Articles by author: Brock University

  • Avanti Chamber Singers to commemorate the Christmas Truce at first concert of the season

    Thursday, November 15, 2018 | By

    The Avanti Chamber Singers are led by Rachel-Rensink-Hoff during choir rehearsal.

    The Avanti Chamber Singers are led by conductor Rachel Rensink-Hoff during rehearsal for their upcoming performance Saturday, Nov. 24 at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church in St. Catharines.

    (From The Brock News, Wednesday November 14, 2018 | By: Jaquelyn Bezaire)

    On Christmas Day, 1914, French, British and German soldiers along the Western Front laid down their weapons, emerged from the trenches and joined in song to celebrate the season. Now referred to as the Christmas Truce, the unofficial ceasefire was a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amid the violence of the First World War.

    To mark the 100th anniversary of the 1918 armistice, conductor Rachel Rensink-Hoff will lead the Avanti Chamber Singers in a performance to remember the truce on Saturday, Nov. 24 at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church in St. Catharines. This marks the first performance of the season for Brock’s choir in residence.

    Titled And on Earth, Peace, the concert will include Remembrance Day tributes, popular songs from the time of the First World War and classic Christmas carols. Songs will be performed in English, German and French, and the audience will be invited to sing along to carols that soldiers would have sung.

    “The moving story of the Christmas Truce was fitting inspiration for our first performance of the season,” said Rensink-Hoff, Assistant Professor of Music in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. “As we look back to Remembrance Day and forward to the holiday season, we will join together in song — just as those soldiers did more than 100 years ago.”

    Many differing stories about the Christmas Truce have been shared. Even today, it is still unclear exactly what happened on Christmas Day all those years ago.

    The most commonly shared account is that soldiers all sang carols together in celebration on Christmas Eve before emerging to wish their enemies a Merry Christmas the next day. After the soldiers ceased fire, they met to exchange small gifts and souvenirs.

    The Avanti Chamber Singers is comprised of 30 musicians from around the Niagara region.

    Rensink-Hoff said she works with different individuals every year, and hopes to showcase the hard work and talent of this year’s choir at the opening concert.

    “The challenge with a new choir is gelling together as a group — not just musically, but interpersonally,” she said. “This is now my second season with Avanti and it makes a big difference when you know people more closely because it helps all of us feel that we are in this together.”

    Accompanying the Avanti Chamber Singers will be pianist and organist Lesley Kingham and guest trumpeter Timothy White.

    And on Earth, Peace takes place Saturday, Nov. 24 at 7:30 p.m. Advanced tickets are available through the Avanti Singers website, at Thorold Music and Booksmart, or from choir members for $20 for adults and seniors. Tickets at the door are $25 for adults and $20 for seniors. A $5 ticket is available for students and eyeGo program members.

    The Avanti Chamber Singers will also be performing on Feb. 23 and April 27 at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church.

    Rensink-Hoff is also the conductor for the Brock University Choirs, which includes both the chamber choir and the new women’s choir. Their first performance will take place Dec. 1.

    For more information about upcoming choral performances, visit the Brock University Music website.

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    Categories: Events, Faculty & Instructors, Media Releases, News, Viva Voce Choral Series

  • Award-winning pianist returns to Brock for Walker Cultural Leaders Series

    Thursday, November 08, 2018 | By

    Award-winning Canadian concert pianist David Jalbert will give a recital Friday, Nov. 16 as part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ 2018 performance season.

    (From The Brock News, Wednesday Nov. 7 | By: Sarah Moore)

    Renowned Canadian concert pianist David Jalbert is returning to St. Catharines Friday, Nov. 16 as the next performer in the Walker Cultural Leaders Series.

    The performance will also open this year’s Encore! Professional Concert Series, hosted by the Department of Music at Brock’s Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA).

    Jalbert, who performs regularly as a soloist and recitalist across North America and Europe, last came to Brock as part of the MIWSFPA’s 2013 performance season.

    A national and international prize-winner, he has won five Opus Awards, was nominated for three Juno Awards and was the 2007 laureate of the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize of the Canada Council for the Arts.

    Music Department Chair Matthew Royal said the accomplished performer will be a highlight to the School’s 2018 event season, both for the public and music students alike.

    “We are delighted to have David Jalbert return to Brock to give a master class to our piano students, and to perform a solo piano recital,” he said. “He is a superbly expressive pianist whose musicality and intelligence are supported by a flawless technique.”

