Performances

New publication out!

I am part of a five-year opera creation project Reflective Iterative Scenario Reenactments (RISE). I collaborated with Cynthia Kinnunen, a Laurier graduate student and an incredible music educator specializing in ukulele (although good at a lot of things!). Together we incorporated community members into the opera creation process of two projects. Cynthia and I found it really challenging to incorporate participatory music practices into the opera creation processes. In part, we began the project at the height of the pandemic, when no one could gather. Another difficult aspect is that even when gathering became possible, most of the project team… Read More »New publication out!

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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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Concert: ‘My Mother is the Ocean Sea’ May 10 @ 3pm

Echo Women’s Choir is performing a concert on Mother’s Day afternoon, with Ukrainian singers Mark Marczyk and Marichka Kudriavtseva of Lemon Bucket Orkestra. I am not conducting in this concert, but am singing with a full heart! Come join us! Sunday May 10, 2015 @ 3:00 pm Church of the Holy Trinity (10 Trinity Square, next to the Eaton Centre) Tickets: $15 advance/ $20 door/ $10 seniors, children, underwaged

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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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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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my ‘choir’ is performing tonight

I’m in a ‘choir.’ I have a hard time telling people I’m in this choir without putting quotes around the word. Because you see, it doesn’t look anything like any choir I’ve ever seen or participated in. If your definition of choir is a group of people singing together, then yes. We’re a choir. But after that, us and most other choirs depart ways. You’re probably familiar with a typical choir: people arranged in rows according to voice type, facing a conductor and singing multi-part scored music. I’ve sung in these kinds of choirs, and I’ve directed versions of these… Read More »my ‘choir’ is performing tonight

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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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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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