Event Details

The Kindred Spirits Orchestra has performed since 2009, to a great acclaim, sold-out audiences, and standing ovations at the legendary CBC Glenn Gould Studio in downtown Toronto. As of the 2011, the Kindred Spirits Orchestra has also established a 6-concert subscription series at the Flato Markham Theatre, in addition to 3 community-outreach and 2 educational concerts. Led by the charismatic Maestro Kristian Alexander, the Kindred Spirits Orchestra is enjoying an enormous popularity among York Region's residents and continues to attract avid audiences across the Greater Toronto Area.

The Kindred Spirits Orchestra performs a wide range of compositions by Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and many others. Ardent supporter of contemporary music, the Kindred Spirits Orchestra created, also in 2011, Markham Contemporary Music Festival, an annual event that has brought to life great pieces of the 20th century by Lutoslavsky, Stravisnky, Philip Glass, Honegger as well as by illustrious Canadian composers such as Garry Kulesha, Brian Current, Larysa Kuzmenko, Daniel Friedman, Kevin Lau, and Constantine Caravassilis. During the past few years alone, the orchestra has regularly worked with internationally renowned soloists such as pianists Christina Quilico, James Parker and Maxim Bernard, violinists Jacques Israelievitch, Joelle Kee and Marc Djokic, cellist Rachel Mercer, soprano Rebecca Whelan, and tenor Keith Klassen, among many others.

This application is for the “2023 Markham Contemporary Music Festival” taking place in Markham and Richmond Hill, May 16 to July 1, 2023. The Markham Contemporary Music Festival features chamber music and symphony concerts, lectures in both English and French, workshops, pre-concert chats, post-concert receptions and networking events, as well as documentary films about the life of contemporary composers. Venues include the recently built Cornell Recital Hall, Flato Markham Theatre, and the Unionville Millennium Bandstand. In 2023, the Festival will expand into the neighbouring City of Richmond Hill and it will present a concert at the state-of-the-art Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. Programming highlights include:

(1) May 16 (Cornell Recital Hall) Opening ceremony: Maestro Kristian Alexander leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal of works by Stravinsky and Hindemith;

(2) May 19 (Cornell Recital Hall) Open dress rehearsal: Israeli pianist Michael Berkovsky presents works by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Bruckner;

(3) May 20, 2023 (Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts) Concert: “Fervor , Flair, and Fandango” featuring Russian orchestrator Rimsky-Korsakov;

(4) May 21, 22, 25, 31, June 1 (International Music Academy) Open Visit of the World Musical Instruments Collection at the International Music Academy;

(5) May 23, 30, June 6, 27 (Cornell Recital Hall) Composition workshops;

(6) May 23, 30, June 6, 13, 27 (Cornell Recital Hall) Open rehearsal: Maestro Kristian Alexander leads the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in an open rehearsal featuring pieces by contemporary composers;

(7) May 24, 29, June 4 (International Music Academy) Lecture and film “Shostakovich Against Stalin”, “We Want the Light ”, “An American in Paris”

(8) June 22 (Cornell Recital Hall) Open dress rehearsal: American violinist Andrew Sords presents works by Prokofiev and Bruch;

(9) June 23 (Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts) Concert” A Scottish Fantasy”;

(10) June 24 (CBC Glenn Gould Studio) Concert “Prokofiev and Brunch”; and

(11) July 1, (Unionville Millennium Theatre) “Canada Day Celebration”.