On Wednesday, May 09 the ProArts@Noon presents two award winners from the 2012 Calgary KIWANIS Music Festvival; soprano Abbey Curzon and classical guitarist Xavier Davidson.

Calgary soprano Abbey Curzon has a Bachelor of Music degree from Rice University in Houston. In the summer of 2009 she covered Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Brevard Summer Institute. In  2010 she appeared as Frederika in the Shepherd School of Music’s production of A Little Night Music and was Amore in their fall production of L’Incoronazione di Poppea. She has also performed scenes from Die Entführung aus dem Serail and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Shepherd School of Music. This year Abbey has been studying with Elaine Case, and in December she performed the soprano solo “Rejoice Greatly” with the Voicescapes production of Handel’s Messiah. She is the Provincial Voice Representative for the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival and this summer will be performing the role of Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore at Brevard, North Carolina with the Janiec Opera Company. In the fall 2012 she will be attending Indiana University in pursuit of a Master’s in Music Degree.

Xavier Davidson began his guitar studies at the age of nine and has been plucking away ever since, practicing every day from then until now. Through master classes and workshops, Xavier has had the blessing and opportunity to learn from some of the great masters of the art, such as Rémi Boucher, Pavel Steidl, Aniello Desiderio, Berta Rojas, Matteo Mela, Lorenzo Micheli, Daniel Bolshoy and Jérôme Ducharme. He currently studies with Brad Mahon at Ambrose University College.

In March of 2005, Xavier performed in the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival for the first time. The adjudicator was so impressed that his only comment was to suggest that the piece, the traditional Greensleeves, be played with someone else. He and Xavier ran the piece a second time, the adjudicator providing the accompaniment. Since then, Xavier has become a festival regular, having received numerous awards and scholarships including those for “most promising guitarist of the festival” and “best senior guitarist of the festival.”

Xavier has been nominated for the Alberta Provincial Music Festival three times, attending twice and placing first in both the 16 & under and 20 & under categories. He also participated in the 2009 Canadian Music Competition, winning at the local, provincial and national levels in the Classical Guitar: 14 years category. When not strumming his instrument, Xavier can be found on the fencing piste crossing foils with his opponents, listening to the latest from OverClocked ReMix or dreaming up all manner of things, be it with keyboard at fingertips or sketchbook and pencil in hand.