Fox Cabaret
Banned from the Concert Hall!
A Comedy Night
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
Works by: Henry Purcell, Erwin Schulhoff, Isaiah Bell and Randy Newmann
Artists: Benjamin Butterfield, Isaiah Bell, and Timothy Carter, tenors; Mark McDonald, harpsichord
A night of dirty drinking songs by Henry Purcell and his 17th-century drinking buddies, covering explicit subject matter from sex and alcohol to scatological humor, sung by a very dynamic trio of tenors. Audience members are sure to blush and laugh in equal measure!
Generously sponsored by Sharon Kahn and Barrie MacFadden
Must be 19+ to attend
Runtime: 90 min + intermission
Programme to be announced from the stage.
Benjamin Butterfield, tenor
Praised by The New York Times as, “clarion-voiced and vibrant”, Benjamin Butterfield is known for his performances throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, James Conlon, Nicholas McGegan, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Bramwell Tovey, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Labadie, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Jeffrey Thomas, Trevor Pinnock, Bruno Weil and Marc Minkowski.
In recent seasons Butterfield has made multiple appearances with the Baltimore, Nashville, Houston, St. Louis, and Vancouver Symphonies; and the Calgary Philharmonic. He performs regularly with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem including their annual Bach Festival and in his hometown with Victoria Symphony, Victoria Choral Society, Victoria Philharmonic Choir, and White Rock Concerts.
Recent performance highlights include Carnegie Hall with Orchestra of St. Luke’s (Haydn’s Creation), Lincoln Center with American Classical Orchestra, Utah Symphony (Mozart’s Requiem), Kansas City Symphony (Messiah), Haydn Masses with San Diego Symphony and Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and Britten’s Serenade and War Requiem with L’ Orchestre Lyrique de Montreal and Victoria Symphony. Butterfield has also appeared at Pacific Baroque Festival under conductor Marc Destrubé, Luminous Voices (Mozart’s Requiem), Elgin Symphony (Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony), and the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival in Vermont (Schubert’s Auf dem Strom and Janacek’s The Diary of one who Disappeared). He makes frequent appearances with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem including their annual 2-week Bach Festival.
Most recently as an interpreter of opera, he portrayed the role of Mime in Das Rheingold with Pacific Opera and was stage director for Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival. Other operatic roles include Grimoaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda and Jupiter in Semele with Pacific Opera Victoria, Frère Massée in Messiaen’s St. François d’Assise with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, Tamino in The Magic Flute with the Toronto Symphony and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Calgary Opera.
A prolific recording artist, he has recorded for Analekta, Dorian, CBC Records, Koch International and Timpani (France). He has also been featured in Messiah on ZDF at the Handel-Festspiele Halle with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert and on CBC Radio as a guest host for This is my Music. Recently Mr. Butterfield recorded the St. John Passion with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem (Analekta), the Rhien transcription of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde for Yellow Barn and a sixth CD of Ukrainian Art Song for the Ukrainian Art Song Project in Toronto.
In fall of 2018, Butterfield was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the country’s highest academic honor. Professor, head of voice, and co-head of performance for the School of Music at the University of Victoria, he was the 2015 recipient of the UVic. Craigdarroch Award for Excellence in Artistic Expression. He has also served as guest faculty for Opera Nuova, the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, The Victoria Conservatory Summer Vocal Academy, Vancouver International Song Institute, Yellow Barn, and Opera on the Avalon.
Isaiah Bell, tenor
Canadian-American tenor Isaiah Bell sings across North America as a soloist in concert and opera. Having distinguished himself early as an interpreter of Handel, Benjamin Britten, and Bach’s Evangelists (Lincoln Center, Edinburgh Festival, Toronto Symphony), he has also found an artistic home in new creations. He was Antinous in the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright and Daniel MacIvor’s Hadrian at the Canadian Opera Company (2018), and brought “immense stage presence” and a “powerful, beautiful instrument” to La Reine-garçon (Bilodeau/Bouchard, 2024) at Opéra de Montréal. Reviewing his queer pandemic-era revamp of Poulenc’s La voix humaine, Opera Canada admired “a finely tuned performance, so perfectly married to his own sensitive and intelligent adaptation.”
