Songs of Travel

Talisker Players take audiences on a voyage behind
the human travel experience with Songs of Travel

October 28 & 29, 2014, 8pm
Trinity St. Paul's Centre

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Toronto, October 14, 2014: Toronto's innovative chamber ensemble Talisker Players kicks off the 2014/15 season with Songs of Travel on October 28 and 29 at 8pm at Trinity St. Paul Centre - a concert that presents diverse travel experiences through multiple musical lenses. Inspired by the great romantic song cycle by Ralph Vaughan Williams, the Talisker Players investigate the phenomenon of human travel spanning from the ancient legend of Ulysses to 20th Century Canada. The programme features young and brilliant Canadian singers Virginia Hatfield and Geoffrey Sirett in works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Vally Weigl and Louis Applebaum, as well as iconic Canadian travel songs by Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Ian Tyson.

English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams' Songs of Travel was his first major song cycle and is the title work of the programme – here presented in a new arrangement by Harold Birston for voice, string quartet and piano. The piece features poems selected from Robert Louis Stevenson's collection of the same name. Vaughan Williams offers audiences an emotional palette that is the traveler's perspective, touching on experiences of boundless freedom, painful exile and acceptance of finality. While all wanderers must eventually die, listeners are reminded that the beauty of their work remains a testament of their lives –even through death.

French composer Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre illustrates the final forays of archaic adventure hero Ulysses in her baroque cantata Le Sommeil d'Ulisse. Published in 1715, the piece describes the moment in which Neptune intercepts Ulysses' voyage home from the Trojan War. The song's narrator beckons the goddess Minerva who saves Ulysses through divine sleep and promises a triumphant return to Ithaca. Jacquet de la Guerre was one of few accomplished female composers of her time. As a child prodigy, she was a favourite of Louis XIV and continued to perform as well as teach in her home and throughout Paris.

Louis Applebaum's Algoma Central, subtitled "In the Tracks of the Black Bear," has a unique text comprised of segments from the brochures and timetables of Algoma Central Railway –a railway in northern Ontario famous for its Agawa Canyon tours. This Toronto composer's innovative Canadian work introduces an anti-narrative structure and features vocal and instrumental onomatopoeia.

Continuing with the theme of Canadian travel, Talisker Players' cellist Laura Jones presents an arrangement of travel songs by widely celebrated Canadian folk icons. Joni Mitchel's Blue Hotel Room, Gordon Lightfoot's Early Mornin' Rain and Ian Tyson's Four Strong Winds all convey common and poignant themes of the travel experience. "All three of these songs are about travel that takes you away from loved ones rather than to them. Each song takes its own perspective: yearning for return, distrust of separation, and a wistful dream of reconnection," says Jones.

Also included in the program is Vally Weigl's Songs of Love and Leaving featuring poems by beloved American writer Carl Sandburg. This is another work about goodbyes, but in this case the focus is on the emotional preparation and unfolding of time leading up to a final farewell.

The Talisker Players welcome back distinguished baritone Geoffrey Sirett to the stage. A recent graduate from the University of Toronto's Opera Performance programme, Sirett has performed a wide variety of oratorio and concert works and leading roles on the opera stage. He has won numerous awards including prizes from the Canadian Conservatory Vocal Competition, the Ottawa Choral Society Competition and the Czech and Slovak International Voice Competition.

Virginia Hatfield's sparkling voice is well known across Canada and has been hailed by The Guardian as a "golden soprano." As a member of the prestigious Canadian Opera Company Ensemble, Hatfield made her professional debut singing Frasquita in Carmen with the late Maestro Richard Bradshaw. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, she has sung across Canada and made debuts in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Serbia, and Mexico.

As always, this Talisker Players production blends both the sung and the spoken word. Stratford actor Graham Abbey joins the musicians to read passages from the journals and memoirs of great explorers and adventurers, about what they sought, and about the meaning of love, home and belonging.

Songs of Travel
Virginia Hatfield, soprano, Geoffrey Sirett, baritone
with members of Talisker Players
Tuesday, October 28 at 8:00PM & Wednesday, October 29 at 8:00 PM
Trinity St. Paul's Centre: 427 Bloor Street West
TICKET INFORMATION
Individual tickets: $35 / $25 (seniors) / $15 (students/un(der)employed)
Box office: 416-978-8849
Email:  words.music@taliskerplayers.ca
Information: 416-466-1800
www.taliskerplayers.ca

Talisker Players Chamber Music offers one of the most imaginative and exciting concert series in Toronto. In collaboration with some of Canada's finest young singers, Talisker Players present the rarely-heard repertoire for voice and chamber ensemble. Their unique programming includes readings that illuminate the music and delight audiences with a stimulating, theatrical concert experience. The music, engaging and varied, includes both celebrated works and unknown gems from all styles and periods, with a strong presence of Canadian compositions.

Talisker Players Upcoming Events
Puttin' on the Ritz: Sunday, January 11, 2014 at 3:30PM & Tuesday, January 13, 2014 at 8:00PM
Whitney O'Hearn, mezzo soprano, Bud Roach, tenor
Trinity St. Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor Street West

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Media contact:

Alexandra Glass, Media Manager
226-792-4849  a.glass@taliskerplayers.ca