    Jalbert will perform in Partridge Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Art Centre, where attendees will be treated to a program of solo piano works by Bach, Schumann, Liszt and Fauré. The recital will conclude with a performance of Prokofiev’s monumental Sonata No. 7, Op. 83, in B flat major.

    “The highlight of this concert will, I believe, be the Prokofiev 7th Piano Sonata,” Royal noted. “This is one of those pieces that all pianists worth their salt must conquer at some point in their careers. I predict it will be a ‘tour de force.’”

    Tickets are available by contacting the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre Box Office at 905-688-0722 or firstontariopac.ca

    Tickets are $29 for adults, $23 for seniors and students and $13 for children 14 and under. Special $5 tickets are also available through the eyeGo program.

    The Walker Cultural Leaders Series brings leading artists, performers, practitioners and academics to Brock’s MIWSFPA.

    The sessions celebrate professional achievement, artistic endeavour and the indelible role of culture in society. The education program is generously funded by Marilyn I. Walker.

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    Categories: Encore! Professional Concert Series, Events, News

  • Active attacker info sessions to be held at MIWSFPA Nov. 8 & Nov. 14

    Wednesday, November 07, 2018 | By

    (From The Brock News, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018)

    Would you know what to do if there was an active threat or shooter on campus?

    It’s a scenario most people could never imagine happening at Brock University, but one that Campus Security wants to ensure the community is prepared for.

    Campus Security at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) will be holding two information sessions for staff, instructors, faculty and students of the School this month to discuss emergency preparedness in an active attacker situation.

    Rick Fraser, Brock’s Manager, Emergency Management and Life Safety, will be presenting material on the active attacker protocol that has been adopted at the University during these sessions.

    The information and training sessions will take place in MWS 156 on:

    • Thursday, Nov. 8 from 8 to 9 a.m.
    • Wednesday, Nov. 14 from 1 to 2 p.m.

    No registration is required, but the sessions are currently limited to those who study or work at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, due to space limitations.

    For more information on the MIWSFPA sessions, contact Rick Tollar, Supervisor, Campus Security Services, at 905-688-5550 x 6399.

    Information on the active attacker protocol adopted at Brock University is available on the Campus Security website.

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    Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, News

  • Guitarist to conclude faculty Music@Noon performances

    Friday, November 02, 2018 | By

    Tim Phelan poses with his guitar.

    Guitarist Tim Phelan will perform as part of the RBC Foundation Music@Noon series on Nov. 6.

    (From The Brock News | Friday, Nov. 2)

    Fans of Queen are in for a treat during the next RBC Foundation Music@Noon concert.

    Guitarist Tim Phelan will take the stage of the Cairns Recital Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 6 with an arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody by Niagara composter Floyd Turner.

    The performance will also include Turner’s Twelve Preludes as well as solo guitar works by Tárrega, Villa-Lobos and Bach.

    Phelan is a classical guitarist, conductor, composer, arranger and educator currently teaching at Brock University and Mohawk College. At the age of 18, he made his CBC recording debut as concerto soloist with Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. Since then, he has been heard in solo, concerto and chamber music performances over CBC Radio and Television, Radio France, Radio Caribbean and Cuban National Television and Radio.

    The Department of Music invites faculty, staff, students and the community to come and experience his performance. The Music@Noon Series features free, one-hour concerts that occur most Tuesdays at noon during the academic year at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre.

    For more information about upcoming performances, please visit the Department of Music website.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News, RBC Foundation Music @ Noon Series

  • Brock Music students to take the stage for first time this season

    Friday, October 26, 2018 | By

    Brock Music student is on stage playing guitar.

    (From The Brock News, Friday Oct. 26, 2018)

    For the first time this season, students in Brock’s Department of Music are set to perform on the same stage that their instructors did just weeks before.

    The RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series continues on Tuesday, Oct. 30 at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines.

    Students have the opportunity to perform in the Cairns Recital Hall in front of staff, faculty, fellow students and the community. Performers will include piano, vocal and instrumental students.

    Music@Noon is a free recital series that takes place most Tuesdays at noon during the academic year.

    For more information about the series, please visit the Music@Noon webpage.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, News, RBC Foundation Music @ Noon Series

  • Sounds of clarinet and piano to fill Music@Noon stage

    Friday, October 19, 2018 | By

    Clarinetist Zoltan Kalman will perform Tuesday, Oct. 23 as part of the RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series.

