Chants des Voyageurs

An evening of great Lieder, set amidst a rich variety of instrumental colours.

Monday, February 10, 2003 at 8PM
Trinity St. Paul's Centre

For Immediate Release - Toronto, January 16, 2003: Returning to Trinity St. Paul's on Monday, February 10 at 8 PM, Toronto's Talisker Players present Chants des Voyageurs. The evening opens a window on a piece of Canadian history, with a programme built on folk-songs of the first European explorers and settlers to this country, as interpreted by great composers both past and present.

Folk tunes, with their simple rhythms and evocative melodies, have inspired many composers on both sides of the Atlantic. Chants des Voyageurs features music for voice, strings, flute and piano, in an assortment of combinations. The instrumentalists of Talisker Players are joined by the charismatic young singers Mireille Lebel and Julien Patenaude.

The first half of the concert features songs of France and the British Isles Ð including some of Beethoven's charming and sophisticated arrangements of Scottish folk songs, as well as pieces by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Rebecca Clarke and Louis Durey. The second half shifts to North America and comprises new arrangements of songs of the French voyageurs, commissioned by Talisker Players from Gilbert Patenaude, the well-known choral conductor from Montreal. The evening also includes French-Canadian sea songs arranged by Sir Ernest MacMillan; English-Canadian folk songs by Mieczslaw Kolinski (originally written for the renowned Lyric Arts Trio and performed throughout Canada and abroad in the 1970s); and Quebecois folksongs by Diane Chouinard.

Mezzo soprano Mireille Lebel is winning accolades in the theatre as well as on the concert stage. She has produced and starred in a series of cabaret shows at various Toronto clubs. The Vancouver native most recently played the title role in Michael Matthews' new opera Prince Kaspar at the University of Manitoba's first Contemporary Opera Lab, with Tracy Dahl and John Hess.

Baritone Julien Patenaude, one of a family of distinguished Quebec musicians (he is the son of Gilbert Patenaude), is currently on full scholarship in the opera division of the University of Toronto's faculty of music. He is also a member of the Canadian Opera Company chorus. He was the 2001 winner of the Radio Canada Young Artists Competition, and has appeared with the Aldeburgh Connection in Toronto, as well as in recital at the Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur in Montreal and in summer festivals in Canada, the U.S. and Aberdeen, Scotland.

The Talisker Players are renowned for the inventiveness of their programming. As always, the concert includes the spoken word. In this case the readings are from the journals and letters of Fr. Paul LeJeune, Marc Lescarbot, Catherine Parr Trail and Susanna Moodie Ð early immigrants from Europe who memorably recorded their experiences of the transition to a new world.

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Media Contact: Francine Labelle/flINK
416-654-4406
labellefrancine@rogers.com

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