The Royal Conservatory of Music Sets Season Finale

On May 14, Marcus Roberts & The Modern Jazz Generation close out the "Katrina -10 Years On" concert series, dedicated to the spirit of the people who suffered from one of the worst hurricanes in history. In this concert Roberts, famous for his dazzling, virtuosic playing that taps the full range of the jazz piano tradition, unveils The Modern Jazz Generation, an ensemble that features his trio mates - Jason Marsalis on drums and Rodney Jordan on bass - and a number of next generation jazz greats. The musicians are joined by special guest Wycliffe Gordon (tuba), who returns to Koerner Hall after recently appearing with René Marie.

Classical Music

Latvian cellist Mischa Maisky returns to Koerner Hall to perform the complete Bach Cello Suites in two concerts on May 7. At 4pm he presents Suites Nos. 1, 4, and 5, and at the 8pm concert Nos. 2, 3, and 6. Maisky has the distinction of being the only cellist in the world to have studied with both Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky. As an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, he has made well over 30 recordings, enjoyed worldwide critical acclaim, and been awarded prestigious prizes around the world. Patrons can purchase tickets to either concert, to both concerts, or tickets to both concerts with a dinner package between performances. Presented in partnership with Show One Productions,

The new Songmasters concert series closes on May 1 with The Hungarian-Finnish Connection, including works by Liszt, Bartók, Sibelius, and others. The concert features soprano Leslie Ann Bradley, bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus, and pianists Rachel Andrist and Robert Kortgaard, as well as special guest violinist Erika Raum who joins Leslie Ann Bradley in a performance of Kaija Saariaho's Changing Light for soprano and violin.

Two free concerts conclude the student performances at The Conservatory. On May 1, string students from The Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists come together as the Academy Chamber Orchestra to perform music by Bach, Beethoven, Britten, and Paganini. On May 5, as part of the AIMIA Discovery Series, Brian Current conducts The Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble in a celebration of Pierre Boulez. The Ensemble will perform Boulez's Dérive 2 as well as pieces by Andrew Norman and Ana Sokolovi?.

21C Music Festival

21C Music Festival, celebrating 21st century musicians and composers, returns for a third year from May 25 to May 29, 2016, and features 28+ premieres. This year the genres include classical, Inuit throat singing, jazz, contemporary Japanese sounds, atmospheric orchestral, and electro-acoustic music. New in 2016 is a collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art_Toronto_Canada, which will animate the lobbies of Koerner Hall throughout the Festival with visual and performance art pieces.

The festival opens on May 25 with Kronos Quartet with special guest Tanya Tagaq. The evening includes Canadian premieres of Nicole Lizée's The Golden Age of the Radiophonic Workshop (Fibre-Optic Flowers) and Mark Applebaum's Darmstadt Kindergarten, a new work titled Regs (Dance) by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, and two highly-anticipated world premieres, titled Snow Angel and Sivunittinni (The future children), by the incomparable Tanya Tagaq commissioned as part of Fifty for the Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire. The evening also features Tagaq and Kronos Quartet performing their piece Nunavut alongside Fodé Lassana Diabaté's selections from Sunjata's Time, Aleksandra Vrebalov's My Desert, My Rose, and the Ontario premieres of Geeshie Wiley's Last Kind Words, Laurie Anderson's Flow, and Mary Kouyoumdjian's Bombs of Beirut. A Post-concert Talk with artists will follow the concert. Tagaq's appearance is supported by Joanne Tod.

American jazz pianist Brad Mehldau returns to Koerner Hall for a solo concert on May 26. Combining his signature technical ability with command of structure and rhythm, he presents his Three Pieces After Bach, a new work co-commissioned by The Royal Conservatory of Music/Koerner Hall, Carnegie Hall, The Dublin National Concert Hall, and Wigmore Hall, with the support of Philip and Eli Taylor. In the balance of the program, he juxtaposes several canonical pieces from Johann Sebastian Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, featuring his own jazz compositions for solo piano.

Also on May 26, 21C Music Festival partner, Continuum Contemporary Music, presents Japan: NEXT. Curated by Continuum Artistic Director Ryan Scott and conducted by 21C Music Festival artistic advisor Brian Current, instruments from East and West merge in new ways in extraordinary works by the next generation of internationally acclaimed Japanese composers, including Dai Fujikura, Hikari Kiyama, and Misato Mochizuki. Okeanos joins Continuum for a sensational experience from the sonic fringe, and highlights of the evening will include two world premieres: Canadian composer Michael Oesterle's Look on Glass and a piece by Hiroki Tsurumoto, co-commissioned by Continuum and The Royal Conservatory. The concert will be preceded by a Pre-concert Talk at 7:15pm.

On May 27, The Conservatory presents a late-night concert titled 21C After Hours: Blackout that will begin at 10:30pm in Conservatory Theatre. Based on the Pitch concert series started in the 1970s by John Oswald and Marvin Green, the evening will include four world premieres by Oswald and feature the Element Choir and the Radiant Brass Ensemble, a group formed by Oswald 10 years ago. This electro-acoustic musical experience will be performed in complete and absolute darkness - only for those not afraid of the dark!

