Sat Nov 5, 7:30 pm
St. John's Church, Lunenburg
Erica Iris Huang soprano
Emily Hamper piano
'Eckhardt-Gramatté 2011 winner'
A St Cecilia by-the-Sea concert

Scroll down for bio's

Program

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Liederkreis, op. 24 (1840)
- Morgens steh' ich auf
- Es treibt mich ihn
- Ichwandelte unter den Bäumen
- Lieb' Liebchen
- Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden

Michael Oesterle (b. 1968)
Eckhardt Songs (2011)
- geduld
- la falaise
- charlotte

Xavier Montsalvatge (1912-2002)
Cinco canziones negras (1985)
- Cuba dentro de un piano
- Punto de Habanera
- Chévere
- Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito
- Canto negra
- chi po

Harry Freedman (1922-2005)
Poems of Young People (1968)
- Blue and Red
- September in the Rain
- Raindrops
- Frost
- The Role of Canada in the World Today

Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Chanson Perpétuelle, op. 37 (1898)

Emily Doolittle (b. 1972)
Airs of Men Long Dead (1998)
I. Waiting
II. Wolf
III. Sycamore
IV. Song

Alison Bauld (b. 1944)
Banquo's Buried (1982)

William Bolcom (b. 1938)
Amor (1979)

Erica Iris Huang
Soprano Erica Iris Huang, BMus, Op Dip (WLU); Op Dip (Toronto), emerged into Toronto’s music scene with credits to "a gorgeous big voice, seamless from top to bottom, dramatic, and highly expressive." (Howard Dyck)

She made her 2004 operatic debut as Tituba in Ward's 'The Crucible' and has fulfilled the roles of Mrs. Herring (Albert Herring), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Fidalma (Il Matrimonio Segreto), Concepción (L'heure espagnole), Lisetta (Il Mondo Della Luna), Carmen (Bizet’s Carmen), The Old Woman (Candide), Komponist (Ariadne auf Naxos), and Mstress Quickly (Falstaff).

In 2008, she was "hailed for her winning portrayal of the impetuous Composer" in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Toronto Summer Music (Mary-Lou Vetere of Opera Today), and "gave the best singing of the evening as the sympathetic Aunt Adelaïde" in Charles Wilson's Kamouraska with Opera In Concert in 2009 (Ken Winters of The Globe and Mail).

Praised for her stage presence of warmth and character, Erica has captivated audiences with her sensitivity and vocal timbres, which lend their hands in the new music repertory. She was featured in Igor Correia's 'Three Great Songs of Range,' won the 2008 Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian music, and made her New Music Concerts debut with the premiere of Paul Steenhuisen's Supplice and Demand, performed with an "intense beautiful opacity" (Robert Everett-Green of The Globe And Mail).

Winner of the 2011 Eckhardt-Gramatté National Competition, she also holds the City of Brandon Prize, based on the best performance of the commissioned work by Michael Oesterle.

Emily Hamper
Currently based in Stratford, Ontario, vocal coach and collaborative pianist Emily Hamper has led an active international career for over fifteen years. Noted for her musical sensitivity and attention to detail, she is in high demand by many of Canada's most prominent singers.

In May 2011, Emily was awarded the 'Best Collaborative Pianist' prize at the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition in Brandon, Manitoba; in November she accompanies first prize winner mezzo-soprano Erica Iris Huang on her national recital tour.

As well as preparing singers for professional engagements worldwide, she has accompanied well over 1000 auditions in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and New York. She has accompanied recitals for numerous presenters, including CBC Toronto's Glenn Gould Studio for the 'Music Around Us' series, the San Francisco Opera, Calgary Opera, and both the Indian River and Orford Festivals.

Her recital and concert collaborations have been broadcast on CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, Vermont Public Radio, and Classical 96.3 FM in Toronto.

In 2012, Ms. Hamper will join Calgary Opera as rehearsal pianist for their productions of Moby Dick and La Bohème. Other companies for whom she has worked in this capacity include Opera Atelier, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Green Mountain Opera Festival, and L'Opéra de Montréal.

She has served as assistant conductor with Opera Atelier and the Banff Centre, where she also made her conducting debut in an all-Mozart programme of opera excerpts. Additional credits include assisting in the production of several Canadian and world premieres of operas, most notably the Canadian premiere of Britten's Paul Bunyan.

In a teaching capacity, Ms. Hamper recently co-taught the 'Best Voice Forward' audition workshop at Wilfrid Laurier University and has given master-classes for singers at Dalhousie and Acadia universities. As music director for the opera courses at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2005, she led two sold-out performances of opera excerpts and was invited to return the following year.

From 1997-2002 she was a member of the coaching staff at the University of Toronto's Opera Division, then spent several years in Montreal coaching at Montreal Opera's Atelier Lyrique, L'Université de Montréal, and the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute.

Emily was born in Vancouver B.C., where she completed her undergraduate musical training at UBC. An increased interest in opera led her to the Opera Division at the University of Toronto, where she apprenticed under James Fraser Craig and Stephen Ralls.

An alumnae of the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, in 2002 she was awarded a Merola Career Grant for private studies in Munich, Germany.