Our Next concert

December 3 & 4, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.
Pre-show chat at 6:45 p.m.
Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto

Confluence Concerts welcomes celebrated Latvian singer Arta Jēkabsone to be a part of December’s concert ‘Winter Songs’. Curated by Andrew Downing, the concert will celebrate the beginning of winter with Andrew returning for a short time from Rīga, Latvia where he has been living for the year. Also featured on the program are Montréal’s Anna Atkinson and Confluence’s own Larry Beckwith and Teiya Kasahara, and Confluence regular Michael Spiroff. It will feature new and old arrangements for string quartet and piano, with the singers switching back and forth between their voices and their string instruments, in music by Arta, Anna, Henry Purcell, Jane Siberry and Sienna Dahlen, as well as some traditional Latvian winter songs and other traditional music.

Curated by Andrew Downing
Winter Nights is generously sponsored by David de Launay

Performers
Anna Atkinson (voice & viola), Larry Beckwith (voice & violin), Andrew Downing (double bass), Arta Jēkabsone (voice & violin), Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 (voice), Michael Spiroff (piano)

News

Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 to be honoured with Opera Canada's Nada Ristich Change Maker Award  at the Ruby Awards Gala on Monday, November 3, 2025

 The Opera Canada Ruby Awards, named in honour of Opera Canada’s founding editor Ruby Mercer, were first awarded in 2000. The Rubies were created to recognize and honour outstanding achievement and leadership in the realm of Canadian opera – both on stage and behind the scenes.

While they have been given in various categories over the years – in 2000, three were awarded: a Creative Artist Award, an Opera Builder Award, and an Opera Educator Award – these categories have become more permeable to allow the recognition of people who work in any area of the art form. The Rubies represent the highest honour in Canadian opera.

In 2022, a new category of Ruby Award was introduced. The Rubies’ Nada Ristich Change Maker Award celebrates innovative leadership and social impact in opera. The award recognizes an individual (or group of artists) who has made an outstanding cultural contribution to the community through their artistic practice, or to initiatives that create significant creative and social change in the field of opera in Canada. 

We are delighted to congratulate Confluence Artistic Associate Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 as this year's Nada Ristich Change Maker Award recipient.