The Elora Festival Summer Program in Ensemble and Solo Singing
July 5-9, 2022
Elora, Ontario
Sponsored by Tony Arrell, C.M. and Anne Arrell
Introducing the 2022 Summer Program Artists
Raised on a dairy farm in central Ontario, mezzo soprano Catharin Carew (she/they) is equally at home on both the operatic and concert stage, having performed a wide range of classical repertoire, from Baroque to Contemporary. Described as “a real personality with a dark edge to her mezzo as well as clear top notes" (WhatsOnStage, UK) as well as “exhilarating” by Opera Canada, career highlights include premiering the role of Maeve in Ana Sokolovic’s The Midnight Court at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, performing Mrs. Grose in the Aldeburgh production of The Turn of the Screw and singing in Tapestry New Opera Works' Queers Crash the Opera. Most recently, Catharin performed the role of Klytaemnestra in Strauss' Elektra with Powerhouse Opera and later this season looks forward to performing the role of Prince Gremin in the upcoming Opéra Queens' drag/non-binary production of Eugene Onegin.
Graeme Climie is a Calgary-based singer and arts administrator. A choral specialist comfortable in many stylistic environments, Graeme is Core Member of Pro Coro Canada and has frequently appeared with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Calgary Opera, Luminous Voices, Spiritus Chamber Choir, Voicescapes Calgary, Early Music Voices, Axios Men’s Ensemble, and Vocal Renegades. Graeme has represented Alberta in the National Youth Choir of Canada on three occasions and is a member of the World Youth Choir. He currently works as the Assistant Director of Cantaré Children’s Choir – his childhood choir.
Graeme obtained his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business in 2019, specializing in marketing, entrepreneurship, and not-for-profit management. He has combined his business acumen with a passion for videography and recording to become a dedicated advocate for bringing digital business strategies into the unique environment of the choral world.
Graeme studies voice at the Mount Royal Conservatory under the mentorship of Winston Noren.
Autumn Debassige is a singer, music teacher and theatre performer of First Nations heritage based in southwestern Ontario. A versatile freelance artist, Autumn is an alto chorister at St. John the Evangelist in Elora. She has been a featured artist with 4th Wall Music (Windsor) and has appeared on stage at Niagara’s Oh Canada Eh Dinner Theatre for their production Broadway Showstoppers. Autumn has performed with the WSO in their concerts Wild,Wild West and Fiddlin’ Around. Since August 2021, she has been singing with Guelph Chamber Choir as one of their inaugural Emerging Artists, and is most humbled to have sung her first Messiah as a soloist with them this past December.
Autumn is a graduate of Leslie Fagan’s voice studio at WLU (2016) and holds an Advanced Diploma in Music Theatre Performance from St. Clair College (2019). A proud alumna of The Ontario Youth Choir (2017), Autumn currently studies voice with Dr. Elizabeth Lepock.
Leslie Higgins is a 23 year old Soprano from Uxbridge, Ontario. She completed her Honours Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at Western University in 2020 and recently completed her Masters in Vocal Performance at the University of Toronto, studying under the tutelage of Nathalie Paulin. She has been taking voice and piano lessons since she was 8 years old and has performed onstage in over 15 musical theatre and opera productions. Some of her favourite roles include Diana in A Chorus Line, Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins, and Giulietta in Halifax Summer Opera’s production of Les contes d’Hoffmann. She discovered her passion for classical music while singing in choir and has been fortunate enough to sing with the Ontario Youth Choir for four summers, and represented Ontario in the 2017 National Youth Choir. She is currently performing as a Sidgwick Scholar with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto under the direction of Robert Cooper.
A veteran ensemble singer, Alberta-based tenor Oliver Munar (he/him/his) is in increasing demand as a concert and operatic soloist, particularly in the works of J.S. Bach, Mozart and Handel.
