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2007-2008 Guest Artists

Concert 1

Lauriel Gibson  

Laurien Gibson, soprano

Laurien holds an Artist Diploma from the Glenn Gould School and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Saskatchewan. Ms. Gibson was the CMC winner for voice in 2006 and was also a laureate of the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques the same year.

Laurien has performed with the Regina Symphony Orchestra, the Saskatoon Opera Association, the Opera Troupe of Saskatoon, and Edmonton's Opera Nuova. She has sung in the finals of the Hans Gabor Belvedere competition, an international opera competition held in Vienna.

Laurien has been featured in many chamber works including: Orff's Carmina Burana, Poulenc's Gloria, Mozart's Coronation Mass, and Handel's Messiah. Her other opera credits include the roles of Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream) l'Ecureuil ( l'enfant et les sortileges), Amy ( Little Women), Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro) and 1st Spirit (Die Zauberflöte).

Laurien currently lives in Toronto and studies with teacher Jean MacPhail.

James Zhang, flute

17 year old James Zhang was born in China and lived in Japan for five years before moving to Canada six years ago. He started playing the flute at an early age of eight, and has progressed rapidly since then.

James Zhang

James has participated in numerous competitions and earned many first place awards. Including, the Yamano Junior Flute Competition in Japan, 2001 and the 2006 Woodwinds Open Classes at the GTA Kiwanis Festival.

James has been awarded several scholarships and awards and most recently became a 2006 CMC National Finalist. He is also the principal flute at the Overseas Chinese Youth Symphony Orchestra (OCYSO). His teachers include Nora Shulman, Principal Flautist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Peg Albrecht, flute teacher at the University of Toronto and Mizi Tan, former principal flute of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, China.

Concert 2

LiLi Zhang  

LiLi Zhang, vocalist

Professor Zhang Lili, principal actress of The China Youth Experiment Group of Peking Opera, is the third generation disciple of Cheng Yan Qiu, one of the "four junior Chengs". Peking Opera Master Cheng's performances were known to be expressive, deep, delicate and graceful. Zhang's wide range of voice and skillful singing technique allows her to display the purity of the voice with a pleasing rhythm, while displaying impeccable diction. She is named the "real" successor of Cheng style.

Zhang began her stage career in her early teens. She graduated from the Central Academy of Chinese Opera, having studied with the top most Chinese Opera Masters: XinYan Qiu, Zhao Yong Chen, and Li Shi Ji.

In 1987, Drama and Motion Picture Journal named Zhang "the Best Four Junior Chengs", when she won the Best TV Prize at China's National Peking Opera Professional Competition. In 1992, Ms. Zhang joined the Performance Department at the Central Academy of Chinese Opera. Zhang and her colleagues made their debut of "Zhang Xie, the Snob ling" in 1994 at the Great Hall of the People, which was highly acclaimed by the media and called "the live fossil of Chinese drama". In 1996, Ms. Zhang brought in "Footsteps in Snow", which was released by CCTV with great response.

In 1998, Zhang obtained her Masters degree from the Central Academy of Chinese Opera, being among the first group of students to receive such a degree in Chinese Traditional Opera History. It was in the same year that CCTV presented a series report on her.

Since immigrating to Canada in 1999, Zhang has contributed greatly to Chinese Music in North America. In 2001 Zhang presented the entire series of "Unicorn-trapping Purse". It was the first event of such a nature in North America and was met with critical acclaim. In 2002, Zhang joined her husband Xu Jun Qing in presenting the "East-Meets-West Concert". Following these successes, Zhang continued to present events of great magnitude. Among them are the "Cheng Yan Qiu 100th Anniversary Celebration"(2004, Toronto) and the "2005 Canadian Chinese Performing Arts Festival". For the first time in Canadian history, this unique event brought together two famous Chinese Operas, the Peking Opera and Cantonese Opera in a remarkable collaboration.

In 2006 Zhang joined the "Tang Zai Xin Concert" held in China, with great success. Most recently in the spring of 2007, Zhang was the featured soloist in An "East-Meets-West Concert of Favorite Classics", under the baton of Tak-Ng Lai, accompanied by International acclaimed Pianist, Lang Lang.

Being one of the few specialists in this formal style of Chinese Opera (performing, acting and singing,) Zhang LiLi has become an internationally sought after professor. She has coached numerous students from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other overseas areas, improving the standards in every case. Aside from performing and teaching, Zhang has lectured at universities as well as written articles in newspapers and magazines. She is a firm supporter of multiculturalism, devoting herself to promoting further knowledge of Chinese Culture in Canada.

