NEW DISCOVERIES
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND - 'NEW DISCOVERIES'
Auditions for Young Artists
In the early 1990’s, the Ottawa Choral Society developed an exciting initiative aimed at discovering emerging artists who were ready to launch their professional careers. The idea was to help them to get their careers up and running while helping ourselves to cast outstanding young artists in our productions while they were still available to us at entry level fees. Since then, the Choral Society is proud to have been instrumental in encouraging the careers of many outstanding young Canadian concert artists, all of whom who are former competitors and Audition winners. Among them are soprano Shannon Mercer, mezzos Kristina Szabo and Hélène Couture, tenor Michael Colvin, and baritone Sean Watson, to name only a few.
Ms. Mercer was heard to critical acclaim as Michal in the Choral Society’s presentation of Handel’s Saul at the NAC in 2004. Recent winner, mezzo Hélène Couture, who sang with the OCS in October 2004 at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in a memorable performance of Samuel Barber’s Dover Beach and Ruth Watson Henderson’s From Darkness to Light, is now starring in operas in Germany - while tenor, Michael Colvin, Count Almaviva in Opera Lyra’s September production of The Barber of Seville, and now enjoying an active international career, performed thrillingly in the Choral Society’s 250th Mozart Anniversary gala concert last season. In 1996, we invited baritone Sean Watson, who sang Dr. Bartolo so brilliantly in the ‘silver cast’ of Opera Lyra’s ‘Barber’, to join us as soloist in the Mozart Requiem when the choir went on tour to Germany and the Czech Republic. Since then, we have had Sean back many times.
Although we are not yet in a position to offer cash awards to our ‘new discoveries’, these young artists never fail to thank us for having developed this program because of the invaluable opportunity it provides for them to perform for new audiences in future productions of the Choral Society, and those of the other choirs represented by the jury. A further enhancement to the program was added in 2007 with a Winners Showcase Recital, which presents these brilliant young talents to Ottawa audiences in solo repertoire, helping them to reach a wide spectrum of local arts presenters, producers and media.
For more information, please contact
newdiscoveries@ottawachoralsociety.com
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