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Guest Artists Archive
Timothy ChooiTimothy Chooi, 13, began his violin studies at age three and a half. He currently studies at the Victoria Conservatory with Trudi Conrad, where he takes part in their advanced study Collegium Program. His outstanding Victoria Performing Arts Festival achievements include representing Victoria at two Junior Level Provincials in 2004 and 2005, receiving First Runner Up and First Prize respectively and most recently in June 2007, the Senior Level National Class where he received the First Runner Up award. He was the youngest student to be selected for the Mount Royal College five week summer Music Bridge Program held in Shanghai, China. He also had the distinction of being personally invited by Maestro Pinchas Zuckerman to attend the National Arts Center Young Artists Program for the summer of 2005. Timmy has appeared as soloist with the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra and the Victoria Symphony and performed in December 2007 with the Civic Orchestra of Victoria.
Barbara BlairBarbara’s voice is like warm cocoa on a winter’s night. Vocalist, educator, and jazz messenger Barbara Blair counts herself among the fortunate few who spend their life following their passion. With a deep, rich voice, Barbara’s interpretive approach comes from the giants and innovators of mainstream jazz including Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Carmen McRae. Following a career in the classical music scene, Barbara returned to her first love, jazz, studying with luminaries Kurt Elling, Ellis Marsalis, Sheila Jordan, Paul Horn, Nancy King and Jay Clayton. Nearly two decades of performing and touring add polish and depth to her performances. A headliner at the 2005 and 2006 Newport Oregon Jazz Festival, Barbara was part of an elite roster that included Jeff Hamilton, John Clayton, Holly Hoffman, Ken Peplowski and Houston Person. Barbara’s education program, The School of Cool - An Introduction to Jazz, has played to more than 30,000 students in primary and secondary schools. Dividing her time between concert and educational tours throughout western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, Barbara took a recent tour to Hawaii and Australia. Barbara says, “Music is my life. My voice is my soul. It’s all and everything I am.”
Charlotte CorwinSoprano Charlotte Corwin provided the icing on the evening's cake. Not only is she possessed of a beautiful, creamy voice, immaculate technique and intonation, she treated her songs as if they were the greatest music in the world. Charlotte obtained her B.Mus and M.Mus degrees in Vocal Performance and Opera at McGill University in Montreal, where she studied with Mme. Lucile Evans. At McGill, she participated in productions of Les Contes D’Hoffman, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Semele, The Turn of the Screw, Christopher Sly and Dialogues of the Carmelites. Charlotte has been engaged as a soloist with several Montreal orchestras, including the McGill contemporary ensemble and I Medici di McGill. Since 2005, she has been a member of the Atelier Lyrique de L'Opéra de Montréal, and has had the pleasure of performing the roles of “Second Witch” in Dido and Aeneas, “Asphodèle” in L'Étoile, “The Governess” in The Turn of the Screw, and in September 2006, “Suor Genovieffa” in Suor Angelica . In May 2007 Charlotte took the lead role in Quebec Opera’s production of Romeo & Juliet. Charlotte says her first motivation to become a soloist came at age 14 when she was part of a choir singing the Brahms Requiem for her grandfather’s retirement concert in Victoria (local retired professor of music and conductor, Dr. George Corwin). Ten years later, in 2005, she sang the Requiem solo role with the Victoria Civic Orchestra. Even with opera as her career, Charlotte says “operettas are one of my first loves.” During high school and university, she spent seven years with the Montreal West Operatic Society, playing lead roles in well known Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. Charlotte adds, “In my teens I did a lot of theatre at the same time I took classical singing lessons, so opera and operettas were a perfect way to combine these two interests.” Lambroula Maria PappasAcclaimed for her charismatic presence and exquisite tone, Lambroula Pappas is emerging as one of Canada’s finest young singers. Her sparkling coloratura and shimmering voice make her an audience favourite in Canada, and abroad. A native of British Columbia, Pappas received her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and Masters in Opera from the University of British Columbia. Prior even to completing her masters Ms Pappas was accepted into the Montreal Young Artist’s Program, one of eight new talents invited to join the Montreal opera program that year. Lambroula: an ancient Greek name meaning “smart, bright, extraordinary.” Born of Greek immigrant parents, Lambroula was introduced to music in utero, headphones against her mother’s belly. She played piano and danced from the age of five. “I thought opera was stuffy,” she recalls. I wanted to be a Broadway musical star.” Then at 18, she heard a recording of Jean Sutherland’s Gilda. “As the aria ends the soprano voice chimes, shimmering, like a bell, and I thought: Can the human voice really do that? I want to make that sound!” In 2006, Ms. Pappas performed Gilda in Verdi’s 19th century operatic thriller Rigoletto to rave reviews with Spokane Symphony, Pacific Opera Victoria, and Orchestra London (Ontario.) The role fits the vivacious, mischievous, glorious-voiced Canadian songstress like a glove.
