The Harvester/Erwartung project

With it’s initial incubation at the Banff Centre under the mentorship of Henk Guittart who guided me through the intimate and murky depths of Erwartung, this project has flourished and gained the support of Kevin Mallon, conductor and Artistic Director of Aradia Ensemble.

Guided by my artistic vision as a producer and performer, this is a program that pairs a new chamber arrangement of Arnold Schoenberg’s epic monodrama Erwartung with a new opera, The Harvester, created by one of Canada’s leading young composers, Aaron Gervais in collaboration with emerging Canadian playwright/director Paul Van Dyck. This new opera scored for baritone and soprano is based on Paul Van Dyck’s play “The Harvester”, an edgy and thought provoking piece, which won Best of the Fringe at the Atlantic Fringe Festival in 2012.

The first workshop of The Harvester took place at Gallery 345 in January 2016 and the second stage workshop, saw productions come to life with chamber ensemble, again at Gallery 345 in January 2017. The second stage of this project included the creative talent of multidisciplinary artist Catherine Thompson, baritone Alex Dobson, pianist Katherine Dowling and Montreal’s Ensemble Paramirabo.