Suzie Leblanc

It's a lovely production and soprano Suzie LeBlanc is a joy to behold performing Handel.

John Doyle , The Globe and Mail , 2010

"The four vocal soloists — soprano Suzie LeBlanc, mezzo Meg Bragle, tenor Lawrence Williford and bass-baritone Andrew Foster Williams — were very good.

LeBlanc’s performance was positively luminous. In “Rejoice Greatly,” in particular, she was a hummingbird sucking the sweetest nectar from every note. Williford, the other Canadian soloist, transmitted an emotional core that otherwise seemed to dissipate in the cavernous hall."

John Terauds , Toronto.com , 2011

Handel's Messiah performed by the Minnesota Orchestra
December 16, 2011

St. Paul, Minn. — If you've heard Handel's Messiah a hundred times — or perhaps never — you're in for something special Friday, December 16 at 8 p.m. We recorded this performance at Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis on Sunday evening, December 12, and it was a treat.

Whatever British conductor Nicholas Kraemer did while rehearsing the pared-down Minnesota Orchestra (only 30 players) and Minnesota Chorale (50 voices) from their usual ranks worked big time. There was such a freshness and joy and clarity, as if the singers and players were reading a manuscript. The soloists that Kraemer and the Orchestra picked to join them were also exceptional.

I have to single out the Canadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc. Hers isn't a big peal-the-paint-off-the-back-wall voice. Think instead of a single gorgeous strand of spun silver, handled with unbelievable finesse and imagination as she ornamented Handel's arias. This is a Messiah for those who've heard it countless times, or who want to discover for the first time why this piece is so beloved.

  Minnesota Public Radio , 2011

If this is Baroque, please don’t fix it!

Approximately 800 attendees of the 12th International Congress of Human Genetics were treated to a selection from Handel operas in the magnificent setting of the Notre Dame Basilica. Daniel Taylor, Suzie Leblanc and the Theatre of Early Music delivered a musical experience that will not soon be forgotten.

Mr. Taylor is touted as "Canada’s star countertenor" and, while not having had the opportunity to hear from the rest of the field, it is hard not to believe that this is a case of damning with faint praise. Demonstrating extraordinary control of his instrument Mr. Taylor conveyed the emotional gamut of the selections, from love and passion to despair and most memorably insane rage (with the requisite flying hair). It is hard to imagine a more devoted interpreter of this repertoire.

As fine as Mr. Taylor’s performance was, for me the revelation of the evening was the soprano, Suzie Leblanc. With a rich, pure tone of crystal clarity, Ms. Leblanc evokes the voice and style of her mentor, the great English Baroque soprano Emma Kirkby. Indeed, in this listener’s opinion Ms. LeBlanc’s vocal quality has infinitesimally more color while matching the unparalleled musicianship of the former. I am looking forward to exploring her discography not only to hear her perform the Baroque repertoire, but to enjoy performances of Acadian folk song.

The band, using authentic Baroque performance technique, was sensitive in its support of the singers and was given the opportunity to shine in two overtures. While all of the musicians were exemplary and the ensemble impeccable, two were especially noteworthy (pun intended). The 1st violinist Chloe Meyers was given ample opportunity to interact with the vocalists and was their equal in the antiphonal give and take. The obvious delight in the interplay of ornamentation between the soloists and violinist consistently put a smile on my face. Contemporary jazz musicians could take a thing or two from these musicians to employ the next time they are trading fours. Praise is also due the oft neglected member of most ensembles, bassist Reuven Rothman. With such a small group it is almost impossible for the bass not to dominate when it is playing, yet the blend with the other instruments was perfect, "well done!"

Perhaps the finest compliment that can be paid to all the performers was the reaction of the audience. Having attended a number of these events in the past has conjured nightmares of performing before a ‘gabble’ of geneticists who are absorbed in their quatrain of A, C, T and G to the apparent neglect of the 12 glorious notes between A and G. Indeed, at the outset, applause was polite if a bit perfunctory, but by the end the assembly erupted in a standing ovation that testified to the connection between the performers and the audience. Truly one of the finest performances I have attended and the highlight of the meeting. Thanks to the organizers, particularly Judith Allanson, Secretary-General of the ICHG for their work in arranging this wonderful concert.

Marc S. Williams, MD , www.theatreofearlymusic.com , 2011

"The Music of King Arthur Remained the Star"

"Early Music Vancouver had stellar singers, including sopranos Suzie Leblanc ... These were the soloists, but with the addition of only a few more singers, they were also the chorus. The words were just as audible there as they were in the solo and ensemble singing, and the sound -- robust and focused, with none of the fluffiness of a typical modern choir -- was one of the evening's highlights."

