Toronto’s The Noise Academy will present the North American premiere of Quid sit Musicus (What is music?) by Philippe Leroux. The work for seven voices, cello, guitar and live interactive electronics will be on stage on May 10 and 11.
Quid sit Musicus is a work that takes it inspiration from Early Music sources, adding a contemporary sensibility and sonorities.
Quid sit Musicus
Xin Wang of The Noise Academy described discovering the work in a statement.
“It was December in 2023 when I first heard portions of Quid sit Musicus on YouTube while looking for contemporary rep for voice and guitar with Rob MacDonald. We both were immediately drawn to its ever surprising sonic landscape. I teach a 21st century contemporary vocal rep class in Glenn Gould School of Music.
“I strive to make contemporary vocal music more accessible for young performers by introducing them to a wide spectrum of notations, extended techniques, unconventional intervals and complex rhythmic patterns. So my first idea was to have my class of ADP students learn and perform the work. The GGS administration eventually did not approve the project but by then, the singers, the instrumentalists, the electronic musicians and the composer were gathered and ready to go. It seemed a waste of this momentum to cancel the project. A generous anonymous donation came in right before I was to abandon the whole production. And here we are, a week away from the first day of a week long rehearsal with Philippe Leroux being there daily! The singers and musicians have met numerous times before the first official rehearsal and I am so moved to see this unified dedication and commitment. Contemporary music needs it. The time it takes for us to learn a piece, no contract could ever pay enough. It has to come from the need of our own curiosity.
“Quid sit Musicus is through composed with running length just under one hour. Philippe Leroux has always been one of my favourite composers. I feel like a child stepping into a world of wonder when I hear his music. It is highly demanding of all the musicians individually and collaboratively. But again, the chances of self discovery is just that much bigger when you are faced with a challenge 🙂
“I think listening to the music of Philippe is entering a space that is constantly evolving, with such imagination. I am giddy with excitement to share this with Toronto!”
Performers
There will be seven singers for the performance.
Katelyn Bird, 1st Soprano
Canadian soprano Katelyn Bird is a graduate of the Glenn Gould School, and she was a 2025 Laffont Competition Encouragement Award winner. Recent roles include Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro (Pacific Opera Victoria), Adele in Die Fledermaus (Toronto City Opera), Giannetta and Adele (cover) in L’elisir d’amore, Madame Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor, and Donna Anna (cover) in Don Giovanni. Today, in addition to her performing career, Katelyn is the Artistic Director and Co-Owner of Crashcat Studios.
Xin Wang, 2nd Soprano
Born in Yunnan in southwestern China, Xin came to Canada on her own at the age of 17 to studying singing. Her studies and career have taken her from Winnipeg to Toronto, where she is a teacher and mother as well as a performer. Her interest in studying the mechanisms of the singing body, and complex music, led her to exploration of contemporary repertoire.
Charlotte Anderson, Alto
Vancouver native Charlotte Anderson earned a Bachelor of Music (Honours) from The Glenn Gould School, where she is currently completing her Artist Diploma. This season, Charlotte Anderson makes her debut as Zweite Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and as La Chauve-Souris in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. In addition to her classical music studies and performances, Charlotte is also a trained jazz pianist, vocalist, and composer.
Chelsea Pringle-Duchemin, Counter Tenor
Mezzo-soprano Chelsea Pringle-Duchemin is an emerging singer and composer from Montréal. In 2023, she received a Canada Council for the Arts grant for Unbound: Frauenliebe und -Leben, a recital project which developed staging and original poetry for performances of Schumann’s song cycle. The work focused on themes of intimate partner violence and feminine liberation, part of Chelsea’s interest in connection repertoire with feminism in both contemporary and traditional repertoire. This season’s highlights includes performances with I Medici di McGill, and in Operatika: Arias of Seduction, a hybrid opera-pole dance recital project, as well as the opera pubs she curates at a local wine bar.
Nathan Gritter Tenor
Singer and conductor Nathan Gritter is based in Toronto, where he’s a doctoral student in Historical Performance. He completed a Master of Music degree, also at the University of Toronto. Nathan has worked with The Elora Singers, Toronto Mendelssohn Singers, Choir 21, Trinity Bach Project, and the Theatre of Early Music, and is the Director of Music at Kingsway-Lambton United Church.
