Jamie Barton Takes UK by Storm as Favorite 'Queer Girl with A Nose Ring'
"We are witnessing something rather remarkable. That moment an audience falls in love with a singer." Jamie Barton’s media blitz ahead of Last Night of the Proms included appearances on television, radio, national print media, podcasts, and digital and glossy magazines.
September 16, 2019
““We are witnessing something rather remarkable. That moment an audience falls in love with a singer.””
Jamie Barton’s headlining performance at Last Night of the Proms left fans and audience members around the world glowing. Her flurry of media appearances, including features on BBC World Television’s GMT, Today Programme, In Tune, Breakfast, Front Row Live, BBC News, BBC Digital, The Times, The Guardian, The American Magazine, Classical Music Magazine, and Guilty Feminist, were followed by rave reviews afterwards.
Photo by Chris Christodoulou
Miriam Khalil's Debut Disc Nominated for Classical Album of the Year
“Khalil's performances offer an energy and understanding that make hers a new definitive interpretation of the work.” Ayre: Live, the debut release from Against the Grain Theatre’s new in-house recording label, has been nominated for a 2019 Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year, Vocal or Choral.
January 30, 2019
““Khalil doesn’t so much sing the Argentine-born composer’s material as wholly inhabit it. The fluidity, grace, and seeming ease with which she executes the undulating melodies are stunning...””
Ayre: Live, the debut release from Against the Grain Theatre’s new in-house recording label, has earned a 2019 Juno Awards nomination for Classical Album of the Year, Vocal or Choral. The album has been critically acclaimed for its performances by Lebanese-Canadian soprano Miriam Khalil, who dispatches Osvaldo Golijov’s eclectic song cycle – with elements of Byzantine chant, Sephardic lullabies, Sardinian protest songs, and Arabic, Hebrew, and Christian texts – with aplomb.
Read reviews:
“One of my favourite albums of 2018… it is intimate yet powerful, piercing with emotion and mesmerizing in its tonal expression. The superb chamber ensemble of Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre has a wonderful synergy with the company’s co-founder, soprano Miriam Khalil, a true star of this recording. Her immense range of colours and fascinating vocal transformations made her performance on this album both spectacular and touching.”
The WholeNote
“Khalil doesn't so much sing the Argentine-born composer's material as wholly inhabit it. Khalil's passionate engagement with the material is evident the moment her tremulous voice floats over a delicate foundation provided her by accordionist. The fluidity, grace, and seeming ease with which she executes the undulating melodies are stunning, and without wishing to downplay the magnitude of Golijov's accomplishment, it's her performance that most recommends the recording.”
Textura
“While Khalil’s delivery is unforced and achingly direct, it is far from artless or unpolished. The final movement, “Ariadna en su laberinto,” in particular is a tour de force of effortless virtuosity. Much of the movement is given over to wordless vocalise that traverses the entire compass of Khalil’s voice—she ascends from her lush, velvety lower register to a rhapsodic cantillation over an octave above without missing a beat, delivering the winding, highly ornamented phrases with a graceful fluidity that belies the iron control necessary to execute the extended passage. Ayre’s eclectic sources can feel blocky in their juxtapositions, like buildings from different eras of a city thrown up with no compromise or eye to overall aesthetic cohesion. In Khalil’s rendition, the impression is more of a lived-in landscape, one where tree and grass and hill and oasis have melded together into an intricate network, no one part fully extricable from any of the others. In this way, she makes Ayre feel like a piece for our time…”
Log Journal
“Best Recording of 2018: The clear standout was Miriam Khalil’s extraordinary performance of Golijov’s Ayre. It’s as spine-tingling on record as it was live.”
OperaRamblings
“Khalil’s performance shows her to be more than a singer: she is an elemental force. There are no missteps here… She sings with such tonal surety, such microscopic shading so as to mesmerize and move the listener, [then] rips through the text with ecstatic grunts, wails, menacing caterwauling. Khalil does great things as she leaps into operatic heights and sings long melismatic lines with solid technique and primal force.”
Opera Wire
"Ayre is so relentless in its storytelling that it’s almost exhausting – another emotional wave we can surely ride alongside Khalil, who sings the challenging work with her whole body. Few singers have the stamina or the stylistic palette that Khalil employs throughout Ayre, and it’s even more impressive when one remembers this is a live recording. With Ayre Live, Against the Grain Theatre has christened its new record label with a piece that evades definition, a game in which artistic director Joel Ivany excels. The recording is a nod to the opera collective’s roots, with its spotlight on founding member Khalil, but more importantly, it’s something that will make it into my daily playlist. It’s too bold for background music, too tough to forget after even just one listen."
