Dr. Colin Eatock, composer
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Elisa Citterio leads Tafelmusik (again)

9/25/2016

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PictureElisa Citterio at Koerner Hall. photo: Trevor Haldenby.
On Thursday evening, it was Tafelmusik’s turn to launch its 2016/17 season, at Koerner Hall. There was no soloist on the program; however, there was a guest music director. The Italian violinist Elisa Citterio returned for her second engagement in two years with Toronto’s leading “period” ensemble.
 
For the occasion, Tafelmusik chose a sure-fire program that fell perfectly within their baroque wheelhouse: J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4, a set of dances from Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, and, finally, Handel’s Water Music.
 
From the outset, it was apparent that both Citterio and the Tafelmusik Orchestra were simpatico. They were as one in the sharply dotted rhythms of the Overture in the Bach, there was sweet concord in the stately menuets, and the boureés danced with a unanimous energy. The Rameau that followed presented the band and its guest director with fresh challenges. Especially in the second movement, Tambourins, there were some tricky changes in tempo that were tightly brought off.



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Renee Fleming with the Toronto Symphony

9/23/2016

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PictureSoprano Renee Fleming with the TSO. photo: Dale Wilcox.
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra launched its 2016/17 season at Roy Thomson Hall on Wednesday night (Sept 21). TSO music director Peter Oundjian was on the podium to lead a program that, oddly, downplayed the orchestra itself and leaned heavily on star-power.
 
The star in question was soprano Renée Fleming, who brought with her an assortment of musical bon-bons: songs and arias by Ravel, Rossini, Tosti, Donaudy, Leoncavallo, and Rogers and Hammerstein.
 
It’s no secret that the 57-year-old soprano is winding down her stage career. In the current opera season, she’ll sing the role of the Feldmarshallin in Strauss’s Rosenkavalier at the Met and Covent Garden. Then, she has announced, she will forsake the opera house, but continue her concert career.



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Music, Multiculturalism and Mr. Dasu

9/11/2016

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Picture
Of late, my Facebook news feed has been full of stories and comments about Mohammad Nouman Dasu, a Muslim man who lives in Toronto. For the last three years, he has been trying to have his children exempted from music classes in a public elementary school. He has stated that music is against his religious views.
 
At this point in time, he hasn’t succeeded in winning an official exemption for his kids – and he’s up against a formidable barrier. The Province of Ontario’s Education Act decrees that music is a compulsory subject for all primary-school students.


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Banff, and the evil of music competitions

9/4/2016

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PictureGlenn Gould had no love for music competitions.
This article originally appeared in Canada’s National Post newspaper. For it, I spoke to Barry Shiffman, the executive director of the Banff International String Quartet Competition. My conversation with him was one of the most refreshingly candid interviews that I’ve done in years.
 
Once every three years, aspiring young musicians from all over the world come to Banff, Alberta, to compete in the Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC). They come to the resort town in Rockies armed with their music and instruments, with years of training, and with high hopes. This year, from August 29 to September 4, 10 quartets will play before a seven-member panel of judges.



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David Gockley remembers "Nixon" in Houston

9/4/2016

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PictureNixon inspired the first "CNN opera".
I originally wrote this article for the Houston Chronicle. It was published as part of the “115 Years” series of articles about Houston’s history.
 
Richard Milhous Nixon was many things to many people: statesman, scoundrel, triumphant underdog, sore loser – the list goes on. But in Houston, the 37th president of the United States became something else: the central character in an opera.


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    Eatock Daily

    I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

    When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

    But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

    These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.


    – CE

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