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Globe and Mail - November 2023
Art of Time Ensemble founder Andrew Burashko says goodbye with one more Christmas show
It is indeed “good night” for the Art of Time Ensemble (AoTE). The acclaimed Canadian group, who have been fusing music, dance and theatre since 1998, are in the midst of their final season, bowing out with the last iteration of their annual Christmas-with-a-twist presentation, To All A Good Night, happening at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre from December 7-9.
American Songwriter - November 2022
Art of Time Ensemble Pays Tribute to the Art of Leonard Cohen
There are few artists more revered and consistently covered than the late Leonard Cohen. And for that matter, there are few groups that are more imaginative and distinctive than the Canadian collective known as Art of Time Ensemble.
Toronto Star - May 2019
ART OF TIME ENSEMBLE CELEBRATES 20 YEARS OF BRIDGING CULTURAL GAPS WITH A BEST-OF PROGRAM AT HARBOURFRONT
Twenty years on, Andrew Burashko’s Art of Time Ensemble continues to have a unique place in Toronto’s cultural life.
The JW Vibe - September 2022
Songs of leonard cohen live - album review
Though in essence only a sampler of the grand affair, the new album based on these shows, Songs of Leonard Cohen Live, sweeps us away on a stylistically multi-faceted journey to the poetic and tuneful heart of the legend.
Toronto Star - December 2012
Art of Time Ensemble: A Toronto musical gem
Aside from what they do, what I most like about musicians is how obviously they enjoy doing it. The pleasure they take in their job is not something you see very much in other occupations.
National Post - April 2012
Toronto’s Art of Time Ensemble revisits Russia
Andrew Burashko is bringing back the act that launched his acclaimed ensemble Art of Time more than a decade ago. Piano, clarinet, a string section and film will be blended to tribute four Russian composers spanning the 19th century to the 1970s.
The Globe and Mail - April 2011
The War of the Worlds
It's said that seeing is believing. But hearing can make belief stronger - and even lead us to believe in things we can't see. The Art of Time Ensemble proves this with its latest theatrical concert, The War of the Worlds.
Frontview Magazine - November 2022
Art of Time Ensemble Celebrates the Genius of Leonard Cohen
Torontoist - September 2010
Art of Time Continues Reinventing the Classical Experience
"There's always a twist on the 'classical thing'" jokes Art of Time Ensemble's artistic director Andrew Burashko. Not in an interview after the curtain has come down, mind you, but right in the middle of the show-that's just how Art of Time rolls.
Globe and Mail - January 2004
Composer conjures up a circus
...The piece has taken on shrewd and spectacular form at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel, where Andrew Burashko (Art of Time Ensemble), Ross Manson (Volcano) and Eda Holmes have conjured a small circus-cabaret out of sweat and thin air.
blogTO - September 2009
Beatlemania Hits Toronto with Abbey Road Anniversary Shows
The Art of Time Ensemble's Abbey Road tribute concert, marking The Beatles' 40th anniversary of the album's release, was a refreshing take on an old classic.
Toronto Star - November 2005
Art of the Songbook
Andrew Burashko is continuing his restless search to expose classical music to different audiences and to integrate other art forms within the classics.
The Hamilton Spectator - September 2022
The Art of Time Ensemble’s tribute to a troubadour
When Cohen passed away in November 2016, Andrew Burashko, the Toronto-based pianist and artistic director of the boundary-blurring Art of Time Ensemble, knew exactly how to honour the legacy of the Westmount, Quebec-born poet-novelist-songwriter.
Toronto Star - February 2011
A Tight Waltz
Andrew Burashko likes to take new musical ideas out for a spin. In this case, it's a spin around the dance floor.
The Globe and Mail - October 2011
I Send You This Cadmium Red delivers the full spectrum of colours
John Locke writes of a blind man who after much study announced that the colour red, which he had never seen, was like the sound of a trumpet. The philosopher's blind man might have found a place in the recitation with music that opened at the Berkeley Street Theatre on Tuesday, though Locke would not: He disapproved of any effort to characterize simple sensory ideas.
Toronto Sun - September 2009
Abbey Road, 2 Lanes
For Craig Martin and Andrew Burashko, the last few days have been a bit hectic and stressful, but it all seems to have come together.
And on Saturday night, both Martin and Burashko will see their work pay off in their own respective ways -- when each brings The Beatles' Abbey Road album to life, celebrating to the day the 40th anniversary of the release.
Front View Magazine - April 2021
Whatever Art Of Time Ensemble's 'Ain't Got Long' is, Skope Magazine can't get enough
With its sixth inimitable album Ain't Got Long, the Art of Time Ensemble – Canada's genre-busting ensemble that fuses high art with popular culture – welcomes a distinctive gallery of guest artists to reimagine ten of the most arresting and unforgettable songs in the contemporary experience. Ain't Got Long is streaming worldwide.
Toronto Star - September 2009
She ain’t heavy, she’s our singer
Just as desperation proved inspirational for Abbey Road - the last album recorded by The Beatles - a tribute concert tonight and tomorrow promises to make the most of a third-choice performer.
