Russell Braun, baritone

 

Renowned for his exquisite and precise tone, and the expressiveness of his characterisations, baritone Russell Braun rightfully claims his place on the leading concert, opera and recital stages around the world. His intelligent and thoughtful portrayals of Chou En-lai, Billy Budd, Prince Andrei, Figaro, Papageno, Count Almaviva, Don Giovanni, Pelléas, Eugene Onegin, and The Traveller have captivated audiences and critics alike. Highlights of the 2023/24 season include GuglielmoCosì fan tutte for Théâtre du Châtelet and a return to Festival d'Aix-en-Provence to sing the role of Agamemnon Iphigénie en Aulide.

Recent highlights include making his role debut as Mandryka in a new production of Arabella for Deutsche Oper Berlin, directed by Tobias Kratzer, and Guglielmo Così fan tutte in a new production for Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, directed by Dmitri Tcherniakov, Mendelssohn Elijah with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.


Further operatic highlights include  Sam A Quiet Place for Opéra national de Paris, Speaker Die Zauberflöte, Peter Hänsel und Gretel and Don Alfonso Così fan tutte at the Canadian Opera Company, Peter Hänsel und Gretel with Michigan Opera Theatre, a new collaboration with director Tim Albery on Hanns Eisler Hell’s Fury, The HollywoodSongbook,  Luminato Festival, Pentheus The Bassarids, Salzburg Festival, Alfred Ill Der Besuch der alten Dame at Theater an der Wien, Figaro Il barbiere di Siviglia at Calgary Opera and the title role of the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Louis Riel in Toronto at the Four Seasons Centre and in Ottawa with the National Arts Centre Orchestra presented as part of the celebrations surrounding Canada’s 150th Anniversary. Previous seasons have included Count Almaviva Le nozze di Figaro, Ford Falstaff, Duke of Nottingham Roberto Devereux and Conte di Luna Il trovatore, all with the Canadian Opera Company, Chou En-lai Nixon in China, Lescaut Manon Lescaut and as Olivier alongside Renée Fleming in Capriccio, all at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.


On the concert platform, Braun sings regularly with the world’s major conductors and orchestras, including the Atlanta Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Danish National Symphony, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Houston Symphony. With a great affinity for contemporary repertoire, he has performed Peter Eötvös Senza Sangue in Rome, London, Norway and Sweden, Brett Dean Knocking at the Hell Gate with the BBC Symphony in London, and Saariaho Cinque reflets de l’amour de loin with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester in both Stuttgart and Freiburg. Recent highlights include Brahms Vier ernste Gesänge arranged by Detlev Glanert and Fauré Requiem with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.


His discography features the GRAMMY-nominated Das Lied von der Erde (Dorian), JUNO winners Mozart Arie e duetti (CBC) and Apollo e Daphne, and JUNO nominee Winterreise (CBC). His most recent release is Dietch Le vaisseau fantôme with Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble on the Naïve label. DVDs include the Salzburg Festival’s Roméo et Juliette and the Mark Morris dance adaptation of Dido and Aeneas, his much-lauded portrayal of Chou En-lai in Adams Nixon in China (Nonesuch) and Capriccio(Decca) at the Metropolitan Opera (released on DVD as part of the company’s Live-in-HD series) and Alexina Louie’s comic opera Burnt Toast.

Martin Karlíček, piano 

 

