Calamus Vernon Regehr, Jane Leibel, Robert Chafe

• Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus:
• 1 Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus: No. 6 (Version for Narrator) (Version for Narrator) 01:44
• 2 Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus: Calamus 6 06:45
• 3 Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus: Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone (Version for Narrator) (Version for Narrator) 01:17
• 4 Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus: Aliment Roots 07:30
• 5 Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus: Trickle, Drops (Version for Narrator) (Version for Narrator) 01:03
• 6 Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus: Lacrimosa 06:04
• 7 Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus: No Labor Saving Machine (Version for Narrator) (Version for Narrator) 00:33
• 8 Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus: No Labor Saving Machine (Version for Voice & Cello) (Version for Voice & Cello) 05:34
• 9 Anonymous: Leaves of Grass, Calamus: Calamus Variations 08:36
• Total Runtime 39:06

Info zu Calamus

Calamus Cycle is a bold world premiere recording of new Whitman songs for soprano and cello by acclaimed composer Andrew Staniland. At once bold and intimate, these contemporary songs are brought to vivid life in virtuoso performances by cellist Vernon Regehr and soprano Jane Leibel. Each of the songs is preceded by a reading of the original Leaves of Grass poem performed by actor and playwright Robert Chafe.

The cycle consists of five pieces based on texts from Whitman’s beloved Leaves of Grass: “Calamus 6”, “Lacrimosa”, “Aliment Roots”, “No Labour Saving Machine”, and “Calamus Variations”. Staniland’s unique melodies combined with Whitman’s rich poetry depict a variety of emotions, from longing, to love, to anguish. This world premier recording presents the cycle in its entirely for the first time, offering a fresh and audacious contribution to contemporary art song.

Jane Leibel, soprano
Vernon Regehr, cello
Robert Chafe, narrator

Jane Leibel
has earned praise for her “crystalline, strong soprano” (Opera Canada) “vibrant, sweet, fresh singing” (The Globe and Mail) and for her acting abilities: “It remained for Jane Leibel, as Diana, the outraged goddess, to steal the show with her finely tuned comic sense.” (Opera Quarterly) Music critic of The New Yorker, Andrew Porter; “Jane Leibel, was the most polished singer”. As winner of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Canadian National Competition for the performance of twentieth-century music, she performed a solo recital tour of Canada. Twice she has been a prizewinner in the Friedrich Schorr Competition and semi-finalist in the Belvedere International Competition in Vienna, Austria. She has performed operatic and concert roles with the Vancouver Opera, the Vancouver Symphony, Opera Pacific, the Regina Symphony, the Manitoba Opera, Opera Atelier, Opera in Concert, and The Vancouver Opera and Toledo Opera Young Artists Programs.

Collaborations have included work with award-winning theatre director Jillian Keiley; Robert Chafe; playwright; artist and poet Christopher Pratt and composers Clark Ross; Andrew Staniland; Jack Behrens; John Greer; and Clifford Crawley in the premiers and recordings of solo and chamber works for voice. Jane is committed to the commissioning, performance, and recording of new Canadian repertoire. She performed in the Magnetic North National Theatre Festival’s premiere production of Nightingale, a work she commissioned Jillian Keiley and Robert Chafe to write on the career of nineteenth-century opera singer Georgina Stirling. Her debut CD Songs and Sonnets was features the complete Schönberg Cabaret Songs, Rachmaninov’s Songs of Op. 38 and Canadian composer, Clifford Crawley’s Grey Island. Her Centaur Records label: Songs of the Bubble Ring: The Music of John Greer and Clifford Crawley (with the composer, John Greer, as pianist) and was prepared with both these Canadian composers. She has been featured in radio broadcasts in both the US and Canada, including nationally on CBC Two New Hours and locally on CBC MusiCraft.

Jane is a frequent recitalist in solo and chamber music repertoire. International performances include recitals with pianist Maureen Volk in Paris and at Bargemusic, New York, NY. She has performed recitals with MUN colleagues Christine Carter, clarinet; and Maureen Volk, piano at the Bösendorfer-Saal im Mozarthaus Vienna, Austria and at the Palffy Palace in Prague, Czech Republic.

A dedicated and inspiring teacher, Jane has adjudicated and delivered masterclasses across Canada. Her students have been accepted for graduate studies and opera performance programs throughout North America including The University of Toronto; Université de Montréal; New York University; The University of British Columbia; The Glen Gould Professional School, have performed with CO-SI Centre for Opera Study in Italy; Opera NUOVA; Contemporary Opera Lab; Opera Nuova, Opera on the Avalon; Canadian Operatic Arts Academy; St. Andrew’s Festival; Halifax Summer Workshop; and have careers as music educators across Newfoundland and Labrador, and throughout Canada.

She is Professor of Voice and one of the founding members of the MUN Song Academy, an intensive program for high school age singers; Past District Governor and President of the Canadian Atlantic Region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing; and has served on the Executive Board of The Canadian University Music Society (MusCan) and The Steering Committee for the Singing Network. Jane teaches studio voice and voice pedagogy. Her research interests encompass Contemporary and Under-Represented Canadian Composers and Habit Pattern Development/Deliberate Practice Strategies.

Vernon Regehr
A native of Winnipeg, Vernon Regehr is quickly gaining recognition as a versatile, creative and passionate musician. Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe remarked of a Tanglewood Music Festival performance of Elliott Carter's first string quartet, an extraordinary event performed with outstanding aplomb and degree of understanding, and deservedly won one of the summer's sturdiest ovations. Regehr has performed as soloist with the Winnipeg Symphony, Newfoundland Sinfonia, Memorial University Chamber Orchestra and the Cantata Singers of Ottawa. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Shanghai, Penderecki and Lafayette string quartets, James Campbell, Mark Fewer, Suzie Leblanc, and Leon Fleisher. In a recent performance at the Groundswell New Music Festival commemorating Carter's 100th birthday, the Winnipeg Free Press said Regehr's performance of the cello sonata "...showed a clear understanding of the work, while handling its hefty technical demands with finesse."

Regehr completed his undergraduate training at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where he studied with Kim Scholes, Shauna Rolston and Thomas Wiebe. Regehr earned both his Masters and Doctoral degrees at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he studied with Timothy Eddy. He was the recipient of the Ina Gordon Fellowship for two seasons at the Tanglewood Music Centre, and also performed at the Taos School of Music, Banff Centre for the Arts, Colorado College Conservatory, and the Oberlin Conservatory Summer Festival in Casalmaggiore, Italy.

Booklet für Calamus