30THE TH ANNIVERSARY GALA Sunday, February 19, 2012 | 2:30 pm Koerner Hall, TELUS Centre Accordes String Quartet 1995 • Phillip Addis, Baritone 2008 • Colin Ainsworth, Tenor 1999 • Laura Albino, Soprano 2005 • Valdine Anderson, Soprano 1990 • Allison Angelo, Soprano 2003 • Johane Ansell, Soprano 2010 • Allison Arends, Soprano 2007 • Nancy Argenta, Soprano 1997 • Mehgan Atchinson, Soprano 2000 • Kimberly Barber, Mezzo 2001 • James Baldwin, Baritone 2010 • Colin Balzer, Tenor 2007 • Julia Barber, Mezzo 2011 • Daniel Bard, Violin 1999 • Peter Barnes, Baritone 1984 • Lindsay Barrett, Soprano 2009 • Michael Barrett, Tenor 2005 • Peter Barrett, Baritone 2009 • Sasha Bataligin, Tenor 2006 • Anthony Bekenn, Reader 2005 • Steuart Bedford, Piano 2010 • Mary Bella, Soprano 1997 • Scott Belluz, Baritone 1999 • Nathan Berg, Baritone 2000 • Malcolm Bilson, Piano 1997 • Marianne Bindig, Mezzo1992 • Susan Black, Mezzo 2002 • Michèle Bogdanowicz, Soprano 1999 • Benoit Boutet, Tenor 1988 • Tony Boutté, Tenor 1985 • Trevor Bowes, Baritone 2003 • Leslie Ann Bradley, Soprano 2010 • Russell Braun, Baritone 1989 • Kathleen Brett, Soprano 1990 • Donna Brown, Soprano 2000 • Nils Brown, Tenor 1991 • Blaise Bryski, Piano 1997 • Krista Buckland, Violin 1986 • Norine Burgess, Mezzo 1990 • Benjamin Butterfield, Tenor 1993 • Peter Butterfield, Tenor 1988 • Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus 1994 • Philip Carmichael, Baritone 2003 • Gregory Carpenter, Tenor 1991 • Lucia Cesaroni, Soprano 2005 • Dan Chamandy, Tenor 1995 • Saemi Chang, Soprano 2002 • Jesse Clark, Treble 1988 • Ditto, Baritone 2000 • Rebecca Collett, Soprano 2011 • Martha Collins, Soprano 1986 • Michael Colvin, Tenor 1997 • Brenna Conrad, Soprano 2005 • René Cormier, Reader 1995 • Clare Coulter, Reader 1990 • Hélène Couture, Mezzo 2006 • Benjamin Covey, Baritone 2007 • Miranda Davies, Soprano 1999 • Melinda Delorme, Mezzo 2002 • Sally Dibblee, Soprano 1996 • Lisa DiMaria, Soprano 2004 • Robert Dirstein, Tenor 1986 • Alexander Dobson, Baritone 1998 • Kathryn Domoney, Soprano 1986 • Tyler Duncan, Baritone 2004 • Halyna Dytyniak, Soprano 1987 • Cary Ebli, Oboe 2005 • Darryl Edwards, Tenor 2002 • Elmer Iseler Singers 2002 • Elora Festival Singers 1994 • Christopher Enns, Tenor 2010 • Stephen Erickson, Tenor 2001 • Jonathan Estabrooks, Baritone 2005 • Glyn Evans, Tenor 1988 • Exultate Chamber Singers 1992 • Mary Lou Fallis, Soprano 1985 • Mark Fewer, Violin 2002 • Jacqui Lynn Fidlar, Mezzo 1995 • Gerald Finley, Baritone 1988 • Sebastien Forest, Double-Bass 1999 • Lynne Fortin, Soprano 1989 • John Fraser, Reader 2002 • Simon Fryer, Cello 2004 • James Gardiner, Trumpet 1999 • Vasil Garvanliev, Baritone 2009 • Tyrsa Gawrachynsky, Soprano 2005 • Dennis Giesbrecht, Tenor 1988 • Andrew Gillies, Reader 1987 • Leah Gordon, Soprano 2003 • Sonya Gosse, Soprano 2000 • Sandra Graham, Mezzo 1990 • Andrea Grant, Piano 2003 • Martha Guth, Soprano 2007 • Wayne Gwillim, Baritone 2003 • Andrew Haji, Tenor 2010 • Mia Harris, Mezzo 2009 • Virginia Hatfield, Soprano 1999 • Eve-Lyn De La Haye, Soprano 2005 • Stephen Hegedus, Baritone 2004 • Joni Henson, Soprano 2002 • Marta Herman, Mezzo 2010 • Nancy Hermiston, Soprano 1988 • Susan Hoeppner, Flute 1999 • Joshua Hopkins, Baritone 2006 • Martin Houtman, Tenor 1991 • Erica Iris Huang, Mezzo 2009 • Carla Huhtanen, Soprano 1999 • Henry Ingram, Tenor 1986 • Randall Jakobsh, Baritone 1991 • David James, Contralto 1994 • Patrick Jang, Tenor 2009 • Heather Jewson, Mezzo 2006 • Jerry Johnson, Trombone 1999 • Graham Johnson, Pianist, Commentator 1999 • Mark Johnson, Violin 2007 • Beverley Johnston, Percussion 1990 • Gaynor Jones, Soprano 1988 • Philip Kalmanovitch, Baritone 2008 • Jane Keal, Reader 1992 • Gillian Keith, Soprano 2003 • Bruce Kelly, Baritone 1988 • Charles De Kerkhove, Treble 1988 • Dale Kim, Viola 1999 • Heidi Klann, Soprano 1998 • Laura Klassen, Soprano 2008 • Kathryn Knapp, Mezzo 2003 • Robert Kortgaard, Piano 2006 • Ingemar Korjus, Baritone 1983 • Anita Krause, Mezzo 1996 • Lynn Kuo, Violin 2000 • Jay Lambie, Tenor 1986 • Jeanne Lamon, Violin 1996 • Rosemarie Landry, Soprano 1991 • Julia Lang, Reader 1992 • Corinne Langston, Reader 2006 • André Laplante, Piano 1997 • Megan Latham, Mezzo 2001 • James Leatch, Tenor 1986 • Thirty Years of the Aldeburgh Connection “What’s the Connection?” many of you may be asking. Well, we can start the story in July 1977, when a young and enthusiastic Canadian pianist was paying his first visit to the summer school of music which Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears had founded in connection with their flourishing Aldeburgh Festival. The young musician thought he had arrived as an observer to sit in on masterclasses. Instead, he found himself filling a last minute vacancy as an accompanist - and, in the process, Bruce Ubukata