Internationally Ms. Pappas has performed with Germany’s East West Symphony, France’s L’Opéra d’Avignon, Belgium’s Opera Royal de Wallonie, Spain’s Delegada Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, Orquesta Pablo Sarasate of Pamplona and New York’s Opera Eurydice. In Canada, she has appeared with the Vancouver, Montreal, Trois-Rivières and Quebec Symphonies, Festival en Lumiéres, Festival de Lanaudière, Lachine Festival, Pacific Opera Victoria, and Orchestra London. Ms Pappas has appeared on CBC television and radio and in a BRAVO Television documentary as featured artist. Recordings include the Bird Girl in Harry Somer’s Opera Serninette, the Angel in Choir Leoni’s Lauda per la Nativita, and soloist on the World’s Greatest Opera for Kids CD. She is also the proud performer/producer of the original show, Two Divas are Better than One. Ms. Pappas is booked to debut with L’Opera Nice as Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte, 2007/2008. When asked what non-opera buffs may expect in the Palm Court 20th anniversary season opening program of operetta favourites, Ms Pappas says, “Operetta is written expressly for the singer/actors, orchestra and audience to have fun! Being light and lively, operetta permits the performer more freedom than formal opera. Singing light opera is like experiencing a perpetual encore for me: a high energy, passionate interaction with my audience.” “The pieces Mr. Job has selected for From Vienna With Love are all about love and romance. This is great music. Franz Lehar’s Meine Lippen, si Kussen (kisses on your lips) from Guiditta for instance, is light opera you can really play up, lots of acting which I love to do.” Ms. Pappas expects selections from the Merry Widow duets will be concert highlights. “The music is familiar, the orchestra is superb musically, and Ken Lavigne is a great guy, fun to perform with.” “I hear Ken had Palm Court audiences swooning in the balconies last season; that Islanders have a real love affair with Ken Lavigne. Here’s my prediction: things could get steamy on the Palm Court Orchestra stage in October.” For more on Lambroula Maria Pappas www.lambroulapappas.com
Ken Lavigne and Lambroula Maria Pappas
Ken Lavigne
Vancouver Island’s best-loved young tenor, Victoria-born Ken Lavigne returns to the Palm Court Light Orchestra for its 20th season opening concert of love and romance.
