Samantha Wilson Stars in the World Premier of Scoop May 30 – June 2, 2019.

Kick at The Dark Theatre, in collaboration with Eastern Front Theatre's Stages Festival presents Samantha Wilson, Ryanne Chisholm, and Julie Vandervoort in Julie’s new play Scoop, about a woman coming to terms with the consequences of breast cancer. 

May 30, 7pm
Jun 1, 7:30pm
Jun 2, 4pm

Scotiabank Stage
Neptune Theatre 

1593 Argyle St, Halifax

Samantha Wilson has been an educator, simulator, facilitator for more than 15 years. Samantha holds an MFA from York University and has taught at both York and Dalhousie University. As an educator she has worked for theatre companies, training camps and arts retreats across Canada, as well as, working as a private acting and voice coach. In Halifax she held the position of Director of Neptune Theatre School for five years. As a simulator and facilitator Samantha has worked for the Chiropractic College and E-roleplay, both based in Toronto. Samantha’s work as an actor and director have taken her across Canada and abroad. Locally, she has worked with many companies including Neptune Theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, Festival Antigonish, Ship’s Company and Halifax Theatre for Young People. Her work with 2b Theatre has taken her to LaMama, NYC; Edinburgh Fringe, Scotland; Spoletto, South Carolina and LitLive, Mumbai, India, as well as, to festivals across Canada. Samantha is a member of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association and ACTRA.

Bio information from Samantha's Portfolio on In Practice website.

Denise & Marc Djokic Celebrate Scotia Music Festival’s 40th Anniversary with Separate Highlight Concerts on May 27 & 28, 2019.

Denise & Marc Djokic bring their talents back to the Maritimes with the Scotia Festival of Music’s annual two-week chamber music festival held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

 

Highlight Concert #1

Denise Djokic

Mon, May 27, 7:30pm 

Sir James Dunn Theatre, Dalhousie Arts Centre,
6101 University Ave, Halifax, NS

Highlight Concert #2
Marc Djokic

Tue, May 28, 7:30pm
Sir James Dunn Theatre, Dalhousie Arts Centre,
6101 University Ave, Halifax, NS 

Instantly recognized by her “arrestingly beautiful tone colour” (The Strad), cellist Denise Djokic captivates audiences with her natural musical instinct and remarkable combination of strength and sensitivity. Acclaim for her powerful interpretations, bold command of her instrument and insightful playing has earned her world-wide recognition and appearances in some of the most venerable halls. Denise burst onto the international music scene when millions of television viewers watched her performance of Bach at the 2002 Grammy Awards following the lauded release of her self-titled debut recording on SONY Classical. 

Since then, Denise has accrued numerous distinctions and accolades: she has been named one of the top “25 Canadians Who Are Changing Our World” by Maclean’s Magazine, one of “Canada’s Most Powerful Women” by Elle Magazine, and had her life and career chronicled by a special BRAVO! TV documentary entitled “Seven Days, Seven Nights”. A natural leader and advocate for classical music, Denise is equally at home on the podium as a keynote speaker, having presented at forums such as IdeaCity in Toronto and the Women in Leadership Conference at Queen’s University. Denise believes strongly in passing along her knowledge of music and her instrument. She serves on the Faculty of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada each summer, has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Ottawa, and frequently gives masterclasses.

Marc Djokic is a Canadian violinist and winner of the 2017-2018 Prix Goyer. Among other distinctions, he is a Prix Opus laureate and former Canada Council Instrument Bank recipient. Djokic is concertmaster of l’Orchestre classique de Montreal. His debut album, Solo Seven, garnered glowing reviews upon its release in 2018. His next two collaborative albums will be released on the ATMA Classique and Analekta labels in 2019.

Originally from the Maritimes; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Marc first and foremost studied with his father Philippe Djokic, one of Canada’s great soloists and a pupil of the master Ivan Galamian. He continued his studies with David Russell, Donald Weilerstein and Jaime Laredo.

In summer 2019 Marc Djokic will be embarking on his second European tour with solo recitals, chamber music concerts, and masterclasses. From BC Contact to Jeunesses Musicales and Debut Atlantic, Djokic has toured several times throughout Canada as an accomplished chamber musician. As a soloist, Marc Djokic has performed with such prestigious orchestras as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Quebec Symphony Orchestra.

From 2015 to 2017, Mécénat Musica noncerto produced more than 45 music videos featuring Djokic and his collaborations, filmed in unique locations across nine provinces. 

Full biographies can be found on Denise Djokic and Marc Djokic websites.

Eszther Horvath and Veronique MacKenzie Team Up for a Children's Opera May 16-19, 2019.

Music Director Eszther Horvath and choreographer Veronique MacKenzie join the Brundibar team for Halifax Theatre for Young People’s (HTYP) presentation of the children’s opera Brundibár.

