- Kevin Mallon - Conductor

“Kevin Mallon is an excellent conductor. As the authentic performance movement’s first wave of conductors age, talented younger conductors are arriving on the scene to further the precepts of their maturing antecedents.”
Mike Birman, Boxset.ru

News

Next concerts

Thirteen Strings
"English Fantasia" - May 10, 2011
brown mallon

Kevin Mallon, conductorDonna Brown, sopranoJunior Thirteen Strings
A high-powered soloist, a virtual who’s who of English composers, plus a trip into 20th century America – a complete musical feast. We blend three well-known upbeat pieces from the Baroque era with three moderns.

Fantasy, written for string quartet plus orchestra. They return for Gustav Holst’sSt. Paul’s Suite, written to celebrate the opening of a new music wing at St. Paul’s Girls’ School in London. The evening closes with Benjamin Britten’sLes lluminations, inspired by Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry and written against the advancing shadow of the Second World War. Contrast these with three titans of the English Baroque – Purcell, Avison and Arne and we celebrate a few birthdays into the bargain!

Programme

The Junior Thirteen Strings join the orchestra for Thomas Canning’s

AVISON	Concerto in E minor, Op. 6, No. 8
ARNE	Cantata, "Delila"
PURCELL	"Now the night is chac'd away" from THE FAIRY QUEEN
THOMAS CANNING	Fantasy on a Hymn Tune by Justin Morgan
HOLST	St.Paul's Suite
BRITTEN	Les Illuminations

When and where
May 10, 8 p.m. St. Andrew's Church, Kent St. at Wellington, Ottawa

http://thirteenstrings.ca/index.php/concerts/concert-6.html?SID=f561c513ecf0908f4ae7e6b8eda8cf10

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ARADIA ENSEMBLE
KEVIN MALLON, DIRECTOR
Bach + 1
SATURDAY May 14, 2011
Glenn Gould Studio, 8pm

Following the huge success of the new-music concert Baroque Idol, the Aradia Ensemble presents an innovative multi-media concert centred around the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. The concept is simple: we begin with the basic baroque ensemble - two violins, viola, cello and harpsichord - and then add one artist at a time. The first to be added is a flutist (Mylene Guay), then a soprano (Virginia Hatfield), then an actor portraying Glenn Gould (Norm Owen), then an artist doing live drawing (John Coburn), then a choir (Element Choir). For the grand finale, four dancers - Jeremy Nasmith, Kate Garrett, Tyler Gledhill, and Julia Sedwick - perform a new choreography by Nasmith. This concert has it all!

The Aradia ensemble has long been known for its innovative presentation, but this concert, the last of the current season, promises to be the most spectacular yet! The Toronto audience is being invited to hear the ensemble before they take off on tours for the summer - to Newfoundland in June (Dido and Aeneas) and Italy in July (Don Giovanni and L'Elisir d'Amore). The ensemble also goes to the studio to record three CDs in August! Yes, Aradia continues to go from one success to another.

May 14, 2011 at 8pm Aradia Ensemble Bach + 1
Overture (Suite) in G minor No. 5 BWV 1070, Suite No. 2 in B minor BWV 1067 with Mylene Guay flute, Cantata Ich habe genug BWV 82a, soprano version with Virginia Hatfield. Concert includes dancer/ choreographer Jeremy Nasmith and artist John Coburn. Glenn Gould Studio, 250 Front St. West
Tickets ($15-$35) on sale at the Roy Thomson Box Office: 416.872.4255 at: http://www.roythomson.com/eventdetail?eventId=622
For more information on ARADIA ENSEMBLE log on to www.aradia.ca. For further information and interviews contact Kevin Mallon at 416.924.4670 or kevinmallonwork@gmail.com.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bits of the Past!

Pasted Graphic 1

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pasted Graphic 3

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samuel Arnold: Polly, Aradia Ensemble/Mallon
(Naxos)
Pasted Graphic 4

Nicholas Kenyon
The Observer, Sunday 11 April 2010

The runaway success of John Gay's hugely popular Beggar's Opera in 1728, mounted by John Rich (they said: "It made Rich gay and Gay rich") led to an immediate demand for a sequel. But the original was perceived by some as political satire, so Gay's Polly, conceived the following year, fell victim to the purdah of the day and was not heard until Samuel Arnold revived it half a century later. So what we have here is a fascinating example of the bran-tub of English 18th-century musical styles: ballad tunes that Pepusch originally arranged for Gay in 1729 are here updated by Arnold, who adds both new melodies of his own and Scottish folk songs, all cleverly re-orchestrated. There's even a Handel march and the famous Trumpet Voluntary borrowed and brought into service for the exotic new story, which takes Polly Peachum to the West Indies to marry an Indian prince – all highly topical at the time of Captain Cook's voyages.
The short-breathed songs bubble with exuberance and unexpected inventiveness and the performances by the light-voiced soloists of Toronto's Aradia Ensemble are sparkling. There are some lively dance sequences for the pirates and Indians which could be performed separately. Don't expect any deep seriousness, but enjoy a vivid example of popular theatre in London in the years after Handel.

