For twenty years, SweetWater Music Festival has been captivating and enriching our local community by spreading the joy of music. This year’s festival was a proud homage to our dedicated audiences, hard-working volunteers, and our supremely talented musicians as we celebrate twenty years of enjoying live music together!
An enormous thank you to our guest performers, volunteers, staff and many patrons for making our twentieth year one to cherish – we look forward to seeing you again in 2024!
Meet the Musicians
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Host
Tom Allen is a passionate music lover, storyteller, accomplished trombonist, writer and broadcaster. Tom hosted Music and Company on CBC Music for 10 years and followed that with a second decade on Shift. Yet earlier in his long career at CBC, his weekly stories aired to a keen Ontario audience on CBC Radio One's Fresh Air and nationally on This Morning. He has also created, with longtime collaborator Jeff Reilly, a series of dazzling single-shot videos on music and music history. He is the creator, with his life partner, the harpist Lori Gemmell, of a series of stage shows mixing storytelling, history, classical music and original popular song. Allen studied at McGill University, graduated from Boston University and received a Master's degree from Yale University.
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Cellist
Keiran Campbell was drawn to the cello after he stumbled across one in his grandmother’s basement and was baffled by its size. Once he turned 8, he began taking lessons- on a much smaller cello- in his native Greensboro, North Carolina. After studying extensively with Leonid Zilper, former solo cellist of the Bolshoi Ballet, he received his Bachelors and Masters at the Juilliard School, working with Darrett Adkins, Timothy Eddy, and Phoebe Carrai. Keiran also spent several springs in Cornwall, England, studying with Steven Isserlis and Ralph Kirshbaum at Prussia Cove.
Keiran has performed with ensembles in North America including NYBI, Philharmonia Baroque, The Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra, Four Nations Ensemble, Les Violons du Roy, and Arion Orchestre Baroque. In Europe, he frequently performs with The English Concert and Le Concert des Nations. During his summers, Keiran has performed with Teatro Nuovo, Lakes Area Music Festival, Staunton Music Festival, and The Carmel Bach Festival. He is also on faculty at the recently formed, UC Berkeley-based, Chamber Music Collective, which focuses primarily on post-1750 performance practice. Keiran now lives in Toronto with his wife, violinist Chloe Fedor, where he is a core member of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.
Keiran is also fascinated by instrument making, which he studies with the maker of his cello, Timothy Johnson.
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Violist
Canadian violist Isaac Chalk is a graduate of Mozarteum University in Salzburg and of McGill University in Montréal, where he received the prestigious Lloyd Carr-Harris String Scholarship and the Golden Violin Award. In February 2011, Isaac made his debut at Toronto’s Koerner Hall performing Béla Bartók’s Viola Concerto with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, conducted by Julian Kuerti. In June 2013, he was named principal viola of Les Violons du Roy. He has also appeared as a soloist with the orchestra on many occasions, most notably in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Anthony Marwood and as viola d’amore soloist in the orchestra’s popular Vivaldissimo! project.
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Violist
With equal facility as both a violist and period violinist, Emily Eng enjoys a diverse musical life in orchestras and chamber ensembles with either gut or steel at her fingertips. Her work has included engagements with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Ballet Orchestra, Academy Concert Series, Soundstreams, Chatham Baroque, Esprit Orchestra, the Toronto Consort, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Outside of the wild world of freelancing, Ms. Eng has a full all-ages studio of private violin students whom she is mentoring as the next generation of classical music lovers and audience members. Ms. Eng studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Juilliard School, the Glenn Gould School, and the Amsterdam Conservatory. She has been training in martial arts since 2001, and is a licensed practitioner of Thai massage.
This year, Ms. Eng is delighted to be joining the National Ballet Orchestra as a section viola member.
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Pianist
Ewen Farncombe is a Juno nominated pianist and composer based out of Toronto and has been a professional on the scene there for nearly a decade. Having played on various recordings and with numerous bands, he has earned his reputation as a highly skilled musician.
