Master classes in voice and piano being held in North Battleford next week and will be open for the public to observe.
The classes, organized by local singer and instructor Lisa Hornung, will be conducted by Mel Braun, Laura Loewen and Robert MacLaren of the University of Manitoba.
Hornung says they will also be presenting a concert of opera, art song and fun songs Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Third Avenue United Church in the Sanctuary.There will be a silver collection at the door.
"Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend," says Hornung,
She says several master classes, open lessons and rehearsals have been set up with junior, intermediate and senior students who will have repertoire prepared for the event. These sessions are open for observation for anyone who would like to watch, says Hornung.
"There is much to learn from listening to others andwatching master teachers at work," says Hornung.
Monday will feature voice from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Tuesday will see voice from 10 a.m. to noon, voice and piano from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and choir from 4:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m.
Mel Braun
Baritone Mel Braun is a versatile singer, equally at home on the concert or opera stage. He is well known to Canadian audiences for his Early Music performances and broadcasts with Tafelmusik and Opera Atelier. In the field of New Music, he has premiered numerous works with the Banff Centre, New Music Toronto, Saskatoon Symphony, Groundswell, the Manitoba Opera, and Chamber Opera West. Carmina Burana and Magic Flute (Papageno) are among his many engagements with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
When not working as a soloist, he performs with Emerado, a chamber group that combines faculty from three of Manitoba's universities, in programs that range from opera to cabaret. He directs the Faculty of Music Cantata Singers, as well as the Opera Workshop, an active ensemble that presents an annual show of opera excerpts at the Gas Station Theatre.
The Contemporary Opera Lab, a summer training program he founded in 2002 to foster the development of contemporary opera skills, continues to bring together faculty and students from all across North America each August.
Another initiative is the University of Manitoba Opera Apprenticeship (UMOA), a post-graduate training program in opera he developed in collaboration with Opera Workshop stage director Katherine Twaddle and Manitoba Opera. Each spring, thousands of Manitoba school children first encounter opera through the UMOA School Tour.
Braun also serves as vocal coach to a number of the young rock bands that are part of Winnipeg's burgeoning indie music scene.
Braun received a Master and Bachelor of Music for Vocal Performance from the University of Toronto, and his Bachelor of Church Music from Canadian Mennonite Bible College.
Laura Loewen
Collaborative pianist Laura Loewen has appeared in concerts throughout North America and in Europe and Asia. Dedicated to sharing her passion for ensemble playing and coaching, she is a professor of collaborative piano and the vocal coach at the University of Manitoba's Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music. She is on the faculties of the NUOVA opera training program in Edmonton, Alberta, the Contemporary Opera Lab in Winnipeg, Man. and VISI (Vancouver International Song Institute).
Loewen has performed extensively with singers, instrumentalists and chamber ensembles. She has appeared in concert with artists such as Charles Castleman, Tracy Dahl, Wendy Nielsen, Jasper Wood, Eugene Rousseau and William Bennett, and is a regular recital partner of baritone Braun and tenor Robert MacLaren.
Loewen and duo partner, saxophonist Allen Harrington, have been performing together for the last seven years. Praised for their combination of virtuosity, musicality, and ensemble, the Harrington/Loewen duo has performed throughout North America and in Europe and Asia, including a debut Atlantic tour of the Maritime provinces in February 2007. They were in residency at the Banff Centre in 2007 where they recorded a CD of Canadian music for saxophone and piano, which includes two pieces commissioned by the duo.
In July 2009 they presented the world premiere of Ice Fog by Örjan Sandred in at The World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok, Thailand and performed concerts in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Loewen is a founding member of The Galileo Trio and Emerado.
Loewen holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Accompanying/Coaching from the University of Minnesota.
Robert MacLaren
Robert MacLaren spent 17 years living in Germany as an opera soloist, recitalist and oratorio singer. Theatres and concert halls performances include: Saarbrücken, Cologne, Hannover, Bremen, Bern, Vienna and Berlin, as well as Beijing and Tokyo.
MacLaren studied at McGill University earning a diploma in education and he took several courses toward a degree in theology studies. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in literature and music from Sir George William's University before studying with L'Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra Montréal; Opera Piccola in Victoria; McGill Opera Studio and the Banff Opera Program. He trained with Leopold Simoneau, the great Canadian Mozart tenor, and Professor Margert Kalil, a Metropolitan Opera soloist.
Favourite repertoire includes Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at Kassel Staatstheater and Hannover-Würzburg; Werther in J. Massenet's Werther, performed in Stadttheater Görlitz, Dortmund, Saarbrücken, and Würzburg; Don José in Bizet's Carmen at Mainfranken Theatre; Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffman; and Rodolfo in "La Boheme" which he performed in Bejing, Bremen, Hannover, Bern, Saarbrücken, Linz and Kassel.
MacLaren's favourite oratorio work is J.S. Bach's Johannes Passion, which he performed in Stadtisches Orchestrer in Trier, Saarbrücken, Montréal, and Québec City under Charles Dutoit. He cites Verdi's Requiem (performed with the Orchester des Stadttheaters Trier) as his most dramatically challenging work, and Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio (performed with the Filharmonia Dolnoslaska and Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie at the Schlesischemusikfest) as the most fun. He also enjoyed performing recitals for the Wagner Association of Saarbrücken, including Schumann's Dichterliebe.
Beyond teaching music, MacLaren has also taught through Frontier College in Northern Ontario and Gillam, Manitoba. He taught high school for four years in the Gaspé Region, and spent five years with the Tudor Singers of Montréal.