May 16-19th

Cropped Image from Original Poster

Sir James Dunn Theatre
Dalhousie Arts Centre
Room 514, 6101 University Avenue

School shows:
May 16, 9:15 am
May 17, 10:30 am

May 18 7:00 pm
May 19 2:00 pm

Brundibár is an opera written for children by Hans Krása with lyrics by Adolf Hoffmeister, composed in Prague in 1938. The opera tells the story of children who sing in the marketplace to raise money for their sick mother, but are chased away by the organ player, Brundibár. With the help of animal and bird friends, as well as other children, they defeat Brundibár and continue to sing. All watching understood that Brundibár represented Hitler and were uplifted, even momentarily, by the fact that good could triumph over evil.

Despite the background of its creation, the opera itself is light-hearted and provides a great opportunity to introduce children and youth to the topic of the Holocaust and racial discrimination, and the need to work together to defeat oppression.

The Halifax production is directed by HTYP’s Artistic Director Tessa Mendel, with musical direction by Eszter Horvath, and features professional musicians including Scott Macmillan and members of Symphony Nova Scotia, children from the local community and professional set and lighting designers. 

The production includes an educational component, guest speakers and a photography exhibit. A committee of local supporters has been working behind the scenes for several years to bring the production to Halifax audiences. Description from the Halifax Theatre for Young People Website

Veronique MacKenzie is an internationally recognized dancer, choreographer, and educator most recently recognized with a 2019 Merritt Award.  

 
Eszther Horvath is an accomplished singer, violinist, musical director and conductor.

Reeny Smith Wins Two ECMA Awards

During the recent annual East Coast Music Association Awards, former Talent Trust scholarship recipient Reeny Smith won the R&B/Soul Recording of the Year for WWIII: Strength. Courage. Love. While she was at it, she took home the Bucky Adams Memorial Award. 

It’s been a very good year for the Preston born singer/songwriter. In March Reeny reached the top ten in CBC's Searchlight competition and recently her original music was featured in the locally produced CBC legal drama, Diggstown.

Since releasing her first in EP in 2015, “I Am Reeny,” Reeny Smith’s powerful voice and vibrant, emotional rollercoaster of a stage show have solidified her as one of the most enthralling artists in Canada.

Signing with Cymba Music Publishing in 2016, she released her breakout single, “Good Girl Swag”, a song with an unrelenting positivity in an increasingly harsh world. Smith went on to win Music Nova Scotia’s African Canadian Artist of the Year award in 2016, 2017 and 2018, as well as Best RnB Artist award in The Coast’s Best of Halifax awards in 2017 and 2018.

She’s collaborated with artists like Quake Matthews, and opened for Anderson Paak at the Halifax Jazz Festival, but through it all, Smith says the thing she’s the proudest of is developing her craft as a songwriter and being recognized for all of the hard work she’s put into the depth and realism of her work.

“My biggest achievement thus far has been recognized internationally for my songwriting work. Songwriting was never something I thought I was good at, so to have reached this level of validation means a great deal to me.” 

Bio from Reeny Smith's Website

Watch the official Good Girl Swag music video:

Anne-Marie Woods Reads from her New Play on May 10, 7pm at the Black Cultural Centre

Anne-Marie Woods /Amani returns home to share excerpts from her new play, Scotian Journey, a story about a young Black woman’s relationship to Africville. 

May 10, 7pm

Black Cultural Centre

10 Cherry Brook Road

Cherry Brook, NS

Free Admission 

Anne-Marie/Amani is an actor, dancer, singer, poet, producer, arts educator, playwright project manager, creativity career coach and creative consultant. Born in London England of Trinidadian heritage, her family left Trinidad in the early 70’s and she spent her formative years in Dartmouth, and later Halifax, Nova Scotia. She laid down her roots as an artist in Nova Scotia for many years, and is now based in Toronto but, she continues to make waves in the arts scene both nationally and internationally.

Anne-Marie/Amani is a graduate of the Dalhousie Professional Actor Training Program and she has a Small Business Certificate from the HRDC Self-Employment Business Program. After earning her theatre degree, she worked in the not for profit sector as Program Coordinator for The Cultural Awareness Youth Group of Nova Scotia. In the 90’s she founded her young company The Imani Women’s Artistic Project, and she was the director of countless youth and arts-oriented community projects. She has been a part of the spoken word scene since the spring of 1996 and is credited with bringing Spoken Word to the Nova Scotia Community.

Ms. Woods was a member Acapella singing sensation Four the Moment from 1988 until 2000. Four the Moment is credited with receiving the first African Canadian Artist of the Year Award at the East Coast Music Awards in 1998. They also performed at many festivals including: the Germany Women in E Motion Festival, the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival, Lincoln Centre in New York City and they were the opening act for Dr. Maya Angelou at Roy Thompson Hall and then at the Sky Dome Theatre. Most recently Four the Moment held the distinct privilege of opening up for Dr. Angela Davis in October 2018 as part of the Belong Speaker series at Dalhousie University. They will be honoured in October of 2019 at the Adsum House 30th Anniversary of the Annual Successful Canadian Women’s Dinner.