While he was attending Humber College for a degree in music performance, he received several prestigious awards, including the Hnatyshyn Foundation Oscar Peterson award. While jazz is Ewen’s passion, he is a versatile player and is known to play many genres of music.
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Violinist
Known for her “lovely, plush, seductive tone” (New York Times) and lauded for her “soulful, virtuosic” playing and “impeccable technical control” (Opera News); Chloe Fedor is artistic advisor and concertmaster of Baroque programming at Lakes Area Music Festival, co-concertmaster of Lyra Baroque Orchestra in St. Paul, MN, and a member of the Grammy award-winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire. She appears regularly with the top period performance ensembles on the continent, including the Handel and Haydn Society, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra.
Chloe earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and two Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, both in modern violin and historical performance.
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Flutist
English-American performer and composer Emi Ferguson stretches the boundaries of what is expected of modern-day musicians. Emi was named a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant awardee and has performed with numerous groups including AMOC*, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Manhattan Chamber Players. As a historical Flutist, Emi is a frequent guest soloist with period ensembles including Tafelmusik, Voices of Music, the American Classical Orchestra, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra. Emi is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School, the Bach Virtuosi Festival, and has taught on the faculty of the University of Buffalo. Born in Japan and raised in London and Boston, she now resides in New York City.
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Violinist
Violinist Mark Fewer leads a multi-disciplined life in music. Violin soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, artistic director, conductor, arranger, teacher, jazz violinist, recording artist and occasional radio host, he has performed worldwide to great critical acclaim. Described as “intrepid” (The Globe and Mail), “genre-bending” (National Post), “profound” (The WholeNote), and “freaky good”(The Gazette), he has performed around the world in halls such as Carnegie, Wigmore and Salle Pleyel, and is equally at home in recital venues such as Bartok House (Budapest) to Le Poisson Rouge (NYC) to The Forum (Taipei).
As a soloist, he has performed with the symphonies of Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Quebec, San Francisco and Melbourne, as well as with groups such as the Fodens-Richardson Brass Band (UK), the Zapp Quartet (Amsterdam), the McGill Percussion Ensemble, and as a featured guest with Stevie Wonder and his band. As a chamber musician he was a founding member of the Duke Piano Trio, has been a member of the Smithsonian Chamber Players for over 15 years, and was violinist with the St. Lawrence String Quartet at Stanford University, where he was Artist-in-Residence. As a conductor he has directed I Musici de Montreal, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, the Newfoundland Sinfonia, the McGill Baroque Orchestra, the Guelph Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony and the choir Capella Antica.
Mr. Fewer has been Artistic Director of the SweetWater Music Festival for 16 years, and in 2019 was appointed as the new Artistic Director of Stratford Summer Music. He is currently Associate Professor of Violin and the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. He is a Juno and Prix Opus winner.
Mark Fewer’s performances at SweetWater 2023 are generously sponsored by Bruce & Mary Hutchinson.
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Harpsichordist
Elliot Figg is a keyboardist, conductor, and composer from Dallas, Texas. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School where he studied harpsichord with Kenneth Weiss. He has also studied with Arthur Haas at the Yale School of Music. Elliot is an active member of several New York-based early music and contemporary ensembles, including Ruckus, ACRONYM, New York Baroque Incorporated, and New Vintage Baroque. He also works in frequent collaboration with BalletNext. Recent engagements include: Conductor and harpsichordist for the U.S. premiere of Chevalier de St-Georges' L'Amant Anonyme with Little Opera Theatre of New York; assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Vivaldi's Farnace, and for Cavalli's Veremonda, both with Spoleto Festival USA; and assistant conductor and harpsichordist for Dido and Aeneas with L.A. Opera.
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Harpist
Lori Gemmell started as a street-corner busker in Montreal. She is now Principal Harpist with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, has toured Europe and Japan with the Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne, and teaches both privately, and at Wilfred Laurier University. She plays regularly with the Toronto Symphony, and National Ballet orchestras. She is a member of the Four Seasons Harp Quartette. Her most recent recording is Canadian Music for Harp. She has also recorded as a soloist on Prelude, with Jennifer Swartz on their harp duo recording The Garden of Peacocks, with Trumpeter Larry Larson on Divertissement, on the soundtrack recording for Bohemians in Brooklyn and with songwriters Kevin Fox and Feist.
