{"id":124411,"date":"2026-05-19T16:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=124411"},"modified":"2026-05-19T16:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:02:08","slug":"interview-soprano-reilly-nelson-talks-singing-zoomer-open-house-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/05\/19\/interview-soprano-reilly-nelson-talks-singing-zoomer-open-house-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Soprano Reilly Nelson Talks About Singing &#038; Her Zoomer Open House Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_124414\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-124414\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-124414\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-05-19T152853.238.jpg\" alt=\"Soprano Reilly Nelson (Photo courtesy of the artist)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-05-19T152853.238.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-05-19T152853.238-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-05-19T152853.238-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2026-05-19T152853.238-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-124414\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Soprano Reilly Nelson (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Soprano <strong>Reilly Nelson<\/strong> will be performing at the Zoomer Media Open House on May 23. The Toronto vocalist will be appearing with pianist Yolanda Tapia and guitarist Lenny Rannallo, and the eclectic program is a mirror of her varied career and musical interests.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson\u2019s recent credits include engagements with Pacific Opera Victoria, Cincinnati Opera, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Tapestry Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival world premiere of Tenor Overboard.<\/p>\n<p>In January 2026 she premiered Songs of Glass and Iron, a staged recital of the music of Kurt Weill that Nelson co-created with composer-pianist Friedrich Heinrich Kern. She recently debuted in a new work titled Neapolitan Ice Cream: The Musical at Toronto&#8217;s Villa Charities.<\/p>\n<p>Reilly is a Weill\/Brecht specialist, and her work in that genre was recognized with a second place award in the Lotte Lenya Competition. She is a two-time participant in Barbara Hannigan&#8217;s elite Equilibrium Young Artists program.<\/p>\n<p>With a Scottish and Italian background, she has also become known for her work singing Canzone Napoletana as well as operatic and contemporary repertoire.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson will be making her Ottawa Chamberfest debut in July 2026 with The Happenstancers, performing Judith Weir&#8217;s King Harald&#8217;s Saga and new arrangements by Thierry Tidrow of songs by Mary Dering.<\/p>\n<p>Of Italian and Scottish heritage, Reilly is based in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>LV caught up with Reilly to talk about career and her upcoming shows.<\/p>\n<p>Reilly Nelson at the 2016 Lotte Lenya Competition:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yMzrAdKm99Q?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h2>Reilly Nelson: The Interview<\/h2>\n<p>Did Reilly always know she wanted to be a singer?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was very early,\u201d she says. \u201cIt comes in parts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As she explains, her mother was a singer, and studied music at school. It was a different era, however, and after moving to Sault St. Marie, and eventually starting her own family, music fell by the wayside.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut, there was always music in the house,\u201d Reilly recalls. From Cecilia Bartoli CDs to her father\u2019s Credence Clearwater Revival, and Ella Fitzgerald, it was a good mix of influences to grow up with.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was always music. I started lessons really young, probably about nine. Maybe too young,\u201d she laughs. Growing up in a smallish town, she quickly became known as \u201cthe singer\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt some point in college, I started wondering whether I was doing this because it was something I always did.\u201d However, after experiencing collaborative performances at school, and touring with different theatrical companies, feeling the joys of making music together in an ensemble, she came to a realization. \u201cI thought yes, this is what I want to do,\u201dshe says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReally really knowing that it was my choice was probably about ten years ago,\u201d she says. She\u2019s grateful to have started early in many ways, but at one point it did leave her wondering whether she should have explored other choices. \u201cIt becomes your identity before you know what your identity is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, she also had the chance to become sure of her goals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would\u2019t change that process. But I\u2019m really glad to know this is what I want to do,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you become an adult, you start to realize what is you, and what is not you. I\u2019m glad they align,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_124415\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-124415\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-124415\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/zoomershot-2.jpg\" alt=\"L-R: Soprano Reilly Nelson; guitarist; guitarist Lenny Rannallo; pianist Yolanda Tapia (Photo courtesy of the artist)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/zoomershot-2.