Verdi Requiem with VPC

I am thrilled to be performing one of my "bucket list" items, the Verdi Requiem, with the Victoria Philharmonic Choir on Sunday, May 24, at 2:30 at UVic's Farquhar Auditorium.

I have been enjoying singing with the VPC since arriving back in Victoria in January.  We did Bach's St. John Passion at Easter (see above picture - can you spot me?), and now we're ending the season with a bang (literally....I'm talking bass drum).

I was lucky enough to attend an iconic performance of the Verdi Requiem under Riccardo Muti at the Musikverein in Vienna in October, and I'm thrilled to now have the chance to be an active participant in this epic work!

Barbe-Bleue video with Harnoncourt

I just ran across the YouTube video of our complete production of Barbe-Bleue from the Styriarte Festival in Graz in 2013!  See if you can spot me!!

 My solo starts from about 2:02:00 :D

Concert de Classe

Here we are - the singers and pianists of the "Séminaire d'art lyrique" in our final concert de classe in November.  We presented an evening of mélodie française - from Gounod to Beydts.  I sang "Banalités" by Poulenc with my good friend Jonathan Nemtanu at the piano.  Can you spot me?  It was to be my last performance at Université de Montréal.  Au revoir, mes amis!

Allerheiligen in Wien

This post is shamefully late; I should have posted at the beginning of November.  Apologies.

Here's a blurb about a quick trip to Vienna to audition for the Konzertvereinigung der Wiener Staasoper (the chorus of the Salzburg Festival).  It was a mad-dash...I received the invitation to audition on a Tuesday, and the next Tuesday I was on the plane!  I ran into Maestro Timothy Vernon on the plane from Toronto to Vienna...what a coincidence!  

I auditioned the same afternoon I arrived in Vienna, having been up for 36 hours in a dehydrating airplane.  Oh the joys of international auditions.

When I arrived at the Staatsoper for my audition, I looked around for a place to warm-up (of course there was none and I was was relegated to a bathroom).  After an hour of waiting outside the room I was supposed to be auditioning, with no one in sight, I finally asked a stage-hand if the audition room had been moved.  He said that yes indeed, they had.  (Great - thanks for telling me.) 

 So off I went to the other side of the building, and sure enough, there they were.

I checked in, and guess what - I was not even on their audition list!  (cue heart-attack - I had flown thousands of kilometres and spent piles of money for this audition).

Thankfully (or unthankfully), the Austrians are pretty relaxed, and they were able to fit me in.  So I chatted with some other singers I knew from Uni and the Stephansdom Choir and waited for my turn.

I arrived in the audition room, and was told that they hadn't received the e-mail I sent confirming that I would indeed be participating in the auditions.  Well, that explains it.  (I later discovered that they had received it, but had not "processed" it).

The audition went swimmingly, and I skipped off to meet my friend Nora at the Theater an der Wien, where we watched a production of "Idomeneo" that a few of my friends were performing in.

Then I had a few days to spend with friends and enjoy Vienna.

This is Sara-Bigna and I at the Musikverein in Vienna, witnessing the genius of Ricardo Muti conducting the Verdi Requiem.  Sara-Bigna surprised me with 2nd row seats on my last evening before leaving Vienna.  Talk about surround-sound!

Here's Sara-Bigna and I at the Zentral Friedhof, paying our respects to Schubert on Allerheiligen (All Saint's Day).  

The good news is that the audition was successful, and I did get offered a position in the Chorus of "Fidelio" at the Salzburg Festival.  But after reviewing the fine-print of my contract and crunching some numbers, I discovered that it wasn't going to be financially feasible to commit my summer to this project - especially since I was going to have to pay my own travel and accommodation expenses.  Again, the joys of international performing life :S