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Cellist
Elinor Frey is a leading Canadian-American cellist, gambist, and researcher. Her albums on the Belgian label Passacaille and Canadian label Analekta – many of which are world premiere recordings – are the fruit of long collaborations with artists and scholars such as Suzie LeBlanc, Marc Vanscheeuwijck, and Lorenzo Ghielmi, as well as with composers including Maxime McKinley, Linda Catlin Smith, Christian Mason, and Lisa Streich. Elinor’s recording of cello sonatas by Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco received a Diapason d’Or and her critical editions of Dall’Abaco’s cello music is published in collaboration with Walhall Editions. In April 2022, she welcomed the CD release of Early Italian Cello Concertos, a collaboration with Rosa Barocca orchestra, winner of the 2023 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year (small ensemble).
Elinor is the artistic director of Accademia de’ Dissonanti, an organization for performance and research, and she has performed throughout the Americas and in Europe in recital and with numerous chamber ensembles and orchestras (Constantinople, Il Gardellino, Tafelmusik, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Arion, Les idées heureuses, etc.).
Recipient of dozens of grants and prizes supporting performance and research, including the US-Italy Fulbright Fellowship (studying with Paolo Beschi in Como, Italy) and a recent research residency at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Elinor holds degrees from McGill, Mannes, and Juilliard. She teaches early cello and performance practice at McGill University and the Université de Montréal and is a Visiting Fellow in Music (2020–2023) at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Frey was awarded Québec’s Opus Prize for “Performer of the Year” in 2021.
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Violist
Keith Hamm is a native of Rosebud, Alberta. He received his training at the Glenn Gould School of Music under the instruction of Steven Dann, and at the Mount Royal Conservatory with Nicholas Pulos. Other influences include Pinchas Zukerman, Mark Fewer, Richard Lester, the London Haydn Quartet, and especially formative summers at the Chamber Music Program at Le Domaine Forget.While still a student, Keith was named Principal Violist of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra and performed there for eight seasons. In the fall of 2019, Keith took up that same position with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Keith is an alumnus of the International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove; the Sarasota Music Festival and programs at the Banff Centre. Keith has been featured on CBC Radio, Toronto’s Classical 96.3, Minnesota Public Radio and was named one of Canada’s Hottest 30 Classical Musicians Under 30 by CBC. A dedicated chamber musician, Keith has shared the stage with Anssi Kartunnen, Ernst Kovacic, Richard Lester, David Geringas and members of the Smithsonian Chamber Players. Keith has been invited to perform at the Ravinia Festival as guest violist with the Royal Conservatory’s Grammy-nominated ARC Ensemble, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Ottawa Chamberfest, Stratford Summer Music, Sweetwater Music Festival, Edmonton Recital Society and Music By The Sea in Bamfield, BC. Keith has been a guest with the Juno Award-winning Amici Ensemble and frequently performs with Continuum Contemporary Music, Skylight Series in Toronto’s Distillery District, Echo Chamber Toronto, and Stereo Live as performer and producer.
Keith is Founder and Artistic Director of the Rosebud Chamber Music Festival in Rosebud, Alberta and co-founder of the Rosebud String Quartet. Look for their upcoming release of Haydn Op. 77 on Leaf Music.
Keith Hamm’s performances at SweetWater 2023 are generously sponsored by Colleen Purdon and Joachim Ostertag.
