NEW DISCOVERIES
PROGRAM
NEW DISCOVERIES PROGRAM
Four Fabulous Young Singers named as Grand Prize Winners of
2010 New Discoveries Auditions
West Coast soprano Betty Allison, Toronto baritone Alexander Hajek, and Ottawa shining stars Wallis Giunta, mezzo- soprano and Philippe Sly, bass-baritone take home Grand Prize honours!
January 29, 2010
For immediate release
Ottawa, Canada: It should be a source of tremendous pride for the Canadian system of training young singers that with every round of the biennial New Discoveries Auditions for Young Artists, the depth of talent continues to leave jury members ever more impressed. On January 21st and 28th, in auditions held at Cathedral Place in Montreal and at the New Tapestry Opera Studios in Toronto, jury members heard 53 young artists and selected four, rather than the customary three, Grand Prize winners - and this year, added three Honourable Mentions.
On their way to stardom on the concert and opera stage areGrand Prize Winners 27-year old soprano Betty Allison; 24-year-old mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta; 27-year-old baritone Alexander Hajek; and bass-baritone Phillipe Sly, who is just 21 years of age. The four young singers will make their Ottawa Choral Society debut in the 2010-11 season as soloists with the Society and will be featured in a Showcase Recital presented under the auspices of the Marian Pickering Memorial Fund.
The jury also wished to recognize the strength of the field by nominating sopranos Charlotte Corwin and Ileana Montalbetti, and baritone Cairan Ryan as Honourable Mentions. Their performances were engaging and polished and showed tremendous promise.
Jury members this year were Robert Cooper – Director Chorus Niagara, Orpheus Choir of Toronto, and Opera in Concert Chorus; Eric Friesen – Broadcaster, Classical Music Host and Speaker; Matthew Larkin – Director Ottawa Choral Society, Christ Church Cathedral (Ottawa), and The Larkin Singers; and Michael Zaugg – Director St. Lawrence Choir of Montreal, Cantata Singers of Ottawa, Montreal Symphony Orchestra Chorus, ensemble voces boreales, and La Ceilagh Chamber Singers. An added reward is that Audition winners may also receive invitations to perform with the prominent Canadian choirs directed by members of this year’s jury.
The biennial, juried auditions are an initiative developed in the early 1990’s by the Choral Society with the goal of providing a platform for emerging artists ready to launch their professional careers. To be eligible, they must be 30 years of age and under. The majority of the candidates were graduates or interns of Canadian opera training programmes and advanced students being coached by Canada’s most eminent voice teachers. Many held post-graduate degrees from music faculties across the nation and some have won recognition in international competitions and have made their professional stage debuts. Amongst the candidates, were also gifted younger singers who have not yet completed their undergraduate studies but are gaining experience in the auditioning process, often delighting the jury with their potential and serious ambitious commitment.
The Jurors heard 53 young artists performing celebrated showpieces from opera and oratorio that ranged from the Bach Passions, Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Rossini operas, oratorios and masses, to songs from the great romantic cycles by Brahms, Richard Strauss and modern masters, Duparc, Copland, Wolf, Britten - all done with a panache and professionalism that was quite dazzling. A highlight of the two full-day sessions was a blisteringly brilliant performance of ‘Glitter’ from Leonard Bernstein’s Candide that injected a burst of irrepressible gaiety into the standard audition repertoire!
The Ottawa Choral Society congratulates the
2010 New Discoveries Audition Grand Prize Winners
Betty Allison soprano
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Originally from Whitehorse, soprano Betty Allison grew up on Vancouver Island and attended the University of Victoria, graduating with degrees in both music and education. While in Victoria she sang with the POV chorus making her debut in Julius Caesar. She joined the Canadian Opera Company's Ensemble Studio in 2006, making her mainstage debut singing Annina in La Traviata. She has since performed many additional roles with the company, including Fiordiligi in Cosi fan
Tutte, Donna Elvira in Gazzaniga's Don Giovanni, the Turnspit in Rusalka, and Mona in Swoon. She has covered numerous roles for the COC, most notably Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and the Title role in Rusalka. In the summer of 2007 she sang the Countess in Le Nozze
di Figaro with the Centre for Opera in Sulmona Italy (COSI), returning the following year to perform excerpts from Cosi fan Tutte. Equally at home in oratorio, Ms. Allison's concert repertoire includes Haydn's Creation, Dvorak's Te Deum, and Handel's Messiah. This past summer she performed the title role in Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen in an exciting new production at the Banff Centre.
