Tafelmusik
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- This article is about The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. For information about the musical term, see Tafelmusik
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The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (also known as Tafelmusik) is a Canadian baroque orchestra specializing in early music. They often perform with choir and play on period instruments.
The orchestra was founded in 1979 by oboist Kenneth Solway and bassoonist Susan Graves. Violinist Jeanne Lamon has been its musical director since 1981.
The orchestra has 19 full-time members who specialize in historical performance and technique, with additional musicians joining the ensemble when required.
The Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, under the direction of Ivars Taurins, was formed in 1981 to complement the orchestra.
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[edit] Performing
Tafelmusik performs over 50 concerts for it subscription season at its home venue in Trinity-St. Paul's United Church, a historic church in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto, with selected performances at the George Weston Recital Hall in the Toronto Centre for the Arts. They have also partnered with Canada's Baroque opera company, Opera Atelier, for many of their productions.
Its annual Messiah and Sing Along Messiah have become very popular events during Toronto's Christmas season.
The orchestra tours about twelve weeks each year across Canada, the United States and Europe. It has also toured in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong and Japan, as well as Israel and Greece.
Since 1993, Tafelmusik has been orchestra in residence at the German Klang und Raum Festival in the small village of Irsée in Bavaria.
The University of Toronto Faculty of Music has partnered with Tafelmusik and appointed the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra as its Baroque Orchestra in Residence in 2004/05 until 2007/08.
In 2002 the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute was created to provide pre-professional and professional musicians with a unique training programme in instrumental and vocal baroque performance practice. The institute is a two week program consisting of masterclasses, private lessons, choral and orchestral rehearsals and small ensemble work.
[edit] Awards
- 2006 Juno Award for Children's Album Of The Year - Baroque Adventure: The Quest for Arundo Donax, and Classical Album of the Year
- The 1996 Echo Klassik Award for Best Orchestra of the Year (Germany's highest recording accolade)
- Four Canadian Juno Awards for Best Classical Album, most recently in 1995 for Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
The orchestra's recordings have also received the following awards:
- Diapason D'Or awards
- Record of the Year in Absolute Sound Magazine
- Disc of the Month in CD Review
- Nominations for Record of the Year in Gramophone Magazine
- England's The Penguin Guide has awarded Tafelmusik's recording of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons its highest accolade — the Rosette in 1994.
[edit] Discography
The orchestra records exclusively on the Sony Classical label including Sony Classical's Vivarte series. Some of its over 50 recordings include:
- Bach's Brandenburg Concertos
- The Mozart Requiem (directed by Bruno Weil)
- The complete piano concertos of Beethoven (with Jos van Immerseel as soloist and conducted by Bruno Weil)
- Works by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach
- Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks coupled with Concerti a due cori Nos. 1-3
- Works by Salamone Rossi
