Boxwood Festival Canada

Singing with Edmund Brownless

July 25 - 31 2010, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

lunenburg.jpg

(click to enlarge)

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada

Information:
Boxwood Festival Canada
or Edmund Brownless, e-mail: ebrownless(at)gmx.net

Prices for Boxwood
Please see the Boxwood Website for complete prices...


Edmund Brownless & David McGuinness
present
Music and Songs from the Scots ballad opera

The Gentle Shepherd
by
Alan Ramsay

Edinburgh, 1725
Friday, July 30, 2010, 7:30 PM
St. John's Church, Lunenburg

with

Patie: The Gentle Shepherd in love with Peggy - (John Ernst, tenor)
Peggy: Thought to be Glaud's niece (Hannah Stewart, mezzo soprano)
Jenny: Glaud's only daughter (Judith Burdett, soprano)
Roger: A rich young shepherd in love with Jenny (Nick Halley, tenor)

Mause: An old woman supposed to be a witch (Carole LeDez, soprano)
Sir William Worthy: (Edmund Brownless, tenor)
Symon: Old shepherd, tennant to Sir William (Chris Norman, bass)
Bauldy: A hynd engaged with Neps (David McGuinness, bass)

and

Chris Norman, flute
David Greenberg, violin
William Coulter, guitar
David McGuinness, harpsichord

Daily Schedule (Monday to Friday)
(all classes and rehearsals in the Gymnasium  or Music Room at the Lunenburg Academy)

Mornings: Rehearsals and coaching for "The Gentle Shepherd"
Afternoons / Evenings: time for voice lessons as well as other rehearsals...
Boxwood Singers: daily at 4:00 pm

Daily Schedule

Monday, July 26
9:00: am Opening Meeting for Boxwood
9:30 am: Group vocal warm up - open for everyone!
from 10:00 am:  Coaching for The Gentle Shepherd

4:00-5:00 pm: Boxwood Singers and the Choir of St. John's Church: Lunenburg Academy


The Boxwood Singers
Shape Note Tunes, Gospel / Spirituals as well as classical a cappella music such as Motets of the Renaissance
maybe some Anglican Chant...
Major English Church Music Anthem with Organ and Solists...
Singers taking part in Boxwood, as well as the Boxwood Singers combined with the Choir of St. John's Church, Lunenburg
will provide the music for the Sunday morning service at St. John's Church.
(please plan your stay in Lunenburg until Sunday afternoon!)
Sunday, 1st August, 2010, 10:30 AM

Bel Canto with Edmund Brownless
"A worker needs good tools" said one of his teachers. That's why Edmund Brownless believes completely in Bel canto. It is a sound, effective and healthy way to sing. Bel canto teaches singers to use both registers together. Singers have used both registers in most periods - whether it be for medieval, classical or popular music today. Bel canto is therefore the perfect technique for just about all singing styles. So many young singers today ruin their voices by pushing up a weak lower register. Bel canto encourages the strengthening of this (and the upper register), allowing singers to "belt" in a safe, natural way. If you have a good technique (and there are, as Marchesi once said, only two schools of technique: a good one and a bad one) then you can sing anything. You don't change the technique - just the style.

This course is aimed at anyone who wants to learn to sing better. Whether you sing early music, are a coloratura soprano or prefer folk music, then this course in Bel canto is for you. Edmund Brownless' students in Frankfurt have gone on to careers in Early Music, Oratorio and Lied, Musicals - one is now studying Jazz-singing at the Hochschule in Frankfurt and another has just been appointed as a voice teacher at the same institution. Full marks for Bel canto!

Edmund Brownless was born in Norwich, England and sang as chorister in the choir of Hereford Cathedral. After emigrating to Nova Scotia he studied with Prof. Marie McCarthy at Acadia University and with Prof. Jan Simons at McGill University, where he received B. Mus. and M. Mus. degrees in voice. Later, he studied with Richard Levitt at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland and had lessons with Cornelius L. Reid in New York. He also participated in master classes with Alfred Deller, Emma Kirkby, Nigel Rogers and Andrea von Ramm. As a soloist he has performed throughout Europe and North America and sings on many recordings, notably with the Bach Ensemble (Joshua Rifkin), Sequentia Köln (Benjamin Bagby), Ensemble Gilles Binchois (Dominique Vellard), and the Clemencic Consort (René Clemencic). He teaches voice at Dr. Hoch's Conservatorium in Frankfurt am Main and is the director of Das Consort Franckfort and the Vokalensemble Alta Musica.

Publications
Edmund Brownless has written a substantial article on vocal technique: "Thoughts on Simple Singing: Towards a More Adequate Vocal Terminology" in: The Modern Singing Master: Essays in Honor of Cornelius L. Reid.