Actor Bill Murray is headlining an event in Toronto in October, but it’s about classical music, not movies.
The 66-year-old, beloved for films like Caddyshack, Ghostbusters and The Grand Budapest Hotel, is to perform with his friend, cellist Jan Vogler, at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s 2017-18 Season Gala, Oct. 13 at Koerner Hall.
The conservatory says Murray “will read Mark Twain and dance a tango while Vogler plays works from Bach, Piazzolla, Ravel and Bernstein.”
He’s the second Hollywood star to headline a gala, after Meryl Streep in 2015. His only other appearance with Vogler is scheduled for New York’s Carnegie Hall.
The new season includes nearly 30 classical and jazz concerts, with Koerner Hall debuts by violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Gautier Capuçon, pianist Lucas Debargue and Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan.
Stars making return visits include pianists Yuja Wang, Khatia Buniatishvili and Angela Hewitt, a conservatory alumna; Canadian baritone Gerald Finley; Spanish viol master Jordi Savall; the Takacs Quartet and Amici Chamber Ensemble; as well as conductors Gabor Takacs-Nagy, Johannes Debus, Tania Miller and Leon Fleisher.
On the jazz side, concerts include singer Dianne Reeves showcasing the influences of the Great American Songbook; pianists Danilo Perez and Alfredo Rodriguez celebrating the 100th birthday of Thelonious Monk; trumpeter Hugh Masekela honouring the genre’s African sounds; and the music of Miles Davis’s electric period performed by the Miles Electric Band.
There will also be a tribute to what would have been the 100th birthday of composer Leonard Bernstein, Bernstein @ 100, featuring German pianist Sebastian Knauer, mezzo-soprano and alumna Wallis Giunta, the ARC Ensemble and Jamie Bernstein, daughter of Leonard.
See rcmusic.ca for more.
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