by Charlotte Nediger
To judge by the crowds that flocked to Holy Trinity Church last night, musical Toronto has been hungering for a baroque orchestra.
The Toronto Star, May 10, 1979
The orchestra the crowds flocked to hear was the "Festival Baroque Orchestra," and the concert the finale of "A Spring Festival of Baroque Music," organized by a an instrumental trio named Tafelmusik and the Toronto Chamber Music Collective, both spearheaded by oboist Kenneth Solway and bassoonist Susan Graves. Kenny and Susan had studied baroque oboe, recorder and bassoon at the Royal Conservatory of the Hague in Holland, and returned to Toronto full of enthusiasm, energy and ambition. They formed the Toronto Chamber Music Collective and presented concerts of baroque and contemporary music. In the spring of 1979 they mounted a series of concerts, bringing in musicians such as recorder player Marion Verbruggen and violinists Jeanne Lamon and Dana Maiben to perform chamber music with them. While in town these guests held classes to introduce local players to period performance. Finally, on May 9, a great experiment was presented to the public: a baroque orchestra made up of a combination of experienced period players and modern players with baroque instruments in their hands. The programme was all Bach, and featured soprano Rosemarie Landry and harpsichordists Scott Ross and Valerie Weeks in solo roles.
I was in the audience: my boyfriend (now husband) Ivars Taurins was the violist in the orchestra, and Valerie Weeks was a friend. The atmosphere was electric, and the sound of the orchestra fresh -- and surprisingly good. Included in the house programme was a section titled "Tafelmusik News," written by Kenneth Solway and excerpted here:
And so concludes "A Spring Festival of Baroque Music" with tonight's concert. These concerts have been incredibly educating for us as they represent our first attempt in presenting a major music series in this city. Not everything has gone as planned, and we have not been without problems, but generally speaking we are really quite pleased. We look forward to more and better presentations in the future.
Tonight's concert represents a step in Toronto's musical history that I hope everyone here will appreciate. A full baroque orchestra on original instruments means an incredible amount of extra work and preparation than is normally needed for a concert presentation. We have spent months finding baroque instruments and equipment, many of which have been so kindly lent to us. And then, a good half of tonight's players have had to completely relearn these new instruments. To meet this challenge we brought to Toronto two expert baroque violinists to coach the strings players: Jeanne Lamon from Boston and Dana Maiben from Rochester.
So why go to all this effort when we could avoid it all and be just like everyone else? It is for the music. We are convinced, as are many people throughout the world, that only through these efforts of authenticity can we bring baroque performance to a truly exciting and inspiring level.
And so we are developing what we hope will grow into a major Toronto arts organization. The baroque orchestra you are hearing tonight was created as an experiment. But we are pleased with the result . . . pleased enough to hope that we can turn this experiment into a permanent institution. In fact we already have a tentative name - Sinfonia Antiqua. And Tafelmusik, which began simply as an instrumental trio might grow into a "foundation for the performance of baroque chamber music" utilizing the members of the orchestra.
Big dreams. Nice dreams. But, the only way we could turn these ideas into reality is to develop a parent organization capable of handling them. That organization is the Toronto Chamber Music Collective (indeed the name might be changed to better represent a baroque orchestra). We urge you, the audience, to take an active part in the development of baroque music in Toronto through your participation in this organization. It is after all YOUR organization. You can become a member of this organization either by volunteering your time or resources, or by making a tax deductible donation in the form of membership. Accompanying this newsletter is a questionnaire outlining many of the ways you can help. Be sure to at least fill in your name and address for our mailing list if you want to know early about next year's concert plans. Although next year's details still have a long way to go, we are hoping to produce a season of both orchestral music and chamber music, including even some works with choir and orchestra. We will again bring to Toronto a good number of guest artists and teachers - both for your benefit and ours.
Big dreams. Nice dreams. Twenty-five years later they have long since turned into reality. The name Tafelmusik was adopted for the orchestra within a few months of the first concert. By 1980 Tafelmusik offered a full ten-concert series at Trinity-St. Paul's. Jeanne Lamon had directed an orchestral concert in April 1980, and in 1981 was invited to take on the role of music director. Alison Mackay, Christina Mahler and I were all part of the orchestra by that point, and violist Ivars Taurins was asked to form the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir. Ottie Lockey took over the management of the organization with as much energy, enthusiasm and determination as the founders. Most importantly, the audience took up Kenny's challenge to embrace the organization as their own. The list of individual donors quickly grew, volunteers knocked at our door, and hard-working board members applauded our efforts on the concert stage while putting in long hours behind the scenes. The rest, as they say, is history. Kenny and Susan eventually moved on to other things, but we are ever grateful for their vision, their devotion, the years of long hours and hard work - and for their chutzpah in realizing what for most others would have remained a dream.