    (From The Brock News, Friday Oct. 19)

    Headshot of Gary Forbes

    Pianist Gary Forbes.

    Clarinetist Zoltan Kalman and pianist Gary Forbes will combine their sounds for the next RBC Foundation Music@Noon Recital Series performance on Tuesday, Oct. 23.

    The show, which include works by composers Aaron Copland, Johannes Brahms and Luigi Bassi, is part of the free weekly concert series hosted by the Department of Music and generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation.

    Kalman performs as principal clarinetist for both the Niagara Symphony and Symphony Hamilton, and also acts as the conductor for the University Wind Ensemble at Brock University.

    Along with his work at Brock University as Staff Accompanist, Forbes is a freelance collaborative pianist, Director of Music at St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church and founder of the Reverberations Concert Series.

    Kalman and Forbes are among many talented musicians who will grace the Music@Noon stage throughout the academic year. Performances in the concert series take place most Tuesdays at noon in Cairns Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines.

    For more information about upcoming performances please visit the Music@Noon web page.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News, RBC Foundation Music @ Noon Series

  • Brock cello instructor to take stage for Music@Noon

    Monday, October 15, 2018 | By

    Cellist Gordon Cleland stands with his cello

    Cellist Gordon Cleland will perform on stage for the RBC Foundation Music@Noon series on Oct. 16 at the Cairns Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre

    (From The Brock News, Monday, Oct. 15)

    The 2018-19 RBC Foundation Music@Noon series continues with its second performance of the season on Tuesday, Oct. 16.

    Generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation and hosted by the Department of Music, the free concert series performance will feature Brock cello instructor Gordon Cleland. All are invited to attend the recital, taking place in the Cairns Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines.

    Currently performing with the Niagara Symphony as the principal cellist, Cleland has also performed as a soloist for the Debut Series in Montreal as well as across North America.

    Music@Noon takes place at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre most Tuesdays at noon during the academic year.

    For more information on upcoming performances, please visit ExperienceBU.

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News, RBC Foundation Music @ Noon Series

  • RBC Foundation Music@Noon recital series returns for another season

    Thursday, September 27, 2018 | By

    patricia dydnansky holding flute

    Flutist Patricia Dydnansky is the first performer in the 2018-19 RBC Foundation Music@Noon Series, opening on Oct. 2 at noon at the Cairns Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre in downtown St. Catharines.

    (From The Brock News, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018 | by )

    The popular RBC Foundation Music@Noon series is returning this fall with another stellar lineup of free recitals in downtown St. Catharines, beginning Oct 2.

    Generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation, and hosted by the Department of Music, the series features noon-hour performances by faculty, guests and music students that take place at the Cairns Recital Hall of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre most Tuesdays throughout the year.

    The 2018-19 season will open with a performance by Brock’s own flute instructor, Patricia Dydnansky.

    Currently performing with the Niagara Symphony Orchestra as the Second Flute and Piccolo, Dydnansky has also performed with the Shaw Festival Orchestra, the Stratford Festival Orchestra and the Hamilton Philharmonic. A veteran performer in the Music@Noon series, Dydnansky said patrons can look forward to hearing repertoire from around the world in her recital.

    “This program includes music by composers inspired by the Native American flute and Japanese shakuhachi, a set of Celtic tunes on my new Windward Irish flute, and a delightful set of short dances for piccolo inspired by British folk songs,” Dydnansky said. “Ibert’s gorgeous Pièce pour Flûte Seule is on the bill, as well as pieces by the Baroque composers Telemann and Marais, both displaying the ability of a solo instrument to play polyphonically.”

    The series will continue with performances by Music faculty members Gordon Cleland, Zoltan Kalman, Tim Phelan, Karin Di Bella and Devon Fornelli, and conclude with student performances at the end of each semester.

    Music Chair Matthew Royal said this allows students studying at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA) to watch their instructors perform on stage before having the opportunity to perform in a professional environment themselves later on in the year.

    “We are so grateful for our generous sponsors, the RBC Foundation, that allow us to host these concerts every year,” he said. “They provide a great opportunity for students to learn all that’s involved in performing in a professional-level recital, and for our talented faculty and students to showcase the hard work they have put into their performances with the local community.”

    A line-up of talented guest performances will also round out the programming this year, including Maltese-Canadian flutist Rebecca Hall, who will perform with Brock pianist Karin Di Bella on Jan. 8.  The performers first connected over their shared interest in the work of Jack Behrens, a Canadian composer, and will be continuing to work together after their early 2019 show.

