ArtwordList

Art of Time Ensemble

Friday March 28 & Saturday March 29, 2008 at 8 pm
Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre, 231 Queens Quay West

Featuring works from Peggy Baker, John Cage, Erich Korngold, James Kudelka, Sergei Prokofiev, William Shakespeare, Richard Strauss

Presented by Peggy Baker, Marc Bendavid, Marie Berard, Andrew Burashko, David Ferry, Tom McCamus, Chick Reid, Cara Ricketts, Rebekah Rimsay, Piotr Stanczyk, Monica Whicher

Tickets: $36 ($25 seniors/students). Call Harbourfront Centre Box Office at 416-973-4000
Information: www.artoftimeensemble.com

Highlighting several of Shakespeare’s most famous scenes, along with dance and music inspired by them, the acclaimed Art of Time Ensemble presents Shakespeare: If Music Be…, a sumptuous multi-disciplinary ode to the greatest English-language playwright ever to put pen to paper. Artistic Director Andrew Burashko brings together some of Canada’s most outstanding artistic talents for this one-of-a-kind event that runs Friday March 28 and Saturday March 29 at 8 pm at Harbourfront Centre’s Enwave Theatre, sponsored by BMO Financial.

The evening is anchored in music inspired by Shakespeare’s work, variously performed by Monica Whicher (soprano), Marie Berard (violin) and Andrew Burashko (who performs on piano in all of the music and dance pieces). The brilliantly inventive program incorporates the following elements:

Whicher and Burashko perform songs for voice and piano from the Viennese (and later Hollywood) composer Erich Korngold (1897-1957) that takes text from various sonnets and plays, including Songs of the Clown from his Twelfth Night. Interspersed throughout these will be a colourful collection of readings about Shakespeare from writers and thinkers such as Henry Miller, Vladimir Nabokov, Harold Pinter and Virginia Woolf, among others.

Award-winning director David Ferry takes the theatrical reins to direct veteran Shaw and Stratford actors (and husband and wife) Tom McCamus and Chick Reid as well as up-and-comers Cara Ricketts and Marc Bendavid as they interpret some of the Bard’s most famous works in addition to the above mentioned readings.
McCamus and Reid perform four amusing short scenes as Benedict and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing, alternating them with Korngold’s suite of four pieces – Much ado about nothing – for violin and piano. McCamus also performs the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet. Ricketts and Bendavid then perform as the star-crossed lovers in the Romeo and Juliet before parting scene from the play followed by Canadian dance legend’s James Kudelka’s Romeo and Juliet Before Parting, set to Sergei Prokofiev’s work of the same name performed by National Ballet of Canada soloists Rebekah Rimsay and Piotr Stanczyk.

This beautiful evening culminates with Ricketts’ performance of Ophelia’s unforgettable mad scene followed by a set of songs for voice and piano by Richard Strauss – Ophelia Lieder – set to the same text; and Peggy Baker in her Why the Brook Wept, set to John Cage’s Ophelia for solo piano, for which she won a Dora Award for Outstanding Performance.

The Art of Time Ensemble, founded by Artistic Director Andrew Burashko, presents performances that are based on classical music but have innovative twists of artistry, often combining contemporary music and media such as dance, film and literature with classical pieces. These concerts provoke, entertain and creatively break down barriers between disciplines, revealing the vibrancy of classical music as a contemporary artistic expression that appeals to a wide range of audiences. CBC Radio critic Michael Crabb called Art of Time “Canada’s most innovative presenters of art-music.”
“Some of the best evenings that I have witnessed in Toronto have been performances by Andrew Burashko’s Art of Time Ensemble – a caravan of classical and popular musicians. Art of Time leaps over the usual barriers of culture. So Schumann and Tolstoy can rub shoulders with Ginsberg and our best contemporary musicians. The result is entertainment that is often thrilling, often full of insights – as in the old values of art that delight and instruct.” – Michael Ondaatje