Take Note

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 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.