    On Jan. 29, percussionist Devon Fornelli will perform with pianist John Sherwood. Fornelli, a percussion instructor at Brock, has a wide range of experience performing as a soloist, an orchestral percussionist and as a chamber instrumentalist, and Sherwood, the piano tuner at Brock, is listed as being among the top jazz pianists in Ontario.

    Royal encourages both students and those from around the community to come and experience the talented musicians that Brock University has to offer.

    The Music@Noon Recital series is generously sponsored by the RBC Foundation and will run most Tuesdays at noon throughout the academic year. The concerts are performed in the Cairns Recital Hall at FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre. This is a free event that is open to the public.

    For more details about future performances, please visit brocku.ca/miwsfpa/music/concerts

    2018-19 RBC Foundation Music@Noon Series:

    Oct. 2: Patricia Dydnansky (flute)
    Oct. 16: Gordon Cleland (cello)
    Oct. 23: Zoltan Kalman (clarinet) and Gary Forbes (piano)
    Oct. 30: Piano, vocal and instrument students
    Nov. 6: Tim Phelan (guitar)
    Nov. 20: Voice, guitar and piano students
    Nov. 27: Instrumental students
    Dec. 4: Piano students
    Jan. 8: Rebecca Hall (flute) and Karin Di Bella (piano)
    Jan. 29: Devon Fornelli (percussion) and John Sherwood (piano)
    Feb. 5: Voice, guitar and piano students
    Feb. 12: Instrumental students
    Feb. 26: Karin Di Bella (piano)
    March 5: Walker String Quartet: Vera Alekseeva and Anna Hughes (violins), Faith Lau (viola) and Gordon Cleland (cello)
    March 12: Piano students
    March 19: Instrumental students
    March 26: Voice, guitar and piano students
    April 2: Piano students

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    Categories: Current Students, Events, Faculty & Instructors, News, RBC Foundation Music @ Noon Series

  • Music majors to make an impact in Niagara with new Practicum course

    Tuesday, September 18, 2018 | By

    A group of Music majors are taking their learning into the real world this fall as they complete the new Music Practicum course. Led by Music Chair Matthew Royal (back left) and Course Co-ordinator Tim Stacey (back right), this year’s students include (front, from left) Jesse Day, Shaniqua Goodridge, Brielle Kaminsky, Sarah Hollick, Ryan Baxter and Gavino Oresta.

    (From The Brock News, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2018 | by Sarah Moore)

    A group of Brock Music majors will put their classroom learning into practice this fall as the first students enrolled in the new Music Practicum course.

    The multi-year conjunction course allows students to complete for-credit volunteer placements in either music education, music health/therapy, music administration or music in the community.

    Music Chair Matthew Royal said the course is unique because it provides real-world learning experiences while also giving students course credit and volunteer hours that are often required for those applying to Faculties of Education down the road.

    “The idea is to introduce students to real-world settings that might line up with their future career goals and to have them apply the skills and knowledge they’ve learned from their courses in those settings,” he explained.

    It also helps students discover what they are interested in career-wise and how they can achieve their long-term goals, added Koreen McCullough, Experiential Education Co-ordinator, Faculty of Humanities.

    “Learning what you don’t like is just as valuable as learning what you do like,” she said. “Students are not only getting the valuable placement experience through this course but are also being taught up front to set their own goals. At the end of term, they will have a chance to reflect on challenges and achievements, access resume coaching and really apply what they’ve learned to help achieve their future career goals.”

    Six Music majors signed up to work in schools and community organizations around the Niagara region this year.

    Course Co-ordinator Tim Stacey (BA ’15) said the students have already shown themselves to be extremely dedicated and enthusiastic.

    “They’ve worked on these placements over the summer, made connections and did their own research to find them,” said Stacey, who has worked for community choirs as well as the Niagara Symphony and Youth Orchestras since graduating from Brock’s Music program. “They didn’t get to just pick a selection from a list. They had to find the placement themselves, so it’s evident how engaged they are.”

    Gavino Oresta, a fourth-year Music student, will be completing his placement working with music classes at Saint Michael Catholic High School in Niagara Falls, alongside his former high school music teacher, coincidentally.
    With plans to become a music teacher himself, Oresta is looking forward to the challenge of leading his own lessons with the high school students this year.
    “For anyone interested in teaching, it’s a great environment,” he said. “It’s also good to get different perspectives on how teachers go about their lesson structure because every school goes about their music program a bit differently.”

