This concert presented as part of Toronto Guitar Weekend 2024.
Advanced tickets $50 / $25 students.
Students please use promo code STUDENTCONCERT to apply student discount to this ticket.
FULL WEEKEND PASSES ARE AVAILABLE HERE – including 2 concerts, masterclass and 2 lectures.
Guitar Weekend opens on Friday evening with a tribute concert featuring a lineup of world-class artists, among them several of Eli’s most prominent students. On the program are Fabio Zanon, the renowned Brazilian soloist, conductor and prize winner at our Guitar ’87 Festival; the legendary and multi-talented Celso Machado; Laura Young, international performer and professor at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, who began lessons with Eli at age 9; Brian Katz, a long-time student of Eli and an acclaimed guitarist, pianist, improviser, composer, and professor at the University of Toronto; Vincea McClelland, also a student of Eli, who has performed world-wide for many years as a soloist and in duo with her husband Raymond Cousté; and soloist, conductor and composer Tim Phelan, yet another of Eli’s students and now a professor at Brock University.
More details at guitarsocietyoftoronto.com
7-9PM show, Sold Out
Due to the great demand for this show, Brian and Martin have agreed to present an afternoon show on the same day (December 3rd)!
Martin van de Ven (clarinets) and Brian Katz (guitar, piano, voice) draw their inspiration for this project primarily from Klezmer, embracing tradition but emphasizing new approaches to this vibrant music!
This internationally acclaimed duo brings together a variety of musical traditions and influences informed by the diversity within the Klezmer world and by their own rich musical backgrounds. Jazz, Classical, New Music, Bulgarian, Middle-Eastern and African influences are integrated in ways that extend tradition and generate new musical understandings that speak to our time.
Martin and Brian recorded the critically acclaimed CD, Collected Stories in the early 2000’s. They will revive some of that material as well as play some other Klezmer favourites. In these last years, the duo has been primarily performing concerts of ‘open’ (free) improvisations, and they continue to combine original compositions, Klezmer classics, new niginum (wordless songs), and their myriad of influences into a unique sound, meeting with an enthusiastic critical response.
“The audience was spellbound… They ‘play’ the ‘stars’ down from heaven” Dagblad van het Noorden, Holland
“Guitarist Brian Katz and clarinetist Martin van de Ven play music that lives and breathes despite its ancient origins, and it’s often enchanting.” Geoff Chapman; The Toronto Star
“…. classy, heartfelt…. Van de Ven’s clarinet is playful, smooth, thoughtful, and challenging; Katz’s guitar is harmonically rich and reaching, with rockin’ rhythm……” Socalled aka Josh Dolgen; Hour, Montreal
You can listen here: https://briankatz.com/recording/collected-stories/
Brian Katz
Internationally renowned guitarist, pianist, composer, educator, Brian Katz, is celebrated for his instrumental mastery and evocative compositions, where he forges jazz, Jewish, classical, and various world music influences into a very personal sound. Brian is also an adjunct professor of Music Education and Performance, currently teaching at the University of Toronto and York University. Of Brian’s solo recording Leaves Will Speak, noted European music critic Alexander Shmitz wrote: “If you want music that speaks—here it is.”
Martin van de Ven
Clarinetist extraordinaire, Martin brings fire, elegance and humour to his performance of Klezmer music. His daring original compositions are rooted in traditional folk styles but informed by Jazz, Classical, and New Music. A mainstay of the Canadian Klezmer scene, he has performed in bands including the Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band and Beyond the Pale and is a frequent performer and instructor at Klezmer music festivals around the world. He has composed and performed music for many film, television, theatre, and dance productions.
Free to the public
Klezmer!
Bring your lawn chair (if you have one) and join us for great music, ice cream, Havdalah and friends. This event is part of our Havdalah on the Porch series.
The evening will feature a concert of Klezmer music presented by some of Toronto’s top Klezmer musicians:
Jonno Lightsone is the Musical Director of Klezkonnection and is a pillar of the Canadian Klezmer scene. Jonno’s Klezmer concert at last year’s Havdalah on the Porch was one of our most popular programs, so we are thrilled to have him back! More about Jonno HERE.
Beth Silver is thrilled to return to Temple Emanu-El for this concert. Beth grew up at Temple Emanu-El and is now an accomplished and celebrated professional cellist living in Toronto. More about Beth HERE.
Brian Katz is an internationally-lauded guitarist, pianist, composer and educator in the fields of jazz, classical, Klezmer and beyond. More about Brian HERE. (Note: Brian Katz photo © David Kaufman)
Free to the public
Brian Katz and Martin van de Ven invite you to join them in an evening of musical exploration. Known for their unique treatment of Klezmer music ( featured on their highly-praised album “Collected Stories”), they’ve started developing material for an intentional future recording focused on improvisation and instant composition.
Suggested price: $10.00
Klezmer Workshop: Inspired Wordless Melodies
A workshop for singers and instrumentalists and anyone else w Brian Katz, guitarist, pianist and educator. “Learn essential Jewish scales and improvise with them to create chant-like melodies (Nigunim) that form the basis of much klezmer music, and then we learn some core klezmer repertoire.”
$25 or pay what you can, at the door. For more info and to register: Rackowf@gmail.com
Concert: Beyond Borders presents: Hartzedike Lider (Heart Songs)
with renowned Toronto guitarist Brian Katz and award-winning vocalist Allan Merovitz
“The Yiddish song and story traditions meet jazz, worldbeat and the blues.”
Solo Guitar Concert: Improvisations & Compositions (and what lies in-between)
Concert: Pro Arts Society, Calgary
For this special concert, Katz will perform original compositions on the piano and guitar, with some leanings towards his Jewish-themed compositions; to compliment the program, he will be joined by his long-time colleague, the exceptional Yiddish singer, Allan Merovitz and woodwind player, Frank Rackow.
Workshop for Guitarists: “From Noodling to Composition”
Guitarists love to “noodle,” a process that is rich, bearing tremendous fruit when one is guided structurally, resulting in flowing open (free) compositionally oriented improvisation that also reveals one’s truest musical voice. In this hands-on workshop we’ll not just honour ‘noodling’ but learn to craft wonderful music from it! All ages, levels and styles welcomed. Come with your guitar— and an open mind.