Oliver was celebrated in an unexpected, ‘remarkable’ debut as the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, ‘sight reading the score live, on stage, and without rehearsal’. The Calgary Herald lauded him for his ‘substantial ability’ and ‘considerable vocal gifts’ in a 2019 production of Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine with Rosa Barocca and Early Music Voices (Calgary). Other recent roles include Gastone in Verdi’s La traviata (Mercury Opera, Calgary Concert Opera Company), the title role of Britten’s Albert Herring (University of Alberta Opera), and the role of Abel in the Alberta premiere of the oratorio Caïn by Canadian composer Alexis Contant (2016).
Oliver currently sings with Edmonton-based Pro Coro Canada, Calgary Concert Opera Company and the Calgary Opera Chorus. He also collaborates with Luminous Voices, Early Music Voices, the award-winning Spiritus Chamber Choir, and the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus. He trains with tenors John Tessier and Thomas Cooley, and vocal coach Shannon Hiebert. He is also an accomplished collaborative pianist, composer and arranger.
Joshua Sutherland is thrilled to be participating in the Elora Festival Summer Program! Hailing from Whitby, Ontario, Joshua is getting ready to enter his final year of undergraduate studies at Western University, studying voice performance with Torin Chiles. At Western, Joshua sings with the Western University Singers and has had the privilege of taking on various leadership portfolios within the Faculty of Music, having served as the Vice President of Finance on both the Faculty of Music Choir Council and the Faculty of Music Student’s Council. A lifelong lover of choral music, some of Joshua’s favourite music-making experiences include performing at the Rocky Mountain Festival in Banff and at Carnegie Hall in New York City with the O’Neill CVI Chamber Choir. He is an alumnus of the Ontario Youth Choir program, and is currently singing with Sehnsucht as a part of the Mississauga Summer Chorale program.
Ben Wallace completed his Honours Bachelor of Music at Laurier last month, studying voice performance with Leslie Fagan. He was one of the winners of the Laurier Concerto Competition in 2021 and has received various other performance awards, including the Dorothy M. Elliott Music Scholarship for Performance and a gold medal from the Ontario Music Festivals Association. He has performed as the baritone soloist in Handel’s Messiah and is excited to be singing the roles of Dottore Grenvil and Barone Douphol in a concert performance of La traviata with the KW Symphony in 2023. Ben was the Assistant Conductor of the Laurier Symphony Orchestra last year and will be serving as the vocal director for the upcoming Royal City Musical Productions season. In May, he was honoured to conduct the premiere of Justin Lapierre’s Messe de Ste. Anne. Ben has also been recognized for his academic work; he holds a Governor General’s academic medal and was highly commended at the Global Undergraduate Awards in 2021.
Kate Zimmon is an American soprano from Long Island, New York. Her passion for music began with her extensive experiences in children and youth choirs. In 2018, Kate enrolled at McGill University. Here, she began taking private lessons at the Schulich Conservatory, where she was inspired to study music full-time. Today, she is pursuing her Bachelor’s of Music from the University of Toronto with a concentration in Voice Performance under the guidance of Professor Darryl Edwards. She has sung in renowned Canadian choirs, including Les Muses Chorale, the McGill University Choir, MacMillan Singers, Concreamus Chamber Choir, and the Mississauga Summer Chorale. Additionally, she has worked with notable musical organizations, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, COSA Canada, and eVoco Voice Collective. Kate hopes to become a solo artist, where she can continue to evolve as a singer, develop relationships with like-minded peers, and pursue innovative collaboration.
Faculty
The Elora Festival Summer Program in Ensemble and Solo singing is led by Lawrence Wiliford, and will include masterclasses with Tyler Duncan and Timothy Wayne-Wright, and collaboration and rehearsals with Mark Vuorinen, Erika Switzer and members of The Elora Singers.
Mark Vuorinen is Artistic Director and Conductor of The Elora Singers and the Elora Festival and Waterloo Region's Grand Philharmonic Choir. He is also Associate Professor and Chair of Music at Conrad Grebel University Colleve at the University of Waterloo and is the President of Choirs Ontario.
