Tag Archives: boucher

Quilico Awards 2015

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Last night in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre the singers of the COC Ensemble Studio competed for the Quilico awards for the third time in this format.  Owen McAusland was off singing in Lucia di Lammermoor in Victoria and Andrew Haji was down with the flu so seven singers actually sang.  As usual the standard was very high and it can’t have been easy for the judges.  Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure and Ian MacNeil had a bit of an off night but that left five singers who I has extremely close on my notes.  No permutation of three from five would have particularly surprised me.

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Iain MacNeil, Aviva Fortunata, Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure, Karine Boucher, Clarence Frazer, Charlotte Burrage, Gordon Bintner, Jennifer Szeto and Michael Shannon

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Poèmes pour Mi

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duworsYesterday’s lunchtime concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre consisted of early works by Olivier Messiaen written for his wife, the violinist and composer Claire Delbos.  The first piece was the Theme et variations for violin and piano of 1932.  Like much of Messiaen’s music this piece represents two contrasting moods, likely rooted in Messiaen’s Catholicism.  It’s either deeply meditative or ecstatic, almost manically so, with not much in between.  It’s also very hard to play!  Here it was presented with great skill and conviction by violinist Kerry DuWors and pianist Liz Upchurch.   Continue reading →

Moving into February

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footstepsIt’s getting pretty busy in Toronto.  Here are a few upcoming things of interest that I haven’t already mentioned.

This year, the Faculty of Music’s annual student composer project is a co-production with Campbell House Museum, the 19th century home of Sir William Campbell, Chief Justice of Upper Canada. Footsteps in Campbell House is a series of pieces by student composers to words by Michael Albano.  The audience moves around the house exploring the lives of those who livedd there.  There are five performances on January 30th and 31st and February 1st.  Each performance is limited to 35 people.  Tickets are $20 and available here.  I’m really intrigued by this but there’s no way I can go.   Continue reading →

Here we go again

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Yesterday lunchtime saw the first free lunchtime concert of the season in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.  Following tradition, it was presented by the members of the Ensemble Studio.  Or, to be more accurate, by six of the nine as an unprecedented three singers had fallen victim to the virus that is apparently sweeping the Toronto opera world (HighCbola?).

Credit: (l-r) Jennifer Szeto, Andrew Haji, Karine Boucher, Charlotte Burrage, Clarence Frazer, Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure, Iain MacNeil. Photo: Karen Reeves

Credit: (l-r) Jennifer Szeto, Andrew Haji, Karine Boucher, Charlotte Burrage, Clarence Frazer, Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure, Iain MacNeil. Photo: Karen Reeves

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Young artists

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The prizewinnersThe Canadian Opera Company has announced the addition of three singers and a pianist to the Ensemble Studio for next season.  The singers, unsurprisingly, are the three prize winners from November’s Centre Stage; Soprano Karine Boucher, tenor Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure and bass-baritone Iain MacNeil,  The pianist is Jennifer Szeto.  The COC also announced the setting up of an orchestral equivalent of the Ensemble Studio in which a number of young musicians will work with Johannes Debus and the COC Orchestra.  Names were announced on Wedneday night but I can’t find them in any of the press releases. Continue reading →

Centre Stage

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Last night saw the latest evolution of the COC’s Ensemble Studio competition; a competition for cash prizes functioning as well as final auditions for next year’s Ensemble Studio.  This year, for the first time, it was packaged as Centre Stage; a gala event featuring a cocktail reception and black tie dinner as well as the competition itself.  Added to that, the singers got to perform with the COC orchestra under Johannes Debus on the main stage rather than in the RBA with piano accompaniment.

Finalists with Rufus Wainwright

Finalists with Rufus Wainwright

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Vive l’amour

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Every year the COC Ensemble Studio engages in an exchange programme with the Atelier Lyrique of L’Opéra de Montréal.  Each year that results in a joint lunchtime recital in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.  It seems to be a popular gig.  The doors were closed today at 11.40 for the noon performance (it’s first come, first served).  Thankfully, writing this stuff gets me a reserved seat or I would have missed out.  The show is always worth seeing because it’s not at all unusual for the best singers from the Montreal programme to move onto the Ensemble Studio.

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