Coming up on March 2, 2019! Save the date!
Encircling the World is a project of multiple concerts with a changing focus on various families of instruments, and designed to illuminate and share our common musical experiences. Each program is presented in an evening performance for the general public, and in shorter formats for schools, health care and community facilities.
The instrumental focus for our opening event in March 2019 is on flutes, and brings together Ernesto Cardenas, quena & sikus; Deep Ganguly, bansuri; Kianoush Khailian, ney; Dora Wang, dizi & xun; and Alison Melville, recorder & traverso.
Shared by players from different traditions, Encircling the World: Flutes is an evening of music and talk-back: solo and group music making, intertwined with the individual and collective sharing of our experiences as musicians. How did we start playing, and why the flute? Does the flute have a specific role in our personal culture, and if so, what is it? What music do we play, and for whom? What meaning is there in being a musician? What has music done for us, and what do we believe it can do for others, for the world? Each flutist will play a short set of their own music and share their thoughts, and the group of five will play together, as a quintet or in smaller groupings, using prepared or improvised music. Group discussion and questions from the audience will also be a part of this interactive musical ‘happening.’
The players will share musical traditions from South Asia, China, Peru, Persia and early Western Europe, playing transverse- and direct-blown flutes of bamboo, various types of wood, and clay. It’s going to be a wonderful evening! We hope you’ll join us on Saturday March 2, 2019 @ 7:30 p.m.
Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto
Advance tickets available here: https://bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/498 Tickets will be available at the door but we recommend you reserve your seats now – it’s a small hall.
North Wind Concerts gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Pluralism Fund.
‘Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.’ Kahlil Gibran
Peruvian-Canadian musician ERNESTO CARDENAS is the founder of the Toronto-based Andean music ensemble Sikuris St Lawrence, in which he plays quena (notch flute) and sikus (pan pipes), guitar, charango, and bagpipes. The group unites musicians from Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Canada to collaborate on projects which explore the wide range of musical styles and instruments from Latin America, with a focus on many types of traditional flutes.
KIANOUSH KHALILIAN is a composer and a highly skilled player of the ney (Persian reed flute). He began his studies with very distinguished Iranian masters, including Hasan Nahid in 1990 in Tehran; five years later he ranked first in the nationwide Iranian school competition for ney performance. Kianoush has performed in concerts in Iran, Canada and across Europe, and has won awards for his outstanding teaching. He is about to publish his first book: a guide to learning the ney.
DEEP GANGULY is a master of the bansuri, which he learned first from his father and then from his guru, the late Pandit Malhar Rao Kulkarni. He plays in many different groupings of musicians, including several which blend music and instruments from diverse cultures and traditions. His interest in music as a healing art has led him to work with CAMH and the Alzheimer’s Society, and teach classes on meditative music and the art of listening. Deep teaches bansuri in Toronto, in the tradition of the Guru-Shisya Parampara (teacher-disciple tradition), and hosts world music and cultural events under his NEXUS D9 banner. He also plays a number of flutes from other cultures, and has made his own instruments, including bird flutes. http://www.mybansuri.com
DORA WANG started her professional music career at the Affiliated Middle School of Tianjin conservatory of music with a major in bamboo flute in 1998. During her studies, she mastered all different performing styles and developed skills in other Chinese musical instruments, such as xiao, xun, bawu, and hulusi. In 2003, she was granted the Second Place Award in a national professional competition in China and was invited to visit Europe on different occasions to perform on the Chinese bamboo flute as an intercultural exchange performer. She graduated from the conservatory in 2008 and, in the same year, she held her first successful recital. After immigrating to Canada, she founded her band, Melody of Bamboo Music, with whom she continues to perform at major events across Canada.
ALISON MELVILLE’s career as a player of European historical flutes and recorders has taken her across Canada and to the USA, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand and Europe, most recently to Spain, Switzerland and Finland. A member of Toronto Consort and Ensemble Polaris, she often appears as orchestral player and soloist with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and has performed with a multitude of other chamber ensembles, orchestras, opera and theatre companies and festivals in venues ranging from Tokyo’s Bunkamura Hall and NYC’s Carnegie Hall to cinemas, convents, gardens, libraries, barns, ferries, school gymnasiums, and prisons. Her extensive international television, film and radio credits include the soundtracks of The Tudors, The Borgias and Vikings, CBC-TV’s beloved ‘The Friendly Giant,’ films by Atom Egoyan, Ang Lee and others, and Malcolm Sutherland’s award-winning short animation Umbra. She has also played on over 60 CDs, including several critically acclaimed solo recordings. Music of her own creation has been heard with Ensemble Polaris, Bird Project, Post-Medieval Syndrome, 999 Years of Music, and others. On the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (OH) from 1999-2010, Alison continues to teach at early music workshops across North America and teaches at the University of Toronto.