Anne-Marie/Amani was the first African Canadian to perform at the prestigious National Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina in 2001. Her one woman show “Waiting To Explode” which encompassed comedy, song, monologues, and spoken word received rave reviews and got a mention from Jeanette Toomer in the New York theatre paper Backstage as one of the acts from abroad that stood out. She worked at CBC and was a featured voice on CBC radio’s Metro Morning for years, where she took news and current affairs and turned them into song, poems, comedic commentaries and rants. This year Meres Weche founder of Afrotoronto.com interviewed her about her career in the arts. Podcast Interview 2019 How Black History Saved My Life

Her debut spoken word CD “Amani the Words, the Rhythm, the Music was sponsored by Canada Council for the Arts and was released with a live concert on September 22nd, 2007 in Toronto, Ontario. She has been the opening act for The Harry Jerome Awards, performed for The Honorable Lincoln Alexander, and she hosted a documentary called “Hand Made Hand Held” for CBC TV. Her radio documentary “Flat Belly Blues” was produced for CBC national radio and it also aired on BBC radio in the UK. Her poetry has been featured at Theatre Passe Muraille, Harbourfront Centre, the Jazz By Genre Series, CBC TV, City TV and countless other radio shows, conferences, galas, festivals, or Imani Enterprises productions. She has performed in the Nationally Acclaimed show When Sisters Speak, produced by Dwayne Morgan of Up from The Roots several times. She has performed her unique blend of spoken word nationally and internationally. She has been the headline act at the world-famous Nuyorican Café in New York City, she was the featured poet at The Drum in Birmingham, England as part of the Nu Century Arts Live Box Series.

Full bio available on Anne-Marie/Amani’s website.

Jennifer Jones and David Longstroth with Rhapsody Quintet Serenade the Province House on May 14, 2019.

Along with their musical partners, Jennifer Jones and David Longstroth from the Rhapsody Quintet will provide an evening filled with well-loved music from jazz standards, film tunes, tangos to the Beatles and Queen at the Province House. 

May 14, 7:30 pm.
Red Chamber, 

Province House

1451 Barrington Street, Halifax.

Free and open to the public.

Tickets are limited to 60
Available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Registration will open on April 30.

Rhapsody Quintet has been performing original arrangements of beautiful melodies from eras past and present like jazz, klezmer, tangos, movies and musicals since the mid 1980’s. Comprising of five classically trained musicians, Jennifer Jones, violin; David Langstroth, Bass; Diana Torbert, Piano; Eileen Walsh, Clarinet and Shimon Walt, cello; Rhapsody Quintet feel as at home in a symphony concert hall as they do in a jazz club.

Rhapsody Quintet has appeared twice as guest artists with Symphony Nova Scotia and performed in Ottawa in the National Arts Centre’s Atlantic Scene Festival, and as featured artists on Toronto’s Music Alive series.

The Quintet was honoured to be invited to perform for the re-opening of both the historic Public Gardens and Point Pleasant Park in Halifax following the devastation of Hurricane Juan and provided the music for the Premier’s Dinner in honour of the first recipients of the Order of Nova Scotia.

The Quintet has performed throughout the Maritimes on many series including the Dartmouth Community Concert Series, Acadia University’s Performing Arts Series, the deCoste Centre, the St. Bernard Concert Series, the Indian River Festival, the Moncton Community Concert Series, the Marigold Theatre, the Mahone Bay Concert Series and the Acadia University Alumni Series. They’ve presented The Melody Lingers On show at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax, the Imperial Theatre in Saint John, and performed in the Halifax waterfront Bishop’s Landing Series both with guest soprano Sung Ha Shin Bouey and on their own.

Rhapsody’s recordings have been used in ballet performances and professional theatre productions, including the Atlantic Theatre Festival and Neptune Theatre, and Chester Playhouse’s 2006 A Pitiful Ambition, a comedy by Lorne Elliott. They created a new show with collaborators actor/narrator Marcia Kash, cantors Tracey Scher and Ari Isenberg and Baritone Lowell Shore, entitled Kosher Ceilidh. And the group played their first European performance at beautiful Santa Margherita on the Italian Riviera for a private function – next door to Rod Stewart’s wedding party! The Quintet made a guest appearance on national TV on Candy Palmeter’s The Candy Show on APTN, and their music was used on the live to theatre Broadway production of The Importance of Being Earnest, starring late theatre great, Brian Bedford. In 2013, 2015 and 2017, Rhapsody was awarded the silver or bronze medal in the category Best Classical Artist/Group in the annual Reader’s Poll in The Coast.