The Globe and Mail
“The gutsy, political, and hypnotising Ayre Live, performed by Canadian soprano and AtG founding member Miriam Khalil…offers an energy and understanding that make hers a new definitive interpretation of the work. The album is also a bold way for Against the Grain to inaugurate its status as a record label…to lead with Ayre is to lead with a strong message of putting art and diversity first - without compromising on quality.”
Schmopera
Jorge Mejia and An Open Book Nominated for Latin Grammy
Mejia’s “Prelude in F Major for Piano and Orchestra,” from his album An Open Book, was nominated for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
September 20, 2018
Photo by Laura Coppelman
Jorge Mejia’s memoir in music, An Open Book, has been nominated for a Latin Grammy Award. The album comprises 25 preludes for piano and orchestra, with the composer appearing as pianist alongside the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra.
A Steinway Artist, Jorge is a masterful storyteller dedicated to bringing new audiences to classical music. He was recently profiled in Billboard Magazine, graced the cover of Músico Pro Magazine, and was interviewed on WLRN Radio. Immediately following its Miami launch concert, An Open Book was hailed as "an instant classic...a rigorous and eclectic work" by El Nuevo Herald.
Mejia’s “Prelude in F Major for Piano and Orchestra” was nominated for Best Classical Contemporary Composition. The winner will be announced at the 2018 Latin Grammy Awards Show on November 15.
Riders Opera Finalist in NYF Radio Awards
"Monumental and well-crafted…Craig Bohmler's Riders of the Purple Sage can now lay claim to a rightful place in the canon of works about the American West." WFMT's American Opera Series broadcast of Riders has been named a finalist in the New York Festivals Radio Awards.
June 27, 2017
The WFMT broadcast of Riders of the Purple Sage, the world premiere opera written by Olivier Award-nominated composer Craig Bohmler and commissioned by Arizona Opera, aired in 400 cities throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
The broadcast, hosted by Naomi Lewin and co-produced by Kristin Atwell Ford, has now been recognized as a Finalist in the New York Festivals Radio Awards "Best Music Special" category.
Corinne Winters Interviewed on Italian Radio
"L'italiano è la lingua più bella del mondo!" Soprano Corinne Winters joined SBS Italian Radio to discuss her love for the Italian language and the juicy roles of the Italian operatic repertoire.
May 4, 2018
““Italian is the most beautiful language in the world!””
After wowing audiences in her Australian debut in La traviata at Opera Australia, American soprano Corinne Winters spoke with SBS Italian Radio, in an interview with Carlo Oreglia.
Photo by Fay Fox
An Open Book Featured on WLRN's Sundial
Luis Hernandez interviews Jorge Mejia in a segment that also includes a reading and orchestral excerpts from this musical memoir.
May 1, 2018
Pianist and composer Jorge Mejia joins Luis Hernandez on Sundial on WLRN in Miami to discuss An Open Book: A Memoir in Music.
Featuring a taste of An Open Book's innovative musical and narrative blend, Mejia's interview closes out the episode, beginning ~36:42.
An e-book alternating narrative vignettes with orchestral preludes recorded by the composer with the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, An Open Book is inspired by Mejia’s colorful family history in Colombia, musical coming-of-age, and charming romantic misadventures en route to meeting his wife, women’s rights advocate Amanda Mejia.
An Open Book will be celebrated with a reading and performance at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center. The performance will feature a chamber orchestra, including members of the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, accompanying the composer at the piano. Co-presented by Miami cultural mainstay Books & Books, the launch concert kicks off Mejia’s Latin American tour, which will also include appearances in Ecuador and Uruguay.
Riders Opera Airs Worldwide
"An opera as monumental and well-crafted as Craig Bohmler's Riders of the Purple Sage can now lay claim to a rightful place in the canon of works about the American West. Riders is literally and figuratively blazing new trails, demonstrating the relevance and value of the age old genre in a dynamic and memorable production." Arizona Opera's first commissioned world premiere airs on WFMT's American Opera Series in over 400 cities.
November 25, 2017
Riders of the Purple Sage, Arizona Opera's first-ever world commission by Olivier Award-nominated composer Craig Bohmler, shattered box office records for the company. Now, audiences outside of Arizona can hear this American Western Opera, via WFMT's American Opera Series, airing to more than 400 cities worldwide.
Details of broadcast >
A Silent Night Album Resonates
“These artists address the listener with the urgency of a prophet or an obsessive. World War I ended almost a century ago, but they make it seem present and pressing, like many of the songs it inspired. Artsong recitals rarely feel so grounded in reality.” The debut album from baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan is reviewed in Opera News and aired on radio stations across the U.S.
