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Festive Bach Cantatas for ChristmasThe Bach Cantata Project: the tradition continues
Marc Destrubé music director Shannon Mercer soprano Early Music Vancouver’s Bach Cantata Project Players 
PLEASE NOTE: Tickets for this performance, at $63, $48 and $32 (students & seniors $3 discount) including HST are only available at the Chan Centre Ticket Office, or through Ticketmaster: 1-855-985-ARTS (2787) or www.ticketmaster.ca. (Note: Surcharges apply to orders made through Ticketmaster). Rush Seats for Students with valid ID on sale for $10, at the door only, from 2:00 pm on the day of the performance. This concert is included in our “Bring a Youth for Free” programme. |
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| Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt” Aria: “Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt”
“Erforsche mich, Gott, und erfahre mein Herz”
“Herr Gott, dich loben wir”
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Programme notes will be posted here at a future date. |
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Canadian violinist Marc Destrubé is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director of orchestras and divides his time between performances of the standard repertoire on modern instruments, and performing baroque and classical music on period instruments. He has appeared as soloist and guest director with symphony orchestras in Victoria, Windsor and Halifax as well as with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Lyra Baroque and Portland Baroque Orchestra. He is first violinist with the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., a member of the Turning Point Ensemble in Vancouver specializing in 20th century music and new music, and first violinist of the newly-formed string quartet Microcosmos. He is also co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Amsterdam) with whom he has toured the major concert halls and festivals of Europe, North America, Japan, China and Australia, including as soloist and leader. He was artistic director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra from its founding in 1991 until 2007, and is Artistic Director of the Pacific Baroque Festival in Victoria. He is a frequent guest on the Early Music Vancouver concert series. A highly-respected teacher, he gives annual classes at international academies in Vancouver and Oberlin and has been an invited teacher at the Paris, Moscow and Utrecht Conservatoires, Indiana University, Case Western University, the University of Victoria and the Macphail School. He lives in Vancouver.
With a soprano voice often described as luminous and dazzling, Shannon Mercer is equally praised for her profound yet witty acting ability and stage presence. An artist of uncommon musical artistry whose passion for her artform embraces repertoire ranging from early to contemporary music, Shannon maintains a challenging balance of opera, concert and recital appearances. Her 2011-2012 season features appearances in Ottawa with the Ensemble Caprice, in Sault Ste-Marie and Sudbury with the Toronto Symphony, Montreal with Ensemble Caprice, Les Violons du Roy and McGill’s Baroque Orchestra and in Toronto with the Aldeburgh Connection and at Koerner Hall in Elgar’s The Kingdom with the Pax Christi Chorale and in Poulenc’s Gloria with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. US engagements include a West-Coast tour with Les Voix Baroques, Handel’s Messiah with Mercury Baroque in Houston, Carissimi Oratorios with Pacific Musicworks and Maestro Stephen Stubbs, Mozart’s Requiem with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, and Early Handel Cantatas with Tragicomedia conducted by Stephen Stubbs in Boston and New York. Particularly praised for her performances of contemporary music, Shannon reprises her role in Ana Sokolovic’s Svadba (The Wedding) for The Queen of Puddings Music Theatre at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre and debuts in John Beckwith’s opera Crazy to Kill at the Enwave Theatre also in Toronto. Shannon’s award-winning discography includes her newest release - Vivaldi - The Return of the Angels, Salsa Baroque with Ensemble Caprice andthe Prix Opus nominated O Viva Rosa, one of the first recordings entirely devoted to Francesca Caccini, Wales ~ The Land of Song, the 2009 JUNO Award-winning Gloria!: Vivaldi’s Angels, JUNO-nominated Bach and the Liturgical Year, Mondonville, English Fancy (all on Analekta) and Marin Marais’s Sémélé (Glossa). Shannon appears in the in the DVD of Gemini-nominated Burnt Toast, an 8-vignette series directed by Larry Weinstein and as Minister Blais Grenier in Mulroney: The Opera and also stars as Judith in the film version of Monty Python funny-man Eric Idle’s Not the Messiah, a role she debuted in the world premiere at Toronto’s 2007 Luminato Festival, and has performed at the Caramoor Festival, in Houston, Washington, Los Angeles and at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall. A native of Ottawa, Shannon Mercer now resides in Toronto.