"Leblanc's Cupid was as fresh and nuanced as any little god of love could be, her ornamentation natural, her sound such a distinctive blend of sweet and sultry."

Elissa Poole , The Globe and Mail , 2011

Suzie LeBlanc and David Greenberg fill church with pure voice and strings
By STEPHEN PEDERSEN

Soprano Suzie LeBlanc and violinist David Greenberg share a talent for using written music as a vocabulary for improvisation.

They pooled their strikingly effective creative energies Friday night in St. George’s Round Church to celebrate Nova Scotia poet Elizabeth Bishop in Scotia Festival of Music’s Recital 2, At The Fishhouses.

Greenberg brought along his Tempest Baroque Ensemble, with harpsichordist Alexander Weimann. LeBlanc brought actor R. H. Thompson and her amazingly pure voice.

Trying to follow the goings on with the help of the program booklet was, well, trying. LeBlanc and Greenberg decided to present the second half before the first, there were unacknowledged interpolations and both sides of the intermission flowed without the usual breaks for applause.

Following the goings on with the ear, however, was, like LeBlanc’s voice, a pure and translucent delight. The audience reaction at the end of the concert rang the rafters.

Greenberg and violinists Karen Langille and Kirsty Money supported by Weimann and cellist Hillary Brown, started off with Cape Breton tunes played on baroque instruments. Thompson began reading Bishop’s At The Fishhouses.

Tempest wove ancient music in and out of the evocative images of Bishop’s poem, the "emerald moss" growing on the fish houses, and the "creamy iridescent coats of mail with small iridescent flies crawling on them" of the herring scales lining the fish-tubs.

Creamy sinfonias by Vivaldi and Monteverdi were separated by LeBlanc singing John Dowland’s Flow My Tears from England’s most remarkable Elizabethan period of song, unmatched in expressive power until Handel almost a century later.

Thompson makes listening to poetry as simple and immediate as listening to nursery rhymes. His pacing is effortlessly worked into the music of the poetry to clarify, without exaggeration, even the higher levels of complexity Bishop worked up to towards the end of the poem in lines like "as if the water were a transmutation of fire that feeds on stones and burns with a dark gray flame."

It was fine poetry from one of poetry’s finest.

In the second half, Thompson read Bishop’s Cape Breton, another masterpiece, while the tiny ensemble, now double anchored by double-bassist Max Kasper joining cellist Brown, played Alasdair MacLean’s setting of The Silken Water is Weaving and Weaving (from Cape Breton).

Symphony Nova Scotia patrons heard MacLean’s original orchestral version with LeBlanc in a February concert featuring four Canadian composers setting Bishop works. It worked differently and maybe even better in this lighter music version.

LeBlanc launched the second half of the concert with a surprise performance of Mozart’s scintillating motet Exultate Jubilate, a work for which the pristine tone and quicksilver agility of her voice is ideally suited.

It balanced the Bach aria she sang to close the first half, Ich wunschte mir den Tod, from Cantata 57. Bishop’s love for music breaks through her poetry, but it is most strikingly referenced by the consistent musicality of her writing. She had an ear for it.

The ensemble’s presentation of Bishop’s Hymn to the Virgin just before the end of the concert, induced an air of mysticism as LeBlanc, Thompson and the musicians softly chanted "Come, Blessed Mary, hear our prayer, Come, Blessed Mary, stand on air, Rorate coeli desuper."

The last line was quoted by Bishop from an anonymous Latin hymn.

The Virgin may not have stood on air Friday night in the St. George’s sanctuary but our hair did.

( spedersen@ns.sympatico.ca)

Stephen Pedersen is a freelance arts writer based in Halifax.

Stephen Pedersen , The Chronicle Herald , 2011

Singer proves less can be more in thrilling Mozart piece
you've never heard soprano Suzie LeBlanc before, run, don't walk to the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra box office and buy tickets for Saturday night's repeat of Friday's concert, Beethoven's Mass in C.
This was LeBlanc's debut with the WSO. She was last in Winnipeg in 2004, with countertenor Daniel Taylor and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.
The Acadian singer was filling in for Winnipeg coloratura Tracy Dahl, featured in Mozart's thrilling Exsultate, jubilate, while another Winnipeg treasure, soprano Monica Huisman took Dahl's role in the mass.
The evening began with a perfunctory performance of Bach's Suite No. 4 for Orchestra, scored for three trumpets, three oboes, bassoon and strings. It was clear from the outset that something wasn't quite right. The orchestra itself was too large for this music.
And then Suzie LeBlanc stepped onto the stage and changed everything. At first, her voice seemed somewhat small -- but as our ears adjusted, we revelled in the wonderful clarity of her tone and ultimate musicality.
There is a rare simplicity to her performance -- no flash, just clean beauty that is refreshing in its uniqueness. In a time when so many audiences equate power with quality, LeBlanc is living proof that less can be more. She makes you feel like she's singing right to you.

