Three nights only!

The works of well-known & emerging composers, including world premieres

Soundstreams presents Keyed Up!, a three-day festival featuring exceptional artists performing compelling works for various combinations of piano, harpsichord, electronic keyboard and digital organ from Canada and around the world. On from Thursday, April 18 to Saturday, April 20, 2024, the program features three festival concerts, each taking place at the Jane Mallett Theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts at 7:30 PM.

The festival features, among other pieces, portions of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations, an iconic piece of Western classical music from the mid-1700s consisting of one aria and its 30 variations. Keyed Up! also includes world premieres by four Canadian composers and a showcase of new works by six emerging composers from around the world.

 

Keyed Up! #1: Variations on Goldberg Variations (Thursday, April 18)

The festival opens with a dazzling array of newly composed, world premiere variations on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations by four extraordinary Canadian composers: Taylor Brook, Dorothy Chang, Emily Doolittle and André Ristic.

In the first half, the commissioned variations are each preceded by the aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The composers represent not only a diversity of aesthetics, but the newly-composed variations will alternate between types of keyboards – an impressive wave of complementary and contrasting textures performed by four brilliant artists: Gregory Oh (electronic keyboard), Wesley Shen (harpsichord), Jackie Leung (piano) and John Paul Farahat (digital organ).

In the second half, distinguished Australian composer and pianist Paul Grabowsky returns to Soundstreams — nearly a decade after bringing his boundary-breaking Australian Art Orchestra to Canada — with the North American premiere of Improvisations on the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, his jazz-inflected take on Bach’s masterpiece.

 

Keyed Up! #2: Notations – an RBC Bridges Composer Showcase (Friday, April 19)

“Notations” is defined as elements in a specialized system such as music (Collins Dictionary). In this special showcase, you’ll hear the world premieres of six keyboard pieces! The first half of this free program showcases new works by emerging composers, participants in this year’s RBC Bridges program, chosen through a juried international competition: Uko Abara, Alexandra Gorlin-Crenshaw, Gustav Knudson, Maria-Eduarda Mendes Martins, Prokhor Protasoff and Hsiu-Ping Patrick Wu. Their pieces will be performed by the RBC Bridges resident ensemble: Gregory Oh (piano), Wesley Shen (harpsichord), Jackie Leung (electronic keyboard) and John Paul Farahat (digital organ).

The second half showcases the talents of individual members of this illustrious resident ensemble in short works by four celebrated composers: T. REX by Ana Sokolović (North American premiere), performed by John Paul Farahat; Mutations by Alvin Singleton, performed by Jackie Leung; Toile de Jouy by Monica Pearce, performed by Wesley Shen; and Glass Houses (#5) by Ann Southam, performed by Gregory Oh. (Notations is free, with registration, as a single concert, or automatically included in the festival pass.)

 

Keyed Up! #3: 6 Pianos 12 Hands (Saturday, April 20)

For the festival’s finale, three spectacular works for six grand pianos: Steve Reich’s iconic Six Pianos, Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air and André Ristic’s Vivaldi Variations, plus works for two pianos by Ana Sokolović and Julia Wolfe.

Steve Reich and Terry Riley have each had a profound influence on the way we listen to music. Reich, the American composer described by The New Yorker as “the most original musical thinker of our time”, recognized early in his career the power of multiple pianos, a discovery that’s brilliantly on display in his mesmerizing Six Pianos. This seminal work is combined with Terry Riley’s A Rainbow in Curved Air, from the same period as Six Pianos. This evening also features a reprise of Ristic’s Soundstreams-commissioned Vivaldi Variations and includes two exceptional works for two pianos: Trois Études by Ana Sokolović and My Lips From Speaking by Julia Wolfe. Pianists performing in this concert include Stephanie Chua, Geoffrey Conquer, Simon Docking, Gregory Oh, Midori Koga and Wesley Shen.

“Themed concerts are what Soundstreams does, but in our 41 years, we’ve never focused on keyboards – surely a lapse – they’re ubiquitous in virtually every genre of Western music. Keyed Up! is the answer to that lapse. Whether new works inspired by giants of the repertoire like Bach, or iconic ones for multiple pianos like Reich’s “Six Pianos”, there’s a richness of texture and timbre, a diversity of genre and a dazzling array of gifted composers and performers never heard together on the same stage before. What an opportunity!”

