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Opera, Cabaret & All That Jazz
Anna Beaumont | Cathy Burnett | carol weaver | Heidi Klassen | Neil Weisensel | Rachel Landrecht | Kelly Crook | Willy Grenzberg | The Howell Trio | Shasta Martinuk | Riley McMitchell | Frederik Robert | Karen Shumka
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Anna has many strings to her bow. She is a jazz & pop singer; songwriter, voice teacher, workshop facilitator and a successful entrepreneur.
Anna has been performing for a couple of decades and has three CD’s to her credit as well as three theme songs. The latest CD is entitled “Under the Covers”. She has written theme songs for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, the Stollery Children’s Health Foundation and also wrote, “Go For the World’s” with Pierre Sabourin for the 2001 World Championships in Athletics in Edmonton, Alberta.
She has performed in such far off places as China, Germany, Finland, the British Isles and the United States as well as many performances here at home in Canada.
She most recently was chosen to perform “Alberta Strong and Free” for the Alberta Centennial on September 1st, 2005 being supported by the Calgary Symphony Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic 100 voice choir. The live show was televised live across Alberta.
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Catherine Burnett has had an extensive career as an international dancer and teacher. Highlights include: co-artistic director of Montage Dance Theater on the East Coast of Canada, a dancer with American Dance Machine in New York, writing and directing a children’s play performed internationally.
Ms. Burnett has been a movement professor with the University of Alberta's BFA Acting program, currently is movement professor with the BFA acting program at the University of British Columbia, and has been movement teacher and choreographer for Nuova Summer Opera Intensive in Edmonton, the Vassar Summer Opera Intensive, and has coached and choreographed numerous opera and theatre productions internationally.
Her personal mandate it to bring healing and spirituality to the arts through teaching and performing.
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carol weaver is a multi-faceted, self-taught artist, musician and practitioner/initiate of the shamanic healing arts.
weaver's musical pursuits also include being a singer-songwriter, poet, drummer and guitarist. She has performed as a solo artist and played in a variety of musical acts, from duos, trios and original bands to theatre and live community radio. She facilitates monthly sacred drum circles to provide a safe and encouraging environment for women and men to learn to drum and to explore their own spiritual connection to the drum and our blessed mother earth.
As an artist and graphic designer, weaver creates vibrant original works as paintings, illustrations and t-shirt designs. Her work has been featured on the Vancouver Folk Music Festival t-shirts, as well as numerous designs for trade union and co-operative based groups across the country. She also created the popular International Women's Day poster design that was commissioned by the BC Ministry of Women's Equality in 1994. In 2002, she won the World Aids Group (WAG) World AIDS Day poster contest.
weaver continues study of her own Celtic heritage, shamanic healing traditions & art. She holds a third level degree in the healing art of Reiki (Usui system) and has been initiated into the shamanic lineage of the Q'ero nation in Peru through the Four Winds Society. She is honoured to carry and caretake a powerful Qilaut wind drum.
Soprano Heidi Klassen is firmly established as one of Canada's most versatile and exciting performers having sung with Canada's leading orchestras and opera companies in a career that spans over 20 years. Internationally Ms. Klassen has sung with the Dallas Symphony, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra of Budapest, the BBC Scottish Orchestra and BBC Radio and toured extensively in Europe with live recordings at the Rudolfinum in Prague of Verdi's Requiem and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis.
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Ms. Klassen's performances have been described as "…unforgettable, rare and serenely beautiful," Brahm's Requiem (London Press); "boundless…a voice of stunning range, clarity and sonority", Verdi's Requiem (Waterloo Reporter) and "one could wait a long time, perhaps forever, to hear expressive singing to equal that of Heidi Klassen," Mozart's Mass in C Minor (Winnipeg Free Press). She has brought many roles to the operatic stage including Fiordiligi in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte with Montreal Opera, Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro with Manitoba Opera, and Opera Saskatchewan, Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni with Manitoba Opera, Musetta in Puccini's La Boheme with Edmonton Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Opera Grand Rapids and Opera Saskatchewan. Rosalinde in Strauss' Die Fledermaus, with Edmonton Opera and Opera Lyra Ottawa; Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, with Edmonton Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, and Gold Coast Opera, Florida, Blanche in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites, and First Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflote with Vancouver Opera; Miss Jessel in Britten's The Turn of the Screw and Camilla in Nosferatu, with Manitoba Opera, a role written for Ms. Klassen by composer Randolph Peters. Her performance of Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata was described as "moving beyond words, drenched with expressiveness" and "shimmering with sonic tenderness" (London Press).
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Neil Weisensel is a Vancouver-based composer, conductor and producer. He has written five operas, as well as works for orchestra, songs, a musical, chamber and choral music, and music for big band.
He has received grants, fellowships, commissions and awards from the Manitoba Arts Council, the BC Arts Council, Canada Council, OPERA America, the Banff Centre, and the National Endowment for the Arts in the U.S. In addition to studying orchestral conducting at the Conservatoire Nationale de Musique in Toulon, France, Mr. Weisensel holds degrees in composition and piano performance from the University of Manitoba and the University of British Columbia.
In addition to his art music, Mr. Weisensel has composed, orchestrated and produced a wide variety of music for feature film and documentaries, with networks such as the CBC, Bravo!, TSN, WTN, and CTV Sportsnet, and garnered a Genie 2000 nomination for a collaboration with star vocalist Michael Bublé.
