Sususiwrmq
June, 2025
Exerpts from letters to my brother Tom.
My hotel was a block from Carnegie Hall, and about a 15minute walk from the rehearsal hall at Fordham University. The rehearsals were long and arduous. Each piece was rehearsed for 4 hours each, both days = 8 hours per day.
Okay, so, the concert!!!!!, or should I say THE CONCERT, was a highlight of my recent years. It was amazing. We had a serious standing ovation. I mean a serious standing ovation!!!
We didn’t have to get to CARNEGIE HALL until 9:30 Sunday morning, but after that we didn’t stop.
The hall was built, when? During the Victorian era, or Edwardian, I guess, maybe around 1900? and it is all vertical…. stairs that go up and up and up…..8 flights of performer holding/dressing rooms. I was on the 6th floor. Fortunately, I only had to walk up one flight, for an enormous 50’s elevator took us as far as the 5th, but we did have to walk down the 6 flights of stairs.
For the 2 performances we had a chamber orchestra, and for the Argentinian one we also had a magical squeeze box accordion player, a bandonion, who was amazing, as well as a remarkable gypsy type violinist, and of course, the requisite soloists for both. The MisaTango soloist was an elegant soprano from the Buenos Aires Opera. I talked to her back stage. She was so lovely.
Both directors were brilliant; Canadian, JS Vallée; precise, expressive, inspiring, is a wizard in knowing how to get what he wanted out of us. He directed us in the exquisite Fauré Requiem, after the Argentinian composer Martin Palmeri had directed us in his own composition Misa a Buenos Aires, (MisaTango). The 2 pieces were wonderful, and very exciting to sing. The directors were both up for all the possibilities of performances in intimidating venues. They were both splendid, absolutely splendid!!!.
The audience applauded after almost every movement, and afterwards, as we all went to our seats to watch the rest of the show (an award winning international youth orchestra was the final act) we were applauded, and told we were beautiful, and sounded like angels, as we passed the seated opening act, an incredible (I’m running out of superlatives) award winning gospel chorus from somewhere in the states. They blew me kisses when I said they were terrific too, and they said, “No you’re terrific”….. it was a total “love in”. At the reception I was standing beside one of their basses, a big cheerful man, who said that when he saw me stay on stage as my 1st choir left the stage, and my 2nd choir came on, he said to his friend, “Someone better speak to that girl, she doesn’t know enough to get off the stage”. We laughed and laughed.
The flight home was thrilling as well. I was in a very small plane that flew bravely through a very big storm, over Lake Ontario.
A few days later I went off to Montreal for a week of rehearsals and workshops with JS, at McGill, culminating with a concert at the beautiful Redpath Hall.
During that last week in Montreal my dearest, sweetest, most cherished brother, Tom, fought his final battle with cancer. He left this world as I pondered a luminescent Lake Ontario, now calm and tranquille, just outside of Kingston, Ontario, on my train ride home.
On the 13th of July I will be singing Dvorak's Songs My Mother Taught Me, at Hart House, just for him, always for him. Though only he, and we, will know it.
Thanks for listening.
Suzanne
This will do for now. Here's my Music CV.
Suzanne Tevlin – Soprano 1
I grew up singing Irish songs with my father, a tenor. We sang a cappella. Because of my singing my parents acquired a piano and I started piano lessons at the age of 6. I did my rudiments, harmony, and counterpoint exams, and was preparing for my ARCT in piano when I moved to Europe to study fine art.
I speak French, did some graduate work in Italy, and sing in German, mainly because I love Mahler. My Latin is fine, having studied it in school. I sang folk and jazz around Ottawa as a teen. I continue to take dance classes.
In 2000 I returned to Canada and joined various auditioned choirs, including the 1st mixed gender Chamber Choir at St James Cathedral.
During the 1st summer of the pandemic, I was accepted as an amateur student in the Baroque Soloist Summer Programme, at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, run virtually by Dan Taylor. There were about 25 professional students and perhaps 5 amateurs. This turned out to be an important time for me because it was then that I realized I wanted to sing more seriously.
Between 2018 and 2021 I studied voice with Susan Suchard.
During the pandemic I had a few lessons with Joel Katz.
Recently I have had a few lessons with Stephanie Bogle.
I'm currently working with Stuart Graham.
