The
Gryphon Trio
www.gryphontrio.com
One of North America’s premier chamber groups, the Juno award-winning
Gryphon Trio has been touring Canada, the United States and Europe
for over a decade. The Trio records for Analekta, and has been successfully
introducing new audiences to chamber music by commissioning exciting
new works, producing multimedia projects and creating hands-on outreach
and education programmes. The Gryphon Trio commissioned Christos
Hatzis to write the music of Constantinople in 1998 and has since
brought together the artistic talent and financial resources required
to fully realize the theatrical presentation of the work. As well
as being ensemble-in-residence at Music Toronto, the members of
the Gryphon Trio teach at the University of Toronto.
Maryem Hassan Tollar
- singer
www.maryemtollar.com
Over the last decade and more, Maryem has built a reputation as
a singer who can live and thrive in a variety of musical milieus.
She was born in Egypt and raised in Canada with frequent sojourns
in the Middle East. Maryem premiered a new piece written by Christos
Hatzis for her ensemble “Mystical Visitations” in December
2006 at Toronto’s Isabel Bader Theatre. Earlier in the fall
she performed in Le Festival du Monde Arabe in Montreal in the opening
concert in collaboration with master musician Kudsi Erguner (ney
player – Turkish end-blown flute) among others. She had several
performances across Canada over the summer of 2006 with rumba-flamenco
guitarist Jesse Cook in the Montreal Jazz Festival; with poet/photographer/activist
Ehab Lotayef and Ernie Tollar (flutes & sax) in a Peace conference
in Vancouver, B.C.; with Chris Church and Nicholas Hernandez at
the Atlantic Jazz Festival in Halifax; and with her own ensemble
with guest master musician Bassam Bishara (oud player – Arabic
lute, and vocalist) in Toronto and Collingwood, ON. Maryem released
her second CD "Book of Life" in December 2004. She composed
music (which was nominated for a 2005 Dora Award) for the play "Le
collier d'Helene" (Helen's necklace) with husband, Ernie Tollar,
produced by Le Theatre Francais in Toronto. Maryem has been touring
across Canada and internationally to perform two of Christos Hatzis'
works: "Sepulcher of Life" and "Constantinople".
Maryem was nominated for a 2005 Dora Award for "outstanding
performance" for Constantinople in the opera category.
Patricia O’Callaghan
- singer
www.patricia-ocallaghan.com
Patricia O’Callaghan was born and raised in Northern Ontario,
Canada. In her travels she has lived, studied and picked up the
local languages in Mexico, Quebec, Germany, and France. She trained
at the University of Toronto and The Banff Centre for the Arts.
In 1996, she got a Chalmer’s Grant, which allowed her to stop
waitressing and devote herself to music full time. Pulling in favours
from friends and family she made her first CD, Youkali. It featured
songs by Weill, Satie, and Poulenc. The week Youkali was released,
Marquis/EMI signed her and she subsequently recorded Slow Fox (reviewed
in Billboard as…”the most promising cabaret performer
of her generation”). Her worldwide distribution outside of
Canada was then snatched up by Teldec/Warner and she toured her
third CD, Real Emotional Girl, around Europe and North America.
Her most recent CD Naked Beauty, co-produced by Steven Page of the
Barenaked Ladies, is receiving critical and popular praise. Ms.
O’Callaghan divides her time between touring her own shows,
recording, and collaborating on other interesting projects. Some
collaborations include singing with Bryn Terfel at Roy Thompson
Hall, playing the role of Polly Peachum in Vancouver Opera’s
production of Threepenny Opera, touring the multi media opera Constantinople
by Christos Hatzis to London’s Royal Opera House, among other
places, and recording and touring with jazz clarinettist Don Byron,
in support of his Bluenote release, A Fine Line. Upcoming appearances
include opening the 2007 season with Soulpepper Theatre Company
playing the role of Polly Peachum in Threepenny Opera. She also
has the good fortune to appear in television shows, such as her
own Bravo! Special Live at the Rehearsal Hall, the Rhombus/CBC special
Youkali Hotel, and the acclaimed Ken Finkleman Drama, Foolish Heart.
Patricia is achieving her heart’s ambition to bring her distinctive
brand of art/pop song performance to a broad-based audience.
