About Christina Raphaelle Haldane

CHRISTINA’s career spans the UK, Europe, Asia and North America, and she is currently based in Canada’s Atlantic provinces. She has interpreted many lead opera roles, having performed for opera houses such as The Finnish National Opera, The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Scottish Opera and Musica Viva Hong Kong. Her specialism is performing HANDEL’S HEROINES, COMEDIC BEL CANTO roles and CONTEMPORARY opera. Christina enjoys performing and curating RECITAL and CHAMBER MUSIC concerts, and she is often invited to perform with LEADING ORCHESTRAS. Her exploration of contemporary music has led to many collaborations with composers, and she continues to bring their VOCAL WORKS TO LIFE. She is a bilingual English and French speaker, and her Canadian heritage is Acadian.
Christina is looking forward to some exciting creative activities and collaborations in the upcoming 2021/ 22 season. Her artistic partnership with her cousin, interdisciplinary artist Carl Philippe Gionet, continues to flourish. Together, they will be curating and workshopping his reimaginings of 12 ACADIAN FOLKSONGS, which will culminate in a new vocal edition and recording of the arrangements. This project is generously funded by ARTS NB and MUSIC NB. Christina is also thrilled to have been selected as one of this season’s ‘EXPORT NB’ artists, a prestigious career development initiative with MUSIC NB, in her home province of New Brunswick.

Recently Christina has begun delving into the world of recording. In 2019 she released her critically acclaimed debut album ‘… LET ME EXPLAIN’ a collection of Canadian art songs which explores folk, jazz and avant-garde styles, and in 2020 she was the lead artist for ICARE, an interdisciplinary digital performance product produced through the Canada Council for the Arts Digital Innovation initiative, in partnership with CBC/ Radio Canada.

Highlights from Christina’s operatic career in the bel canto and music of Handel feature the title role in Donizetti’s LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT (Swansea City Opera & Musica Viva Hong Kong), Clorinda in Rossini’s LA CENERENTOLA (Iford Arts & Scottish Opera), Adina in Donizetti’s L’ELISIR D’AMORE (Musica Viva Hong Kong), Cleopatra in GIULIO CESARE (Finnish National Opera) and the title role in RODELINDA (Opera in Concert Toronto).

Christina has enjoyed a strong relationship with the Royal Opera Covent Garden. She performed the London premiere of Jonathan Dove’s MINTERNE in the Crush Room recital space and the role of Rapunzel in their production of Sondheim’s INTO THE WOODS. As a cover artist for the Royal Opera, Christina has been engaged as Fiorilla in Rossini’s IL TURCO IN ITALIA, Sifare in Mozart’s MITRIDATE, Nella in Puccini’s GIANNI SCHICCHI and Silvia in Thomas Adès’ bold opera THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (also for the Salzburg Festival). Christina’s performance of Silvia’s aria was streamed to over 50 000 viewers in the ROYAL OPERA HOUSE INSIGHTS special on Adès’ exciting new opera.

In 2019 she joined the Voice Faculty at Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts, and continues to combine performing and teaching. Home for Christina is in Moncton, where she lives with her partner Patrice and their two diva dog Pomerians.

-Click HERE for Christina’s Full Biography-

About Carl Philippe Gionet

Carl Philippe Gionet is an Acadian pianist and multidisciplinary artist, with a focus on visual arts and literature. As a musician, whether as a soloist or a collaborative pianist, he is in great demand across Canada and Europe. After obtaining his doctorate in piano performance (Université de Montréal, 2010), he pursued specialized training in Austria and England, and participated in numerous internationally renowned master classes and residencies. Carl is a recipient of many arts awards, including those from the Sylva-Gelber Music Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts and the New Brunswick Arts Council, amongst many others. Carl is dedicated to enabling young musicians through his teaching work, and in 2013 he founded Musique sur mer en Acadie, a festival dedicated to the education and promotion of classical music in the Acadian Peninsula, and he is on faculty as a piano teacher and vocal coach at Biima in Italy. As a visual artist, he works mainly within the world of painting and large format video installations, where he creates almost exclusively in black and white. He finds himself inspired by the contrasts observed in nature, and his work is intended to be both introspective and contemplative, allowing the pieces to express, thus offering audiences many avenues of interpretation. An accomplished writer, Carl’s first book, Icare, will be published this autumn by Éditions Prise de parole.

Prologue, Fougue et Allegro Trépidant – Patrick Roux
This is a piece inspired by three composers that Patrick Roux admires: Chopin, Bach and Piazzolla. Patrick Roux was the founding member of the Canadian Guitar Quartet and his music has been at the core of the ensembles programs since it’s beginning. Bach and Chopin’s music were the initial inspiration behind creating the work, and additionally, the Latin-American style of Piazzolla resonates throughout all three movements.

