Upcoming group of twenty-seven Concerts

Join us for an evening of two beautiful song-cycles, sung by the wonderful Shannon Mercer, as well as orchestral works that delight and stir the soul.

"Her soprano is bright and agile, and she uses vibrato and ornamentation vividly to extract telling nuances from words and music. Mercer brings equal expressive vibrancy to the amorous, hedonistic and sorrowful feelings in these delectable pieces.” (Gramophone)

“The finest singing came from Shannon Mercer as Altisidore. Mercer’s sparkling recitatives and effortless runs were a constant delight.” (Opera Canada)

“Shannon Mercer seems incapable of singing anything less than beautifully.” (Ottawa Citizen)

Her voice has been described as luminous, dazzling and shining and her acting witty, delightful, and feisty — Shannon Mercer is taking on the opera world as one of Canada's most promising young stars. Critically acclaimed by the international press for her musical artistry, she has been hailed as “one of Canada’s most promising young sopranos” and a “Leader of Tomorrow (Maclean's).”

Particularly praised for her performances of baroque and contemporary music, Shannon maintains a challenging balance of opera, concert and recital appearances. Her upcoming season is no exception. A highlight of the season is a tour in Canada of Ana Sokolovic's Love Songs, a one-woman virtuosic tour-de-force opera produced by The Queen of Puddings Music Theatre which was met with enthusiastic response at the June 2010 world-renowned Holland Festival. Symphonic engagements include a series of concerts of Baroque masterpieces with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Bach’s St. John Passionwith the Arion Baroque Orchestra (to be recorded by ATMA Classique for future release), as well as the same work with the Portland Baroque Orchestra on their tour to Seattle. She performs throughout the season with Les Voix Baroques, including a concert in Québec City for the Festival des Musiques Sacrées and on a tour of Colombia. Other engagements include Mozart’s Requiemwith the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Vivaldi's Montezumawith Mercury Baroque in Houston, and a special Young People’s concert entitled The Bearwith the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Shannon and Skye Consort take their highly-popular Wales ~ Land of Songprogram to various cities and Shannon joins Luc Beausejour for a program devoted to Francesca Caccini in Calgary. Other dates include Salsa Baroquewith her JUNO partners Ensemble Caprice and Bach Cantatas with Violons du Roy.

Performances in Die Zauberflöte have figured prominently on Shannon’s recent calendar. She opened the Opera Lyra Ottawa 2009-2010 season as Pamina and her debut in this role with Opera Hamilton in 2008 was greeted with praise: “beautiful tone, pure and steady, she was a delight”(Hamilton Spectator). Her reprisals of the role with the Pacific Opera production in Victoria and London were no different: “Shannon Mercer's Pamina is tender, guileless and, in her moments of anguish, deeply moving”(Victoria Times Colonist). She also sang First Lady in the Toronto Symphony concert presentation of the same opera, conducted by Bernard Labadie. October 2009 saw Shannon at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall as Judith in Eric Idle’s highly popular Not the Messiah, a role she debuted in the world premiere at Toronto’s 2007 Luminato Festival and at the Caramoor Festival and subsequently reprised in a US tour to Houston, Washington, and Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl in the summer of 2008.

Recent engagements include performances at Carnegie Hall in New York for Bach’s Christmas Oratoriowith Les Violons du Roy, Roy Thomson Hall with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for Handel’s Messiahand concerts at the TSO’s Mozart@254 Festival, Luc Beausejour’s Clavecin en Concert, Generation Purcellin Houston with Mercury Baroque and Les Voix Baroques, in Montreal for Handel’s German Ariaswith Les Idées Heureuses, St Matthew Passionwith the Ottawa Choral Society and a concert with her JUNO Award partners, Ensemble Caprice. Shannon made a return to the Canadian Opera Company as Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, performed Handel’s Messiah in Vancouver, Calgary and Montreal, and debuted in France with the Opéra national de Montpellier, in the title role of Marin Marais's French Baroque opera Sémélé. She has also appeared in Handel’s Israël en Égyptewith Les Violons du Roy in Montréal and Québec City, debuted atAlice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in an all-Mozart recital featuring renowned American soprano Barbara Bonney, peformed at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, in solo recital with Music Toronto for The Discovery Series and in a Schubertiade recital with the Aldeburgh Connection at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.

Shannon’s award-winning discography includes the Prix Opus nominated O Viva Rosa, one of the first recordings entirely devoted to Francesca Caccini which critics across the world have praised “a gorgeous performance” (Globe and Mail), “a wide range of colour, expression and subtly thrilling trills” (Gramophone), “impeccable craft, brilliant voice, affecting emotion and tasteful ornamentation” (Toronto Star), “one of the finest discs I have heard in a long while” (Musical Criticism). Shannon’s other recordings includeWales ~ The Land of Song, the 2009 JUNO Award-winning Gloria!: Vivaldi’s Angels, JUNO-nominated Bach and the Liturgical Year, Mondonville,English Fancy (Analekta) and Marin Marais’s Sémélé(Glossa). She also starred the comic opera Burnt Toast, now on DVD. A hit in movie theatres across Europe, the film version of Monty Python funny-man Eric Idle’s Not the Messiah was released worldwide on DVD in June. Her newest recording, Salsa Baroque, will be released in Fall 2010 on the Analekta label.

An alumnus of San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola Opera Summer Program, Shannon began her operatic career as a member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio Program. She has since gone on to perform on stages across North America and Europe. In July 2006 Shannon made her London debut under the auspices of the ROH Covent Garden in the highly praised production of The Midnight Court with Toronto's Queen of Puddings Music Theatre.

A Career Development Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and winner of the 2004 Bernard Diamant Prize, allowed Shannon to spend an extended period of time in Vienna where she studied German operatic repertoire with renowned voice coach Margaret Singer. She also received the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Women's Musical Club of Toronto Career Development Award.

Originally from Cracow, Poland, Norbert Palej has been increasingly recognized for his “first-rate and genuinely original work” (American Composers Orchestra), and a musical language that generates “visceral excitement” (The Boston Globe).

Recent commissions include a percussion concerto for Dame Evelyn Glennie, operas for the Tapestry New Opera and the Canadian Children's Opera Company, a string quartet for the Penderecki String Quartet, and a choral work for Soundstreams Canada, featuring the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Polish Chamber Choir, and the Toronto Children's Chorus. His music has been heard in Canada, USA, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Great Britain, and Costa Rica.

He is a recipient of the Toru Takemitsu Award from the Japan Society in Boston, the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Robbins Family Prize in Music Composition, the Benjamin Britten Memorial Fellowship, and the Susan and Ford Schumann Fellowship. He participated in the Tapestry New Opera's Composer-Librettist Laboratory, the Minnesota Orchestra Composers Institute, the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, the Academy for New Music and Audio-Art in Tyrol, Austria, the International Workshops for Contemporary Music Krakow/Stuttgart, as well as the Tanglewood, Aspen, Caramoor, and Budapest music festivals.

Stayed tuned for our upcoming concert featuring

Ben Heppner!

The CD recording of our recent concert (listed below) featuring the wonderful Shannon Mercer will be available soon!