A recipient of many awards, Mark was the 2016 Laureate of the Ontario Arts Council’s Leslie Bell Prize, and received a 2016 National Choral Award from Choral Canada (Association of Canadian Choral Communities) for his research on Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Mark holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Toronto and Master of Music degree from Yale University’s School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. Recent concert highlights include performances of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Britten’s War Requiem, Arvo Pärt’s Passio and Credo, Canadian premieres of Jonathon Dove’s There was a Child, and Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Ad Genua, Reena Esmail’s This Love Between Us and Barbara Croall’s Giishkaapkag (Where the Rock is Cut Through).
Mark’s research interests include the study of contemporary choral literature from the Baltic States, and in particular, the music of Arvo Pärt. Mark was an invited lecturer at the Arvo Pärt Project’s Sounding the Sacred conference in New York City in May 2017. He is published in Circuit Musiques Contemporaines, the Research Memorandum Series of Chorus America, and Principles of Music Composing of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.
Mark Vuorinen
Artistic Director
The Elora Festival & The Elora Singers
Lauded for his luminous projection, lyrical sensitivity, and brilliant coloratura, American-Canadian tenor Lawrence Wiliford is in high demand in concert, opera, and recital repertoire. 2019-20 season highlights included performances with the Seattle Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Eugene Symphony, and Back Bay Chorale. His performances during the 2018-19 season included engagements with Les Violons Du Roy, Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, the Phoenix Symphony, the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, and Luminous Voices.
Mr. Wiliford has collaborated with conductors such as Jane Glover, Matthew Halls, Grant Llewellyn, Nicholas McGegan, John Nelson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Trevor Pinnock, Helmuth Rilling, Nathalie Stutzmann, and Pinchas Zukerman. His diverse opera credits include Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail; Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Albert Herring and The Turn of the Screw; Lully’s Persée, and Rameau’s Pygmalion and La Guirlande. Mr. Wiliford has been involved in a number of world premiere performances featuring works by Benjamin Britten, Derek Holman, James Rolfe, John Greer, Marjan Mozetich, and Zachary Wadsworth among others.
His recorded projects appear on several labels and include a GRAMMY nominated and JUNO award-winning recording of music by Vaughan Williams with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Peter Oundjian (Chandos); J.S. Bach’s Johannes-Passion under the direction of Alex Weimann (ATMA Classique); a program of late works for tenor and harp by Benjamin Britten (ATMA Classique), and sacred songs by Edmund Rubbra, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst (Stone Records). Wiliford is also a featured soloist on the 2020 JUNO nominated recording of Zachary Wadsworth’s oratorio When There is Peace by Chor Leoni Men’s Choir.
Lawrence Wiliford
Tenor
Program Director
Erika Switzer is an accomplished collaborative pianist who performs regularly in major concert settings around the world, including at New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC). Her performances have been called “precise and lucid” by the New York Times, and Renaud Machart of Le Monde described her as “one of the best collaborative pianists I have ever heard; her sound is deep, her interpretation intelligent, refined, and captivating.”
From 2000-2007, Erica performed and studied in Germany, an experience that profoundly inspired and shaped her work. During that time, she appeared at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and in the Munich Winners & Masters series and won numerous awards, including best pianist prizes at the Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and Wigmore Hall International Song Competitions.
Erica has long been a leader in envisioning and promoting the future of art song performance. In 2009, in collaboration with soprano Martha Guth, she founded the organization Sparks & Wiry Cries, which curates opportunities for song creators and performers, commissions new works, presents the songSLAM festival in New York City, and publishes The Art Song Magazine. She is also devoted to new music, and has recently premiered new compositions in the 5 Boroughs Music Festival Songbook II; at the Brooklyn Art Song Society; and at Vancouver’s Music on Main.
Erica collaborates with a range of top singers and instrumentalists. A frequent collaborator is baritone Tyler Duncan, and as a duo, Switzer and Duncan have performed in major concert halls and music festivals around the world. She is also an active teacher, serving on the music faculty at Bard College and the Vocal Arts Program of the Bard Conservatory of Music. Switzer holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School, and lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Erika Switzer
Collaborative Pianist
Coach
Sought-after baritone Tyler Duncan appears regularly on major concert stages around the world. Recent critics have called his performances “eloquent,” “charismatic,” and “stunning,” and praised his “refined, burnished voice” and “impeccable phrasing.” Duncan has recently (aka before the pandemic) appeared in concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and at the Wigmore Hall.
