Concert 4 | Friday, May 20, 2011 at 8 pm
THE LIFE OF EDWARD JOHNSON
with Ryan Harper (tenor)
Marion Samuel-Stevens (soprano)
& Anna Ronai (piano)
sponsored by The Edward Johnson Foundation
See and hear Mr. & Mrs. Edward Johnson in words & music, recreated on the stage by tenor Ryan Harper & soprano Marion-Samuel Stevens with collaborative pianist Anna Ronai.
With a script by CBC producer Neil Crory based on personal letters, this special presentation includes musical selections by Umberto Giordano, Mendelssohn, Frank Tours, Francesco Paolo Tosti, Puccini, Oscar Strauss, and Isham Jones. Don’t miss this illuminating picture of Guelph native and opera legend Edward Johnson.
Neil Crory, a graduate of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, is Senior Music Producer for CBC Radio; Senior Consulting Editor for Opera Canada magazine; Artistic Advisor and Music Consultant for Stratford Summer Music; and a freelance writer and record producer—who has no business writing plays.
Special thanks to Gloria Dent for her research. The script is based on her new book, At My Sweet Recall: the Letters of Edward Johnson & Beatrice D’Arneiro (1906–1908). Here is a link to a review a Whole Note magazine.
After intermission, Marion returns with a solo set, followed by a special duet with Ryan.
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Ryan Harper (Edward Johnson)
The 2010/2011 season sees Ryan with role and company debuts such as Georges Brown in Boieldieu’s, La dame blanche, for Toronto’s Opera In Concert, and as Frederick in Toronto Operetta Theatre’s production of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic, The Pirates of Penzance. Ryan will reprise the role of Ferrando in this season’s production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte presented by Opera York (company debut), and the dual role of Cratchit/Marley in the Canadian Children Opera Companies production of Gay’s A Dickens of a Christmas.
During the summer of 2010 Ryan travelled to Ottawa to perform Brahm’s Liebeslieder Waltze at Rideau Hall in front of Her Honour Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, and an audience of recipients of the Order of Canada. In August Ryan returned to Haliburton to perform the role of Rololfo (role debut) in the Highlands Opera Production of Puccini’s La Boheme.
In April of 2010 Ryan made his Buffalo Philharmonic debut with a Puccini cantata entitled Cessato il suon dell’armi -which was its first performance in North America. “The tenor soloist in the cantata was Ryan Harper, and his clear, focussed singing was a highlight of the performance.” -Garaud MacTaggart, Buffalo News, April 26th, 2010.
The 2010 concert season has included two concerts with the Off Centre Music Salon: Tears and Laughter: The Colour red, and Music and Nature: The Colour Green. The 2010 concert season concludes as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah with The Toronto Choral Society and the Talisker Players under the direction of Geoffrey Butler.
Ryan has assumed a wide variety of operatic and concert repertoire most significantly have been the works of Benjamin Britten. In 2004 Ryan sang Prologue/Quint in A Turn of the Screw, covered Snout and Flute for Tanglewood’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and in the same year he assumed the title role in Albert Herring. In June of 2009 Ryan performed the Serenade for Tenor horn a strings under the auspices of the National Arts Centre Summer Music Intensive.
Ryan earned his undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance at the University of Toronto where he studied with Dr. Darryl Edwards. After completing his Bachelors degree he attended the Glen Gould Professional School of the Royal Conservatory in Toronto where he worked with such master teachers as Regina Resnik, Daniel Ferro, and Richard Miller. In 2005, Ryan began working towards his Masters degree under the tutelage of tenor Stanford Olsen at Florida State University. Ryan attended Florida State on a full scholarship which included the responsibility of being an associate voice teacher. The 2008-2009 season was spent as a member of the Atelier Lyrique -the apprentice program of the Montreal Opera.
Ryan is a native Torontonian who currently studies with the celebrated tenor Ermanno Mauro.
Marion Samuel-Stevens (Mrs. Edward Johnson)
Soprano Marion Samuel-Stevens is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Voice Performance and is building a reputation as a performer of Oratorio and Opera. Marion is an avid supporter of new music and was a finalist in the 2008 Eckhardt-Grammatté competition and has performed Grigori Frid’s Diary of Anne Frank as Anne, Peter Skoggard’s new opera Stratas in the title role, Ruth in Ronald Beckett’s opera Ruth, Mark Adamo’s Little Women as Beth, as well as David Del-Tredici’s Alice with the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra. Operatic roles include Elle in La Voix Humaine by Poulenc, Hélène in Hindemith’s Hin und Zurück and Estelle in The Stronger by Hugo Weisgall, Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute by Mozart and Titania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Oratorio highlights include Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Vespers, Haydn’s Paukenmesse, Lord Nelson Mass, and Creation. Vivaldi’s Gloria and Magnificat, Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, Faure’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and the Christmas Oratorio by J.S. Bach. In 2010, she was one of two vocalists participating at the first ever Bohlen Pierce symposium in Boston, MA. We welcome back Marion for second appearance in Guelph Musicfest.
Anna Ronai (piano)
Austrian Collaborative Pianist, Anna Ronai initially studied Piano at the University for Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, and continued her studies in two Master’s of Music Programmes at the Music University Music and Dramatic Arts Vienna, studying piano pedagogics under Prof. Adrian Cox and Lied accompaniment under the direction of Prof. David Lutz. She attained her first Masters degree in 2002, followed by her second Masters degree in Lied Accompaniment in 2004.
Annai has collaborated with such distinguished artists as Michelle Breedt, Birgid Steinberger, Bernarda Fink and Robert Holl. Anna has performed at major venues in Europe and North America, including the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, Gläserner Saal, Musikverein, and Schubert Saal, Konzerthaus, Palais Liechtensten, Vienna. In 2008, she became the Resident Orchestral Pianist with the “Wiener Imperal Orchester.” Successful not only on the recital stage, Anna has appeared and placed in several major Lied Duo competitions such as the Robert Schumann Duo Competition, Zwickau, Germany, the East & West Artists International Auditions, New York, and Schubert und die Moderne, Graz, Austria.
Anna has maintained several coaching and accompanying positions at the Vienna and Innsbruck Conservatories, and the Institute for European Studies in Vienna. She accompanies regularly at the Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph.
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