26th Season 2011 ~ Celebration Artists
Blue Engine String Quartet
Blue Engine holds true to classical roots performing many of the masterworks of the string quartet repertoire, including twentieth century landmarks by Ravel, Shostakovich, and Arvo Pärt. The Quartet has worked closely with important Canadian composers Christos Hatzis, Peter Togni, Tony Genge and Brian Current. In September 2006, the Quartet premiered Brian Current’s “Faster Still” with Duo Concertante in St. John’s, Newfoundland. This work was commissioned by the CBC especially for this collaboration and the concert was broadcast nationally on CBC Radio’s “Two New Hours” and “In Performance”. The members of the BESQ are proud to champion works by women composers: Amy Beach, Fanny Mendelssohn, Rebecca Clarke and Germaine Tailleferre among them. An important part of Blue Engine’s mandate is to provide audiences with innovative concert experiences. The 2003 “Lost Composers” concert received national attention: it was an emotionally charged evening- an overflow Pier 21 audience heard premieres of works that were repressed or hidden away during the Holocaust. The Blue Engine String Quartet is frequently broadcast on CBC Radio, appears on CBC Television, and was featured, along with four distinguished guest singers in “Quartet Plus Four at Christmas”, a New Scotland Productions Christmas Special for Vision TV and CBC. They were also featured in a BBC documentary film on the life of the late Dudley Moore, in which they perform Moore’s one and only string quartet written during his Oxford years. Halifax has one of this country’s most vibrant popular music scenes, and the Quartet are frequently featured as guest artists on recordings by the likes of Jill Barber, Meaghan Smith, Mary Jane Lamond, Heavy Blinkers, Chucky Danger and Jenn Grant. The Blue Engine String Quartet loves to collaborate with other chamber musicians. They’ve had the pleasure of making music with many of our finest classical artists: among them, Denise Djokic, Philippe Djokic, Lynn Stodola, Peter Togni, Walter Delahunt, Sanctuary, Marcia Swanston, Peter Allen, Margaret Isaacs, Suzanne Lemieux and Bernhard Gueller (as cellist). On the night of the 2006 Juno Awards Gala Broadcast, Jennifer, Anne, Margot, and Hilary were the envy of every woman in Canada when they got up close with heart throb Michael Bublé, accompanying the international star on his massive hit single “Home”. The Quartet is happy to report that he’s a really nice guy! In 2005, after years of playing on other artists’ records, Blue Engine along with singer Cliff Le Jeune and pianist Paul Simons released their own CD, “If It Be Your Will…Songs of Leonard Cohen”, a fifteen song collection of exciting new arrangements by fellow SNS musician Chris Palmer. The CD received rave reviews including one from Leonard Cohen himself who wrote to Le Jeune, Simons and the Quartet: “Dear Colleagues, Thank you for this sublime gift.” The Cohen show has played to a huge audience at the Indian River Festival, had a successful Maritime Tour in the spring of 2007, a week long run at the exquisite Chester Playhouse, and a well-received benefit appearance in Hamilton, Ontario. In February 2007, along with Cliff Le Jeune, the Blue Engine String Quartet had the privilege of performing for the Governor General, Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean, and His Excellency, Jean-Daniel Lafond, at a private function. Her Excellency has requested that Cliff, Jennifer, Anne, Margot, Hilary and Paul give a State Concert at Rideau Hall. We've had many amazing years together in which we’ve had the privilege of performing some of the most beautiful and diverse music in the repertoire, staged several world premieres, and collaborated with some of Canada's greatest musicians. Ten years go by quickly, especially when you are having fun, surrounded by friends. We really are glad that we listened when we heard a certain Little Blue Engine say “I think I can...I think I can”. http://www.blueenginestringquartet.com/ ~ Boxwood Workshop Chris Norman, Director
Norman’s flute playing can be heard featured on the Oscar winning soundtrack of Titanic and other Hollywood films including Soldier and the Stone of Destiny. His solo CD releases have received unanimous praise from critics and audiences alike and appeared on Billboard’s crossover charts. He has produced documentary programs for Inside the Music broadcast nationally on CBC Radio One in Canada and is also active as a composer and arranger. Chris’ most significant contribution may be his work as founder and artistic director of the Boxwood Festivals and Workshops taking place in Canada, New Zealand, Europe, and Asia, which have inspired thousands of musicians of all ages. Emer Mayock
She has worked with, among others, traditional musicians Donal Lunny, Paddy Glackin, the late Michael O’Domhnaill, Cormac Breathnach, Flook!, Grada, harmonica player Mick Kinsella, guitarist John Doyle, singer Damien Dempsey, jazz musician Michael Buckley, French music producer Hughes de Courson, Breton harpist Alan Stivell, The Irish Chamber Choir, Italian baroque ensemble il Giardino Armonico (with whom she recorded a CD of Vivaldi’s music), Greek singer Eleftheria Arvanitaki and the Grammy nominated Afro Celts. In recent times Emer has continued to travel widely both with her own music and as a collaborative musician including concerts in China where she performed a new work by Chinese composer Jia Daqun and in Ireland collaborating with British musician Nitin Sawhney and the Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan for The Festival of World