Gwenda Nemerofsky , Winnipeg Free Press , 2010

A MusicFest Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver copresentation. At the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Thursday, August 12 There’s almost a 1930s show-biz flair to the title: The Vespers of 1610. This music has everything—it would almost have to. It’s by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first geniuses of music (he practically invented opera), and the Vespers are still bewildering in the variety of their scope and brilliance in every aspect. This collection of musical church styles, old and new, would hardly have disappointed anyone in 1610: it has an unaccompanied mass to please the Romans; the psalms to please the Venetians; and enough expertly written solo motets to please any prince, who’d likely be more interested in his singers’ virtuosity than in the dull music that would inevitably come from the papal choir. It’s hard to believe that when it was written it was a virtual job application to show Monteverdi’s versatility. He submitted it in hopes of becoming maestro di cappella (music director) at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. In 1613, he achieved his goal, and this work is likely the reason. It was performed at the Chan Centre as a coproduction of MusicFest Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver with a superb consortium of musicians from across the continent: sopranos Suzie LeBlanc and Ellen Hargis, altos Matthew White and Debi Wong, tenors Colin Balzer and Charles Daniels, baritones Tyler Duncan and Sumner Thompson, basses Paul Grindlay and Tony Funk, San Francisco’s the Whole Noyse wind band, as well as EMV’s Baroque Festival Players, all under the direction of keyboardist Alexander Weimann. The players performed so well that the intervening centuries seemed to collapse. The number of artists was on the smallish, and very probably correct, size and everything came off, right down to the sobbing, ornamental trilli, or constricted little trills. The vocal concertos were florid with detail and invested with a depth of humanity that would have made them the pride of any stage in the world. There were too many splendid moments to mention but the echo effects between Balzer and Daniels in “Audi coelum” were some of the highlights. It being the 400th anniversary of the Vespers—not to mention the 40th anniversary of Early Music Vancouver and the 10th anniversary of MusicFest Vancouver—this was the year to do it. www.straight.com/article-338583/vancouver/too-many-splendid-moments-mention-claudio-monteverdis-vespers-1610

Lloyd Dykk , Georgia Straight, Vancouver, BC , 2010

Grand Philharmonic turns in remarkable Bach performance KITCHENER – The Grand Philharmonic Choir outdid themselves Friday night at the Centre in the Square with a remarkable performance of Bach’s B Minor. Having pioneered the Easter tradition of performing one of the three great choral works of the composer for the past 38 seasons, this was part of Howard Dyck’s year-long grand farewell. Part of the fun was assembling a cast of four superb soloists, each with a reputation extending the world over, and whose combined and individual contributions could scarcely be rivaled anywhere. There was a distinct feeling of magnanimous tribute to maestro Dyck amongst these renowned artists recognizing his contribution to choral music in this community and beyond. The next segment Christe Eleison featured a duet of the two superb female soloists of the evening. Both Suzie LeBlanc (soprano) and Laura Pudwell (mezzo soprano) have been long time audience favourites and it was fitting that their combined efforts be highlighted in this work. While the women’s voices were very different, they combined superbly. Pudwell had a warm, stately air which was rich, firm and voluminous. LeBlanc, on the other hand was light, sweet, round and supple. Their duets both here and later in the Et in unum Dominum were a couple of the evening’s highlights.

Stephen Preece , Kitchener-Waterloo Record , 2010

Suzie LeBlanc’s solo work took us all to a new level of musical ecstasy.
LeBlanc and Halley collaborated on an extraordinary arrangement of the traditional 17th century French carol, Noel Nouvelet. LeBlanc penetrates the emotional core of every word in a song. Her subtle shakes at the end of phrases, playing with the pitch before dissolving it in a pianissimo unison with the organ, created a breathless hush in the huge crowd.
She returned later in the program to illuminate the higher harmonics in the choir’s singing of The Nativity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, with words by Christopher Smart, the half-mad 18th century English poet, and original music by Halley.

