This media release was amended on February 2, 2016

Winners Announced for Tafelmusik Vocal Competition

Toronto, January 16, 2016 … The winners of the inaugural Tafelmusik Vocal Competition have just been announced: Kim Leeds, mezzo-soprano; Jacques-Olivier Chartier, tenor; and Jonathan Woody, baritone, were selected by the four-person jury following the final round of competition this afternoon at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, Jeanne Lamon Hall. They will appear as soloists in Zelenka’s Missa omnium sanctorum, April 28 to May 1, 2016. The Audience Choice Award went to Kim Leeds. In today’s final round of competition, the contestants performed three works accompanied by Christopher Bagan on harpsichord and organ: an assigned solo from Zelenka’s Missa omnium sanctorum, an aria from a Bach cantata or passion, and a Handel opera or oratorio aria. The esteemed jury for the competition consisted of Jeanne Lamon, Mary Morrison, Catherine Robbin, and Ivars Taurins. In addition to being given the opportunity to appear in concert with Tafelmusik, each of the three prize-winners will receive $2,000, and will be mentored by German soprano Dorothee Mields in a series of masterclasses. Well-known to Tafelmusik audiences, Ms. Mields will be featured as the soprano soloist in the Zelenka Mass and in Bach’s Wedding Cantata. Kim Leeds is a recent graduate of the Boston Conservatory with her MMus in Vocal Pedagogy and Performance. She has appeared as a soloist in numerous concert performances, most recently in Mozart Requiem with the Philharmonic Society of Arlington, as Irene in Handel’s Theodora with Music at Marsh Chapel, in Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil and Zelenka’s Te Deum with Cantata Singers, and in Bach’s with Harvard Pro Musica. As a choral artist, she has toured Italy and with the Junges Stuttgart Bach Ensemble under the direction of Hans-Christoph Rademann, performed with the Berwick Chorus at the Oregon Bach Festival, and toured Eastern Germany under the direction of Helmuth Rilling with the Weimar Bach Academy. Quebec tenor Jacques-Olivier Chartier is known for his beautiful voice and elegant style, acclaimed for the “poise and pathos” he brought to recent performances as the in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. A recent graduate from Opéra de Montréal’s Young Artists Program, 27-year-old Jacques-Olivier has studied with Andreas Scholl at both the Musick Akademie der Stadt and the Britten Pears School of Music. He is a frequent guest artist with Les Violons du Roy and Vancouver Early Music, and recently toured with Orchestre Metropolitain under Yannick Nézet Séguin as Evangelist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. This season, Jacques-Olivier looks forward to Mozart Requiem in his hometown with Maestro Jacques Lacombe and the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois- Rivieres. Called “charismatic” and “riveting” by The New York Times, bass-baritone Jonathan Woody is a sought-after performer of early and new music across the United States. He is a member of the Grammy-nominated Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and has performed in recent seasons with New York Baroque Incorporated, Bach Collegium San Diego, Nashville Symphony, Pegasus Early Music, Spire Chamber Ensemble, Carmel Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Opera Lafayette, New Amsterdam Presents, and Beth Morrison Productions. Jonathan holds degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park, and McGill University, and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. Website:www.tafelmusik.org | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tafelmusik | Twitter: @tafelmusik | Youtube: Tafelmusik1979 | Instagram: @tafelmusikbocc

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Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, founded in 1979, is one of the world’s leading period performance ensembles. The Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, under the direction of Ivars Taurins, was formed in 1981 to complement the Orchestra. The orchestra performs more than 50 concerts each year at home in Toronto, and travels extensively around the world. The choir and orchestra’s multi-platform recording label Tafelmusik Media was launched in January 2012, along with the Watch and Listen site. Tafelmusik’s discography of 80-plus CDs has been recorded on the Sony Classical, CBC Records, Analekta and Tafelmusik Media labels. Since 1991, Tafelmusik has received ten JUNO Awards and a Grammy Award nomination. Tafelmusik is the Baroque Orchestra-in-Residence at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto and operates annual artist training programmes, Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute and Tafelmusik Winter Institute. Tafelmusik has been led by Jeanne Lamon since 1981. In June 2014, Ms. Lamon stepped down as Music Director, and is continuing as Tafelmusik’s Chief Artistic Advisor until her successor is appointed.

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