Rhapsody has performed for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, Prime Ministers of Canada and other visiting foreign dignitaries. They’ve also played for audiences ranging from women in prison to patrons in pubs, worked with local choirs and done many in-school performances through local residencies around Nova Scotia. Their Sgt. Pepper Lonely Heart’s Club Band show at the Cohn helped to raise close to $30K for cancer patients in Halifax. The 2017-18 season sees a return engagement to the National Arts Centre on the NAC Presents Series.

Rhapsody Quintet has released six CDs to date. All recordings can be found on their CDs page.

Biographical information summarized from http://www.rhapsodyquintet.com

Soprano Jana Miller Marks Tafelmusik’s Anniversary with Solo Performances in Toronto May 9 -12, 2019.

To mark its 40th anniversary, guest soloists Jana Miller, soprano joins Chamber Choir Director Ivars Taurins in a special end to Tafelmusik's celebratory season.


May 9 - 12,
Koerner Hall, TELUS Centre
273 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON 

Berlin-based Canadian soprano, Jana Miller, is notably taking her place in an upcoming generation of classical artists. In June 2014, she was awarded First Prize in singing in the Prix d’Europe Competition, as well as the prestigious John Newmark Prize. She has also been a silver medalist at both the Concours de Musique Hélène Roberge and Eckhardt-Grammaté Contemporary Music Competition.

Jana Miller is an accomplished singer of oratorio, particularly as a Bach soloist. Jana debuted at the Carmel Bach Festival (Carmel, CA) during July 2015 after being selected as a Virginia Best Adams fellow. Her 2015-16 season included a debut with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra as the soprano soloist in Bach's Christmas Oratorio, as well as a performance of Bach's Easter Oratorio with Ensemble Caprice.

Jana Miller has been engaged as a soloist by orchestras and organizations across Canada and the United States, such as Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Symphony Nova Scotia, Carmel Bach Festival, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Ballet Opera Pantomime, Masterwork Chorus, Elora Festival Singers, Spiritus Chamber Choir, The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, Barachois Festival, Theatre of Early Music, Jeunesses Musicales of Canada, Société d’art Vocal de Montréal, McGill Chamber Orchestra, and Ensemble Caprice.

Jana studied at McGill University, the University of Toronto, and the Banff Centre. She has received generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et lettres du Québec, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and was a 2015 recipient of the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation Grants for Young Canadian Opera Singers.

Biography summarized from Jana Miller’s website

Hear Jana Sing: 

 

Celebrating Portia White, A Touring Exhibition Reaches Portia’s Birthplace of Truro May 11 – Oct 11, 2019.

On the 75th Anniversary of Portia White’s breakthrough concert at New York Town hall, her niece Sheila White bring her touring exhibition to Portia White’s birthplace.

May 11 - October 11

Opening May 11, 2pm.

Colchester Historeum
29 Young Street, Truro, NS

The Celebrating Portia White exhibition features a collection of photographs and portraits, vintage recordings, and treasured personal items, many which are rare, one of a kind and generously shared by Portia White’s family.

Portia White symbolizes the catalyst for the Talent Trust. In 1944, members of the Halifax Ladies Club, along with voice teacher Ernesto Vinci, successfully advocated to the city of Halifax and the province of Nova Scotia for unprecedented financial support towards White's studies in New York. White ascended to become one of the best singers of the 20th century.

Learn more about the exhibition on CBC  

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/portia-white-exhibit-1.4529401

Shandi Mitchell Reads from Her Novel; The Waiting Hours, in Lunenburg and Halifax, May 6 & 8, 2019.

Join Shandi Mitchell for the release of her new novel, The Waiting Hours, which follows the on-and-off duty lives of three Responders: an ER nurse, a 911 Dispatcher, and a Police Officer.

Author Reading and Book Signings

May 6, 7:00pm

Lunenburg School of the Arts
6 Prince St, Lunenburg, NS

&

May 8, 7:00pm-8:00pm

Paul O'Regan Hall
Halifax Central Library,
5440 Spring Garden Road

Shandi speaks about The Waiting Hours in a short video:

Shandi Mitchell is an author and filmmaker. Her debut novel, Under This Unbroken Sky, was simultaneously published by Penguin Canada, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK), and HarperCollins (US) in August 2009. It sold in nine countries, including translation rights for Chinese, Hebrew, Dutch, and Italian. Under This Unbroken Sky won the 2010 Commonwealth Regional Prize for First Book (Canada/Caribbean), the Thomas Head Raddall Fiction Award, the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, and the 2012 Kobzar Literary Award. It was also longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Mitchell was born in New Brunswick, raised in Alberta, and now makes her home in Nova Scotia.

Gharrett Patrick Paon Gets Chosen for the 2019 NSI Features First Training Course.