Christos Hatzis –
composer
www.hatzis.com
With hundreds of presentations of his music around the world, commissions
by an international list of soloists and ensembles and several recording
projects by major labels, Christos Hatzis is currently enjoying
a growing international reputation as one of the most important
composers writing today. A professor of composition at the Faculty
of Music, University of Toronto, Hatzis is the recipient of several
Canadian and international distinctions such as the Jean A. Chalmers
National Music Award, the Prix Italia, the Prix Bohemia Radio, the
Jules Léger Prize and the New Pioneer Award as well as two
Juno Award nominations (2003 and 2004). Compact disc recordings
of his works have been released by various major and independent
labels in North America, Europe and Japan. Recent and upcoming CD
releases include AWAKENING (his string quartets) with the St. Lawrence
String Quartet on EMI Classical (2005), and DANCES OF LIFE AND DEATH
with various soloists and Symphony Nova Scotia on CBC Records to
be followed by the commercial release of CONSTANTINOPLE. Several
new concerti for virtuosi such as French horn player Jamie Sommerville,
violist Steven Dann and oboists Suzanne Lemieux and Joseph Salvalaggio
are in the works or recently completed, as is Antigone, a crossover
multi-genre opera, currently in development by Tapestry New Opera
Works in Toronto and the Music-Theater Group in New York City. Hatzis'
music is inspired by proto-Christian spirituality, his own Byzantine
music heritage, world cultures and various non-classical music genres
such as jazz, pop and world music. He has created several works
inspired by the music of the Inuit, Canada's arctic inhabitants,
and his Inuit-inspired works, particularly the award winning radio
documentary Footprints in New Snow, have promoted Inuit culture
around the globe. His strongest inspiration is his own religious
faith, and his religious works have been hailed by critics and audiences
alike as contemporary masterpieces.
Marie-Josée Chartier
– director/choreographer
www.chartierdanse.com
Marie-Josée Chartier's career as a choreographer, dancer,
director, vocalist and teacher extends through the worlds of dance,
contemporary opera and multimedia. Her choreographic work is largely
inspired by visual art and contemporary music and she has collaborated
with some of Canada's finest artists. Her repertoire has been presented
in Canada and Europe as well as being broadcasted on CBC, TVO, TFO,
ARTV and Bravo! Ms. Chartier's numerous commissions include, 'Fifty-One
Pieces of Silver " for Dancemakers,winner of the 2002 Dora
Mavor Moore Award for Best Choreography, La Lourdeur des Cendres
for Four Chambers Dance Projects, Vestige for Toronto Dance Theatre
and Étude pour Deux Mammifères for Kaeja d'Dance.
She has won several grants and awards, most notably the 2001 K.M.
Hunter Award for Dance. Marie-Josée Chartier is a member
and co-founder of URGE, a female collective creating music-driven
theatrical works. This season she premiered her latest full evening
choreographic work 'Screaming Popes' in Potsdam, Germany and in
Toronto. Most recently, she choreographed 'Salome Dancer' a contemporary
opera remiering at Open Ears Music Festival.
John Murrell OC, AOE –
scripting consultant
One of the most frequently produced of all Canadian playwrights,
Murrell’s plays have been translated into 15 different languages
and performed in more than 30 countries around the world. His award-winning
works include Memoir (produced at the Stratford Festival in 1990),
Waiting For The Parade (in the Shaw Festival’s current season),
Farther West, Democracy, and The Faraway Nearby, as well as translations
of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and Sophocles’ Oedipus The
King (both commissioned and first produced by Stratford). Most recently,
he wrote the libretto for the acclaimed new opera Filumena, composed
by John Estacio, and co-produced by The Banff Centre and The Calgary
Opera. Since November 1999, Murrell has been Artistic Director of
Theatre Arts at The Banff Centre. In 2002, he received the coveted
Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, and,
in 2003, was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Jacques Collin- visual
projection production and design
An award winning designer, Jacques Collin has amazed audiences throughout
the world with his stunning audiovisual productions. Jacques has
been involved with Canadian artists nationwide who have sought his
expertise in challenging the limits of their art with the use of
new communications technology. As one of the founding members of
the multimedia performance group l’Ecran Humain in 1980, Jacques
Collin has worked with composers Marcelle Deschenes, Alain Thibault
and Jean Corriveau. After leaving l’Ecran Humain in 1985,
Jacques embarked on a number of very successful collaborations with
Marcelle Deschenes and Michel Lemieux. Since 1989 Jacques has collaborated
with Robert Lepage on Needles and Opium, The 7 Streams of the River
Ota, Elsinore, Geometry of Miracles, Jean-Sans-Nom, and the critically
acclaimed The Far Side of the Moon. His latest project with Lepage
was La Casa Azul, on the life of Frida Kahlo. In 2000 he produced
Planète Baobab (based on St-Exupéry’s The Little
Prince) for l’Arsenal à Musique, a concert for electro-acoustic
soloists and symphony orchestra. He recently created visuals for
Lorin Maazel’s new opera 1984 that premiered at the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden, in May 2005.