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/zoomershot-2-300x103.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/zoomershot-2-1024x352.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/zoomershot-2-768x264.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-124415\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">L-R: Soprano Reilly Nelson; guitarist; guitarist Lenny Rannallo; pianist Yolanda Tapia (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Open House<\/h3>\n<p>The program for the open house offers a mix of music \u2014 offered with Reilly\u2019s thoughts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Set 1: Canzone Napoletana<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>O Mio Babbino Caro (Puccini). \u201cA young woman in Florence is begging her father to let her marry the man she loves, and she&#8217;ll throw herself in the Arno if he says no. It&#8217;s the most famous \u2018I&#8217;ll die without him\u2019 aria ever written.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Torna a Surriento (1894, di Curtis brothers). \u201cA plea to a lover to come back to Sorrento, where the sea and the orange blossoms mean nothing without them. Truly about everyone the village lost to emigration.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>O Surdato Nnamurato (1915, Cannio\/Califano). \u201cThis is about a soldier on the front lines of WWI who is writing home, terrified his beloved is forgetting him. The most famous Neapolitan song, followed by O Surdato and Funiculi funicula.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>O Sole Mio (1898, di Capua). \u201cMy sun. This the most famous song of this set followed by O surdato. Written in Odessa during a thunderstorm by a homesick Neapolitan composer. The sun referenced at the end isn&#8217;t the sky&#8217;s sun, it&#8217;s the face of the beloved.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Set 2: Kurt Weill<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Youkali (1934, Weill\/Fernay). \u201cThis is Weill in exile in Paris in 1934, writing a tango about a paradise island that doesn&#8217;t exist. (Cough cough \u2014 capitalism&#8230;)\u201d<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m a Stranger Here Myself (From One Touch of Venus) (1943, One Touch of Venus, Weill\/Nash). \u201cThe goddess Venus has come down to earth in New York and fallen in love with a mortal. She doesn&#8217;t understand human love. Asks: what&#8217;s it like to be in love? I&#8217;m new here, I don&#8217;t know the rules. Wry, intelligent, a goddess shrugging.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Mack the Knife (Three Penny Opera). \u201cA street singer introducing the audience to a charming murderer, and Brecht wanted us to clap along and then realize what we were clapping for.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Set 3: Hope and the 20th Century<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The White Cliffs of Dover (1941, Burton\/Kent) World War II. \u201cRecorded by Vera Lynn during the Blitz. A promise that one day the bombs will stop, the birds will sing again, and Britain will look out at the cliffs and know it&#8217;s over. The song every British soldier carried in their head. Hope as a survival tactic.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>I Could Have Danced All Night (1956, My Fair Lady, Lerner\/Loewe). \u201cEliza Doolittle has just had her first dance with Henry Higgins. She can&#8217;t sleep. She can&#8217;t sit down. The first time anyone has treated her like a person worth dancing with. Pure joy. One of the first musicals I experienced apart from The Sound of Music.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen, 1984). \u201cCohen spent five years writing this. Over eighty verses, never finalized. Each verse has a different mood: Biblical, romantic, sexual, cynical, surrendered. The song is about everything: love, loss, faith, doubt, the holiness inside the broken. Cohen called it \u2018a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion.\u2019 In short.. this song is popular for a reason and it doesn&#8217;t hurt that it is Canadian.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>La Vie en Rose (1945, Piaf\/Louiguy). \u201cThis song was written in Paris just after the war. Edith Piaf, who lost everyone she loved, who came up singing on the streets of Pigalle, writes a song about meeting a man whose voice makes the whole world go pink. \u2018La vie en rose\u2019, life in rose. The most famous love song in French. The hope after the war.