03:00 PM
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BATTUTE E PIZZICATO : Celebrating the 17th-Century Guitar
An intriguing program of music from 17th-century Spain and Italy, for voices and instruments in groupings large and small, featuring duos for guitar and harp or hurdy gurdy, solo songs with diverse accompanying instruments, ensemble songs, and dance pieces like the chacona, jacaras and canario making inventive use of the colourful sounds of the guitar, harp, recorders, viola da gamba and percussion.
In works by Foscarini, Montesardo, Moulinié, Marini, Landi, Luis de Briçeño, Kapsberger, Sanz, Juan de Arañes and others, the program explores the development and dissemination of the ‘chitarra espagñola’ through the 17th century, tracing its Spanish roots, its popularity and development in Italy, influences from Rome, and its continued musical importance in Spain at the end of the century.
Bringing this richly evocative music to life are The Musicians of the Egg, back in the musical saddle after their enthusiastically-received return to concertizing in January of this year. They are Michele DeBoer, soprano; Rebecca Claborn, mezzo; Cory Knight, tenor; Olivier Laquerre, baritone; Jonathan Stuchbery, guitar; Alison Melville, recorders; Ben Grossman, percussion, and with special guests Felix Deák, viola da gamba, and Julia Seager Scott, triple harp.
SUNDAY MAY 31, 2026
3:00 p.m.
Church of the Redeemer, 162 Bloor Street W (at Avenue Road), Toronto M5S 1M4
Featured Program
About the musicians:
Soprano Michele DeBoer, based in the GTA, has performed widely as both a soloist and ensemble member with many leading musical organizations. Her particular love of early music led to long-standing engagements with Tafelmusik and the former Toronto Consort, though her interests have always been broad, ranging from new music projects to everything in between. Highlights of her career include performing L’Amour in Lully’s Persée with Opera Atelier in Toronto and Versailles; singing in Tehillim and Music for 18 Musicians with Soundstreams for Steve Reich’s 80th birthday celebration; and providing the voice for “The Wedding Song” by Mychael Danna for the television series Camelot. Michele is also a registered Speech-Language Pathologist and supports clients from toddlers to adults in all areas of communication.
Ben Grossman is a busy musician and sound artist: improviser, studio musician, composer, and noisemaker. He works in many fields, having played on over 100 CDs, soundtracks for film and television, composition and sound design for theatre, dance, installations, work designed for radio transmission, and live performances spanning early medieval music to experimental electronics. Ben's tools of choice are electronics, percussion, and especially, the vielle à roue (hurdy gurdy), a contemporary electro-acoustic string instrument with roots in the European middle ages. Through extended techniques, and sometimes electronic processing, Ben seeks to use it as a physical interface into sound creation, spontaneous composition and the exploration of acoustics, form and extended aesthetics. www.macrophone.org
Tenor Cory Knight holds a Master of Arts in Historical Performance Practice from the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland and an Advanced Diploma in vocal performance from the Glenn Gould School. Described as “that rare, wonderful, lyric tenor who turns every note he sings into gold” (Musical Toronto), Cory performs as both an ensemblist and soloist. He has sung at major festivals across Europe, including the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Trigonale Early Music Festival, and the Baroque Music Festival in Ambronay, France. Highlights of his work in Canada include performances with Pacific Opera Victoria, Les Violons du Roy, Opera Atelier, La Chapelle de Québec, and Soundstreams. Cory also appears on several recordings, including Luzzasco Luzzaschi Madrigals, Motets, and Instrumental Music with the vocal ensemble Profeti della Quinta, and Frescobaldi & the Glories of Rome with The Toronto Consort. In addition to his musical career, Cory is an elementary teacher with the Toronto District School Board.