Lionel Arnould –
visual projection concept development, production and design
www.lionelarnould.com
A graduate of the National School of the Arts
in France, Lionel has been working with computer graphics and virtual
media since 1992. In 1998 he began collaborating with Robert Lepage
in Quebec City and has over the years been involved in works such
as La Damnation de Faust, La famille sans nom, Apasionada and La
Trilogie des dragons - version 2003: a fabulous six hour piece revamped
in 2003 to include video projections. In the coming year, his work
on a revised version of the Opera des gueux will be touring Europe.
In recent years Lionel’s career has also included collaborations
with organizations such as: Le Theatre Peril and La Compagnie Marie
Dumais (his work on The Plague received an honorable mention at
the 2003 Quebec City Art and Culture awards), Musée de la
Mer de la Point-au-Père (his permanent 3D stereoscopic installation
was awarded Prix de l’installation 2002), Manoir Mauvide Genet,
Maison Girardion and the Quebec Aquarium project.
In 2001, Lionel was on the creative team of Quebec in New York
that was to open September 13, 2001 at the foot of the World Trade
Center. In 2003 Lionel produced the special effects for a CBC television
special produced by Veronica Tenant entitled Northern Lights –
Visions and Dreams. Constantly inspired by the power of the arts,
Lionel seeks out new spaces and directions by constantly sculpting,
painting and drawing.
Bernard White –
set and lighting design
A graduate of Le Conservartoire d’Art Dramatique de Québec,
Bernard has been contributing to numerous theatre productions as
well as major expositions as a production and lighting designer
since 1994. Recent projects include Robert Lepage’s Far side
of the moon, the Quebec-New York exhibit, and the Quebec Aquarium
project.
Bernard has recently joined the faculty at Le Conservartoire d’Art
Dramatique de Québec where he teaches design.
Heather MacCrimmon, costume
design
Heather MacCrimmon is a Toronto based costume designer working in
film, theatre and primarily, modern dance. Among the many choreographers
she has worked with, she frequently collaborates with Serge Bennathan
(Dancemakers), Marie-Josée Chartier, Claudia Moore, Sarah
Chase, Yvonne Ng, Julia Sasso and Tom Stroud .Her film credits include
The Uncles, directed by Jim Allodi and Phillip Barker’s Soul
Cages. Her theatre highlights include working with clown duo Mump
and Smoot (In Flux and Something Else) and England’s Theatre
de Complicite (The Chairs).
Anthony Crea – sound
design/ engineer
A graduate of the York University Music Program, Tony’s subsequent
tenure as a staff member allowed him to collaborate with renowned
musicians such as John Cage, Yannis Xenakis and Laurie Anderson.
Following his time at York Tony began to work as a live sound engineer
and tour manager with recording artists such as Liona Boyd, Rita
Coolidge, The Neville Brothers, The Jeff Healey Band, Colm Wilkinson,
Dan Hill and Amanda Marshall. In Recent years Tony has also worked
as a mix engineer for productions such as the CBC TV’s 2002
Olympic Winter Games and Canadian Idol. Currently, Tony is working
with The Gryphon Trio on Constantinople in addition to a new album
project that will be released in the fall of 2005.
Caroline Hollway –
production manager
Though qualified as a sociologist and historian, Caroline has spent
the best part of 20 years in theatre arts, as stage manager, production
and technical manager, project manager and education consultant
for community and young peoples’ theatre companies in England,
Wales, Scotland and now Canada.
Her work has taken her into community parades with boats, cars
and bicycles made of sticky tape, giant puppets in Portugal, human
circuses in housing estates, too many events on soggy fields, community
plays in south London, touring round the Scottish Highlands, running
two theatres for young people in Wales, enjoying fireworks and tugs
(fortunately at the same time) and now opera and music theatre.
She has one simple, but passionate, aim – to introduce people,
especially young people, to the live arts as creators and participants,
as well as spectators. On Constantinople, the challenge of co-ordinating
classical musicians, video artists, singers, designers and contemporary
music into one room, never-mind one project, has been exhilarating,
intellectually thought-provoking, moving and, ultimately, very rewarding.
A bit like herding butterflies in from the cold, without a net.
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