Cultures, Dun Laoghaire. Emer has written and recorded arrangements for traditional and jazz musicians as part of radio producer Gerry Godley’s Translations programmme on RTE Radio One and has also had the pleasure of presenting a nine-week series on Radio One entitled The Wider Embrace, a non-genre-specific programme exploring music from a range of diverse sources. In the past few years other highlights have included concerts with legendary Sligo musician Peter Horan and a concert series in the USA. Emer composed the music for Winter Pictures, a play for children which has toured Wales and completed a run at The Ark in Dublin and Glor Irish Music Centre, Ennis, a series of highly successful concerts throughout Ireland with Breton musician Jean-Michel Veillon, a new collaboration with jazz musicians Francesco Turrisi (piano, accordion, percussion), Nick Roth (saxophone), cellist Kate Ellis and percussionist Robbie Harris. The band known as Tarab has emerged from this collaboration where the repertoire includes many of Emer’s compositions as well as traditional music from Ireland, Turkey, North Africa, Bulgaria and the Middle East. Emer is currently working with Uilleann piper Mick O’Brien and fiddle player Aoife O’Brien exploring and recording tunes from the Goodman Manuscripts collected in Munster in the 1880s. Eamon O’Leary
Jefferson Hamer
at sea. Shelley Phillips
~ Capella Regalis
The journey to adulthood for boys is a challenge that has garnered the interest of researchers, educators, philanthropists, and social critics over the last few decades. A boys’ and men’s choir, with its built-in system of mentorship, is uniquely capable of addressing the issues of leadership, focus, and inspiration that so many boys face at this stage in their lives. In this choir, the boys’ singing career does not end when their voices change, but in fact may continue to inform the rest of their lives. Then of course there is the result of this experience; access to some of the most incredible music mankind has had to offer over the last eight centuries for singers and audiences alike. ~ The Chapel Choir of the University of King's College Ensemble Regale
In July 2007, Paul Halley was appointed Director of Music of the Chapel and since then has built the group into a fine ensemble which now includes touring and recording amongst its activities. Halley says of the choir: "It is my hope that over time, prospective students will view the Chapel Choir as one of the reasons to attend university in Halifax. There's really nothing quite like the training a fine collegiate chapel choir can offer. You get through so much first-rate music, just in one week - all the anthems, motets, mass settings, canticles, psalms and hymns - that your musical literacy increases at a phenomenal rate." ~ The Ernst Family Singers
The ensemble currently consists of parents Gregg (bass) and Jennie (mezzo), and children Joshua (tenor), John (tenor), Peter (baritone), Elijah (bass), Eva (alto), Ruth (soprano), and Esther (alto). Seven year old Nathan and five year old Samuel are enthusiastic members of the group on occasion. The family started singing after Joshua’s voice changed in 2001. With four part harmony now possible, Jennie thought it would be fun to work on a bit of choral singing. Positive audience response convinced the group that singing should be shared, and they have since performed for national television programs and toured the Maritimes, eastern US, and Ontario. Their first CD, For the Heart, was released in 2004. Two more CDs, Give Me Jesus and A Touch of Folk, were released in the fall of 2007. The Ernsts have become known for a variety of other endeavours as well. Gregg is a blacksmith, and it was at his shop that the ironwork for the Bluenose and Bluenose II, depicted on the Canadian dime, was forged. Joshua is following in his father’s footsteps. Gregg has also received international recognition as a strength athlete. He competed in “The World’s Strongest Man” competitions in 1990 and 1991, and still holds the official world record for the most weight lifted by a man, at 5340 lbs. Jennie is well known to Nova Scotian home schoolers, having chaired the provincial association for a number of years and represented it in legal negotiations with the provincial government. ~ At The Fishhouses Harry Thurston
His poetry and articles have appeared in the following anthologies: The Atlantic Anthology: vol.2 Poetry (Charlottetown, Ragweed Press, 1985), We Belong to the Sea, a Nova Scotia Anthology (Halifax, Nimbus Publishing, 2002), Easterly: 60 Atlantic Writers (Toronto, Academic Press Canada, 1984), Local Colour, Writers Discovering Canada (Vancouver, Douglas & McIntyre, 1994), Nearly an Island: a Nova Scotia Anthology (St. John's, Breakwater Books, 1978), Ninety Seasons: Modern Poems from the Maritimes (Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1974), Prism International: 25 Years in Retrospect (Vancouver, UBC Creative Writing Department, 1984), Til All the Stars Have Fallen: Canadian Poems for Children (Toronto, Kids Can Press, 1989), Coastlines, The Poetry of Atlantic Canada (Fredericton, Goose Lane Editions, 2002), and the 1986 Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry (California, Monitor Publishing, 1987). His poetry has also appeared in the following journals: The Antigonish Review, The Canadian Forum, The Dalhousie Review, The Fiddlehead, First Encounter, Grain, Pottersfield Portfolio, Poetry Toronto and Prism International. His articles have appeared in the following magazines: Atlantic Insight, Audubon, Books in Canada, Canadian Art, Equinox, Harrowsmith, National Geographic, Quill & Quire, Reader's Digest, Rotunda and Yankee Homes. Harry has been winner of the 1986 and 1987 Canadian Science Writer's Association Science & Society Award, the 1983 National Magazine Award for Science & Technology, and the 1982 Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Letters Author's Award for Public Affairs. Suzie LeBlanc