— Lawrence Cherney,

Founding Artistic Director of Soundstreams

A Prelude to Keyed Up! Recovered Voices: TD Encounters (Wednesday, April 3)

Celebrating piano works of unsung masters from the 20th and 21st centuries, this free concert takes place at the Temerty Theatre in the Royal Conservatory of Music. The program offers a rare opportunity to discover memorable works by North American composers, performed by rising stars currently enrolled at our most prestigious training institutions: The Royal Conservatory of Music’s Glenn Gould School and Taylor Academy in Toronto; and McGill University’s Schulich School of Music in Montreal. The program includes: Fantasie Négre by Florence Price and In The Bottoms – IV: Barcarolle by R. Nathaniel Dett, both performed by Elijah Stevens; Frozen Road by Ian Cusson, performed by Jesse Plessis; and Troubled Water by Margaret Bonds, performed by Irene Huang.

About RBC Bridges

The RBC Bridges program offers audiences a chance to hear some of the world’s most promising composers at early stages of their careers. It’s an annual week-long program that offers free tuition, accommodation and a commissioning fee to six emerging Canadian and international composers who are asked to write short new works. Participants get to work with celebrated mentors and a resident ensemble of seasoned professional performers, participating in rehearsals and workshops, and culminating in a performance of all six works, this year as part of Soundstreams’ Keyed Up! Festival.

About Soundstreams

Under the leadership of its Founding Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney, Soundstreams began in 1982 with a tribute to Igor Stravinsky’s 100th birth year, an artist who fundamentally transformed the ways we hear our world. In the intervening years, Soundstreams has probed compelling Canadian themes and stories through new works in music and opera that resonate with our time and place.

Soundstreams has created a platform for new creations both at home and abroad and they are now a global leader in the presentation of innovative, carefully curated and immersive musical experiences, showcasing the work of living Canadian and global composers/musicians. Their various Toronto-based concert series, educational and outreach events and professional development programs have showcased nearly 1,500 global creators and performers in collaboration with their Canadian counterparts. In recent seasons, Soundstreams has received high praise from the international press and their productions have toured North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe.

(Photo credits: Soundstreams.)

 

Event details

Hosted by: Soundstreams

Type of event: music performance with keyboard instruments

Featured composers & musicians: Please refer to the individual performances noted above

Dates:

• Keyed Up! #1: Variations on Goldberg Variations on Thursday, April 18
• Keyed Up! #2: Notations – An RBC Bridges Composer Showcase on Friday, April 19
• Keyed Up! #3: 6 Pianos 12 Hands on Saturday, April 20
• A Prelude to Keyed Up! Recovered Voices: TD Encounters on Wednesday, April 3

Start times: All performances @ 7:30 PM ET

Duration: TBA

Cost:

• Starting at C$36.50 for individual tickets ($69.25 & $101.25).
• Festival Pass available from C$56.50 ($90.40 & $135.60).
• Applicable box office fees may apply.
• Keyed Up! #2: Notations is free with registration as a single concert, or automatically included in the festival pass.
• Recovered Voices: TD Encounters is free to attend with prior registration.

Location:

• for Keyed Up! #1, #2 and #3 (April 18 – 20): Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front St. East, Toronto, ON, M5E 1B4
• A Prelude to Keyed Up! Recovered Voices: TD Encounters (April 3): Temerty Theatre, the Royal Conservatory of Music, 273 Bloor St. West, 2nd floor, Toronto, ON, M5S 1W2

Booking link:

• Book your tickets and passes for Keyed Up! #1, #2, and #3 here.
• Register for Recovered Voices: TD Encounters here.

Contact details: Soundstreams, 20 St. Joseph Street, Toronto, ON, M4Y 1J9, Canada; TO Live box office for this event: 416-366-7723 or 1-800-708-6754; boxoffice@tolive.com; soundstreams.ca

 

Accessibility: The lower lobby of the Jane Mallett Theatre is accessible for patrons using wheelchairs or other mobility-assistive devices. The Jane Mallett Theatre has dedicated accessible seating locations on the orchestra level, plus other seating suitable for patrons with limited mobility. For more info on the space and getting there, please see the venue guide. The Temerty Theatre at the Royal Conservatory of Music has flexible seating and can accommodate unlimited persons seated in wheelchairs or using mobility devices, up to capacity. Please see their accessibility info here.

Refund policy: Please contact the organizer.