SSO News

The SSO is thrilled to have Lisa Hornung return to our Messiah performances – always a crowd favourite, her performances of Messiah show a true dedication and commitment to Handel’s beautiful music.

Honoured as one of the University of Saskatchewan’s Arts and Science Alumni of Influence, Saskatchewan born mezzo-soprano, Lisa Hornung has been acclaimed for performances in repertoire ranging from Baroque to contemporary composers. Her voice has been called “rich and powerful” and her stage presence has “inspired audiences and musicians alike”. Most often heard in Handel’s Messiah, Ms. Hornung’s orchestral performances also include Beethoven’s Mass in C major, Mozart’s Requiem, Coronation Mass and Vesperae solennes de Confessore, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, the Durufle Requiem, Ruth Watson-Henderson’s From Darkness to Light, Verdi’s Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Vaughn William’s Magnificat, The May Queen by Bennett and the Alto Rhapsody by Brahms.

In addition to her oratorio and orchestral work Ms. Hornung enjoys an active recital career with recent performances including works by Brahms, Schumann, Marx, Debussy and Handel as well as Christmas, Spiritual and Folk repertoire. She has toured the United States and Europe as a soloist and ensemble member with the American Spiritual Ensemble, a group of professional singers dedicated to the preservation and performance of Negro Spirituals. Very excited about the talents of composer Paul Suchan, Lisa was delighted to record his full nuptial mass entitled May, and to have premiered the role of May Bartram in his opera The Beast in the Jungle.

After completing a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at the University of Saskatchewan under the tutelage of Professor Dorothy Howard, Ms. Hornung went on to further her studies at the Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy. This was followed by an intensive study time at the University of Illinois with Richard Best. More recently she completed a year of study with the support of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, enabling her to spend time travelling to work with Mr. Nico Castel, Dr. Everett McCorvey, Dr. Cliff Jackson, Dr. Bill Cooper, Professor Micheal McMahon, Professor Tedrin Lindsey and Mr. Richard Best.

In accordance with her belief that every child deserves the opportunity to sing, Lisa runs a non-audition community youth choir and often collaborates with elementary and high school musical endeavours. She also enjoys lending a hand when the local drama club, Battlefords Community Players, is in need of musical direction. Ms. Hornung has gained a deeper appreciation and love of choral arts through her continued work as vocal coach for the Cantilon and Belle Canto choral programs, directed by Heather Johnson.

Well known as a teacher, adjudicator, clinician and choral coach, Lisa lives in North Battleford, Saskatchewan with her husband John and their twins James and Larissa.

Hear Lisa live with our Messiah December 12th and 13th.

At 22, tenor Spencer McKnight has only been singing for a few years – but he’s really made use of those 5 years.

At age 17 he started singing when a friend of his at school wanted to do a musical theatre duet at festival – though his family wasn’t a musical one, he had spent a lot of time listening to recordings, so it seemed like a good idea to see how lessons would go.  As time went on he began studying with mezzo soprano Lisa Hornung, and over time he left his Political Studies degree to pursue music.

In 2013 Spencer won the Saskatoon Kinsmen Competition, and took home top awards at the Provincial Music Festival Finals.  In the summer of 2013 he traveled to Ontario to represent Saskatchewan at the National Music Finals – the only male singing in the competition, and one of the youngest, he took home the Jan Simmons Award for Art Song for a performance of a song cycle by Catalan composer Fredric Mompou.

Spencer is presently studying at the University of Toronto with vocal pedagogue Mark Daboll, and was recently featured as the soloist for the University of Toronto’s Men’s Chorus December concert.  And in the last few years he’s had the opportunity to work with the who’s who of the voice world: Tracy Dahl, Judith Forst, Mary Lou Fallis, Laurence Ewashko, Robert MacLaren, Laura Loewen, Elizabeth McDonald, Elizabeth Turnbull, Monica Whitcher, and Bonnie Cutsforth Huber.

His voice is fresh and brassy and exciting – and it is a pleasure to present him as our second debut of the season.

Canadian-American soprano Chelsea Mahan is making an impression on the independent music scene with her transparency of character in unconventional performance spaces. These intimate performances include the roles of Monica in The Medium and Laurette in Bizet’s comedy Le Docteur Miracle with Stu and Jess Productions in Montreal. Having recently completed her Masters of Music at McGill University studying with renowned Canadian soprano Joanne Kolomyjec, Ms. Mahan is currently balancing engagements in and around Montreal and her home province of Saskatchewan.