Her contribution to Acadian culture with the CDs La Mer Jolie and Tout passe and with the documentary Suzie LeBlanc: A Musical Quest, directed by Donald Winkler, along with her performances of Early Music have earned her honorary doctorates from King’s College University in Halifax and Mount Allison University in New-Brunswick. Suzie LeBlanc is artistic director of Le Nouvel Opéra (www.lenouvelopera.com) which is ensemble-in-residence at the Montreal Conservatory and co-artisic director of the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Festival (2011) in Nova Scotia www.elizabethbishopcentenary.blogspot.com ~ The Gyspy and the Devil Hank Knox
He has performed, recorded and toured with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and le Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal; he plays regularly with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. He has recorded for Radio Canada and the CBC, and appears on recordings with Arion on the early-music.com, Atma, Analekta, CBC, Titanic and Collegium labels. His has released a recording of Frescobaldi’s keyboard works performed on an Italian harpsichord of 1677 on the Atma label, and a recording of works by D’Anglebert performed on an upright harpsichord for early-music.com. A second recording of harpsichord works of Frescobaldi on the 1677 Italian harpsichord, Affetti cantabile, was released on the early-music.com label in the fall of 2008. A recording of Handel opera arias and overtures in transcriptions for harpsichord by Babell and Handel on instruments from the Benton Fletcher collection at Fenton House in London appeared in the spring of 2009, also on the early-music.com label. Hank Knox directs the Early Music program at McGill University, where he teaches harpsichord and figured bass accompaniment, coaches chamber music ensembles, and conducts the McGill Baroque Orchestra. He has been a William Dawson Scholar in recognition of his work in Early Music since 2003, and was awarded the Thomas Binkley prize for an outstanding university collegium director by Early Music America in 2008. In collaboration with Opera McGill, he has directed productions of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, Lully’s Thésée, Handel’s Agrippina, Giulio Cesare, Alcina, Semele and Radamisto, Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Telemann’s Don Quichotte, Les sauvages from Rameau’s Les indes galantes, and Peri’s Euridice. Mark Fewer
Mr. Fewer was concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from 2004-2008, during which time he gave the Canadian premières of works by John Adams (The Dharma at Big Sur for six-string electric violin and orchestra) and Beethoven (the unfinished violin concerto WoO5), as well as the Vancouver premiere of Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra. He also led the orchestra in traditional kappelmeister style (without conductor) on several occasions in baroque and classical repertoire. In recognition of his work with the VSO, he was recognized by the Vancouver Sun as one of the music industry’s top “Movers and Shakers” for 2006. As soloist, Mr. Fewer has appeared with most of Canada’s major symphony orchestras, and is frequently heard on CBC radio, National Public Radio, the BBC’s Radio 3 and RTVE. In the past season, broadcasts have included concertos by Shostakovitch, Locatelli, Vivaldi, Beethoven (Triple Concerto), Bottesini (Grand Duo Concertante) and Mendelssohn (Piano and Violin Concerto). As a chamber musician, Mr. Fewer is a regular member of the Duke Piano Trio and Canada’s SuperNova String Quartet, both of which recently completed critically acclaimed Beethoven cycles. In March, 2009, the SuperNova Quartet hosted an international quartet festival in Montreal in which groups from around the world played all of Haydn’s quartets in a four-day period. Recent concerts include appearances as director/soloist with l’Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, 13 Strings of Ottawa, the McGill Baroque Orchestra, Scotia Festival Strings, the Newfoundland Sinfonia, and Adams’ The Dharma at Big Sur in May, 2010 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Australia. He performed as jazz violinist at MusicFest Vancouver’s 2009 tribute to Stephane Grapelli, as well as playing Obsessed, his new arrangement of Miles Davis inspired tunes with the Zapp Quartet at the Festival of the Sound (Parry Sound, Ontario). His most recent recording is a new work, Nine Daies Wonder, for violin and brass band written for him by Bramwell Tovey. Playing the violin and reciting lines from several of The Bard’s great comedies, Mr. Fewer re-enacts the famous publicity stunt of Shakespeare’s comedic actor Will Kemp, who morris-danced his way from London to Norwich in 1600. Forthcoming recordings include the complete sonatas of Giovanni Pandolfi with harpsichordist Kenneth Slowik and cellist Myron Kutzke (Azica Records), and the complete Brahms sonatas with pianist Peter Longworth. Mr. Fewer is Artistic Director of the SweetWater Music Festival, and was director of the Scotia Festival of Music from 2005-2009. His most recent appointment is to the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where he teaches violin, chamber music, and string improvisation. Sanford Sylvan