met another staff pianist, Stephen Ralls. The rest, as they say, is history. In 1978, Stephen emigrated to Toronto and, for a decade and a half, we returned each summer to Aldeburgh where we had first “connected.” What a rich repertoire we absorbed through our associations with Peter Pears, Hans Hotter, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Galina Vishnevskaya and many other great singers! How could we transplant the joy we felt in the sympathetic and civilized Aldeburgh environment home to Toronto? We took the plunge on February 21, 1982, with our first concert at Hart House. “Sound the trumpet, to celebrate the glories of this day!” rang out in the Great Hall. We had made the tickets ourselves and the box office was literally that: an old Dacks shoe-box. The audience seemed to like what we did; so for a couple of years, we made ourselves available for sporadic bookings in and around the city. Then in 1985, we established our own Sunday Series in Walter Hall. It was a red-letter day when, with the help of a compilation of Christmas card lists, our subscriptions edged into three digits. The establishment of a Board and the incorporation of the Aldeburgh Connection in 1986 put us on to a new plane. President Robert Baillie taught Stephen double-entry bookkeeping (arcane skill!) over coffee and cookies. Carol Anderson, who came to us as the universe’s best and most loyal volunteer, took on a host of responsibilities and became an invaluable part of our team. Our artistic range extended and deepened: not all our concerts had to have happy endings, we discovered. New and exciting talents emerged to join us and we were fortunate to be a nurturing part of their auspicious beginnings. Tour opportunities beckoned - concerts in New York (1987), Aldeburgh (1988) and Edinburgh and London in 1992, our tenth anniversary year, let us spread our wings and even transplant some Canadian musical content beyond our borders. The twenty years since then have seen a steady increase of activity. For 12 years we put energy into a recital series and are proud of those performances in the Glenn Gould Studio, which engaged many of Canada’s very finest singers. In Walter Hall, in December 1998, we presented (in collaboration with the University of Toronto) the first recital in our Young Artists Series, later renamed the Discovery Series, in which artists such as Alexander Dobson, Virginia Hatfield, Joni Henson, Benjamin Covey and Lucia Cesaroni made their first public recital appearances. Five recording projects have been achieved and well received, and in 2007 we inaugurated the first Bayfield Festival of Song in our beloved, beautiful village on Lake Huron. If we tried to choose our favourites among our concerts, the list would be too long. However, some of our finest hours, we feel, have been our celebrations of composers’ birthdays. One night continues to cast a glow in our memories - January 31, 1997, when we united with the CBC, and the rest of the world, in paying tribute to Schubert on his 200th birthday. Since then, we have marked important anniversaries of Poulenc, Wolf, Duparc, Britten, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Liszt. Next year, stay tuned for our celebration of the centenary of our “signature” composer, Benjamin Britten! 1 Our Honorary Patrons have inspired us with their encouragement and marvellous example. May we list them for you (in chronological order)? - Sir Peter Pears, Nancy Evans, Eric Crozier, Greta Kraus, Steuart Bedford, Lois Marshall, Christopher Newton, Léopold Simoneau and Catherine Robbin - all great friends and sterling advocates of the art of song. Our Board, led since 1994 by Michael Gough and then, since 2008, by Patsy Anderson, has lightened our load with sage advice and helped us to turn in a series of impeccably balanced budgets. Individuals have provided princely support and the fleeting, but vivid, joys of parties and celebrations. Our audiences - you! - have astounded us with your intelligence and generosity. You always laugh at our jokes and have expressed your appreciation in countless ways. Letters and jars of relish are valued as much as splendid donations. And our singers - too numerous to mention, though you will hear a good many of them this afternoon - have stimulated us with their insights and ravished us, the two crow-voiced pianists, with their melody. It has been the greatest thrill to see them take their rightful places on the world’s great stages. SR and BU Bouquets from Absent Friends Steuart Bedford, conductor and pianist, Honorary Patron of the Aldeburgh Connection: My greetings to the Aldeburgh Connection on the occasion of their thirtieth anniversary! For an incredible thirty years you have been providing programmes of rare sophistication, devoted to the untrodden byways of both literature