The Classical Music Concert
The Classical Music Consort is a young Canadian company committed to performing and promoting the richness and variety of music from the Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries. Based in Toronto under the direction of founder and conductor Ashiq Aziz, the ensemble performs concerts of works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, among other Enlightenment composers, and in collaboration with Opera Erratica, produces avant-garde staging’s of classical opera performed on period instruments.
Artistic Director Ashiq Aziz studied Music at the University of Toronto as an undergraduate and earned a Master’s degree in Conducting from the Royal College of Music in London, England. He has served as assistant to Laurence Cummings for the London Handel Festival’s Production of 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). He has had the opportunity to lead several orchestras and choirs including members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra, University of Toronto Chamber Orchestra, the University of Toronto MacMillan Singers, the Moran Choir of Israel, the Elmer Isler Singers, and the Toronto Children’s Chorus.
The CMC’s recent engagements include a sold-out performance of Handel’s Messiah on period instruments at Knox College Chapel in December and they are in the midst of producing a landmark series commemorating the 200th anniversary of the death of F.J. Haydn, which will include a complete cycle of Haydn’s London Symphonies.