Empty Houses – Renaud Côté-Giguère
Empty Houses is a piece inspired by the music of Brad Mehldau, and refers to the nostalgic feeling of visiting a house where you once have lived. The piece is divided into four movements that are linked by the use of broken melodies, where the melody can only be heard through the combination of all four instruments instead of having separate accompaniment and melodic lines. Renaud Côté-Giguère’s music is often influenced by jazz and this can be heard in the second movement of this piece.

The Canadian Guitar Quartet
Renaud Côté-Giguère – Jérôme Ducharme – Christ Habib – Louis Trépanier

Since its debut in 1999, the Canadian Guitar Quartet has performed on three continents, going from one standing ovation to the next, and established a reputation as one of the finest guitar ensembles in the world.

During its twenty-plus years, the CGQ has released four critically acclaimed CDs while touring extensively in Canada and abroad, appearing in recital, and with orchestra. The CGQ’s first concert at the 92Street Y in New York city, part of the Art of the Guitar series, was extremely well received. Don Witter Jr., of the New York City Classical Guitar Society, wrote: “The Canadian Guitar Quartet made one of the greatest New York City Debuts of any artistic ensemble in
decades…STUNNING !!!”.

As well as performing and recording, the CGQ continues to mentor and direct young guitarists through clinics, masterclasses, and one on one teaching. While personnel changes have occurred over the years, the ensemble has remained committed to its core mission: chamber music at its highest level, presenting a robust mix of clever new arrangements of classical masterworks alongside bold new works for guitar quartet – most often penned by past and present members of the ensemble. The engaging repertoire, performed with the CGQ’s fiery virtuosity, augmented by the players’ easy and congenial rapport with the audience, all make a Canadian Guitar Quartet concert an event to remember.

About VC4’s Digital Series Concert:
This programme was inspired by the feeling of coming out the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic and celebrates reconnecting with friends.

The theme and variations composed by Beth Silver are based on a melody collected by Jewish-Ukrainian ethnomusicologist Moishe Beregovski in the early twentieth century.  This quartet is part of a group of works commissioned by Prof. Anna Shternshis and the University of Toronto with the purpose of bringing to life some of Beregovski’s recently resurfaced notes and sketches.  These notes were confiscated by the USSR, and Beregovski died thinking his collections had been destroyed.  Beregovski’s correspondence indicates that he asked composers to incorporate pieces of Jewish musical folklore into their compositions in the way Bartók and Stravinsky had previously done, but his wish was never fulfilled.  The variations were written with this in mind; in the styles of famous composers he would have been familiar with.  The writing attached to this particular melody translates to “I planted vegetables in my little garden” and was collected by Ida Shaykes from Lerner Visnshaftler in Kiev in 1946.  Shaykes was one of very few women ethnomusicologists associated with Beregovski, and was trained by him to continue his work.

Members of VC4 also attended McGill University with Kaitlyn Raitz, a wonderful cellist and composer who now resides in Nashville.  Her music is heavily inspired by both Western Classical music and traditional Bluegrass and American folk music.  She remains a dear friend to this day which makes it all the more special that the ensemble is able to perform her music.

Grieg’s Morning Mood and Jocelyn Morlock’s The Violet Hour are about the sunrise – a peaceful, beautiful moment of the day that symbolizes rebirth and renewal. The works by Kaitlyn Raitz call back to a time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful.  The Goltermann Serenade is a moment of serenity and the Matz movement is an energetic party.

Biographies of the members of VC4:

Beth Silver
Beth Silver (M.Mus) is thrilled to be part of a community in which she can thrive on her intuition and creativity. As an involved freelancer based in Toronto, she is admired for expressive, compelling playing and her abilities to paint in many colours through her instrument and capture character and spontaneity in music – especially amidst interactive chamber settings. A lover of many genres, Beth is equally at home in a traditional classical ensemble as she is in a band arranging and exploring new voices for cello. Recently, she has also assumed the role as North America’s foremost (i.e. only) klezmer fiddle-style cellist.

​Performances with various chamber projects have brought her to festivals around the world, including Salzburg’s Kammermusik Festival, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Toronto
Summer Music Festival, Glatt und Verkehrt Festival in Austria, Glasgow’s Celtic Connections Festival, Festival Napa Valley, Ashkenaz Fest, Tirgan Festival, and
Klezkanada. She has been presented across Canada by Jeunesses Musicales, Prairie Debut, and Debut Atlantic as part of the Ladom Ensemble.

