From the "rising stars I know" department...

My friend Pete McGillivray, once upon a time a fellow baritone in the Hart House Chorus, is an up and coming opera star. Just last month, he won the 2ème Grand Prix as well as the Jean Chalmers award for Best Canadian Performance at the 2005 Montreal International Musical Competition. In 2003, he won first prize in the vocal category as well as the People's Choice award at the 32nd CBC/Radio-Canada Young Performers Competition. I heard them both on CBC 2 and, simply put, he's become amazing. To quote a bit from Joseph So, writing in La Scena Musicale about the Montreal competition:

"McGillivray has been singularly successful in competitions lately, and his performance tonight clearly demonstrated why. He is without a doubt a major talent, well on his way to a significant career. ... There is a sincerity and directness of communication to his singing that is striking — this is a singer with something to say to his audience. ... I have to say he won hands down this evening and his performance is now the one to beat."

I accidentally missed seeing him as Schaunard in the COC's recent production of La Boheme (I went to a working rehearsal, but they were only working over the Schaunard-light acts 2 and 3), so I'm all the more determined to go to this recital:

10th Annual Rupert Scheider Concert
Hart House, University of Toronto
Sunday, June 5th @ 3:00pm
Great Hall - Free admission
Peter McGillivray, baritone
Steven Philcox, piano

Also, just because I promised in my last entry — and promises made in weblogs, as we all know, are sacrosanct — here are some photos of zoo animals. The first in the set is actually from the distillery district and involves no animals, but that's just how it's going to have to be.

See the whole set of zoo photos.

Posted by madhava at June 2, 2005 01:25 PM