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[Brief Bio]
Having fled from the oppressive society he grew up in, Stephen eschews the conventional mantle of a ‘countertenor’ (which is a recently invented term) to use his voice productively to critique conventions by dispensing with 'standard' repertoire and performance. He co-opted and transformed the passive recital form into a medium for audiences to think and reflect upon larger issues. Stephen began composing due to a lack of repertoire that expressed what he wanted to communicate.
Stephen studied with Roxolana Roslak at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Although largely classically trained, he is also adept in a variety of vocal styles such as New Music, Cabaret, Jazz, and Blues which enables him to perform music of contrasting genres in his recitals to draw connections between them for the audience.
Stephen holds a Masters degree at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where his work specialized in the intersection of aesthetics, ethics and politics. Hence, Stephen’s ongoing commitment to New Music, and the social subtext that underlies his recitals and compositions. His first song cycle, Five songs of exile distilled the emotional states of exile with the rediscovery of his mezzo voice and set the tone for his music to come.
[Education]
Degrees & Diplomas*
Diploma in Piano Performance, administered by London College of Music
*Bachelor of Arts (honors) in Communication, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
*Master of Arts, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Related Guest Lectures and Presentations
25 Jan 2003 (Dialectics of Determination symposium, Simon Fraser University)
“This is My Future, This is My Life”: Fascist Politics and Mass Culture – investigates how fascist regimes employ video and music to embody the ideal of progress and gloss over societal inequalities.
02 May 2003 (Culture and State symposium, University of Alberta)Visualizing the Fascist landscape through music and spectacle – explores the relationship between music and architecture in constructing an image of an ideal society and shaping social interactions.
15 July 2003 (Simon Fraser University, Final Year students)"We have a Vision for Tomorrow, Just Believe": Engineering a Nation through Fascist aesthetics – analysis of music videos produced by the Singapore government over the years to seduce the populace into acceptance of the regime.
03 Mar 2004 (Workshop for Douglas College (BC), Composers Society)Writing for the voice – invited to give a workshop based on the strength of December premiere of Five Songs of Exile. Comprehensive seminar covering the process of creating text/music relationships through making social statements through music.
24 Sept 2004 (Guest lecture for Douglas College (BC), Final Year Music Students)Society and the countertenor voice – traces development and denigration of male mezzo (i.e. countertenor) voice in relation to historical shifts and aesthetic trends.
01 Oct 2004 (Guest lecture for Douglas College (BC), Final Year Music Students)The Invention of Hesitation – locates development of rhythmic expression in Baroque music and how subsequent music is indebted to those innovations.
[Vocal Awards]*
Howard Glynne Operatic Scholarship, 2006
*John McKnight Memorial Scholarship, 2006
[Solo Performances]
Solo Recitals*
Prelude &Variation (21 Apr 2002) - piano recital that traces the disenchantment of modern society through the increasingly deconstructive nature of music via nine sets of short pieces.
*
Songs of Longing and Experience (11 Dec 2003) – vocal recital benefiting Vancouver’s Downtown Women Center that raised awareness of women’s issues through songs by Somers, Barber, Poulenc, Ian Gordon, Purcell, Rossini, Brahms, and Sondheim.
*Songs of Triumph and Despair (30 Sept 2004) – vocal recital that highlighted gender biases by exploring how poets and composers have attempted to convey the twin extremes of emotion. Featuring songs by Handel, Purcell, Saint-Saens, Schubert, Musto, and Somers.
*Interludes of Love and Loss (27 Oct 2005) – vocal recital benefiting People With AIDs that dealt with discrimination and acceptance through a juxtaposition of arias and songs by contemporary American and Canadian composers
*Demi-Monde (17 Nov 2006) – vocal recital that explored the "Half-world" of society’s marginalized groups through the interweaving of classical and contemporary repertoire such as Faure, Brahms, Rossini, Schumann, Lloyd Webber, and Yeston.
*Becoming (or, is there life after opera?) (16 Nov 2007) – intensely personal cabaret that locates artistic expression as the loci of social awareness by correlating each piece to a stage in Stephen’s own personal struggles for acceptance and its influence on his evolving political awareness.
Featured Appearance*
Lawrence Pitchko Studio recital (24 May 2006)
*Performed the role of Orphee in Gluck’s Orphee et Eurydice at the RCM (July 2006)
*Christopher Foley Studio recital (9 Dec 2006)
Filmography
* Saint Caesura in John Greyson’s documentary opera "Fig Trees" (Summer 2007)
* Voice of Alpha Fish and Beta Fish in Brenda Longfellow’s Bravo Fact! "Carpe Diem" (Summer 2009)
* Hoopoe in John Greyson’s Bravo Fact! "Roy & Silo" (Summer 2009)[Premiered Compositions]
- North South suite (soundtrack)Composed soundtrack for short film that dispensed with dialogue and utilized music varying over each visual loop repetition with the aim to elicit a better understanding of mental illness in audiences.
- Five Songs of Exile (song cycle)
Composed in homage to Harry Somer’s Five Songs for Dark Voice, this song cycle is adapted from texts by Palestinian poets living in exile and explores the stages and conflicts of being a refugee.
- The Vicious Cycle (song cycle)Composed in deference to Dorothy Parker’s subversive poetry, the music of this song cycle pastiches popular parlor music forms of the late 19th/early 20th century in order to twist them around.
- Nameless Stream (song suite)The bittersweet tankas of Yosano Akiko (considered the first modernist female poet in Japan) provide the inspiration for this non-narrative song suite bridling with repressed desire and melancholy.
- De Profundis (aleatoric opera)Based on excerpts from Oscar Wilde’s last letter in prison, this aleatoric opera (whose sequence is determined by the audience) explores how one comes to terms with and transcends societal injustice and suffering.
- Ur-ban Songs (song cycle)A series of songs composed in the minimalist style drawing from the poetry of Margaret Atwood, Yosano Akiko, Philip Larkin, Luciano Erba, and Arthur Rimbaud that comment on the various aspects of contemporary life.
- Chapter 22 (mono-opera)Chapter 22, based on the texts of Antoine St-Exupery, musicalizes that chapter of The Little Prince to communicate its veiled message of connecting with one another, and with the environment.