Juno award winner is certain to be a Huntsville Festival of the Arts highlight
The Huntsville Festival of the Arts is thrilled to present renowned Canadian baritone Russell Braun in recital this Saturday (July 7) as part of the opening weekend of its much-anticipated 15th season.
Manic, glorious, superbly sung and malevolently acted, rich, powerful, elegant, soft-grained, and spine-tingling are but a few of the epithets the media have used to describe this Canadian opera sensation.
CLASSIC PERFORMER: Canadian opera sensation Russell Braun performs Debussy, Vaughan Williams, Schumann and Spohr in his first Huntsville recital on Saturday, July 7.Joining Braun on stage will be his wife, pianist Carolyn Maule, and renowned violinist Rebekah Wolkstein. The program will feature the music of Spohr, Debussy, Vaughan Williams and Dichterliebe by Schumann.
In concert, opera and recital, the international stages of the world – the Metropolitan Opera in New York, l’Opéra de Paris, the State Opera in Vienna, the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the Los Angeles Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Salzburg or the Glyndebourne Festival – are Braun’s for the taking.
His recording of Mozart arias and duets titled Winterreise, with fellow Canadian superstars Michael Schade and Isabel Bayrakdarian, won the 2007 Juno in the category of Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral Performance.
The 2006-2007 season featured Braun in a challenging combination of recitals, concerts and opera on two continents. The 2006 season began with his ROH Covent Garden debut as Valentin in Faust. Performances of Cosi fan tutte followed in Toronto’s new opera house, the Kindertotenlieder with the Toronto Symphony, a recital of Winterreise in Saint Mary’s and Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Japan.
Braun also made a number of appearances in New York throughout the new year including a duo recital with Bayrakdarian for the London Foundation, a performance of the Dichterliebe at the 92nd Street Y in New York, appearances at the Metropolitan Opera as Silvio in I Pagliacci and as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Recitals in Waterloo and Toronto and concerts with the Atlanta and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras rounded out the season.
Future seasons will see Braun return to the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, the San Diego Opera, the Salzburg Festival and appear with his friend and singing partner tenor Schade in recital at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto and Ottawa.
Recent highlights include his critically acclaimed debuts in the title role of Eugene Onegin with the San Francisco Opera, the title role of Billy Budd and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Canadian Opera Company, as Zurga in San Diego’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles and in the title role of Pélleas et Mélisande at the Glyndebourne Festival.
In much demand as a concert artist, Braun has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors appearing with major orchestras in Europe, Canada and the United States.
Most recently Braun joined a host of Canadian singing stars on the stage of Roy Thomson Hall for Luna, Luminato Festival’s opera gala.
Braun makes his home near Toronto with his wife and their two sons, Benjamin and Gabriel.
Tickets for Russell Braun are $35 for adults, $20 for youth under 18 and are available through the Algonquin Theatre box office on Main Street, by calling 789-4975 or visiting the festival website at www.huntsvillefestival.on.ca.
Sponsoring the concert are Pamela Hoiles, a noted supporter of the arts both in Huntsville and internationally, and DB Maw Landscaping.
