Soprano Renee Bouthot And Pianist Ana Cervantes Present An Afternoon Of French And Mexican Song

The sonorities of France and Mexico perfume the air the last day of summer, when Canadian soprano Renée Bouthot and Mexican-American pianist Ana Cervantes, in her Canadian debut, join forces in concert.

Their performance, Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir: Music by French and Mexican Composers, takes place Sunday, September 22, 2-3:30 p.m. at the Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto. Tickets $25, and info are available from www.eventbrite.ca (https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/renee-bouthot-soprano-and-ana-cervantes-piano-in-concert-tickets-65040001395?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-source=strongmail&utm-term=listing).

$20 tickets for children and students will be available at the door, or can be reserved by emailing reneebouthot@gmail.com.

More information is also available on Facebook at www.facebook.com/events/931458257193005

Bouthot and Cervantes share a love of the sonorities and tonalities of French music, while Cervantes has also championed the music of Mexican composers through a number of commissions. Their recital features vocal and piano works by French composers Claude Debussy and Francis Poulenc, and contemporary Mexicans Federico Ibarra and Horacio Uribe - offering what Bouthot describes as "a mix of impressionist music, evocative and surrealist poetry, and Mexican colour." The Mexican works will be heard in their Canadian premieres.

A second performance will be held at the Wellington County Museum, 536 Wellington Road 18 in Fergus, Ontario on September 25, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Reservations may be made by calling 226-203-3595.

The recital is a prelude to their appearance October 14 at the International Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, the colonial city in central Mexico where the two musicians first met. Along with Mexican artists, the Cervantino Festival (https://festivalcervantino.gob.mx/) each year honors a different country - this year being Canada. (More info about this concert is at https://festivalcervantino.gob.mx/actividad/217358 and at www.cinyour.facebook.com/events/532060777600566.)

Soprano RENEE BOUTHOT has sung in opera, music theatre, and concert across Canada and in Mexico. For the past several years she has appeared in chamber music concerts, most recently in Toronto with James Wallenberg, violin, and Judy Adelman Gershon, piano. Her recent concerts in Mexico, with pianist Ana Cervantes and musicians from the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de Guanajuato, have included Ravel's Chansons madécasses, We are Children Just the Same by Srul Irving Glick, and Sechs Deutsche Lieder by Louis Spohr.

Originally from Vancouver, Toronto-based Bouthot is also a music educator, and founder and conductor of Lirit Women's Chamber Choir. She has worked extensively with a number of composers to create new vocal and choral works - continuing the tradition developed when she was a member of The Ginger Group, a women's trio that specialized in Canadian music and original theatrical concerts, performing across Canada.

Pianist Ana Cervantes, featured in her Canadian debut, is praised by critics for her "commanding intensity" (MusicWeb International, UK) and "great interpretive qualities" (unomásuno, México); and as "ambassadress for the music of Mexico" (Independent on Sunday, UK). Through her commitment to music of all periods, Cervantes connects a diversity of eras, sensibilities and musical voices into dialogue, opening doors for her audiences. Cervantes has inspired, commissioned and been the guiding force for major collections of new piano music from eminent living composers of the Americas and Europe.

For Canto de la Monarca: Mujeres en México / Song of the Monarch: Women in México (2008-2013) Cervantes asked 16 composers from six countries for a solo piano work piece inspired by women who had played transcendental roles in Mexican history. The project's symbol is the monarch butterfly: a potent metaphor for persistence and valour in a seemingly fragile body. The music of Rumor de Páramo / Murmurs from the Wasteland - her first commissioning project, which pays homage to landmark Mexican author Juan Rulfo - still reaps critical praise. An alumna of Bard College (USA), Cervantes names Joan Tower and the late Theodore Lettvin as her most important teachers. She leads an active international life as performer and teacher, and is currently based in Guanajuato, México.

Soprano Renée Bouthot and Pianist Ana Cervantes present

Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir: Music by French and Mexican Composers

Sunday, September 22, 2-3:30 p.m.

Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto

Tickets and info: www.eventbrite.ca

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