Mozart's Spring: Delicious Classics

Sinfonia Toronto will welcome the new season with one of Mozart’s most popular works on Friday, April 14 at the Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre.  The orchestra will play Mozart’s “Spring” Quartet No. 14, K. 387 in an orchestral arrangement by Music Director Nurhan Arman.  Part of a set Mozart wrote in tribute to Josef Haydn, its fresh, cheerful style breathes spring air into each of its four movements.

The concert will begin at 8 pm with the world premiere of Nina Grigoryan’s Prayer, composed to honour Sinfonia Toronto’s 25th Anniversary.  The program also includes two virtuoso guest artists, in concertos written two centuries apart but similar in offering singing, lyrical themes. Italian flutist Mario Carbotta will play the late-Classical composer Saverio Mercadante’s Flute Concerto in E Minor, beloved for its elegant melodies; and the brilliant Canadian violist Sharon Wei will play the Concerto for Viola with Strings and Vibraphone by Marjan Mozetich, an unusual and beautiful combination of tone-colours.

Violist Sharon Wei is one of the most respected performers on her instrument, appearing with orchestras across Canada and taking part as a chamber musician in many international festivals. Her 2022-23 season included Musicians from Marlboro concerts in Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia and Washington DC and the International Viola Festival in Thailand. She is the violist of the New Orford String Quartet and has been guest Principal Violist of the Cincinnati Symphony, COC and Ensemble Matheus in Paris. Since 2000 she has been Principal Violist of the Verbier Chamber Orchestra, touring with Yuja Wang, Daniil Trifinov, Joshua Bell, Maxim Vengerov and Marta Argerich. She has been faculty at Yale and Stanford and is currently Associate Professor of Viola at Western University. She has recorded for Centrediscs, CBC, Onyx Classics, Warner Classics and is frequently heard on CBC Radio and Air Canada’s Enroute Entertainment.

Flutist Mario Carbotta has been an acclaimed soloist with Sinfonia Toronto in several previous seasons and has appeared with too many other orchestras to count, performing concertos throughout Italy and Germany and with the Istanbul Symphony and the Radio-Televison Orchestra of the People’s Republic of China. He is one of the world’s most-recorded flutists, with releases on Dynamic, Tactus, Nuova Era and Rugginenti. His discography includes the first contemporary recordings of works by Sammartini, all the works for flute by Nino Rota, solo and chamber music by Alessandro Rolla, and all of Saverio Mercadante’s flute concertos. He holds a permanent Professorship at the Boccherini Conservatory in Lucca.

Nurhan Arman has conducted in 24 countries in Europe, Asia, South America, Canada, and the US, returning regularly to many orchestras in Europe. He concluded a busy 2022-23 season with concerts in Montreal, Greece, the Republic of Georgia and Italian orchestras in Friuli and Tuscany and will open his 2023-24 season with a fourth return to the Arpeggione Chamber Orchestra in Austria and an engagement in Italy.

Sinfonia Toronto has toured twice in Europe, in the US, South America and China, receiving glowing reviews. It has released six CD’s, including a JUNO Award winner. The orchestra plays annually in Barrie and performs in many other Ontario cities. The orchestra’s extensive repertoire includes all the major string orchestra works of the 18th through 21st centuries, and it has premiered many new works.