I sing with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto (tenor) and we support a scholarship program for students in programs like the Glenn Gould School and the U. of T. Opera School who are on the cusp of careers as professional performers. To raise funds for the program, we host an annual salon where, in effect, our scholarship students sing for their money. They get a few things out of the program, including a regular stipend (students can always use money), an opportunity to work closely with our artistic director, Robert Cooper, and experience singing in an ensemble (where they have to rein in their big solo voices).
Each year, I photograph the event and each year it presents me with the paradox of capturing in one medium the artistry expressed in another. Singers sing. That’s what they do. There’s nothing I can capture in a photograph that conveys the auditory pleasure their skill produces. And yet …
These students are not just singers; they are performers. They project a presence. With bearing and gesture, facial expression, poise, a sidelong glance, they convey so much more than we find represented in the notes on a page. These are elements the camera can capture.
Featured here is baritone Danlie Rae Acebuque while looking on is Russell Braun. You can tell by the way Danlie holds himself that the music he makes is worth listening to.
