Volume 24 Issue 2 - October 2018

Anandi
Bhattacharya
The Voice of
Modern India
FRI 2 NOV | 7:30PM
A vocal prodigy in
a family filled with
illustrious musicians
and singers.”
- GLOBAL ROOTS
FEATURE
BUILDING
BRIDGES
Denise Williams and the
Children of Abraham
DAVID PERLMAN
Red Sky Performance - Trace | Wed 21 Nov
Royal Wood with Elise Legrow | Wed 28 Nov
Ballet Jörgen Canada - The Nutcracker | Wed 19 Dec
The Music of a Charlie Brown Christmas | Fri 21 Dec
FirstOntarioPAC.ca
The way Linda Litwack tells this chapter of the
Denise Williams story, she and Williams (who have
known each other since about 1990, when Williams
joined the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir as their soprano
support singer/soloist) bumped into each other at the
premiere, in October 2015, of David Warrack’s ambitious
oratorio Abraham at Metropolitan United Church.
(Litwack was the publicist.)
“It involved Jewish, Christian and Muslim singers, instrumentalists
and dancers in a celebration of the father of the three major
monotheist faiths,” Litwack explains. “There we encountered Salima
Dhanani, a lively, young (compared to us anyway) woman, who told
us about her Ismaili Muslim youth choir, and said she wanted them
to learn some Yiddish songs. That hasn’t happened yet, but we started
a series of meetings that has ultimately led to our organizing this
concert. As producers, in honour of the common founding father
of our backgrounds, and the circumstances of our first meeting, we
called ourselves Children of Abraham – even though we have always
intended for this to be a secular concert, not religious.”
Antiguan-born, Canadian soprano Denise Williams is a bridge
builder in all kinds of ways: a true crossover artist comfortable with
opera, oratorio, lieder, 20th century art song, spirituals, musical theatre
and jazz; a founding member of, and soloist with, the Nathaniel Dett
Chorale (most recently as Monisha in their concert performance of
Treemonisha at Koerner Hall); soprano soloist in David Fanshawe’s
African Sanctus with both the Pocano Choral Society in Pennsylvania
and with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir; trail-blazing soprano Portia
White in in the world premiere of Lance Woolaver’s Portia White: First
You Dream, for Nova Scotia’s Eastern Front Theatre in 2004; and an
accomplished solo recitalist with venues such as Massey Hall, the St
Lawrence Centre, the Toronto Centre for the Arts, and concert venues in
the US and the Caribbean under her belt.
Her introduction to Jewish music via the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir
sparked a strong musical connection; it also led, over time, to her
witnessing and participating in not always easy dialogues between
Black and Jewish cultures.
“I have an always growing interest in celebrating artistic harmony
with other communities and cultures and in building bridges, which I
will continue to explore,” Williams says. “Growing up in the inner city
of Toronto, I have embodied the multicultural music community all
my life: singing and teaching, reaching out. A large part of my motivation
is simply the understanding that comes from connecting.”
8 | October 2018 thewholenote.com