Isaiah also composes and writes for the theatre. His chamber-opera/cabaret-theatre solo show The Book of My Shames has garnered overwhelming audience response: “impossibly beautiful” … “broke my heart wide open with the pure honesty, raw vulnerability and humanity of it” … “I honestly thought this was one of the most compelling shows I’ve ever seen.” The piece, a genre-defying, funny, and shockingly candid theatrical fusion co-created with director Sean Guist, has toured Canada in versions for piano, chamber ensemble, and orchestra.
Upcoming engagements for Isaiah include a return to La Reine-garçon (Canadian Opera Company, 2025), Haydn’s Creation with the Vancouver Symphony and the Elora Festival, and the world premiere of Leslie Uyeda’s opera Silence, commissioned to celebrate Opera NUOVA’s 25th season. He also returns to “Banned from the Concert Hall” (an irreverent mashup he co-created for Victoria Baroque and Early Music Vancouver) and “The Traveller,” an interweaving of the music of Robert Schumann with folk songs and original compositions and poetry. Isaiah also appears on the newly released world premiere recording of Mendelssohn’s transcription of the Matthew Passion, with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem.
Timothy Carter, tenor
Calgarian-born tenor Tim Carter currently resides in Victoria BC and recently completed his Master of Music at the University of Victoria, studying under Benjamin Butterfield. Taking a round-a-bout path to becoming a singer, Tim studied Psychology at the University of Calgary for years before making the switch, completing his Bachelor of Music at UofC under Dr. Laura Hynes. Having a keen passion for the study of languages, as well as a deep love of performing, opera was a natural fit. Tim is in the early stages of his career and is particularly excited about showcasing queer narratives through this art form. Recently, he premiered a new art song cycle by queer Edmontonian composer Stuart Beatch, Still Running, which describes the modern gay man’s experience growing up in the prairies.
Mark McDonald, keyboards
A native of Burlington, Ontario, he began his musical studies as a pianist and was drawn to the organ as a teenager. He pursued his musical studies at Queen’s University where he completed a dual degree in performance and composition studying organ with David Cameron, composition with Marjan Mozetich and Alfred Fisher, and conducting with Mark Sirett. During his time in Kingston, he served as Assistant Organist at Chalmers United Church and accompanist for several choirs including the Melos Choral Ensemble, the Kingston Choral Society, and the Kingston Chamber Choir. He also produced the classical radio program In Concert which aired on CFRC radio in 2009.
Mark moved to Montreal in 2009 to continue his studies at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. He completed a Master of Music in organ performance studies with John Grew and an Artist Diploma and Doctorate of Music in organ and harpsichord performance studies with Hans-Ola Ericsson and Hank Knox. His studies also have taken him to Germany where he specialized in early music studies at the University of the Arts Bremen under Hans Davidsson and Harald Vogel. His doctoral thesis on the avant-garde composer Bengt Hambraeus, which explored and revised the organ registrations in Hambraeus’ landmark composition Livre d’orgue (1981), was published in 2017.
Mark has held positions at the Montreal Diocesan Theological College, Christ Church Cathedral, St. James United Church and Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal and he currently serves as Assistant Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria, British Columbia. As a conductor, he has served as interim artistic director of One Equall Musick choral collective and he founded and directed the Compline Choir at Dio, a choral training initiative at the Montreal Diocesan Theological College.
He is currently the Instructor of Organ at the University of Victoria and is a founding member of the Victoria Organ Studio teaching collective. He has also taught Theory and Musicianship at the Schulich School of Music and the McGill Conservatory (2009-17), Church Music History at the Montreal Diocesan Theological College (2013-17), the McGill Student Organ Academy (2016-17) and the Royal Canadian College of Organist’s Student Organ Academy (2015-16). As an arts organizer and project leader, he has worked on the organizing teams for the Montreal Organ Festival (2017), Organ Festival Canada (2020) and the prestigious Canadian International Organ Competition (2017-2019).
