conducting

Personal Pandemic: A Socially Distanced Opera

I’m part of a research-creation team led by Eldad Tsabary (Concordia University). We’ve just released our first mini-opera: Personal Pandemic. This was entirely created, rehearsed, and recorded during lockdown. Nobody was ever able to be in the same room together. I think the results are excellent–the concept is that the viewer sees the lead character’s desk top, experiencing the story through her music production and messaging. The opera uses classic bel canto opera as well as hip hop, and incorporates choral components. I am so proud to be a part of this project, bending the rules of opera, and really… Read More »Personal Pandemic: A Socially Distanced Opera

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westward ho!

Big changes in my studio. I will be defending my ph.d. in August this summer, and then relocating to Edmonton, Alberta (apparently the most up-and-coming city in Canada). I will continue to teach privately through my studio in Toronto until early August, and will likely re-open my studio in Edmonton once we are settled, teaching in person and via skype, while also continuing my academic and artistic work. Feel free to contact me for more information or to stay in touch. Have a great summer!

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Concert: Moonlit City (Sat March 28)

5th Annual Earth Hour Celebration and Fundraiser for Echo Women’s Choir   Featuring Annabelle Chvostek Saturday, March 28, 2015 7 pm Church of the Holy Trinity, 10 Trinity Square (by Toronto Eaton Centre) Tickets: $35 This Saturday evening, Echo Women’s Choir is hosting a fundraiser concert that also celebrates Earth Hour. Here are three reasons to join us: 1) The concert is lit by candles in the 150-year old Holy Trinity Church in downtown Toronto. This is an utterly magical setting to listen to Echo Women’s Choir sing pieces by Malcolm Daglish, Tom Chapin, and others in honour of Earth Hour.… Read More »Concert: Moonlit City (Sat March 28)

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Concert: The Divine Feminine

I get to work with the wonderful Echo Women’s Choir this semester, and am conducting a set at their concert on December 7 in downtown Toronto. I’m loving the repertoire this season: a couple challenging Ave Maria kinds of pieces (unusual for Echo); a ladino lullaby; some Georgian crazy-harmony pieces; a gospel piece. I think it’s going to be a fantastic concert. Here are the details: Sunday, December 7, 2014 7:30 pm Church of the Holy Trinity (next to Eaton Centre on West side) $15 advance/$20 at the door/$10 seniors, students, underwaged To reserve tix: 416-779-5554 for more info: www.echowomenschoir.ca

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Join my mass choir at the Ontario Science Centre next week!

Next week, I’m leading a music lab at the Ontario Science Centre as part of their ‘Science of Rock’ special exhibit. Come join in the fun! The music labs last about 40 minutes and you have three chances to participate in the week: Tuesday, Aug 19 at 12 pm and again at 2pm Thurs, Aug 21 at 12 pm only I’d love to stack the audience with some singers, so please join in! Feel free to tell others too! I’ll be touching on some physiology of the singing voice as well as some acoustic principles. Everyone will then learn a… Read More »Join my mass choir at the Ontario Science Centre next week!

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Night Songs: Celebrate Earth Hour with Music

This Saturday night, Echo Women’s Choir and Mariposa in the Schools are holding a joint fundraiser at Holy Trinity Church. Tickets are $35, and come with free wine tasting, plus incredible music from the likes of Gurpreet Chana (The Tabla Guy) and Melanie Doane, as well as Echo, and I’m going to conduct one of the songs and sing with them. The whole evening is hosted by Andrew Craig. Echo Women’s Choir is an 80-voice non-auditioned women’s choir based in Toronto that sings an incredible range of repertoire. Mariposa in the Schools is an amazing organization that introduces the world’s… Read More »Night Songs: Celebrate Earth Hour with Music

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looking back, looking forward

Hey there. So it’s 2013. Where did last year go? 2012 brought so much live music into my life, and I drank it all up like a thirsty man finding water in the desert. I have two young kids, so getting out of the house at all, let alone seeing tons of live music, is nothing short of manna. I went to Hillside Festival in Guelph, and to the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, in, well, Edmonton. Got to see Merill Garbus and the incredible tUnE-yArDs (watch this video for a sample of her crazy/raw/fun aesthetic), and I fulfilled a life-long… Read More »looking back, looking forward

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advice for choosing a choir

I was the guest editor for Whole Note magazine’s May 2012 edition. This Toronto area-based music magazine is known for releasing its ‘Canary Pages’ in May– a listing of choirs and other singing opportunities in the Greater Toronto Area for anyone who’s looking to join a choir, or perhaps looking for a change. I was asked to write about choirs and community for this year’s edition(you can read it here). I also had some long, wonderful discussions with two Toronto-based conductors: Isabel Bernaus, conductor of the Jubilate Singers and Common Thread Community Choir; and Becca Whitla, conductor of Echo Women’s… Read More »advice for choosing a choir

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beautiful women singing in a beautiful city

The Twentieth Anniversary Season Concert for Echo Women’s Choir happened this past Sunday. I had the pleasure and privilege of guest conducting a substantial portion of the concert. I don’t have any video or audio–yet–so you’ll have to take my word for it: these 80 women sounded wonderful. The program was pretty eclectic: some gospel, some worker/protest songs, an Arabic love song, a few pieces from the Republic of Georgia. The central piece was a composition called ‘Sun’ (conducted by my colleague Alan Gasser), with text by Eliot Rose and music by William Westcott–this full-on, massive sounding,insane piano-accompanying, hard-to-sing vocal… Read More »beautiful women singing in a beautiful city

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Beautiful City May 13

Beautiful City Echo Women’s Choir 20th Anniversary Season with special guest Suba Sankaran Sunday, May 13, 2012 3:00 pm The Church of the Holy Trinity (West side of Eaton Centre) Tickets: $12 advance/$15 door $8 children/seniors/underwaged For info and tickets: 416-588-9050 ext 3   This is it! Echo’s Spring Concert is almost here. I’ve been having an insanely wonderful time conducting this fantastic group of 80 women. Come and listen to us sing songs from many traditions–Georgian, gospel, South Indian, folk, and a whopper of a piece called Sun composed by Bill Westcott using a stunning visceral poem written by… Read More »Beautiful City May 13

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