A Celebration of Canada 150 in Poetry and Music

Friday May 12, 2017 at 8 pm

Free Admission

Seán Haldane – poet and novelist

David Jaeger - composer

Christina Raphaelle Haldane - soprano

Carl Philippe Gionet - piano

Including the world premiere of the song cycle ECHO: poems by Seán Haldane, music by David Jaeger.

This evening of poems, songs, and piano celebrates Canada 150 from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Seán Haldane is the author of eight volumes of poems, from The Coast and Inland (Ladysmith, Quebec 1968) to most recently The Memory Tree (Greenwich Exchange, London, 2015). He has also published books on time and neuroscience (he is a neuropsychologist), studies of English poets, and the historical crime novel The Devil's Making (set on Vancouver Island in 1869) which won the Crime Writers of Canada best novel award in 2014.

He was born in England, and grew up in Northern Ireland. He has an MA in English Language and Literature from Oxford, and a PhD in Psychology from Saybrook Institute (now Saybrook University) in San Francisco. He currently lives in London (UK) and is co-owner of Rune Press Ltd which publishes ‘Pocket Poems’ – volumes of collected poems (so far Martin Seymour-Smith, Valentin Iremonger, and [the real] David Cameron) which are small enough to be carried in a pocket or purse. He currently spends much of his time in Canada where between 1967 and 1994 he lived in Québec, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, and British Columbia – from sea to sea.

David Jaeger is a composer, music producer, author and broadcaster, who was a member of the CBC Radio Music department staff from 1973 to 2013. In 1978 he created Two New Hours, a national contemporary music series which was heard on the national CBC Radio Two network until spring, 2007. In this capacity he commissioned hundreds of new Canadian compositions and recorded and broadcast thousands of world premiere performances of works by Canadian composers.

In the early 1970s Jaeger established a digital sound synthesis facility at the University of Toronto, one of the first in Canada. During this time, while working at the University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio he met and became a colleague of Canadian inventor Hugh LeCaine. In 1971 he founded the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, together with David Grimes, Larry Lake and Jim Montgomery. Many of Jaeger's works combine live electronic media with instrumental performance.

From 1974 to 2003 he served as the CBC Radio coordinator of the CBC/Radio-Canada National Radio Competition for Young Composers.

In 2002 David Jaeger was elected President of the International Rostrum of Composers, and was the only non-European ever to be named to this post in the history of that organization. He is currently working as an independent composer, producer and writer on musical topics.

‘Christina Raphaelle Haldane was fully committed as Cleopatra...and she sang fantastically well, from the exquisitely shaped melodic line of ‘Se Pieta’ to the dazzling coloratura of ‘Da tempeste’. OPERA MAGAZINE

‘the best of the bunch, Christina Haldane, had sadly little airtime as Quiteria’s pal Lucinda’ THE TIMES, LONDON

Canadian British soprano Christina Raphaëlle Haldane enjoys an active career in the UK, Europe, Asia and North America. She has sung principle roles for The Finnish National Opera, Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera and Musica Viva Hong Kong, as well as for festivals Iford Arts, Longborough, Swansea City and Buxton. Her roles include Cleopatra in Handel’s Julius Caesar, the title role in Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment, Fiorilla in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia, Nella in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Adina in Donizetti’s Elisir d’Amore, Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Lucinda in Mendelssohn’s Die Hochzeit des Camacho, both the Vixen and the Fox in Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen, Rapunzel in Sondheim’s Into the Woods, and Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. An accomplished concert performer, she has performed with many renowned orchestras, including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Capella Cracoviensis. Christina is also a dedicated interpreter of song repertoire, regularly performing on the recital platform in both the UK and Canada. In September 2015, Christina commenced the DMA programme at the University of Toronto, under the tutelage of Prof. Darryl Edwards. She was the recipient of the Greta Kraus scholarship in 2015, was awarded an Ontario Graduate Scholarship for 2016 and is grateful for the continued support provided by the Canada Council for the Arts. Highlights for this season include covering the role of Silvia in Thomas Adès’ exciting new opera The Exterminating Angel, for both the Salzburg festival and the Royal Opera House.

Whether as a soloist or accompanist, Carl Philippe Gionet is a much sought after collaborator, mainly in Europe and North America. The diffusion of classical music to all audiences is very important to him. Despite his numerous travels, he remains very involved in promoting music in his native New Brunswick. In 2013, he founded Musique sur mer en Acadie, an event dedicated to the education and promotion of classical music in francophone minority communities. Since 2014, he is teaching at the summer master class given by the Associazione Cieli Vibranti in Breno, Italy. Carl completed his doctorate in piano performance at Université de Montréal under the direction of Paul Stewart. He has received specialized training in collaborative piano in Austria and England, and participated in numerous prestigious summer programs. Along with his commitments in the field of classical music, Carl has performed in Canada and Europe as an accompanist and composer with many artists of the Francophonie. MSR Classics will release his recording of Schubert’s four sonatas for piano and violin, with Icelandic violinist Hlíf Sigurjónsdóttir, in Spring 2016.