Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance

(Pssst! We aren't talking cocktails....) Get the latest details on our Spring programs in our newsletter at http://www.icontact-archive.com/archive

A big shoutout and thanks to Shelley at Moontown Market today! Last year when the pandemic hit and our staff was scrambling to figure out the way forward, Shelley sent us the most beautiful box of treats (even though her cafe was among the businesses ordered closed at the time). It was just so lovely and thoughtful! Reopening after a winter break, Moontown is now offering a delicious Community Bowl (feta, quinoa, spinach, kale, sweet potato, red onion, sprouts, pistachio nuts, haskap and sage dressing, and a sprinkle of cranberries ...YUM!) and for every order, $1 will be donated to LAMP. Why not indulge in a yummy lunch out (or get takeaway for home!)? Not only will you be supporting emerging artists AND a local business, with such a healthy lunch, you’ll be able to justify one of Moontown’s amazing sweet treats for dessert!

We are so thrilled to have acclaimed soprano Tracy Cantin here with us this week, working with our emerging artists. Reservations for our limited-seating live performance by Tracy and our artists for Sunday is now fully subscribed, but we will be live streaming the performance via Facebook. To whet your appetite, here's Tracy performing A Julia de Burgos from Leonard Bernstein's Songfest with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT_u67Fexfk

Congratulations to LAMP artists, from left, Pierre-André Doucet, Radoslaw Ungur, Rhian Merritt and Jillian Clow on an exceptional concert of German art song by our birthday boy Beethoven September 27! They'll perform another one-hour concert of Bel canto opera and Mozart this coming Sunday afternoon; a limited number of seats are still available for the live performance, which will also be live streamed.

Look who’s smiling! It’s because Ludwig at LAMP - our celebration of Herr Beethoven’s 250th birthday - is BACK ON! Get the details on our just-announced series of boutique concerts - small, safe and sublime!

We're really enjoying having Pierre-André Doucet, pianiste et écrivain/pianist and writer here with us this month. Pierre-André has been working with our emerging vocalists and will join them in a live performance of German art song this Sunday afternoon. It's admission by donation with strictly limited and socially-distanced seating for our mutual safety. Masks will also be mandatory. We do ask that you please contact us first to reserve your seat so that we can arrange seating to accommodate people in bubbles of 1, 2, up to 4 seats. Here is Pierre-André performing Sergei Bortkiewicz' Impromptu in G Flat. Enjoy!

More news from LAMP today: we now offer Winter Residencies!

Jonesing for some great live music after all these months of relying on Youtube? Our vocal residents Rhian, Jillian and Radoslaw and pianist Pierre-Andre will perform an hour-long concert of gorgeous German art song by birthday boy Ludwig van Beethoven this Sunday afternoon, Sept. 27 at 2:30 pm. Attendance is restricted to just 50 people; social distancing and mask wearing required. Please call to reserve.

It is with deeply heavy hearts that we share news of the passing of two of Lunenburg's finest citizens, dear friends both of whom played critical roles in the development of LAMP. Laurence Mawhinney will long be remembered as a devoted clergyman and Lunenburg's longest serving mayor. After 10 consecutive terms in that office - a total of 33 years! - he undoubtedly deserved a rest, but instead he agreed to chair our Board of Directors, lending legitimacy and leadership to an i...dea he resolutely believed was the key to transitioning the beloved Lunenburg Academy from a longtime public school to a centre for cultural excellence and community. He saw us through our first five critical years of development before stepping down in 2019; he passed away Tuesday at the age of 79. Meanwhile Sylvia Booth played a quieter, but no less important role in the development of LAMP. The trusted accountant and business counsellor not only set up LAMP's financial management system, she also trained the general manager in using it (a much harder task, says Susan), and all at no charge, calling it her investment in the future of Lunenburg. As LAMP grew, she took us on as a client, providing her expert services and trusted advice on a multitude of issues. She also opened her home to young artists from time to time. Sylvia passed away on Monday; she was 75. While we are feeling very sad right now, we are also hugely grateful for the honour of knowing and working with these two extraordinary people. Our thoughts are with their respective families. See more

We're so very pleased to have baritone Radoslaw Ungur back at LAMP! Radek attended our 2019 Rossini Opera Academy and has returned all the way from Poland to do a vocal residency this Fall. Don't worry: he completed a full two-week isolation upon his arrival in Canada and is hale and healthy (and also health and temperature checked daily like all of our artists, staff and visitors during these strange times). Two other emerging vocalists arrive today!