Wholenote Magazine - February 2009
Andrew Burashko’s Art of Time
Andrew Burashko is the Artistic Director of Toronto's Art of Time Ensemble. This year marks the organization's 10th anniversary season.
Toronto Star - December 2012
Rita Davies: Toronto’s former culture chief plans her next act
Davies has agreed to join the board of the Art of Time Ensemble. It's a small but prestigious - and highly innovative - performance company that has earned a devoted following since being founded 15 years ago.
The Globe and Mail - January 2009
Sailor songs and cyborgs and Viennese puff pastry
Nicholas Goldschmidt, the great Canadian impresario who would have turned 100 last month, told me once about visiting his friend Erich Korngold at a Hollywood recording studio. Korgold was conducting one of his movie scores, whih as usual was laced with Viennese-style waltzes. Glancing at the music, Goldschmidt said: “Erich, why do you write waltzes in 6/4?” - a measure double the usual length. Korngold replied: “The copyists are paid by the bar.”
enRoute Magazine - November 2014
An Artistic Director’s Address Book
As the artistic director and pianist for Art of Time Ensemble, Andrew Burashko has created a hit-list that's hard to beat, with an all-star cast reinterpreting the works of musical legends.
Toronto Star - October 2008
Art of Time gives a show to remember
Going to an Art of Time Ensemble presentation is like playing one of those games of trust, where you let yourself fall backward in the hope that someone will be there to catch you before you hit the ground.
Or, as the host of CBC Radio Two's The Signal, Laurie Brown, said in her introduction to the group's first program in its 10th season last night at Harbourfront's Enwave Theatre, "I always come to the Art of Time because I never know what the hell is going to happen. And that's where I want to be."
Toronto Star - October 2012
War of the Worlds: Foley artist John Gzowski creates terror from a Slinky, balloon and metal ashtray
Have you ever stayed up at night wondering what a Martian sounds like unscrewing the top of his spaceship before he is about to attack Earth?
John Gzowski has.
For one thing, it sounds remarkably like a metal ball rubbing against a brass ashtray.
And how about that alien slithering from the spacecraft?
Try a squishy balloon rubbed between two fingers.
Gzowski is the sound designer of War of the Worlds by the Art of Time Ensemble, running Oct. 30 to Nov. 4 at the Enwave Theatre at Harbourfront Centre.
Mooney on Theatre - December 2010
Review: Shakespeare: If Music Be (The Art of Time Ensemble)
Shakespeare: If Music Be, presented by The Art of Time Ensemble at the Enwave Theatre, is the perfect kind of entertainment for a cold winter night. It's chock full of a variety of satisfying pieces that have you leaving the theatre feeling warm and full.
Maclean's - October 2011
Talk about living colour: ‘I Send You This Cadmium Red’
I Send You This Cadmium Red is a film, a painting, an essay, a concert-and, yes, a play-all at once. Therefore none of the above. It's something else entirely. And it's extraordinary.
Jazz Times Magazine- November 2022
“Songs of Leonard Cohen Live” Album Review
In February 2018, Toronto’s Art of Time Ensemble, along with selected vocalists and readers, presented a three-night event fêting Cohen. Songs of Leonard Cohen Live features 13 of the songs performed over the course of those three nights.
Toronto Star - November 2014
Margaret Atwood stars in Art of Time season opener
Margaret Atwood is exchanging her seat in the audience for a spot centre stage in the opening concert of Art of Time's new season.
The author, a longtime fan of the classical music-pop culture theatrical group, will read her own poetry and that of Griffin International Poetry Prize winner August Kleinzahler Friday and Saturday at Harbourfront.
Toronto Star - May 2012
Steven Page, Craig Northey among acts in ‘Sgt. Pepper’ anniversary concerts
As a kid in the '70s, former Barenaked Ladies singer Steven Page remembers strapping on giant Radio Shack headphones, lying on a white shag carpet and incessantly listening to his parents' mono copy of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The Globe and Mail - April 2013
The eclectic and ambitious Art of Time Ensemble
Concerts by the Art of Time Ensemble can be the most confounding and confusing in the city. This year alone, Art of Time has presented a dramatization of Orson Welles's 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, performed by Sergei Prokoviev's grandson, Gabriel, in DJ sessions, and re-created - beautifully - the arrangements that Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn made of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. All in a night's work for this supremely creative group.
Exclaim - February 2010
A Singer Must Die
The Art Of Time Ensemble's experiments combining chamber and pop music have been winning them fans in Toronto for quite a few years, and their latest endeavour, A Singer Must Die, finds them recruiting former Barenaked Ladies front-man Steven Page to provide vocals to their arrangements of other people's songs.
NOW Magazine - September 2014
Life is a Cabaret
Atwood's new collection of stories is currently on bookshelves, but you can see her read from her poems and those of writers like Leonard Cohen and T.S. Eliot in Art of Time Ensemble's mashup of a program that includes singer Thom Allison, music by Franz Liszt and Andrew Lloyd Webber and more.