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Guitarist
Lucas Harris began his musical life playing equal amounts of jazz and classical guitar as a teen in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. He discovered the lute during his undergraduate studies at Pomona College, where he graduated summa cum laude. He then studied early music in Italy at the Civica scuola di musica di Milano (as a scholar of the Marco Fodella Foundation), then in Germany at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen. After several years in New York City, Lucas moved to Toronto in 2004, becoming a Canadian citizen in 2017. In Toronto he has been the regular lutenist for the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra for more than two decades, and performs with many other ensembles in the USA and Canada including the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Helicon Foundation (see the “Playing” page for more details). He is also a founding member of the Toronto Continuo Collective, the Vesuvius Ensemble. and the Lute Legends Ensemble.
In 2014 Lucas completed graduate studies in choral conducting at the University of Toronto, the degree having been largely funded by a prestigious Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant not often awarded to performers. Upon graduating, Lucas was chosen as the Artistic Director of the Toronto Chamber Choir (which celebrated its 50th anniversary season in 2018-2019), for which he has developed and conducted over twenty themed concert programs (see this site’s “Conducting” page for a list). He has also directed projects for the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, the Ohio State University Opera Program, Les voix baroques, and the Toronto Consort.
For many years Lucas has been on faculty at the Tafelmusik Summer and Winter Baroque Institutes as well Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute and has also taught for Vancouver Early Music’s Baroque Vocal Programme, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and Amherst Early Music. Lucas was praised for his work with Les voix humaines in Montréal: “The revelation of the concert was the Torontonian lutenist Lucas Harris, who weaved a poetic thread through his infinitely subtle interventions. The sweetness and patience of his playing . . . was astonishing.” (Le Devoir)
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Cellist
Julie Hereish pursued her studies in Montreal and then in Vienna, Austria. She was a pupil of Denis Brott, Johanne Perron, Carole Sirois and Stefan Kropfitsch.
In 2019, she joined the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Principal Cello. Previously, she held the same position in the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. During her time in Quebec City, she cofounded the piano quartet Quatuor Philanthros and the cello octet Élément 8.
Winner of the 2014 Zara Nelsova Memorial Award and the 2011 Peter Mendell Award, Julie has been broadcasted on CBC Radio 2 and Radio-Canada. Her chamber music performances have taken her across Canada, where she’s toured with Debut Atlantic and Jeunesses Musicales du Canada. Julie has performed in festivals across North America, including Music By The Sea in Bamfield (BC), Sweetwater Music Festival in Owen Sound (ON), Rosebud Chamber Music Festival (AB), Rendez-vous musical de Laterrière in Saguenay (QC) and Rockport Music Festival (Massachusetts).
Together with actor Pierre Mayer, Julie created Charlot et Mlle Cello, a family theatrical concert experience based on Charlie Chaplin’s famous character. The show has been presented in its symphonic version with the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and the Geneva Chamber Orchestra, in Switzerland.
As a guest artist, Julie joined the Grammy Award winning ARC Ensemble in performance in Toronto. She has also performed with the Canadian Opera Company as guest continuo cellist. Julie has performed extensively with the chamber orchestra Violons du Roy in Quebec City and throughout Europe and North America.
Julie is currently a member of the Polyphonie String Quartet, based in Edmonton, AB. Alongside husband and violist Keith Hamm, she cofounded The New Cohort, a viola and cello ensemble born at the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
Julie Hereish’s performances at SweetWater 2023 are generously sponsored by Colleen Purdon and Joachim Ostertag.
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Violinist
Edwin Huizinga is an accomplished violinist, a fiddler, a composer, and an improviser. Along with his role as SweetWater Artistic Director (he assumed this position in October 2019), he performs regularly with the folk and baroque duo Fire & Grace and internationally-acclaimed early music, 12-piece baroque ensemble ACRONYM.
He has performed with orchestras and ensembles worldwide including Carmel Bach Festival, Amsterdam Conservatory, Baroque Orchestra, and Tafelmusik. Huizinga has released numerous recordings including Partita Americana, fusing classical and bluegrass music. He premiered a new composition commissioned by Opera Atelier for soprano Measha Brueggergosman in late October 2020.
This coming year he will premiere another composition commissioned by the National Arts Centre. Huizinga is also Baroque and Classical Academy Director for the Carmel Bach Festival.
