If you've seen the movie "The Titanic" you've heard Chris Norman play. And Chris's CD, Man with the Wooden Flute, was on the Billboard crossover chart for 12 weeks.
Continue reading "This is flutist Chris Norman's music" »
It's This Is My Music, the Christmas edition.
And in a nutshell (a nice, walnut sized nutshell, perhaps accompanied by some Tchaikovsky), here is what you can hear:
Continue reading "This Is My Christmas Music, from Ben Heppner, Karina Gauvin, Louis Lortie and more" »
Growing up, Ian Parker awoke to the sound of the piano wafting through the house.
Both his parents were music teachers in Vancouver, and students arrived at the crack of dawn for lessons. Naturally his parents became his teachers too, and so Ian stepped into the family piano-playing dynasty that includes his cousins Jon Kimura and James Parker.
Ian launched his career by winning first prize in the CBC National Radio Competition in 2001. He performs now in Europe and North America, and has recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra as well as put out several solo piano CDs.
Continue reading "This Is Ian Parker's Music" »
Pianist Jamie Parker is a founding member of the Gryphon trio, one of the world's foremost piano trios and an ensemble that's enthusiastic about chamber music.
The trio has initiated some 50 projects with composers, musicians, actors and choreographers - some of them in folk and jazz genres. Constantinople, their ground-breaking multi-media production with composer Christos Hatzis, is an epic work that they've presented to great acclaim in North America and England.
Continue reading "Pianist Jamie Parker hosts CBC's This Is My Music" »
Kevin Mallon has to be one of the most hardworking/resourceful people working in Canada's classical music world these days.
The Irish-born violinist and conductor has translated his love of orchestral music and opera into the leadership of numerous ensembles, for instance the Aradia Ensemble, the Toronto Chamber Orchestra and the West Side Chamber Orchestra in New York City.
Then there's a summer opera-workshop residency in Italy and a string of critically praised recordings for the Naxos label that feature some of Canada's finest performers. AND he's music director of the Thirteen Strings in Ottawa, and will lead them in an all-Bach concert for their season opener Oct 28.
Continue reading "This is Kevin Mallon's Music" »
Just like their instruments, you would expect organists to be loud, expressive types, but most of them are shy and quiet people who prefer the pipes to do the talking.
From the day he first set feet on a pedalboard, almost four decades ago, Patrick Wedd has been the exception to that rule.
The gregarious organist, harpsichord player, choral conductor and self-confessed foodie is a lively presence, and an enthusiastic, animated evangelist of the king of instruments, eagerly showing off every sound that thousands of pipes are capable of producing.
In honour of the second Canadian International Organ Competition, which has commandeered a number of Montreal's great pipe organs until October 16th, Wedd takes us on a tour of the eclectic repertoire that has shaped his personal passion for music.
Continue reading "This is organist Patrick Wedd's music" »
There have been many multi-talented musicians to sit behind the This Is My Music microphone, but violinist Mark Fewer truly puts the "multi" in the phrase. He's a soloist, a chamber musician, an orchestral leader, artistic programmer, arranger, jazz musician, and a teacher.
Just take a look at a few highlights of his career to date:
Continue reading "This is Mark Fewer's music" »
Soprano Karina Gauvin, who has been called (by the Globe and Mail) "a dream soprano for our time" is heard on Tempo on Friday presenting some of the music she loves best, which ranges from Vivaldi and Purcell to Charles Aznavour and Ella Fitzgerald -- you'll find the complete playlist after the jump. And if you'd like to hear why Ms. Gauvin chose these artists right now, you can, just press play.
Although as Gauvin's playlist shows, her own taste in music is fairly broad. But as a performer she certainly is home in the baroque -- her recording of Porpora arias was nominated for a Juno in 2010 (among many other Juno nominations, including two that went on to win). And not long ago her recording of Porpora (the 18th-century Neapolitan opera composer) prompted one writer to speculate about the possibilities of a Porpara revival. (Saying that Gauvin's treatment of the arias is "rapturous" and transfixing.")
Continue reading ""Dream soprano" Karina Gauvin shares her favourite music" »
This Is My Music fall/winter 2011/12 season is in the works, with our indefatigable producer talking with a number of musicians across the country about participating. We can't tell you about the entire schedule just yet, but here's a bit of a teaser about the new shows we're working on -- some from artists who have never been on the show before, some are new shows from returning artists.
Continue reading "This Is My Music: Your dream host?" »
The mighty Ben Heppner! (With James Levine singing along, as it were.) But seriously, how beautiful. And that's by way of an introduction to the next three weeks of This Is My Music, where all three programmes Ben has hosted for the programme since it began will be broadcast back-to-back, one each Saturday.
Continue reading "A Ben Heppner mini-fest" »
Vancouver Winter Chamber Music Festival: Schubert