Art Song - my/maSCENA

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…

Marc Boucher: Innovation in a time of crisis

By Olivier Bergeron on 6 November 2020 Art Song, Classical Music

While most of the musical world has been at a standstill since March, Marc Boucher has not been short of projects. On the musical scene for more than 25 years and with several recordings to his credit, he founded Festival Classica in Saint-Lambert nearly 10 years ago. Hailed by the international press, the festival has quickly become one of Quebec’s staple musical events of the year. Now he is tackling a new project: leconcertbleu.com. This new digital platform, put forward by Festival Classica, will be developed in collaboration with the Quebec digital transformation firm ellicom/LCI LX. “We have been thinking…

Tenor Frédéric Antoun takes issue with La Presse article

By La Scena Musicale Team on 11 October 2020 Art Song, Arts Industry, Classical Music, Opera

Montreal tenor Frédéric Antoun, reacting to an op-ed article in La Presse in a video on Facebook, uses a tissue to demonstrate how, contrary to popular belief, professional opera singers release very little air during singing. “Enough with the fake news, OK?” finishes Antoun on a comical note with a Donald Trump imitation.

Erin Wall, 1975-2020

By La Scena Musicale Team on 9 October 2020 Art Song, Classical Music, Opera

Erin Wall, a Calgary native (who also grew up in Vancouver) whose sumptuous voice and dignified stage presence kept her busy as both a concert and opera singer, has died at age 44. It was known as early as January 2018 that the soprano was suffering from breast cancer. In one of her own tweets she made a reference to having contracted COVID-19. “Once I was an opera singer,” reads what appears to be her last message. “Then COVID-19 and stage IV cancer changed everything.” A regular on major stages around the world, Wall in 2017 performed both as Strauss’s…

Opera and voice

By Justin Bernard on 21 September 2020 Art Song, Opera, Vocal

Topsy-Turvy Season for the Opéra de Montréal Big changes have been announced for the 2020-21 OdM season. Abiding by the new health standards issued by the CNESST, the company has seen itself forced to postpone its two major productions, La Traviata by Verdi and Jenůfa by Janáček, because these require too many performers on stage, making it impossible to ensure the health and safety of the artists involved. Replacing these works in the fall program, Patrick Corrigan and his team have decided to present two works that had initially been planned for spring 2020. The first is La voix humaine…

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