Alan MacDonald, 1st Baritone
Alan is a graduate of Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M Faris Young Artist Program. He has also performed with Chorus Niagara and Toronto’s Opera 5. Other recent roles includes Prince Yamadori and the Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly with Vancouver Opera, Vox Christus with the Vancouver Bach Choir in Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, and Beethoven’s Symphony no 9 with the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, among others.
Graham Robinson, 2nd Baritone
British Columbia born bass-baritone Graham Robinson earned a Bachelors of Music degree in Voice from the University of Victoria, with further studies at the Toronto Metropolitan University. Now based in Toronto, he has performed with the Elmer Iseler Singers, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra & Chamber Choir, La Chapelle de Québec, Elora Festival Singers, and Nathaniel Dett Chorale, among others.
Musical components include strings and electronics.
David Hetherington, Cello/ Vielle
David Hetherington is the longstanding Assistant Principal Cellist at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a founding member of the Amici Chamber Ensemble. He is a prolific recording artist, both on his own and as a member of several ensembles, and a multiple JUNO Award winner. David’s concert schedule includes regular performances of chamber music with New Music Concerts and Soundstreams Canada. He currently teaches cello at the Glenn Gould School and is the cello section coach of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Rob MacDonald, Guitar / Lute
Rob MacDonald is on an incessant search for lesser known repertoire for what is surely the world’s most ubiquitous instrument: the guitar. Rob earned an MMus from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, and today teaches guitar at the University of Toronto. He performs as half of the guitar ensemble ChromaDuo (with guitarist Tracy Anne Smith). The duo has released multiple recordings on the Naxos label.
Justin Massey, electronic
Canadian saxophonist, composer, and audio engineer Justin Massey is based in Toronto. He focuses his practice on contemporary music, and the search for new sonorities and textures via the saxophone. Justin performs music of his generation, and commissions new repertoire while working with each composer to explore new sounds, including via electronic manipulation of the saxophone.
Fish Yu, electronic
Tsz Long (Fish) Yu began his music studies at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he earned his Bachelor of Music in Composition & Electronic Music. Since coming to Canada, he has earned a Master of Music degree at the University of Toronto in Music Technology & Digital Media, and is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts. Fish is an active composer and digital media artist in Toronto, and premieres a piece with New Music Concerts on May 2, among other recent residencies and performances of his work.
Teri Dunn, conductor
Singer, conductor, and educator Teri Dunn has been the Music Director of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company since 2015. She has led several operas with the CCOC including world premieres of Alice Ho’s The Monkiest King, and Serouj Kradjian’s The Nightingale of a Thousand Songs. Teri is the Dean of Choral Studies at the St. Michael’s Choir School, where she conducts three of their choirs.
Franco-Canadian Composer Philippe Leroux
French composer Philippe Leroux weaves together contemporary and Early Music in his work Quid sit Musicus. The work is made up of pieces based on music and texts by French composer and poet Guillaume de Machaut (1300 to 1377) and his contemporary Jacob de Senlèches, the former now looked upon as a leader of what we now call the French arts nova style of late medieval music. Just as Quid sit Musicus is inspired by both new and old music, it blends acoustic and electronic elements through its movements.
Leroux is a native of Boulogne Billancourt in France, and he studied at the Paris Conservatory (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique), after which he accepted an artist’s residency at the Villa Medici in Rome for a two-year period.
His music is widely performed Europe, and has been recognized with numerous prizes and sears, including a Prix Hervé Dugardin for Best contemporary musical creation Award, André Caplet and Nadia and Lili Boulanger Prizes from the Academy of Fine Arts (Institut de France), and the Arthur Honegger Prize (Fondation de France) for his life’s work, which consists of more than 90 pieces for orchestra and chamber ensembles, as well as vocal works. He has taught and given lectures at Berkeley University in the US, Royal Conservatory of Copenhagen, and University of Toronto, among many other prominent institutions internationally.
Today, he is based Montreal, where he is an Associate Professor in composition at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University.
His music is known known to incorporation seemingly disparate elements via a process of synthesis. Movements and gestures are notated in the manuscript with a view to linking the sounds, story, and poetry of the work.
Performances
The concerts take place at the The Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse.
- Find tickets and other details about the performances on May 10 and 11 [HERE].
Are you looking to promote an event? Have a news tip? Need to know the best events happening this weekend? Send us a note.
#LUDWIGVAN
Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.