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When Frederick the Great took time off from running his empire, one of his favourite ways to unwind was to play the flute. When Louis XIV had a hard time getting to sleep, he often requested that flute music be played in his chambers to quell his insomnia. And when flute players today get together to play chamber music just for pleasure, they have some of their greatest fun with music from the 18th century.
Presented by North Wind Concerts on Friday June 2, Traverso-Palooza offersToronto music lovers the opportunity to experience the soft, languid and colourful sounds of the Baroque flute, in various groupings, and see why its music was – and remains - such a delight.
Tmhe program includes usic from the Baroque and modern eras for one, three and five flutes, including works by BOISMORTIER, QUANTZ, DORNEL, HOTTETERRE, WOOLLEN, and the performers.
With LESLIE ALLT, LAURA CHAMBERS, JIN CHO, ANTHEA CONWAY-WHITE, ALISON MELVILLE & EMILY RICHARDSON, Baroque flutes.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
LESLIE ALLT is a Toronto-based poly-flutist who is known for combining finesse with versatility. As Principal Flute for the National Ballet of Canada and regular guest principal with the Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo orchestras, he is a respected classical orchestral player and soloist. He is also an avid chamber musician, and has performed with Art of Time, Amici Ensemble, New Music Concerts, Arraymusic, and for such festivals as Elora, Luminato, and Festival of the Sound. He has performed on traverso with the Nota Bene Baroque Players and LARK ensemble. Leslie is also an experienced jazz musician. He appears on multiple recordings and has performed with such artists as Ray Charles, Sophie Millman, Diana Krall, and David Amram, as well as the Toronto International Jazz festival. Leslie’s practice room is full of international flutes too numerous to list. Whether it’s for penny whistles, panpipes, ocarina, or the Chinese dizi, he is regularly called on to play for film scores, recordings, and theatre productions such as The Lion King and Lord of the Rings. He was featured in Atom Egoyan's 'Feng Yi Ting,’ and has performed on north Indian bansuri at both the Lincoln Center in New York, and Washington’s Kennedy Center.
Principal flute of the London Symphonia, LAURA CHAMBERS performs regularly as a soloist, orchestral and chamber musician with ensembles across North America. Flexible in musical genre, she is featured on Billboard #1 Jazz album Cuphead and is a favourite collaborator of Juno nominated folk singer-song writer Dayna Manning. She is also a founding member of Charm of Finches, Canada’s only professional flute quintet. A lover of the outdoors, her performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for an audience of over 30,000 at sunset in the Nevadan desert is her most memorable to date. A passionate educator, Laura’s teaching studio consists of students spanning in age from 5 to 85, and she is welcomed as guest clinician at schools, music camps and festival workshops across Canada. In addition to her performance and private teaching, Laura is a PhD candidate at York University where her research is focused on the recontextualization and sustainability of classical music in today’s world.
JIN CHO specializes in historical and contemporary performance on baroque flute, modern flute an Korean daegeum. Born and raised in South Korea, Jin started learning flute under his father’s influence who was a singer and a music teacher at junior highschool. After some years of studies and achievements through competitions in Korea, Jin left home to study at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. After a year of study, he left Vienna, went to the States and completed his undergraduate study at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University where he also received Master’s degree and Artist Diploma in modern flute performance. During his study in the U.S, Jin was introduced to baroque flute and he went on to study historical performance at the master’s level at the University of Toronto, where he also started to collaborate with contemporary composers and experiment with new techniques that expand the expressive range of the Baroque flute as well as making arrangements of J.S Bach keyboard works for flute and guitar duo. In between his studies, Jin was a recipient of Rebanks International Fellowship at the Royal Conservatory of Music and commissioned four new chamber works featuring different characters of the modern flute family. Jin is currently based in Toronto, where he performs as a soloist and ensemble musician. Jin has performed with the Toronto Bach Festival, Georgetown Bach Chorale, 21C Festival, L’Orchestre de la Francophonie, Baltimore Baroque Band, Symphony Number One, Bel Cantati Opera, Aspen New Music Ensemble and Lucerne Festival Alumni Ensemble in addition to solo and chamber music performances in South Korea, Canada, United States, Austria, South Africa, India, China, Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy.
ANTHEA CONWAY-WHITE earned a Master of Music in Historical Performance from the Royal College of Music (London, UK) where she studied baroque flute with Rachel Brown. She also has an Honours Bachelor of Music with majors in Performance, History, and Theory from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Performer’s ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Anthea won Laurier’s Faculty of Music’s Alumni Gold Medal (2014), a Leading Edge Award from Arts Awards Waterloo Region (2014), and the Royal Conservatory’s Gold Medal for Music Theory (2012). A freelance performer on baroque and modern flutes, Anthea has performed with many ensembles, including Cor Unum Ensemble, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra, Nota Bene Baroque Players, Spiritus Ensemble, Theatre of Early Music, Toronto Bach Festival, and Toronto Masque Theatre. Anthea is also a passionate teacher, running her own studio in Waterloo as well as teaching at the Kitchener-Waterloo Bilingual School and Renaissance School of the Arts.
Though born in Toronto, ALISON MELVILLE began her musical life in a school classroom in London (UK). Her subsequent career as a player of recorders and historical flutes has taken her across North America and to New Zealand, Iceland, Japan and Europe. Besides making regular appearances with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra as orchestral player and/or soloist, Alison is a member of Toronto Consort and Ensemble Polaris, Artistic Co-Director of North Wind Concerts, and collaborates in many varied artistic endeavours in Canada and beyond. A few favourite memories include live-to-film performances of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azbakan; with the Toronto Symphony and London Symphonia; solo school shows in inner-city London (UK); an improvised duet for Baroque flute and acrobat in northern Finland; and, oh yes, a summer of concerts in Ontario prisons. Her extensive international television, film and radio credits include soundtracks for The Tudors, CBC-TV’s beloved The Friendly Giant, films by Malcolm Sutherland, Atom Egoyan, Ang Lee and others, and she can be heard on over 65 CDs including several critically acclaimed solo recordings. Over the Covid-19 live performance shutdown she appeared in filmed concerts and online projects with Tafelmusik, Toronto Consort, Opera Atelier, the Bach Children’s Chorus, Toronto Bach Festival, Chamber Music Society of Mississauga, Guelph Improvisation Festival, and others.
EMILY RICHARDSON is an avid performer of music both early and modern. She has performed with ensembles including the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Symphony 21, and the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra. Her enthusiasm for concert programming led her to form Artemisia Duo, which has been featured in concert series such as the Roedde House Museum series and the VSO Day of Music. Originally from Calgary, Emily completed her Bachelor and Masters degrees in modern flute performance at the University of British Columbia under the guidance of VSO principal flutist Christie Reside. She is currently studying with Kelly Zimba Lukić, principal flutist of the TSO, at the University of Toronto. Inspired by her love for Bach, Emily began playing the baroque flute during her Masters degree. Since then, she has attended Victoria Baroque’s summer institute and performed with leading period instruments as part of the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme, a collaboration between UBC, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and Early Music Vancouver. In 2021, she was awarded a scholarship from Early Music Vancouver to learn from Victoria-based baroque flutist Soile Stratkauskas.
Featured Program
J.B. de BOISMORTIER: Concertos for five flutes, op. 15, nos. 3 and 6
BOISMORTIER: Trio, op. 7 no. 6
L-A DORNEL: Trio pour flütes sans basse, op. 3 no. 7
J.J. QUANTZ: Trio in D major
RUSSELL WOOLLEN: Moderato from Sonatina for three recorders
J-M HOTTETERRE: Ecos
Improvised surprises