As a prize-winning competitor, her achievements include first prize in the 65th Young Artist Series Western Concert tour in conjunction with the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Association. Through the CFMTA, Ms. Mahan collaborated with pianist Kathleen Lohrenz Gable, in recital, to tour the cities of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Ms. Mahan also won first prize in the prestigious Gordon Wallis Opera Competition (2012), which included professional engagements with both the Saskatoon and Regina Symphony Orchestras. Most recently, Ms. Mahan was named a finalist in the Concorso Internazionale per Giovani Cantanti Lirici in Riva del Garda, Italy.

 On the operatic stage, Ms. Mahan has traveled throughout Canada performing various roles such as Ida (Die Fledermaus) and Soeur Constance (Dialogues des Carmelites) with Opera NUOVA, and Helena in Halifax Summer Opera Workshop’s production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Montreal, she was seen as Casilda in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers with the McGill Savoy Society and Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) and Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) with Opera McGill. Comfortable on stage, as well as in a studio setting, Ms. Mahan has just finished recording excerpts from Lucia di Lammermoore for an upcoming Canadian short film by David Uloth.

 Singing the soprano soloist of Messiah with the Saskatoon and Regina Symphony Orchestras and covering it for the McGill Chamber Orchestra marked Ms. Mahan’s professional debut in 2013. She will return to her hometown of Saskatoon this December for another Messiah.

 Ms. Mahan has recently been appointed a Laureate of Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques (2014) and over the next year will be traveling to Europe for various competitions with their generous support.

In Ukraine, St. Nicholas is a special saint, for it was Prince Vladimir who brought back tales of the saint after he went to Constantinople to be baptized. The Ukrainian prince Vsevolod Yaroslavych introduced the feast of St. Nicholas during the time of Pope Urban II (1088-99 AD).

St. Nicholas’ Day was a time of great fun in Ukraine. On this day, people would invite guests in and sleighs would be ridden around the village to see if the snow was slippery [icy]. This was the holiday for young children, for they would receive gifts from St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children. “St. Nicholas” was often accompanied by “angels” and might have quizzed the children on their catechism. St. Nicholas Day, not Christmas, is the usual gift-giving day in much of Europe including Ukraine, although for Christmas it was the custom of all members in the family to get a new article of clothing.

We had a chance to sit down with Thomas Yu and Mark Turner to discuss our Haydn Symphony Masters Series concert, this Saturday at TCU place. Tickets are going fast!

tcutickets.ca

SSO Executive Director Mark Turner

On the rare and beautiful Fazioli that will make it’s debut at TCU place for this concert “Everyone loves particular pianos more than others but every pianist loves a Fazioli” 0:00

On Brahm’s tribute “In years since we’ve discovered that likely Haydn didn’t write that piece, but his name sticks with it to this day” 1:21

On Haydn and Mozart “..both thought the other was a genius, and both were right” 1:42

The Farewell Symphony “Haydn wrote the Farewell Symphony when he was wanting to stick it to his boss a little bit…” 2:17

We are happy to welcome Adam Johnson as the guest conductor for this concert “He is a pianist himself, so getting to work as a conductor in a piano concerto is going to be an excellent opportunity” 2:55

On our guest artist Thomas Yu “One of the first calls I made once I joined the SSO was to Thomas” 3:16

 

We are very happy to welcome pianist Thomas Yu, returning to his home town for this concert

On the concert experience and what it’s like to perform “We are all human beings and we have that innate ability to feel bigger forces” 0:00

Thomas has a great career as a periodontist in Calgary but continues to perform all over the world “There are different motivations throughout my life for performing” 1:42

Why perform “He had painted all these paintings and he had never showed them in his entire life to anybody..” 2:54

After years studying with Bonnie Nicholson in Saskatoon Thomas moved to Toronto and learned from Marc Durand, one of the first things Marc said to Thomas after hearing him play “You play like a scientist…you play all the black dots really well, I’m going to teach you how to play all the white parts on the page” 4:07

Thomas will be performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto 21 “Mozart’s not a common composer for me, so I’m also really excited to discover him now.” 5:50

There is often only two chances for rehearsal with the orchestra before a concert so preparation is very important “You try to get into the headspace of why the composer wrote it and then you listen to the other people who have interpreted it” 6:33

Orchestra’s have an important place in a cities identity and culture “There are a few things that every city needs to be defined as a city” 8:18

 

 

On Saturday, November 22nd, award winning Canadian celebrity pianist Thomas Yu will perform on a Fazioli piano made by hand in Italy and valued at $260,000. This will be the first time a Fazioli appears at TCU place. The rare piano is being loaned from Lipnicki Fine Pianos in Calgary and transported to Saskatoon for Yu’s guest appearance with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. World renowned piano technician Michael Lipnicki will travel with the Fazioli to ensure it is in perfect form for Yu’s performance.

