Parker’s Toronto, Training musicians at the RCM, one exam at a time, no. 7

June 17th, 2011

I still get goose bumps entering the building, my heart races when I hear music escaping from the walls as if it’s my turn again to wait for an examiner outside one of its tall doors. The Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) on Bloor Street may look like a refurbished building on the inside now, with a spanking new entrance with modern elevators, but underneath, the scary Victorian “hall” remains the place where music students take their RCM exams. A trip this week with our son bought it all back again as if it were yesterday.

Although Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music has been around since 1886 many don’t recognize that it remains one of the respected and long standing independent music educator in North America. Although there are various music credentials one may obtain these days, no one debates the quality of education delivered by the RCM. If you’ve taken exams there, there’s no doubt that you know how to play (or sing), and most importantly, you’ve learned an even greater lesson—that there’s no substitute for discipline, focus and hard work when learning a something as complex as music.

The RCM may not seem such a big deal to Torontonians, but it attracts students from around the world because it is recognized for outstanding service to students, teachers, and parents, as well as its strict adherence to high academic standards. Through the years, it’s remained one of a few academic institutions that has consistently maintained its high standards; in fact, over the years, it has raised them.

An estimated 3 million plus Canadians have studied there—piano, voice, and instruments—and about 100,000 candidates have taken an annual exam with the RCM. Each year, it serves about half a million active participants across the country (that is, you don’t have to live in Toronto to study and take exams with the RCM).

Apart from its recent massive building restoration, the most perceptible change at the RCM in 2011 is its “customer” attitude. Today, those taking exams are greeted by extremely friendly and relaxed volunteers who make the students feel special for taking an exam instead a captive on their way to their execution. Okay, so I exaggerate a bit. But thank you to the wonderful volunteer this morning for making all of us feel good about being there. For this former RCM student, that difference is the most noticeable part of the renovation!

Next time you pass between Varsity Stadium and the ROM just west of Bloor Street, gaze up at the RCM’s red turrets and arches and think of the debt we owe to places like it that continue to teach, test, encourage, and reward musical achievement to the very highest degree.

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Parker’s Toronto, Garage sale fever in Leaside, no. 6

June 10th, 2011

At first, it felt like a lazy, early June Saturday morning but then I hear the clatter of card tables and voices. No sleeping in this morning—it’s garage sale day—a common phenomenon on the streets of Toronto in the summer months. You’d expect it in a small town, but garage sale fever is alive in well in our otherwise sophisticated (and expensive) “city of small towns”.  I suspect that our annual street sale is one of the first.

As “established” street residents, John and I boast that we’ve participated each year for 20 years. That’s twenty June Saturdays where we’ve dragged valuable junk out of our basement and exchanged it for other valuable junk from our neighbours (that may actually be the same junk we sold them a year earlier).

There was the year when a lady down the street displayed her used designer clothes and a cat -fight (women, not cats) broke out on her front lawn. There’s the annual bun-warmer exchange (how many times can you re-sell an item among neighbours?) and the rocks I sold out of our front yard for $5 each (and they weren’t even for sale. One year when we weren’t paying attention, someone tried to buy our car.

The first few years were modest by today’s standards—a small block party that concluded with a baseball game at the local schoolyard and a barbecue in someone’s backyard. But there’s no stopping the technological advances of today’s garage sales. Now there’s a participation fee (not contact, as yet), part of the street is closed to traffic, and the day concludes with a street party, this year outfitted with a jumping castle, live band, an outdoor theatre to watch the Boston-Vancouver Stanley Cup final, and real live “street party” crashers.

All for the want of a simple garage sale, which despite it’s fancy wrapping, remains the only place you can still find albums (when they meant records), plastic flower pots (that were free in the first place) electric warming trays, unidentifiable kitchen gadgets (they were never able to be identified) and the occasional treasures that make the whole thing worthwhile.

So this year, when it was suggested we give it up, the entire street revolted.

“Give up the annual garage sale? Not a chance!”

So in the absolute pouring rain, and later shivering in actual winter coats at the barbecue, neighbours once again gathered and congratulated each other on another great event.

And the stuff I bought? It goes in the box in the basement marked for next year’s sale.

 

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Parker’s Toronto, Everything Old is New Again, no. 5

April 3rd, 2011

Historic buildings in Toronto have a much better chance at survival these days than, say, the 1960’s, when we lost many of our beautiful buildings (e.g. Chorley Park).

The green building movement has helped immensely. Retrofitting an old structure with thick brick walls and large windows that let in daylight and actually open now is proving (in most instances) to be less expensive and more environmentally friendly than tearing it down to build something shiny and new.

Some of these buildings we know well, e.g. those in the Distillery district, but dozens more are “hidden” to most of us unless we have a reason to venture inside their doors.

This week I attended an International Women’s Day event at 1135 Dundas Street East, a non-descript brick building built in 1939. It’s at the corner of Logan and Dundas in South Riverdale and to be fair, the building’s not attractive from the outside. But then, the area around it is also pretty bleak. And when you try to find the front door, you wonder why anyone created a solid brick wall right to the sidewalk. But as the story goes, the building actually continues on the north side of the street. When Dundas Street was widened in the 1940s, the good road makers at the time just cut the place in two and added a retaining wall with a door!

