Lunch Time Concerts
Photos courtesy of Stuart Blower Photography.
September 17
Drop-in concert featuring Richard Elliott and his many guitars (6/12 string, flamenco, classical and Cuban).You can read about Richard as a member of Gypsy Blue at http://www.myspace.com/gypsyblueband
September 24
Drop-in concert featuring Anthony (Tony) Holt and his eclectic piano. Tony is a founding member of the Uxbridge Music Scholarship Trust and retired music teacher, with a wide repertoire. His personal favourites are from the Parlour Piano era of the late 19th century.
October 1
Drop-in concert featuring the ‘Duelling Divas’ – Jennifer Neveu-Cook and Sasha Liebich-Tait. Both Jennifer and Sasha are well respected local vocal teachers, each running a studio of exceptional students. They will show how it is done and encourage you to enjoy an hour of solo and duet pieces, and be sure to be prepared for theatrical “one-updivaship” all the way around.
About the artists:
Richard Elliot
Richard’s interest in music began at age 12 while living in Scotland. It was the Rock & Roll era, and he wanted a guitar. Unable to afford one however, he built one from an old violin and parts from a wooden box, with some rusty wires for strings!
Despite such crude beginnings, he persisted, and a move to London in the late sixties exposed him to such guitar greats as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. The guitar was in his blood it seems and he chose to study classical guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
Fast forward to Toronto in the mid seventies, and we see Richard performing in various rock and blues bands. But this was not to last when he became intrigued by the passion and the rhythms of Flamenco music. He studied this type of music for 2 years, changing to solo acoustic finger style guitar, which expanded his repertoire to incorporate many styles, including Flamenco, Folk, Latin, and Blues. He describes his music as ‘versatile’, using several different types of guitars – 12 and 6 string guitar, flamenco, and Cuban Tres.
Richard has performed at many venues in Toronto and the GTA, including Roy Thompson Hall before an audience of 3,000 people. He has also appeared on television and at concerts and music festivals across Ontario. In March 2011 he had the privilege of performing for the students of “Guillermo Tomas” Conservatory of Music, in Havana, Cuba.
In 2006, he released a CD “From Every Angle” which was awarded ‘Instrumental Album of the Year’ by the Durham Region Music Society. He is presently working on a 2nd and 3rd CD, to be released later this year.
Despite such crude beginnings, he persisted, and a move to London in the late sixties exposed him to such guitar greats as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Eric Clapton. The guitar was in his blood it seems and he chose to study classical guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
Fast forward to Toronto in the mid seventies, and we see Richard performing in various rock and blues bands. But this was not to last when he became intrigued by the passion and the rhythms of Flamenco music. He studied this type of music for 2 years, changing to solo acoustic finger style guitar, which expanded his repertoire to incorporate many styles, including Flamenco, Folk, Latin, and Blues. He describes his music as ‘versatile’, using several different types of guitars – 12 and 6 string guitar, flamenco, and Cuban Tres.
Richard has performed at many venues in Toronto and the GTA, including Roy Thompson Hall before an audience of 3,000 people. He has also appeared on television and at concerts and music festivals across Ontario. In March 2011 he had the privilege of performing for the students of “Guillermo Tomas” Conservatory of Music, in Havana, Cuba.
In 2006, he released a CD “From Every Angle” which was awarded ‘Instrumental Album of the Year’ by the Durham Region Music Society. He is presently working on a 2nd and 3rd CD, to be released later this year.
Anthony Holt
Anthony (Tony) Holt is a retired Uxbridge High School teacher who lived here for over 20 years before moving to Cobourg in 2010. He studied piano at the Royal Conservatory, gaining his ARCT and later his Licentiate Diploma from Trinity College, London (UK).
During his Uxbridge years he taught piano, gave recitals and accompanied singers at festivals, examinations and concerts. He has also sung with the Uxbridge Chamber Choir, the Messiah Singers and One Voice Choir as well as being the music director for two local churches.
Tony is a founding member of the Uxbridge Music Scholarship Trust and has been involved with the both the Celebration of the Arts (mainly in organizing the Lunchtime Concerts!) and Uxbridge Arts Association.
