Share Your Song

with Cantores Celestes Issue 12c - Spring 2013

CANTORES CELESTES CELEBRATES OVER 20 YEARS OF MAKING MUSIC

Cantores Celestes Musicians

For all of our Spring and Christmas concerts Cantores Celestes hires professional musicians and they have been included in our newsletters. Strangely enough, we have not yet featured our most consistent musician at all and that is of course, our fearless leader, Kelly Galbraith. So for this newsletter, we are going to feature Kelly along with the professional musicians. As well, we are going to feature our own! We have two members and one past member of the choir who are lending their musical talents outside the comfort of the choir and we are pleased to include them here.

Kelly Galbraith is the founder and Artistic Director of Cantores Celestes. In addition to directing Cantores Celestes, Kelly is a Music Producer for CBC Radio producing the new Choral Music Stream; The Classical Christmas Stream; and the Ester music for Mediation stream. She has listened to over 16,000 pieces of music in the past year from Bollywood to Ambient Jazz and is just waiting for someone to call her as 'phone a friend'. She is conductor of the mixed voice Manulife Financial Choir and the rst ever Conductor of the CBC Complaints Choir. Kelly was the guest conductor for the Toronto Mendelssohn Choirs 2011 Singsation. Kelly has been the music director of various churches in Toronto, conductingsingers from three years of age to 93! She is presently the music director at St. Johns United Church in Agincourt where she directs theSenior Choir and produces a monthly World Music Sunday featuring the best World Musicians in the country. She is also assisting in the production and organizing of theNew York City DCINY massed choir performance of the best female choirs in the world. A Choristers' Guide To Keeping Conductors In Line Never be satised with the starting pitch. If the conductor uses a pitch-pipe, make known your preference for pitches from the piano and vice-versa.

Conductor and Founder

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Resident Accompanist - Ellen Meyer

Ellen Meyer, piano - raised and educated in Toronto, is one of the most in-demand collaborative pianists in Ontario. Possessing a large and varied repertoire, she is known for her interest in woodwind music, and has accompanied master classes for such renowned artists as Sabine Meyer, Karl Leister and Ricardo Morales. She has recently performed in recital at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, and was privileged to present two programs with English clarinet phenomenon Julian Bliss this past December.
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Ellen began accompanying choirs when she was 11 years old, and choirs have gured prominently in her musical life ever since, having worked with the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus, Toronto Choral Society and numerous others, in addition to Cantores Celestes. She also does a great deal of orchestral piano around the GTA. A founding member of the Riverdale Ensemble, Ellen has performed at festivals in Germany, made many appearances in the U.S. including Washington D.C. and Salt Lake City, and across Canada. Her goal is to perform in all the provinces and territories, and Antarctica if there's time. She has appeared on upward of 15 commercial recordings, several with Cantores Celestes, Riverdale Ensemble and Ossia, on period instruments. www.riverdaleensemble.com

Photo by Jan ic

Guest Musicians
The Emperor String Quartet - Formed in 1983, the Emperor String Quartet has been a musical mainstay on the Toronto social scene performing their inimitable brand of chamber music for a vast array of public, private, corporate and government functions and concerts. The Emperor String Quartet has performed in Toronto, Ottawa and Washington for the reigning monarchs of Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway and Jordan as well as Presidents, Prime Ministers, Governors and State leaders from over ten countries. We are thrilled that they are once again joining Cantores Celestes in concert. William O'Meara is the Cathedral Organist at St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto and accompanist for the St. Michael's Choir School. He has performed at festivals and concert series throughout North America, South America, Europe and Russia. Some of his solo engagements include International Organ Music Festival (Perm, Russia), St. Paul's Cathedral (London, UK), Harvard University Organ Society (Cambridge, USA), Sao Bento International Organ Festival (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Trnava Organ Days (Slovakia), Warsaw International Festival of Organ Music (Poland), Turin International Organ Festival (Italy), and Piccolo Spoleto Festival (Charleston, USA).

