Take Note

We sat down with lutenist Lucas Harris to have a conversation about early music, Italian culture, lute pedagogy, and more. Lucas is the principle lutenist of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, as well as having been on faculty at Oberlin Conservatory's Baroque Performance Institute, Vancouver Early Music's Baroque Vocal Programme, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and Amherst Early Music.

We welcomed baritone Jonathon Adams for a quick chat about early music, John Dowland, and indigeneity and classical music. Jonathon is a Cree-Métis baritone based in Canada and The Netherlands. They have attended The Royal Academy of Music (London), the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and The Victoria Conservatory of Music where they studied with Nancy Argenta.

We sat down with Music Arts Collective. Music Arts Collective is an online music school founded by an assembly of kindred spirits dedicated to enhancing the well-being of people through engagement in the arts, with music at its heart. Their approach to pedagogy is contemporary and diverse, while remaining rooted in traditions.

We sat down for a talk with historical piano recording expect Mark Ainley. Since his teens he has been active in the curating of and research of historical piano recordings and has gained an international reputation as an expert in this arena: he has written about several legendary pianists for International Piano magazine, Classical Recordings Quarterly, and International Classical Recordings Collector, as well as CD liner notes for various international labels.

We sat down for a chat with harpsichordist Pierre Hantaï. He is known for his recordings of J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, a work that he has since played over a hundred times throughout the world. He has often performed and recorded the Elizabethan repertoire (Bull, Byrd, Farnaby), as well as Bach and Couperin, and has devoted himself profoundly to the works of Domenico Scarlatti, which he has already recorded numerous times and that he wants to make even more familiar to audiences.

Join us for a talk with Romantic Lab. Romantic Lab is a project whose main goal is imitation of historical recordings with the intention of getting a better understanding of the Romantic styles of playing as well as acquiring technical skills to produce the expressive devices we hear on these recordings

We had a discussion with violinist Andrew Wan. As soloist, Wan has appeared in the United States, China, New Zealand, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland and Canada under conductors such as Jean-Claude Casadesus, Maxim Vengerov, Peter Oundjian, Jacques Lacombe, Vasily Petrenko, James DePreist, Marc Piollet and Michael Stern.

We sat down for a talk with pianist Iain Burnside. Internationally acclaimed as a leading collaborative pianist, (pretty much ideal, BBC Music Magazine) Iain Burnside has worked with many of the world's great singers. His discography features over fifty CDs, spanning a huge sweep of repertoire including the Gramophone Award-winning NMC Songbook.

We had a discussion with violinist Jonathan Crow. Jonathan Crow has been Concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) since 2011. Jonathan has also performed as a soloist with most major Canadian orchestras, including the Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras; the National Arts Centre and Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras; the Victoria, Nova Scotia, and Kingston Symphonies; and Orchestra London, under the baton of such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Andrew Davis, Peter Oundjian, Kent Nagano, Mario Bernardi, João Carlos Martins, and Gustavo Gimeno.

We sat down for a talk with conductor Paul McCreesh. First established as the Artistic Director of Gabrieli Consort & Players, he now guest-conducts some of the world's finest orchestras including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Bergen Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, New Japan Philharmonic, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and Dallas Symphony. He is a former Principal Conductor and Artistic Director at the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Lisbon, and served for six seasons as Artistic Director of the Wratislavia Cantans festival in Wrocław, Poland.

Join us for a discussion with pianist Robert Levin. Pianist and Conductor Robert Levin has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia. His solo engagements include the orchestras of Atlanta, Berlin, Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Montreal, Utah and Vienna on the Steinway with such conductors as Semyon Bychkov, James Conlon, Bernard Haitink, Sir Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Simon Rattle and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

We sat down for a chat with composer Andrew Balfour. Balfour is an innovative composer/conductor/singer/sound designer with a large body of choral, instrumental, electro-acoustic and orchestral works, including Take the Indian (a vocal reflection on missing children), Empire Étrange: The Death of Louis Riel, Bawajigaywin (Vision Quest) and Manitou Sky, an orchestral tone poem.

We sat down with Les Dala and singers Robyn Driedger-Klassen and Leah Giselle Field. Dala is currently the conductor of the Vancouver Opera, which Field has also performed with. Driedger-Klassen is a soprano who works with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

We sat down for a discussion with composer Jared Miller. Jared's music has been featured and recognized in the New York Philharmonic's Biennial (2014), the ISCM World Music Days (2017 & 2019), Vancouver's Queer Arts Festival (2010, 2015 & 2019) and the Vancouver and Victoria Symphony's New Music Festivals (2015-2019.)

Join us for a discussion with the Echéa Quartet. The Echéa Quartet was formed in 2017 at the Royal Academy of Music, London. They are recent winners of the ‘Tremplin' at the Philharmonie de Paris's String Quartet Biennale (2020) and prizewinners of the International Anton Rubinstein Competition (2017).

We were joined on our podcast by pianist Larry Weng. Winner of the 2019 NYCA Worldwide Debut Audition and a laureate of the 2016 Queen Elisabeth International Piano Competition, Larry Weng is world renowned concert pianist.

We were joined on our podcast by the founding members of the Tangram Collective. Tangram is a new music movement catalysing transnational imagination and celebrating the vitality of Chinese cultures.

The Rolston String Quartet was formed in the summer of 2013 at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity's Chamber Music Residency. They take their name from Canadian violinist Thomas Rolston, founder and long-time director of the Music and Sound Programs at the Banff Centre.

We chat with Nicolas Namoradze, Prize Laureate of the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition, about his activities during the pandemic and how life has changed since Honens.

We discuss a range of topics with pianist Luke Welch including diversity in classical music, his recently released Piano Practice Guides, his latest performance, and more!

For this episode of Take Note, we welcomed the fantastic icarus Quartet! They're a two-piano, two-percussion ensemble that met at the School of Music, while studying at Yale University.

Superb Canadian classical guitarist, Adam Cicchillitti, joins us for an intimate live concert of acoustic guitar music.

Lucas van Lierop is a versatile singer, performing in operas, oratorios, and song recitals.

A conversation with jazz pianist Emmet Cohen!

We are thrilled to welcome Susan Zhang and Nick Luby of "The Concert Truck". The most innovative concert venue that we've seen, ever!

Join us as we explore timeless standards and gems with the Todd Stewart Trio.

We caught up with choral conductor and artistic director of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Kari Turunen. In our engaging musical conversation we discussed choral music from Finland and beyond.

We chat with NY-based pianist, Larry Weng about how Johannes Brahms went about composing after being in the shadow of Beethoven and Schubert.

We welcome an international panel of orchestral conductors to discuss their activities during the pandemic and to chat about their careers.

We welcome some top choral conductors to a roundtable discussion about choral activities during COVID-19 and how choirs are managing.

We are joined by top pianists to discuss the legacy of Beethoven and his influence on piano music.