Ricky Ka-Suen Chan, vocalist

Ricky Chan is a multi-talented TV executive producer-director, movie director and music whiz all in one. As executive producer of HK-TVB, Ricky's variety show was always in the top ten.

His major productions have been of international stature. They include the "Miss Universe Beauty Pageant 1976", beamed live from Hong Kong around the world, the "Miss Asia Pacific Quest 1985", sellout double concerts in Lincoln Centre, New York, organized by United Way of the Tri-State area; "From Hong Kong With Love" in September 1988 and February 1989, and 12-hours of live coverage for a 30-hour Famine 1991 programme, organized by World Vision of Hong Kong.

Ricky Chan

 

Ricky struck out in the late 60's as a noted musician on keyboard in the Topnote and later Teddy Robin and the Playboys. In 1970, he was handpicked as one of the Hong Kong top-most representative musicians for a month-long performance at the Hong Kong pavilion of the World Expo'70 in Osaka, Japan. His knowledge of music was to give him the solid background in the production of musical variety shows in the years to come.

Ricky has six feature films to his credit, all of them box office hits. They include, "Lam Ah Chun", "Disco Bumpkins", "A Detective Story", "Friend from Inner Space" and "To Love Ferrari." His role as executive producer of the all time favourite "Dangerous Encounter of the First Kind", directed by Tusi Hark, garnered for him prestigious awards, among them the Best Foreign Picture Award in The Berlin Film Festival in 1980. Its success continued as far as the London Film Festival, The Cannes Film Festival and The Manila Film Festival all in the same year.

Ricky has been running his own companies for more than eighteen years: Network Investments Limited and Inetwork Productions ( Canada). Network Investments Limited is a holding company engaging equally in the field of advertising, feature film and video production, planning and organizing special projects.

His productions also include the MTV/Karaoke Laser Disc Production of The Bee Gees and the live concert productions on MTV for Jacky Cheung, Alan Tam, Faye Wong, Beyond, Jackie Chan's Live Show at Skydome 2001, Rose Rose I Love You Concert 2005 And Ricky Chan's "With A Little Help from My Friends" Concerts.

Ricky currently hosts a weekly music radio programme on Fairchild Radio Station.

Concert 3

Riverdale Ensemble

Since 1996 the Riverdale Ensemble has brought its brand of polished, professional and innovative chamber music performance in a warm, welcoming and informative atmosphere to concert audiences in Toronto, York Region and other locales in Ontario.

Riverdale Ensemble

The Ensemble takes special pleasure in seeking out and performing music of the highest quality and audience appeal that is infrequently performed and deserves to be more widely known; each season sees the Toronto area premieres of previously unheard or unpublished works. When more familiar music is programmed, the aim is to present it in original ways, with a view to enriching understanding of the music and its context. The centre of the group's repertoire is music in the Romantic idiom - from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries - that speaks both to the heart and to the head.

The Ensemble performs music for a variety of instrumental combinations, from solos to large groups, with the core members - Ellen Meyer, piano; Joyce Lai, violin; Stephen Fox, clarinet/saxophone - supplemented by guest artists as required. Some concerts involve collaboration with other instrumental groups, vocal ensembles and graphic artists.

The members of the Ensemble bring to the concert stage impressive and varied backgrounds in the music profession, including performance in Europe, Asia and the U.S.A. One of the core musicians, besides being a performer, is in addition an instrument maker with a worldwide reputation.

The Riverdale Ensemble's highly praised and widely distributed debut CD, "Foliage", was released in 2000, and a second recording is in the final stages of preparation.

The members of the Riverdale Ensemble are also active in historically informed performance using authentic period instruments, through their parallel group Ossia.

The Ensemble's parent organization, Riverdale Concert Productions Inc., is a not-for-profit corporation, with a Board of Directors composed of music industry professionals and community supporters from Toronto and York Region.

Full information concerning the group, its members and its concert schedule, can be found on its website at www.riverdaleensemble.com.

Concert 4
Janet Catherine Dea  

Janet Catherine Dea, soprano

Praised for her sparkling stage presence and beautiful voice, Janet Catherine Dea's rising career has taken her across Canada and to Europe. Two thousand and seven started off with a bang with Miss Dea jumping in for an ailing colleague with less than 24hrs notice to perform in Salute to Vienna's Gala New Year's Day performance at Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall. Other performances this past season include a return to Thunder Bay Symphony in Britten's Les illuminations de Rimbaud, and Opera Galas with the Toronto Philharmonia, and York Symphony, Lester Trimble's Four Fragments from the Canterbury Tales (for soprano, clarinet, flute and piano) with the Aubergine Chamber Ensemble (Toronto).