Step inside, however, and you wonder why we can’t all work in such an inviting environment. Originally home of the Canadian Starch Company, the structure still has its factory elements—high ceilings, wooden beams and floors, massive supporting posts and large windows with metal mullions. Now retrofitted for the 21st century, it’s bright, airy, beautiful, fun, rich in contrasts of new and old. Shiny ductwork weaves about overhead and glass the walls on interior offices let in loads of natural light. There’s funky chandeliers, natural wood, bright colours and great open space for meeting and conversation.

It was all done by our host, X-Design, a Canadian company that happens to be an interior design firm. X-Design recently moved in and retrofitted the space to 100% sustainable standards, worthy of LEED certification (although have not chosen that route).  Founded and grown by two entrepreneurs (husband and wife team Greg and Susan Quinn), X-Design now boasts of clients around the world. Environmentally-aware design has become an essential client requirement for all their projects—you only need to visit 1135 Dundas to understand why.

Anyone who’s ever thought of demolishing an old building or has ideas about what kind of office space they might want to work in, should visit this kind of space. And Toronto is gradually filling up with such wonders.

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Parker’s Toronto, Toronto Music Town, no. 4

March 27th, 2011

Toronto is a music town. As Canadian talent continues to reach new levels of popularity world-wide,  Toronto should be proud of the place it continues to hold in the training, developing and launching of artists, in the support of existing artists, teachers and mentors, as well as its role its role in making the music actually happen through performance venues, recording marketing and distribution.

We’re reminded, at least by our visitors to the city, of the strength of our music scene: take in roots music at Hughes Room, an opera at the Four Seasons, some  jazz at the Rex Hotel all in one weekend (one evening if you’re fast).  And that’s not even scratching the surface of variety, style and format. We have one of the finest music training facility in North America (the RCM), our Air Canada Centre is ranked 8 of the top 10 concert venues in the world, and we’re Canada’s recoding capital, and industry where we’re ranked high in the global marketplace—with sales well over $500 million each year.

So check out this past Saturday and put these words to the test. We begin the day early, at an old TDSB school at Dufferin and Bloor where a rather motely group of kids gather with various instruments to practice for the Toronto School Board’s All City Band. Each year, the TDSB invites students from ages 3-8 to audition for a choir, concert band, string ensemble and orchestra in order to perform at Massey Hall in the spring. The concert has been held every year, for 125 years, without exception—taking it through 2 world wars and a mind-boggling array of new music, composers and compositions.

The concert band warms up and after a couple of hours had pass the kids already were sounding like pros. A few hours later we attend the first of two Juno Awards ceremonies—the penultimate celebration of Canada’s music scene this year held in Toronto.  It’s their 40th Anniversary of the Juno Awards, first held at the small St. Lawrence Hall. The first half of the awards is a gala dinner that fills the AllStream Centre, the second (the broadcasted awards) packs an audience in the Air Canada Sunday the following night.

Among the countless “new” musicians that I don’t recognize I see some true heros of music in Canada. Neil Young, a Juno recipient this year and strong supporter for Canada’s music industry, is a Toronto boy (I remember his father “mumbling” to our neighbour about his son’s “band”, some 50 years ago now.)

Whether you’re the teacher volunteering to lead the band early on a Saturday morning or a first time Juno nominee watching your dream finally come to life, congratulations to all—for Toronto’s talent and diversity that continues to give us unending talent learned and heard, recorded, played, sold and sought after and just plain, enjoyed every day of every week.

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Parker’s Toronto’s, Getting that New York Feeling, no.3

March 20th, 2011

You may have had the experience of hosting overseas visitors and when proudly introducing them to Toronto get asked, “How far is it to Niagara Falls?” or my personal favourite, “Can we go to New York City now?”

The answer, of course, is yes, relatively speaking and once we swallow our pride and acknowledge that there are places people talk about around the world more important than our city.

It’s actually a major benefit of living in Toronto. We’re located about an hour from some of the best “other places’ to be in North America.

Take New York, for example. Last weekend, using the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, two of us left downtown Toronto at 5.00 PM and were drinking a toast to New York in Time Square by 9.30 PM, having already checked into our hotel, changed and ordered dinner. Being an hour flight away from one of the worlds largest, most interesting and culturally rich cities is a big bonus, one that more Torontonians could take advantage of.

Yes, it really is possible to fly to New York for a weekend, without jet lag or spending hours getting there. And best of all, Torontonians should feel at home in New York. In fact, we have our own “New York” moments right here in our own city.

  • Mid-town at Yonge and St. Clair always feels a bit “New York” to me with its diverse combination of businesses and upscale residential.
  • Toronto Street at King Street East has a New York feel, and if that doesn’t do it for you, step into the King Edward Hotel and you’ll get that Waldorf Astoria feeling.
  • We don’t have Macy’s, Saks, Bloomingdales, Barneys, Lord & Taylor (sigh), but our downtown Bay store has New York grandeur fit for a Fifth Avenue store.
  • The piano bar at the top of Tom Jones—definitely New York after dark if you don’t look out the window.

Tell me other examples and I’ll check them out when I can’t fly there for the weekend (which is mostly the case)!

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