In Cobourg, he has retired from piano teaching but remains involved musically with the United Church and with local theatre productions. His pet musical project however is in researching the story of the “Parlour Piano” of the late 19th century.
During his Uxbridge years he taught piano, gave recitals and accompanied singers at festivals, examinations and concerts. He has also sung with the Uxbridge Chamber Choir, the Messiah Singers and One Voice Choir as well as being the music director for two local churches.
Tony is a founding member of the Uxbridge Music Scholarship Trust and has been involved with the both the Celebration of the Arts (mainly in organizing the Lunchtime Concerts!) and Uxbridge Arts Association.
In Cobourg, he has retired from piano teaching but remains involved musically with the United Church and with local theatre productions. His pet musical project however is in researching the story of the “Parlour Piano” of the late 19th century.
Alexandra Liebich
Alexandra (Sasha) Liebich-Tait is a lyric-coloratura soprano who holds an Artist Diploma in Voice Performance from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Music Degree (Opera Performance) from the University of British Columbia as well as additional vocal studies in Austria at the Mozarteum (Salzburg), the American Institute of Musical Studies (Graz) and in Vienna. As a professional performer, Sasha has performed both in Canada and Europe in opera, musical theatre, oratorio and as a concert recitalist. In 2009, Sasha was awarded the Best Female Voice award for her performance of Mabel from The Pirates of Penzance at the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, and the Austrian press has called her a singing actress of “great sensitivity (and)…upmost artistic perfection” (Die Kronnenzeitung, Wien). She is the recipient of awards from both the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts council, and she has been recorded and broadcast as part of the Debut Recital Series for CBC Radio. Sasha has considerable knowledge and study of vocal pedagogy and teaching techniques for beginners to pre-professional and she has taught children to university-level singers and beyond. She is also blessed with three wonderful young children.
Jennifer Neveu-Cook
Ms. Neveu-Cook is a musician of many different talents. After studying piano for most of her childhood years, she moved into voice training, studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. After graduating from the University of Toronto in Voice Performance, Ms. Neveu-Cook went on to teach music for the Scarborough Board of Education as an Itinerant Music Teacher and held an LTO position at Huron Heights Secondary School in York Region, where she taught Vocal Jazz. As well, she has taught at many different Arts and Music Camps throughout Ontario and appears as a clinician and adjudicator at various music festivals. Ms. Neveu-Cook has found her greatest success and musical love in private singing lessons and teaches based on the Functional Voice Principles based in Italian Bel Canto pedagogy and the studies and teachings of the late Cornelius Reid. Her students are recurrent winners at various music festivals, have won Silver Medals through the Royal Conservatory of Music, are regular participants with the Ontario Youth Choir and have also moved onto the pop stage with record deals, radio play and top 40 and top 10 of Canadian Idol.
Ms. Neveu-Cook’s own performing career expands through the oratorio, art song, musical theatre, and jazz genres and she is thrilled to perform as much as she can when she is not teaching! She is also the founder and director of the award winning ensembles, The Uxbridge Youth Choir and Bella Nove.
Ms. Neveu-Cook is a musician of many different talents. After studying piano for most of her childhood years, she moved into voice training, studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. After graduating from the University of Toronto in Voice Performance, Ms. Neveu-Cook went on to teach music for the Scarborough Board of Education as an Itinerant Music Teacher and held an LTO position at Huron Heights Secondary School in York Region, where she taught Vocal Jazz. As well, she has taught at many different Arts and Music Camps throughout Ontario and appears as a clinician and adjudicator at various music festivals. Ms. Neveu-Cook has found her greatest success and musical love in private singing lessons and teaches based on the Functional Voice Principles based in Italian Bel Canto pedagogy and the studies and teachings of the late Cornelius Reid. Her students are recurrent winners at various music festivals, have won Silver Medals through the Royal Conservatory of Music, are regular participants with the Ontario Youth Choir and have also moved onto the pop stage with record deals, radio play and top 40 and top 10 of Canadian Idol.
Ms. Neveu-Cook’s own performing career expands through the oratorio, art song, musical theatre, and jazz genres and she is thrilled to perform as much as she can when she is not teaching! She is also the founder and director of the award winning ensembles, The Uxbridge Youth Choir and Bella Nove.
