Programming Strategies for School Field Trips
Thursday, February 8, 2018
1:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Join us on Thursday, February 8, for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's Gr. 4-8 School Concert, "Shake, Rattle & Roll!"  Following the concert, explore programming strategies for school field trips via a panel and group discussion.

Thursday, February 8

12:45pm: Arrival (Please arrive to the Roy Thomson Hall Stage Door entrance on Wellington)
1:00-2:00pm: TSO Concert
2:00-2:20pm: Light refreshments
2:20-3:30pm: Panel and group discussion

• Evan Mitchell, Conductor
• Members of TorQ Percussion Quartet

Fee: $10.00
Please note: PAONE is currently reviewing its membership policy. All arts education professionals are invited to attend for the same fee.

Pre-registration is required to reserve your ticket for the performance.
Register HERE by Thursday, January 25.
 
Location: Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe Street
(Arrive to Stage Door on Wellington)

Evan Mitchell is proving to be one of Canada’s most innovative and sought-after young conductors. Having recently finished hugely successful residencies as Assistant Conductor of the Vancouver and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestras, Mr. Mitchell has assumed the post of Music Director with the Kingston Symphony Orchestra. He has garnered significant critical success as well as consistent praise for his approach, execution and musical results. During his residencies, Mr. Mitchell conducted over 200 concerts, acted as a Canadian ambassador during an historic two week tour of China, Korea and Macau, and served as an official consultant to the Vancouver Olympic Committee and Assistant Producer for the recording of the medal ceremony national anthems. Over the course of his career, Mr. Mitchell has brought the magic of orchestral music to over three hundred and fifty thousand students and children, many of whom experienced this incredible music for the very first time. In addition to his musical achievements, Mr. Mitchell has been profiled extensively for his commitment to concert initiatives. He has been personally responsible for the writing, recording and production of behind-the-scenes concert video series, podcasts aimed at the layperson, and visual enhancements during concerts in order to give a richer, more informed experience to concert-goers. His videos have been widely featured abroad for both publicity and educational purposes, and his initiative using smartphones as a “silent tour guide” during live concerts in real-time was hailed as the best technological innovation in the symphony concert hall of 2014 by the CBC. Recent career highlights include Principal Conductorship of the World Harp Congress in which Mr. Mitchell conducted eight harp concerti with some of the world’s best harpists. He has also conducted a hugely successful gala concert with violinist Elizabeth Pitcairn, owner of the Mendelssohn Stradivarius “Red Violin”. After this concert, Mr. Mitchell was offered Music Directorship of the Prince George Symphony. His first season with the Kingston Symphony as Music Director was met with consistently sold-out houses and universally positive critical reviews. Mr. Mitchell made his conducting debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in the 2011/2012 season after a last-minute cancellation and has subsequently been re-engaged by the Toronto Symphony for several concert series.

TorQ Percussion Quartet

Described by the Ottawa Citizen as “Outstanding - no, make that astonishing!”, Canada's premiere percussion ensemble TorQ Percussion Quartet continues to bring new vitality to percussion repertoire and performance in every situation and opportunity. Renowned for their engaging performances, members Richard Burrows, Adam Campbell, Jamie Drake, and Daniel Morphy are committed to making percussion music accessible to audiences that span generations and as The Toronto Star states "[TorQ] can stand proud among the growing throng of chamber percussion ensembles around the world." Since coming together in 2004, some of their international highlights include the International Percussion Quartet Festival (Luxembourg), Percussive Arts Society International Convention (Indianapolis) and with the Stuttgart Chamber Choir. At home, TorQ has made appearances at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, PEI's Indian River Festival, MusicFest Canada (Vancouver), Toronto's Soundstreams, and Kitchener's Open Ears Contemporary Music Festival. Selected by the three major Canadian touring organisations, Jeunesses Musicales Canada, Prairie Debut and Debut Atlantic, TorQ has performed throughout every province. In 2012, they launched their !rst annual concert series in Toronto where they collaborated with invited guest artists, composers, and dancers. The 2014-2015 season saw TorQ on extensive tours in Alaska, Illinois, Idaho, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Ontario. They were guest artists with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Grand Philharmonic Choir of Kitchener-Waterloo. As collaborative artists, the quartet has performed with the Larkin Singers, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Elora Festival Singers, and the Hamilton Children's Choir, as well as soloists Krisztina Szabo, Rivka Golani, and composer Nicole Lizée. Committed to commissioning new works for percussion quartet, TorQ has presented many Canadian and world premieres including a new percussion quartet concerto written by Canadian composer, Dinuk Wijeratne called Invisible Cities which premiered in 2014. Their discography consists of two recordings on Bedoint Records, the self-titeld !rst CD was awarded 3.5/4 stars by The Toronto Star. Their third CD was released in November 2014, in celebration of their milestone 10th anniversary season. Titled Without a Map, this two disc set consists entirely of improvised music that, while sharing identical percussive instrument groupings by track order, offer alternate perspectives of the quartet's sonic journey. Advocates for music education, TorQ is actively involved in music education initiatives and performs approximately 70 school shows per year, and are faculty members of the Durham Integrated Arts Camp, run by the Durham District School Board. They are also frequent educational collaborators with Soundstreams Canada and present master classes and workshops for high schools and university students. Summer 2015 saw TorQ hosted their fourth annual TorQ Percussion Seminar, a week-long percussion event which took place in collaboration with the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. TorQ endorses Yamaha Percussion, Innovative Percussion, Dream Cymbals, Black Swamp Percussion and Remo Percussion. "...con!dence, energy, and subtlety shone darkly in a powerful and theatrical performance of a work that stands outside of trends or time. They may be young men, but they have old souls." (musicalToronto.org)