Faculty of Music presents Darryl Edwards voice recital

Faculty of Music presents Darryl Edwards in recital

TORONTO ’Äì The University of Toronto Faculty of Music presents Earth, Water, Wind and Fire, a vocal recital featuring faculty artists Darryl Edwards, tenor, with Liz Upchurch, piano, Friday, March 20, 7:30 pm, in Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queens Park. Tickets ($25 adults and $15 seniors/students) can be purchased at the box office in person or by calling 416-978-3744.

This is the final concert in the Faculty Artist Series, featuring tenor Darryl Edwards and pianist Liz Upchurch in a widely varied program showcasing art song, Shakespeare songs with lutenist John Edwards, and a dramatic cantata with mezzo-soprano Erin Crooks. Operatic selections round out the program, from Mozart's Idomeneo to Toronto composer Raymond Luedeke's I Confess, I Have Lived, based on the stormy poetry of Nobel winner Pablo Neruda. Each selection portrays vivid human emotions ’Äì fear, love, longing for home ’Äì experienced and described in terms of the visceral, concrete world around us, made of earth, water, wind and fire.

Tenor DARRYL EDWARDS has appeared to critical acclaim in oratorio, recital, and opera in England, Germany, France, Italy, Corsica, the United States, and across Canada. His recent and upcoming engagements include Kodˆ°ly's Psalmus Hungaricus with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Verdi Requiem at Dalhousie University: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Orff's Carmina Burana with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Mozart Requiem with the Toronto Philharmonia, and Handel's Messiah with the Elmer Iseler Singers.

Darryl Edwards is the Artistic Director of the Centre for Opera in Sulmona, Italy, and the Concert Opera Group. His voice students appear with major companies and orchestras across Canada, the United States and Europe (Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera Covent Garden, New York City Opera, Philadelphia Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Bavarian State Opera’Äì Munich, Zurich Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Greek National Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company). He has served as the Ontario District Governor of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and is the voice columnist for the Canadian Music Educator.

Critics praise him as a "rich-voiced, cultured tenor who mastered the high notes effortlessly" (Coburg Tageblatt, Germany), and an "effective communicator who expressed the text with sensitivity and fervour" (Hamilton Spectator). His recordings and broadcasts include performances with American National Public Radio (NPR), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC Radio 2), and the Canadian Music Centre (Centrediscs).

LIZ UPCHURCH is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, where she won several prizes as solo pianist and accompanist. As a music director, vocal coach and repetiteur she has worked in 21st-century and traditional opera, music theatre and theatre. She has also covered a wide range of working techniques with singers, actors and instrumentalists in community and educational projects. For many years she worked with young artists at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh where she played for masterclasses with artists such as Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Suzanne Danco, William Pleeth and Dame Joan Sutherland. Ms Upchurch has also worked at the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg festival in Germany and the National Theatre in London. She held a faculty position in the 20th-century Opera and Song program at the Banff Centre for the Arts and was repetiteur and chorus director at Edmonton Opera. As a pianist she has performed all over Europe and has been broadcast with the BBC, Norwegian Radio and the CBC. Ms Upchurch also appeared as a judge on Bravo’Äôs hit series, Bathroom Divas: So you want to be an opera singer!

Featuring music faculty members, the FACULTY ARTIST SERIES has a long tradition of presenting some of Canada’Äôs most celebrated artists and is considered one of the finest recital series in Toronto. For more information on this or other Faculty of Music concert series, please visit our website at http://www.music.utoronto.ca/ or contact the Box Office at 416-978-3744.