Internationally renowned opera star Pamela Hoiles brings a variety of guests to her Huntsville concert
By Gillian Brunette
Internationally recognized soprano and Lake of Bays resident Pamela Hoiles appears in concert this Friday, July 17, and says she is thrilled to be performing in Huntsville.
“It is such a pleasure to be back here with such wonderful friends and supporters of the arts in beautiful Muskoka.”
The July 17 concert, titled Festival Friends, promises to offer a cross section of music to suit all tastes, said Hoiles. “It is a very interesting program and I think that everyone will enjoy it. Arkady (Yanivker, violinist) has played many times (at the theatre) and he will perform pop with me, as well as classical pieces.”
Hoiles has lived in Lake of Bays for about eight years. “One of the reasons I decided to get a cottage up here is because of the Festival of the Arts. I heard about it and have been impressed with all that they do. My friend Pamela Smyth really did a great job of getting it to the Algonquin Theatre,” she said.
“It is great to have that theatre in Huntsville because of the citizens of the area, who understood the need for such a facility. I admire them for that and so am thrilled to be singing for them.”
IN CONCERT: Lake of Bays resident and internationally acclaimed soprano Pamela Hoiles performs at the AlgonquinTheatre on Friday, July 17, at 8 p.m.
Hoiles, who has been a major benefactor of the Algonquin Theatre and the Huntsville Festival of the Arts over the years, spends much of her time in Muskoka when she is not on tour.
“I usually come up in the winter but, this year, I had to have a back operation and couldn’t come, so I am very happy to be back. I do have lots of friends up here and am really looking forward to seeing them on the 17th and over the rest of the summer.”
Friday’s concert will include a string quartet led by Yanivker, who is well known to long-term festival supporters as the concertmaster of the festival orchestra and first violin for the Toronto Symphony. They will be performing Mendelssohn’s String Quartet, first movement, opus 44, in D major. “It is a very energetic, very upbeat selection,” said Yanivker.
The second piece will be the melodious second movement from Borodin’s musical Kismet. Hoiles will then take the stage, performing some popular tunes arranged for her by composer Bob Goldstone. These will include a medley of Night and Day, The Continental, Embraceable You, Bewitched, Sooner or Later and, possibly, I Was Beautiful.
Hoiles will be backed by the string quartet, piano and a quartet of brass, woodwind and bass (all top professionals from across North America) to create a dynamic and unique sound. She will then be joined by New York City’s internationally renowned pianist and vocal coach Myron McPherson to perform the following pieces: Strauss’s Zueignung; Dos cantares populares; and Ravel’s Vocalise en forme de Habanera. Yanivker will return to open the second half in recital with a pianist and perform two pieces before being joined by the quartet to conclude the concert with an arrangement of Porgy and Bess.
Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, and raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Hoiles attended Occidental College in Los Angeles and graduated as a drama major. She then went to Rome for one year and studied with the eminent vocal coach Maria Theresa Pediconi of the St. Cecilia Academy.
Before concentrating on her career as a soloist, Hoiles performed throughout the United States and Europe as a singing actress, recreating roles in plays such as the Mikado, Carousel and the Sound of Music.
Most recently, Hoiles has been performing in Europe. “After a wonderful success in Sofia and Italy, I am now looking forward to doing a more relaxed and fun program at the Algonquin Theatre,” she said.
Tickets for Festival Friends are $32 ($20 for youth under 18) and are available at the Algonquin Theatre box office on Main Street, by dialling 789-4975, or online at www.huntsvillefestival.on.ca.