Sanford Sylvan has been highly praised for his performances in the opera productions of Peter Sellars and Craig Smith, both in the USA and Europe. He has sung in premiere performances of operas by Phillip Glass, Peter Maxwell Davies and John Adams, including the Death of Klinghoffer, and performances in Lyon, Vienna, San Francisco and Glyndebourne. Sanford Sylvan has given highly praised recitals throughout the USA. With his longtime collaborator, pianist David Breitman, he has performed extensively throughout the USA and Europe in venues including Carnegie Hall and London's Wigmore Hall. He recently made his New York City Opera debut in The Magic Flute. Sanford Sylvan has been seen internationally in portrayals of Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutti in segments of “Great Performances” on PBS. He received Grammy and Emmy awards for his role in John Adams’ Nixon in China, and received Grammy nominations for his recording with David Breitman, L ’Horizon Chimérique. His recordings appear on the Nonesuch, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Musicmasters, Bridge, Koch, Virgin Classics, New World and CRI labels. ~ Liederkranz
The choir immediately became an important part of the German community and in 1962 was officially formed as the Male Choir Liederkranz. In 1983 the German Canadian Cultural Association was formed in the merging of the Edelweiß and two other German clubs. The Liederkranz choir was one of the charter members of the new Association and its members were key contributors in building and operating the new club in Edmonton. Each year the Male Choir Liederkranz holds performances throughout the community including spring and Christmas dance concerts, an annual Advents Konzert and the Edmonton German Days festival. The choir also participates in larger community events such as the Men Making Music concerts in Edmonton and Saengerfest, which is a gathering of German choirs every three years in Western Canada. Our members come from a number of backgrounds. Most are immigrants who came directly from Germany and settled in Edmonton. But we also have a number of members who are the second generation of German settlers in the Edmonton area. We also have a few members who lived in Germany at one time and are keeping up their association with German culture through the choir. Liederkranz means “ring” or more accurately a “wreath” of songs. We have a wide repertoire of songs. Classic German Men's choir repertoire is 4-part unaccompanied men's voices, and we usually perform a few of those songs at most performances. In order to make our music more accessible the choir also sings a wide variety of songs in English and in recent years we have added some larger choral pieces for our formal performances. But we also have fun. The German choral tradition has lots of drinking songs and humour. We've been known to sing the odd sea shanty; and occasionally the odd bit of dance movement will creep into a performance. Every three years the choir organizes a major choir tour. Up until this year those tours went to Germany and Austria where the choir visits a few of the members’ hometowns each visit. This year we have decided to travel to the Maritimes for our first Canadian tour. Many of our members have never been to the Maritimes and they are very excited about the trip. We hope that you enjoy our choir at one of our performances in the Maritimes this summer. We are looking forward to this trip and are looking forward to making some new friends along the way. ~ Donalee Inglis-Gorfer Director Donalee Inglis-Gorfer is a graduate of the University of Alberta with a Masters of Music Degree. She is the music director at the Sherwood Park Presbyterian Church and is an instructor for Community Music Initiatives. She teaches private piano classes and is a sought after vocal accompanist in the Edmonton area. Donalee has been directing the Liederkranz since 1982. Accompanist Kathleen Suetter is a graduate of the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Education degree, Music Minor, and a graduate of the Canadian Bible College with a Bachelor of Sacred Music Degree. She is an active church musician and piano teacher, and over the years has worked as both a conductor and accompanist for various school, church and community choirs. ~ Scott Macmillan / Brian Doyle ~ Guitar Duo Scott Macmillan
Working professionally for more than 30 years Macmillan has played an integral role in widening the audience for the music of Atlantic Canada both nationally and internationally. His musical collaborations have contributed significantly to the exploding Atlantic pop music scene since the mid-l980’s. Macmillan was acknowledged by Rita MacNeil at the 2005 ECMA Awards as an integral contributor to her success, Scott has played an equally pivotal role in the rise of the Rankin Family Band and the Nova Scotia Mass Choir. An exceptional guitarist, Scott is a multiple ECMA (East Coast Music Award) winner, for his recordings with the innovative group Puirt a Baroque, “Bach Meets Cape Breton” and also for his own collaborative recordings “The Minnie Sessions Volumes 1, 2, & 3” and the “MacKinnon's Brook Suite”, which he composed for Ian MacKinnon and Symphony Nova Scotia (SNS). Through the years Scott has received a number of awards from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Nova Scotia Arts Partnership, most recently receiving a creation grant from the NSAP to compose new music for his latest creative venture, a 12-piece jazz ensemble, “Scott 'n the Rocks”, a creative collective providing opportunities for musical expression and exploration through composition and improvisational performances. Macmillan’s unique innovative and creative talent to explore music's vast mosaic makes him an exhilarating and energetic musical force whose performances are always fresh. http://www.scott-macmillan.ca/ Brian Doyle
