Mozart Together
Toronto, February 11, 2021 … Tafelmusik is delighted to announce a free broadcast of its digital concert Mozart Together in recognition of National Psychology Month. The program directed by Elisa Citterio was filmed at Koerner Hall last fall and is devoted to chamber music originally intended to be played in private homes and salon gatherings among friends and family. Mozart Together is available until February 28 on Tafelmusik’s YouTube channel. Other free digital offerings this month, including an online concert featuring Tafelmusik musicians and their children for Family Day, and a conversation between Chineke! Orchestra founder Chi-chi Nwanoku and Tafelmusik double bassist Pippa MacMillan, are outlined below.
“The winter can be a challenging time for our mental health, especially now,” said Carol Kehoe, Executive Director. “As engaged citizens, we feel it is Tafelmusik’s responsibility to bring as much comfort and joy to the community as possible. It is our hope that this small gesture can bring the beauty of music to those who need it most right now.”
Filmed in September 2020, Mozart Together marked the first performance by Tafelmusik musicians following many months of isolation and remote music making. The program reveals a more playful side of titans like Mozart, Beethoven, and Boccherini, including a movement from Mozart’s famous Sinfonia concertante in E-flat Major in an unusual arrangement for six string instruments, along with music by Michael Haydn, Družeckŷ, Sperger, and Spohr — classical composers eclipsed by these giants. Scored for two to eight instruments, these intimate works capture the immediacy and connection we have all been craving.
Other Tafelmusik digital offerings in February include a combination of free and ticketed events, including two co-presentations with the Toronto Black Film Festival in recognition of Black History Month.
February digital offerings:
- A free broadcast over Family Day weekend of Tafelmusik & Family featuring performances by Tafelmusik musicians alongside their children. Premieres February 15 at 1pm, streaming to February 28, 2021.
- Il Seicento, February 18, 2021. A concert of innovative music by trendsetting Italian composers who ushered in the new baroque style during the 1600s. Curated entirely by Elisa Citterio, this program includes music by early innovators like Marini, Castello, Kapsperger, and Falconieri, who were at the vanguard of European musical trends. The music they composed was fresh and daring in its use of free form and improvisation.
$25 single tickets include a 48-hour viewing window and are available at tafelmusik.org - A conversation between two double bassists, Chi-chi Nwanoku and Tafelmusik’s own Pippa Macmillan, streaming freestarting February 26, 2021. A towering figure on the international music scene, Nwanoku is a principal, chamber, and solo musician and professor of historical double bass at the Royal Academy of Music. Born in London UK of Nigerian/Irish heritage, she founded Chineke! Orchestra with the mission of championing change and celebrating diversity in classical music. Co-presented by the Toronto Black Film Festival and Tafelmusik.
- Neojiba: Music That Changes Lives, a documentary feature film by Sergio Machado and George Walker Torres exploring the changes that instrumental practice promotes in the lives of members of a youth orchestra in Bahia, Brazil. Co-presented by the Toronto Black Film Festival and Tafelmusik. Tickets are $8. Online from February 10 to 21, 2021 at torontoblackfilm.com.
Tafelmusik’s Winter Season is presented by BMO Financial Group.
LISTING INFORMATION
Mozart Together
Elisa Citterio directs a concert featuring chamber music byMozart, Beethoven, and Boccherini, and others, through February 28, 2021. FREE at Tafelmusik’s YouTube channel
Tafelmusik & Family
featuring performances by Tafelmusik musicians alongside their children. Premieres February 15 at 1pm, streaming to February 28, 2021. FREE at Tafelmusik’s YouTube channel
Il Seicento
Elisa Citterio directs a program of innovative music by trendsetting Italian composers who ushered in the new baroque style during the 1600s. $25 single tickets include a 48-hour viewing window and are available at tafelmusik.org
Double bassists Chi-chi Nwanoku, founder of Chineke! Orchestra, and Tafelmusik’s own Pippa Macmillan in a wide-ranging conversation about the role of musical mentors and the importance of celebrating diversity in classical music. Co-presented by the Toronto Black Film Festival and Tafelmusik. From February 26, 2021. FREE at Tafelmusik’s YouTube channel
Neojiba: Music That Changes Lives
A documentary feature film exploring the lives of members of a youth orchestra in Bahia, Brazil. February 10 to 21, 2021.Co-presented by the Toronto Black Film Festival and Tafelmusik.
$8 tickets are available at torontoblackfilm.com.
ABOUT TAFELMUSIK
Led by Music Director Elisa Citterio and Executive Director Carol Kehoe, Tafelmusik is an orchestra, choir, and experience that celebrates beauty through music of the past.
Founded over 40 years ago on the pillars of passion, learning, and artistic excellence, Tafelmusik continues to bring new energy to baroque music and beyond. Historically informed performances of 17th- to 19th-century instrumental and choral music (led by Chamber Choir Director Ivars Taurins) share the stage with vibrant, insightful multimedia programs, and bold new music written just for the group. Each piece is played on period instruments, underscored and illuminated by scholarship.
Through dynamic performances, international touring, award-winning recordings, and comprehensive education programs, Tafelmusik invites audiences to engage with beauty and experience the breadth of emotion music can inspire.
Media contact: Luisa Trisi, Big Picture Communications, (416) 456-0499
luisa@luisatrisi.com | 427 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON M5S 1X7