Canadian baritone Olivier Laquerre has built an international career that cheerfully oscillates between powdered wigs, battlefield brass, and the occasional philosophical egg. A long-standing member of Opera Atelier in Toronto, he has appeared in more than twenty-five productions with the company, including the title role in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Arbace (Idomeneo), Achilla (Giulio Cesare), Pluto (L’Orfeo), and the unforgettable dual portrayal of Céphée and Méduse in Lully’s Persée, performed in Toronto and at the Opéra Royal de Versailles and featured in a CBC documentary — saving, as one should, Papageno (The Magic Flute) for dessert. He is also a regular guest at the Boston Early Music Festival, appearing in numerous productions and recordings. More recently, Olivier portrayed the astronomer Tycho Brahe in Celestial Revolutions for a Toronto-based early music collective and appeared as Osman Pacha in Grétry’s La Caravane du Caire in France. A sought-after concert soloist, he performs widely across Canada. When not singing baroque heroes and rogues, Olivier is an active member of the Canadian Armed Forces, where he serves as a horn player and has just completed two consecutive seasons as Drum Major of the Ceremonial Guard on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
After starting the recorder in a school classroom in London (UK), Alison Melville’s subsequent career as a player of recorder and historical flutes has taken her across Canada and the USA and to New Zealand, Iceland, Japan and Europe, most recently to Spain. Some highlights: playing on the soundtracks of The Tudors, Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter, a Midsummer commercial for IKEA, and for CBC’s The Friendly Giant; solo shows in inner-city London (UK) schools; an improvised music-and-movement duet with an acrobat in northern Finland; and a summer of concerts in prisons across southwestern Ontario. She appears regularly with Tafelmusik, is a past member of Ensemble Polaris and the Toronto Consort, and has played with many other ensembles, companies and festivals. Alison has been heard on CBC/R-C, BBC, RNZ, NPR, Iceland’s RUV, and on over 65 CDs, including several critically acclaimed solo recordings. She taught for many years at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and for other universities, colleges and workshops across North America. www.alisonmelville.com
Praised for her “mellifluous yet clear” singing [James Young, Music in Victoria], mezzo-soprano Rebecca Claborn has performed with some of Canada’s finest classical ensembles. With a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the present day, Rebecca has a particular passion for early music. Rebecca's solo highlights include Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Händel’s Israel in Egypt with the Richard Eaton Singers; Händel's Dixit Dominus and Bach's Cantata 182 and Mass in B Minor with the Ottawa Bach Choir; Respighi’s Lauda per la Natività del Signore with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir; Bach’s Cantata 150, Cantata 184, and Psalm 51 with the Victoria Baroque Players; Händel's Messiah with the Choir of St. James Cathedral; and Kuhnau’s Gott, sei mir gnädig nach deiner Güte with the Theatre of Early Music. In demand as a chorister and ensemble singer, Rebecca is a member of vocal octet Opus 8, and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s professional core. She has also sung with such ensembles as the Tallis Choir, the Musicians in Ordinary, the Gabrieli Consort, the Theatre of Early Music, Pro Coro Canada, and the Toronto Consort. As a recording artist, Rebecca appears most recently on Opus 8's latest recording, Firsts (2019). She is a featured soloist on two releases with the Theatre of Early Music: The Heart's Refuge (2014, Juno-nominated), and The Vale of Tears (2015), both on Analekta. She also appears on the Toronto Chamber Choir’s 2019 release A Voice of her Own, featuring works by fourteen female composers. Rebecca completed a double Bachelor's degree in voice performance and music education at the University of New Hampshire, and subsequently moved to Canada to receive her Master of Music in voice performance from the University of Alberta, as a student of soprano Jolaine Kerley. Further studies were undertaken at the Victoria Conservatory of Music as a student of acclaimed soprano Nancy Argenta, and at the University of Toronto as a student of countertenor Daniel Taylor. Rebecca is a two-time participant in the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute and the Victoria Conservatory Advanced Oratorio Course, and a participant in the Franz-Schubert-Institut Master Course in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria. In masterclasses, she has worked with such outstanding musicians as Emma Kirkby, Ann Monoyios, Julius Drake, Elly Ameling, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Laurence Cummings, Benjamin Butterfield, Adrian Butterfield, Wolfgang Holzmair, and Peter Harvey. Rebecca maintains a private vocal studio in Toronto, and has taught for VIVA! Youth Choir of Toronto, as well as the Victoria Conservatory Summer Vocal Academy, offering private lessons, masterclasses, and coachings in Baroque performance practice. When she is not singing classical music, Rebecca enjoys dabbling in folk music, and is a recent beginner on the clawhammer banjo, carrying on her family’s love of Appalachian traditional music. She lives with her husband in Toronto.