On Stage since the age of 14, Doyle has successfully covered the Rock and Roll and bluegrass scene, later he adding Celtic Guitar to the mix. With 30 years of music performance under his belt, Brian’s ability to adapt to just about any style has him touring Canada, the US, Europe and the UK repeatedly. He has opened for acts like Anne Murray, Trooper, Edith Butler; performed with Grammy Winner, Alison Brown, shared the stage with Chris DeBurg and Sass Jordon among many others. Brian has been a regular member of the legendary Guitar Summit concerts at Celtic Colours Festival and the highly anticipated Guitar Summit portion of the annual Broad Cove Scottish Concert both in Cape Breton. Guitarist for one of Cape Breton’s longest performing and ever-popular groups “The Phantoms”, he is also a current member of “Groupe Le Lievre”; an award winning Acadian folk group based in Chéticamp. In the 1990’s Brian founded the successful rock and ECMA nominated band “Greyloch” which toured throughout Nova Scotia and New England. In 2004 Doyle was part of the “Once in a Blue Moon Concert” along with Blue Rodeo and Jimmy Rankin. In the late 90’s, Doyle performed with the Brooks Diamond Production, “Rhythms of Nova Scotia” and guitarist with “Drum” during the “Tall Ship” performances in 2000 and again in 2006 for “Drum’s” Western Canadian Tour. Since 2000, Doyle has participated on a number of NS Tourism and MIANS promotional tours to Boston and California, accompanying such NS artists as Natalie MacMaster, Beoloch, Dave Gunning, Chris MacFarlane, Lennie Gallant, Vishten and more East Coast performers. In demand as guitar instructor, Brian has been teaching annually at the Ceilidh Trail School Music in Inverness Cape Breton since its inception. In recent years, through the Conseil des arts de Chéticamp, Brian has been busy teaching young guitarists from the Chéticamp Region and performing in the house band for “Le Caravanne du Nord”, a training ground for Acadian youth across NS in 2005/2006. Brian is happily married, and father of two; he lives in Margaree Forks, Cape Breton. ~ Tempest Baroque Ensemble Tempest Baroque Ensemble is Halifax's innovative Baroque music ensemble on period instruments led by internationally acclaimed violinist David Greenberg. Other members of the group include Symphony Nova Scotia musicians Kirsty Money (violin/viola), Karen Langille (violin), Celeste Jankowski (violin/viola), Hilary Brown (cello), and Max Kasper (double bass). Since its creation in January 2001, Tempest has presented numerous concerts and has recorded for CBC radio and television. Tempest has collaborated with artists such as Chris Norman (flute, director of The Chris Norman Ensemble, and the Boxwood Festival, Lunenburg), Francis Colpron (recorder, director of Les Boréades, Montreal), David McGuinness (keyboards, director of Concerto Caledonia, Glasgow), Matthew Wadworth (lute, Montreal), as well as Nova Scotia's own Scott Macmillan (guitar). Tempest has been the orchestra-in-residence at the Boxwood Festival since 2006. Music Director, David Greenberg
David has gained the reputation in Cape Breton music circles as being one of the few people from outside the Nova Scotia island to have achieved a fluent command of the Cape Breton music idiom. With his wife, Kate Dunlay, he published a book called Traditional Celtic Violin Music of Cape Breton, The DunGreen Collection (1996). He also recorded the solo celtic-violin music for Pit Pony, a movie about turn-of-the-century Cape Breton. David’s long-time collaboration with Cape Breton pianist Doug MacPhee resulted in the recording Tunes Until Dawn (Marquis, 2000). Over the last decade David has performed and taught at fiddle camps and festivals around North America, the UK, and New Zealand. In 1994, David founded Puirt a Baroque, a group that connects traditional Cape Breton music with its roots in the Baroque era. Puirt a Baroque’s best-selling debut recording Bach Meets Cape Breton (Marquis Classics), won the 1997 East Coast Music Award for Best Classical Album. Kinloch’s Fantasy: A Curious Collection of Scottish Sonatas and Reels was released later in 1997. Return of the Wanderer followed in 1998 and received a Juno Awards nomination (1999) for Best Roots and Traditional Album (Group). David plays a more eclectic mix of music with Scottish keyboard player extraordinaire, David McGuinness. With Lion, an offshoot of David McGuinness’ group Concerto Caledonia, he recorded Spring Any Day Now–Music of 18th century Scotland and elsewhere (Marquis 81325, 2003) and Lion (Boxwood BOX-905, 2007). The two Davids have also worked, along with flautist Chris Norman and others, on two Acadian recordings for soprano Suzie LeBlanc: La Mer jolie (ATMA Classique ACD2-2330, 2004) and Tout passe (ATMA Classique ACD2-2522, 2007). More recently, Chris Norman has become a regular duo recital partner with David, and a forthcoming CD is due to be released December 2009. Over the years David has developed multi-year performing and recording partnerships with Seattle Baroque, Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), BaroQuébec (Montreal), the Toronto Consort, La Nef (Montreal), Les Voix Humaines (Montreal), Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Ferintosh (New York), Ensemble Caprice (Montreal), and more recently Red Priest (UK). Since