Having collaborated together on various projects with Calgary Opera and Cowtown Opera in the past year, Brittany and her two guest artists will present a recital that explores the merging of the male and female voices.
Soprano Brittany Rae holds a Master of Arts from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of Toronto. She has been a featured soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Cowtown Opera Company, Calgary Civic Symphony, Opera NUOVA, Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, Mountain View Festival, VoiceScapes, Classical Revolution Calgary, ProArts Society, and Foothills Philharmonic, among others. An avid performer and advocate of contemporary music, Brittany competed as a semi-finalist in the 2014 Eckhardt-Grammaté National Music Competition, which focuses on showcasing Canadian contemporary music. This fall, Brittany will begin her Graduate Artist Diploma at McGill University.
Pianist and coach Evan Mounce has been heard with Calgary Opera in productions of Docteur Miracle, The Magic Flute, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Scorpion’s Sting, Portrait of Manon, and Hansel and Gretel and is delighted to join them this summer for South Pacific. Evan also enjoys working with Cowtown Opera, and recently music directed their production of Prison Divas and NYC Meets YYC. He is also a pianist for Cantaré Children’s Choir. Evan has attended Opera NUOVA, the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, and the Vancouver International Song Institute and has done apprenticeships at St. Andrews By the Sea, and Opera on the Avalon. Although primarily a pianist these days, Evan holds a master’s degree in classical saxophone from the University of Toronto.
French-Canadian bass-baritone Simon Chalifoux completed his master’s degree at Université de Montréal, under the tutelage of John Fanning. In 2016-2017, he was part of the Calgary Opera Emerging Artist Program. His most recent performances include Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Harašta in The Cunning Little Vixen, Bach’s St. John Passion, Crantini in Cinderella, Colline in La Bohème, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, George Benton in Dead Man Walking, and Dr. Gibbs in Our Town. He made his professional debut singing the title role of Don Pasquale in Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada’s touring production in 2014. When Simon is not singing, he does intellectual and cultural mediation, using music and philosophy to promote social inclusion for people at risk of exclusion.
This concert is the first in a series of five concerts during 2017 generously sponsored by:
