Requiem at the NAC.
South Keys resident Linda Wiken will perform with the Ottawa Classical Choir at the NAC on May 21.
Photo submitted
South Keys resident and long-time choral singer Linda Wiken
will be among the approximately 50 members of the Ottawa Classical Choir who
will perform Verdi’s Requiem with Montreal’s
New World Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday, May 21 at the National Arts
Centre.
“This is awfully exciting, this is the choir’s first time at
the NAC, and it’s the concert hall of Canada, so it’s just quite an honour to
be singing at such a spectacular venue right in town,” Wiken said.
The choir, which was founded in 2006 by notable soprano
Maria Knapik and orchestral director Michel Brousseau, is no stranger to
impressive stages, having toured Sicily, Italy in the summer of 2010 as part of
a larger Canadian choir, and then performed at New York’s famed Carnegie Hall
in the fall.
The amateur soprano said she’s been singing in choirs most
of her life, beginning in the early ’60s with her successful junior high choir
in British Columbia,
which was chosen to perform on the maiden voyage of an Australian ocean liner
when she was just 14. Wiken came to Ottawa in the 1970s and settled in Alta
Vista, and for some time got out of singing altogether.
With the inspiration of her sister, however, she began
singing again about 15 years ago, and she hasn’t looked back. She began with
the Ottawa Police Chorus and then moved to St. Matthew’s Anglican Church choir,
which is one of the largest church choirs in Canada. She then dabbled with
Ottawa’s Musica Viva Singers before joining the Ottawa Classical Choir two
years ago. Although the choir demands much of her time, she said the Ottawa
Classical Choir has remained a true community choir since it began in 2006.
“Some people have had a lot of experience, and some have
not. It’s just that love of singing and a commitment to working hard, because
we have an awful lot of rehearsals involved. I think it comes from the dynamism
of the artistic director, Maria Knapik, and our conductor director Michel
Brousseau,” she said. “He’s just a dynamo, he has so much energy and
enthusiasm. He loves the music and shows that to the singers. He wants us to do
difficult work, he thinks of us as professional singers even though we’re
really not,” she laughed.
Indeed, Verdi’s Requiem is especially difficult for an
amateur choir, although several professional singers perform the solo parts and
work with the choir to make sure their sound is perfect.
“Verdi’s Requiem is much more difficult than some of the
other ones. There’s a number of high notes for sopranos, specifically, and
there’s a lot of mixture needed with different lines for different voices and
soloist lines and the orchestra, that all have to be blended well,” Wiken said.
In what spare time she has left between all of her
rehearsals, Wiken, 63, is in the process of writing a series of mystery novels,
having a three-book deal with a US publisher. She said the first novel will be
released in April 2012.
For more information about the NAC concert on May 21, visit
www.ottawaclassicalchoir.com or the NAC box office. Tickets range from $25 to
$60.
Ottawa This Week - South
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