moving to Halifax in 2000, David co-founded Tempest, a baroque ensemble that he directs, and has collaborated with Maritime-Canadian artists including Scott Macmillan, highland piper Ian McKinnon, and harpsichordist Gordon Murray. He has performed and recorded with Symphony Nova Scotia as a Cape Breton fiddler, and more recently has appeared with SNS as guest-director on their baroque series. Hilary Brown Hilary Brown began her cello studies in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Boston University. She also studied as a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Hilary has toured Japan with the Saint John String Quartet (New Brunswick) and she has also performed in Europe and South America. Hilary is currently a cellist with Symphony Nova Scotia, the Blue Engine String Quartet, Trio Nova Scotia, and two early music ensembles: Tempest Baroque Ensemble and La Rejouissance. She is also a cello coach for the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra and a private teacher. Hilary has performed as a soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia and is heard frequently as a chamber musician on CBC Radio. She has performed on many Maritime concert series such as Musique Saint-Bernard, the St. Cecilia Concert Series, the Music Room Chamber Series, the Mahone Bay Concert Series, Musique Royale, and the Indian River Festival on Prince Edward Island. Celeste Jankowski Celeste Jankowski began her violin training at the age of six in Japan under the direction of the renowned pedagogue, Dr. Shin’ichi Suzuki. Her orchestral and chamber music education began one year later. Celeste has had the great privilege of working under the baton of many eminent conductors and composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Claudio Abbado. She began her professional career at the age of fifteen and holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Violin Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She has performed throughout the United States, Canada, England, Italy and Japan. Celeste is currently a member of the first violin section of Symphony Nova Scotia. She has performed on many Maritime concert series such as Musique Saint-Bernard, the St. Cecilia Concert Series, the Music Room Chamber Series, the Mahone Bay Concert Series, and Musique Royale. She is also a member of the baroque ensembles, “La Rejouissance” and “Tempest,” and is a violin teacher and coach with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra. Max Kasper Max Kasper, Principal Bassist of Symphony Nova Scotia since 1986, has appeared as a soloist with the orchestra on several occasions, as well as performing many solo recitals over the years. He also loves playing chamber music, and you may have heard him in the Scotia Festival of Music, St Cecilia, or Music Room chamber series concerts. Max has a keen interest in Period music, and has performed with Rejouissance, Tempest, and Taflemusik baroque ensembles. He is now pursuing a second career as a bow maker, and has the unique distinction of playing on a bass and bows he has made himself. Karen Langille Karen Langille has been a member of Symphony Nova Scotia since 1985, and a member of the Charlottetown Festival Orchestra in Prince Edward Island since 2000. She is also active as a chamber musician and violin teacher, and has been a regular coach with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra for several years. A graduate of McGill University, Karen pursued studies in both modern and baroque violin. She is a founding member of both Réjouissance and Tempest, two Nova Scotian ensembles which specialize in early music performance on period instruments, and has recorded for CBC Radio 2 both locally and nationally Kirsty Money Kirsty Money started playing the violin in Victoria, B.C., studying with Sydney Humphreys at the Victoria Conservatory of Music. She then spent seven years in Montreal, completing a Bachelor of Music degree from McGill University and working in the local music scene. She had the good fortune to work with numerous chamber ensembles including L’Orchestre Baroque de Montreal and Les Violons du Roy of Quebec City. In 1995 she met Lorand Fenyves and decided to pursue a Masters degree in performance with him at the University of Western Ontario. Other studies include solo and chamber music master classes at The Banff Centre, The Summer Festival of the Royal College of Music in Manchester,England, and the National Orchestral Institute in the States. In 1999 Kirsty moved to Nova Scotia to take a first violin position with Symphony Nova Scotia. During this time she has pursued various collaborations including work with songstress Janice Jackson, the Halifax based band MIR, and more recently actress Pascale Roger and choral conductor Paul Halley. In 2001 she and David Greenberg founded Tempest, an innovative early music ensemble dedicated to bringing Baroque music to life in the Maritimes. This has led the ensemble to record for CBC radio and television and most recent projects include innovative presentations of the programs Lost in Venice and Frost and Fire, a Scottish Christmas Celebration . Since 2006, Tempest has been the guest orchestra at the Boxwood Music Festival in Lunenburg. When not playing, Kirsty can be found in the North End of Halifax, running after her energy bombs Kyla and Eli. She is married to Ethan Neville, film director and editor for Centre East Productions. |
The Blu Engine String Quarte as formed in 1997 as the core ensemble of the Nova Scotia chamber music series, Blue Engine Music. The Quartet are all members of Symphony Nova Scotia. 