Jonathan Stuchbery is a Toronto-based specialist in instruments of the lute and guitar family. A sought-after performer praised for his “energizing precision” (The Whole Note) and “wistful lute performance” (La Scena Musicale), he has shared the stage across Canada and abroad with ensembles and soloists including Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Arion Orchestre Baroque, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Early Music Alberta, Rosa Barocca, Capella Intima, and Dame Emma Kirkby. As Duo Oriana with soprano Sinéad White, Jonathan has toured throughout Canada, the UK, and Ireland, including features with the English Lute Society (London), at Windsor Castle, and with Early Music America, and released a first CD ‘How Like a Golden Dream’ in 2023 under the Leaf Music label. He is also a member of Toronto based renaissance vocal quintet Diapente. A passionate educator, he has been an instructor at the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School Pacific (Vancouver), Sinfín Armonia (Ecuador) and the Pass Early Music Festival (Lethbridge), in addition to teaching private students at home in Toronto. Jonathan is also interested in composing and collaborating with composers to develop new repertoire for historical instruments. Thanks to a 2024 Toronto Arts Council grant, he has set four newly commissioned poems by Toronto writers to music for Duo Oriana, and he was part of the creation of multiple works for the Cygnus Trio’s 2018 album Amalgam. Jonathan studied early music performance at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, after earning a Bachelor of Music in Guitar and Lute from McGill’s Schulich School of Music. Off stage catch him walking his pug Satie through Christie Pits or whiling the hours away drinking tea.
Cellist and gambist Felix Deák showcases his career as a freelance musician with chamber ensembles and orchestras. He performs and tours regularly with long-standing, award-winning Montreal-based gamba consort Les Voix Humaines, and Juno award winning ensemble L’harmonie des Saisons. Felix also spends a lot of time cooking and making memories with his dog Scout.
No one ever asks Julia Seager-Scott if she wishes she played the flute. Not as she muscles her Lyon & Healy concert harp (47 strings, 82 lbs) backstage at the National Ballet of Canada, or at symphony gigs across Ontario, or opening for Feist with Charles Spearin and The Happiness Project (Juno Award winner, 2010). It doesn't happen as she wheels her harp into the pit at the Stratford Festival for the 1000th time, nor when she draws the short straw between the other two harpists in the Soaring Harp Trio and they get to say hello to fans while she schleps the bloody great things across the parking lot. That's why she decided she needed more harps, like the baroque, wire-strung Gaelic harp called the Clarsach (34 strings, 15 lbs), so she can more accurately play the music of the Irish blind harper Turlogh O'Carolan (who at least had a guide and a horse when he was on the road). And that's why she got an Italian triple harp (93 strings, 28 lbs). It was David Fallis and the former Toronto Consort who encouraged her to get that one, and she's since played with them and with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, both as a continuo accompanist (to Dame Emma Kirkby, among many others) and as a featured soloist. She also played the Handel Harp Concerto all the way across the country in Calgary, with the Rosa Barocca Ensemble. All those burly handlers at the airports in Toronto and Calgary? Nope. They never said a thing. Julia even played for former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. After she had finished, he looked her right in the eye as if there was something he wanted to ask but, being a man who knows what's good for him, all he said was "Thank you very much."