Had it not been for the pandemic, LAMP would be welcoming back this week the extraordinary Barbara Hannigan and her team from Equilibrium Young Artists for a vocal and instrumental program focusing on William Walton’s avante-garde classic Facade: An Entertainment, based on the poems of Edith Sitwell. While global travel restrictions and the health risks associated with COVID19 forced us to postpone this program until 2021, everyone at LAMP and EQ remain painfully aware of th...e challenges faced across the arts world, most especially by young artists. It’s why we’re working so hard to offer the programming we can this year, and why we’re so thrilled to share news of Barbara’s latest initiative Momentum. Please follow the link for details and do look forward to seeing Barbara ‘back home‘ in Nova Scotia with an all-new group of Canada’s most promising young performing artists here at LAMP next summer. See more

An immediate operatunity for singers in the Atlantic Bubble!

A wonderful, wonder-filled night as we celebrated the premiere performances of new music by emerging composers Taylor MacGillivray and Kevin Pirker. Congratulations and thanks to our composers and participating musicians!

MEET OUR COMPOSERS: Kevin J. Pirker is a composer and pianist pursuing his Bachelor of Music degree in Composition at Acadia where he studies under Derek Charke and Peter-Anthony Togni. Recently, Kevin was awarded Choral Canada’s 2020 Competition for Choral Writing and the Diane Loomer Award for his composition She Walks in Beauty. In 2019, he was a finalist for Chor Leoni’s Canadian Choral Composition Competition, and was awarded the ‘Barbara Pentland Award for Outstanding Composition’ from the Canadian Music Centre. He has a deep passion for Modern Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic, and Contemporary Jazz, and his music draws inspiration from each of these genres.

MEET OUR COMPOSERS: Taylor MacGillivray (1996-) is a composer and performer based out of K’jipuktuk (Halifax), Nova Scotia. She has had her compositions performed by Symphony Nova Scotia, the Unassisted Fold, and the Maritime Brass Quintet. In 2020, she graduated from Dalhousie University with a BMus, concentrating in composition. As a performer, she plays the saxophone and focuses on improvising in its many forms. She has performed at the Open Waters Festival, as well as many of Dalhousie University’s concerts. We look forward to hearing Taylor's latest new works Tuesday night at LAMP!

We're really excited about the new music being created as part of our current Composition Academy and can't wait to share it with you this week. As previously mentioned, we do have a very limited number of socially-distanced seats if you would like to attend the live performance. However, we're also going to record the event so we can share it with everyone. Shown in a rehearsal of one of Halifax composer Kevin Pirker's new pieces, here's Kevin (back on at front left) with program director Gavin Fraser and performers Mark Lee and Benjamin Marmen (both of Symphony Nova Scotia) and our own Walter Delahunt.

LAMP staff don’t always drink cocktails after work...but when Ellen Wathen offers to make her signature ginger martinis to celebrate the end of bass-baritone Radosaw Ungur’s quarantine...well, that’s a special occasion. Thank you Ellen!

Next Tuesday, August 25 at 7 pm, LAMP will celebrate the finale of our 1st teaching program of this COVID-plagued year with the premiere of new music from our 2020 Composition Workshop. While we intend to record and share Tuesday night's performances, we're also keen to assemble a small live audience for the occasion. We've now held a couple of small public gatherings here at LAMP and are confident in our ability to keep people safe via new operational protocols that include ...reduced capacity, mandatory masks, rigorous cleaning, strict distancing requirements between performers and audiences, socially-distanced seating, and temperature checks. If you are up for a short live concert (it will definitely be under an hour and will be presented in a format similar to A Little Light Music with introductions by the composers), please give us a ring to reserve your seat. You can reach us via email at [email protected] or call 902-634-8667. See more

Has COVID-19 taken the shine off shopping? Betcha' it's been awhile since your last session of "retail therapy"... If your psyche and closet can use a little boost, we've got the event for you!

LAMP's Artistic Director @Burt_Wathen and his wife Jane are in Italy for the annual Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro (that's right, Pesaro managed to present a festival this year after all!) and guess who they met up with for dinner? Tenor @Antonio Garés (LAMP Rossini Academy 2015) who is performing Don Luigino in the festival's production of Il Viaggio a Reims. Antonio also introduced Burt and Jane to his fiancée Elena, to whom he popped the question just a few weeks ago. <3 to all!

Everyone in the LAMP family is ‘over the moon’ to learn that Shantelle Przybylo, soprano (Rossini Academy 2019) is now CANCER FREE! Words can’t easily describe how inspired we were as we followed Shantelle's journey through six gruelling months of chemotherapy. Her determination to share the experience and her extraordinary positivity touched us all! It also heartened us to see how her friends, including fellow LAMP alumni, were there for her (you know who are are!). Congratulations Shantelle! We hope to see you soon!!

We are honoured to host a memorial event celebrating the lives of our dear friends and benefactors Guenther and Susan Reibling, taking place tomorrow, August 8 at 11 am. To ensure everyone's safety during the current pandemic, seating will be limited to a maximum of 70 people and those in attendance will be required to both wear a mask and observe social distancing. For those unable to attend, a live-stream of the memorial will be provided at ReiblingMemorial.com

This photo of composer Camille Saint-Saëns at home in his PJs came up in our Twitter feed today. It makes a strange but wonderful segue to the fact our first program of 2020 -- this most strange and challenging year when many of us perhaps spent more time in our PJs than usual! -- starts next Thursday. And yes, it's a two-week workshop for the ever-stylin' emerging composers of Atlantic Canada! We can't wait to see everyone (fully dressed...please).

Heartfelt congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Pasquale Arcamone married at Corato, Italy on the weekend! An alumni of our very first Rossini Academy in 2014, who subsequently left the heat of southern Italy to return for a late-winter residency at LAMP (misjudgement?), Pasquale now works full-time at the Fondazione Teatro Petruzzelli. LAMP's artistic director Burt Wathen and Jane Theman were on hand for the ceremony, as was another ROA 2014 alum, Carlo Losito. Best wishes to Pasquale and his beautiful wife Angela!!

LAMP alumna Suzanne Rigden and Christianne Belanger share a unique stage in Berlin. Check it out!

A gorgeous shot of the Lunenburg waterfront with the sails of the schooner Bluenose II lIt up in blue as part of the #operationbluenose campaign. Photo by @Terry G. Conrad

Bravo to paramedic Bruce Parks who continues to capture these incredible sunrise shots of the Academy as he heads home from the night shift.

Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, known for its traditional architecture and living waterfront. Year-round residents and visitors alike enjoy an array ...of cultural events and international festivals celebrating Rossini, folk art, and documentary films, just to name a few. What sustains such vibrancy? According to Mayor Rachel Bailey, it’s in part the careful preservation of traditions that reflect a seafaring heritage. But it is equally the newer mix of artists and makers and engaged citizens who want to balance a working waterfront with a thriving cultural scene. The whole town is like a campus, says Bailey. The opportunities for personal fulfillment are addressed in so many ways. Lunenburg is a hub for lifelong learning in the arts. There’s a tradition of doing things with your hands, for example, such as quilting, weaving, or mat hooking, says Virginia Stephen, a local arts administrator, curator, and educator who moved back to Nova Scotia from Alberta and chose Lunenburg. According to Stephen, the popularity of these traditions is no surprise, given generations of self-sufficiency and skilled craftsmanship. The arts and craft are social activities that reflect the valuing of objects that are both useful and beautiful, she says. Folk art also grows from the artistic activities of people from all walks of life. Stephen also notes the impact of professional arts organizations on the next generation. Careers have been nurtured by church, school, and private music programs. Take the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (LAMP), for example, whose artists do local outreach, introducing about 2,500 schoolchildren each term to classical music. Music is part of the fabric of this community, she says. For many of the music festivals, meeting that desire for learning and engagement is becoming more and more important. The next step for Lunenburg is to strategically package and promote this experiential learning advantage. For those seeking new skills, knowledge, and deeper understanding, all in a beautiful setting, Lunenburg is a natural destination. Read more on how culture talks through incredible stories found here: https://bit.ly/2TkJCO1 #culturetalks

