Soundstreams to Continue Season with Evening Celebrating Sir John Tavener, 4/16

Soundstreams continues its 2014/2015 season with an evening celebrating the life and music of British composer Sir John Tavener at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre on April 16, 2015 at 8:00 pm. Song for Athene is headlined by renowned British soprano Patricia Rozario, whose unique voice and artistry inspired Tavener to write more than 30 works just for her. She is joined by Choir 21 and the Toronto Children's Chorus, conducted by David Fallis and Elise Bradley, respectively, for a program exploring the universal power of spiritual expression through music that also includes selections by Jonathan Harvey and Canada's Christos Hatzis.

One of contemporary music's most popular composers, Sir John Tavener twice visited Toronto as the guest of Soundstreams before his death in 2013. Described by The Guardian as "one of those rare composers whose music is accessible to people from all walks of life," he achieved global celebrity when his work Song for Athene closed the funeral service for Diana, Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey in 1997. A striking figure with long, flowing hair and "the ascetic face of a monk" (The Telegraph), Tavener was a study in contradictions, beginning his life as a car-loving, carousing playboy whose early music was greatly admired by The Beatles. In his later years, marked by his declining health and life-long search for religious meaning, he turned to minimalism, the unique simplicity and beauty of his music fostering a universal appeal for which he continues to be celebrated to this day.

As tribute to Tavener, Soundstreams Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney has curated a concert full of the composer's own works (Song for Athene, The Lamb, Missa Brevis (North American premiere), Lament of the Mother of God), rounded out by those of his late compatriot, also a past Soundstreams guest, Jonathan Harvey (I Love the Lord, The Angels) and Psalm 91 by Greek-Canadian composer Christos Hatzis. The evening will also feature personal remembrances of both Tavener and Harvey by Cherney and soprano Patricia Rozario, widely acknowledged as Tavener's muse.

Born in Bombay, and Western-trained, Patricia Rozario has been hailed by Gramophone as "a voice of liquid gold." She has enjoyed a wide-ranging career in opera, concerts, recording, and broadcasting, and has inspired over 15 of the world's leading composers to write for her, most notably Arvo Pärt and Sir John Tavener.

Soundstreams' free Salon 21 at the Gardiner Museum on April 10 at 7:00 pm features an exploration of John Tavener's music and style.

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