Also an accomplished opera performer, Tyler has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as Prince Yamadori in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly under Karel Chichon, among many Met Opera roles. Other recent roles include Morales in Bizet’s Carmen under Seiji Ozawa, and appearances in the Spoleto Festival as Mr. Friendly in the 18th-century ballad opera Flora and the Speaker in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Duncan is also passionate about new opera; recent roles include Raymond in Nic Gotham’s Nigredo Hotel with City Opera Vancouver, and in the world premiere of Jonathan Berger’s Leonardo at New York’s 92nd Street Y.
In the realm of Baroque music, Tyler's versatility and skill have him in high demand, especially performing the works of Bach. He has been regularly seen with Les violons du Roy, in Quebec City, Tafelmusik (Toronto), Early Music Vancouver, Music of the Baroque (Chicago), Boston Early Music Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival.
He also performs as a duo with pianist Erika Switzer, celebrating songs from the Romantic period as well as the work of living composers. Together the pair have premiered dozens of new compositions and have just released their debut album English Songs à la française for Bridge Records.
Tyler’s other recordings include the Juno Award winning Vaughan-Williams Serenade to Music with Peter Ounjian and the Toronto Symphony; the title role in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis with Boston Early Music Festival; and a DVD of Handel’s Messiah with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. His singing has been recognized internationally with numerous awards, including Grammy and Juno nominations and prizes from the Naumburg, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Munich’s ARD competitions.
Now a faculty member at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge MA, Mr. Duncan finds joy in helping the next generation of singers find their true voice. Originally from British Columbia, Canada, he resides in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley. You might find him frequenting many a roadside farmstand seeking the perfect, freshly picked Macintosh apple.
Tyler Duncan
Baritone
Masterclass Clinician
Tim’s musical journey started at the age of six when he became a boy chorister at Chelmsford Cathedral in UK. After a short while singing the daily services and being surrounded by such magnificent sacred and secular music, he was hooked!
As a countertenor, Tim began studying for his music degree at Goldsmith’s College, University of London in 2001, after which he was fortunate enough to be offered a Vocal Scholarship to study for a Postgraduate Diploma at Trinity College of Music. During this time, Tim became a Choral Scholar at The Royal Naval College Chapel in Greenwich, alongside regular work with many of the UK’s finest choral ensembles, including Stile Antico and Ex Cathedra Consort.
In 2006, he successfully auditioned for the prestigious position of Alto Lay Clerk at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. After just two years here, Tim was invited to audition for The King’s Singers and was part of this wonderful ensemble for ten happy years. Highlights included many tours to the Asia-Pacific territories and also South America, with memorable performances in some of the world’s greatest venues - Royal Albert Hall, The Musikverein and the Sydney Opera House, to name but a few. He was also fortunate enough to teach over 500 masterclasses, workshops and summer schools as a member of The King’s Singers, imparting ensemble skills and techniques to choirs all over the world.
In March 2021, Tim emigrated to New Zealand with his Kiwi wife and two children. He is absolutely thrilled to be here and delighted to be coaching so many wonderful choirs across the country.
Timothy Wayne-Wright
Artist Manager & Educator
Former member of The King's Singers
The five-day intensive course includes:
- masterclasses
- rehearsals
- private coaching and mentoring
- opportunities to observe festival rehearsals
- a public recital with other program participants
- performance with The Elora Singers, Festival Orchestra and soloists Hélène Brunet, Krisztina Szabó, Andrew Haji and Tyler Duncan in Bach’s Mass in B minor.
Eligibility
Additional Information
Travel and Accommodation: Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation.
Participation Fee: There is no application fee. We're thrilled to announce that the fee for participation has been reduced from $750 to $150. Heartfelt thanks to Tony and Anne Arrell for this wonderful gift!
We are grateful to our program sponsors Tony Arrell, C.M., and Anne Arrell. Their support will allow us to provide bursaries to successful candidates, reducing the cost of participation significantly.
How To Apply:
Please complete the application form by answering some questions and uploading the following information:
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