Over the last fifteen years, composer RAINER WIENS (compser) has developed one of the most unique guitar styles in contemporary jazz. He has also composed music for dance, theatre, television and film as well as founding the jazz group Silk Stockings and co-founding Sound Image Theatre with Jan Komarek. His published works are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. For "Down Here On Earth", he has created a world of urban hardness and isolation with the quintessential urban musical instrument, the electric guitar - altered beyond recognition. The prepared electric guitar has given Wiens, over the last seven years, a vocabulary of sound that is orchestral in scope, uniquely his.
Librettist VICTORIA WARD (librettist)is a native Toronto playwright who began her career with the riot girl theatre company Empress Productions in the late eighties. She has written two one woman shows: "Kitten with a Crucifix", 1994 in which she performed and "The Vacant Chapel", 1997 (both Jim Millan dir.) which Sarah Stanley performed. Both were Toronto Fringe Festival hits. Ward also co-wrote Theatre Gargantua's multi-Dora Award nominated show "The Trials", "Fortune and Desire", 1995 and "The Human Zoo", 1997 for Kensington Carnival. A member of DNA Theatre since 1991, she performed in the groundbreaking "Sick" and in the Dora Award winning "Poundemonium" (both Hillar Liitoja, dir.). Ward has since been acting as dramaturge for the company and most notably for the Chalmers Award winning "The Last Supper", 1994 (HilIar Liitoja, dir.). "Down Here on Earth" is her first opera.
Autumn Leaf Performance's founding Artistic Director THOM SOKOLOSKI (director) has directed most of the company's productions including many of R. Murray Schafer works: "Crown of Ariadne", "Hermes Trismegistos" (inside Union Station) and "Requiems for the Party Girl". He also initiated SONiC BOOM, a highly successful series of contemporary music culture that included his "Artaud's Cane" and "Anxiety of Immortality". When co-artistic director of Autumn Angel Repertory with Richard Rose (83-85), he developed and directed the Dora winning musical "Sid's Kids", and Schafer's "RA" at the Ontario Science Centre for Comus Music Theatre. In 1996 he directed a multi-media productions of Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" and Stravinsky's "The Soldier's Story" for the Belgium contemporary orchestra I Fiamminghi for a tour in Holland and Belgium.
BONNIE BEECHER's (lighting designer) other designs for Autumn Leaf Performance include "WX" created by John Oswald and Holly Small, and the Urge collectives "I Had an Urge..." and "She Promised She'd Bake A Pie". Other recent work includes "One Eyed Kings" for Tarragon, "Still the Night" for Tapestry Music Theatre and Alberta Theatre Projects, ""Harlem Duet"" for Canadian Stage and Nightwood Theatre, ""The Conjuror" for Theatre Rom, "End of Season" for Theatre Direct, "Romeo & Juliet" for Canadian Stage's Dream in The Park, and The "Two Mrs. Carrolls" for The Shaw Festival. Recent projects include "The Shop at Sly Corner"" for the Shaw Festival, "Lawrence and Holloman" for Tarragon and a new work by Dominique Dumais for the National Ballet of Canada. Bonnie is a member of Associated Designers of Canada.
VIKKI ANDERSON (set & costume designer) been designing and directing in Toronto for the past three years. She has worked with numerous Theatre Companies including: Crow's Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, Nightwood Theatre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Theatre Passe Muraille, Autumn Leaf Performance, I Fiamminghi in Belgium, Theatreworks and the Urge Collective. Recent projects include: Brad Fraser's "Martin Yesterday", Diane Flacks' "Random Acts" and "Medea" at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Upcoming projects include "Coyote Ugly" by Lynn Siefert which she will direct and design for her own company, DVXT Theatre, at Buddies.
British born LIZ UPCHURCH (vocal coach) won a place at the age of six to study piano, voice, violin and viola at the Centre for Young Musicians in London. She entered the Royal Academy of Music as a pianist when she was eighteen and won several prizes as a soloist and accompanist. She leads a freelance career in both Europe and North America. As a pianist Liz has performed chamber music and song recitals all over Europe and broadcast with the BBC, Norwegian Radio and CBC. For many years she has played for masterclasses at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh with artists such as Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Suzanne Danco, William Pleeth and Dame Joan Sutherland. As a music director, vocal coach and repetiteur she has worked in 20th century and traditional opera, music-theatre and theatre. Her recent work in Canada includes a faculty position at the Banff Centre for the Arts for the "20th Century Opera and Song" programme, a season with Edmonton opera as repetiteur and chorus director and a recital with the Canadian soprano Tracey Dahl. She is now working with COC as vocal coach and repetiteur on Fidelio, and is also currently involved in the development and production of a triple bill of American operas at the Barbican Centre in London.
JENNIFER TARVER (assistant director) was born in New York City where she received much of her training and experience in both music and theatre. Since her return to Canada in 1993 she has worked at the Banff Centre for the Arts and completed and MFA in directing from the University of Alberta. At the Banff Centre, Jennifer was involved in several contemporary music theatre projects, in addition to participating in Richard Armstrong's extended voice sessions. Her directing credits include; "The Seagull", "Salome"", "Abundance", "The Love of Don Perlimplin and Belisa in the Garden", and "Trouble in Tahiti". In 1996 she commissioned, developed and directed the world premiere of Gordon Fitzel's opera "Three Sisters Who are Not" based on a text by Gertrude Stein. She has recently returned from London, England where she spent a year working as a director and living with her partner Liz Upchurch.
