Suzie LeBlanc

Following her Mozart recital in Turin, La Stampa’s music critic wrote:  “The evening’s success is due above all to soprano Suzie LeBlanc with her fresh and melodious voice. Her appearance and personality perfectly convey themselves on the opera stage in the roles of German girls, gentle and dreaming, of whom the prototype is Mozart’s Pamina... This small masterpiece (Alma grande e nobil core) demands from the singer a bit of aggressiveness... Mrs. LeBlanc’s interpretation was perfect in this regard.”  Born in Acadia, Suzie LeBlanc fell in love with the Baroque early in life. Now an international star, the charismatic soprano provides convincing evidence for the popularity of Early Music while exploring French mélodies, lieder, Acadian folk music, contemporary music and the art of improvisation with Helmut Lipsky, and « Au parfum de Tango ».  She has worked with many of the world’s leading early music ensembles in concert and opera performances, as well as on film and on disc. Concerts have taken her to festivals all over the world, as well as to the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Wigmore Hall and the Konzerthaus in Vienna. On the opera stage, she has performed for De Nederlandse Opera, Festival de Beaune, Opéra de Montréal, the Boston Early Music Festival, Tanglewood, Festival Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver.  The film « Lost Song » directed by Rodrigue Jean, in which she plays the lead character, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and won the City-TV Best Canadian Feature Award. She can also be seen on film in “More than a thousand kisses” (Bach’s Coffee Cantata) and “Suzie LeBlanc and a man named Quantz”, both produced by the late Robert Chesterman for Prometheus Productions.  Her contribution to Acadian culture with the CDs « La Mer Jolie » and « Tout passe, »0the documentary « Suzie LeBlanc: A Musical Quest », directed by Donald Winkler; and her performances of Early Music have earned her four honorary doctorates.  In recent seasons, she recorded Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Pamina) with La Petite Bande (Bayer records), Thésée’s Lully (CPO), Gluck’s Orphée (Naxos), Buxtehude motets with Emma Kirkby, Peter Harvey and the Purcell Symphony (Chandos), Carissimi Oratorios, Mozart lieder, Nobil Donna, a Handel Portrait and two recordings of Acadian folk music, all on ATMA. Her recording of works by Olivier Messiaen, titled « Chants de terre et de ciel », as well as “Tempi con Variazioni” won Opus Awards for Best Recording in the Contemporary and World Music categories. Concert highlights include Bach’s St-Matthew Passion at the Brooklyn Academy of Music staged by Jonathan Miller, and a performance of Japanese songs with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.  Suzie LeBlanc has recently devoted much of her time to the poet Elizabeth Bishop, becoming the Honorary Patron of the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia. She commissioned six Canadian composers to write 11 new settings of Bishop’s poetry, and then recorded the entire body of work. This recording will be released later in 2013.  She collaborates with pianists Julius Drake and Robert Kortgaard, and with early keyboard specialist Alexander Weimann.  Suzie LeBlanc is artistic director of Le Nouvel Opéra (www.lenouvelopera.com), an0organization0 that gives workshops in Baroque0opera and0oratorio at the Orford Arts Centre.  Stephen Stubbs After a successful thirty-year career in Europe, Stephen Stubbs returned to his native Seattle in 2006 as one of the world’s most respected lutenists, conductors, and baroque opera specialists. Before his return, he was based in Bremen, Germany, where he was Professor at the Hochschule für Künste. Together with Erin Headley he started the ensemble Tragicomedia in 1987, which toured throughout Europe, Japan and the US, as well as recording numerous CD’s for various recording companies.Tragicomedia has also been the continuo team for the Boston Early Music Festival since 1997. Stephen is the Festival’s permanent artistic co-director along with his long time colleague Paul O’Dette. Together they have led all the BEMF Opera productions and recordings.
In 2007 Stephen established his new production company, Pacific MusicWorks, based in Seattle. Pacific MusicWorks reflects his lifelong interest in both early music and contemporary performance.  PMW’s first production in spring 2009 reflected both interests, presenting Claudio Monteverdi’s 1641 opera The Return of Ulysses in a staging using life-sized puppets designed and brought to life by the Handspring Puppet Companyof South Africa, and projections designed by the world-renowned graphic and performance artist and stage director William Kentridge. This inaugural production was universally lauded by critics and public alike.
Subsequent productions have included a successful collaboration with Seattle Chamber Players/On the Boards, a collaboration with Seattle Dance Project and Anna Mansbridge performing staged 17th Century madrigals for three sopranos and three dancers, as well as performances of the Monteverdi Vespers with Concerto Palatino, described by the Seattle Times as “utterly thrilling” and “of a quality you are unlikely to encounter anywhere else in the world”.
This coming season will bring a special collaboration with the Seattle Symphony in the form of what could be called “the Passions Project” in which the Symphony will present the St. Matthew Passion, and a week later (with the same group of vocal soloists) we will present our first performance of the St. John Passion with our own baroque orchestra.
In addition to his ongoing commitments to Pacific MusicWorks and the Boston Early Music Festival, other engagements have recently taken Stephen to Bilbao’s opera house in Spain to conduct Handels’ Giulio Cesare and Gluck’s Orfeo. He also returned to the Netherlands Opera, Amsterdam, where he directed Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. 2011 saw his debut conducting the Seattle Symphony Orchestra performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and he returned in 2012 to conduct Handel’s Messiah. In 2011-2012 he conducted Monteverdi’s Poppea with Opera UCLA as well as Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphee in Boston with co-director PaulO’Dette for BEMF. Other recent appearances included Handel’s L’Allegro and Mozart’s Magic Flute for the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo for BEMF, Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo, and an evening of Bach Cantata’s for Pacific MusicWorks. He made his conducting debut with the Edmonton Symphony performing Handel’s Messiah in 2012, and conducted Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Denver with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado. Stephen has an extensive discography as conductor and as a solo lutenist of well over 100 CDs, many of which have received international acclaim and awards.
In the summer of 2013 he led performances of Handel’s Almira at the Boston Festival, then returned to Hawaii to conduct Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte for the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival. In October he led performances of Lully and Moliere’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme at the Cornish Playhouse and in November he will return to Bremen with the BEMF team to record their production of Steffani’s Niobe, featuring star countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.
In 2013, Stephen Stubbs was appointed Senior Artist in Residence and faculty member of the School of Music at the University of Washington. The first collaboration between the University and Pacific MusicWorks will be Handel’s Semele to be performed in May 2014. For that production Stephen will be joined by his colleague, stage director James Darrah, as well as a cast of vocal stars from around the country.