SPELUNK!
Composed by Chris Thornborrow and the CCOC’s Intermediate and Apprentice Chorus
April 21, 2024 at 2:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
St. Clement’s Church | 70 St. Clements Ave, Toronto, ON
The Canadian Children’s Opera Company proudly announces Spelunk!, our 2023-2024 season Junior Division opera.
The story follows a group of young adventurers who set forth to find their animal companion, Monty.
Spelunk! features 48 choristers in the CCOC’s Intermediate (IC) and Apprentice (AC) Choruses and piano, and starts with a delightful opening of songs inspired by the opera by our Butterfly and Ruby Choruses!
Throughout the fall season, our IC and AC choristers worked with local composer, Chris Thornborrow, to write a libretto inspired by a “cave” theme. Our choristers provided Chris with the opera’s story, characters, and text, which they had produced during their weekly rehearsals, as well as their input on the music including ideas on how it should sound and the feelings the songs should evoke. Inspired by their input, Chris took these details and assembled it into a working libretto.
The result is an opera that shows the power of imagination and the adventures one can take with a bit of courage and the help of some unexpected friends.
Performance and Ticket Information
Duration: Approximately 45 minutes without intermission. Doors will open 30 min. prior to each performance.
Tickets
Adult – $25 | Youth (18 years and younger) – $15
General seating
April 21, 2024 – 2:45 p.m. | IC, AC, RC, & BC B choruses*
April 21, 2024 – 4:30 p.m. | IC, AC, RC, & BC A choruses*
Synopsis
A team of adventurers set forth to find their animal companion, Monty. As forest rangers warn them of the dangers that lie ahead, they fall into the Deep, Dark Caves of Guaranteed Doom. In the caves lurk monsters, dragons, phantoms, ghosts, and other tricksters who have never seen the surface. Together, the creatures and adventurers brave the darkness and pursue Monty through the caves to the other side of the world, where unknown adventures await.
Artistic and Creative Team
Chris Thornborrow
Composer
Chelsea Woolley
Director
Cheryll Chung
Music Director
Tristan Savella
Pianist
Adine Mintz
Jr. Division Opera Coordinator & Conductor, Apprentice Chorus
JUNIOR DIVISION Team
Zain Solinski
Pianist, Apprentice Chorus
Nora-Jane Bonner
Program Assistant, Intermediate Chorus
STACY COLLINS
Conductor, Ruby Chorus
Maria Milencic
Program Assistant, Apprentice Chorus
Evelina Soulis
Pianist, Ruby Chorus
Eliza Abbott
Program Assistant, Ruby Chorus
ZOË GOTZIAMAN
Conductor, Butterfly Chorus
Savannah Munro
Program Assistant, Butterfly Chorus
CHRIS THORNBORROW
Composer
Chris Thornborrow is an award-winning composer for film, theatre, and the concert stage. His work has been described as “heightened and brashly percussive” (Variety), “urgent, masterful” (NOW Magazine), “powerfully virtuosic” (Barcza Blog), and “elegiac music that casts a spell” (Hollywood Reporter). Recognition for his work includes the Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music, multiple SOCAN Awards for Audio Visual Composers, two DORA Award nominations, and the Louis Applebaum Composers Award Nomination.
Chris composed the music for Sleeping Giant, which was nominated for the Critics Week Grand Prize and Golden Camera Award at the Cannes Film Festival, won the Best Canadian First Feature Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been broadcast internationally in 40 countries. It was also nominated for three Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture.
Chelsea Woolley
Director
Chelsea Woolley is a playwright, arts educator, and certified teacher. She has written a number of plays for young audiences including, The Mountain which toured Eastern/Central Canada with Geordie Theatre, and later with Spinning Dot Theatre in Ann Arbor Michigan. Chelsea has developed work with, Nightwood Theatre, at The Banff Centre for the Arts, and with the National New Play Network’s Playwright’s Workshop at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC.
As an arts educator, Chelsea has directed musical theatre, and is the creator and program director of the Mixed-Arts Performance Partnership Program which connects young artists living in precarity to professional artistic mentorship. Chelsea holds a BEd and BA from the University of Lethbridge, and is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Playwriting Program. Chelsea’s newest play, Paint Me This House of Love will be produced this season in April at the Tarragon Theatre.
Cheryll Chung
Music Director
Cheryll Chung is a two time recipient of the Elmer Iseler Fellowship in Conducting. She is vastly experienced and a versatile conductor, pianist, and educator.