October 15, 2017
““These artists address the listener with the urgency of a prophet or an obsessive. World War I ended almost a century ago, but they make it seem present and pressing, like many of the songs it inspired. Art song recitals rarely feel so grounded in reality.””
A Silent Night, the first disc from baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan, has earned praise from Opera News and airtime on radio stations across the U.S. Hailed by The Washington Post as “refreshingly, marvelously different,” their WWI tribute album features the music of British, German, French, and American composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War.
Read the full review in Opera News.
Corinne Winters Debuts as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello
"Stunning, intense, and heartbreaking." Corinne Winters is earning raves for her first Desdemona in Opera Vlaanderen's new Michael Thalheimer production.
February 13, 2016
Photo by Annemie Augustijns
““Corinne Winters as Desdemona was by far the star of the evening. She showed a very bright lyrical soprano ranging to spinto, a beautiful colour, lavish projection and a dynamically varied delivery. The Willow Song and the fight duet with Otello were undeniably the highlight of the evening.” LEIDMOTIEF”
Corinne Winters is earning critical acclaim for her first run as the iconic Desdemona in Opera Vlaanderen's new Michael Thalheimer production of Verdi's Otello. Admist an atmosphere that is dark both literally and psychologically, Winters is receiving raves for her "stunning, intense, and heartbreaking" Desdemona (Flemish Classical Radio), as well as her strength balanced with "grace and nuance." (La Libre)
Also starring Ian Storey in the title role, Vladimir Stoyanov as Iago, and Adam Smith as Cassio, Otello is conducted by Alexander Joel. Performances run until March 15th with tickets available through Opera Vlaanderen's website.
Read reviews:
"In all that darkness, the light of this performance is Desdemona. In Corinne Winters, Michael Thalheimer has found a stunning, intense and heartbreaking Desdemona, who draws you in with her arias. "
Klara Classical Radio
"With a creamy timbre and a clear underlying gravity, the young North American soprano Corinne Winters delivers an enveloping Desdemona, fascinating with superbly controlled fil di voce."
Anaclase
"In all that lusciousness a sublime Corinne Winters, in her role debut as Desdemona, is a breath of fresh air in the last act: small and intimately she sing her lament ‘Willow Song,' after which she sings the Ave Maria. The American soprano is the bright light of this very old fashioned staging."
Concert News
"Corinne Winters as Desdemona was by far the star of the evening. She showed a very bright lyrical soprano ranging to spinto, a beautiful colour, lavish projection and a dynamically varied delivery. The Willow Song and the fight duet with Otello were undeniably the highlights of the evening. We’ll happily believe she sang an outstanding Donna Anna and we’d love to see her again in Verdi or Puccini repertoire."
Leidmotief
"Corinne Winter’s Desdemona suited all the black around her. Her Willow Song sounded beautifully fragile..."
Place de l'Opera
"Last year, Corinne Winters sang a fantastic Donna Anna. Her Desdemona succeeds, especially in her piano sounds and textual interpretation in the 'Willow Song' and her internalized expression of the 'Ave Maria'."
GOpera
"Corinne Winters offers both the girlish lightness and the desperation for a convincing Desdemona."
Online Musik Magazin
"Winters' fragility shone through in her "Willow Song", but her saving grace turned out to be a luminescent Ave Maria, brightening Thalheimer's darkness [with] a dynamic intensity and honesty in her voice."
Bachtrack
"The Desdemona of Corinne Winters plays marvelously with the stillness of a doll, which the director imposed on her. This doesn’t prevent her voice from unfurling into a maturity and warmth rare for her age. Not a single interval is cheated and the soprano manages to fly over the choir in act III with the ease of a dove."
ForumOpera
"Corinne Winters, a fragile Desdemona, sings her Willow Song with a perfect sense of effect and timing. Conductor Alexander Joel lets the airy notes of her “Ave Maria” flow straight into the growling basses of the finale."
De Standaard
"The way Desdemona and her purity are portrayed can only be described as breathtaking. Corinne Winters (Desdemona) gets to the essence of her fragile character."
Cutting Edge
"Desdemona is played by Corinne Winters. Young and petite, but blessed with an impressive voice."
PodiArt
"The Desdemona of the American soprano Corinne Winters, in her psychological righteousness, is compelling from her first appearance. Her voice is luminous and her technique considerable, with a beautiful legato that works wonders in the last act during the famous "Willow Song" – and the rejection of any external effects makes it deeply moving."
Classique News
"As Otello, Ian Storey is an overwhelming power, facing the Audrey Hepburn-esque Desdemona of Corinne Winters, who is just as strong vocally, but with grace and nuance."
La Libre