"A Night in Havanna " Hilario Durán, ld,arr,p,, Horacio"El Negro" Hernandez, dr, Pernell Saturnino, perc, Maria de los Angeles, voc, Justos Gabriel Perez, fl, Lucas Schmid, prod. Ansage, Hilario DuránINES KAISER/Supplied
Hilario Durán and his Latin Jazz Big Band
Hilario Durán has dedicated most of his summer to a trio tribute to Oscar Peterson, but the veteran Cuban-Canadian pianist will close out the Markham Jazz Festival with his full 19-piece ensemble. His latest creation with them is 2023′s Grammy-nominated Cry Me a River, which pays tribute to guitarist Juanito Márquez and jazz icon Charles Mingus, and includes a cover of Dizzy Gillespie’s A Night In Tunisia – “The moon is the same moon above you, aglow with its cool evening light.” Aug. 18, Millennium Bandstand Stage, Unionville, Ont.
Lily Frost
For her 2011 album Viridian Torch (Symphony of The Trees), singer-songwriter Lily Frost was inspired by a cabin inhabited by four generations of her family in Georgian Bay, Ont. The music is a sonic representation of nature’s storms, calms, landscapes – even its bugs. The piece will be performed at a free concert with a band and string trio at an outdoor venue at twilight. Aug. 22, Toronto Botanical Garden
BIGLAKE Festival
The big lake is Lake Ontario. On the northern shores of which is a rural classical music festival two hours east of Toronto co-directed by Canadian Opera Company music director Johannes Debus and Juno Award-winning violinist Elissa Lee. It opens with Ilya Poletaev’s demonstration of the evolution of the piano, with appearances from a spinet, a harpsichord and a modern grand. Other concerts include a Beethoven marathon, a fiddle extravaganza and an evening of Chopin from Louis Lortie. It’s not over until the Canadian Opera Company sings at the closing gala. Aug. 23-31, Wellington, Ont.
Sarah Harmer
A singer-songwriter with a breezy melodic sensibility, Sarah Harmer keeps busy with environmental activism to the point that her albums arrive less frequently than some would prefer. Her most recent, from 2020, rocks with conviction here and calms with elegant introspection there. Titled Are You Gone, the LP advertises an artist with staying power. Aug. 25, Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington, Ont.; Aug. 31, Thousand Island Park, Tabernacle, N.Y.
Banff International String Quartet Festival
Canadian violinist James Ehnes will need to be in fine fiddle later this month in Alberta. He is featured in three concerts at the Banff Centre, as a soloist, with his quartet and, on viola, with the Isidore String Quartet and cellist Edward Arron for Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence. That program also includes the world premiere of a new quintet from pianist Andy Milne commissioned by the festival. Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, Rolston Recital Hall and Jenny Belzberg Theatre, Banff, Alta.