Edwin Huizinga’s performances at SweetWater 2023 are generously sponsored by the SweetWater Music Festival’s Board of Directors.
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Drummer
Mateo Mancuso started playing drums and studying music at age 4, when he was placed in the Humber College Community school for youth musicians. It was there that he was mentored by Canada's legendary jazz musicians, such as Kirk Macdonald, Lorne Lofsky and Pat Laberbera. At age 17, he was chosen for the Canadian National Youth Jazz Band. He played at Musicfest Canada where he won multiple honor awards, including the Ludwig Canadian Drummer of the Year. Today, at age 23, he plays regularly around the country with Canada's finest Jazz Musicians, such as Andrew McAnsh, Sam Dickinson, Michael Davidson, and others. He plays regularly at venues in the city such as The Rex, Jazz Bistro, and others. He also plays with some of Canada's up and coming pop acts, touring around Canada extensively, such as Ryland James (21 Entertainment), Tedy (Sony Records) and Sophia Fracassi (Coalition Music) He has opened up for world famous Canadian acts such as Alessia Cara and Marianas Trench. Mateo continues to prove himself as one of Canada's finest young drummers and his career is growing at a rapid rate.
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Soprano
Ottawa-born soprano Ellen McAteer has been praised for her “brilliant, clear soprano” (New York Arts), “joy and ebullient charm” (Bach in Bethlehem) and has been described as a “powerhouse of dramatic assuredness, the ultimate in vulnerable intensity” (Opera Canada). Ellen’s performances are diverse and include world premieres alongside staples of the classical and baroque eras. Ellen holds a M.Mus in Voice Performance from the University of Toronto, a B.Mus in Voice Performance from McGill University and was a recipient of the Glenn Gould School’s Rebanks Family Fellowship. She has furthered her studies at The Banff Centre, Oberlin Conservatory and Cleveland Institute of Music, has received career support from Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques, Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. Ellen currently resides in Toronto with her husband Daniel Taylor, their three children, and miniature dachshund, Wilson.
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Harpsichordist, Pianist
Mélisande McNabney performs keyboard music of all periods, on harpsichord, piano and fortepiano. In August 2015, she received the third prize at the International Competition Musica Antiqua in Bruges, Belgium.
Very active on the concert scene, Mélisande was invited as a soloist in series such as Clavecin en Concert or the Série Jacques Dansereau at Bourgie Hall. As a chamber and orchestra musician, she is regularly invited to play with Les Violons du Roy, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Montreal Bach Festival Orchestra, Les Idées heureuses, the Theater of Early Music and Ensemble Caprice. She is a member of Pallade Musica and ensemble Les Songes, with whom she took part in numerous tours of Canada and the USA. In January 2019, Mélisande released her debut solo album, Inspirations : D’Anglebert, Forqueray, Rameau, on the label ATMA Classique. Well received by critiques worldwide, the recording received 5 Diapasons from the famous French magazine.
In addition to her performing activities, Mélisande is also an active researcher in the field of performance practices, and will be presenting in two international conferences in the summer of 2021: the HKSNA conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music in Birmingham, UK.
Mélisande is a graduate of the Amsterdam Conservatory where she studied harpsichord, continuo and fortepiano in the classes of Bob van Asperen and Richard Egarr. She was granted her Doctorate degree at McGill University in May 2017, under the guidance of Hank Knox and Tom Beghin, thanks to the support of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program.
Mélisande has received scholarships from Musicaction, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Banff Centre, the SSHRC, the FQRSC and the CALQ.
Mélisande McNabney’s performances at SweetWater 2023 are generously sponsored by Maureen & Ken Sutherland.
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Violinist
Born and raised in New York, Manami started her lifelong relationship with music at age 3 on the violin. She has worked on a songwriting project co-created with Uhuru Quartet and composer Sato Matsui to benefit women’s shelters in NYC, and most recently, a project for 5 Borough Music Festival where she recorded composer/performer Elliot Figg's composition alongside Heinrich Biber's. Mizumoto is equally at home on the baroque violin, modern violin, and electro-acoustic setups with Ableton Live. Manami is a recent graduate of the Juilliard School where she earned a Bachelor's with Catherine Cho and Joel Smirnoff, a Masters in Historical Performance, and graduated with the Norman Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant.