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Wallis Giunta mezzo-soprano
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Hailed by critics as a “talented and artistically mature” performer with a “voice of satin purity” that is “strong, supple and…utterly beautiful”, 24-year-old mezzo Wallis Giunta is a new member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, and makes her debuts in 09/10 with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, Mooredale Concerts, the Toronto Classical Singers, the Regina Symphony, and Toronto’s Opera Atelier as Cherubino in ‘Figaro’. Last season, she created roles in two world premieres: the title role in Pandora’s Locker,by Canadian composer, Dean Burry, as well as King’s Mistress in R. Murray Schafer’s highly anticipated new opera The Children’s Crusade.
Wallis has had a successful 2009/10 as a grant recipient of The Canada Council for the Arts, winner of The Royal Conservatory Orchestra Concerto Competition & Tom Thomas Award, winner of an Encouragement Award at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, 2nd prize winner at the Brian Law Opera Scholarship Competition, and finalist in the George London Competition and the Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition. The recipient of the Lilly Kertes Rolin International Vocal Prize, Wallis was a 2009 Artist Diploma graduate of the Glenn Gould School The Royal Conservatory.
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Alexander Hajek baritone
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Baritone Alexander Hajek, a recent graduate of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, debuts with the COC this season as Morales in Carmen and the Third Japanese Envoy in Stravinsky’s The Nightingale. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music where, on full scholarship, studying with Daniel Ferro, he completed his Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees. He toured extensively with St. Michael’s Choir School of Toronto and while at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Mr. Hajek sang with several Toronto- based ensembles including the Mendelssohn Choir, Glenn Gould Ensemble, Opera in Concert, the Palestrina Choir and several summers with the Ontario Youth Choir. With a voice of ‘velvet beauty, warm tone and eloquent phrasing’, Mr. Hajek has appeared at international venues and command performances for Presidents, Prime Ministers, Pontiffs John Paul II and Benedict (World Youth Day celebrations, Germany and the Vatican).
Concert highlights include ‘Opera’s Greatest’ (Brott Music Festival with the National Academy Orchestra of Canada); Messiah (Brott Music Festival, Hamilton) and with the Bronx Opera (New York); Mozart’s Mass In C Minor; the Requiem’s of Fauré, Duruflé, Brahms, and Mozart; Ziesl’s Ebraico; and Stravinsky’s Mass(both at Carnegie Hall). Mr. Hajek continues to give recitals in New York, Toronto and Europe. His awards include first prize in the Louis Quilico Competition (Ontario Arts Council Foundation), the Todd Duncan Legacy Award (National Opera Association), the Lyndon-Woodside Memorial (The Oratorio Society of New York), the Woodmere competition, the Liederkranz Competition (Art Song Division), and a finalist in The Licia-Albanese Puccini Foundation and Palm Beach Competitions. |
Philippe Sly bass-baritone
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Having recently won the Brian Law Opera Scholarship in Ottawa, bass-baritone Philippe Sly gained early experience with the Choir of Men and Boys of St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Ottawa, Opera Lyra Ottawa Boy’s Choir and subsequently the Adult Chorus. In 2006, he sang Masetto in Don Giovanni with the Opera Workshop at the University of Ottawa. He was the recipient of the 2007 Canada’s Capital Cappie award for Lead Actor in a musical (Pal Joey). During three summers he attended the Young Artist, Opera as Theatre program at the Banff Centre, performing Escamillo in La Tragédie de Carmen and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte as well as singing in the chorus of Filumena and Frobisher, the recently world-premiered operas by John Estacio. Philippe is currently in his third year as a Bachelor of Music student at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, singing the roles of Nick Shadow and Escamillo respectively in the productions of Stravinky’s The Rake’s Progress and Bizet’s Carmen.
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Winners of New Discoveries Audition for Young Artists - 2008
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Laura Albino
Soprano |
Aidan Ferguson
Mezzo-Soprano |
Justin Welsh
Baritone |
In February 2008, a distinguished jury composed of Dr. Marika Kuzma, professor of choral studies at the University of California at Berkeley, broadcaster Eric Friesen and OCS Music Director Matthew Larkin heard more than 60 outstanding young Canadians – all under the age of 30, in auditions held in Montreal and Toronto. From that roster they selected three exciting young Canadian artists as the winners of the Ottawa Choral Society’s 2008 New Discoveries Auditions for Young Artists. They are Toronto soprano Laura Albino, and two young stars who have arisen out of the west, mezzo–soprano Aidan Ferguson (now living in Montreal) and Toronto-based baritone Justin Welsh.
