SOLO @ West Plains, Sunday, June 2nd, 2024

Live and Livestreamed | $35 or Pay What You Can ; Students $20 ; Livestream $15

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Holly Chaplin is a Dramatic Coloratura Soprano from Toronto, Canada. Holly’s musical
passion was fostered early with participation in the High Park Choirs of Toronto, led by Anne Cooper-Gay and later Zimfira Poloz. She also studied piano and the cello.
Studying under Stephanie Bogle at York University, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Classical Voice performance with honors. She now studies with Frederique Vezina who has guided her to new heights of expression.

Recipient of the 2019 Stuart Hamilton Memorial Foundation Award for Emerging Artists, Holly debuted in H.M.S Pinafore in 2020. Recent roles include Gilda in Rigoletto and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. She won an encouragement award from the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont competition in 2022. This season included a role debut; Marchesa di Poggio in Il Finto Stanislao/Giorni di Regni with Opera in Concert, a reprise of Gilda in Opera York’s Rigoletto and Carmina Burana with Toronto Choral Society. Holly appreciates the support from friends, family, and supporters as she continues to make her mark amongst the Torontonian mosaic of musicians.

Christopher Dunham is a native of Niagara Falls, Ontario and has captivated audiences with his “Vocally powerful and dramatic” (Opera Magazine Canada) baritone voice across Canada and as far away as the Adriatic coast of Italy. Hailed by Opera Canada Magazine as “Possessed of an enormous baritone voice that he used with great musicality and intelligence, he proved he could not only sing like a god but act brilliantly, dance, and play the guitar…” A recent graduate from L’Atelier Lyrique de L’Opera de Monreal and Atlanta Opera’s Young Artist Residency, Christopher is equally comfortable in concert, recital and on the main stage. Some of his roles include: Figaro in The Barber of Seville (Brott Opera), Mercutio in Romeo et Juliette (Jeunesse Musical Canada), Escamillo in Carmen (Windsor Symphony), Don Giovanni, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus (Western University), Dandini in La Cenerentola (La Musica Lyrica) Germont in la Traviata (Jeunesse Musicals Canada), Schaunard in puccini’s la Bohème (L’Opera de Montreal). A recipient and winner of the Desmarais Development Bursary two years in a row and the Jeunesse Musicals Canada’s Young Mentorship position, Christopher has been seen this season with Pacific Opera Victoria, singing Argante in Handel’s Rinaldo, with the Atlanta Opera singing corporal in Donizetti’s la Fille du Regiment and next season as Marcelo in Boheme with the MIssissauga Symphony Orchestra, In the titular role of Don Giovanni with Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, also as  Escamillo in Carmen with L’Opera de Montreal. With this and many more things to come, Christopher is a young Canadian baritone who has already begun to make a name for himself and promises to have a flourishing career. 

 

Lucia Barcari is a versatile violinist with a special affinity for collaborative projects in diverse genres and ensembles. She enjoys an active career as an orchestral leader, recording artist, chamber and folk musician, throughout Canada and Europe. Committed to educating a new generation of musicians and audiences, Ms. Barcari has worked with Sistema Toronto, a philanthropic organization created to enhance the social development of children through music education.

An active orchestral musician for over twenty years, she has served as concertmaster for the Georgian Bay Symphony, Ottawa Valley Music Festival, Peterborough Symphony Orchestra,  Broc Light Opera Company and Nuove Musiche in Belgium. Born in Chișinău, Moldova, Ms. Barcari was admitted to the Music School for Talented Children at the age of seven, and later won the Moldavian National Music Competition. She completed a master’s degree in violin performance and pedagogy at the Odessa State Conservatory in Ukraine and has been performing and teaching in Canada since 1996.

Dawn Martens is the recipient of a 2010 Ruby Award for opera education from Opera Canada, as well as a 2020 Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Teaching for an online children’s production of the opera Brundibar. Dawn was the Artistic Director of The Buchanan Park Opera Club for 26 years, a unique program which introduced young children to opera performance and garnered her the following awards:  four Hamilton Music Awards for People’s Choice Elementary School Teacher, three Profiling Excellence Awards and one Outstanding Achievement Award from the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board, a Music Education Excellence Award from the Kodaly Society of Canada, and induction into the McMaster University Alumni Gallery. A writer for Opera Canada for over 20 years, she is currently the host of Opera Night in Canada on 100.9 Canoe FM. She is a lifelong resident of Hamilton, has directed numerous church and school choirs, and is currently the Director of Music for the Duet Club’s Women of Song, and The Garth Trails Singers, as well as the Minister of Music at Dundas Baptist Church.

 

Sabatino Vacca is the Co-founder and Music Director for the Milton Philharmonic Orchestra, Music Director of the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director for the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra. 

Sabatino has conducted orchestras in the Czech Republic, Symphony Hamilton, the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony, the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brampton Symphony Orchestra, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra. For Opera York he has served as Artistic Director for productions of Carmen, Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi, La Traviata, The Barber of Seville, Tosca, Rigoletto, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Il Trovatore, and as Conductor for Le Nozze di Figaro and Così Fan Tutte. For Opera Belcanto he has conducted Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, and Tosca. He was on staff with Opera Hamilton and has worked as an opera coach for the University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University, as well as the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto

Sabatino is the recipient of the Spirit of Ontario Award for the Arts by the National Congress of Italian Canadians. 

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Programme :

  • Eccomi…oh quante volte from Montecchi e I Capuletti    V. Bellini  
  • Deh vieni alla finestra from Don Giovanni    W. A.  Mozart  
  • Je veux vivre from Roméo et Juliette    C. Gounod 
  • If ever I would leave you from Camelot    F. Loewe 
  • Meditation from Thaïs    J. Massenet (violin)
  • Étude in C# minor, Op. 10 No. 4    F. Chopin (piano)
  • The “Anvil” Chorus from Il Trovatore    G. Verdi 
  • Caro Nome from Rigoletto    G. Verdi 
  • Votre Toast, “Toréador Song” from Carmen    G. Bizet 
  • La ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni    W. A. Mozart 

Intermission 

  • Mi chiamano Mimi from La Bohème    G. Puccini 
  • The impossible dream from Man of La Mancha    M. Leigh 
  • Del cabello mas sutil    F. Obradors 
  • Fantasie on Bizet’s Carmen    F. Drdla (violin)
  • Fairest Lord Jesus    arr. by J. Vogt (piano)
  • Glitter and be gay from Candide    L. Bernstein 
  • Mein sehnen from Die Tote Stadt    E. Korngold 
  • Va Pensiero from Nabucco    G. Verdi