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Festive Bach Cantatas for ChristmasThe Bach Cantata Project: the tradition continuesEarly Music Vancouver's annual presentation is “a sumptuous Christmas present” (Vancouver Sun). This December, feast your ears on some of Bach’s most glorious music. The programme will include cantatas with 2 natural horns and 3 oboes, as well as Part 5 of the beloved Christmas Oratorio. Marc Destrubé music director Shannon Mercer soprano Early Music Vancouver’s Bach Cantata Project Players 
PLEASE NOTE: Tickets for this performance, at $63, $48 and $32 (students & seniors $3 discount) including HST are only available at the Chan Centre Ticket Office, or through Ticketmaster: 1-855-985-ARTS (2787) or www.ticketmaster.ca. (Note: Surcharges apply to orders made through Ticketmaster). Rush Seats for Students with valid ID on sale for $10, at the door only, from 2:00 pm on the day of the performance. This concert is included in our “Bring a Youth for Free” programme. |
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| “Falsche Welt, dir trau ich nicht”
“Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde”
“Ehre sei dir, Gott, gesungen”
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Programme notes will be posted here soon. |
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Canadian violinist Marc Destrubé is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, concertmaster or director of orchestras and divides his time between performances of the standard repertoire on modern instruments, and performing baroque and classical music on period instruments. He has appeared as soloist and guest director with symphony orchestras in Victoria, Windsor and Halifax as well as with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Lyra Baroque and Portland Baroque Orchestra. He is first violinist with the Axelrod String Quartet, quartet-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., a member of the Turning Point Ensemble in Vancouver specializing in 20th century music and new music, and first violinist of the newly-formed string quartet Microcosmos. He is also co-concertmaster of the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Amsterdam) with whom he has toured the major concert halls and festivals of Europe, North America, Japan, China and Australia, including as soloist and leader. He was artistic director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra from its founding in 1991 until 2007, and is Artistic Director of the Pacific Baroque Festival in Victoria. He is a frequent guest on the Early Music Vancouver concert series. A highly-respected teacher, he gives annual classes at international academies in Vancouver and Oberlin and has been an invited teacher at the Paris, Moscow and Utrecht Conservatoires, Indiana University, Case Western University, the University of Victoria and the Macphail School. He lives in Vancouver.
With a soprano voice often described as luminous and dazzling, Shannon Mercer is equally praised for her profound yet witty acting ability and stage presence. An artist of uncommon musical artistry whose passion for her artform embraces repertoire ranging from early to contemporary music, Shannon maintains a challenging balance of opera, concert and recital appearances. Her 2011-2012 season features appearances in Ottawa with the Ensemble Caprice, in Sault Ste-Marie and Sudbury with the Toronto Symphony, Montreal with Ensemble Caprice, Les Violons du Roy and McGill’s Baroque Orchestra and in Toronto with the Aldeburgh Connection and at Koerner Hall in Elgar’s The Kingdom with the Pax Christi Chorale and in Poulenc’s Gloria with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. US engagements include a West-Coast tour with Les Voix Baroques, Handel’s Messiah with Mercury Baroque in Houston, Carissimi Oratorios with Pacific Musicworks and Maestro Stephen Stubbs, Mozart’s Requiem with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, and Early Handel Cantatas with Tragicomedia conducted by Stephen Stubbs in Boston and New York. Particularly praised for her performances of contemporary music, Shannon reprises her role in Ana Sokolovic’s Svadba (The Wedding) for The Queen of Puddings Music Theatre at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre and debuts in John Beckwith’s opera Crazy to Kill at the Enwave Theatre also in Toronto. Shannon’s award-winning discography includes her newest release - Vivaldi - The Return of the Angels, Salsa Baroque with Ensemble Caprice andthe Prix Opus nominated O Viva Rosa, one of the first recordings entirely devoted to Francesca Caccini, Wales ~ The Land of Song, the 2009 JUNO Award-winning Gloria!: Vivaldi’s Angels, JUNO-nominated Bach and the Liturgical Year, Mondonville, English Fancy (all on Analekta) and Marin Marais’s Sémélé (Glossa). Shannon appears in the in the DVD of Gemini-nominated Burnt Toast, an 8-vignette series directed by Larry Weinstein and as Minister Blais Grenier in Mulroney: The Opera and also stars as Judith in the film version of Monty Python funny-man Eric Idle’s Not the Messiah, a role she debuted in the world premiere at Toronto’s 2007 Luminato Festival, and has performed at the Caramoor Festival, in Houston, Washington, Los Angeles and at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall. A native of Ottawa, Shannon Mercer now resides in Toronto.
