Toronto, SoloDuo, and Celso
After a 9 hour car trek to Toronto, Ontario from Boston with my friend Josh Tevekelian, we attended the concert of the newest Pomegranate Music artists, SoloDuo. Consisting of guitarists Lorenzo Michelo and Matteo Mela of Italy, the guys took the stage in front of a sold out crowd at Heliconian Club on Hazelton Street in the boutique district of Toronto. The show was sponsored by the Guitar Society of Toronto. They performed the Astor Piazzolla "Tango Suite" as well as music by Andrew Zohn, Antoine de Lhoyer, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Nicola Campogrande, and Mauro Giuliani. A challenging program, but effortlessly peformed. It was a relief not having anything to do with organizing the concert, rather, I just sat back and enjoyed while other sold the CD's of "Solaria", our newest release. The official release date is April 17th, but, the CD is available at SoloDuo shows before the in-store release. The crowd was full of guitar afficionados, students, and folks like me who just enjoy listening to classical guitar music.
Today, I attended a portion of the master classes given by Lorenzo and Matteo at St. Hilda's College, within the the Trinity College campus right at University of Toronto. Great college scene there bustling with activity. After staying for about an hour at the master class, I wandered over the Toronto's premier classical/world/jazz music store, L'Atlier Grigorian. What a pleasure to speak with the owner, Harmik and his business parter Victor. It's a jem of a store right in the Yorkville district. He has a store in Montreal as well as few others in the Toronto area. Yep, you guessed it, he is Armenian. It's the type of place one can get lost browsing titles and enjoying their superior service. For us record store junkies, it's a rare find. The place had posters of Isabel Bayrakdarian all over the place. It was great to see an Armenian so respected by the general music community in Canada.
After the master class and record store jaunt, Josh and I hit the town a little and eat some middle eastern food near the CN Tower. Toronto is definately a multi-cultural city, and much larger than I thought. It's the third or fourth largest North American city. While I still prefer Montreal, Toronto is quite nice and comfortable.
In the evening, I was invited to the home of Eli Kassner, the godfather of the classical guitar movement in Toronto. At 83 , he still throws a great party as most of the members of the Toronto classical guitar elite were there, his guitar students past and present, as well as their guests of honor Lorenzo and Matteo. However, Eli had another special guest, that of Celso Machado.
I had heard of Celso by more than a few people as those who have either performed with him or know him personally have tried to hook us up professionally. Seems like he is looking for a music label, and I am looking to expand my boundaries and present a wider array of world music. A local Toronto scribe, Jack Silver had already spoken both Celso and I about each other and once I met the musical master of Brasilieros, I was really impressed by him personally. His impromptu concert at Mr. Kassner's house was really quite nice. Celso was in town from Vancouver finishing up a Canadian Broadcasting System recording. A CBC recording engineer was at Mr. Kassner's party and he offered to take 25 copies of our SoloDuo recording "Solaria" and distribute them to radio stations and press folks on our behalf.
Thus far, Canada, and Toronto have come up Aces in terms of cultural depth and progress for some of my projects. Let's see what happens in Montreal next week.
Today, I attended a portion of the master classes given by Lorenzo and Matteo at St. Hilda's College, within the the Trinity College campus right at University of Toronto. Great college scene there bustling with activity. After staying for about an hour at the master class, I wandered over the Toronto's premier classical/world/jazz music store, L'Atlier Grigorian. What a pleasure to speak with the owner, Harmik and his business parter Victor. It's a jem of a store right in the Yorkville district. He has a store in Montreal as well as few others in the Toronto area. Yep, you guessed it, he is Armenian. It's the type of place one can get lost browsing titles and enjoying their superior service. For us record store junkies, it's a rare find. The place had posters of Isabel Bayrakdarian all over the place. It was great to see an Armenian so respected by the general music community in Canada.
After the master class and record store jaunt, Josh and I hit the town a little and eat some middle eastern food near the CN Tower. Toronto is definately a multi-cultural city, and much larger than I thought. It's the third or fourth largest North American city. While I still prefer Montreal, Toronto is quite nice and comfortable.
In the evening, I was invited to the home of Eli Kassner, the godfather of the classical guitar movement in Toronto. At 83 , he still throws a great party as most of the members of the Toronto classical guitar elite were there, his guitar students past and present, as well as their guests of honor Lorenzo and Matteo. However, Eli had another special guest, that of Celso Machado.
I had heard of Celso by more than a few people as those who have either performed with him or know him personally have tried to hook us up professionally. Seems like he is looking for a music label, and I am looking to expand my boundaries and present a wider array of world music. A local Toronto scribe, Jack Silver had already spoken both Celso and I about each other and once I met the musical master of Brasilieros, I was really impressed by him personally. His impromptu concert at Mr. Kassner's house was really quite nice. Celso was in town from Vancouver finishing up a Canadian Broadcasting System recording. A CBC recording engineer was at Mr. Kassner's party and he offered to take 25 copies of our SoloDuo recording "Solaria" and distribute them to radio stations and press folks on our behalf.Thus far, Canada, and Toronto have come up Aces in terms of cultural depth and progress for some of my projects. Let's see what happens in Montreal next week.
posted by Raffi at 10:43 AM
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