The Aldeburgh Connection

The seaside town of Aldeburgh on the east coast of England was the home of the English composer Benjamin Britten. In 1948, Britten and tenor Peter Pears founded the Aldeburgh Festival. The Festival has become a highly respected annual meeting ground for internationally renowned musicians.

Also at Aldeburgh is the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies. The School provides professional musicians with an opportunity to study and take master classes from some of the world's greatest singers and instrumentalists: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Hans Hotter, Gerard Souzay, Galina Vishnevskaya, Murray Perahia and Mstislav Rostropovich have all had a long-standing association with the School. Many well-known Canadian opera and concert singers have studied at Aldeburgh.

The traditions and the high standards of performance associated with Aldeburgh are carried over into its Canadian namesake group, The Aldeburgh Connection.

Celebrating the Art of Song!

The Aldeburgh Connection was founded by two alumni of Aldeburgh, Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata, who for many summers were staff members at the Britten-Pears School. Back home in Toronto, they developed a Sunday afternoon vocal and piano concert series which features a mix of well-known and well-established Canadian singers and talented up-and-comers. Each program is set around a theme, portraying a musical, literary or historical character or period. The musical selections are woven around lively readings from letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, poetry, to give them a framework and draw the audience into the world being presented. Each concert is an interesting balance between solo and ensemble singing, vocal and piano pieces, and artistically important "serious" offerings and lighter, more humourous selections. Since the inaugural concert in 1982, we have presented over 100 different theme programs.

Complete listing of Aldeburgh Connection concerts in Toronto

Our popular Sunday Series offers five concerts featuring fine Canadian singers. We also present two Discovery Recitals, which give audiences a chance to discover talented young singers from the next generation. This season we are also presenting two recitals featuring singers who are much sought-after in opera and concert performances throughout Canada. And each June, we move to Bayfield, Ontario, for the Bayfield Festival of Song.

For the Record

The Aldeburgh Connection is well known for the excellence and originality of its programs. In addition to our concerts in Toronto, we also take our concerts to other centres, and have appeared at summer festivals, such as Shaw, Elora and The Festival of the Sound. Performances outside Canada have included a Wagner program in New York City for the Wagner Society of New York, concerts at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival in New York State and for the Jane Austen Society in Chicago. In addition, we have appeared on two occasions with an all-Canadian cast at the Aldeburgh Festival in England, one of these as part of a six-concert tour of the U.K.

Over the years we have commissioned many new works by Canadian composers. We are heard regularly on CBC radio, and have made five CDs, one of music by Schumann, Brahms and Canadian composer John Greer, a CD of Benjamin Britten's Canticles, a compilation of music from a decade of our concerts, a 2-CD set entitled The Aldeburgh Connection's 20th Anniversary Collection, a 2008 JUNO-nominated CD, Schubert among friends, with soprano Gillian Keith, tenors Colin Ainsworth and Michael Schade and tenor Gerald Finley, and our most recent, released in March of 2009, Our own Songs, a CD of works commissioned by The Aldeburgh Connection and performed by Adrianne Pieczonka, Monica Whicher, Elizabeth Turnbull, Colin Ainsworth and Mark Pedrotti.

Details of CDs
List of Commissions

The Artistic Directors

Stephen Ralls (right) began his musical career in England, following a Master's degree at Merton College, Oxford. He was soon involved in frequent recitals throughout England and in regular broadcasts for the BBC. His work with English Opera Group led to recital appearances with Sir Peters Pears and to Mr Ralls' appointment to the staff of the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh. He currently holds the appointment of Musical Director of the University of Toronto's Opera Division. He has accompanied many of Canada's finest singers in concerts, broadcasts and on recordings.

Bruce Ubukata (left) has established a reputation as one of Canada's leading vocal accompanists, for many years working with with Mary Lou Fallis in her successful one-woman shows, Primadonna, Mrs Bach and Fräulein Mozart, as well as with the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus. His other musical activities have included engagements with Festival Ottawa and the Canadian Opera Company, as well as regular engagements each summer in Aldeburgh, England. Bruce is also a noted organist and harpsichordist.