News
Thirty-two young musicians perform for scholarships at the annual Powell River Academy of Music Scholarship Competition November 19, 2011. For complete information click here.
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Composer Tobin Stokes is slated to write the music to on opera about U.S. Marine Christian Ellis.
City Opera Vancouver Lands $250,000 Commission
By David Gordon Duke, Special To The SunFebruary 22, 2011
Vancouver's reputation as a hotbed of new opera may come as a surprise to many. But yet another sign of the lively local appetite for new work came with the announcement Monday that the prestigious Annenberg Foundation will grant $250,000 to City Opera Vancouver to develop an operatic treatment of the story of U.S. Marine Christian Ellis.
The project has come together with remarkable speed. A year ago City Opera Vancouver artistic director Charles Barber was at a "salon" organized by former Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan. So was Charles Annenberg Weingarten, a filmmaker who knew the Ellis saga. City Opera was invited to apply for a development grant from the Annenberg Foundation, a private family organization established by media mogul (and U.S. diplomat) Walter Annenberg.
The libretto of the new work will be written by American-Iraqi writer Heather Raffo, author of 9 Parts of Desire, a successful play based on interviews with Iraqi women. She'll base her work on a scenario conceived by Ellis, a participant in the Battle of Fallujah.
Music will be written by Canadian Tobin Stokes, who has been composer-in-residence with the Victoria Symphony and is the creator of several stage works, including the ballet A Streetcar Named Desire and three previous operas.
In May, City Opera Vancouver will begin a series of four workshops. While Barber indicates that the work must be completed by the end of June 2012, plans for an actual premiere performance are still fluid. Given the bi-national nature of the enterprise he's exploring the idea a joint Los Angeles-Vancouver first production during the 2013-14 season.
Dr. Nora Kelly, president of the City Opera board, noted: "Ellis was an American Marine in Iraq, but the story is universal. Our goal is to share a deeper truth about humanity, told through music, and to put a human face to both sides of military conflict."
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
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The Academy is please to welcome the following 2010-2011 new faculty.
Cello - Laura Wallace, luthier, trained with R. Kim Tipper in Victoira. Laura offers Violin, Viola and Cello repairs and Bow Rehairs and addition to beginner cello lessons.
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Powell River Youth Choir participated in the International Singing Week organized by Europa Cantat in Vic, Catalonia, Spain, July 19 - 26, 2010. The 30 singers from the Academy performed a program of European composers with their conductor Paul Cummings.
New Faculty
The Academy is pleased to welcome following 2009-2010 new faculty
Voice - Megan Skidmore, B.Mus & M. M. MCGill University in voice performance. Further studies at the Wiener Meisterkurze in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Franz Schubert Institut in Baden bei Wien.
Guitar - Ron Campbell. Guitartist and songwriter, Ron has spent 45 years as performer and teacher. As bandleader or sideman, he’s played with hundreds of great musicians.
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Powell River Youth Choir recently returned from a 10 day tour of Germany & Slovenia August 9-20, 2007. In Slovenia the choir took part in a "Singing Week" organized by Europa Cantat - Europe's largest choral organization. The 20 singers from the Academy performed a program of European composers with Gary Graden of Sweden as well as their own program with their conductor Paul Cummings.
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Academy Chamber Choir toured Normandy from the 27th of April to the 1st May, 2007
Polyfollia and La Fugue & Cie welcomed the biggest choral festival in western Canada and the Powell River Academy Chamber Choir. Kathaumixw - Polyfollia : 7790 kms away, two teams who are mad about singing working to the same goal : to bring together people through choral singing.
The 20 amateur singers from the Powell River Academy Choir (British Columbia) are the professional and voluntary pillars of the international festival Kathaumixw (pronounced Ka-tao-miouuw – in the Indian Salish language « bringing together different peoples ») which brings together every two years choirs from the world over for one of the biggest choral festivals in Canada.At the same time, the vocal ensemble La Fugue et Compagnie unite twenty odd voluntary « pillars » from Polyfollia, which organizes every two years the Festival Market Place of Choral Singing, alternating with the Summer Festival for those mad about Choral Singing (this year, from 30th June to 15th July) in Basse Normandy.They had the idea to meet up in order to exchange their methods, programs, organization… but also to sing together.Three towns, partners in the Polyfollia network are associated with this international choral exchange with 3 Franco-Canadian concerts
Saturday 28th April Vimoutiers (61) : 21h - Salle Armontel Monday 30th April Saint Hilaire du Harcouët (50) : 20h45 - Cinéma Le Rex
Tuesday 1st May Louvigny (14) : 17h Church / sacred concert , then 19h Salle des fêtes / secular concert, sung apéritif with the C.D.D. (Chœur à Durée Déterminée) from Louvigny, picnic together and an evening of traditional dances (you can come to the concert and/or the picnic – bring your own basket)
The program included : French music— from the Renaissance to today. Canadian music —« spirituals » to light music, including a new work by Tobin Stokes Vox Inuit - an astonishing adaptation of Shamanic incantations from the Inuit Peoples of the northern Canada.
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Chor Musica Men's Choir participated in the Third British International Male Voice Choral Festival Truro - Cornwall - UK 3 - 7 May 2007.
This third International Festival was centered on the very attractive Cathedral county town of Truro, but all choirs involved in the Festival performed in other Cornish Towns and venues. The festivals was a resounding successes with 60 choirs and over 3,000 singers taking part in 32 concerts and events in 26 different venues. The press reported after the first Festival that the Festival exceeded everyone’s expectations and was triumph for the organizer's audience attendance and the friendship between choirs has been marvellous: practically every concert has been packed out.
Chor Musica premiered two new compositions by Tobin Stokes to the enthusiastic response of audiences. The choir performed in Truro, Saint Agnes, Helston, Saltash and in the Eden Project. The festival aims to bring male voice choirs from outside Cornwall together to join with Cornish choirs in a spirit of musical friendship and song.