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Sound Healing
Deva Munay has over 25 years of experience working in sound, movement, and healing. In 1997, she immersed herself in the Dalai Lama's teachings in India, sparking her passion for sound healing. Since then, Deva has traveled extensively to places like Peru, Nepal, Egypt, Bali, Argentina, and more, acquiring valuable skills and techniques. She specializes in orchestrating sound using Alchemy Crystal Singing Bowls. Working with Edwin Huizinga, Deva co-produced and performed on the Overlapping Halos album, a creative endeavor which combines violin, crystal singing bowls, and the poetry of Hafiz. Deva has woven her musical talents into numerous collaborations and is currently working on a new album with grammy nominated producer and flautist, Peter Gordan. Deva resides in Big Sur, CA, where she practices sound healing in her studio overlooking the sea.
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Bassist
Roberto Occhipinti is diversity personified. He’s won awards and acclaim as a musician, composer and record producer. Throughout his career, the Toronto-born bassist has performed in classical orchestras, jazz ensembles, Latin groups, rhythm & blues outfits and rock bands. He has worked in theatre and opera, written for radio and television, played on film soundtracks and done more recording session jobs than he can remember. To call the hard-working musician versatile would be the height of understatement.
Occhipinti’s talent and adventurous tastes have taken him as far afield as West Africa, where he appeared with the Mali Music project of Damon Albarn, frontman of British rockers Blur (he’d previously toured with Albarn’s experimental hip-hop act Gorillaz). Since 1990, he has played electric bass with Soul Stew, his six-piece funk and r&b band that includes some of Toronto’s most accomplished studio musicians.
Yet another of his undertakings has deep familial roots. Born of Sicilian heritage, Occhipinti introduced his guitarist brother Michael to field recordings made by ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, when he visited Sicily in the 1950s. The result was The Sicilian Jazz Project, a CD of reinterpretation of that traditional folk music with arrangements by Michael and production by Roberto. Recently, after Roberto completed a tour with his own jazz quartet, the two brothers traveled to their parents’ hometown of Modica in Sicily to receive an award from the local government for their work. It was a “bittersweet” experience, says Roberto, “because our parents are no longer alive and they didn’t get to see Michael and I working together on this. But I’m very happy we did it.”
Next up for the busy bass player are new albums that he’s produced for Durán, Cuban drummer Dafnis Prieto and Quarrington, now one of the world’s top classical bassists. Not surprisingly, Occhipinti credits his instrument with giving him steady production work. “Bass players make good producers,” he says, “because their job is to tie into the larger picture and they wind up with a more holistic view of the music that they’re playing. Ultimately,” he adds, “it all comes back to playing the bass.”
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Bassist
Joe Phillips is one of Canada’s most versatile double bassists. He performs with Toronto’s genre-defying Art of Time Ensemble, reimagines folk traditions learned from field recordings with banjoist Jayme Stone’s Folklife, struts his stuff with Payadora Tango Ensemble, and plays principal bass in the London Symphonia. Equally at home in a concert hall or at a folk festival, Joe has appeared as guest principal bass with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, has performed at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, the Winnipeg Folk Festival, and toured Canada with chamber music supergroup, Octagon. When not touring, Joe lives in London Ontario with his partner and their two children.
Joseph Phillips performances at SweetWater 2023 are generously sponsored by Elizabeth Warren and Hector Mackenzie.
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Vocalist
Suba Sankaran is a Dora-award winning, thrice Juno-nominated musician who has effortlessly combined musical worlds and seamlessly crossed genres, performing worldwide with Info-fusion ensemble Autorickshaw, master drummer Trichy Sankaran, a cappella live-looping FreePlay, and 80s revue Retrocity. In her rich and varied career, she has performed for Peter Gabriel, Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu, collaborated with Oscar nominee Deepa Mehta, and has performed with the Swingles, Bobby McFerrin, Lorraine Segato and others. She is a performer, educator, composer, choral director and sound designer. She is the co-artistic director of SING! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival.
