Notice Board

Music at Noon Series: Mel Braun, baritone (University of Manitoba); Laura Loewen, piano (University of Manitoba)
12:15 pm, November 29, 2016
University Recital Hall
FREE Admission, Everyone Welcome

Baritone Mel Braun is a versatile performer, equally at home in oratorio, recital, and opera, always open to new collaborations. He is well-known to Canadian audiences for his many performances and broadcasts of Early Music with Tafelmusik and Opera Atelier, and for his frequent appearances across Canada in the Masterworks of Bach and Handel. As a recitalist, he is renowned for his creative approach to Song, whether it’s singing Schumann’s Liederkreis while on stage with the dancers of Winnipeg’s Q Dance, staging Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch, or tracing the life of Schubert among his friends as he completed his final work, Die Winterreise. His ongoing duo partnership with pianist Laura Loewen is at the centre of many of these collaborations. When not performing as a soloist, he sings with the Emerado Trio.

As a teacher, Mel heads up the Vocal Program at the Marcel A. Desautels Faculty of Music, a program renowned for its collaborative and holistic approach to training singers.  As a music director, Mel looks after the operatic ensembles at the U of M, as well as working with Winnipeg’s Camerata Nova, a choir devoted to exploring new approaches to choral music making. He is much in demand as an Adjudicator and choral clinician, and also enjoys teaching many of the young rock singers that make up Winnipeg’s burgeoning Indie Music scene.  Mel has a Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Toronto and a Degree in Church Music from Canadian Mennonite Bible College.

Praised for expressivity, virtuosity, and committed playing, Canadian collaborative pianist Laura Loewen has appeared in concerts throughout North America and in Europe, Asia and South America.  Dedicated to sharing her passion for ensemble playing and coaching, she is a professor of Collaborative Piano and the Vocal Coach at the University of Manitoba’s Desautels Faculty of Music. She is a founding faculty artist of VISI (Vancouver International Song Institute), and is also on the faculties of the NUOVAopera training program in Edmonton, Alberta and the Contemporary Opera Lab in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

An extremely versatile pianist, Dr. Loewen has performed extensively with singers, instrumentalists and chamber ensembles, and is equally comfortable in traditional and contemporary idioms.  Loewen is also a founding member of The Galileo Trio with Kerry duWors, violin and Mark Rudoff, cello, and Emerado with Rosemarie van der Hooft, mezzo-soprano, and Mel Braun, baritone. 

Teaching and mentoring is an important element of Dr. Loewen's career.  She shares her love of ensemble playing through teaching at the University of Manitoba, and at summer festivals and masterclasses.  Dr. Loewen holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Accompanying/Coaching from the University of Minnesota, where she was a fellowship student of Margo Garrett and Karl Paulnack.