Aradia Ensemble
According to Robert Graves, Aradia was the daughter of Apollo’s twin sisters, who was sent by the gods to teach humankind to order the music of the natural world into song.
The Aradia Ensemble is based on Toronto, Canada, and specializes in presenting an eclectic blend of orchestral, operatic and chamber music played on original instruments. While focusing on the repertoire of seventeenth-century French and English music, Aradia also performs works by the Italian and German masters of the baroque, as well as contemporary pieces commissioned by the group.
We have made two music videos and one film soundtrack. We have also collaborated with Isadora Duncan and Baroque dancers, co-produced an opera, and worked with Balinese Gamelin. In July 2000, Aradia was the featured ensemble in residence at the New Zealand Chamber Music Festival, and in July 2001, we performed at the Musica nel Chiostro in Italy.
Photo: Emily Lockhart
Aradia regularly performs in Toronto, often at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen Street West. These concerts are special because we play chamber music as it was meant to be played: in an intimate, informal setting, and on period instruments. These concerts are often LCBO licensed, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the music with a glass of wine.
Aradia also regularly performs larger scale performances at the beautiful Blessed Sacrament Church on Yonge Street at Lawrence Avenue.
Recordings of our music are available on the Naxos Records label. We have performed at many festivals in Canada and the US and have toured internationally.
Originally from Ireland, Kevin Mallon, now resident in Canada, has quickly developed a world-wide reputation. With an impressive background that includes conducting studies with John Eliot Gardiner, composition with Peter Maxwell Davies, training at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, and at Dartington College of Arts, he learnt his craft as a violinist with such orchestras as the Hallé and the BBC Philharmonic, and later as concertmaster with Le Concert Spirituel and Les Arts Florissants in Paris. With these groups, he has recorded extensively and toured the world. He has performed concerts all over Europe, including Vienna, London, Berlin, and Paris, with appearances in Russia, the Baltic States, China, Japan, New Zealand, the United States and Canada.
Before moving to Canada to take up positions with the University of Toronto and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Kevin was active in both his native Ireland, including the Ulster Orchestra, Castleward Opera, and the National Chamber Choir.
In 1996, Kevin Mallon formed and became the Artistic and Music Director of the Aradia Ensemble.
Kevin Mallon is also in demand as a conductor with other orchestral groups in Toronto, including Toronto Chamber Orchestra (as Music Director), Opera Anonymous, and Opera In Concert. Other engagements as a guest conductor have taken him to Finland, Sweden, Poland and the United States. He has recently also taken up the position of Music Director of Opera 2005 in Cork, Ireland, conducting a series of operas as part of Cork’s tenure as European Capital of Culture. Also interested in Irish music, he is a member of the Toronto-based traditional group, Dulaman.