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Piano/Percussion Duo
Percussionist Zac Pulak and pianist Edana Higham are the two members of SHHH!! Ensemble, a duo carving a space for themselves as electrifying performers of new music. With a keen ear for experimentation and exploration, SHHH!! has been deemed “truly virtuosic and intense” by Toronto’s Confluence Concerts and called “a beautiful discovery” following their debut with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.
Formed in 2017, SHHH!! Ensemble began developing their signature “avant-accessible” style through residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and the Canadian Music Centre. Since then, SHHH!! has continued to develop innovative repertoire for their ensemble by commissioning and premiering new works by Kelly-Marie Murphy, John Beckwith, Frank Horvat, Jocelyn Morlock, Noora Nakhaei, and Monica Pearce, among many others.
In February 2023 SHHH!! Ensemble “enthralled” (Winnipeg Free Press) in their debut as soloists in the world premiere of Kelly-Marie Murphy’s concerto Machines, Mannequins, and Monsters with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. A repeat performance of that concerto the following week with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra was met with a standing ovation.
As co-Artistic Directors of the Ottawa New Music Creators, Zac and Edana take pride in their role as presenters of weird and wonderful new sounds in the National Capital Region, curating programs known for cutting-edge invention drawing from local and international artists.
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Vocalist
Daniel John Taylor, O.C. is praised by the critics and audience alike as ‘Canada’s star countertenor’. Since his early career debuts at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, and the Rome Opera, his voice has been hailed as an “unwavering spirit carried aloft above the tumult of earthly existence” (The Toronto Star). The Times says the “beauty of his voice will stop you in your tracks,” while The Guardian calls him “part angel, part man.”
Canada’s most prolific recording artist, Taylor may be heard on over 120 albums and in films on labels including DG Archiv, Warner, DECCA and SONY. Taylor’s productions have been recognized with numerous awards including a GRAMMY Award, Diapason d’Or, BBC Music Awards, JUNO Award, and Quebec’s ADISQ, among many others. He also appears on Cirque du Soleil recordings of Totem and Avatar.
Taylor is Founder and Artistic Director of two ensembles: The Theatre of Early Music and The Trinity Choir. A gifted choral conductor and sought-after teacher, In recent years Taylor traveled to Africa as well as to Brazil, Cuba and to China to offer workshops, masterclasses and recitals. Daniel Taylor is Director of the Historical Performance Area of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto. Opera Canada praised Taylor’s leadership in his teaching role: “Daniel Taylor has created one of Canada’s leading early music programs by marrying tradition and history with artistic freedom. Freedom of exploration, and more crucially freedom from judgement, has been a central pillar of Daniel Taylor’s educational philosophy.”
Taylor completed his undergraduate study at McGill University, graduate work at the Université de Montréal with advanced studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London and with leading exponents in the area of early music. He is the recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal for Music.
Edwin Huizinga, Artistic Director
Edwin Huizinga is an accomplished violinist, a fiddler, a composer, and an improviser. Along with his role as SweetWater Artistic Director (he assumed this position in October 2019), he performs regularly with the folk and baroque duo Fire & Grace and internationally-acclaimed early music, 12-piece baroque ensemble ACRONYM.
He has performed with orchestras and ensembles worldwide including Carmel Bach Festival, Amsterdam Conservatory, Baroque Orchestra, and Tafelmusik. Huizinga has released numerous recordings including Partita Americana, fusing classical and bluegrass music. He premiered a new composition commissioned by Opera Atelier for soprano Measha Brueggergosman in late October 2020.
This coming year he will premiere another composition commissioned by the National Arts Centre. Huizinga is also Baroque and Classical Academy Director for the Carmel Bach Festival.
Artistic Director Partner: Betty and Joe Gray Family Foundation