Known for his crowd-pleasing versatility, Mr. Lavigne is equally at ease as a soloist singing Gilbert and Sullivan, Handel’s’ Messiah, or a prayer of peace for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, as he is sharing that on-stage chemistry with his talented trio of young Canadian lyric tenors, Romanza. Career highlights include two seasons of ‘legitimate’ opera and musical theatre with the Oklahoma Light Opera, numerous appearances with Pacific Opera Victoria and with the Victoria Symphony, and a Romanza concert performed this past summer in Long Island, New York with Manhattan’s lights as their backdrop. Romanza will keep Lavigne on the road for much of the coming year, performing classical Italian ballads, and modern romantic and Canadiana classics. His recordings include a solo CD of musical theatre classics, On The Street Where You Live, and, the soon-to-be released Romanza CD, Genuine. Ken Lavigne credits the outstanding Selena James, his vocal coach at the Victoria Conservatory of Music for six years, and Welsh opera singer Stuart Burrows as being critical in guiding his vocal development. “A reviewer once wrote I had a natural, beautiful tenor voice,” says Lavigne. A comment he shared with Ms James. “She turned to me and said that the reviewer obviously knew nothing about singing. There is nothing natural about your singing my dear,” she cautioned. “The truth is we built every note in that voice, together!” When asked to describe the distinction between ‘formal opera’ and the light opera or operetta selections he and Ms. Pappas will perform Lavigne says, “In operetta the story-line is more integrated into the music. Whereas during an aria in opera, the action stops... There is no static clutching, or grabbing one’s chest in operetta. It is truly live theatre.” “And, the music is familiar. If you do not already know Franz Lehar’s Girls Were Made to Love and Kiss from Paganini, you will be humming it out the door. Lehar’s The Land of Smiles (You Are My Heart’s Delight) is equally famous in English as in German and a perennial favourite for the Three Tenors. The Merry Widow duets Lambroula and I perform together are among the most popular of light opera repertoire. And very dramatic! In The Dutiful Wife our characters enjoy a light, playful scene whereas the second piece from Merry Widow is very romantic.” “I admire Lamboula’s voice so much, and she has such presence. She joined the tenors on stage during our Whistler concert and her solo was fantastic. It was as if a beautiful bird had flown into the room and was doing a private concert for each person in the hall.” On his reputation as Palm Court concert-goers’ best-loved tenor, Ken Lavigne says, “It’s always a pleasure to work with the incredibly professional Charles Job. The orchestra is topnotch! I love being asked back. It’s like performing with dear friends.” For information on Romanza. www.romanzamusic.com
Karel RoessinghDutch-born Canadian pianist Karel Roessingh is at once a performer, composer for film and television, and recording artist. Raised in Calgary he studied piano, guitar, and percussion, toured with the Calgary Youth Orchestra and at age nineteen became arranger and vocal director for Stratus Faction, a 26 piece show group featured on national television. He studied jazz arranging and composition at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, and completed a degree in Music and Mathematics Education at the University of Victoria. A professional musician from an early age, Karel has performed with internationally recognized entertainers: Johnny Mathis, the Moody Blues, the Powder Blues, the Shirelles, Wilf Carter, Leslie Gore, Shari Lewis (and Lambchop),and comedians Ted Knight, Howie Mandel and Bob Newhart. He has performed as soloist for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; his proficiency as a performer has led to engagements all over the world. He plays at jazz festivals as both leader and sideman, writes jazz tunes for his own and other groups, and has played with such jazz greats as Bud Shank, Ian MacDougall, Pat LaBarbera, Don Clark, Floyd Standifer, Roy Reynolds and numerous vocalists. Closer to home, you might occasionally catch him tickling the ivories at the Empress Hotel. Karel Roessingh is also a credited composer and producer of music scores for some five hundred episodes of television, and award-winning documentaries and dramas. His first solo album to receive critical acclaim was Keys (Midsummer Music 1988). He has since released eleven more of his own CDs, including several for the Canadian Naturescapes series, two solo piano concerts recorded live at Alix Goolden Hall, and a jazz album receiving airplay across the continent since its release last fall. kr3+ features the Karel Roessingh Trio with guest performers Gary Karr, Daniel Lapp and Paul Wainwright. Perhaps less well known by jazz fans who have progressed through their parenting years was Karel’s early contribution to Canadian children’s music: Birds, Beasts and Babes by local Lullaby Lady Pat Carfra was, according to Ladies’ Home Journal, one of the six all-time best children's bedtime albums... away back when. Alongside his musical career, Karel has served two terms as mayor of the Highlands. His talent for stewardship politics expresses itself too in his music. A personal commitment to convert the family gas guzzler to bio diesel (re-cycled vegetable oil) inspired the playful jazz tune Biodiesel found on the kr3+ CD. Karel is delighted to perform with the Palm Court Orchestra. “As a pianist I grew up on Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer. The film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid caused a resurgence of interest in Joplin’s life and work at about the time I was introduced to this music. I learned there’s more to rag-time than people realize. Often it’s played like a march, without a lot of dynamics or intonation. But musically it is a marriage of European and African rhythms, and I like to play it that way.” As for the British-inspired part of the program, Karel looks forward to the Palm Court’s playful interpretations. “Kitten on the Keys is light, even funny. I think the point is for us all, performers and audience together, to just enjoy ourselves.”
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