Beginning next month, Gharrett Patrick Paon, along with his teammate Andrew Dryden Mortimer, will develop their film projects with the best industry experts in Canada as part of the competitive 2019 National Screen Institute's NSI Features First training course. 

In Gharrett’s application he wrote:

"Emerging east coast writers desperately require outside investment to help them and the Maritime film community at large grow and become internationally recognized. Andrew is exactly the kind of writer brimming with talent that our entire community will benefit from in the future."

The Talent Trust couldn’t agree more.

Gharrett Patrick Paon is an actor/producer with Acadian and Mi’kmaq ancestry from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is a recent alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre Producer’s Lab and holds a bachelor of commerce degree from Dalhousie University.

In 2018, he won Telefilm Canada’s Pitch This! competition with writer/director Bretten Hannam at Toronto International Film Festival for Wildhood, a two-spirit, coming-of-age road film currently in development with CBC Films.

Gharrett is the president of Rebel Road Films Inc. The company is in production on season one of Spirit Talker, a 13 x 30 minute documentary series for APTN. Gharrett recently produced Wildfire, a short film version of Wildhood, which had its world premiere at BFI Flare, the largest LGBTQ+ film festival in Europe, and was one of 10 Canadian shorts selected for Telefilm Canada’s Not Short on Talent showcase at Clermont-Ferrand.

In 2017 Gharrett was the recipient of the prestigious Nova Scotia Talent Trust Young Artist of Excellence Award and The Shelagh Mackenzie Award for filmmaking.

Take Part in the First 75th Anniversary Pop Up Event April 27, 2019.

In celebration of International Dance Day, we are pleased to be a part of the KiDanCo & Nostos Collectives Dance presentation of Studio Sightings an open public rehearsal of Down the Line, featuring Talent Trust recipients Rebecca Wolfe, Lydia Zimmer, and Georgia Skinner. 

http://leicahardyschoolofdance.com/about/news/ 

Saturday, April 27, 2019 

4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Leica Hardy School of Dance Studios, North Woodside Community Centre

230 Pleasant Street, Dartmouth.

This event is the first of the Talent Trust's pop ups. Throughout our 75th Anniversary year you will be treated to more dance, theatre, and music events that celebrate the artistic contributions of our past recipients and the aspiration of our future work.

About the Featured Artists:

Lydia Zimmer has pursued professional training at the Boston Conservatory, Canada's National Ballet School and Springboard Danse Montreal to emerge as an original and daring dancer and choreographer.

Georgia Skinner trained at Coastal Dance, graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s and attended ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival 2015 in Vienna, Austria. She recently works with multiple dance companies in Nova Scotia.

Rebecca Wolfe studied theatre at George Brown College and Humber College and went on to perform both on stage and on screen with several Nova Scotian theatre companies, CBC and independent film.

Soprano Jane Archibald Sings with Symphony Nova Scotia on May 4 & 5, 2019.

Jane Archibald joins the Symphony Nova Scotia and its 80-voice chorus for an exquisite, emotional aria in Mozart’s dazzling, divinely beautiful Great Mass in C Minor.

May 4, 2019 at 7:30 pm

& May 5, 2019 at 2:00 pm 

Rebecca Cohn Auditorium 

6101 University Ave, Halifax

Jane Archibald’s career trajectory has taken her from Canada to San Francisco to the Vienna State Opera and major opera houses on both continents.

After beginning her professional opera career in her native Canada, Jane was an Adler Fellow and Merola participant with the San Francisco Opera. She then moved to the Vienna State Opera as a member of the ensemble, debuting many coloratura roles.

The 2017/18 saw Jane performing frequently with the Canadian Opera Company as their first-ever Artist-in Residence, singing the roles of Zdenka in Arabella, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the title role in The Nightingale and other Short Fables. She also performed Carmina Burana with the Orquesta Nacional d’Espana in Madrid and Armida in Rinaldo, on tour with the English Concert.

The 2018/19 season will find Jane performing le Feu/ la Princesse/ le Rossignol in L'enfant et les sortilèges at the BBC Proms and Lucerne Festival under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, her role debut as Mathilde in Theater an der Wien’s production of William Tell, as Cunégonde in Candide with both the London Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and as the title role in Oper Frankfurt’s Daphne. She will also give numerous concert performances including in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Orchestre National de Lyon; Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor with Symphony Nova Scotia, and Britten’s Les Illuminations and Grieg’s Peer Gynt with the Oregon Symphony.

Her many concert highlights include Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate with Lorin Mazel and the Orchestra of La Scala, Brahms’ Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Michael Tilson-Thomas, Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi with Christian Thielemann and the Berlin Philharmonic and Mozart arias with the Camerata Salzburg and Louis Langrée.

Jane has featured on multiple recordings and DVDs. Her first solo CD, a programme of Haydn coloratura arias, was released on the ATMA Classique label and won a JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year. A newly released recording of Die Entführung aus dem Serail (June 2016) with conductor Jéremie Rhorer, is receiving rave reviews, as is her recording of Messiaen's Poèmes pour Mi with Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony.