    Learning about different teaching styles was what piqued the interest of second-year student Brielle Kaminsky, who will be working with extracurricular music ensembles, such as the choir, jazz band and string ensemble, at Ridley College in St. Catharines.

    “I’m going to be working with students from all over the world in my placement and it’s really cool seeing how different cultures practice music,” she said. “Not only am I learning in the classroom myself, but I also get to go out and teach what I’m learning in the class to students, too.”

    Adds Oresta: “Plus, you’re hanging around in a music class, which is just fun and exciting to me on its own.”For the first few weeks of the course, students will engage in workshops that will identify their learning outcomes for the term and outline the benefits of experiential learning. They will begin their work placements in late September, with the aim of completing 50 volunteer hours by April.

    The course is open to all Music majors in second year and above and can be taken consecutively year after year. Applications for next year’s practicum course will open in the spring and anyone interested in applying is encouraged to  contact Matthew Royal or Tim Stacey.

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    Categories: Current Students, News

  • Sabina’s Splendid Brain opens at MIWSFPA Sept. 14

    Thursday, September 06, 2018 | By

    Cellist Grace Snippe (BMus ’16), left, and Danielle Wilson bring the story of 20th century psychoanalyst Sabina Spielrein to life in Sabina’s Splendid Brain. The performance opens on Sept. 14 at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts. (Photo by George Enns.)

    (From The Brock News, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018 | by Sarah Moore)

    While Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung have become synonymous with psychoanalysis, the name Sabina Spielrein might leave you drawing a blank.

    The Stolen Theatre Collective hopes to change that by bringing the rarely told story of the Russian-Jewish psychoanalyst to life in a new production at Brock beginning next week.

    Sabina’s Splendid Brain, which opens Sept. 14 at the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts (MIWSFPA), chronicles the life of the tenacious and passionate Spielrein as she struggles through the circumstances of her family, her education and her therapy, the professional barriers facing women and wartime anti-Semitism.

    Spielrein was often known in relation to her famous colleagues: first as a patient, then as a lover of Jung, and later as a student and friend of Freud. As a psychoanalyst in her own right, however, she moved beyond them both to become one of the great thinkers in 20th century psychology.

    Her work was all but wiped from the history books due to Joseph Stalin’s repression of intellectuals and the Nazi invasion of her hometown of Rostov-on-Don, where she and her daughters were killed. Her diaries were recently discovered, however, and her publications were re-examined to reveal the profound impact that her work had on her teachers and peers.

    “Sabina had to fight for her voice,” said Brock Associate Theatre Professor Gyllian Raby, the production’s Director. “She walks the boundary between genius and delusion, and this production invites the audience to experience her journey from a screaming teenager with spittle in her hair to the woman who wowed Freud’s intellectual Vienna Circle.”

    Scripted by Carol Sinclair, Sabina’s Splendid Brain is rendered on stage in sets by Nigel Scott, projections by Karyn McCallum and lighting by James McCoy (BA ’14), and features performances by Brock Assistant Theatre Professor Danielle Wilson and cellist Grace Snippe (BMus ’16).

    “This is a project that fully explores the interdisciplinarity between the arts that was the founding dream of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts,” said Wilson, who is also the co-founder and co-artistic director of Stolen Theatre Collective. “Music, theatre and philosophy are a natural trio in this story of how psychoanalysis helped shape modern consciousness.”

    Fides Krucker, a Canadian interpreter, vocalist, opera singer and teacher, collaborated on the interdisciplinary production with Stolen Theatre. Her innovative vocal techniques and interdisciplinary work will be further highlighted later this month as part of the Walker Cultural Leaders Series on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at the MIWSFPA.

    Sabina’s Splendid Brain opens with back-to-back weekend performances Sept. 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22, all beginning at 7:30 p.m. Additional matinee performances will take place on Sept. 16 and 23 at 2 p.m.

    All performances are held at the Marilyn I. Walker Theatre in the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, located at 15 Artists’ Common in St. Catharines.

    Tickets are pay-what-you-can-afford ($10, $25, $40 and $55) and can only be purchased in advance through the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre box office.

    Limited paid parking is available on-site, but city parking is available within close proximity to the venue.

    For more information on the production, please contact info@stolentheatrecollective.ca

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    Categories: Alumni, Announcements, Events, News

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