Emer Mayock is a musician and composer from Co. Mayo. She began to play traditional music during her childhood on a range of instruments including the flute, low whistles, fiddle and Uilleann pipes. She has produced two CDs: Merry Bits of Timber in 1996 and Playground in 2001, the latter continuing her interest in writing new music and containing mostly her own compositions. Emer’s love of the flute in particular has lead her to bring it to centre stage on her recordings and at live concerts.
While growing up in Dublin, Eamon developed an interest in Irish music through his friendship with the Mayock family, noted traditional musicians originally from County Mayo. When he moved to New York City in 1992, he met guitarist John Doyle and fiddle player Patrick Ourceau, among others, and has since become a fixture in the city’s thriving Irish music scene. Eamon has toured extensively throughout Europe and North America, performing with many of Irish music’s great players, including Paddy Keenan, Mick Moloney, Tommy Peoples, and James Keane, and has recorded with singer Susan McKeown and flute player Emer Mayock. In addition to his performance schedule, Eamon has taught at numerous music programmes including the Augusta Heritage Center, the Catskills Irish Arts Week, and the Alaska Irish Music Camp. In 2004, he and Patrick Ourceau released a live recording, Live at Mona’s, documenting their many years hosting a Monday night session on New York’s Lower East Side.
Jefferson Hamer is a singer and guitarist based in Brooklyn, NY. Hailed as an "appealing voice" in 2011 by the New York Times, he has performed at some of the most prestigious music festivals in the folk realm, including the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the High Sierra Music Festival, and the Strawberry Music Festival. His original songs have been recorded by touring artists including Joy Kills Sorrow and Reed Foehl. He and critically-acclaimed songwriter Anais Mitchell are currently writing and recording an album of new adaptations of the English and Scottish Popular Ballads collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century. His newest record, a solo-acoustic 7″ vinyl titled This Ragged World We Spanned, was released in 2011 on Brooklyn's Media Blitz label.
Shelley Phillips (folk harp, oboe and cor anglé, and native flutes) and her husband Barry (cello) are much in demand as a studio and pick-up musicians for the professional folk music crowd in America, Ireland and the UK. In addition to performing and recording, Shelley is director of the Santa Cruz Community Music School, where she runs Celtic music camps for children and teens, maintains a private studio, as well as presenting concerts and workshops with visiting musicians of the highest calibre. She received her Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has continued her education by studying shehnai in India with Sanjeev Shankar, Chinese dizi with Lui Xu, and willow flute with Jean-Pierre Yvert. She works as a musician within the Episcopal church, makes bamboo flutes with the English Piper’s Guild, teaches flute making at various camps and primitive skills gatherings, and directs the Santa Cruz Shape Note Society. She is a member of the Coulter/Phillips Ensemble and the Anjali Quartet, and has toured internationally with Irish singer Éilis Kennedy and Irish piper Paddy Keenan, including 10 concerts in Taiwan, and 33 concerts in Germany and Switzerland. She has appeared on many recordings on the Gourd music label including her solo albums: The Fairie Round, Pavane, and The Butterfly. She has also recorded music of the Shakers, and produced a benefit album Verdant Groves for the Shaker village museums, as well as a benefit recording of Christmas music for the Community Music School of Santa Cruz called Mid Earth Rejoices, which includes the premiére recording of her Magnificat. She has also done collaborations with Rumi translator and poet Coleman Barks, and has made two CDs, What Was Said to the Rose and Five Things to Say, with him. Shelley lives on the California coast with her family and three very spoiled cats, trying to grow tomatoes in the summer fog.