Guest Musicians contd

William O'Meara, contd In Canada he has performed in hundreds of concerts throughout the country. O'Meara is the cofounder of ORGANIX www.organixconcerts.ca), a series of concerts held every May throughout Toronto featuring the nest pipe organs in the city. O'Meara is also in great demand as an accompanist for silent lms (i.e. pre-1930). His expertise has been the subject of numerous interviews for radio, television and newspapers. He has accompanied lms for Cinmatheque Ontario, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Ottawa International Silent Film Festival, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (Italy), the National Gallery of Canada, Goethe Institute, Pacic Cinmatheque (Vancouver), and many festivals and concert series across Canada and the United States. From British Columbia, baritone Justin Welsh is a former member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio. He was featured as Ari in the world premiere of the Ensemble production of SWOON and took the role of Fiorello in the mainstage production of Rossinis IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Previously he has been seen as Papageno in DIE ZAUBERFLTE in the Andrew Porter production for the COC Ensemble and covered the roles of Guglielmo in COSI FAN TUTTE, Count Almaviva in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO and Wagner in Gounods FAUST. A Fellow at Tanglewoods Summer Institute, he appeared with Tapestry New Opera Works and in MESSIAH with the Regina Symphony. During the winter and spring of 2011, he was in Brooklyn with the COCs NIGHTINGALE production and toured with Jeunesses Musicales du Canada as Belcore in LELISIR DAMORE. In the 2012-2013 season, he will be heard in Faures REQUIEM with the Regina Philharmonic, MESSIAH with Orchestra London and the Ontario Philharmonic and sings Beethovens Symphony No. 9 with the Winnipeg Symphony.Justin Welshs awards include First Place in the Kurt Weill Competition, an encouragement award from the Louis and Cristina Quilico competition and he placed in the Metropolitan Regional Finals in Seattle. He holds a Masters of Music from the University of British Columbia and has also participated in young artist programmes in the Czech Republic and Germany, with Pacic Opera Victoria, and Opera Nuova. Tamieka Evans is a high soprano, native to the Toronto area. She has been singing all her life, and is highly passionate about the arts, music, and stage performance. She is currently finishing her undergrad in English Literature at Western University in London, Ontario, and plans to pursue a Masters degree next year. Tamieka is also a former member of Cantores Celestes, and plans to continue singing with them in the future.

Lynette Evans, Percussionist. Immersed in the strong cultural heritage of Jamaica, Lynette was born to a musical family, multiple-generations deep. She was raised and educated in Canada; formally trained rst as a Scientist, and then a Math/Science Teacher. Lynette is happily married, living in Toronto, and now fully explores her artistic talents as well; a shift that occurred naturally along with the growth of three gifted children, one of whom is Soprano, Tamieka. Singing duets with Tamieka when she was just 13yrs old prompted a poignant connection to The Cycles of Life in Lynette. I had become my mother (a contralto) singing a supporting role for my own daughter, she reminisces fondly. These performances in church with Kelly led to them both joining Cantores in 2005; Tamieka being the youngest of the choir ever. Rhythm-keeping has become a natural extension of Lynettes ethnic roots. Its in the blood and was born out of a love of poetry, dance, art, and a discovered talent for making the drums and percussion instruments which she often uses during performances. From drums to shakers to singing bowls, Lynette brings rhythmic variation and additional tonal colour to enhance the soundscape that is uniquely Cantores Celestes.

Guest Musicians contd

Colleen Jenkins has been playing the clarinet since she was 11 years old. She developed a love of teaching as a counsellor at Upper Canada College Music Camp and National Music Camp. She graduateed with a Music Education degree from Wilfred Laurier University in 2005. She taught music at Havergal College from 2006 to 2012, where she started an instrumental music program for students in grades 5 and 6.

Cantores Celestes Sponsors

We appreciate our sponsors and encourage our audience members to patronize them. Many of them support us concert after concert. We encourage you to go see them as they come very highly recommended. Please tell them that you saw their ad in the Cantores Celestes concert programme! Not only do our sponsors get recognized by concert patrons reading the programme and the many more people who read our newsletter, but now that Cantores Celestes has seriously embraced social media, our sponsors will be seen by anyone who visits our website, Facebook page and our Twitter sites. Share Your Song is edited & published by Catherine Roe,Logo and poster by Shauna Rae, Contributions by:Kelly Galbraith