Sinfonia Toronto w/ Catherine Manoukian, violin and Filippo Lattanzi, marimba December 11, 2009

Sinfonia Toronto’s 2009/2010 Masterpiece Series continues December 11th at 8:00pm, with one of the world’s leading percussionists, plus Toronto’s own virtuoso. This concert features Italian marimba master Filippo Lattanzi, and superb Toronto violinist Catherine Manoukian.

“As masterful and soul-satisfying as one could wish,” according to the Cape Cod Times, Toronto’s own Catherine Manoukian began her career as a violin soloist in 1994 when she won the grand prize at the 1994 Canadian Music Competition, and made her debut with the Vancouver Symphony at just 12 years old. She has performed with the he Boston Pops, the Toronto Symphony, the Istanbul State Symphony, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, the Osaka Century Orchestra, and the Armenian Philharmonic, and released 5 CDs.

Filippo Lattanzi is regarded as one of the greats of the marimba and percussion. Since completing his studies in France, Filippo has gone on to perform hundreds of a concerts as a soloist in Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Poland, Turkey, and the USA. He has recorded for the NAXOS and Koch-Schwann-Aulos labels. He teaches at the Conservatory Nino Rota of Monopoli and the Accademia Superiore di Musica in Italy.

Sinfonia Toronto is comprised of thirteen virtuoso string players. “A world-class ensemble,” according to Germany’s Russelsheimer Echo, they perform standing, in the tradition of great chamber orchestras, under the direction of Music Director and conductor Nurhan Arman. A roster of Toronto’s finest woodwinds, brass and percussion joins the strings for select programs, drawn from the full range of chamber orchestra repertoire. The Toronto Star writes of "a remarkable range of colour," "ample eloquence" and "gripping authority," while La Scena Musicale declared: "Nurhan Arman and his orchestra literally conquered us." Their most recent CD, Flanders Fields Reflections features the 2009 Juno Award winner for Classical Composition of the Year, a Sinfonia Toronto commission composed by John Burge.

The programme for the evening consists of Giacomo Puccini’s Three Minuets, Alan Hovhaness’s Violin Concerto, Federico Biscione’s Marimba Concerto, Emmanuel Séjournée’s Vibraphone Concerto and Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus.

Tickets for this concert are $12 - $40 and are available through the Roy Thomson Hall box office at www.roythomson.com, 416-872-4255. Subscriptions offer great savings, and are available at www.sinfoniatoronto.com, or by calling 416-499-0403.

Official Website: http://www.sinfoniatoronto.com