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A trio of mezzo-sopranos take centre stage as Music at the Three Churches presents the fourth concert of its summer series at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Mahone Bay, August 16.Paula Rockwell, Claire Mallin and Nina Scott-Stoddart will be accompanied by pianist Jennifer King in an evening of music which has appropriately been dubbed “The Three Mezzos.”

Ms Rockwell, who is an instructor at Acadia University in Wolfville, has travelled across Canada, the United States, England and Japan performing with orchestras, giving recitals and teaching.

She performs regularly with Symphony Nova Scotia and each summer can be heard at the Willcocks Choral Symposium in Lymann, New Hampshire, where she teaches master classes as well as performs.

Ms Mallin is a native of Montreal who founded and directed Atelier d’opéra at the ƒcole de Musique de Lanaudi�re and has performed with orchestras, choirs and ensembles throughout Quebec.

She has been active as a soloist, voice teacher and choir conductor and, more recently, as a music therapist.

Ms Scott-Stoddart is a resident of Lunenburg who is certainly no stranger to local audiences. She has sung as a featured soloist across Canada and the United States and also worked as an opera producer and stage director.

Following her arrival in Nova Scotia in 2002, she founded Maritime Concert Opera and the Halifax Summer Opera Workshop.

Ms King, who holds degrees from Acadia and McGill universities as well as a diploma from the University of Reading, serves as faculty accompanist at Acadia and is also an active adjudicator and chamber musician.

The Mahone Bay concert begins at 8 p.m. and refreshments will be served on the lawn during intermission.

The final concert in this season’s series will be held at Trinity United Church on September 9 and will feature the winners of this year’s Dalhousie Student Competition.

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My dear friends Maureen Batt and Erin Bardua have done me the honour of casting me as La Baronne in Massenet’s Cherubin with their company, Essential Opera this fall.  There will be one performance of this rarity, in concert, at Heliconian Hall, in Toronto on November 12, 2011.

This 1905 opera is based on a play by Francis de Croisset, and is based on the characters from the Beaumarchais plays about Figaro, but is not part of the traditional canon. Think of it as early 20th century fan fiction :)  I love Massenet’s music and I’m thrilled to be involved with this project!

This past season

This has been one of the most enjoyable seasons of my singing life!  I finally got to premiere the show that’s been gestating for many, many years (certainly since my first self-produced show: Divas on Broadway, in 1994).  Called Witches, Bitches and Britches: Confessions of a Mezzo, I performed it in Nova Scotia in October 2010 with my dear, dear friend and colleague Tara Scott!

And I’ve just finished a run of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Maritime Concert Opera.  I think it was a dream cast:  Pinkerton was Len Whiting, Goro was Ed Franko, Sharpless was Andrew Tees and the Bonze was Rob Milne.  Added to this host of friends was young soprano Natalie Donnelly, with whom I had the pleasure of working on Susannah last summer for HSOW.  She was incredibly good and a dream to work with!

This coming season I look forward to singing Nora in Mary Knickle’s new Celtic opera, Morgan le Fay, singing with Pax Christi Chorale in October and singing Third Lady in Magic Flute in June 2012!

Recent and upcoming gigs

It’s been a pretty busy year for me.

The Dal Opera Workshop pulled off a lively production of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld in early February 2009, and I had a blast as stage director.
I sang the Opera Nova Scotia Opera Valentine in February with my friends Lenard Whiting, Amber Bishop and Jason Parkhill.

I performed in a Sondheim cabaret in Toronto with Tryptych Productions, also in February.

I sang a Cabaret program with Maritime Concert Opera in June, as part of the opera festival here in Lunenburg, performing with Garry Williams and Marion Sawatzki.

I directed a program of Opera Excerpts for Halifax Summer Opera Workshop in July and August.

I conducted the children’s chorus for MCO’s production of Hansel and Gretel in October, which starred Marcia Swanston, Andrew Tees, Mary-Claire Sanderson and Signa Love.

I was honoured to perform at two fundraisers this month:  the first was for Second Story Women’s Centre here in Lunenburg and marked Person’s Day.  It was billed as “An evening with Nellie and Nina”  (that’s Nellie McClung, don’t you know :)  Then last weekend I sang at a fund raiser for the Lunenburg Music Festival.
I’m busy stage directing Gianni Schicchi and Face on the Barroom Floor for Dal Opera Workshop.

I’m going to provide technical assistance to DaPoPo Theatre with a workshop version of King Lear in late November.
I’ve got a Messiah coming up with Serenata Singers of Midland on Saturday November 28th, back in Ontario. I love this group, and can’t wait to see them again!

Schicchi and Face go up the first weekend in February 2010.

Upcoming gigs

I’m going to sing in and MC Opera Nova Scotia’s Opera Valentine again this year!

Friday February 13 and Saturday February 14, 2009

Nina Scott-Stoddart, mezzo
Lenard Whiting, tenor
Jason Parkhill, baritone

Carmen was a blast!

I want to thank some of the wonderful folks who made Carmen along the South Shore such a peak career moment for me:

Ed Franko, director and singer extraordinaire.

Andrew Tees, world’s hunkiest baritone (”Oui, je m’aime”)

The board of MCO, without whom nothing is possible

and Lenard Whiting, the Don Jose of my dreams.

I love you all!

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Carmen!

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Yes, the castanets are warming by fire, I’m getting ready to be stabbed in the heart by an ungrateful tenor — it must be time for me to sing Carmen!

I’ve had a great spring full of singing — Vivialdi Gloria in Bridgewater, a Haydn mass back in Midland, Ontario, but next month I’ll be singing Carmen, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve been training for this one for a while, and I can’t wait!

Do check out the Maritime Concert Opera website for more details of the shows, and I hope to see you in June :)

carmenposter.jpg

Yes, the castanets are warming by fire, I’m getting ready to be stabbed in the heart by an ungrateful tenor — it must be time for me to sing Carmen!

I’ve had a great spring full of singing — Vivialdi Gloria in Bridgewater, a Haydn mass back in Midland, Ontario, but next month I’ll be singing Carmen, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve been training for this one for a while, and I can’t wait!

Do check out the Maritime Concert Opera website for more details of the shows, and I hope to see you in June :)

I’ve just been hired to sing the alto solos in the Vivaldi Gloria (one of my very favourite sacred works) with the South Shore Chorale in April.

It will be the Chorale’s last concert with their beloved conductor Linda Jeffrey, and I’m honoured to be singing with her and her daughter soprano Linda Jeffrey.

The dates are Saturday April 19 at St. John’s Anglican in Lunenburg in the evening and
Sunday April 20 at Bridgewater United Church in Bridgewater in the afternoon.

Friday February 15

Opera Nova Scotia’s Opera Valentine

Love, l’amor, l’amour

6:30 pm at the Italian Cultural Centre

I’ll be the host and MC for this annual event, which will feature:

Sarah Barrett-Ives, soprano
Catie Shelley, soprano
Nina Scott-Stoddart, mezzo
Jonathan MacArthur, tenor
Andrew Pelrine, tenor
Joshua Whelan, baritone
Robert Milne, bass

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