Stephen Pedersen , The Chronicle Herald , 2009

King Arthur
English playwright John Dryden (1631-1700) and composer Henry Purcell (1659-1695) were a dream team in fashioning the story of England's founding hero into a serious stage musical in 1691. And Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Chamber Choir, soloists and their leader, Ivars Taurins, are a dream team in bringing all the musical drama to life once again for our ears, based on a sparkling opening performance at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre on Thursday night.
Actor R.H. Thomson is the narrator in this shortened, but still two-hour-long, version of the semi-opera, capturing our attention with his well-turned speeches. The three soloists – lovely Canadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc, British tenor Charles Daniels and American baritone Nathaniel Watson – do multiple-character duty with panache as well as remarkable finesse.
Long live this King.

John Terauds , The Toronto Star , 2009

Baroque violinist/conductor Jeanne Lamon always programs imaginatively. Her taste in baroque repertoire is impeccable. And her programming reflects the idealism of a meticulous artist who is also an educator. For Symphony Nova Scotia’s first Baroque Series concert of the season in St. Andrew’s United Church on the first day of November, with kaleidoscopic autumn light glowing through the stained glass windows all round, Lamon brought along Suzie LeBlanc, a soprano from New Brunswick’s North Shore with an incomparable, stained glass voice. LeBlanc sang Bach’s Wedding Cantata at the end of a set which began with a Handel Concerto Grosso (Op. 3, No. 3) and included a Vivaldi concerto for strings. In the second half, she came into her own with two arias mixed into the Les Boreades Suite of Jean Philippe Rameau. Les Boreades Suite is named after Rameau’s last of some two dozen operas, rehearsed in 1763, the SNS program book told us, but never performed except in concert excerpts, until 1982. The Suite included two contrasted soprano arias from other operas: Triste apprets from Castor et Pollux, and Du pouvoir de l’amour from Pygmalion. For the first, LeBlanc wore a simple black shawl over her concert dress; for the second a red shawl, reflecting the mood of each aria. Lamon compared Rameau not to any other baroque composers but to other French composers, such as Berlioz and Ravel. The music, with a colourful energy and a strikingly different way of phrasing whose echoes we recognize in Acadian and French folk songs and fiddle music, proved a brilliant choice to set off the radiant sparkle and purity of LeBlanc’s marvellous voice. It is a ravishingly beautiful voice. Effortlessly, LeBlanc coaxes tones of silvered gossamer out of stillness, with mesmerizing effect. Her face and body language is animated by the same impulses that give vibrant, radiant life to her interpretation of these arias. Rameau’s music for the Suite consisted mainly of dances, each with an individual character that Lamon and the orchestra projected with a wonderful directness and alertly vivid energy. In Air pour les Saisons et les Zephirs, two piccolos played with a sweetness beyond that of the descant recorders for which the music was most likely written. They were a perfect foil for LeBlanc, though she did not sing that particular music. But the sound of her voice still lingered in the memory as we listened. Lamon brings a vigour, lightness and athleticism to Handel. The tempos are fiery and the adagios rich with sentiment (which is to be distinguished from sentimentality). The Vivaldi Concerto for Strings substituted for the planned bassoon concerto. Its more fluent, feminine grace reflected the sunny south rather than Handel’s more stormy northern mood and energy. The Bach Wedding Cantata is a happy piece. Oboist Suzanne Lemieux joined LeBlanc at the front of the orchestra to play oboe obbligato parts with her usual melting sound and instinctively, profoundly musical phrasing. Lamon, the founding director and longtime leader of Toronto’s Tafelmusik orchestra, paid a compliment to Symphony Nova Scotia in a short platform note before the Rameau. The SNS players, she said, always accepted to work on unfamiliar baroque music (such as the Rameau, for example). "There are not many orchestras who accept this, and who do it so well," she added.

Stephen Pedersen , The Chronicle Herald , 2009

«Sopranos Mercer and LeBlanc were nicely matched, evident from the wonderfully extravagant cadence of their opening duet. (...) [LeBlanc's] voice is flexible and pearly, with a voluptuous undertone, and she is liberal with nuance.»

Elissa Poole , The Globe and Mail , 2009

«Among the standouts were the incredibly agile voices of Daniels and LeBlanc. (...) and LeBlanc’s plaint, “O Let Me Weep,” had almost the power of “Dido’s Lament” from Dido and Aeneas.»

