Associate Professor Jeri Brown
Associate Professor Jeri Brown’s Jongleur Opera Company, established in 2014, will perform at the Oscar Peterson Concert Hall on October 21.
In a recent interview, Brown shared with us the reasons why she started the company and the trailblazing force that she hopes the organization will become.
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What are you working on right now?
I am working on the creation of a contemporary opera company with a few pivotal voices committed to performing music from their folklore and principally the work of Canadian composers. My aim is to produce and tour the company and occasionally perform with the group of nine. The group currently features sopranos Gwyn Beaver, Kamilya Agoshkoff and Myrtle Thomas, with apprentices Kimberley Ross, Rayandra Hudson and Anushka Wright, and baritone Clayton Cameron, with apprentice Enzo Sabbagha. Our instrumentalists include Giancarlo Scalia, Chris Tauchner, Sergagos Agoshkoff and Victoria Mnatsakanova.
What has your attention?
Contemporary opera reflects events and circumstances surrounding current times across the globe. My latest piece, Afro Waltz Opera, which the audience will hear on October 21, comes from a sense of loss, survival and empowerment, and focuses on a global community through the eyes of one woman of colour. My artistic aim is to refresh the art of vocalizing to include folklore, western music, popular, jazz, gospel and spoken word, and also to include them in one staged performance. The art of creation and improvisation has also been my academic objective for over thirty years.
What are some of your recent accomplishments?
Partnerships with artists in California over the last eight years have amassed a number of creative and explorative projects. Of note, my artistic collaboration with spoken word artist and writer Denise Cook, a.k.a. The Oracle, has been particularly fruitful. A U.C.L.A. scholar, Cook has carved an international career combining her words in dramatic performances. Along the way I have produced, recorded and performed with her in California, as well as at the 2013 Billboard Spoken Word Awards Show in Washington, D. C., where we won first place. Cook has also served as the librettist in my contemporary projects combining singing, instrumentation, dance and spoken word. On October 21, Myrtle Thomas will perform in Cook’s style.
Presentations of my published research have comprised some of my other recent accomplishments, notably at the University of Toronto in June, and at Memorial University And Dalhousie University earlier this month. In November, I’ll be recording with Fullbright Scholar Baron Tymas of South Carolina University, in December I’ll be travailing to the University of Texas to present a paper, and in 2016, I’ll be giving master classes at Carleton University and South Carolina University.
What are your students working on?
Behind every great singer is one who presents tone well into the mix of their performance art regardless of their genre of music. My jazz singers are presently engaged in strengthening the voice to reveal and unleash a greater capacity to present enriching tones in their performances of jazz, pop, gospel and musical theatre. They have recently attended master classes over the course of five weeks that I created with soprano Kamilya Agoshkoff, who will also be performing on October 21.
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