Award-winning singer to perform at UPEI
Sarah Jo Kirsch, soprano/vocalist, will be accompanied by pianist Madeline Hildebrand
Sarah Jo Kirsch will be accompanied by Madeline Hilde brand in concert on Nov. 4.
The UPEI Music Department presents soprano Sarah Jo Kirsch, winner of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 7:30 p.m.
The EGré is the most important annually held contemporary music competition for exceptional emerging Canadian performing artists in piano, voice and strings.
Since 1976, the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition discovers, develops and promotes exceptional young Canadian performing musicians who show artistic proficiency, knowledge and keen interest in Canadian and international repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Young artists, alternating annually in voice, strings and piano categories, perform for two panels of nationally and internationally distinguished juries in three levels of competition.
Sarah Jo Kirsch is a soprano/vocalist currently based in Winnipeg. She continues to make waves as a soloist with local ensembles — large and small — and maintains a continuing presence at the WSO New Music Festival, Cluster New Music + Integrated Arts Festival and Groundswell, Winnipeg’s new music concert series.
She surfs the gamut of musical evolution seeking the most harmonious alloys forged from text and music.
More than anything, she aspires to be a worthy muse and an evocative interpreter.
In spring of 2014, she was honoured to be awarded second place in the WMC McLellan Competition and first place in the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition. Outside of Manitoba this season, Kirsch has embarked on a cross-Canada tour with Winnipeg pianist Madeline Hildebrand this fall and premieres Michael Matthews’ new song cycle, Solo queda el desierto’ with L’Orchestre de Chambre de Montréal, and performs Mozart’s Große Messe in cmoll at the American University of Beirut and Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre and Berberian’s Stripsody with Calgary’s Land’s end ensemble in spring.
Kirsch will be accompanied by Hildebrand, whose love for piano music has directed her path from the age of six, culminating in a master of piano performance from the University of British Columbia under the tutelage of distinguished Canadian artist Jane Coop.
The opportunities afforded before and since have been numerous and exhilarating, including the prestigious Doris McLellan first prize in live solo performance with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and a recent silver medal finish in the 2013 E-gré National Piano competition.
Hildebrand is presently on the piano faculty at Canadian Mennonite University. Upcoming engagements include a faculty position with the Rosamunde Chamber Music Festival, Randolph Peters’ The Adventures of Piano Woman with the Thunder Bay Symphony and a return to the WSO Soundbytes Series next season.
Tickets are $15/$10 for students and seniors and are available at the door, online at www.brownpapertickets.com/ev ent/890309 or in advance by calling 566-0507.
The recital takes place in the Dr. Steel Recital Hall, UPEI.