Mr. Karlíček’s piano playing has been described as “inspiring, rich, sensitive, stylistically taut and arresting, precise, crisp, brilliantly controlled, wonderfully colorful and always imaginative.” He performs and lectures regularly in the Czech Republic, Germany, Canada, U.S.A. and Japan. Recent United States tour consisted of fifteen concerts in fourteen days and included performances in Stanford University, New York University and Carnegie Hall. Antonín Dvořák’s piano concerto Op. 33 is scheduled for a tour in the Czech Republic in 2013.
Aside from establishing his reputation as a dynamic promoter of Czech music, Mr. Karlíček’s large solo and chamber music repertoire includes standard and contemporary works: one of his last projects was a CD of complete piano & cello and piano works by a young Canadian composer Andrew Yin Svoboda (1977-2004). Mr. Karlíček introduced world premiere of Félix Frédéric Baril’s piano concerto Déviations, Martin Matalon’s Las siete Vidas de un Gato as a North-American premiere and a world premiere of Tekeni-Ahsen by Denys Bouliane. In 2008 he and a Japanese violinist Mana Shiraishi established Duo Ventapane that instantly embarked on tours of Europe and Japan receiving praise and admiration: “Duo Ventapane is an event to experience…”Mr. Karlíček is also a founder of Creo Trio that enjoys and promotes repertoire written for flute, violin and piano.
Mr. Karlíček gathered awards and prizes from several competitions such as The Best Interpretation of the Czech Contemporary Music Piece Prize from the International Piano Competition in Karlovy Vary, 2nd Prize and Bedřich Smetana Prize from theBedřich Smetana International Piano Competition, 1st Prize, the title of an Absolute Winner and Ferenc Liszt Prize from the South Bohemian International Piano Competition, 1st Prize, Leoš Janáček Prize, Béla Bartók Prize and Bohuslav Martinů Prize from the Prague-Vienna-Budapest International Summer Academy Competition and Bedřich Smetana Award and Béla Bartók Award from the IBLA Grand Prize International Music Competition.
Martin Karlíček studied at the Academy of Music in Prague (B.Mus, M.Mus), Utrecht Academy of the Arts in Holland and at McGill University in Montreal in Canada (M.Mus, D.Mus). Among his teachers were K. Hashimoto, A. Kuerti, K. Bilinská, M. Langer and I. Moravec. Presently, he teaches piano at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University.

Pieter Grobler, piano 

 

The South African pianist, Pieter Grobler, has been described as a performer with “finesse, sensitivity and a flawless sense of the classical style” (The Star, Johannesburg, South Africa). Grobler worked with Joseph Stanford at the University of Pretoria. Postgraduate studies were with Joseph Banowetz, at the University of North Texas (UNT) in the USA, where he completed the MM and DMA piano performance degrees. During his tenure at UNT he regularly attended lessons with the Polish pianist: Adam Wodnicki, Elvia Puccinelli and Harold Heiberg. Pieter Grobler was the recipient of numerous scholarships and prizes from institutions in both South Africa and the USA.
In 2010 he accepted a position in Piano at Stellenbosch University, where he lectures in piano performance, chamber music, vocal accompaniment and repertoire studies. Postgraduate supervision has centered on topics in pedagogy and repertoire studies. Pieter Grobler regularly acts as adjudicator and examiner throughout South Africa, and is the organiser and chairman of the jury for the Hennie Joubert Piano Competition, held bi-annually as part of the Stellenbosch International Piano Symposium. He has taught and performed in its sister project, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival since 2011. In addition to his music activities, he has served as chair of the Stellenbosch University Department of Music.
Pieter maintains an active concert profile, both as solo and collaborative artist. In addition to performances across South Africa he has performed in the USA, Canada, Europe and China. Noteworthy amongst these appearances was a live radio broadcast of a solo piano recital as part of the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series hosted at the Chicago Cultural Centre, a number of South African national tours, and numerous appearances with duo partner, the violinist Annette-Barbara Vogel: both in Canada and South Africa. Pieter is a familiar face to Stellenbosch audiences where he performs regularly. To date he has performed numerous South African premieres of works, the most noteworthy being Alexander Johnson’s 3 Incantations for Piano (dedicated to him), Peter Klatzow’s Sonata for Cello and Piano with cellist Peter Martens, and Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s Safika – Three Tales of African Migration.

Examples of his piano playing can be found on his YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4qeezgthrTe69W-5DcaWwA/videos

Derek Conrod, horn 

 

Derek Conrod has been teaching at Western since 1986. He is also on faculty at the Eastman School of Music (Rochester) and Wilfrid Laurier University. As a horn player, he is a member of the Stratford Festival Orchestra, and recently retired from both the National Ballet Orchestra and Tafelmusik after 30 seasons. A frequent recitalist and lecturer on historical horns, Derek has performed on more than 30 discs with Tafelmusik, Arradia, American Bach Soloists (San Francisco), and Apollo’s Fire (Cleveland), and has appeared as a soloist with Tafelmusik at the Mostly Mozart Festival at New York’s Lincoln Center and at Orchestra Hall in Chicago.