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25th Anniversary Season
Artists appearing in our 2009 - 2010 Season
Boxwood Workshop
A weeklong series of workshops, master classes, playing sessions and concerts
featuring early music specialists from the national and international scene.
Boxwood
Best of Boxwood 2010
Musicians from Boxwood in a tour of the province
Chris Norman
director, traditional & baroque flutes, pipes
Born in Halifax, NS into a music loving family, Chris' influential work as a performer, composer, recording artist and teacher has done much to bring the simple wooden flute to the forefront as an alternative voice to the modern orchestral instrument and redefined the flute in traditional Canadian & Scottish traditional music. His busy performing schedule includes solo engagements and concerts with a variety of ensembles, appearing frequently as soloist with orchestra and touring with his own Chris Norman Ensemble. In years past Chris has also appeared worldwide as a member of the international folk trio, Helicon, the all-star Celtic fusion group, Skyedance, the acclaimed early music group, The Baltimore Consort and across Europe with Concerto Caledonia.
Norman's flute playing can be heard featured on the Oscar winning soundtrack of Titanic, the Hollywood films, Soldier, and the forthcoming Stone of Destiny. His solo CD releases have received unanimous praise from critics and audiences alike and appeared on Billboard's crossover charts. He's presently producing and hosting a program on connections between food & music for Inside the Music broadcast nationally on CBC Radio One in Canada and worldwide on Sirius. Through his work as founder and artistic director of the Boxwood Festivals and Workshops taking place in Canada, New Zealand & Europe, Chris has inspired thousands of musicians of all ages abilities.
John Grew
A featured anniversary celebration on May 16 with Musique Royale’s founder, organist John Grew
John Grew
Laura Pudwell and Terry MacKenna
The History of England in Verse
Canadian mezzo-soprano Laura Pudwell with lutenist Terry MacKenna.
Les Boreades
La Calisto, or Theatre and Music…..The Exuberance of the Baroque,
Hosted by Francis Colpron
Critics and audiences in Canada and in other countries have unanimously hailed the verve, spontaneity, theatricality, expressiveness, and elegance of the ensemble's playing — all qualities that testify to an intimate understanding of the Baroque spirit.
Les Boreades
Les Voix Baroque
 Death and the Lady – directed by Canadian counter-tenor Matthew White
A mix of contemporary, renaissance and folk arrangements ranging from the straight to a comic twist…. an exploration of women's relationship with Death in his many guises.
Les Voix Baroque
Paul Halley
choral conductor, organist, composer
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Paul Halley is the winner of five Grammy Awards for his contributions as writer and performer on recordings by the Paul Winter Consort, of which he was a member for eighteen years. Paul was Director of Music of The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City for thirteen years, as well as the Founder and Artistic Director of the acclaimed choirs, Chorus Angelicus and Gaudeamus, based in Torrington, CT. Paul recently relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia to become Director of Chapel Music at the University of King's College, Director of Music at St. George's Anglican Church, and University Musician at Atlantic School of Theology.
The Chapel Choir of the University of King's College, directed by Paul Halley, is modeled on the Chapel Choirs of Cambridge and Oxford. It 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.
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."
Suzie LeBlanc
soprano
Acadian-born soprano Suzie LeBlanc has established an international career specializing in 17th and18th century repertoire. She has appeared world-wide with many of the world’s leading early-music ensembles in concert and opera performances as well as on disc and on film. She now adds lieder, French mélodies and Acadian folk music to her repertoire and recently began exploring the world of improvisation with classical/jazz violinist Helmut Lipsky and his ensemble.
Suzie’s passion and research into Acadian traditional music has resulted in two recordings: La Mer Jolie and Tout passe., released on the ATMA label, as well as a documentary called Suzie LeBlanc: A musical quest directed by Donald Winkler. On film, Suzie LeBlanc can also be seen in More than a thousand kisses and in the documentary Suzie LeBlanc and a man named Quantz, both directed by the late Robert Chesterman (Prometheus Productions).
Her 2007-2008 season was highlighted by recitals of music by Olivier Messiaen and French melodies, with pianist Robert Kortgaard. The Messiah with the Detroit and Toronto symphonies, Fauré’s Requiem with l’Orchestre Métropolitain and Mozart arias with the Victoria Symphony. The summer of 2008 includes performances of Carissimi’s Jephte and Rameau’s Pygmalion for Early Music Vancouver and Festival Vancouver, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri for the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival (with Les Voix Baroques) and a concert for the Toronto Summer Music Festival with Daniel Taylor and the Theatre of Early Music.
The 2008/2009 season will see the release of her Messiaen recording Chants de terre de de ciel (ATMA) as well as the release the feature film Lost song, directed by Rodrigue Jean, in which she plays the central role and which will be premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Other performances include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Calgary Symphony, a return to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in a staging by Jonathan Miller, performances of the St. Matthew Passion in Madrid, a West Coast recital tour with Robert Kortgaard, Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Edmonton, Bach cantatas in Vancouver and guest appearances with the Theatre of Early Music.
Her discography includes Mozart Lieder with Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Die Zauberflöte (Pamina) with La Petite Bande and Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri with Les Voix Baroques, awarded the Best Early Music cd for 2007 by the Opus awards in Montreal.
In May 2008, Suzie LeBlanc was awarded an honorary doctorate from King’s College University in Halifax. She is the artistic director of Le nouvel Opéra, an organisation committed to the performance and education of Early Opera (lenouvelopera.com) and teaches baroque singing at the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal.
Tempest Baroque Ensemble
Musique Royale’s resident ensemble led by violinist David Greenberg
Toronto Consort
Canada’s premiere early music ensemble presents Mariners and Milkmaids
A rollicking performance featuring ballads, dances and madrigals from 16th and 17th-century England, with voices, lute, guitar, recorder, hurdy-gurdy, percussion and harpsichord.
Toronto Consort
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