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Reilly Nelson sings The White Cliffs of Dover with pianist Kevin Ahfat on December 14, 2023:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ivmNq4DYtAA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Reilly summarizes, \u201cIt\u2019s mostly songs people know and love. On a deeper level, it\u2019s the music that made me who I am. I feel like it does the same things for audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a melange of songs that audiences can relate to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of these are war-time era songs,\u201d she says. \u201cI find that programming them this way connects people across generations. We\u2019re living in a moment where [\u2026] people are starving for hope and connection and something authentic. For me, that\u2019s not really a marketing line, it\u2019s what I see on stage,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are moments in time when artists reject music of their time. They reject the pretty music for something more relevant,\u201d Nelson says. \u201cWeill is obviously one of those artists.\u201d As a result, he created work that has enduring appeal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to connect these people over generations, and time. The response is always incredibly moving.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Each song tells a story, and often, after a performance, people approach her with their stories that connect with the music. \u201cThey\u2019re family stories,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love performing in theatrical settings, operas, but I do love theatre. I adore theatre. There\u2019s so much proximity to the audience with this kind of work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vera Lynn\u2019s The White Cliffs of Dover strikes a special chord. \u201cI was in Europe, and traveled to Dover, and the cliffs. These songs, they survive centuries of displacement and exile. It\u2019s not a naive hope, it\u2019s earned,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019ve earned this place in our ears and in our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reilly Nelson sings Wolfgang Rihm\u2019s Ophelia Sings iii with Danika Lor\u00e8n, recitation, and Joonghun Cho, piano at The Happenstancers\u2019 concert The Two Deaths of Ophelia, June 19, 2025:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n41ZOia-qeM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h3>Coming Up<\/h3>\n<p>Nelson recently performed a concert version of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/03\/31\/preview-neapolitan-ice-cream-delicious-new-musical-making\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new work by <strong>Loredana Cunti<\/strong><\/a> and revolving around immigration stories, and Neapolitan ice cream.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really darling,\u201d Nelson says. \u201cThe response was just wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There will be more performances in June for Italian Heritage Month.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of July, she\u2019s off to Ottawa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m performing at the <strong>Ottawa Chamberfest,<\/strong>\u201d she says. It will be her debut at the festival and she\u2019ll be in a program with Toronto\u2019s <strong>The Happenstancers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI work with the Happenstancers quite a bit,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Reilly will be singing Judith Weir&#8217;s King Harald&#8217;s Saga, a ten-minute solo opera for unaccompanied soprano \u2014 and she\u2019ll be playing eight different characters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a very dramatic piece. It\u2019s crazy complicated. I told Brad, I\u2019ll do my best,\u201d she laughs. <strong>Brad Cherwin<\/strong> is the ensemble\u2019s Artistic Director.<\/p>\n<p>Composer <strong>Thierry Tidrow<\/strong>\u2019s work is also on the program. \u201cHe\u2019s doing arrangements for songs by Mary Dering.\u201d Lady Mary Dering (1629-1704) was an English composer of the Baroque period.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a range of music on her horizon \u2014 just the way she likes it.<\/p>\n<p>Nelson loves Toronto\u2019s music scene and all the opportunities it offers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s such a vibrant scene here. It\u2019s like a giant music cooperative. It\u2019s just flooring what you can experience in this city if you look.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Concert Details<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The MZTV Museum of Television and ZoomerMedia Open House takes place May 23 and 24 at the Zoomerplex in Liberty Village. Reilly\u2019s concert takes place at 1 p.m. on May 23. Details and reserve your free ticket <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reillybianchinelson.com\/performances\/zoomerhall-may-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Reilly plays Caterina in Neapolitan Ice Cream: The Musical at the Vaughan Italian Fest, June 6 and 7. Details and tickets <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reillybianchinelson.com\/performances\/neapolitan-ice-cream-musical\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Reilly performs with The Happenstancers on July 26 as part of Ottawa Chamberfest; details and tickets <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chamberfest.com\/event\/2026\/nmn-the-happenstancers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Are you looking to promote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/advertising\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0e101a;\"><u>event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? 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