Janice Isabel Jackson, Vocalist & New Music Specialist: California Residency Concert

Program:

Position, influence, for soprano and sound sculpture (David Coll)
Han No. 3 for solo voice (Marie Pelletier)
O Death, for solo voice (Janice Isabel Jackson)

This concert is the conclusion of a two week California residency (Canada Council for the Arts) that Janice is using to develop two new works with David Coll (to be premiered at a later date alongside Position, influence). Janice will present a short vocal solo ripe with extended vocal techiques called Han No. 3 by Canadian composer Marie Pelletier and a cycle of 13 solo songs entitled Oh Death which she composed based on poetry by Canadian artist Annie Martin.  In Annie's poetry the central characters address death as an interlocutor, conversing with and about death from a wide variety of cultural perspectives.  Central to the poetry is a sense that death is intertwined with and woven into life, and that life and death sustain one another. The mystery of encountering death is integral to our lives as we live them. It is our hope that this performance will invite and sustain reflection and conversation about our shared mortality and livingness.

Janice Isabel Jackson has sung over 240 world premieres and performed contemporary music around the world - Beijing, Paris, Brussels, Hong Kong, Vienna, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Torino, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Berlin, Johannesburg, Cape Town and more.  She has appeared in countless contemporary music festivals including the November Festival (Ghent), Wien Modern (Vienna), Ludwigs Lust (Hamburg), The Proms (Amsterdam), IRCAM (Paris), Big Torino 2000 (Turin), and the Diem Festival of Electro-acoustic music (Denmark).   She is the Artistic Director of the Halifax based contemporary vocal music society Vocalypse Productions, a presenter of contemporary voice projects.  Last season she premiered the role of Mona Parsons, the only Canadian woman to have been detained in a Nazi workcamp, in Vocalypse Productions’ world premiere performance of Escape to Freedom by Sandy Moore.  Jackson has been composing for solo voice for the past several years and has just completed and performed a cycle of 13 solo songs entitled Oh Death based on poetry by artist Annie Martin.  She recently premiered Canadian composer James Rolfe’s O Greenest Branch, for soprano, chorus, congas, and organ.  Jackson has been honored with the Friends of Canadian Music Award through the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre.  She has also received an Established Artist Award from the Creative Nova Scotia Leadership Council and an award from the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia for her contribution to Nova Scotian culture. 

Links:
http://janicejackson.ca/
http://davidcoll.com/