Ward – Trombone
Callan Burgess – Video

Blog: xxxlivenudegirls.blogspot.com

Tickets: Advance ($12) artsboxoffice.ca or 416.504.7529 or in person at Arts Box Office (16 Ryerson Ave) or at the door ($10)

Festival Info: summerworks.ca

Warning: Crude Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Sexual Violence and Doll Nudity. This show is not suitable for children.