21C Music Festival Announces Concerts and Updates for January

Under current Government of Ontario regulations for performing arts venues, The Royal Conservatory is unable to have audiences in its concert halls but, in the meantime, is offering concerts online at www.rcmusic.com/livestream. In addition to the concert, each livestream also includes additional bonus features such as artist interviews and behind-the-scenes content. Livestreams are available to ticket buyers only, while Conservatory students and faculty will receive complimentary access.

The Conservatory is committed to presenting extraordinary music and will offer online concert livestreams until it is allowed to welcome audiences in its venues again. There are additional factors involved in presenting our concerts this season, including safety protocols and international travel restrictions. Due to these factors, we had to adapt many of our concerts.

21C Music Festival

The eighth edition of the 21C Music Festival will include four livestreams from Saturday, January 16 to Thursday, February 18, 2021, and will feature a plethora of Canadian women, as three of the four events will be performed exclusively by women: violinist Angèle Dubeau with her string ensemble La Pietà, whose mission has concentrated on an ongoing quest for virtuosity, aimed at making outstanding music accessible to all audiences while offering new repertoires drawn from a wide variety of musical influences; pianist Eve Egoyan, whose intense focus, command of the instrument, insightful interpretations, and unique programs welcome audiences into unknown territory; and pianist, award winner, and Royal Conservatory alumna Morgan-Paige Melbourne, who brings a her own no-holds-barred approach to contemporary music.

The 21C Music Festival will include 11 world premieres by five Canadian composers (Eve Egoyan, Kathryn Knowles, Morgan-Paige Melbourne, Corie Rose Soumah, Nauroz Tanya), 1 North American premiere (Pierre Jodlowski), and 1 Ontario premiere (Nicole Lizée).

Mervon Mehta, Executive Director of Performing Arts at The Royal Conservatory, said: "Despite the curveballs that COVID 19 has thrown us, we will persevere with the 21C Music Festival and its intrepid spirit. Some of our planned concerts have been postponed to 2022 due to existing quarantines, but we are energized by the Canadian talent that will comprise this edition of 21C. As ever, we are grateful to Michael and Sonja Koerner for their steadfast support of newly minted music and to the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund for their generous grant that will assist us in getting the music across Canada and around the world."

21C Cinq à Sept: Eve Egoyan

Originally scheduled for Saturday, January 23, 2021 at 5pm in Temerty Theatre, this livestream will now take place a week earlier on Saturday, January 16, 2021 at 5pm, is moved to Koerner Hall, and will be available online for seven days.

Eve Egoyan performs the world premieres of Seven Studies for Augmented Piano, which she created for a newly imagined instrument that delves into the space between what a piano can do and what Eve has always wished a piano could do. The core of these works is the live acoustic sound of the physical piano she is playing, but through the delicate intervention of technology, she tests (teases) the edges of the piano's natural sound, ultimately pushing it beyond the familiar, through the impossible, and into the extraordinary.

The livestream also includes the world premiere of a short video directed by Toronto filmmaker Su Rynard: Études for Augmented Piano takes the audience inside Eve's world as she creates new works for this augmented piano. The video playfully reveals how the elusive sounds in her compositions are produced, while affirming how the listener is essential to Eve's creative process, even in a time when isolation prevails.

Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà: Pulsations

Livestream for ticket holders broadcast from Koerner Hall on Saturday, January 23, 2021 at 8pm, then available online for seven days.

Angèle Dubeau, and her supergroup La Pietà, present a program titled Pulsations. As Dubeau describes it, "Pulsation marks time, it infuses its rhythm in it, and it also evokes the heart. Just like those composers whose music calls out to me and who, with their unique signatures, mark time, our time; composers whose music speaks to me deeply, in which I have found a refuge and a wellspring of goodness." The program consists of works by Ludovico Einaudi, Steve Reich, Max Richter, Alex Baranowski, Craig Armstrong, Ólafur Arnalds, Jean-Michel Blais, Armand Amar, and Uno Helmersson.

Morgan-Paige Melbourne

Free livestream on Sunday, January 24, 2021 at 1pm from Koerner Hall, then available online for seven days.

Pianist and Royal Conservatory alumna Morgan-Paige Melbourne performs world premiers of The Mosaic Portrait by Nauroz Tanya, Phases and Elements by Kathryn Knowles, and her own, still untitled work. The program also includes Brian Current's Sungods, Dawn Davi's Spirit of A Playful Star and Young and Old, and Nikolai Kapustin's Prelude and Toccatina from 8 Concert Studies, op. 40. "This program is a reflection of the impact of change, struggle, growth, and affection that thrives within our daily life. An homage to what it is like to live in times of unease and uncertainty, this collection of works highlights various points of one's being and entity," explains Melbourne.

The Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble: FLIPBOOK: Music and Images

Friday, January 15, 2021 performance in Temerty Theatre will be replaced by a free public online presentation on Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 8pm.

21C brings The Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble to the movies. The chamber orchestra performs outstanding works alongside projected moving images and classic silent films (some images not suitable for children). Curated by Brian Current, this spectacular show features the North American premiere of Pierre Jodlowski's Respire, Martin Matalon's Las siete vidas de un gato, and a still untitled world premiere by Canadian composer Corie Rose Soumah. Also on the program is the Ontario premiere of 8-Bit Urbex by Canadian composer/DJ sensation Nicole Lizée written for the Australian Art Orchestra. In this piece, half of the musicians are pre-recorded videos synced to the live musicians, which enables the inclusion of players not physically in Canada.

Free public online concerts

The Glenn Gould School Fall Opera: Kurt Weill's The Seven Deadly Sins and William Bolcom's Lucrezia will receive its free online presentation on January 8, 2021 at 7:30pm and The Glenn Gould School Vocal Showcase on Tuesday, February 23, 2021.

Rescheduled 21C Music Festival concerts

ARC Ensemble: Marc Neikrug's A Song by Mahler, originally planned for January 16, 2021 is rescheduled to Saturday, January 15, 2022.

Kronos Quartet on Film: A Thousand Thoughts, originally planned for January 26, 2021 is rescheduled to Tuesday, January 18, 2022.

Kronos Quartet with students from The Glenn Gould School: Fifty Forward, originally planned for January 28, 2021 is rescheduled to Thursday, January 20, 2022.

Kronos Quartet - Music for Change: The Banned Countries, originally planned for January 29, 2021 is rescheduled to Friday, January 21, 2022.

The status of the Nicholas Angelich recital on Sunday, January 31, 2021, has yet to be determined.

Cancellations

Unfortunately, The Glenn Gould School Concerto Competition Finals on January 20, 2021, and Soundstreams Presents Garden of Vanished Pleasures, which was part of the 21C Music Festival on

January 22, 2021, had to be cancelled.

As always, ticket holders have multiple options. If their concert has been rescheduled, the Conservatory recommends that ticket purchasers keep their tickets for the new date. If they are unable to attend on the new

date or if their concert has been cancelled, they can donate the value of the tickets (for a tax receipt) to support the Fund for Koerner Hall. Alternately, they can choose to exchange their tickets for a gift card, exchange them for another concert in the 2020-21 concert season, or obtain a refund.