Suzie LeBlanc CM (born 27 October 1961) is a Canadian soprano and early music specialist. She taught at McGill University from 2016 to 2020 and became the Artistic and Executive Director of Early Music Vancouver in 2021. She was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2014 for her contributions to music and Acadian culture.
Suzie LeBlanc was born into an Acadian family in Edmundston, New Brunswick. Her mother, Marie-Germaine Leblanc, was an operatic soprano and singing teacher. As a child LeBlanc played the piano and flute, and was a member of the youth choir Les Jeunes Chanteurs d'Acadie. [1] In 1976 LeBlanc moved with her family to Montreal, where she was first exposed to baroque music at a concert of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal and experienced what she later called "love at first sight" for the music. [2] From 1979 to 1981 she studied harpsichord and voice at the Cégep de Saint-Laurent, with harpsichord as her major subject.
LeBlanc specializes in the 17th and 18th century repertoire. She began singing professionally with the New World Consort of Vancouver. [3] In a review of a 1987 New World Consort recital of early music in Spanish, French, English, and Italian, the New York Times music critic Bernard Holland described her voice as "a musically communicative, purely tuned soprano − and one that enunciated crisply in all four languages." [4] Feeling the need to improve her vocal technique after three years of "education on stage", she went to study in Europe, where Anthony Rooley soon invited her to join his early music group The Consort of Musicke, replacing soprano Emma Kirkby for eight months. [2] She later recorded two albums with the Consort of Musicke.
She has often worked with the American lutenist and music director Stephen Stubbs, recording numerous albums with his early music group Tragicomedia. She has sung and recorded with the Purcell Quartet, the Parley of Instruments, Red Byrd, Les Voix Humaines, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Musica Antiqua Köln, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roy, among others. LeBlanc frequently performs and records with countertenor Daniel Taylor. [1]
Her opera roles include Poppea in L'incoronazione di Poppea at the Opéra de Montréal with Daniel Taylor, Clori in Handel’s Clori, Tirsi e Fileno , and Euridice in Monteverdi’s Orfeo . She was a soloist in Jonathan Miller's 2006 staging of Bach's St Matthew Passion at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. [5]
LeBlanc performs and records music from periods and genres other than early music. Her 2008 recording of Messiaen songs won the Conseil Québecois de la musique's Opus award for best contemporary music recording. [6] She has recorded two albums of Acadian folksongs, La mer jolie (2004) and Tout passe (2007). In 2014 she released La Veillée de Noël, an album of old French Christmas songs. The little-known noëls were taken from Rondes et chansons populaires illustrées, a volume published in Paris in the late nineteenth century and discovered by LeBlanc's cousin at the Collège St-Joseph in Memramcook, New Brunswick. [7] [8]
LeBlanc commissioned settings of several of Elizabeth Bishop's poems from four Canadian composers: Christos Hatzis, John Plant, Alasdair MacLean, and Emily Doolittle. The songs were first performed during the 2011 Elizabeth Bishop Centenary in Nova Scotia. LeBlanc used crowdfunding to finance the songs' recording. [9] The resulting album, I am in need of music, in which LeBlanc is accompanied by a chamber orchestra conducted by Dinuk Wijeratne, contains settings of eleven Bishop poems. Released in 2013, it has been called "an eloquent testament to love, devotion and determination". [10] The recording was a finalist for the 2014 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award. [11] It won the 2014 East Coast Music Award for best classical album. [12] LeBlanc currently teaches at McGill University. [13]
In 2000 she founded Le nouvel Opéra, which is now directed by Rona Nadler.
As an actress, LeBlanc played the leading female character in the feature film Lost Song , which won the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film in 2008. [1]
LeBlanc was introduced to the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop in 2007, when visiting Bishop's childhood home of Great Village, Nova Scotia. [14] Fascinated by Bishop's life and work, LeBlanc collaborated with the Nova Scotian poet Sandra Barry to organize the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Festival in Nova Scotia in 2011. She is the honorary patron of the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia. [12]
She was appointed Artistic and Executive Director of Early Music Vancouver in 2021. [15]
LeBlanc has been awarded honorary doctoral degrees by Mount Allison University, Mount Saint Vincent University, the University of King's College, and the Université de Moncton. [16] In 2010 the Québec Arts Council awarded her a Career Grant. [17] In 2014 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada for "contributing to the development of early-period music and Acadian culture as a singer and teacher". [18]
Evelyn Tubb is an English soprano, and long-time member of The Consort of Musicke and one of the world's greatest early music specialists, known for her innovative and original performances.
Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, is an English soprano and early music specialist. She has sung on over 100 recordings.
David Thomas is an English classical bass singer, performing mostly in concert. He has performed internationally at notable concert halls and festivals.
Paul Lawrence Vincent Esswood is an English countertenor and conductor. He is best known for his performance of Bach cantatas and the operas of Handel and Monteverdi. Along with his countrymen Alfred Deller and James Bowman, he led the revival of countertenor singing in modern times.
Daniel John Taylor, is a Canadian countertenor, conductor and early music specialist. He is one of Canada's most celebrated cultural ambassadors, known for his warmth and humour and a voice that draws global applause. Taylor directs the Trinity Choir, the Theatre of Early Music and is Professor of Opera, Voice and Early Music at the University of Toronto.
Paul Agnew is a Scottish operatic tenor and conductor.
Robin Blaze is a British countertenor.
Charles Daniels is an English tenor, particularly noted for his performances of baroque music. He is a frequent soloist with The King's Consort, and has made over 25 recordings with the ensemble on the Hyperion label.
Matthew White is a Canadian countertenor.
Agnès Mellon is a French soprano who specializes in baroque music.
ATMA Classique is an independent classical record label based in Montreal, and welcomes artists from Quebec, across Canada, and around the world.
Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Ihr Menschen, rühmet Gottes Liebe, BWV 167 in Leipzig for the Feast of St. John the Baptist and first performed it on 24 June 1723. It is part of his first cantata cycle in Leipzig.
Judith Anne Nelson, née Manes was an American soprano, noted for her performances of baroque music at the beginning of the "early music revival" of the 1970s and 1980s.
Carolyn Margaret Sampson is an English soprano in opera and concert. Specialising in historically informed performance, she has sung in Masaaki Suzuki's recording project of Bach cantatas and has appeared at the English National Opera.
Les Voix Humaines is a Canadian viol ensemble based in Montreal, Quebec. The two principal members are Susie Napper and Margaret Little, two gambists. The group performs mainly Baroque music, in particular works by French composers.
Tritt auf die Glaubensbahn, BWV 152, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach. He composed this dialogue cantata in Weimar for the Sunday after Christmas and first performed it on 30 December 1714.
Greta De Reyghere is a Belgian soprano who specializes in early music and Baroque music in historically informed performance but also performs a variety of other classical music in concert. She is a teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Liège.
Emily Van Evera is an American soprano who specializes in early music and Baroque music in historically informed performance.
Arion Baroque Orchestra, founded in 1981, is a Canadian baroque orchestra based in Montreal, Quebec, specializing in music of the 18th century performed on period instruments.
David Cordier is an English countertenor. He made an international career based in Germany, and appeared both in concert and opera. While focused on roles by Handel such as Radamisto, he has also performed in contemporary opera, including works by Aribert Reimann and Péter Eötvös.
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