The afternoon Cinq à Sept concert on May 28 includes one world and two Toronto premieres. The world premiere by Anna Pidgorna, Drown in the Depth, is commissioned by The Royal Conservatory, and the concert also includes her Bridal Train. Two pieces by Rodney Sharman will receive their Toronto premieres: Notes on "Beautiful," a solo piano work, and a new work co-commissioned by Philip and Eli Taylor and Music in the Morning (Vancouver), performed by violinist Barry Shiffman and pianist Jeanie Chung, who are both on the faculty at The Conservatory. Also on the program are Sharman's In Deepening Light for piano and bass, a piece for eight violins by Andrew Norman titled Gran Turismo, and two pieces by Ana Sokolovi?, titled Serbian Tango and Portrait Parle.

Ambient orchestral music composer Jherek Bischoff makes his Toronto debut on May 28 as he shares the evening with Brooklyn-based trio Dawn of Midi and Toronto's own The Visit. Hailed a "pop polymath" by The New York Times and a "phenom" by The New Yorker, Bischoff has blazed an unconventional path in creating an impressive body of work in his 30-odd years. After starting his career with indie rock and experimental groups, he eventually turned to orchestral music and composing, and the concert will serve as a Canadian CD release event for his highly anticipated new album, Cistern. Dawn of Midi is a trio of piano (Amino Belyamani), bass (Aakaash Israni), and drums (Qasim Naqvi), from Pakistan, India, and Morocco respectively, now living in Brooklyn, whose sound has been described by The Guardian as "more boundary-pushing than the sort of freeform noodling that sometimes give the term "jazz trio" a bad name." Cello-vocal duo The Visit, who thrilled audiences during the 2015 installment of 21C Music Festival, conjures sounds from the Middle East, progressive rock, and classical chamber music. Presented in association with Wavelength, this indie music triple-bill is one of the highlights of the Festival.

Canadian superstar violinist James Ehnes and pianist Andrew Armstrong return to Koerner Hall on May 29 to close out the festival with a concert that is part of the James Ehnes@40: Canada 2016 recital tour, featuring stops in all of Canada's provinces and territories. The program includes the Canadian premiere of Aaron Jay Kernis's Two Movements (with Bells), Ontario premiere of Carmen Braden's Magnetic North, and the Toronto premiere of a new work by Bramwell Tovey, titled Stream of Limelight, alongside James Newton Howard's 133 ... At Least, Händel's Violin Sonata in D Major, Op. 1, No. 13, HWV 371, and Beethoven's "Spring" Sonata. A Pre-concert Talk at 2:15pm will precede the concert.

The Museum of Contemporary Art_Toronto_Canada will present Christof Migone's Mixer, a mix of works presented in simultaneity, in the lobbies of Koerner Hall during the Festival. The layered performances explore repetitive gestures, sonic references, and somatic rhythms. Mixer is a list of verbs: translating, reading, singing, aging, spitting, breathing, sneezing, releasing, muting, counting, and testing. Mixer activates space and is performed outside of the concert hall, and as such is small, mobile, and furtive. Mixer thrives in the interstices - ranging from brief eruptions to longer sustained activities, from discordant surges to subtle moments. Sometimes the public can interact and at other times the performers are right beside people, doing something perplexing or imperceptible, or even inaudible. Mixer is nimble research and it echoes the future programming of the Museum of Contemporary Art_Toronto_Canada, opening in May 2017.

Quiet Please, There's a Lady On Stage

Post-post-modern diva Meow Meow's unique brand of 'kamikaze cabaret' and performance art exotica has hypnotized, inspired, and terrified audiences globally. On June 23, the spectacular crowd-surfing queen of song "drags cabaret kicking and screaming into the 21st century" (Time Out NY) and closes the 2015-16 concert season at The Conservatory. The concert is presented in association with the TD Toronto Jazz Festival.

The 21C Music Festival is made possible through the generous support of Michael and Sonja Koerner

21C Music Festival Supporters: David G. Broadhurst, Philip and Eli Taylor, Joanne Tod, and Kris Vikmanis and Denny Creighton

The Royal Conservatory's 2015-16 concert season is made possible through the generous support of:

Major and Series Sponsors and Supporters: AIMIA, BMO, Invesco, RBC Foundation, TD Bank Group, David G. Broadhurst, Leslie & Anna Dan, Michael & Sonja Koerner, a gift In honour of R.S. Williams & Sons Company Ltd., the Rebanks Family, The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, and two anonymous donors

Performance Sponsors and Supporters: Alexanian Flooring, Bösendorfer, CIBC, Downtown Porsche, Georgian Capital, Mohammad & Najla Al Zaibak, Michael Foulkes & Linda Brennan, Ian Ihnatowycz & Marta Witer, Marianne Oundjian, Brayton Polka, Helen Sinclair & Paul Cantor, Deborah Leibow & Ken Snider, Philip & Eli Taylor, Joanne Tod, and Kris Vikmanis & Denny Creighton

Wine & Beverage Sponsors: Blackstone, Vintage Ink, Mill Street Brewery, Acqua Panna & S. Pellegrino

Media Sponsors: Classical 96.3 FM, JAZZ.FM91, NOW, WholeNote, Musicworks

Government Supporters: Canada Arts Presentation Fund-Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council