Full biography can be found on https://imgartists.com/roster/jane-archibald/

Ariella Pahlke’s Conviction has its World Premiere at Hot Docs on April 28, 2019.

Ariella Pahlke, together with co-writers and directors Nance Ackerman, Teresa Macinnes screen the world premier of their feature documentary Conviction at Hot Docs, the largest documentary festival in North America.

Photo from www.convictiondocumentary.com

April 28, 6:30pm

TIFF Lightbox
350 King Street

April 29, 1:15pm
Tiff Lightbox
350 King Street

May 2, 12:30pm
Hart House Threatre
7 Hart House Circle

According to the filmmakers, the film envisions alternatives to prison through the eyes of women behind bars and those fighting on the front lines of the decarceration movement.

The three filmmakers collaborated with incarcerated women to question the issues facing the rising rates of women’s incarceration. Together they envision a more ideal world, authoring their own narratives through art. They join advocates and politicians in a worldwide movement questioning the ideas of punishment and prison.

Ariella Pahlke is a documentary and video artist, curator, and educator. With a background in philosophy, Ariella has spent the past seventeen years creating documentaries and independent shorts, collaborating on multi-media performance pieces, curating, facilitating video projects with community groups, and teaching. Her film and video work has been shown on television, at festivals and in galleries throughout Canada and the U.S., and in Norway, India, and New Zealand.

Biographical info from www.burningrubber.ca

Announcing the First 75th Anniversary Pop Up Event April 27, 2019.

In celebration of International Dance Day, we are pleased to be a part of the KiDanCo & Nostos Collectives Dance presentation of Studio Sightings an open public rehearsal of Down the Line, featuring Rebecca Wolfe, Lydia Zimmer, and Georgia Skinner. 

Saturday, April 27, 2019

4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Leica Hardy School of Dance Studios 

at the North Woodside Community Centre

230 Pleasant Street,

Dartmouth.

Throughout the 75th Anniversary year you will be treated to pop-ups of dance, theatre, and music events that celebrate the artistic contributions of our past recipients and the aspiration of our future work.

About the Featured Artists:

Lydia Zimmer has pursued professional training at the Boston Conservatory, Canada's National Ballet School and Springboard Danse Montreal to emerge as an original and daring dancer and choreographer.

Georgia Skinner trained at Coastal Dance, graduated from The School of Toronto Dance Theatre’s and attended ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival 2015 in Vienna, Austria. She recently works with multiple dance companies in Nova Scotia.

Rebecca Wolfe studied theatre at George Brown College and Humber College and went on to perform both on stage and on screen with several Nova Scotian theatre companies, CBC and independent film.

Lucas Porter Plays Concerts in Halifax & Mahone Bay on April 24 and April 26, 2019.

“The young lion of the keyboard” Lucas Porter, graces two stages with what Natasha Gauthier of the Ottawa Citizen describes as “staggering virtuosity and some of the old-school pyrotechnics and unabashed romanticism of early 20th-century legends." 

Photo from Lucas Porter's WebsiteGerman Masterworks Recital:

German Masterworks:

April 24, 2019. 7 pm.
Music Room

6181 Lady Hammond Road, Halifax

&

Musique Royal presents: Paris in the 1930's 

April 26, 2019. 6 pm.
Cecilia's Retreat
1199 Oakland Rd. RR2, Mahone Bay

For over ten years, composer and pianist Lucas Porter has performed with vocalists, string ensembles and orchestras, including the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, the Oakville Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia and the Bacau Orchestra in Italy.

Chosen to represent Canada at Expo 2005 in Nagoya, Japan, he took part in a series of concerts along with Canadian soprano, Measha Brueggergosman. At the invitation of the Honourable Peter McKay, he played for Condoleezza Rice at the Halifax 9/11 Ceremony in September of 2006. He won the 2008 Raymond Simpson Award and performed in the 2011 Canada Winter Games which were held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 2013 he won the 2011 Canada Games Young Artist of Excellence Awards. 

A graduate of the Glenn Gould School’s Bachelors of Music Program, he is the youngest student to date to ever win the school’s Concerto Competition. Lucas was accepted into the International Mendelssohn Akademie that took place in in July of 2014, studying with world renowned pedagogues Jacques Rouvier and Arie Vardi. He received a Master of Music from the University of Montreal in May of 2015 under the tutelage of Prof. Durand before studying with Prof. Dang Thai Son, the gold medalist of the International Chopin Piano Competition in 1980.

Lucas began the Oberlin/Lake Como Fellow Program in September of 2017. He is currently in the studio of Prof. Stanislav Ioudenitch and will have masterclasses and lessons with many renowned pianists and pedagogues, including William Grant Naboré, Dang Thai Son, Martino Tirimo, Peter Frankl, and Paul Badura-Skoda. 

