About this Event
Most concerts start when the interesting part is already over.
The negotiations are done. The choices have been made. The music has been shaped, polished, and sealed — and all you see is the finished surface.
Deconstructing Art Song does something different.
Mezzo-soprano Taryn Plater and pianist Derek Stanyer are two of Vancouver's most compelling musical minds, and they've spent years building a shared language at the piano. On May 9, they're opening up that process — letting you watch how a phrase gets shaped, how a disagreement becomes a discovery, how two artists listen to each other in real time and make something together that neither could make alone.
You won't just be watching. You may have a role to play.
Equal parts concert and conversation, Deconstructing Art Song is for the curious — for anyone who has ever wondered what musicians are actually thinking, feeling, and deciding when they perform. The music is beautiful. The process is even more interesting.
Come find out what happens before the polish.
Taryn Plater is a mezzo-soprano and creator recognized for her "dramatic and vocal thrust" (Opera Canada). As co-founder of Opera Unbound, she makes work that pushes at the edges of what opera can be — spanning Ukrainian art song, collaboration with dance, new chamber opera, and the jazz-classical intersection. Her background in urban planning gives her a rare lens on music as a civic act.
Derek Stanyer is one of Vancouver's most sought-after collaborative pianists — celebrated for playing that is, as we've put it before, sensitive and dynamic in equal measure. A pianist/coach with UBC Opera and holder of a doctorate in music, he has performed with Vancouver Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Opera Unbound, and York Place Concerts. His specialist passion is the art songs of Nikolai Medtner, a largely overlooked repertoire he has quietly been championing for years. When Derek is at the piano, you feel it.
Free admission — presented as part of the VOICES Free Concert Series, supported by TD.
VOICES is Vancouver Opera's annual series of free performances — opera, music, theatre, and everything in between — held right in the heart of the city at the Michael and Inna O'Brian Centre. No barriers. No asterisks. Just great music, free, for everyone.
Seating is limited and first come, first served. We recommend arriving early.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Vancouver Opera - Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall, 1955 McLean Drive, Vancouver, Canada
CAD 0.00