Grammy-nominated Laura Pudwell’s reputation as a superb vocalist has been well-established as a result of her performances in London, Paris, Salzburg, Houston, Vienna and Boston. Her vast repertoire ranges from early music to contemporary works. Ms. Pudwell is equally at home on the opera, oratorio or recital stage, and has received international acclaim for her recordings. A frequent guest of many national and international presenters, Ms. Pudwell has had the privilege of working with many outstanding conductors, including Hans Graf, Hervé Niquet, Andrew Parott, Ivars Taurens, David Fallis, Brian Jackson, John Sinclair, Bernard Labadie, Lydia Adams, Howard Dyck and Robert Cooper. Laura Pudwell is a regular participant in many festivals, including the Vancouver Early Music Festival, Festival Vancouver, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Summer Festival, the Elora Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Grand River Baroque Festival, and the WinterPark Bach Festival in Orlando. She appears regularly with the Toronto Consort, and is a frequent guest soloist with Tafelmusik, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toronto Chamber Choir, Symphony Nova Scotia, the St. Lawrence Choir, Le Concert Spirituel, Chorus Niagara and the Menno Singers.
England-based Canadian tenor John Bacon is rapidly establishing himself as a singer of exceptional musicianship, warmth, style and character. Having performed throughout Europe and Canada, this youthful tenor has also been praised for his dramatic intensity, vocal beauty, clarity and agility. Recently, he made his debut in Tokyo, Japan singing Nemerino in L’elisir d’amore, appeared in recital at Kings Place London’s newest world class concert venue, was a featured soloist in the Paxos International Music Festival in Greece, toured France and England performing Handel’s Acis and Galatea with New European Opera, sang a series of concerts in the lieder festival Les Heures Romantiques in Tours, and was the Sailor in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the critically acclaimed Opera Erratica in Toronto. A singer who excels at oratorio and song, Mr. Bacon regularly performs a wide variety of repertoire ranging from Bach to Britten. Mr. Bacon’s concerts include working with such distinguished artists as Graham Johnson, Iain Burnside, the Vancouver Bach Choir, and Early Music Vancouver. Over the past few years Mr. Bacon has amassed a number of operatic roles including; Tito in La Clemenza di Tito, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni by Mozart, Horace in La Colombe by Gounod, Raoul de Gardefeu in La Vie Parisienne, and Bill in Flight by Jonathan Dove, under the batons of such conductors as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sian Edwards and Alex Ingram. Winner of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio Two Début Series for Young Performers, Mr. Bacon is also the recipient of a Koerner Foundation Artist Award and funding fellowship from the COB Foundation of Canada. Through this generous support, he recently completed the Postgraduate Opera program at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Rudolf Piernay. While at the Guildhall, Mr. Bacon was a prize winner in the English Song Competition, represented the college in an LSO Discovery Lunchtime Concert, and worked with the likes of Philip Langridge, Martin Katz, and Malcolm Martineau. Prior to this he sang with the Juno award-nominated vocal ensemble musica intima and completed a Bachelor of Music at the University British Columbia. Mr. Bacon is currently based in London where he is a resident artist of Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now performing regularly with pianist Helen Mills.
British-Columbia-born and New York-based baritone Tyler Duncan enjoys international renown for bringing consummate musicianship, vocal beauty and interpretive insight to oratorio, recital, concert and, increasingly, operatic literature. He has performed at the American Spoleto Festival, Pacific Opera Victoria, the Princeton Festival, Houston’s Mercury Baroque, Greensboro Opera, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, and the Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and he has appeared frequently in concert with Early Music Vancouver and at the Vancouver Early Music Festival. For the 2013 Boston Early Music Festival will be performing the title role in Graupner’s “Antiochus und Stratonica”. Recently released on the CPO label is his Boston Early Music Festival recording of the title role of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis. Forthcoming recordings are Bach’s St. John Passion with Portland Baroque under Monica Huggett and a DVD recording of Handel’s Messiah with the Montreal Symphony under Kent Nagano with CBC television. Awaiting release on the ATMA label are recordings of works by Purcell, and Carissimi’s oratorio Jepthe with Les Voix Baroques. An exceptional oratorio singer performing a remarkable range of repertoire, his performances include the Toronto, Montreal, Québec and Winnipeg Symphonies, the Calgary Philharmonic, and the Philharmonie der Nationen in Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart and Frankfurt. He has also appeared with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, Tafelmusik, San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque and the Portland Baroque Orchestra - as well as Germany’s Halle Händel Festival, the Vancouver Early Music Festival, and the Munich Bach Choir. In 2010 he made an extensive North American tour of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers with Tragicomedia and Concerto Palatino. Tyler Duncan’s considerable gifts in the realm of art song have earned him prizes from the Naumburg, Wigmore Hall (London) and ARD (Munich) Competitions. Frequently accompanied by pianist Erika Switzer, he has given acclaimed recitals in New York, Boston, Paris and Montreal, as well as throughout Canada, Germany, Sweden, France and South Africa. He has been a winner of several prestigious international competitions, and holds music degrees from the University of British Columbia; Germany’s Hochschule für Musik (Augsburg) and Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Munich). He is a founding member on the faculty of the Vancouver International Song Institute.
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Laura Pudwell alto
John Bacon tenor