Inspired by what he believes to be his most formative experience—singing in his Dad’s internationally renowned children’s choir, Chorus Angelicus—Nick Halley began laying the foundation for a new boys’ choir here in Halifax over a year ago. The Capella Regalis Men and Boys Choir was launched on February 13th, 2010 and after a beautiful and successful début concert in June, is now in its second season. Capella Regalis is based at The University of King’s College Chapel where it rehearses and sings monthly Choral Evensongs. The choir regularly performs concerts around NS, (they recently performed Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the King’s Chapel Choir) and will tour the province at the end of May. 
Modeled after the chapel choirs of Cambridge and Oxford, the choir at the University of King's College comprises 24 talented choristers and is directed by Grammy winning musician Paul Halley. The choir sings for the Chapel's weekly services of Evensong and Eucharist and gives concerts throughout Eastern Canada and the United States. This is the final concert of the second annual three-part concert series at the Cathedral Church of All Saints entitled “King's At The Cathedral.” Next season, the choir will be performing the Rachmaninov Vespers on 6 November 2011, A King's Christmas, 9-11 December 2011, and Bach's B Minor Mass, 20 and 22 April 2012.The Chapel Choir of the University of King's College, modeled on the Chapel Choirs of Cambridge and Oxford, comprises twenty choristers selected through annual auditions held in September, which are open to all students at King's College and Dalhousie University. The choir's primary function is to sing at the weekly Evensongs and Eucharists, as well as other major services throughout the academic year. The choir had its beginnings in the early 1970s when Dr. Robert Crouse put together a group of singers to lead the worship at the Thursday Eucharists at King's. Since that time the choir has expanded its role, having sung under the direction of several notable conductors including Helen Roby, David Buley, and most recently Dr. Walter Kemp. 
The Ernst Family is a vocal ensemble consisting of nine members, aged nine to adult, singing everything from solos to eight-part harmony. They perform Renaissance, classical, traditional sacred, black spiritual, and folk music. Most of the music is sung a cappella, with an occasional piano or guitar accompaniment. The genetic similarity of the voices gives a harmonious blend rare in unrelated voices.
Harry Thurston was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and grew up on the family farm. He holds a degree in Biology from Acadia University. He was formerly editor/publisher of Germination, and since 1977 has worked as a full-time freelance journalist, poet and playwright. He lives with his wife on the banks of the Tidnish River in Cumberland County.
Internationally renowned, Acadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc has established an extraordinary career specializing in Baroque and Classical repertoire and exploring and recording a substantial amount of unpublished material while living in Europe. Her thirst and curiosity for new vistas now lead her toward the repertoire of French mélodies, lieder, Acadian folk music, contemporary music as well as exploring the art of improvisation with Helmut Lipsky and Au parfum de Tango.
Hank Knox studied harpsichord with John Grew at McGill University in Montreal and with Kenneth Gilbert in Paris. He has given numerous harpsichord recitals, and is a founding member of Ensemble Arion, with whom he has toured Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan, South America and Mexico. 
Mark Fewer enjoys one of the most varied musical lives of his generation. Known for his relaxed style and honest interpretations, he switches easily between roles as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, jazz musician, artistic programmer, and most recently, teacher.
The American bass-baritone, Sanford Sylvan, is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. He has performed with many of the leading orchestras of the world including the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Academy of Ancient Music and the NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) Symphony. He has performed in chamber music with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Boston Symphony Chamber Players and Music from Marlboro. Sanford Sylvan has sung in nearly every New England Bach Festival since his New England Bach Festival debut in 1980. Sylvan’s festival appearances have also included the Edinburgh, Tanglewood, Vienna, Holland, Schleswig-Holstein, Ojai, the Carmel Bach Festival, and the Baldwin-Wallace College Bach Festival. In 2003 he made his debut at the Oregon Bach Festival.
Edmonton has a large German community and a tradition of German community clubs and associations. The German Club Edelweiß was formed in 1906 and in 1960 a group of its members formed a men's choir. The purpose of the choir was to preserve the male choral traditions they had known in Germany.
Born in Halifax, Scott Macmillan enjoys a stellar reputation in Nova Scotia and abroad for his unusual versatility working in the fields of classical, pop, jazz, blues and Celtic music. He is equally at home on the podium, in the studio or behind a guitar. Scott is in great demand as a conductor, performer, composer/arranger and producer.
Guitarist Brian Doyle grew up in Margaree Forks Cape Breton. He was born into the Celtic Music scene of pianos, fiddles, bagpipes and step dancers that were a part of his everyday life. Performing with countless Cape Breton greats including Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, Buddy MacMaster, Howie MacDonald, Cameron Chisholm, and Maybelle Chisholm to list just a few.
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