The Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra goals to mark the vacations with a celebratory program that brings the spirit of New Yr’s Eve to the center of December. Their live performance New Yr’s Eve! takes place on December 13, and options 14 yr outdated Wachiyo Cho, the winner of the 2025 North York Music Pageant Concerto Competitors as a soloist.
“Vacation-ish — we’ll name it vacation adjoining,” says CSBO Music Director Martin MacDonald.
“Yearly, we attempt to do one thing that’s seasonal […] however we nonetheless have meaty repertoire for the orchestra to play.”
Theme: New Yr’s Eve
This system consists of the type of music that’s typical for a New Yr’s Eve/Day live performance. The checklist consists of:
- Strauss, Jr.: Fledermaus: Overture
- Godfrey Ridout: Frivolités Canadiennes (1973)
- Strauss, Jr.: Thunder and Lightning Polka, Op. 324
- Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 22
- Verdi: Nabucco: Overture
- Lehar: Gold and Silver Waltz, Op. 79
- Rimsky-Korsakov: Polonaise from Christmas Eve Suite
- Bizet: L’Arlésienne: Suite No. 2
- Strauss, Sr.: Radetzky March, Op. 228
“We couldn’t do it with out the Strausses,” MacDonald says.
“Die Fledermaus is a basic New Yr’s Eve/New Yr’s Day [piece],” he says. “It’s type of a mixture of the 2. Come have a good time New Yr’s Eve on December 13, which is the alternative of 31,” he laughs.
Incorporating polkas and waltzes, it’s a typical Viennese-style vacation program in lots of respects. The Overture to Nabucco features a reference to opera, one other European New Yr custom.
“We’ve been doing these holiday-ish packages yearly now. We simply thought we’d change it up this yr.”
Exterior the vacation theme, Wachiyo Cho will carry out the primary two actions from Henryk Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2. As MacDonald factors out, the work has turn out to be a typical within the concerto repertoire for violinists.
“It’s very tuneful and romantic — an enormous, flashy violin concerto.”
Wachiyo Cho started finding out the violin earlier than shifting to Canada. She at present research on the Taylor Academy at The Royal Conservatory of Music on a scholarship with Dr. Timothy Ying. Wachiyo has received a number of awards, together with the primary prize within the North York Music Pageant’s Concerto Competitors, which garnered her the efficiency with the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra. She has served because the concertmaster of the Junior Chamber Orchestra, and is devoted to utilizing music as group service. She performs every year at nursing properties every year, and in 2024, took half within the Violins of Hope exhibition.
Wachiyo Cho performs the third motion of the Bruch G Minor Violin Concerto:
Christmas itself isn’t ignored in this system. MacDonald notes that Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite does embrace a nod to the Christmas season, incorporating the normal Provençal carol March of the Kings within the final motion. “The Lehar Gold & Silver Waltz sounds fairly Christmassy,” he provides. As well as, Rimsky Korsakoff’s Polonaise comes from his Christmas Eve Suite.
Canadian Content material
“The enjoyable one from me is the Godfrey Ridout,” Martin says. “He’s from the outdated guard of Canadian composers.”
Ridout’s Frivolités Canadiennes relies on melodies by Joseph Vézina, an older conductor, composer, organist and music professor (1849 – 1924) who lived in Québec Metropolis.
Godfrey Ridout (1918 – 1984) was a composer, trainer, author, and conductor who was born in Toronto. He studied organ and counterpoint on the Toronto Conservatory of Music with Charles Peaker. He additionally studied conducting (with Ettore Mazzoleni), and piano (with Weldon Kilburn). He obtained a scholarship for his piece Ballade for Viola and Strings in 1938, which allowed him to proceed finding out. The Ballade received him recognition early in his profession, and was carried out in Canada, america, and Nice Britain.
He started educating at TCM in 1940, and later on the College of Toronto in 1948, the place continued educating till his retirement in 1982 as professor emeritus.
“The final motion is a march, a waltz, and a presto,” MacDonald describes. “It provides the musicians a little bit of a exercise,” he provides. “It’s very tonal within the Viennese model. It’s a really unknown piece. It doesn’t get a lot play.”
The Live performance
“Radetzky March is the encore,” MacDonald finishes.
Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestra’s NEW YEAR’S EVE! live performance takes place December 13 on the Chinese language Cultural Centre of Higher Toronto.
- Discover live performance particulars and tickets [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 a long time, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.