Ms. Chung is the Artistic Director of Cantabile Chamber Singers, that she founded in 2006. She is on faculty at the Phil and Eli Taylor Academy program, Glenn Gould School, and at the Oscar Peterson School at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
She holds a Master of Music in Conducting, a Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Toronto. Her mentors are Dr. Doreen Rao, Maestro Raffi Armenian. She has worked with Lydia Adams, Maestro Helmuth Rilling, Simon Carrington, Matthew Halls, Dr. Julia Davids and David Hayes.
Past conducting engagements include: The Heliconian Choir and Orchestra, St. Clement’s Orchestra, CAMMAC, York Region Children’s Chorus, High Park Choirs (now Young Voices Toronto) and Reaching Out Through Music program.
Tristan Savella
Pianist
Based in Toronto, Filipino-American pianist Tristan Savella has been an active performer in the United States, Canada, and Europe, including performances at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City and the Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg, Austria. In 2013, his Piano Trio was chosen to represent the Eastman School of Music as part of “The Conservatory Project”, sponsored by the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C..
Mr. Savella is an alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy, the Eastman School of Music (B.M. Applied Music), the Universität Mozarteum (M.A. Klaviersolistenausbildung), The Glenn Gould School (Artist Diploma). His principal teachers have included Nelita True, George Kern, John O’Conor and TJ Lymenstull. Furthermore, Mr. Savella is the recipient of multiple prizes at various national and international competitions, including third place at the Concours Flame in Paris and first place at the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition in New York City.
He is currently in the Doctorate of Musical Arts Program at the University of Toronto, where he studied with the late Marietta Orlov, and currently studies with Jamie Parker and Lydia Wong.
Adine Mintz
Jr. Division Opera Coordinator & Conductor, Apprentice Chorus
Since 2014, Adine Mintz has been a conductor and educator for the CCOC. She is the conductor of the Apprentice Chorus and the primary artist/educator & outreach coordinator for CCOC’s in-school programming, inspiring students all over Toronto by creating original operas with them. With over 25 years of experience conducting operas and ensembles, her past credits include music director of the St. Clement Community Orchestra, director of the music school at Cosmo Music and musical director of Il barbiere di seviglia by Rossini at U of T. She has a Bachelor’s in Music Education and a Master’s in Conducting from the University of Toronto.
STACY COLLINS
Conductor, Ruby Chorus
Stacy Jolena Collins (B.Mus w. Hons, R.M.T.) has always had a passion for music and music education. She has worked in classical, musical theatre and choral settings, and has over a decade of experience in the field of music education. She graduated with honours from University of Toronto’s Bachelor of Music Education program in 2015, majoring in voice & piano. She studied piano with the late Boyanna Toyich, and voice with Frédérique Vézina and the late Lynn Blaser.
Stacy works as an educator, performer, music director, conductor, and accompanist with many organisations in Toronto. She opened Stacy Jolena Studio in 2018 where she teaches piano and voice lessons, and is a Professor at George Brown College’s Ballet Jörgen Dance Program, providing vocal instruction for their Commercial Dance students. She is truly grateful to teach and share in the Arts, and to see the love for them grow in the next generation.
Evelina Soulis
Pianist, Ruby Chorus
Evelina Soulis, classical pianist (ARCT diploma), has experience performing both as a solo artist and collaboratively. She currently runs a successful music studio, and takes great pleasure in inspiring her students to further their love of music.
ZOË GOTZIAMAN
Interim Conductor, Butterfly Chorus
Zoë is a mezzo-soprano and conductor based in Toronto.
Ensemble highlights include singing with Canzona, Dead of Winter, Xara Choral Theatre, and being a Toronto Chamber Consort member with the Toronto Chamber Choir. This season she’s excited to join The Nathaniel Dett Chorale and be alto section lead with VOCA Chorus of Toronto.
Her education includes a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Manitoba under the tutelage of Tracy Dahl, a certificate in ASL and Deaf Studies from George Brown College.
Zoë loves running around the operatic stage, and has been in over 30 operas/operettas. Her favourite roles performed include Hansel in Hansel and Gretel and Bradamante in Alcina.
This season she begins teaching Music and Movement at Sistema Toronto, and continues conducting the Butterfly Chorus here at the Canadian Children’s Opera Company.