RICHARD ARMSTRONG's work as performer, director and teacher began in the sixties when, as a founding member of the Roy Hart Theatre in France, he helped create one of Europe's most influential schools of voice and body research. His work has taken him to over 20 countries. A founding faculty member of New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing in Paris, his RHT production of Leoncavallo's opera "Pagliacci" won an Obie in New York in 1986. For thirteen years he has been the extended vocal specialist for music theatre and opera programmes at the Banff Centre. Banff productions include roles in John Metcalf's opera "Tornrak" for Welsh National Opera (Best New Opera award/Opera America) and Mauricio Kagel's "La Trahison Orale"; vocal direction for Birtwistle's "Punch and Judy", Maxwell Davies' "Miss Donnithorne's Maggot" and "Eight Songs for a Mad King", Toovey's "Ubu", and Henze's "El Cimarron". Directing credits at Banff include "Subtle Surprises Ahead" (Aperghis, Rzewski, and Metcalf), and premieres of works by French composer Georges Aperghis for the 1996 Festival. In 1994 he directed Owen Underhill's new opera "The Star Catalogues" for Vancouver New Music. He has been visiting Toronto to teach as part of ALP's Professional Development Workshop programme for several years, attracting an international array of performing artists. Projects for 1998 include directing a new opera in Canada by Linda Bouchard, to be based on Eduardo Galeano's "Book of Embraces".
FIDES KRUCKER trained at the Banff Centre and has performed throughout North America and Europe. Contemporary opera roles have included Miss Donnithorne (Maxwell-Davies) for the Stratford Festival and Melusina in Autumn Leaf Performance's productions of R. Murray Schafer's "Hermes Trismegistos" (inside Union Station) and "Requiems for the Party Girl" (Dora nomination for Best Actress). Recent performances have included the world premiere of "Le vampyre et la nymphomane" for Chants Libres in Montréal, "Pierrot Lunaire" in Brussels and Den Haag with I Fiamminghi and Berio's "Folk Songs" in Tel Aviv. She is a founding member of the all-female collective, URGE, whose most recent production, "She Promised She'd Bake A Pie" (co-produced with ALP) was featured on Adrienne Clarkson Presents and was performed at One Yellow Rabbit's 1998 High Performance Rodeo. She has recorded electroacoustic and chamber repertoire by composers such as Gavin Bryans, Wende Bartley and Christopher Butterfield for CBC's "Two New Hours." She is also touring in Tapestry Music Theatre's new opera "Elsewhereness" by Rodney Sharman and Atom Egoyan.Fides teaches extensively in Toronto both individually and for large groups. She has directed Richard Armstrong in his one man show ""Muscle of the Soul"". Fides is currently working on a solo show which draws from jazz, pop and r&b material as well as beginning work with URGE on their next piece. She will be artist-in-residence at the European Graduate School of Expressive Arts Therapy in Saas-Fee, Switzerland this next summer.
SUSANNA HOOD has studied singing with Liz Naylor, David Dunbar and Fides Krucker. Her own work explores the integration of voice and movement and the melding of artistic disciplines. With Toronto Dance Theatre from 1991-1995, she now works as an independent dancer and choreographer in Toronto, collaborating with such artists as Michael Downing, Joey Meyer and Gerry Trentham, among others. Her choreography has been presented at Damn Straight, The Theatre Centre, Summerworks and in her first self-produced show, "The Ides of May", at Myth Production. Her first work for film, "Cornered"", appeared in the 1997 Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video.
JOHN GZOWSKI has worked with such people as Elliot Sharp, John Zorn, Bobby Wiseman, N.O.M.A., Hemisphere's and New Music Concerts. He has played rock, jazz, new music and world music, and can be beard on numerous CD's. As a composer, he has written for Critical Band, Hemisphere's, Mecca and for TV and film. In 1998 he will be producing work for the Evergreen Gamelan Club Ensemble, Critical Band, and Hemisphere's. He has lead the groups Critical Band, Mecca and the Space Trio. John has worked on plays such as Theatre Passe Muraille's Rigoletto, and Factory Theatre's Where is Kabuki. His list of custom instruments include the electric dowel, the cat's cradle, the electric 2x4 and the 19 tone electric guitar, all designed for the performing of music in alternate tunings, and recently exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario. John has lately been running a hard disk recording system where music is translated into lots of 1 and 0's, recording music for CD's, theatre, film and television. He recently composed the music for and performed in Froth Theatre's production of Quartet.
BILL PARSONS's performance experience encompasses jazz, improvised, concert, popular, and world music. As a composer, Bill has written for a wide range of musical settings from jazz and concert music to interdisciplinary works with filmmakers, photographers, and choreographers. At present, Bill spends his time as a performing member with Evergreen Club; developing Mosaic - a septet he composes for, performs and records with, and co-leads with Blair Mackay; collaborating with Montreal visual artist Chuck Samuels (their most recent work includes an interactive photographic-sound installation called Psychoanalysis, and five music-videos for Mosaic); teaching music; and studying film and French.
NILAN PERERA has been a consistent presence on the creative music scene in Toronto since 1984. He has been a broadcaster for the past 9 years in addition to serving as Program Director and Station Manager on ClUT-FM (15,000 watt, campus/community station) as well as a producer of concerts and festivals in Toronto. In addition to this he has been involved in many of the cutting edge music ensembles of note that have achieved high profiles in Toronto, including NOMA, Cinnamon Sphere, Handslang & Sound Image Theatre.
MONTE HORTON has worked as a freelance guitarist in Toronto since 1979. He has performed and/or recorded with The Henrys, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bill Grove Trio, Nic Gothams' Gotham City, Amanda Marshall, Rebecca Jenkins, Melanie Doane, Anne Bourne, Jim Normans' Grafite and many others. Theatre work has included Life on the Line with Cliff Saunders and the workshop production of the musical St. George with Michael Burgess and Susan Gilmour.
