In February, I was lucky enough to perform with a professional orchestra for the first time. Mark Payne, here at the Don Wright Faculty of Music asked me to sing in his small ensemble with Orchestra London. For Christmas, 2007, we performed Vivaldi’s Gloria and in February of 2008 we performed Bach’s Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan. Phoebus and Pan is one of Bach’s secular cantatas and it’s said to represent the struggle/debate between between high art music and simple folk music. The libretto involves a competition of epic proportions between two singers competing to decide who is more skilled.
I was most thrilled to be asked to sing the role of Phoebus for this performance. What a lengthy sing! If you’re familiar with Bach’s works, you’ll know that they are quite complex - or, at least I find them to be, rhythmically so. Learning this repertoire was similar to working through vocal exercises. It was also interesting to gage how much breath to use and when it was appropriate to take those breaths as the phrases often required many bars of sustained runs.
I coached the piece once with Mark Payne at his home, having only looked at it myself and listened to a recording a few times. It was then time to bring it to a rehearsal with the orchestra and conductor Timothy Vernon (pictured above). As this was my first time with a professional orchestra, I was fairly nervous. After being unable to sustain a few lines due to poor breath management, I eventually became more comfortable and was able to recover. This da capo aria lasts almost all of nine minutes!
After a few more rehearsals, it was finally the evening of the performance. I had woken up that morning with a sore throat - every singer’s nightmare. I tried not to let this worry me too much and I channeled the majority of my energies to relaxing. On the day of a performance, I don’t want to do ANYTHING. I try to spend my time relaxing alone in my apartment, if it’s possible. The cathedral that evening was packed. The first half of the programme was the small ensemble performing Bach Motets and a wonderful performance of one of Bach’s violin concertos. The second half came, and then my aria, and all was fine. It was over. Such a relief and a triumph to have made it to this milestone. I’m always very critical of myself and I certainly feel it could have gone better had I not been sick - but I wasn’t about to complain.
My mum, granny and aunt were all there for my orchestral debut. I’m pretty sure my mum and aunt were crying. The family had come down from St. Catharines and it was nice to climb into that car wearing that hot tuxedo. After going home to my apartment and changing, we hopped in the car with my cat and a cold drink to visit St. Catharines for a few days.