John Arida, piano
NOVEMBER 19, 2015 | 1:30 PM
Walter Hall, 80 Queen’s Park
Read La Scena Musicale review
The Women’s Musical Club of Toronto regrets that due to illness Isabel Leonard is unable to perform in Music in the Afternoon on Thursday Nov. 19. We are pleased to announce that Canadian soprano Simone Osborne will replace Ms. Leonard and will perform a program of songs by Berlioz and Strauss, along with English and American songs. She will be accompanied by pianist John Arida.
The concert is in Walter Hall at 1:30 pm. The Tuning Your Mind lecture precedes the concert in Walter Hall at 12:15 pm.
Celebrated for her resplendent vocal timbre, exceptional musicality and unparalleled dramatic instincts, Canadian soprano Simone Osborne is establishing herself as one of the most exciting emerging artists in the opera world. Simone was one of the youngest Grand Prize winners in the history of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions and has gone on to debut on opera and concert stages across the globe. A proud graduate of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, Simone has made over a dozen role debuts.
She began the current season in the role of Gilda in Rigoletto with the Vancouver Opera and returns to the Canadian Opera Company to debut the role of Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen. On the concert stage she will join the Vancouver Symphony and Bach Choirs for Handel’s Messiah. In 2016 a United States tour will take her to 15 cities across the country.
John Arida, piano
Isabel Leonard’s accompanist John Arida earned a master’s degree in collaborative piano from Juilliard, where he currently holds a piano fellowship position with the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts. He and Isabel Leonard most recently collaborated in recital at the end of May, in Carnegie Hall’s 11th Annual Notable Occasion in Zankel Hall, and they worked together in August in the Santa Fe premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s opera Cold Mountain. John Arida is active in New York as a coach and répétiteur, where his studio includes singers on the rosters of companies such as the Metropolitan Opera and Chicago Lyric Opera.
Program:
BERLIOZ Les nuits d’été
Villanelle
Le spectre de la rose
Sur les lagunes
Absence
Au cimetière
L’île inconnue
INTERMISSION
STRAUSS Zueignung
Allerseelen
Morgen
QUILTER Love’s philosophy
WILLIAMS Silent Noon
COPLAND Simple Gifts
FOSTER Beautiful Dreamer
CHARLES When I have sung my songs to you