LAURA ALBINO
Soprano Laura Albino is fast emerging as one of Canada’s finest young sopranos, and is in growing demand for both opera and concert repertoire. Her operatic repertoire includes the role of Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni conducted by Richard Eagrr with the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in Aldeburgh, England; Mary Warren in Robert Ward’s The Crucible with the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv; and the role of Bridey in Queen of Puddings Music Theatre’s production of The Midnight Court at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Other recent operatic performances include Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Anne in Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, the title roles in Handel's Semele as well as Holst’s Savitri and the part of Lauretta in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi.
As a concert singer, Miss Albino recently made her debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in Bach’s St John Passion and made her third appearance with Toronto’s Aldeburgh Connection in the Bayfield Festival of Song. She has performed at the Toronto International Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling for the past four years, and last July joined Maestro Rilling for performances of Bach Cantatas at the Oregon Bach Festival. Other recent concert appearances include performances of Mozart’s masses with the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Paul Nadler, a performance of Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem under Raffi Armenian, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Exultate Jubilate with Toronto’s Tallis Choir, Handel’s Messiah with the Handel Society of Dartmouth College under Rilling, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Toronto’s Amadeus Choir under Lydia Adams. Miss Albino has recently made her second appearance with Toronto’s Aradia Ensemble as the featured soloist in their Christmas concert, and looks forward to working with them again on an upcoming recording of Purcell works for the Naxos label. Miss Albino can also be heard on the Hänssler Classic label on a recording of Handel’s Saul with the Bach Collegium, Stuttgart.
Miss Albino recently completed a Masters Degree in Operatic Performance at the University of Toronto Opera School where the Canadian Opera Volunteers Committee named her the Distinguished Graduate of 2006. Miss Albino is a member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio.
AIDAN FERGUSON
Young mezzo-soprano Aidan Ferguson is currently in her final year of her Master’s degree in Opera Performance at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University studying with Professor Joanne Kolomyjec and Professor Michael McMahon. Aidan received her Bachelor of Music Degree from McGill with Outstanding Achievement in Voice and Distinction. She has been the recipient of numerous scholarships at McGill including the Laurie Slapcoff Award and Margaret Kalil Award, was a Schulich Scholar and last year received a Recruitment Excellence Fellowship. As a Grand Prize winner of the Ottawa Choral Society’s 2008 “New Discoveries” Competition, Aidan will be a featured soloist in their “Grand Mastery” concert singing in Mozart’s MASS IN C MINOR.
Aidan has had the great privilege of taking part in master classes with Jane Eaglen, Nico Castel, Stephen Lord, Joan Dornemann and Diana Soviero. Aidan’s operatic stage experience includes Dorabella in Così fan tutte (Mozart), Second Lady Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Mum in Albert Herring (Britten), Zenobia in Radamisto (Handel), Popova in The Bear (Walton), Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas (Purcell) and the Baroness in Vanessa (Barber). This season Aidan sang the role of Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia (Britten) with Opera McGill. Next year Aidan looks forward to joining the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal.
JUSTIN WELSH
From British Columbia, baritone Justin Welsh is a former member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio. He was featured as Ari in the world premiere of the Ensemble production of SWOON and took the role of Fiorello in the mainstage production of Rossini’s IL BARBIERE DE SIVIGLIA, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Previously he has been seen as Papageno in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE in the Andrew Porter production for the COC Ensemble and covered the roles of Guglielmo in COSI FAN TUTTE, Count Almaviva in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and Wagner in Gounod’s FAUST.
Last season, he was heard in ROBERTO DEVEREUX for Opera in Concert, in Fauré’s REQUIEM with Choeur St. Laurent, MATTHÄUS PASSION with the Guelph Chamber Choir, SONGS OF TRAVEL by Ralph Vaughan Williams with the Ottawa Choral Society, Beethoven’s MASS IN C and Bach’s MAGNIFICAT with the Regina Philharmonic Chorus and ‘Opera Briefs’ with Tapestry New Opera Works.
Justin Welsh placed in the Metropolitan Regional Finals in Seattle and his awards include First Place in the Kurt Weill Competition and an encouragement award from the Louis and Cristina Quilico competition. He holds a Master’s of Music from the University of British Columbia and has also participated in young artist programmes in the Czech Republic and Germany, with Pacific Opera Victoria, and Opera Nuova where he sang the role of Sid in ALBERT HERRING. At the C.O.S.I. programme in Sulmona, Italy last summer he was featured as the philandering Spanish Count in Mozart’s LE NOZZE DI FIGARO. Other roles in his repertoire include Lapak in Janacek’s CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN, Lescaut in Massenet’s MANON and the title role in GIANNI SCHICCHI.
Background on the OCS New Discoveries Auditions for Young Artists
For more information, please contact
newdiscoveries@ottawachoralsociety.com
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