Biographical information was condensed from Lucas Porter's website. 

Suzie LeBlanc sings The Mystery of Carlo G in Wolfville on April 13, 2019.

photo from Suzie LeBlanc's website

Suzie LeBlanc joins Bruce Dickey & 

Catalina Vicens in the performance of a newly discovered, 17th century manuscript containing more than 80 works for voice, keyboard and theorbo, but identified only by a first name, an initial and a smudge. 

Saturday April 13, 7pm

Acadia University 

Manning Memorial Chapel 

45 Acadia Street, Wolfville

Recently appointed to the Order of Canada, renowned Acadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc was born in Edmunston, New-Brunswick. She sang in the choirs of her native Acadia and studied dance and harpsichord before studying singing in London, UK. From there, she began an international singing career specializing in early baroque repertoire; exploring and recording a substantial amount of previously unpublished material while resident in Europe. Her thirst and curiosity for new vistas then led her toward the repertoire of French mélodies, lieder, contemporary music, and Acadian folk music, as well as exploring the art of improvisation with the ensemble Mélosphere.

Suzie’s recordings have received international praise and several prestigious awards: a Grammy award for Lully’s Thésée; two Opus awards – best World Music recording for “Tempi con Variazioni”, and best contemporary music CD for her Messiaen cd; and a CINI award (Italy) for the opera “Orfeo” by Sartorio in which she sings the leading role. She has recorded for ATMA, Analekta, Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Chandos, Teldec, Das Alte Werk, among others.

She worked with The Consort of Musicke, Fretwork, Musica Antiqua Köln, Sequentia, the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Tragicomedia, the Hilliard Ensemble, Concerto Palatino, Redbyrd and the Purcell Quartet as well as with several symphony orchestras in Canada and the US. Concerts have taken her to Festivals all over the world, as well as to the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Wigmore Hall (London) and the Konzerthaus in Vienna. On the opera stage, she has performed for De Nederlandse Opera, Festival de Beaune, Opéra de Montréal, the Boston Early Music Festival, Tanglewood, Festival Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver.

For her full & comprehensive biography please visit her website at www.suzieleblanc.com. 

Get a sense of the music: 

Hannah Mae Cruddas Dances in Coppélia with Ballet Jörgen & Symphony Nova Scotia April 12-14, 2019.

Hannah Mae Cruddas performs one of the world’s oldest and best-loved ballets live in Halifax with Symphony Nova Scotia and Canada’s Ballet Jörgen! Coppélia tells the funny, fantastical tale of an eccentric toymaker and his greatest creation – a beautiful dancing doll so lifelike that it causes an uproar in its small village. 

Friday, April 12, 2019, 7:30 pm
Saturday, April 13, 2019, 7:30 pm
Sunday, April 14, 2019, 2 pm

Rebecca Cohn Auditorium 

6101 University Avenue, Halifax

Hannah Mae began her dance training with the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts School of Dance and the Leica Hardy School of Dance. In 2009, she joined Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto. Hannah Mae was honoured to be the youngest recipient of the Society of Russian Ballet’s Nesta Toumine Memorial Award and at 14, was a semi-finalist in the Genée International Ballet Competition. She was also privileged to be the recipient of the Jan Wicha Memorial Cup and Nova Scotia Talent Trust’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.

At home, Hannah Mae danced the title role in Alice (Dearborn), the Ragdoll Queen in The Nutcracker (Hardy), and worked with Kennet Oberly and Otar Beridze. Her Toronto repertoire credits include Peggy Baker’s 5 Views of a Temple Garden, Petipa’s La Bayadere and Paquita, and Nacho Duato’s Jardi Tancat. Hannah Mae was recently awarded the Janice Merritt Flemming Award administrated by the Nova Scotia Talent Trust. Hannah Mae was a guest dancer for the Nova Scotia Symphony’s Nutcracker 2016.

Hannah Mae’s repertoire with Canada's Ballet Jörgen includes Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty, Tall Stepsister and Lead Fairy in Cinderella, Lady Capulet in Romeo & Juliet, Spanish Dancer in Swan Lake, along with various roles in The Nutcracker: A Canadian Tradition, and will star in the upcoming Anne of Green Gables – The Ballet™.

Canada's Ballet Jörgen is one of Canada's top ballet companies and performs across the country for over 60,000 people each year. Watch their short Coppelia trailer:  

Post information edited from Canada's Ballet Jörgen. 

Emma Allain Shows New Work and Gets Shortlisted for the Starfish Student Award.

April is a promising time for Emma Allain, an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Halifax where she is pursuing an MFA at NSCAD University. The month opens with her MFA Thesis Exhibition:

"Not just the distance but what it contains," a work that explores themes of distance, alienation, translation, and interference. 