Rachel Landrecht is a Vancouver-based performer and composer. Trained in opera studies in Oregon, she sang with Portland Opera for two seasons and was the district winner of the Metropolitan Opera's competition for young singers in 2001.
A versatile and accomplished artist, Ms. Landrecht is equally at home singing traditional Celtic, Broadway, Opera, Jazz, Folk, or her own compositions. Her performances have been praised for their power, emotional depth and beauty by audiences and by vocal luminaries such as Diana Krall, Ann Mortifee, and Leon Bibb.
Recent highlights include the internationally televised memorial service for Ernest A. "Smokey" Smith, last living Victoria Cross recipient, performances with the Vancouver Island Symphony, and opening for renowned authors Dr. Wayne Dyer, Matthew Fox, Dr. John Kabat-Zinn, and Dr. Patch Adams.
Kelly Crook completed her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at the University of British Columbia in 1989 and sang with the Vancouver Opera chorus from 1993 to 1997. She is active as a soloist in opera, oratorio and operetta in the Vancouver area, in Dawson Creek and in the Czech republic. She has recently premiered works by two local composers and is looking forward to performing another newly commissioned work for voice and piano in an upcoming solo recital for the Vocal Arts Society. Kelly is also a church musician, choir director, song writer and music instructor.
Willy Grenzberg is a versatile performer who is equally at home on the classical and operatic stages as in cafes and folk clubs doing singer/songwriter or standard repertoire. He has appeared with Vancouver Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Abbotsford Symphony and the Handel Society Of Surrey, among others. Willy has toured all over North America with Silk Road Music, a Vancouver based Chinese world music ensemble, and can be heard on their CD "Village Tales". He is also on the CD "The Spirit Emerges", singing orchestral songs by Vancouver composer Mark Armanini. Also an accomplished guitarist, Willy has a vast repertoire of folk and popular songs. He teaches voice and guitar in North Vancouver and Point Grey.
The Howell Trio - Graham and Melissa Howell formed the Howell Trio in 2001. This eclectic jazz ensemble performs everything from French cafe songs to beloved jazz standards to beautiful Italian Neapolitan songs. Past clients include the beautiful Tuscan Farm Gardens and Minter Gardens. Melissa comes from a classical background and has enjoyed expanding her repertoire to include jazz idioms. She has enjoyed performing locally with the Opera Project and for corporate functions. Graham also has classical trainining and an extensive career as a jazz and pop musician. He has toured with many popular Canadian acts, including Lee Aaron, the Powder Blues, Skaboom! and Ralph the Beatnik Poet.
Shasta Martinuk has been a musician since the age of 8, and was guided by synchronicity to the field of sound healing ten years ago. Over the past decade, her musical life has evolved from the classical realm to the world of drumming, toning, chanting and many other uses of sound and music for healing purposes. She is currently a teacher of drumming, chanting, and various approaches to sound healing and also has a private practice in healing sound.
Riley McMitchell is a recent graduate of the UBC music opera program. During his time there, he performed in many productions including Manon, Die Zauberflote, The Merry Widow, The Bartered Bride, Gianni Schicci. He also sang with the ensemble in several European tours to the Czech Republic and Germany. Riley sang the lead role in the world premiere of George Ryan's opera The Ghost in the Turret heard on CBC radio. Riley has also participated in numerous seasons on Opera Nuova's summer opera programme performing the Vicar in Britten's opera Albert Herring. Riley is currently under the tutelage of soprano Heidi Klassen and will be singing Guglielmo in The Opera Project's production of Cosi Unhinged in the new year.
"Tenor Frédérik Robert opened his mouth and the walls started shaking. Seriously, they were shaking. But only because they were blown away by the power and passion in this young singer's voice. It was amazing." The Province (Vancouver). At only 24 years old, Vancouver based tenor Frédérik Robert has already sung over 20 roles and many concerts with professional companies and orchestras across Canada including: The Opera Project (Winnipeg / Edmonton / Vancouver), Edmonton Opera, Calgary Opera, Opera Nuova, Opera Saskatoon, Prince George Symphony, Dawson Creek Symphonette, Winnipeg Symphony, and National Arts Symphony Orchestra. Recent credits include Ferrando in Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte with The Opera Project, Tenor Soloist in Saint Saens Christmas Oratorio, Monostatos/Armed Guard/First Priest/ and Tamino (Understudy) with National Arts Center Orchestra, and counter-tenor debut as the mischievous Oberon in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Opera NUOVA. Versatile in almost any genre of music, Frédérik is also very proud to be a member of the group, Romanza "Larte del tenore" performing across North America. Frédérik has also been the recipient of numerous awards and scholarships including: Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Irving Guttman Fund, Anne Burrows Foundation, ARMTA Scholarship, and the Winspear Fund.
Karen Shumka is a much sought after vocal coach, répétiteur and accompanist. After graduating from the University of Victoria with a degree in piano performance, she spent 8 years coaching in Toronto where she held several musical directorships with local opera companies. Karen has performed throughout North America in recitals, recordings and competitions and with opera companies from coast to coast in Canada, as well as in Austria. Karen is thoroughly enjoying her latest adventure with The Opera Project and firmly believes that this company is integral to the growth of opera in Canada. She is also part of the Vancouver based trio Weill Women (pronounced "Vile") - a three woman showcase of Kurt Weill's music - a portrait through women in song. Karen resides in Ladner, BC with her husband Tim and three children - Hannah 11, Benjamin 10, and Noah 4.
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