Grammy-nominated Laura Pudwell’s reputation as a superb vocalist has been well-established as a result of her performances in London, Paris, Salzburg, Houston, Vienna and Boston. Her vast repertoire ranges from early music to contemporary works. Ms. Pudwell is equally at home on the opera, oratorio or recital stage, and has received international acclaim for her recordings. A frequent guest of many national and international presenters, Ms. Pudwell has had the privilege of working with many outstanding conductors, including Hans Graf, Hervé Niquet, Andrew Parott, Ivars Taurens, David Fallis, Brian Jackson, John Sinclair, Bernard Labadie, Lydia Adams, Howard Dyck and Robert Cooper. On the opera stage, she has performed across Canada with such companies as Opera Atelier, the Calgary Opera, Vancouver Early Music and Festival Vancouver, as well as with the Houston Grand Opera and the Cleveland Opera. Her many roles include Cornelia (Giulio Cesare), Marcelina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Nerone and Arnalta (L’Incoronazione di Poppea) Mrs. Quickly (Falstaff), and Dido/Sorceress (Dido & Aeneas), which also was an award-winning recording performed in Paris. Laura Pudwell is a regular participant in many festivals, including the Vancouver Early Music Festival, MusicFest Vancouver, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Summer Festival, the Elora Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Grand River Baroque Festival, and the WinterPark Bach Festival in Orlando. She appears regularly with the Toronto Consort, and is a frequent guest soloist with Tafelmusik, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toronto Chamber Choir, Symphony Nova Scotia, the St. Lawrence Choir, Le Concert Spirituel, Chorus Niagara and the Menno Singers.
The gifted young Canadian lyric tenor Colin Balzer is fast becoming one of the most sought-after concert soloists of his generation, with a busy schedule of international engagements. Now based in Germany and with a repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Penderecki, he has enjoyed critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, working with such conductors as Helmuth Rilling, Simone Young, Simon Preston, Yoav Talmi, Gabriel Chmura and Christof Perick, performing with the Hungarian and Polish National Radio Orchestras, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Oregon, Vancouver and Québec Symphonies, among many others. Particularly esteemed as a recitalist, he has been welcomed at London's Wigmore Hall (accompanied by Graham Johnson), the Britten Festival in Aldeburgh, Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center, the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, the Wratislavia Cantans in Poland, and at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. Recordings to date include Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch and Eisler and Henze song anthologies. A prizewinner of Holland's 's-Hertogenbosch Competition, the London Wigmore Hall Song Competition, and Stuttgart Hugo Wolf Competition, he holds the rare distinction of earning the Gold Medal at the Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau with the highest score in 25 years. Master-classes have been with such artists as Philip Langridge, Helmut Deutsch, Robert Tear, Elly Ameling, Brigitte Fassbaender, Rudolph Jansen, and Christoph Prégardien. Born in British Columbia, he received his formal musical training at the University of British Columbia with David Meek and at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg / Augsburg with Edith Wiens.
Sumner Thompson continues to be lauded by audiences and music cognoscenti alike. His impeccable technique, beautiful sound and elegant musicianship are quickly making him one of the most sought after young baritones in this country and abroad. His appearances on the operatic stage include the role of Orfeo in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo with Contemporary Opera Denmark in Copenhagen, Uberto in La Serva Padrona with Apollo's Fire, The Traveller in Britten's Curlew River with the Britten-Pears School in Nagaoka, Japan, Schaunard in La Bohème with Granite State Opera, and The Count in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro with the Commonwealth Opera. His appearances in Chicago Opera Theatre's productions of Britten's Death in Venice and Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims were universally praised. A noted recitalist, Mr. Thompson has performed in Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Regensburg, and at London's famed Wigmore Hall with the late Leonard Hokanson, Alison d'Amato, and Tobias Hartlieb. As a favorite in top tier early music circles, he has appeared at the Boston Early Music Festival as the Satir in their recent production of Conradi's Ariadne and in concerts with the Festival Baroque Orchestra and Concerto Palatino. He has also appeared at guest artist at the San Francisco, Regensburg, and Bloomington Early Music Festivals. A frequent soloist in Early Music Vancouver’s ongoing Bach Cantata Project, he has also appeared in many productions of the Vancouver Early Music Festival, both as a member of the ensemble Les Voix Baroques and as a soloist - most recently in last year’s critically performance of Purcell’s “King Arthur”. In 2003, Mr. Thompson placed as a semi-finalist in the prestigious Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He was also twice a semi-finalist in the New York Oratorio Society Competition. Sumner Thompson records for the harmonia mundi usa, Dorian and Arsis labels.
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Laura Pudwell alto
Colin Balzer tenor