Celebration of Small Ensembles June 3

Celebration of Small Ensembles June 3 / 5:00pm

Music Toronto invites you to the Celebration of Small Ensembles – ancient, classic and 21st century music boldly curated and performed by small ensembles. A new space for social gathering and musical discovery. All curious listeners are welcome.

Celebration of Small Ensembles events will take place in the late afternoon on Saturday May 6th, May 20th, and June 3rd. Please note that this page is for tickets to the June 3rd event only.

We are also offering a 3-Concert Pass for $90. If you would like to purchase the pass instead, please click here to visit that ticket purchase page.

Presented with support from Laishley Reed LLP, Wholenote Media Inc., the Government of Canada, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.

Program Details

Far From Triumphing Court

Renaissance and Contemporary Songs Centred in Indigenous Storytelling

duo nistwayr

Jonathon Adams, baritone / Jesse Plessis, piano/ with Lucas Harris, lute

duo nistwayr is joined by lutenist Lucas Harris for a program of Dowland, Purcell, Crumb, and Plessis. Through poems centering the land and water, sounds invoking the violence of love and obsession, and silence… in its infinite meaning… we weave together an experience of cosmic exultation mirroring the fragile doubt of being.

Unspoken Poetry

Classical

Interro Quartet

Steve Sang Koh, Eric Kim-Fujita, violins/ Maxime Despax, viola / Sebastian Ostertag, cello

A trademark of Interro Quartet’s programming is our “Compound Quartet” in which movements or pieces from four different composers are combined to make one composite quartet. Our compound quartet ‘Unspoken Poetry’ features works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Grażyna Bacewicz, Hildegard von Bingen, and Rebecca Clarke, whose artistries were rarely celebrated due to the social barriers common to women composers in their respective time periods. ‘Unspoken Poetry’ aims to bring limelight to these composers, showcase their crafts’ nuanced brilliance and eloquence, and provide a platform for celebrating their unique genius.

Colour You Like

Contemporary Electric Viola and Classical

Radia with the Gryphon Trio

Ryan Davis, viola / Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin / Roman Borys, cello / Jamie Parker, piano

A swiftly emerging creative force, violist Ryan Davis aka Radia joins the Gryphon Trio in presenting a luminous new musical experience, harnessing live looping and electronics that intertwine the sound worlds of classical, folk, electronic and hip-hop traditions. The program will feature Radia’s original compositions as well as excerpts from celebrated works for piano quartet.

Performer Biographies

duo nistwayr

Jonathon Adams, baritone, and Jesse Plessis, pianist/composer, are duo nistwayr. This ensemble was born out of a desire to centre the tenets of traditional Indigenous storytelling through personal, historically informed readings of repertoire for keyboard instruments and voice, from the early 17th century to the present day. Honouring our shared Métis ancestry, we settled on the word ‘nistwayr’ as an emblem for our work together as it literally means ‘story’ in Michif, the ancestral language of the Métis people. Upcoming performances for the duo include recitals in Toronto, Winnipeg, Oberlin, Ottawa and Vancouver. In addition to performing together, Jonathon and Jesse are passionate about curating dialogues with young artists, leading workshops, and engaging in mentorship work. The duo are artists-in-residence at the University of Toronto’s Historical Performance Area, upcoming artists-in-residence at Bard College (2023/24), and will lead workshops on Indigenous musics at the Juilliard School (Historical Performance Department).

Interro Quartet

Featuring violinists Eric Kim-Fujita and Sang Kyun Koh, violist Maxime Despax, and cellist Sebastian Ostertag, Interro Quartet is quickly establishing themselves in the Greater Toronto Area, having performed at Music Mondays, Festival L’Art de la Musique, West End Micro Music Festival, George Ignatieff Theatre, and Thursday at Noon Series (University of Toronto), to name a few.

As grant recipients from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council, Interro Quartet has commissioned and premiered new chamber works and can be heard on the Centretrack label.