Zain Solinski
Pianist, Apprentice Chorus
Toronto-based collaborative keyboardist Zain Solinski is cultivating a performance career in contemporary, chamber, and vocal music. He studied under Dr. Deanna Oye for his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at the University of Lethbridge, and recently earned a Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano under the tutelage of Dr. John Hess and Marianna Chibotar-Rutkevich at Western University. At Western he was a recipient of the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship for his research into Polish Art Song. Recent artistic activities include performances with Tapestry Opera, Centric Music Festival and Slow Rise Music. Zain is one half of new Toronto-based duo mezzopiano alongside mezzo soprano Máiri Demings.
Nora-Jane Bonner
Program Assistant, Intermediate Chorus
Two-time Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) Gold Medalist Nora-Jane Bonner has immersed herself in music her entire life, with a special focus on classical training. She is a high-achieving young musician, who recently placed first in the Alberta Provincial Music Festival for the second time, and was a national semi-finalist in the NATS Student Auditions. She also received four ARMTA Gold Medals for exceptional vocal exam marks.
Nora-Jane has performed in the RCM’s production of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, Juno Awards Pop-Up Concerts, and various professional theatres, as well as occupied compositional, educational, and directorial positions throughout her career, including instructing private voice and theory students through studio lessons and vocal masterclasses. She now is studying opera at the RCM’s Glenn Gould School for her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance under the guidance of her studio teacher Stephanie Bogle and vocal coach David Eliakis.
She is thrilled to join the CCOC to continue her work with young musicians and sharing her love of music with the next generation of opera.
Maria Milencic
Program Assistant, Apprentice Chorus
Canadian mezzo-soprano Maria Milenic is an up-and-coming operatic mezzo-soprano, choral singer, and voice teacher. Originally from Newmarket Ontario, Maria has established a strong musical presence in Toronto, Canada. She is a Serbian-Croatian heritage speaker and is fluent in French, following her language studies at the University of Toronto, where she majored in both voice performance and French language arts. Maria’s singing career began at the age of five, belting Canadian pop icon, Avril Lavigne’s hits in her bedroom. She has now progressed to the Koerner Hall stage, moving audience members to tears with her most recent performance of the role Minskwoman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight. Maria made her international debut at the Berlin Opera Academy as Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel. Other stage highlights include Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Ljubicain Ana Sokolovic’s Svadba, Ada in Ivan Caryll’s The Shop Girl, Mrs. Hildebrandin Kurt Weil’s Street Scene, and Javotte in Massenet’s Manon, among others. Maria has been a featured soloist with the York Symphony Orchestra, the Arcady Ensemble, and has performed with the Dior Quartet.
Maria has been teaching singing and piano for the past eight years. She recently formed her own independent music lesson practice under the name of Tune-up Music Studio and enjoys helping young and old voices alike reach their full potential. She is an RCM certified teacher for elementary piano and has been playing the piano since the age of seven. During her time at the University of Toronto, she honed her vocal pedagogy passion by working with Shannon Coates to polish her teaching skills, as well as with Zimfira Poloz, whom which she studied how to teach young choirs. Maria is extremely passionate about choral conducting and is so excited to be a part of the CCOC team. She hopes to continue her musical journey and hopefully conduct her own choir one day.
Eliza Abbott
Program Assistant, Ruby Chorus
Eliza is a student currently in her first year of the B.Mus.Ed program at the University of Toronto specializing in Music Education.
Eliza was introduced to live music at the age of 5 when she was taken to watch an opera with her parents in the Brampton Rose theatre. This experience with music, along with the opportunities that she has gained while attending an arts program in middle school and a music program from high school, has sparked her passion to inspire the next generation through teaching music.
Her long term professional goal is to teach music full time to students of all ages.
Savannah Munro
Program Assistant, Butterfly Chorus
Savannah is a CCOC alumni currently attending the University of Guelph-Humber and studying Early Childhood Studies. As a performer, Savannah’s experience ranges from theatre, to playing cello, conducting, and singing both as lead in a band and an alto in several choirs.
Savannah has worked in theatre through varying avenues, both on and backstage, and adores all aspects of it. She has performed in operas such as the CCOC’s staging of Hans Krasa’s Brundibar as well as Alice Ping Yee Ho’s The Monkiest King and its 2020 cast recording.
Within musical theatre she has worked as an Assistant Producer and most recently held the position of Marketing Manager on Curtain Call Production’s Board of Directors for their 2023 production, Heathers.
Since being a part of the CCOC was an incredible experience during her formative years as an artist, Savannah is excited to return to the company and is looking forward to supporting the next generation of aspiring performers!