Lucy Smith, Voice
Praised for the versatility of her sound – from a rich, dark low range to pure and clear high notes, Madeline Lucy Smith is an active professional within Vancouver’s music scene, both as a soloist and ensemble singer.
She’s been hired two years in a row to sing in the West Coast Symphony Orchestra’s season opening concerts, as well as in A Company of Fine Instruments’ concerts of baroque music at New Years. She takes part in projects and session work with many local composers – last May, CBC radio broadcast her and Vancouver Chamber Choir colleague Kathleen Allan on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera singing Allan’s And Will He Come.
She sings with both professional choral ensembles in Vancouver; she’s entering into her third season with the Vancouver Chamber Choir and sang with musica intima in their recent concert, birdsong.
Lucy recently returned from a year in Australia, where she was hired to sing First Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the brand new Melbourne Recital Centre. She was named one of six finalists in the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria competition. She was subsequently engaged to sing the soprano solo in the world premiere of the Mary MacKillop Mass by Melbourne composer Nicholas Buc with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Orchestra, both interstate and at a sold out hall in Melbourne City.
Lucy has also performed operatic roles both on the Chan Centre stage as well as abroad in the Czech Republic. Notable examples are Melisande in Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande and Margret in the Canadian premiere of Heuberger’s The Opera Ball (with Vancouver’s Opera Appassionata), Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Casilda in Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, Atalanta in Handel’s Serse and Barbarina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. She has appeared with the Vancouver Bach Choir and the Vancouver Symphony in their Sing-Along Messiah and was the soprano soloist in performances of Mozart’s Vesperes Sollenelles and Poulenc’s Gloria with the Vancouver Chamber Players.
Lucy is also an accomplished jazz singer – while in Melbourne, she fronted a band at Dizzy’s Jazz Club and also sings with The K-Sisters, Vancouver’s newest swing/boogie-woogie quartet. Some favourite experiences in this genre are singing Kurt Weill with a jazz combo in an auto repair shop and jazz standards at a Burlesque show at the Cultch.
Chloe Hurst, Voice, Theory and Early Childhood Education
Chloé Hurst (soprano) is an active singer, pianist and teacher in Vancouver. Hailed by Opera Canada as having “enviable clarity and precision,” her talent has taken her around the world.
As a VAM alumni, Chloé started her formal training in music at the age of three. From this young age until completing high school, her main instrument was piano. It was not until the start of her undergrad as an opera performance major at UBC, when she started to pursue her other passion, singing. Chloé then continued on to complete her Master of Music degree at the same institution.
Chloé has had the privilege of performing across North America, Europe and China in operas, concerts and competitions. Past opera roles include Adina (L’elisir D’amore), Gretel (Hansel und Gretel), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and many more. As a versatile performer, Chloé has sung various works from Handel’s Messiah to Bernstein’s West Side Story, and with many different groups, such as the West Coast Symphony, with whom she performed Berlioz’s Les Nuits D’été.
In early 2011, Chloé had her debut in China as a singer and pianist in concert. By the end of the year, she was a competitor on the popular Chinese television talent show, Xing Guang Da Dao. Chloé won the first three rounds of the competition and ended up being a finalist for the 2011 season. While singing takes up the bulk of her stage time, Chloé still gets the chance to share her piano skills. She enjoys accompanying fellow singers in performance and loved being a lounge pianist during the 2010 Olympics at the Vancouver International Airport.
Alongside performing, Chloé has been teaching piano, theory and voice for several years, and joined the VAM faculty in 2008. While her main department has been music theory (in the preparatory and college divisions), she is excited to branch out into the voice faculty and ECE programs at VAM so she can continue to share her passion with enthusiasts of all ages.
Kathleen Allan, Voice
A native of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Kathleen Allan moved to Vancouver in 2007, and has quickly made an enviable reputation as a composer, conductor and soprano.
The youngest current member of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, she is in demand as a soloist and new music specialist, and regularly performs in premieres of new vocal and choral works. Her recent recital, featuring premieres of new vocal music as well as performances of her own works, received national media attention and was featured on CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.
In June 2011, she performed as soprano soloist with the National Broadcast Orchestra and Berkshire Choral Festival Choir in Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light at the Chan Centre. Other major solo credits include Arvo Pärt’s Passio at the Chan Centre in 2009, and the lead role of Ann in the premiere North American tour of Stephen Hatfield’s chamber opera Ann and Seamus, including performances at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.
Equally accomplished as a composer, she has received commissions from ensembles and soloists from across Canada including the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, the Eastern Wind Ensemble, flutist Gillian Sheppard, mezzo-soprano Debi Wong, Zing! Children’s Choir, Lady Cove Women’s Choir, Altantic Voices of Ottawa, and Newman Sound Men’s Choir.
She has a particular passion for renewing Newfoundland folk songs in choral arrangements, and her commissioned interpretation of The Maid on the Shore will be performed in Argentina in Summer 2011 at the World Symposium on Choral Music.
She has received two Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards for her compositions, and in 2006 won CBC’s national composition contest in honour of Mozart’s 250th birthday. Her choral works can be found in the catalogues of Alliance Music Publications, Inc. (Houston, TX) and Cypress Choral Music Publishing (Vancouver, BC).
She holds a degree in composition from the University of British Columbia, where she studied with Dorothy Chang and Stephen Chatman.
Starting in 2011, Kathleen will be the director of the Chorales of the Vancouver Bach Children’s Chorus.
David Meek, Head of Voice
David Meek, Head of VAM Voice Department, began his professional career with the Canadian Opera Company (COC) in chorus and supporting roles.
Mr. Meek toured extensively with the COC throughout Canada and the U.S. David was leading tenor at the Stadttheater (Wuerzburg, Germany) for six years, performing major roles including Tamino, Alfredo, Edgardo, Hoffmann among many others. Since 1979, David has sung with all of Western Canada’s opera companies.
Mr. Meek has been a faculty member at UBC and VAM since 1990. In 1992, he started the Opera Studio at VAM where he continues to conduct, direct, and oversee all opera scenes and full productions.
Three of Mr. Meek’s students were winners of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in New York including international artist, soprano, Aline Kutan, one of Canada’s leading coloratura sopranos. Many others have gone on to professional careers in Canada, US, and abroad.
Mr. Meek currently resides in White Rock, BC with his wife, pianist, Sheila.