Lloyd Dykk , The Georgia Straight , 2009

«Though the complement of eight singers created a strong ensemble and was used with continuously lovely effect in choruses (...). Sopranos Shannon Mercer and Suzie LeBlanc and tenors Charles Daniels and Colin Balzer got the lion’s share of the good bits. (...)Few moments were more magical than LeBlanc’s extended second act personification of Night, sung in a whisper and wonderfully telling.»

David Gordon Duke , The Vancouver Sun , 2009

HANDEL MESSIAH - Connection to baroque style redeemeth TSO show Two of the vocal soloists - soprano Suzie LeBlanc and mezzo-soprano Laura Pudwell - are period performance specialists; because both cared more about storytelling than cranking out volume, they made an immediate, warm connection with the audience. The luminous LeBlanc gave us the magic of the evening: The wonderment with which she recounted the shepherds' nativity scene literally sent shivers down the spine. When LeBlanc shapes a long note, it's like a play of light and shade on a face in a baroque painting - it tells us something, and touches the heart.

Tamara Bernstein , The Globe and Mail , 2007

A GOLDEN, GLOWING MESSIAH Older Torontonians reminisce fondly of the days when Lois Marshall and Maureen Forrester sang Messiah together before Christmas. This year's pairing of soprano Suzie LeBlanc and mezzo Laura Pudwell – both Canadians making their TSO debuts, incidentally – is so magical that it deserves similar status. It is impossible to imagine a more intimate and touching rendition of the duet aria "He Shall Feed His Flock" than the one they delivered at Roy Thomson Hall yesterday afternoon.

John Terauds , Toronto Star , 2007

Suzie LeBlanc, the first soprano, is a famed performer of this kind of music and this instance certainly suggested that she deserves every bit of that: she has a beautiful voice, is utterly accurate, and has a wonderfully human delivery. I select her account of Ich will dir mein Herze schenken, with Mason and George again in the obbligato parts, as perhaps the showstopper of the day.

Jan Narveson , The Record , 2007

BAROQUE SPLENDOUR A FESTIVAL HIT The evening ended with Jephthe, perhaps the only Carissimi work to have anything like lasting fame. More dramatic, indeed more ambitious, than the other selections, Jephthe offers a renowned star turn for soprano, in this instance brilliantly executed by Suzie LeBlanc, and a exquisite concluding chorus.

David Gordon Duke , Vancouver Sun , 2008

Quebec soprano divine choice for temple concert
Let's hope Suzie LeBlanc's visit to the Sharon Temple yesterday afternoon is a promising sign of summer riches to come.
It's hard to imagine a better recital than what the Quebec soprano presented with Toronto pianist Robert Kortgaard at the first of four concerts hosted by Music at Sharon, part of the expanding list of out-of-town summer festivals within easy driving range of the GTA.
The sensual and mystical – in every one of the multiple senses of those words – met as LeBlanc made vocal magic with a program of art songs that ranged from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) to Michel Conte (1932-2008), with a significant stop at the output of Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992).
Messiaen's work explored the edges of our tonal universe using everyday musical means. His work is also imbued with a devout Christianity – more divine than proselytizing.
In these works, as with everything else on a program containing well-known mélodies like Les chemins de l'amour, by Francis Poulenc, LeBlanc dove in with her whole being, fully inhabiting the songs in mood, spirit and musicality.
Her clear, bell-like soprano positively rang in the wood-and-plaster temple's lively acoustics. Her impeccable phrasing rose and swelled with the arched ceiling. The elocution was as bright as the dappled sunlight that lights the interior.
Even a relatively schlocky piece, like Conte's Évangéline, shone with earnest emotion thanks to LeBlanc's consummate honesty and Kortgaard's spot-on playing.
The temple is a mix of secular and sacred – much the same as Messiaen's music. The Quaker-style spirit that inspired David Willson's Children of Peace in the mid-19th century was rooted in egalitarianism, charity and pacifism – and a love of music (although presumably a bit simpler and more foursquare than Claude Debussy or Messiaen's experiments).
The ideal summer-festival program allows us to experience top-quality artistry, while also taking us out of the sunlight-blocking concert hall into a more pastoral setting. LeBlanc and the Sharon Temple fulfilled the ideal in spades.

John Terauds , The Toronto Star , 2008

Highlights in the 17th-century half were a grand and poignant aria from Carissimi's Jephte, sung to a fare-thee-well by LeBlanc... LeBlanc's rendition of Ombre pallide from Alcina was hair-raising in its impact, yet also arresting in its subtlety and the grace of its ornamentation. The house erupted. What a concert.

Ken Winters , The Globe and Mail , 2008