 

She also performed solo recitals "Ain't it a Pretty Night" and "I'm Just a Broadway Baby" with Brahm Goldhamer (Toronto). Miss Dea performs regularly with eclectic harpist Kristen Moss Theriault. This duo is currently touring "Sleeps the Noon in the Deep Blue Sky: Folksongs for Voice and Harp" throughout southern Ontario and will be recording their debut CD in the spring of 2008. In May of 2008 Miss Dea will perform works by Debussy, Joseph Marx and Stefano Donaudy with renowned Munich-based pianist, Tomoko Okada, who will be making her Toronto recital debut.

Janet Catherine Dea's career highlights include a return to her hometown as Mabel in Edmonton Opera's sold out performances of The Pirates of Penzance, and Christmas Pops concerts with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. With the Thunder Bay Symphony she performed "La Scala to Broadway," and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. Miss Dea sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Boris Brott Festival (Hamilton), Musetta in La Bohčme with Opera York, and Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate with Canadian Sinfonietta.

She performed Carmina Burana with The Toronto Choral Society and Gounod's Messe Solenelle (St. Cecilia) with the Ottawa Valley Festival. A favourite guest soloist with conductor Kerry Stratton she performed a number of classical and pops programs with the Toronto Philharmonia and the Huntsville Festival of the Arts. Her other orchestral repertoire includes Beethoven IX and Mahler IV (Edmonton Symphony), and Turina's "Canto a Sevilla" (McGill Symphony).

Hamilton and Kitchener audiences saw her as Mrs. Hayes in Opera Ontario's Susannah and in the title roles in Thaďs and Lucrezia Borgia with Opera in Concert (Toronto), Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, and Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor with JHS Opera (Toronto). Miss Dea performed Violetta, in La Traviata and Mimi, in La Bohčme with both (Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, Toronto) and (KomishcheKammerOper, Munich). Other opera performances include Lisa in Opera in Concert's La Sonnambula with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (Robert Cooper, cond.), Tytania in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the title role of Gustave Charpentier's Louise (McGill Opera) under the baton of Timothy Vernon.

In addition to Mabel, her operetta roles include Margot in The Desert Song Gabrielle, La Vie Parisienne, Yum Yum, the Mikado, Josephine, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Giannetta, The Gondoliers.

A lifelong student of esteemed vocal pedagogue Professor Lucile Vilneuve Evans and vocal coach, Robert K. Evans Ph.D. Janet Catherine Dea holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from McGill University and a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University. She has been the recipient of numerous prestigious scholarships and awards including The Clara Lichtenstein Fellowship (McGill-Montreal), Career Development Grants from The Alberta Foundation for the Performing Arts, for study and auditions in Europe; Winner second place, Metropolitan Opera Auditions (Vancouver), The Edmonton Opera Guild Scholarship, and The Johann Strauss Foundation Scholarship (Edmonton).

In additions to her performing activities, Miss Dea maintains a voice studio in downtown Toronto and is Artistic Director of Muzent Productions, an organization which produces classic vocal music concerts and events. You will find her at www.janetcatherinedea.com.

 

Concert 5

St. Giles-Kingsway Presbyterian Church Choir

Since 1973, St. Giles-Kingsway Presbyterian Church has enjoyed a rich history of traditional music.

Their current Director of Music and organist, Ms. Ran Kim directs a full choir of dedicated volunteers and professional sectional leads. Past Directors of Music include: Mr. Thomas Bell 1997-2000, and Mr. Matthias Schmidt-McQuillan 2001-2003.

This is the second year of collaboration between the choir and the Canadian Sinfonietta

  St, Giles Choir
 
Ran Kim  

Ran Kim, St. Giles-Kingsway Choir Director

Ran Kim is the Director of Music at the St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Toronto, as well as an associate organist for St. George's on the Hill Anglican Church. At age thirteen, she was already a church pianist in her native town of Seoul, South Korea. Her musical talent became apparent when she won the Grand Prize for the Korean Radio and Television Station two years in a row.

 

Since coming to Canada, she has continued her education at the McGill University (organ), the Royal Conservatory of Music (A.R.C.T .in Organ, Performance Diploma) and the Glenn Gould Professional School of Music. Ms. Kim has continued to accompany other soloists, giving organ recitals in Canada, Korea and in Hungary.

She has been the choir director and organist for churches in Toronto, among them, Cliffcrest United Church, Hanman Presbyterian Church, Bloor United Church Antioch Presbyterian Church, and Bethel Evangelical Church. She was also the conductor of Sharon Youth Choir, and one of founders of the Music Alive! concert series.