The name Interro comes from the "Interrobang" symbol that fuses the question mark with the exclamation mark. Through unique programming, outreach, and collaborations, the quartet aims to question and artistically bend the nature of chamber music performances to better connect with today’s ever-changing world.

Ryan Davis - "Radia"

Praised by The WholeNote as “showcasing multitudes of colours and possibilities, with much skill and imagination,” Radia, the moniker for Saskatchewan-raised violist Ryan Davis, is swiftly emerging as a singular creative force. A composer-performer combining his rigorous classical training with the inspiration of folk, electronic, and hip-hop music, he finds himself seamlessly blending in between creative spaces. His unique sound has garnered attention and has been featured in diverse spaces, including in Toronto’s Koerner Hall, The Violin Channel, in Los Angeles’s Skid Row, and on ABC Channel 7 News LA. Of Glow & Abandon, his debut EP, was released on all major platforms on December 18th, 2021. Ryan was announced as an Artistic Partner with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra for their 2022-2023 season: a concerto performance on opening night, September 24th; as well as premiering an original work for viola, electronics, and the SSO musicians on April 2nd. In 2014 Mr. Davis completed a Bachelor of Music degree at McGill University, graduating with “Outstanding Achievement in Viola” as a scholarship student of Andre Roy, graduating in 2016 with a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music as a student of Ettore Causa, and in 2019 graduated from Los Angeles’s The Colburn School, receiving an Artist Diploma under the tutelage of Paul Coletti. Ryan was then chosen as the first ever violist in the Rebanks Family Fellowship & International Performance Residency Program in Toronto. He was named one of “30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30” by CBC Music in 2021.

Gryphon Trio

Gryphon Trio is firmly established as one of the world’s preeminent piano trios. For more than 25 years, it has earned acclaim for and impressed international audiences with its highly refined, dynamic, and memorable performances. The Trio’s repertoire ranges from traditional to contemporary, and from European classicism to modern-day multimedia. It is committed to redefining chamber music for the 21st century.

Violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, cellist Roman Borys, and pianist Jamie Parker are creative innovators with an appetite for discovery and new ideas. They have commissioned over 85 new works, and they frequently collaborate with other artists on projects that push the boundaries of Classical music.

The Trio tours regularly throughout North America and Europe. It enjoys longstanding relationships with prominent festivals and arts incubators like Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Orford Music Academy, Music Toronto, Ottawa Chamberfest, and Festival del Lago International Academy of Music in Ajijic, Mexico. Gryphon Trio often performs triple concerti with the world’s major symphony orchestras and smaller chamber orchestras.

Gryphon Trio’s prolific recording catalogue includes 22 releases on Analekta, Naxos, and other labels; it is an encyclopaedia of works for the genre. Honours include 11 nominations and three Juno Awards for Classical Album of the Year in 2004, 2011, and most recently in 2019. In 2013, Canada Council for the Arts presented Gryphon Trio with the prestigious Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.

The Gryphons are deeply committed to community engagement, education, and the development of next-generation audiences and performers. They conduct masterclasses and workshops at universities and conservatories. They are ensemble-in-residence at the Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts in Kingston, Ontario, and artists-in-residence at Trinity College, University of Toronto. Since 2010, the Trio’s ground-breaking outreach program, Listen Up!, has inspired 16 Canadian communities to collaborate on large-scale multifaceted arts creation projects. The Trio leads Orford Music Academy’s Piano Trio Workshop and directs the Classical Music Summer Programs at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

From 2007 to 2020, Roman Borys was Artistic Director of the Ottawa Chamber Music Society; Annalee Patipatanakoon and Jamie Parker served as OCMS’ Artistic Advisors. Mr. Parker is the Rupert E. Edwards Chair in Piano Performance at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Ms. Patipatanakoon is Associate Professor of Violin and Performance Area Chair of Strings.