Ennis Sisters
Thursday, October 1 • 2:00pm
School of Music, D.F. Cook Recital Hall
The lyrics by Maureen Ennis from the song, John William, speak of the lineage into which she and her sister, Karen, were born. Along with their sister, Teresa, the girls learned to sing around the time most people learn how to walk. While that may not be a unique thing for many people from Newfoundland and Labrador, the level of success they have attained since then certainly is. With a Juno award, a SOCAN award, multiple ECMA and Music NL awards and nominations, Maureen and Karen have performed in Australia, The Middle East, Europe, America and Canada, accumulating three gold records along the way and sharing the stage with such widely respected artists as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Mary Black, Jann Arden and the Chieftains. “Music has always been such a big part of our lives. As long as we’re able to maintain the passion that we have for playing live, we’ll continue to produce the kind of music that people expect from us at our shows.”
www.ennismusic.com
Jim Payne
Friday, October 2 • 2:00pm
Government House
A native of Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland, Jim Payne is an award winning performer, collector and producer of traditional Newfoundland music, as well one of the province’s most prolific songwriters, whose songs reflect issues faced by coastal peoples of the North West Atlantic. He has toured throughout North America, the US, Europe, Japan and Australia. Besides owning and operating SingSong Inc., the largest traditional music record company in Atlantic Canada, he has appeared in most of Rising Tide Theatre’s annual REVUEs, is one third of the musical comedy act, Wicked Altogether, half of a duo with long time musical partner Fergus O’Byrne, a member of the traditional music band, A Crowd of Bold Sharemen, and a busy solo performer. He also teaches a course in traditional Newfoundland music at Memorial University’s School of Music. Jim is also an adventurer who has circumnavigated the island of Newfoundland more than 20 times, sailed through the Northwest Passage, and travelled widely throughout the Canadian and Scandinavian Arctic, including Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. He has also crossed the Drake Passage between Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica dozens of times to travel to the Antarctic Peninsula, as well as South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. Jim is a recipient of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Outstanding Cultural Achievement, and Arts in Education Awards, and has been awarded a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. He has also received a Cultural Tourism Award from the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, the federal Department of Canadian Heritage, and Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador.
www.singsonginc.ca
Sound of Seven
Saturday, October 3 • 9:15am
School of Music, D.F. Cook Recital Hall
Sound of Seven is a small a cappella vocal group within the Camerata ensemble of Shallaway – Newfoundland and Labrador Youth in Chorus. The members of Sound of Seven are Maeve Collins-Tobin, Margaret Henley, Grace Nolan, Alice Macgregor, Maura Maguire, Annie McCarthy and Hope O¹Dea. Sound of Seven is directed by Kellie Walsh, Artistic Director of Shallaway and Lady Cove Women¹s Choir. These seven choristers, along with the other members of the Camerata ensemble, recently returned the 2015 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod where the ensemble earned the Children¹s Choir of the World Trophy. Following the competition, the choristers toured through England with performances in Bristol, Bathwick and Cambridge. Some of the group participated in Podium 2014 in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Choral Canada’s national biennial conference) as well as the choir’s tour to Nicaragua and Costa Rica with performances in Managua, Granada and San Jose. These young women love their province immensely and look forward to sharing their culture and musicianship with young choristers in Havana, Cuba, in 2016.
http://www.shallaway.ca/
Abra Louise Whitney
Saturday, October 3 • 2:150pm
School of Music, D.F. Cook Recital Hall
Abra Louise Whitney, a native of St. John’s ,Newfoundland and Labrador, is no stranger to choral singing. Growing up in St. John’s, Abra was very active in the music scene, singing both solo and as a chorister in her high school choirs (Holy Heart of Mary Chamber Choir, Madrigal Choir, Concert Choir and Girls Choir), The Newfoundland Symphony Youth Choir (now Shallaway) under the direction of Susan Knight and Ki Adams, and the Quintessential Vocal Ensemble directed by Susan Quinn. Abra has won many solo awards including The Silver Medal for Excellence in Vocal Performance and Theory administered by the Royal Conservatory of Music, and was the winner of the Newfoundland and Labrador Registered Music Teachers Association annual competition for all music students in the province in 2003. Since becoming a chorister for HHM, NSYC and QVE, Abra has recorded five CD’s, won 3 East Coast Music Awards, a Music Industry Award, toured Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland, Ireland, Iceland, Finland and New York City. During her education in Alberta, she completed her BMus in Vocal Performance from the University of Alberta, sang and traveled with the Madrigal Singers, under the direction of Leonard Ratzlaff. She was a member of Pro Coro Canada for three seasons, where she was featured as a soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion. In 2009, Abra performed the role of The Witch in the University of Alberta’s Englebert Humperdink’s Hansel and Gretel, and in 2010 she portrayed Amastre in Handel’s Serse. She has studied voice under Elizabeth Zedel, Jolaine Kerley and Catherine Abele. She completed her MMus in Choral Conducting at the University of Alberta. Currently, Abra is residing in St. John’s, NL where she is a voice and Kindermusik teacher at The Music Collection, a professional contralto, and choral conductor.
http://www.abralouisewhitney.com/bio.html
Spirit of Newfoundland Productions
Saturday, October 3 • 7:00pm
The Masonic Temple, 6 Cathedral Street
As the group’s name suggests, Spirit of Newfoundland is made up of professionally trained vocalists who flaunt their Newfoundland heritage by singing passionate, vibrant and harmony-filled Newfoundland songs. The group’s musical style spans the broad Gulf between Celtic and Broadway – from exciting come-all-ye songs to hauntingly gorgeous ballads. Spirit of Newfoundland Productions has now produced 48 stage shows of which 28 are original. The group has toured across Canada, performed on several national television broadcasts and has recorded two albums (“Even Seagulls Dream” & “I’ll Be There for Christmas”). Spirit of Newfoundland has received many awards including the 2002 Cultural Tourism Award for Newfoundland and Labrador, the 1999 and 2013 City of St. John’s Event of the Year Award, The 1999 Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador Ambassadors Award and the 1998 Tyrone Guthrie Award from the Stratford Festival. www.spiritofnewfoundland.com
Shelley Neville & Peter Halley
Sunday, October 4 • 2:00pm
The Masonic Terrace
Born and raised in St. John’s Newfoundland, mezzo-soprano Shelley Neville received her conjoint degrees of B.Mus and BMusEd from Memorial University. She continued her education at the University of Toronto where she obtained an Artist Diploma
(Honours), She then completed an Opera Diploma (Honours) and was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions finalist. Shelley received her MMus in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from Memorial University. In 1997, Shelley co-founded one of the province’s leading theatre companies, Spirit of Newfoundland Productions. In 2008, she established her own performance company and has produced some of the province’s most elegant musical shows: Big Italian Night, The Big Wigs and O Holy Night. Shelley is a part-time voice instructor at Memorial University and a founding member of the MUN Song Academy.
Peter Halley is the President and Artistic Director of Spirit of Newfoundland Productions, a full-service food, beverage and entertainment organization, now in its eighteenth year of operation. Peter has extensive experience in public performance, musical theatre, and event coordination.