About the CMC

Founded in 2006 under the direction of harpsichordist/conductor Ashiq Aziz, the Classical Music Consort is committed to enlightening audiences and attracting a new generation of Canadians to Baroque and Classical music through a combination of authentic performance and innovative presentation. With an emphasis on fostering new Canadian talent, the ensemble pursues a variety of projects designed to promote and attract new audiences to classical music, including concert performance, commissioning of new work, and staged opera.

The CMC made its debut with Opera in Concert at the St. Lawrence Centre’s Jane Mallett Theatre with Haydn’s La Fedelta Premiata this past January, and at the Four Seasons Centre’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre as part of the COC’s Free Lunchtime Concert Series last December, performing a programme of 18th Century French Cantatas. The ensemble’s First Annual Springtime Handel Festival at St. James Cathedral last May was dedicated to Handel’s more obscure works, culminating in a performance of his early oratorio, La Resurrezione. This followed performances of Haydn’s twelve London Symphonies, which the CMC produced as part of its year-long series commemorating the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death in 2009, and a sold-out performance of Handel’s Messiah in December 2008. In addition to commissioning a new classically-inspired symphony from renowned organist/composer Andrew Ager in 2011, future projects include the second instalment of the CMC’s Handel Festival this coming May. The festival will culminate with the Toronto premiere of Handel’s first oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno and a singing competition for young Canadian singers under 30. Present throughout the CMC’s work is an unwavering commitment to artistic excellence and the development of Canada’s young artists.

Since 2008, the CMC has collaborated with the multi-disciplinary performance company Opera Erratica, led by director and designer Patrick Eakin Young. Together, they have developed the critically-acclaimed Underground /Opera series dedicated to breaking boundaries and building new audiences for classical music, by performing innovative and edgy interpretations of baroque and classical opera on period instruments with modern staging and video projections in non-traditional venues. The series has included productions of Handel’s Acis and Galatea (2008), Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (2009), and an original site-specific piece entitled Orlando Lunaire (2010), interweaving movements from Handel’s Orlando with Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. On the success of these productions, Underground /Opera has become a major part of the CMC’s programming and an important tool for building new audiences for the consort’s work; with more projects in the pipeline, the CMC plans to continue bringing genre-bending and convention-breaking productions of baroque and classical opera to Canadian audiences.

About Ashiq Aziz

Ashiq Aziz, “young firecracker” (Toronto Star), praised for his “innate musicality” (Globe and Mail) and for having “enthralled audiences” (Toronto Star), is a conductor and harpsichordist committed to producing thought-provoking, historically informed performances of music from the Baroque and Classical periods. He is the founder and artistic director of Toronto’s Classical Music Consort, and his work as a guest director has taken him to the US, UK, and Sweden. Recent engagements with the CMC have included a sold-out performance of Handel’s Messiah in December 2008, a complete cycle of Haydn’s twelve London Symphonies over four concerts as part of its year-long Haydn bicentenary celebrations in 2009, and Handel's La Resurrezione as part of its 2010 Springtime Handel Festival. Along with the UK-based multi-disciplinary performance company Opera Erratica, Mr. Aziz has also co-produced three critically-acclaimed Underground /Opera productions: Handel’s Acis and Galatea (2008), Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (2009), and Orlando Lunaire (2010), an originally-conceived site-specific piece interweaving movements from Handel’s Orlando with Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.

Mr. Aziz has served as assistant to Laurence Cummings for the London Handel Festival’s Production of Handel’s Poro (2007) and for the English National opera’s production of Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea (2007), as well as assistant to David Fallis for Opera Atelier’s production of the same (2009). Mr. Aziz will be making his St. Lawrence Centre debut with Opera in Concert, conducting the CMC in Haydn's La Fedelta Premiata in January 2011. Other future projects include a programme of 18th century French Cantatas with the CMC at the Four Seasons Centre's Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in December as part of the COC's Free Lunchtime Concert Series, and the CMC’s 2011 Springtime Handel Festival, which will feature a performance of Handel’s first oratorio, Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno. Mr. Aziz, the CMC, and Opera Erratica are also in discussions with the Art Gallery of Ontario to present a site-specific Underground /Opera production of Pygmalion in its iconic Henry Moore Sculpture Gallery as part of LuminaTO 2012.

Educated at Upper Canada College, the University of Toronto, and the Royal College of Music, London, Mr. Aziz has studied period performance direction with Andrew Parrott, Laurence Cummings, and Adrian Butterfield, conducting with Raffi Armenian, Peter Stark, Ivars Taurins, and Paul Spicer, and harpsichord with Terry Charlston and Charlotte Nediger.