At The Moment:
Hart House Singers, summer 2024
Hart House Singers. Ralph Vaughan Williams, The Sea Symphony, fall. 2024
Lead Soprano sub., various venues, Toronto
Beethoven 9th Concert (MandlePhil) at Koerner Hall, November 29, 2024
Mozart’s Requiem in Vienna, December 5, 2024
Mahler 2 Concert (MandlePhil) – currently in prep for 2025
Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, Hart House Great Hall, March, 2025
Faure’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall NYC in June, 2025
Palmeri's Misa a Buenos Aires (MisaTango), at Carnegie Hall NYC in June, 2025
Montréal Summer Choral Academy Concert, McGill's Redpath Hall, June, 2025
Soloist, Songs My Mother Taught Me, HHSS, directed by David Arnot Johnston, July 2025
Soloist:
September 20, 2014 - Faure Requiem, Pie Jesu & In Paradisum at my mother’s funeral
September 20, 2014 - Schubert's Ave Maria, also at my mother's funeral
November 20, 2022- soloist for Schubert Mass in Ab, CAMMAC, Matthew Otto
March 22, 2023 - Soloist for Beethoven’s Mass in C, CAMMAC, Robert Cooper
April 26, 2023 - Soloist “Singing The Bard” CAMMAC, directed by Maria Case
March 24, 2024, Soloist, Beethoven’s 9th, 4th movement- CAMMAC, David Arnot Johnston
June 7, 2024, Soloist, Trois oiseaux du paradis-Ravel, HHS concert, David Arnot Johnston
September 22, 2024, Soloist, Handel’s Semele, CAMMAC, directed by David Fallis
July 13, 2025, Soloist, Songs My Mother Taught Me, directed by David Arnot Johnston
Other Vocal Events:
Opera for All - concert Koerner Hall, March 28, 2018
Toronto Summer Festival Academy Choir, 2018 & 2022
“Oklahoma” pandemic zoom production. I sang “Surry with A Fringe”.
Virtual Messiah 2020 - One World Baroque
Baroque Soloist Summer Programme – 2020 - Victoria Conservatory of Music
Mozart Requiem, Vienna, December 5, 2024 – Director Jeremy Jackman
Carmina Burana, Hart House Great Hall, March 22, 23, 2025 -Director David Arnot-Johnston
Fauré Requiem, NYC, June 8, 2025, Director Jean-Sébastien Vallée MisaTango NYC, June 8, 2025, Directed by the composer, Martin Palmeri Montréal Summer Choral Academy at the Schulich School of Music, McGill University -June, 2025, under the leadership of Jean-Sébastien Vallée
Montréal Summer Choral Academy Concert at Redpath Hall, June 21-Director JS Vallée
Songs My Mother Taught Me, HHSS concert, July 2025, directed by David Arnot Johnston
Current Rep. (January 2025)
Ah! Non credea mirarti - Bellini
Oh! Quante volte – Bellini
Ma rendi pur contento
- Bellini
Malinconia - Bellini
Signore ascolta - Puccini
Mio Babbino Caro - Puccini
Mi chiamano Mimi – Puccini
Senza Mama - Puccini
Suefzer, Thranen, Kummer, Noth - Bach
Zerfliessse mein Herze – Bach
Erbarme dich, mein Gott – Bach
Caro Nome-Verdi
Bist du bei mir – Stolze/Bach
Ruhe Sanft (Zaide) – Mozart
Pamina’s Aria - Mozart
Laudate Dominum - Mozart
Dans Un Bois - Mozart
Venere Bella – Handel
Se Pieta-Handel
V’adoro pupille-Handel
Piangero-Handel
Ombra mai fu-Handel
Lascia-Handel
Credete al mio dolore-Handel
Care Selve-Handel
Let my thanks be paid-Handel
Il mio bel foco – Marcello/Conti
Madre diletta – Porta
Anklange - Brahms
Ave Dulcissima Maria - Gesualdo
La Maja Dolorosa I, II, III - Granados
Oft denk’ich (Kindertotenlieder IV) - Mahler
Ich bin der welt-Mahler
Nur wer die sehn-suchkennt – Schubert
Ave Maria - Schubert
An Sylvia - Schubert
Um Mitternacht - Zelter
Dei Trauernde – Brahms
Oh! Quand je dors - Liszt
A Chloris - Hahn
Nuit d’étoiles – Debussy
La vie en rose – Piaf/Louiguy
Trois oiseaux du paradis – Ravel
Dirait on - Morten Lauridsen
In Paradisum –Fauré
Pie Jesu – Fauré
Le Secret – Fauré
Au bord de l'eau - Fauré
Après un rêve - Fauré
"C" - Poulenc
Songs My Mother Taught Me - Dvorak
Must the winter come so soon? - Barber
Sure on this shining night - Barber
Heart, we will forget him – Copland
Alone – Copland
Down by The Salley Garden – Britten
Gartan Mother’s Lullaby – Trad - Hughes ?
There was a child named Bernadette – Jennifer Warnes/Leonard Cohen
In Preparation:
Depuis le jour - Charpentier
Et Incarnatus Est – Mozart
Dove Sono - Mozart
Pale et Blonde - Thomas
Les Berceaux – Fauré
Les Heures Claires (various) - Nadia Boulanger
Hymne à l’amour – Piaf
My love is in a light attire – James Joyce
Che faro senza Euridice? - Gluck
King David – Howells
The Widow Bird – Howells
That Younge Child, Balulalow - Benjamin Britten, A Ceremony of Carols, Op. 28
Pastorale - Copland
Camille Claudel: Into The Fire - La Petite Châtelaine –
Jake Heggie
Nocturne, op 13 – Samuel Barber
On this Island: Nocturne - Benjamin Britten
Standing as I do before God (The Edith Cavell Song) – Cecilia McDowell
Op. 2, Schenk mir deinen golden Kamm - Jesus Bettelt - Schoenberg