CBC Music - November 2021
Best new holiday music 2021
A brooding, slinky, wildly theatrical take on this childhood classic is absolutely enthralling for kids and grownups alike. Recorded over a series of live seasonal shows, this song kicks off Art of Time Ensemble's new album, Christmas in Prison, with Tom Wilson growling and stomping gleefully over a bed of big band flourishes and a brief but welcome hint of Whoville from the the Canadian Children's Opera Company.
The Globe and Mail - March 2009
Where words, notes, steps meet
Call it a bicycle-wheel model of artistic programming that's gaining momentum - as it should. The Art of Time Ensemble's artistic director, Andrew Burashko, has been kicking the tires for nearly a decade.
Toronto Star - March 2014
Margaret Atwood part of Art of Time’s new season
One of Canada's most important authors will kick off Art of Time's 2014/15 season.
As part of a program called The Poem/The Song, presenting poetry in musical settings, Margaret Atwood will read her poetry onstage accompanied by a musical suite written especially for the piece.
The Globe and Mail - May 2014
Jazz sax man Marsalis on ‘toxic’ collaborations
'Everything I do is a collaboration." Branford Marsalis, the American jazz saxophonist, dropped in to Toronto to perform a pair of recitals with the classically trained Canadian pianist Andrew Burashko, of Toronto's Art of Time Ensemble. The pair will collaborate on pieces from the classical repertoire, as well as works written by Marsalis. The Globe spoke to the star sax player during a break in rehearsals here.
33third - August 2021
INTERVIEW AND ALBUM REVIEW OF ‘AIN’T GOT LONG’
Life's a stage.
On their stage in Toronto's Harbourfront Centre Theatre and during the life of the Art of Time Ensemble, audiences have been transfixed by performances that fuse dance, visual art, spoken word, film, and the remarkable hybridization of pop, classical, chamber music and Jazz.
Toronto Star - October 2013
A drink with Andrew Burashko, the artistic director for Art of Time Ensemble
Over drinks at the Belle Époque-inspired Geraldine, the artistic director for Art of Time Ensemble, Andrew Burashko, discusses blending the worlds of music, dance and live theatre in these budget-constrained times. In my pre-journalism days, I was an opera singer and expected to discuss the discipline required to make it in the classical world. Instead, we bonded over The Beatles.
The Globe and Mail - December 2009
Seductive Brazilian tunes, from old chestnuts to improvisation
Just before the intermission on Friday, Emilie-Claire Barlow closed out her selection of bossa nova tunes with a chestnut called O Pato, or, in English, The Duck. Written by Jayme Silva and Neuza Teixeira, it was first recorded by Brazilian jazz great Joao Gilberto in 1960, and has been a bossa nova standard ever since.
National Post - October 2011
Theatre Review: I Send You This Cadmium Red, at Berkeley Street Theatre
The Art of Time Ensemble likes to merge all kinds of performing disciplines, sometimes throwing in some non-performing ones as well. Canadian Stage is giving its Berkeley Street platform to the ensemble's latest project I Send You This Cadmium Red, a double bill of which the first part is interesting and the second - which gives the evening its name - fascinating.
Toronto Star - January 2009
A charmingly quirky concert
Imagine getting together with a small group of friends to make a quilt without a plan or a pattern. Then, surprise! At the end of the evening, you find yourself with a beautiful keepsake that's also cozy and warm.
That's the effect of the Art of Time's quirky concert program at Harbourfront's Enwave Theatre.
Toronto Star - October 2011
Colour Us Stimulated
Before you repaint the living room, you might want to drop by Berkeley Street Theatre where, in its always reliably thought-provoking way, Art of Time Ensemble has a thing or two to say about colour and red in particular, the colour of love, blood - and London buses.
The Globe and Mail - June 2012
Sgt. Pepper gets a little help from his Toronto friends
Style is what Burashko and his people have in spades. The troupe and guest singers and sometimes actors do sophisticated things to pieces such as Orson Welles's The War of the Worlds or the Beatles' Abbey Road. When they look at a composer such as Franz Schubert, they do so with a very wide view, not only revisiting his works but presenting contemporary songs inspired by him.
Globe and Mail - April 2001
Revelation of a forgotten voice
…However, the musicians who died in the camps are finally getting the attention they deserve, and on Monday night, pianist Andrew Burashko’s Art of Time Ensemble devoted an entire evening to the works of Schulhoff, a fascinating figure of the 20th century…
Jazz Journal UK - June 2021
AIN’T GOT LONG ALBUM REVIEW
Canadian ensemble fuses classical, jazz and pop using varied instrumental and vocal combinations.
The Globe and Mail - December 2011
The top 11 of 2011: Toronto, Stratford and Shaw
Who knew an exchange of letters about colour between critic John Berger and artist John Christie could be so mind-expanding and moving? Director Daniel Brooks and designer Bruce Alcock put together a gorgeous show that changed the way I looked at the world – for a few days at least. It was a strong fall for Canadian Stage and a great year for Andrew Burashko's interdisciplinary Art of Time ensemble – I nearly put their presentation of War of the Worlds on this list, as well.