Overture to Polly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3suu3yvi1o
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Franz Beck symphonies with Toronto Chamber Orchestra
Mallon records Beck symphonies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XGff0Syxsk

Pasted Graphic 5

Klaus Heymann’s Best of Naxos 2010 List
With over hundreds of CD releases, Klaus Heymann, owner of Naxos chooses his top 10 for 2010 and 2 of our Cds: Samuel Arnold's opera Polly and Franz Beck symphonies were on his list.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ottawa's Thirteen Strings names Kevin Mallon new music director

By SMAZEY TUE, APR 27 2010 CLASSICAL OTTAWA

KevinMallon

(Conductor and violinist Kevin Mallon, new director of Ottawa's Thirteen Strings)

Toronto conductor and violinist Kevin Mallon, director of Canada's Aradia Ensemble and a former concertmaster with the French early-music group Les Arts Florissants, has been named director of Ottawa's Thirteen Strings orchestra.

http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/classicalottawa/archive/2010/04/27/aradia-director-kevin-mallon-named-new-director-of-thirteen-strings.aspx

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aradia Ensemble performs on soundtrack of new Jim Carrey movie

Aradia Ensemble is featured on the soundtrack of the new Jim Carrey movie Yes Man. Excerpts from Handel's Water music conducted by Kevin Mallon can be heard alongside tracks by the Eels and even a song by Carrey himself!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nominated for Irish Times Theatre Awards 2009

Verdi - Un ballo in maschera at the Cork Opera House - September 2008
Opera 2005/ Kevin Mallon

“The Opera 2005 chorus sounds enthusiastic if at times a little raw, and the conducting of Kevin Mallon has an expressive alertness and adaptability that more than compensates for some of the rough edges in the orchestral playing.”

Michael Dervin, Irish Times 28 September 2008

“Three performances were given in Cork's recently refurbished OPERA HOUSE, followed by one in Limerick. The company's Belfast-born artistic director, Kevin Mallon, was in the pit, and on the opening night (September 23) he demonstrated a real feeling for the powerful lines of Verdi's sombre creation, drawing excellent playing from his orchestra.”

Ian Fox, Opera Magazine February 2009

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nominated for Juno Award in Large Ensemble Category, 2009

Kevin Mallon Toronto Chamber Orchestra - Haydn Symphonies 62, 107, 108

ClassicsToday rating 8/8
“Kevin Mallon sets ideal tempos, lets the winds color the music tellingly, and gets his players to give him precision without stiffness.”

Review by David Hurwitz, Classics Today, November 2008

“For those of us used to the Haydn canon consisting of 104 symphonies, this disc is news, bumping the tally up to 108! The notes tell us that the last two in this group are early works that predate Haydn's employment at Esterhaza. The others are designated as Symphonies A and B—all somewhat confusing. No matter: the music is typical and lovely Haydn, and Maestro Mallon certainly has a way with this repertoire... one of the greatest bargains in recorded music history.”

Review by Giv Cornfield, The New Recording, cliffsclassics.com, November 2008

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mallon Hailed as “Canada’s Crown Prince of Period Performance”

Mallon's recording of Handel's epic oratorio Israel in Egypt, made in association with the Grand River Baroque Festival and recorded in Toronto in January of 2008, has now been released! The Aradia Ensemble is thrilled to have this volume in its discography, and it is already garnishing a very positive response in the musical community.

"Kevin Mallon is establishing himself very quickly as Canada’s crown prince of period performance. Not that we should forget his Irish roots or his work with the Cork Opera or even the fact that frequently he is invited to guest-conduct standard repertoire and contemporary music. It is, however, the music of the Baroque that Mr. Mallon delivers to our eager ears with great aplomb. Aradia Ensemble is a wonderful grouping of very talented musicians and Mallon’s recent artistic appointment as the director of Grand River Baroque Festival in Ayr, Ontario bodes well for a continuation of this trend. This recording of Handel’s oratorio, second in the minds of the admirers only toMessiah, is a good example of how carefully and sensitively these musicians handle the score. Moreover, the cast of mostly very young soloists provides a uniformly excellent vocal tone, with all of them performing this well known, well loved oratorio with enthusiasm and talent. Though considered a failure in Handel’s times, Israel in Egypt is anything but. Sure, it suffers the usual sins of a Baroque oratorio: repetitions, extensive borrowing from other works and even other composers (I guess today we would call the lengthy quote from Stradella’s Qual Prodigio plagiarism) – but it also delivers stirring and beautiful music, set to some of the most dramatic biblical episodes. Had it been written as an opera, rather than an oratorio, I am sure it would have been Handel’s greatest triumph. With the universally know libretto – 10 plagues, burning bush and parting of the Red Sea – great choruses and some of the best arias, it would have given Aïda a run for its money. As is, it is a great showcase for Aradia’s and Kevin Mallon’s abilities."

Robert Tomas, The Wholenote Magazine July, 2008

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mallon successfully concludes his third season as Artistic Director of the Grand River Baroque Festival!

Mallon returned to the festival for a third season as Artistic Director and brought with him Baroque musicians of the highest caliber from across the continent. Performances by Mallon’s critically acclaimed Aradia Ensemble were presented this season alongside concerts by Kitchener’s own Nota Bene Baroque Orchestra, and a vibrant team from Montreal led by Canadian master Cristina Zacharias.

The festivities commenced with a concert illuminating the four main national styles of music in the 17th and 18th centuries: German, Italian, French and English. A talk from Mallon underlined the uniqueness of each approach, and a reading from Don Quixote brought the music alive for the audience. These Baroque works were compared with Fratres, the incredibly popular piece by modern-day Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The largest concert of the weekend was a vocal and instrumental performance at Cambridge’s magnificent Central Presbyterian Church (a structure has seen the movements of the Grand River for more than a hundred years).

Kevin Mallon is looking forward to the Festival's future. He is keen to connect the festival to the international scene by having the great baroque musicians in the area perform with some of the finest from North America and abroad.

For more information visit www.grbf.ca