Art Song - my/maSCENA

CVAI: Melody Yun Xie, soprano

By Justin Bernard on 18 June 2021 Art Song, Opera, Vocal

Name: Melody Yun Xie Voice type: soprano From: China Teachers: Mignon Dunn, Ying Huang, Yan Yang Education: Manhattan School of Music Music runs in the family: there’s a choir conductor, a koto teacher, a composer and a singer. And then there’s Melody Yun Xie, a lyric soprano and voice teaching assistant at Xinghai Conservatory of Music, China. Her musical journey started on the piano at the age of 3. Also as a youngster, she liked to sing. When she was 18, a voice teacher encouraged her to start her training the operatic style. A graduate of the Manhattan School of…

CVAI: Mia Rolland, soprano

By Justin Bernard on 18 June 2021 Art Song, Opera, Vocal

Name: Mia Rolland Voice type: soprano From: United Kingdom Teacher: Dominique Labelle Education: Yale University Opera is everything. It is set, decor, lighting, performers, costume, acting, music and audience. It is opulence and minimalism, art and reality all in one. Calling it ‘fat’ seems to suggest it is superfluous to the basics, or excessive. That ‘extraness’ fuels the stigma. But opera is reality dressed up in music. It is sex, heartbreak and hate. It is inequality, nationalism and religion. It is human emotion at its core. Nothing about that is extra. This is how soprano Mia Rolland defines her longtime…

CVAI: Daevyd Pepper, tenor

By Justin Bernard on 18 June 2021 Art Song, Opera, Vocal

Name: Daevyd Pepper Voice type: tenor From: Canada Teachers: Norma Burrowes, Dr. Darryl Edwards, Frédérique Vézina Education: York University, University of Toronto Opera School I wouldn’t say it was fully my decision, but I’m glad that it happened. I started singing at 17 in a guitar class. The first song I ever sang in public was John Denver’s ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane.’ This was when I discovered I could sing. I started taking voice lessons shortly after and the teacher suggested I start singing classically. Thus began the journey of Canadian tenor Daevyd Pepper into singing and later into…

CVAI: Emmanuel Hasler, tenor

By Justin Bernard on 18 June 2021 Art Song, Opera, Vocal

Name: Emmanuel Hasler Voice type: tenor From: France Teacher: Richard Margison Education: Centre de musique baroque, Versailles; Conservatoire national supérieur de musique, Paris; Université de Montréal. I love singing for sure, but more than anything else I love music as a whole, and opera in particular. Being right there in the middle of that big machine, that world of sounds and emotions, is like delving deep into the recesses of the universe. I have to be there for the ride, because I am so engrossed by it. To me, it is no different a need than taking in a gulp…

CVAI: Hélène Picard, mezzo-soprano

By Justin Bernard on 18 June 2021 Art Song, Opera, Vocal

Name: Hélène Picard Voice type: mezzo-soprano From: France Teachers: Rosemarie Landry, Catherine Sévigny Education: Maîtrise Notre-Dame-de-Paris, Université de Montréal Music has been in Helène Picard’s life from an early age, as she was born into a musical family. As the French-born mezzo recalls: “I was in a class whose program made an allowance within its usual curriculum for added training at the conservatory, mainly in voice. I was also taught violin.” By her own admission, she did not connect with opera immediately. “I have to admit that my love for singing, like all passions in life, was a stormy one.…

Photo: Magnus Skrede

Bergen: Johannes Weisser – Moving moments but less than full control

By Justin Bernard on 8 June 2021 Art Song, Concert Reviews

On June 6, in front of a live audience, the Norwegian baritone Johannes Weisser, accompanied by pianist Christian Ihle Hadland, offered a recital in Troldhaugen – this being the name of the house where composer Edvard Grieg lived, a national treasure. And what better way to honour the former master of the house than to offer a program of his songs, some in Norwegian, others in German. We were able to watch this webcast on June 7 and admire the idyllic surroundings of this heritage property on Nordåsvannet Bay, near Bergen. The balance of the program comprised Gustav Mahler’s five…

Jake Heggie and baritone Joshua Hopkins

New song cycle by Margaret Atwood and Jake Heggie to be released

By Newswire on 9 February 2021 Art Song, Contemporary

HOUSTON, Texas – February 9, 2021 – On the morning of September 22, 2015, in Renfrew County, Ontario, a single man went on a killing spree, brutally murdering three ex-partners in their separate homes. They were victims in a crime now recognized as one of the worst cases of domestic violence in Canadian history. The murders devastated the rural Ottawa Valley community where baritone Joshua Hopkins grew up – his sister, Nathalie Warmerdam, was one of these women. Hopkins has since set out on a journey to use his voice to wake people up to the global epidemic of gender-based violence…

The prix d’Europe: a force in Canadian musical life for 110 years

By Jacqueline Vanasse on 28 January 2021 Art Song, Music Competition, Piano, Violin

The Prix d’Europe will celebrate its 110th anniversary this year. Since its beginning, the scholarship offered by the Prix d’Europe has enabled winners to study abroad. The competition offers what might be called a sabbatical year for further development after musical studies and before embarking on a professional career. “We are always transformed by studying abroad,” comments Vincent Boucher, vice-president of the Académie de musique du Québec and organist at St. Joseph’s Oratory. “I think that the Prix d’Europe was an important cultural driving force in Quebec in the sense that a Quebec musician who went to Vienna or Paris…

Canadian Art Song Project announces Chung-Wai Chow and John Wright Art Song Mentorship Program for Composers

By Newswire on 7 January 2021 Art Song, Canadian Music, Classical Music, Contemporary, Vocal

Steven Philcox and Lawrence Wiliford, the Co-artistic Directors of CASP, announce a series of grants to support new and emerging composers during this difficult time of COVID-19 isolation. Two grants of $2000 will be awarded in each of the next three years. The successful applicants will be expected to create three Art Songs (free-standing poems set to music), roughly 10 to 12 minutes in total, within 8 months of the agreed start date. As part of the programme the applicant will be paired with a recognized Canadian Art Song composer who will act as Mentor throughout the process. The Mentors will provide…

La Scena Holiday Concert 2020

By La Scena Musicale Team on 24 December 2020 Art Song, Classical Music, Opera

ReWatch on Facebook: ReWatch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Nm8oowYFrIk Come and join our musical party of La Scena Musicale in a joyful, cozy and jolly Holiday concert on Facebook and YouTube. The event will count with the participation of more than 20 musicians and singers from Canada and around the world, including: Gino Quilico Chantal Dionne Nadine Benjamin Hugo Laporte Marie-Annick Beliveau Bruno Roy and many more. We will also be announcing the winner for our Holiday Concert Giveaway with amazing prizes courtesy of La Scena Musicale. It’s all on Sunday, December 20th at 3pm on La Scena Musicale’s social media…

Browsing: Art Song

CVAI: Melody Yun Xie, soprano

CVAI: Mia Rolland, soprano

CVAI: Daevyd Pepper, tenor

CVAI: Emmanuel Hasler, tenor

CVAI: Hélène Picard, mezzo-soprano

Bergen: Johannes Weisser – Moving moments but less than full control

New song cycle by Margaret Atwood and Jake Heggie to be released

The prix d’Europe: a force in Canadian musical life for 110 years

Canadian Art Song Project announces Chung-Wai Chow and John Wright Art Song Mentorship Program for Composers

La Scena Holiday Concert 2020

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