Currently based in Toronto,
Emily Hamper has led an active international career for over fifteen
years. Noted for her musical sensitivity
and attention to detail, she is in high demand as a coach and
collaborative pianist
by many of Canada's
most prominent singers. As well as
preparing artists for professional engagements worldwide, she has
accompanied
well over 1000 auditions in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, and New
York. In recital she has partnered such singers as
Phillip Addis, Nancy Argenta, Ingrid
Attrot, John Tessier, and Taras Kulish for numerous presenters,
including CBC
Toronto's Glenn Gould Studio for the
Music
Around Us series, the San
Francisco Opera, Calgary Opera, and both the Indian River and Orford
Festivals. She has also performed in Prague, Kosice (Slovakia),
and Washington DC. In
2009 she was invited back to the Green Mountain Opera Festival as
rehearsal pianist,
coach and harpsichordist for
Le
Nozze di
Figaro under Maestro Jacques Lacombe.
She also returned for a third season as vocal coach and pianist for the
Toronto Summer Music Festival, and partnered Phillip Addis in a recital
tour of
Canada's
Maritimes. In the spring of 2010, Emily
will again join Opera Atelier as coach and répétitrice
for their new production
of
The Marriage of Figaro.
Her recital and concert collaborations
have
been broadcast on CBC Radio, Radio-Canada, Vermont Public Radio, and
Classical 96.3 FM in Toronto. Additional credits include
assisting in the
production of several Canadian and world premieres of operas, including
the
Canadian premiere of Britten's
Paul
Bunyan.
Emily was born in Vancouver
B.C. She completed her undergraduate
musical training at UBC where she studied piano with Robert
Rogers. A passion for vocal and chamber music led to
specialised studies in these areas with Rena Sharon and Jane
Coop. During this time she made her solo début in
Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue
with the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra
while also establishing herself as a gifted accompanist. An
increased interest in opera led her to the
Opera Division at the University of Toronto, where she
apprenticed under James Fraser Craig and Stephen Ralls. She was
hired as a member of the music staff
immediately upon graduation.
In a teaching capacity, Ms. Hamper has inspired many students at
numerous institutions. Most recently,
she gave masterclasses for singers at Dalhousie and Acadia
universities. As Music Director for the
opera courses at Wilfrid Laurier University,
in 2005, she led two sold-out performances of opera excerpts and was
invited to
return for the following year. Also in
2006, she made her conducting debut as Music Director for an all-Mozart
programme at the Banff Centre, where she additionally supervised
several performances
of vocal chamber music. After five years
as a staff coach at the University of Toronto, she spent
several years coaching at Montreal Opera's Atelier Lyrique,
L'Université de
Montréal, and the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute under the
leadership of Joan
Dornemann. She has performed in
masterclasses given by such notable performers as Russell Braun,
Michael
Schade, Cesar Ulloa, Edith Wiens, Martin Isepp, Martin Katz, and the
late
Theodore Uppmann.
Ms. Hamper is an alumna of the prestigious Merola Opera Program of the
San Francisco Opera, and in 2002 received a Merola Career Grant to
train in Munich. During her four years in Montreal she coached
and performed with
L'Opéra de Montréal and the I Musici Chamber
Orchestra. She has worked with many fine conductors
including Raffi Armenian, Mario Bernardi, Agnes Grossmann, Bernard
Labadie, Lorraine
Vaillancourt, Timothy Vernon, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, and the late Georg
Tintner.
-
September 2009
