Highlights | Musicians Pay Tribute to Marlena Malas

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Welcome to La Scena Musicale’s weekly Highlights, a roundup of classical music news from Canada and beyond. Musicians have been paying tribute to Marlena Malas, a renowned mezzo-soprano and respected music teacher at the Juilliard School who died on Dec. 4, 2023 at the age of 87. Leaf Music and ATMA Classique have released several new albums. The Siminovitch Prize and Leslie Bell Prize winners have been announced.

Remembering Marlena Malas

Malas was “known comically as ‘the diva of rejection’” and was married to “bass-baritone Spiro Malas, who died in 2019,” according to Slipped Disc. The many musicians she taught over the course of her life “can be heard in the world’s major opera houses and concert venues and her graduates hold teaching positions at conservatories and universities worldwide,” according to a Facebook post made by Juilliard on Dec. 5.

Malas was also the director of Chautauqua Company, which made a Facebook post mourning her death on Dec. 5. “A luminary in the world of opera education, Marlena’s dedication to the young singer’s craft spanned nearly five decades, nurturing the talents of some 2,000 students at Chautauqua beginning in 1979,” the post says. “Marlena’s spirit endures here at Chautauqua — her artistic home of 44 years. As we reflect on Marlena Malas’ life and work, our thoughts and love are with her family.”

The opera company held a private memorial in her honour at New York City’s Riverside Chapel on Dec. 7. A recording of the accompanying livestream is available here.

Manhattan School of Music celebrated her legacy with a post on Facebook, saying that her incredible work as an instructor earned her the MSM President’s Medal for Distinguished Service in 2021. “Her supreme warmth and prodigious pedagogical skills have been hailed throughout the classical music world over the decades, and her invaluable contributions to MSM and the Vocal Arts Division have continued right into the current Fall semester, this being her 41st year bringing her light and wisdom to the School,” the post says.

Several of Malas’s students have commemorated her on social media, including American bass-baritone and Oper Frankfurt Brandon member Brandon Cedel. “She had a way of knowing what I needed and when. She was there in the darkest and lightest of times,” Cedel writes on Facebook. “I will miss the sense of home I felt every time I walked into apartment 4B and saw her sitting next to the piano.”

Malas was “one of the closest mentors” for Canadian baritone, Grammy and Juno award nominee, and Western University Music professor James Westman, according to his commemorative Facebook post. He says he first met her at the Canadian Opera Company “when she was the resident vocal instructor” and that he was lucky to study with her privately “for many decades.”

American soprano Sydney Kucine shared the “first role” she learned with Malas: Micaëla from Carmen.

Grammy award-winning American baritone and Malas’s student Lucas Meachem said on Instagram that “the void left, I cannot define” following her death. “I personally owe her so much. What she gave us in her presence and love was invaluable. She is an irreplaceable figure in my life.”

Recent and Upcoming Shows

“The Hermitage Piano Trio delivered a lush, fiery, deeply felt and utterly breathtaking performance for their Ladies’ Morning Musical Club debut,” critic Viktor Lazarov says about Hermitage Piano Trio’s Dec. 3 concert. We also reviewed ARC Ensemble’s recent Friedrich Block concert, the Nov. 30 Nicolas Namoradze concert, and Ottawa Bach Choir’s Dec. 2 Magnificat concert.

Hermitage Piano Trio (Photo by Tao Ho/Aspect Chamber Music)

Record Label Deutsche Grammophon is celebrating its 125th anniversary with a series of concerts in Berlin (Dec. 6), Philadelphia (Dec. 9), and Seoul (Dec. 15). The shows feature artists from around the world, including Canadian pianist Bruce Liu.

The Juno-nominated Vancouver vocal ensemble Musica Intima is performing Reena Esmail’s “A Winter Breviary” and other works by Canadian composers at their Dec. 14 Kay Meeks Centre concert (Stir).

Chor Leoni will perform in Vancouver on Dec. 15, 16 and 18 (Stir) with violinist and composer Cameron Wilson.

Bradyworks and Chants Libres will premiere their newest opera, the Montreal-based “Information,” on April 27 and 28, 2024.

Debuts

VB8, the vocal octet created by Voces Boreales in 2019, has released its debut album: Winter Magic: A 21st Century Christmas. The recording includes works written over the last few decades including some from Arvo Pärt, which have no direct connection to the holidays for the sake of “year-round listening,” according to Leaf Music. It also includes “two traditional French carols.”

Recordings

Leaf Music has announced two new albums by early music specialist and keyboardist Anders Muskens: Beethoven: Waldstein & Appassionata Sonatas and Army of Generals Volume II: Carl Theodor’s Court Orchestra in Mannheim 1742-1778.

Pianist Louise Bessette “unveils a few pages from the musical journal of Montréal composer Anthony Rozankovic” on her new album Origami according to ATMA Classique. Also on ATMA this week is Bravura: oeuvres pour cor naturel et pianoforte, a collaboration between horn player Louis-Pierre Bergeron and pianist Meagan Milatz.

Kevin Lau’s Under a Veil of Stars has been released. We recently reviewed the album’s premiere concert, performed by the St. John-Mercer-Park trio, and we reviewed the album in our Nov/Dec 2023, Jan 2024 issue.

Awards, Appointments, and Competitions

Elaine Choi will be receiving the 2023 Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting at her Pax Christi Chorale concert on Dec. 9.

Elaine Choi (Photo by Emily Ding Photography)

Théâtre Lyrichorégra 20 has announced the winners of Jeunes Ambassadeurs et Ambassadrices Lyriques 2023. Award recipients include countertenor Nicholas Burns, mezzo-soprano Ilanna Starr, and mezzo-soprano Vero Miller.

David Yee has won the 2023 Siminovitch Prize, with Julie Phan as his Siminovitch Prize Protégé.