On the air

In Concert wins Silver Medal for Best Classical Format

It’s a thrill to announce that In Concert has won a Silver Medal for “Best Classical Format” at this year’s New York Festivals Radio Awards. I’m lucky to work with an outstanding team at CBC Music and I’m so proud of our team and our little radio show. You can hear In Concert live here…

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Do the instruments of the orchestra have specific personalities?

I went to a high school that had a full symphony orchestra, and even back then I could see, as a lowly quirky nerdy bassoonist, that certain instruments attracted certain personality types. The brass players were brash. The woodwinds were varying degrees of studious and serious, depending on how many reeds there were on their…

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Announcing a new radio series about classical music in China

There are few places right now that have the electricity and the energy that is flowing through the city of Shanghai. Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of the incredible skyline that’s sprung up in record time. It’s futuristic and sleek: right out of a science fiction movie. If there is a place to be in the 21st…

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The Signature Series wins prestigious Prix Italia

  The Prix Italia is one of the most coveted awards in broadcasting in the world. It’s an incredible honour for me and for my co-producer Denise Ball to announce that the Signature Series has won a 2013 Prix Italia in the category “Work on Music”. Here is the citation from the Prix Italia jury:…

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Reminiscing about summer camp and the Fountains of Rome

This Sunday I’m lucky enough to begin a fantastic gig: hosting CBC Radio 2’s weekly classical music performance program, In Concert. Preparing tomorrow’s show put me in mind of summer camp – and thus conjured up all kinds of feelings and recollections. Once upon a time there was a camp called Toronto Music Camp that…

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Why it’s pointless to classify Rufus Wainwright

The year I moved to Vancouver, I arrived in the middle of November. It was dark and gloomy and dreary and rainy. I did a lot of walking that month, to get to know my new neighbourhood and my new city, and my constant companion was Rufus Wainwright. I know not everyone likes Rufus Wainwright….

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America the Beautiful

Here are some of my favourite things about America: Win Butler. Big Sur. The drumming of Art Blakey. The Third Coast International Audio Festival in Chicago. My earliest memories, of splashing through the shallows of Cape Cod as a toddler. That list is quickly cobbled-together over a bleary Sunday morning coffee – but needless to…

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The power of dramatic irony in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia

Dramatic irony is one of those storytelling techniques we all learn about in high school, and I haven’t thought about it much since then – except to enjoy it, when it’s used effectively, and even then, I don’t sit there and think, “This is a really great example of dramatic irony.” But I’ve been thinking…

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Filling in for Quinn On the Coast

For the next week and a half I’ll be filling in for host Stephen Quinn on CBC Radio Vancouver’s afternoon drive show, On the Coast – an enormous privilege, and I’m terribly excited! I’ve been very busy of late. On top of On the Coast, I’ve been working on a number of projects. You’ll see more…

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Celebrating the Year of the Tiger

The Chinese New Year is next week, and the Year of the Tiger is coming to a close. I’ve been thinking a lot about tigers this week, because I spent the earlier part of it completely wrapped up in and riveted by John Vaillant’s superb book, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival….

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