Art Song - my/maSCENA

Singing Valentines! A Memorable Romantic Experience

By Vasyl Pawlowsky on 11 February 2020 Art Song, La Scena Online, Newswire, Opera, Vocal

This Year’s Singing Valentines: 12th Edition includes Serenades and Free Streaming Concert FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE La Scena Musicale presents Singing Valentines! A Memorable Romantic Experience Montreal, QC, Feb. 11, 2020 – This Valentine’s season, for the cost of a bouquet of flowers, offer a unique valentine! For the tenth year, La Scena Musicale has been providing individuals an opportunity to deliver a unique gift to their loved ones regardless of their location. Six professionally trained singers offer their time on Valentines Day, to help raise funds for La Scena Musicale and to give a special gift through song. “It has…

Photo: courtoisie de l'artiste

Trio Dell’Aria: Louis Spohr and more

By Justin Bernard on 1 October 2019 Art Song, Canadian Music, Chamber Music

Soprano Kripa Nageshwar, pianist Ruta Vaivade and clarinetist Michael Westwood always had an individual passion for chamber music. The same passion drew them together and binds them today. Their adventure as the Trio Dell’Aria took off at Toronto’s Westwood Concert Series in 2014, where they gave their first public performance. They went on exploring Baroque to contemporary music, as well as jazz, folksong and chanson. “With Ruta, we finally found our match, Kripa and I,” Michael says. “It’s now the perfect trio.” Ruta adds: “Plus, now that we get more and more chances to perform, I think there are new…

Jessye Norman, Soprano, 1945-2019

By La Scena Musicale Team on 30 September 2019 Art Song, Education, Opera, Vocal

Jessye Norman, one of the world’s most admired vocalists, died in New York on Sept. 30 at the age of 74. According to a statement issued by her family, the cause was septic shock and multi-organ failure resulting from complications of a spinal cord injury the American soprano sustained in 2015. “We are so proud of Jessye’s musical achievements and the inspiration that she provided to audiences around the world that will continue to be a source of joy,” the statement reads. “We are equally proud of her humanitarian endeavors addressing matters such as hunger, homelessness, youth development, and arts…

Portrait of Joe Kaiser

Tenor Joseph Kaiser Calls Time Out

By Arthur Kaptainis on 4 September 2019 Art Song, Opera, Vocal

Joseph Kaiser, 41, a Canadian tenor who has performed in the great houses of the world, has announced “an indefinite leave of absence” with language that suggests that he is contemplating retirement. “Due to personal reasons, I will be taking an indefinite leave of absence from my international singing career,” the McGill alumnus and former cantor wrote on Sept. 4 on his Facebook page. “Thank you for your support over the years. I will deeply miss all of my wonderful colleagues and am indebted to all those who believed in me for the past 22 years. I ask that you…

Eight professional vocalists interpret the poems of Oleksandr Oles

By Newswire on 12 August 2019 Art Song, Newswire, Vocal

August 12 – 18, 2019 Temerty Theatre, Royal Conservatory’s TELUS Centre for Performance and Leadership For Immediate Release July 30, 2019 Eight professional vocalists interpret the poems of Oleksandr Oles with art songs by four composers at the third annual Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute Toronto, ON – The Ukrainian Art Song Project announced that the third annual Summer Institute will focus on the theme of Muse, with eight professional vocalists interpreting the poems of Oleksandr Oles, with art songs by Ukrainian composers: Myroslav Volynsky, Mykola Lysenko, Yakiv Steopovyi, and Marko Kropyvnytskyi. The Art Song Summer Institute opens on Monday,…

Festival Classica – Something for Everyone

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 3 April 2019 Art Song, Classical Music, Music Competition, Vocal

From Berlioz to the Bee Gees: This is the guiding theme of the 2019 edition of Festival Classica. Set in Montérégie, specifically Saint-Lambert, it welcomed 65,000 festival-goers last year and hopes to reach similar heights with its ninth edition. “The idea to put together a festival came to me in 2008, while I was an invited soloist for the 25th anniversary of Versailles’s Centre de musique baroque,” recounts general and artistic director Marc Boucher. “In Versailles, there are several concert halls: the Trianon, the Opéra, the Queen’s Theatre, the Royal Chapel, etc. I saw people walk out of one concert,…

CD Review – Nadine Sierra (Deutsche Grammophon)

By Norman Lebrecht on 14 December 2018 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Lebrecht Weekly

We do this so you don’t have to. The flow of Christmas albums has slimmed in recent years but there is still a belief in the music industry that nothing sells at Christmas like an opera singer. Is that still true? I sampled Bryne Terfel’s DG Santa sock which includes duets with Katherine Jenkins and Emma Thompson. Need I say more? I dipped into Renée Fleming’s Broadway disc on Decca and quickly dipped out again. I attended with sadness to the great John Tomlinson’s Schubert Swansong on Signum. And then I heard Nadine Sierra’s debut album and all was light…

Soprano Hyunah Yu in the middle, flanked by players from Piffaro and Prism, at the premiere of “The Anchoress” at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia); photo by Pete Checchia/Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

“The Anchoress” – Songs of a Soul in Solitude

By Charles Geyer on 4 November 2018 Art Song, Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Experimental Jazz, Interviews, La Scena Online, Music Competition, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Vocal, World Music

REVIEW: of The Anchoress, a world premiere of a new musical monodrama/song cycle composed by David Serkin Ludwig with text by Katie Ford, performed by soprano Hyunah Yu, accompanied by saxophone quartet PRISM and ancient-instrument ensemble Piffaro; on Wednesday, October 17, at the Perelman Theatre of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and on Thursday, October 18, at New York City’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music (the latter performance reviewed here); and INTERVIEWS: with composer David Ludwig and poet Katie Ford. The impulse to retreat from the world in search of spiritual insight or purity has manifested throughout human history. Twenty-one centuries of Christianity…

Photo: Marco Borggreve

Julian Prégardien – Tenor and Teacher Takes On Another Role

By Arthur Kaptainis on 30 October 2018 Art Song, Baroque and Early, Choral, Opera, Vocal

Like father, like son. Both Christoph Prégardien, the father, and Julian Prégardien, his son, are noted for baroque and classical opera and oratorio as well as 19th-century Lieder. Both have made highly-regarded recordings of Bach. Julian, however, is taking a step farther than his father – and most singers this side of Barbara Hannigan – by conducting the St. John Passion while singing the role of the Evangelist on Nov. 22 for the Montreal Bach Festival at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. (There will be a repeat performance on Nov. 25 at the Saint-Benoît-du-Lac Abbey in the…

Photo : Brent Calis

Magali Simard-Galdès – 2018 Récital-concours of Festival Classica Winner

By Benjamin Goron on 3 October 2018 Art Song, Music Competition, Vocal

Second prize-winner in 2017 of the Recital Competition of French Art Song at the Classica Festival, soprano Magali Simard-Galdès this year won first prize for her performance of the art songs of Cécile Chaminade, accompanied by Michel-Alexandre Broekaert, who won the pianist’s prize. The Rimouski-born singer and champion of Chaminade is very proud of this feat, winning over the jury in the face of works by Debussy, Ravel, Fauré and Poulenc. Chaminade (1857-1944) was a concert pianist and prolific composer much loved in her time. Simard-Galdès likes her simple and limpid poetry, which lets the musical phrases speak for themselves.…

Browsing: Art Song