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Don Anderson

Praised by the Winnipeg Free Press for “an astounding musical career,” Don Anderson is an internationally recognized advocate of classical music. He has more than 35 years’ experience in celebrating it through print, radio, and teaching. He is the author, publisher and distributor of the best-selling book Tuning the Forks: A Celebration of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. It has been hailed as “the best book on music-making in Canada (and for that matter, much wider afield) that I’ve ever read, and a serious work of art in itself.”

– Bramwell Tovey

Don is one of North America’s most widely published authors of program notes. Since he began writing them 32 years ago, he has written more than 160 seasons’ worth, for 25 orchestras, chamber ensembles and schools, from British Columbia and California to New York and Vermont, from Manitoba and Minnesota to Texas and Arkansas, and as far afield as the United Kingdom and Switzerland. His clients have included the major symphonies of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Rochester (New York), and San José (California). He has also written notes for touring performances by the orchestras of Montréal, Ottawa (National Arts Centre Orchestra) and Québec, as well as feature articles for many of his clients. His CD liner notes appear on the CBC, Harmonia Mundi, and TSO Live labels. For the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, he has also written season brochures and concert presentations, and has hosted intermission chats in tandem with world-class solo artists.

Don has contributed articles to magazines in Canada and abroad, such as Opera Canada, the SwissAir Gazette, and the program books of England’s Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He wrote for the Winnipeg Free Press, the city’s major newspaper, over a 25-year period (1977-2002). His contributions included reviews of concerts, recordings, videos and movies, plus feature articles and interviews. He is also a contributor to The Encyclopedia of Manitoba. MORE >>

News

NEXT SEASON’S MUSIC APPRECIATION COURSES ANNOUNCED!

I’ve put together two great courses that I’m sure will intrigue and entertain you. They’re appropriate for all levels of musical knowledge.

BEST OF FRIENDS: MOZART & HAYDN

Two indisputable geniuses of music also happened to be good friends: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn. This richly satisfying course explores their lives and the society in which they lived, and compares and contrasts examples of their greatest music in many forms, from piano solos to chamber music, concertos, symphonies, choral works, dances, serenades, and operas. It pays particular attention to the works they composed during their intense, seven-year personal relationship – and in Haydn’s case, also afterwards.

Their glorious music will be performed by a stellar line-up of celebrated artists, on CD and DVD. Among them are singers Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, and Bryn Terfel; pianists Marc-André Hamelin, and Murray Perahia; cellist Mstislav Rostropovich; pianist/conductor Daniel Barenboim; flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal; conductors Karl Böhm, Sir Neville Marriner, and Sir Georg Solti; the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras; the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; Tafelmusik; the Beaux Arts Trio; and the Lindsay and Gewandhaus String Quartets. You’ll also enjoy the recent, widely acclaimed feature-length DVD documentary, In Search of Haydn.

Student comments on the previous Best of Friends course, which focused on Brahms and Dvořák:

You have increased my enjoyment of these composers so that I listen with different ears and greater appreciation.
It is a treat to appreciate the careful structure of each class; the carefully timed balance of commentary and music, humour, human interest, and the history and artistry.

Daytime Course
Tuesdays, Oct. 15 to Nov. 19
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Location: Millennium Library, 251 Donald St.

Evening Course
Wednesdays, Oct. 16 – Nov. 20
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Location: Manitoba Conservatory of Music & Arts
211 Bannatyne Ave.
Please note: the evening course will be offered if a minimum of eight people enrol.
Fee: $90 (six weeks)
To enrol or for more information, please call the Manitoba Conservatory of Music & Arts at 204 943 6090, or email info@mcma.ca.

Please note that contents, fees, dates and locations are subject to change.

CONCERTO-COPIA

This entertaining and enriching course presents a thorough survey of a popular musical form: the concerto, a piece for one or more solo instruments with orchestral accompaniment. It will present complete concertos for more than 20 featured instruments, representing 400 years of musical styles. In addition to giving all the standard orchestral instruments their time in the spotlight, it includes intriguing works for such offbeat instruments as guitar, saxophone, and percussion, plus concertos for keyboards, and for multiple instruments.

It demonstrates how the form of the concerto developed, and how such great composers as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Strauss, brought all their magnificent talent to bear on writing them. Featured soloists (on CD and DVD) include such brilliant artists as violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Jacqueline du Pré, pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, trumpeter Maurice André, and percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie..

Daytime course
Tuesdays, Apr. 1 – May 6, 2014
10:30 am – 12:30 pm
Location: Millennium Library, 251 Donald St.

Evening course
Wednesdays, Apr. 2 – May 7, 2014
6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Location: Manitoba Conservatory of Music & Arts
211 Bannatyne Ave.
Please note: the evening course will be offered if a minimum of eight people enrol.
Fee: $90 (six weeks)
To enrol or for more information, please call the Manitoba Conservatory of Music & Arts at 204 943 6090, or email info@mcma.ca.

Please note that contents, fees, dates and locations are subject to change.

PARIS TOUR CANCELLED

I regret to announce that the proposed musical tour of Paris has been cancelled, due to insufficient enrolement. My thanks to everyone who expressed an interest in it, and to Irene Neustaedter of Around the World in 80 Ways for all her hard work on the project.

JOIN DON TO CELEBRATE ONE OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST HONOURED & GIFTED FILM MAKERS!

The only film maker to win Oscars for both direction and writing two years in a row – an achievement that remains unmatched, 63 years later – Joseph L. Mankiewicz created some of the screen’s most memorable stories, characters, and dialogue. His range of subjects was vast, and this highly entertaining course covers it all.

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: A young English widow develops a relationship with the ghost of a crusty sea captain whose seaside cottage she has leased, in this most tender of romantic fantasies. Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison head the cast.
A Letter to Three Wives: Three friends are left wondering which one of their husbands has run off with the town flirt, in this delightful satire of small-town American values starring Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, and Kirk Douglas. It won Oscars for direction and screenplay, and was nominated for best picture.
All About Eve: Mankiewicz’s best-known film is a deliciously acid-tongued look at the theatre and those who live in, on, and for it. Bette Davis gave one of her greatest performances, as a legendary actress nearing the twilight of her career. The film, which co-stars Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, and Marilyn Monroe, earned a still-unsurpassed 14 Oscar nominations. It won six, including best picture, director, screenplay, and supporting actor (George Sanders). “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”
People Will Talk: An unconventional doctor defends his practices and finds love within the walls of his own clinic, in this touching humanist comedy/drama anchored by Cary Grant’s stellar performance.
Sleuth: Mankiewicz crowned his career with this diabolically entertaining game of cat-and-mouse between an aristocratic mystery writer and a middle-class rival. Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine were Oscar-nominated as best actor, and Mankiewicz for the fourth and final time as best director.

Don Anderson will introduce the films with extensive background information and trivia, and lead an informal group discussion after you’ve watched each one in its entirety. Bonus documentaries and interviews will further enrich your enjoyment.

Five Thursdays, October 17 to November 14
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Fee: $75

The course is held in the Community Classroom at McNally Robinson Booksellers, 1120 Grant Ave. To register, please call 204 475 0483, drop by the store, or log on to:

http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/community-classroom