Writers
Maja Ardal
Hannah Moscovitch
Michael Pollard
Anusree Roy

Composers
Iman Habibi
Anna Höstman
Norbert Palej
Gareth Williams

Artist Pictured: Composer Gareth Williams in the 2009 International LibLab. Photo courtesy Marjorie Chan.

About the LibLab
For 15 years (!) Tapestry has been introducing writers and composers to the collaborative creation process with the annual LibLab, the beginning of the Tapestry Creative Development Programme and a launching point for operatic projects in Canada and beyond. It is also the model for the English National Opera Studio’s All In Opera, as well as Pacific Opera Victoria’s Composer-Librettist Workshop.

Here’s how it works: 4 composers and 4 writers are brought together for a 10-day period of collaborative discovery through the creation of sixteen 5-minute scenes, each of which are written, composed and performed within a 48 hour cycle that is repeated four times, enabling each writer to work with each composer. Guiding the composers and librettists throughout the process are dramaturg Michael P. Albano and musical dramaturg Wayne Strongman (Tapestry’s Managing Artistic Director). At the disposal of the creative teams for the 2010 LibLab will be some of Canada’s most respected performers, including soprano Carla Huhtanen, mezzo soprano Kimberly Barber, tenor Keith Klassen, baritone Peter McGillivray, as well collaborative pianist Christopher Foley.

Click here for more info. on submission criteria.

Deadline for Applications is May 30, 2010.

For most composers and writers the artistic process is a solitary one. Producers around the world agree that forming workable artistic partnerships between composers and playwrights is the single greatest challenge facing the development of new opera and music theatre. The Composer-Librettist Laboratory is Tapestry’s response to this challenge. Initiated in 1995, the laboratory is an intensive one-week workshop for composers and writers to explore the collaborative process.

Tapestry has just received its largest individual gift to date, $250,000 from an anonymous donor to fund the Leadership Legacy Programme. Over the next three years, 6 mid-career arts professionals will be given the opportunity for a 3-month residency at Tapestry as Associate Managing Artistic Director, a position which is intended to grow the company’s artistic capacity and to provide leadership succession for the future.

“My interest in human resource management is an extension of the deep and trusting relationships I have built with musicians and singers from an early age. By extension, that is how I try to manage my business relationships, beginning with the staff and board and by extension to my colleagues in other companies around the world. Further, the invention of a vocabulary to make the development of new operas practical and successful has been built over 20 years of relationships with playwrights and composers, directors, designers, and of course the performers.  It is truly a collegial world I inhabit.  We hope that through this programme we will identify a future leader who will welcome the rare opportunity to join a well-established organization where they will be enabled to realize both their artistic vision and the business practice that will make it possible.” Wayne Strongman

Read the full media release here.

Photo © Brian Mosoff, 2009

Shelter
Juliet Palmer, composer
Julie Salverson, librettist

Dark Star Requiem
Andrew Staniland, composer
Jill Battson, libretttist

The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G.
Aaron Gervais, composer
Colleen Murphy, librettist

Click here to read a John Terauds Toronto Star piece on Njo Kong Kie and Kico Gonzalez-Risso’s new opera La Senorita Mundo, now in its world premiere run at Toronto’s Summerworks Festival.

A new operatic allegory La Senorita Mundo opens tonight (August 7 at 8pm) at The Theatre Centre in Toronto.

Composer Njo Kong Kie and librettist / director Kico Gonzalez Risso met in 2004 at Tapestry’s Directors’ Lab, both already graduates of Tapestry’s annual LibLab.

Kico stage directed a piece composed by Kong Kie in LibLab that year (the first 5 min of what became knotty together with a libretto by Anna Chatterton). Kong Kie also music directed a piece which Kico stage directed. Such is the collaborative process here at Tapestry…

Subsequently, Kong Kie wrote a song for Kico for his radio cabaret musical Ghost in Love, which was performed in Vancouver.

La Senorita Mundo is the latest collaboration from the pair.  Running 50+ minutes it is part of Toronto’s Summerworks festival and features Tapestry regular Keith Klassen (tenor) and Vilma Vitols (mezzo).

Click here for full schedule and ticket info on the Summerworks website or call .

Taylor Graham, librettist for The Virgin Charlie (part of Opera to Go 2009), has blogged about her experience working with Tapestry and the effect of her Dora Award Nomination on her life and career.

Click here to read her candid thoughts on the Tapestry creative process, the awards ceremony, and her career in the theatre/opera community.

Artists Featured: Scott Belluz & Krisztina Szabo in “The Virgin Charlie” (Opera to Go 2009)
Photo © Michael Cooper, 2009

We did a little photo shoot on Tuesday night in the Distillery District.  Scott Belluz and Peter McGillivray were photographed by Meghan Hall in advance of the world premiere of The Shadow.

The Shadow premieres May 21-30, 2009 at the Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs.

Click here for more info.

Tickets
$20-$49

Box Office
416.368.3110
canstage.com
totix.ca

Photo: Scott Belluz & Peter McGillivray (c) Meghan Hall, 2009.

Watch the lovely Carla Huhtanen here as she is interviewed for TorontoStage.com at the Tapestry office in the Distillery District.

Click here to learn more about this year’s production which has its world premiere in late March at the Enwave Theatre, Harbourfront Centre.  You can buy tickets here.

The reason for this Blog, beyond sharing news and pictures with everyone is to show a glimpse of everything that happens behind the scenes at Tapestry.  As a company dedicated to new work, we spend a lot of time developing operas.  So we might not have a production up in the theatre, but we almost always have something going on in the studio.  this year we invited photographer Meghan Hall into the studio and here is a glimpse of some great Tapestry artists at work.

Just click on the photo to advance the slide.

Artists Pictured: Scott Belluz, Catharin Carew, Sally Dibblee, Keith Klassen, Peter McGillivray, Christopher Foley, Tom Diamond, Wayne Strongman, Isolde Pleasants-Faulkner, Julia Tribe, Alexis Diamond, Taylor Graham, Marcia Johnson, Glenn James, Abigail Richardson, William Rowson, Stephen Andrew Taylor.  All photos (c) Meghan Hall 2009.