Tag Archives: duvall

field studies

Posted on by
Reply

07 - Emilie Cecilia LeBel - Emilie Cecilia LeBel — field studies (cover) copyfield studies is a CD of chamber music by Canadian composer Emilie Cecilie Lebel.  There are five tracks on the record; each around twelve minutes long, scored for various small forces and recorded in different locations.

The pieces are all different but they have one thing in common.  They make a few notes go a long way!  evaporation blue, which opens the album is typical.  It’s scored for piano and harmonica; both played by Cheryl Duvall, and it’s very sparse with the notes typically given long time values.  It’s quite evocative in a slightly tense kind of way.  It’s also recorded with a lot of resonance which has to be deliberate since it was recorded at Revolution Recording in Toronto.

Continue reading →

Singing Only Softly

Posted on by
Reply

Last night was the last performance at Heliconian Hall of Loose Tea Music Theatre’s double bill of Anne Frank operas.  The first half of the show centred on Grigori Frid’s monodrama for soprano and chamber ensemble (given here in piano score) The Diary of Anne Frank.   It’s a work in 21 scenes of which 15 were performed last night.  For a Soviet work of the 1970s it’s surprisingly modern in style with some interesting music for the piano.  The vocal part though is pretty unsympathetic and although Gillian Grossman managed it pretty well a lot of it lies too high for comfort or even comprehension.

SingingOnlySoftly-photobyDahliaKatz-6692

Continue reading →

A couple of late entries

Posted on by
Reply

I thought I’d managed a pretty comprehensive update on the Toronto opera/choral/vocal music scene for March but there are a couple of gigs I got rather later info on.

On March 23rd at 7pm in Walter Hall, CASP have a concert of works from the more humorous end of the Canadian Art Song rep.  Mary-Lou Fallis, Geoff Sirett, peter Tiefenbach and Steven Philcox are performing.  Tickets are $40, $25 (senior) and $10 (student).

Then on Friday 27th Maureen Batt and Cheryl Duvall are performing a program of contemporary American and Canadian works, many of them written for Maureen, at Heliconian Hall.  It’s at 8pm and tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door and there are $15 early bird tickets available at https://www.bemusednetwork.com/events/detail/69

And in other news Voicebox:Opera in Concert have announced a cast change for their performance of Charpentier’s Louise on the 29th.  Keith Klassen replaces Adrian Kramer as the poet Julien.