“The Grand Salon Orchestra, under the director of Kerry Stratton, performed at the Ball Pologne on April 21, as Polish Orphans Charity celebrated its 10th anniversary by donating scholarships to deserving orphans in Poland and surrounding countries.”
Kerry Stratton and the Toronto Philharmonia Orchestra performed at the Toronto Raptors (professional basketball team) opening game in 2009: “…a stirring live performance by the Toronto Philharmonia at centre court, and then the game and the players lived up to the hype…”
Kerry was profiled in the March 2009 issue of The WholeNote Magazine.
“My grandparents’ farm in 1958: one of the distinct advantages of the car featured here was that it had no radio. This meant that Sunday drives were accompanied with lots of singing. I loved it when everyone sang. I still do.”
(read article)
“Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia was conducted for this Nov 3 2008 concert by Toronto maestro Kerry Stratton. The orchestra sported a sensational woodwind section and tight strings, and proved to be sensitive and accomplished players.”
(read review)
“Kerry Stratton has the pizzazz that classical music needs,” says Barbara Johnston of the Brockville Concert Association, which is responsible for bringing the Grand Salon to Brockville. “We need more people like him – people who are dedicated to keeping good-quality music alive.” Ask Kerry why he formed the Grand Salon, and he’ll tell you that he was trying to recreate a piece of “North Americana.” The Grand Salon brings to life the music of a gentler age in music when, as Kerry explains, it was cherished and wasn’t a disposable commodity. “The salon era was a time before radio, and it was a time when music was consumed live.”
(read review)
“The Canadian master delighted us with the overture Helios of Carl Nielsen… an estimable interpretation of the 5th Symphony of Sibelius.”
(read review)
“The concerts were conducted with competence and restraint by Kerry Stratton in a steady yet stirring and comprehensible manner. It was easy for the musicians to recognize and follow his directions. As such, success was a virtual inevitability.”
“… laudable risk-taking on the part of Stratton… ”
“Stratton has fashioned a beautiful, burnished string sound for the ensemble …”
(read review)
“To win the stately audience at the Kassel state hall was a mission for the Canadian guest conductor with Bohemian affinity, Kerry Stratton,and a successful one. He was a purposeful, efficient and certain orchestra helmsman.”
Slavonic Serenades (Dorion DIS-80144). If you wish that Tchaikovsky had written more music like his Serenade for Strings, you will want this disc on your shelf. There is no Tchaikovsky in the program, but his inspiration can be surmised in the works by fellow Russians Vasily Kalinnikov and Alexander Glazunov, and he is explicitly credited in Anton Arensky’s Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky. The influence is less clear but the spirit and style are similar in works by the Czeck composers Josef Suk and Antonin Dvorak. The music, expertly played by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Kerry Stratton conducting, is a delight through this disc’s 77 minutes.