She is the recipient of grants from the Canada Council and Ontario Arts Council and her awards include the 2014 Ben Steinberg Musical Legacy Award recognizing musical
achievement in the Canadian Jewish community. She is currently arranging settings of Jewish refugee songs for BBC’s documentary on Jews in Muslim lands.

Beth enjoys spending non-musical time painting, reading, practicing horticulture, and doing yoga, and lives in Toronto’s west end with her cat Sica.

VC2
VC2 Cello Duo is an innovative ensemble that captivates audiences through their performances of classical masterworks, unknown gems and boundary pushing music.
Comprised of cellists Amahl Arulanandam and Bryan Holt, CBC Music calls VC2 “a tight unit, with excellent intonation and expression.” They present artistically challenging, yet accessible programs in venues ranging from intimate cabarets to Roy Thomson Hall. As respected cellists, they have performed as part of leading music organizations including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, National Ballet of Canada Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, Soundstreams, Art of Time Ensemble, Continuum Contemporary Music, New Music Concerts, Music in the Barns, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Tapestry Opera and others. The duo have been
featured artists at Toronto Summer Music Festival, soundSCAPE Festival (Italy), Women’s Musical Club of Winnipeg, Ottawa Chamberfest, Indian River Festival, New
Works Calgary, Ottawa New Music Creators, 21C Music Festival, Ritornello Festival, and the Prairie Cello Institute.

Committed to the creation of new works by living composers, especially those from their home country of Canada, VC2 commissioned five Canadian composers to create works based on the Beethoven Cello Sonatas project. In addition to their performances, VC2, with the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council, recorded these works and in fall 2018, released the album Beethoven’s Cellists which CBC Radio calls a “first-rate” recording.

In the fall/winter of 2019/20, VC2 embarked on a tour of the Western Canada, presented by Prairie Debut, which included a brand-new commission, Heist, by
Chinese-Canadian composer Vincent Ho.  The duo has also toured with Debut Atlantic (2018) in support of their debut album. Entering their fifth year, VC2 will be recording their second full-length album that will be comprised entirely of Canadian cello music, celebrating the diverse compositional voices Canada has to offer.

Sarah Gans
Sarah Gans, cellist, is currently based in Toronto, Ontario. From 2016 to 2019 Sarah served as the Assistant Principal Cello of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony. Prior to this, Sarah graduated with a Master of Music from the Juilliard School where she studied with Darrett Adkins. There, she was the recipient of the Irene Diamond
Graduate Fellowship as well as awarded the Grunin Prize in Cello.

In 2014 Sarah received her Bachelor of Music from McGill’s Schulich School of Music where she studied with Matt Haimovitz. At McGill Sarah was a recipient of the Lloyd Carr-Harris String Scholarship, and upon graduation, was awarded the Salsinger Tani Gold Medal in Music Performance as well as recognized for Outstanding Achievement
in Cello Performance. Sarah has spent her summers at festivals such as the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre’s Masterclasses for Strings, and the
Toronto Summer Music Festival.

Comprised of musicians who settled in Montreal between the summer of 2019 and 2020, these three musicians discovered the city through a peculiar lens – the COVID-19 pandemic. As closures and uncertainties permeated their lives, their relationship with each other was one of the first they formulated in the city. Thus, it was a formative one, forged in an exceptionally difficult period.

The repertoire “Les Arrivants” has developed mirrors the trial and tribulations of their resettlement. The concert program starts with Amijai Shalev’s composition “The Arrival,” which tracks the highs and lows of the resettlement experience. From there, it moves on to “Home” by Hamin Honari, which describes the nostalgia and longing for the places and people they left and the renewed search for the comforts they brought us. From there, the program develops into “Neige De Printemps” by Amijai Shalev, which describes a Montreal staple and a “surprise” that never ought to surprise – the snow of spring. Moving on, the program proceeds to “Basmah (Smile)” by Abdul-Wahab Kayyali, a reflection of the joys brought about from seeing friendly and familiar faces in times of great uncertainty and turmoil. Lastly, the program ends with “Burkan (Volcano)” by Abdul-Wahab Kayyali, which describes anger and protest at the global injustices and inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic.

All the compositions were written by members of “Les Arrivants” between the fall of 2020 and the spring of 2021. Hence, they reflect the growth and maturation of the group’s musical bond, which was nurtured through two fellowships at Montreal’s Centre Des Musiciens Du Monde. They are all informed by the traditions the instrumentalists have mastered throughout their careers, but equally and more importantly, reflect the musical possibilities that can only emerge out of a cosmopolitan center such as Montreal.