Opening:
April 8, 5:30 - 7pm

Exhibition:
April 9 – 13

Artist Talk:
April 11, 12pm

Anna Leonowens Gallery, 1891 Granville St. Halifax, NS

Emma's work continues to be celebrated throughout the month as 1 of 10 artists to have been shortlisted from among 96 applicants for NSCAD University’s 2019 Starfish Student Art Awards, celebrating artistic excellence. The Starfish jury will announce the grand prize winner at the Starfish Gala.

Wednesday, April 24, 7 to 9 p.m. at NSCAD’s Port Campus.

Emma was nominated for her Expanded Media: This will not be an unfamiliar landscape, 2018. Hand-bound artist’s book and silkscreen prints on rag.

Originally from the suburbs of Toronto, in 2012 Emma earned a BDes from the joint program in graphic design at York University and Sheridan College (YSDN). She has since worked as an industry designer and freelance book designer. Emma has a passion for the physical form of books and bookbinding and is interested in themes of distance, separation, and loss through printed matter, book works, installation, and sound.

Biographical information taken from Emma Allain's website.

Sylvia Hamilton Screens Portia White: Think On Me at the Government House on April 23, 2019.

75 years ago, in 1944, Portia White became the first Canadian to debut at New York’s famed Town Hall, and the first Black Canadian concert singer to win international acclaim, widely known as Canada’s Singing Sensation. 

To commemorate, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, Honourable Arthur J. LeBlanc, ONS, QC will be hosting a public screening of Sylvia D. Hamilton's documentary:

Portia White: Think On Me.

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2019

7:00pm-8:30pm  

Government House, 

1451 Barrington Street, Halifax. 

Free & open to the public.

Call 902-424-7001 

Or register online

The film uncovers the unique life of Portia White who achieved unparalleled international success during the tumultuous 1940's. The documentary uses archival film and TV footage, excerpts from recordings, and interviews with family, pupils and her accompanists to portray a talented and dignified woman.

Born in Truro, Nova Scotia in 1911 and raised in Halifax, Portia White began her singing career at age six at the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church (now the New Horizons Baptist Church) where her father was minister. She attended Dalhousie University in 1929 and in the 1930s she taught in Africville and Lucasville while also taking voice lessons. It was apparent from an early age that she had extraordinary musical talent and in 1939 she won a scholarship to continue her training at the Halifax Conservatory of Music. Portia White made her singing debut at age 30 in Toronto.

The Portia White Trust, which became the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, was established to help foster her career; it was the first of its kind in Canada. A Canadian postage stamp was issued in her honour and she was named “a person of national historic interest” by the Government of Canada.

Sylvia D. Hamilton is a Nova Scotian filmmaker, writer and artist whose work explores the lives and experiences of people of African descent. Her special focus is on African Nova Scotians, and especially women. In particular, her work takes the form of documentary films, writing, public presentations, teaching, mentoring, extensive volunteer work and community involvement. She has uncovered stories of struggles and contributions of African Canadians and introduced them to mainstream audiences.

As seating is limited to 90, people wishing to attend must register by calling 902-424-7001 or by registering online.

Blog content summarized from the official events notice.

Veronique MacKenzie Wins the 2019 Merritt Award for Outstanding Choreography.

Veronique MacKenzie receives recognition for her choreography in Kamp, presented by Eastern Front Theatre & Neptune Theatre. Kamp, a two-act musical that tells the story of a group of homosexual men, interred in a Nazi concentration camp took home several Merritt awards. 

The award adds to the growing list of her accomplishments. Veronique is a recipient of Nova Scotia’s prestigious Established Artist Awards, and two-time recipient of Live Art’s Diane Moore Scholarship for choreography. 

Véronique has presented her work across the country in a variety of festivals and productions including Toronto’s Junction Festival, The Edmonton Fringe Festival, Labrador Arts Festival and Festival Antigonish. Her status as an independent dancer has allowed her to dance for a variety of contemporary dance productions as well as develop a successful choreographic and solo performance career. Véronique most recently completed choreography for POP TV's "Let's Get Physical" (L.A.) and has worked on CBC's Mr. D, Bo on the Go, and Street Cents.

Véronique has served on faculty at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD University), Neptune Theatre School, The Fountain School of Performing Arts (Dalhousie University) and Halifax Dance. She’s been a board member of Dance Nova Scotia and Keep Good (Theatre) Company. She is the Atlantic rep for the Dancer Transition Resource Centre out of Toronto.

Her eclectic background includes training in modern dance (York University and The School of the Toronto Dance Theatre), jazz and ballet (The National Ballet School/R.A.D./Checcetti/Vagonova), visual art (NSCAD), clown and Fool-work (Laban Int’l School), creative movement (Virginia Tanner School/USA) and theatre (University of NB and Theatre NB) from which she has developed a unique performance style.

Biographical information has been summarized, and can be found in full on her website, www.veroniquemackenzie.com