Thomas Yu was born and raised in Saskatoon. While studying piano Yu earned his DMD with Great Distinction from the University of Saskatchewan and his Masters Degree in Periodontics at the University of Toronto. He now owns a private practice in Calgary and teaches at the Foothills Medical Hospital. Yu has performed in competitions and recitals all over the world, and now joins the list of great Canadian pianists like Angela Hewitt and Louis Lortie to perform on a Fazioli piano.

The Fazioli piano factory was founded in northeastern Italy in 1979 by pianist and engineer Paolo Fazioli who set out to make the world’s finest pianos in a corner of his parents furniture factory.  Fazioli pianos take nearly three years of person-hours to build, and have many parts plated in 18k gold to prevent corrosion.  The soundboard wood, which is at the heart of the piano, is carved from the same trees in northern Italy that Antonio Stradivari harvested for his famous violins. Today pianists, around the world, are requesting Fazioli pianos for their performances because of the incredible expression and colour in their tone.

Thomas Yu will perform Mozart’s beloved Piano Concerto 21. The concert will be lead by guest conductor Adam Johnson, a longtime friend of Yu. Johnson will also conduct the orchestra in Brahms’s tribute to Haydn and close the evening with Haydn’s delightful “Farewell” Symphony.

This Friday and Saturday the SSO’s Core Musicians will be heard at PAVED Arts in one of the most unique and original music programming series in Canada.

For more information and tickets please CLICK HERE

 

In this feature we learn about the ideas and process behind the world premier performance of Book, Chair, Table by Lia Pas:

I’ve been working on a collaborative piece with new media artist Ellen Moffat for the past number of months and am very excited to announce the premiere this November 7 & 8.

Book. Chair. Table. is a three-movement work based on three poems from Gertrude Stein‘s Tender Buttons. I’ve been calling it a new media chamber music theatre piece. I’ve written the music for voice, oboe, double bass, and new electronic instruments. Ellen Moffat has created new electronic instruments which integrate amplified sound, recorded texts, and video projection.

Book. Chair. Table. will be performed by Lia Pas on voice, Erin Brophey on oboe, Richard Carnegie on double bass, and Ellen Moffat on electronic instruments.

A bit more about the piece:

Late in 2012, Ellen Moffat asked me and Saskatoon actor Rob Benz to record three poems by Gertrude Stein from Stein’s book of prose poems, Tender Buttons. I’ve always loved the rhythms and repetitions of Stein’s poetry and was very happy to work with Ellen on one of her projects. Ellen used the recordings in a collaboration with an actor/dancer in Vancouver and when she returned asked me if I was interested in collaborating on a piece of music involving the recordings and the idea of triggering them from an amplified table.

In 2013 Ellen and I approached Erin Brophey of the SSO Chamber Players and Alex Rogalski at PAVED Arts about whether this might be a suitable project for one of the CORE series concerts. Erin & Alex were both excited about the possibilities of Ellen and I working together and so we began the work.

The main source material is the recordings of Stein’s poems Book. Chair. and Table. While listening to them I noticed immediately that not only did Rob and I speak in very different ranges, but in very different rhythms. With the help of some fancy computer programming (thanks to my son, Jarrod, for help with that), I was able to come up with a fairly accurate pitch and rhythm transcription of the recordings and these became the source for melody and ostinati (repeating phrases). Erin had expressed interest in the piece having some stage directions and I had always been impressed by Richard Carnegie’s speaking while playing bass so integrated these things into the piece.

I have always been fascinated by rhythm and process and the entire piece explores both.

In the beginning of Book. the pitches and rhythms of the phrases are slowed down significantly and become quite melodic. All the players speak and then play their phrases as ostinati and the movement ends with jarring sparse rhythms in the bass and oboe with the voice singing melodically above. During the music, Ellen performs on her glass amplified table, writing, fanning pages, and triggering the recordings.

In Chair. Ellen and I perform on a metal folding chair. The seat of the chair becomes my microphone and my part is quite melodic. Ellen is in charge of effects and the recordings triggered from the chair. While Ellen and I perform on the chair one side of the room, Erin and Richard play a game of ostinato cards that are shuffled at the beginning of the movement. These cards have notated phrases from the text recordings that are played in tandem with each other, shifting when either player decides to choose a new card.

In Table. we begin by all using the glass table as a percussion instrument and speak the entirety of Stein’s poem (the shortest poem of the three). One by one, we go back to our own music stands and repeat our spoken phrases as music. Ellen’s part involves glasses struck and bowed and playing with all six recordings of the poems while we speak and play. In the middle there is a chorale-like section created from our ostinati played very slowly.

There are small moments where the meaning of the text and what is happening in the music become apparent, either through the music, Ellen’s actions on the table, or on the screen which projects images of Ellen’s work on the table.

Lia Pas