Sending the very happiest of birthday wishes to the great Richard Margison today! While COVID-19 robbed us of our much-anticipated Fidelio program and so much more this year, we look forward to better days and future collaborations. All the best!

Just had to share this fabulous portrait of Ian Tomaz, the lone emerging artist to arrive at LAMP before the COVID-19 shutdown in March and whose daily presence, practicing and performances through the long weeks of an otherwise program-less Spring term became such a treasure for us. Ian's just headed home to Wisconsin for the summer; he plans to come back this Fall for more residency study and programs focusing on the Beethoven sonatas (for piano, violin and cello), the piano trios and other miscellaneous piano repertoire. Just before he left, Ian had a photo session with the extraordinary Raoul Manuel Schnell (an incredible opportunity extended to young artists doing longer term residencies at LAMP). The results, as always, are fantastic!

Dear friends, It was with deep shock and profound sadness that we learned of the passing of Guenther and Susan Reibling. As many will remember, it was Guenther and Susan’s early faith and commitment to LAMP that allowed us to find other partners and open the school in October 2014. But their enthusiasm and support went far beyond their very significant financial contributions with Guenther serving on our Board of Directors and otherwise sharing his global business acumen, a...nd whenever they were ‘home’ in Nova Scotia they were the most faithful of concertgoers. We are so grateful and blessed to call them our friends. On behalf of everyone here - indeed, everyone whose life has been touched by LAMP’s work - we express our deepest sympathies to the family. https://www.sweenyfuneralhome.ca//Reibling-Guent/index.php See more

The final mini-concert in our Spring 2020 series features emerging pianist Ian Tomaz and singers Rhian Merritt, Abigail Sinclair and Emmanuel Solomon performing works by Korngold, Faure, Mozart and more. Enjoy!

A wonderful tribute to noted film composer Ennio Morricone by two of our fav faculty regulars, Joel Quarrington and Roberto Occhipinti!

A great episode of Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap is on CBC Radio right now, examining the large number of rock hits based on Classical music. Really fascinating!

Happy Canada Day from everyone at LAMP! https://youtu.be/oB29NBMfc-g

Happy Canada Day! from everyone at LAMP https://youtu.be/oB29NBMfc-g

LAMP alum Yusuke Kobori in rehearsals for a production of Amahl and the Night Visitors in his native Japan. And yes, he is wearing a face shield.

A coffee date with the fabulous Bruce Dickey!

Everyone at LAMP is so happy - in fact, we're newly inspired! - to have been able to offer this opportunity for three very fine young singers to work with Jane Archibald, Soprano on Friday. The pandemic has been hard on so many people, not the least of whom are young artists who watched all study programs and forseeable work disappear overnight. Thank you Ms Archibald for making this possible and for the excellent coaching you provided to singers Abigail Sinclair, Emmanuel Solomon and Rhian Merritt. A huge thanks as well to our Emerging Artists in Residence Ian Tomaz who accompanied our singers throughout the three-hour class. And finally, to Abigail, Emmanuel and Rhian, bravo!

See that? That’s the face of a very happy Artistic Director putting out LAMP’s sign for the first time in months as we host our first master class since the start of the pandemic today led by Jane Archibald, Soprano