Louis De Nil, tenor & Melanie Cancade, piano

Sunday April 26 at 2 pm

Pay what you can.

Louis De Nil and Melanie Cancade perform Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, one of the greatest song-cycles ever written. Comprised of twenty-four songs and taking over an hour to perform, Winterreise tells a story of a man dealing with a recent heartbreak by denouncing society and escaping into the wilderness. Louis and Melanie hope to capture your attention as they guide you through Schubert’s hauntingly beautiful music. All are welcome, the recital is pay-what-you-can!

Louis De Nil, tenor

With a love of performance, tenor Louis De Nil has just finished the first year of his Masters at the Don Wright Faculty of Music studying with Prof. Torin Chiles. Before coming to UWO, Louis obtained a Bachelors of Musicology from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, where he studied with Prof. Winston Purdy. He was a Member of Opera McGill, playing Snout in their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He also played Frank in a shortened version of Die Fledermaus with McGill Opera Scenes, and was a member of the Chorus for Opera McGill’s productions of La Bohème and I Capuleti e i Montecchi. While at McGill Louis was also an active participant in the McGill Savoy society, playing the roles of Luiz in The Gondoliers and Lord Tolloller in Iolanthe. Louis participated in several exciting summer programs: The Miami Frost School of Music Summer in Salzburg (2012), VISI - in the Young Theatre of Art Song program (2013) and Opera Nuova (2014). At Opera Nuova he played The Manta in Isaiah Bell’s children’s opera The Lives of Lesser Things, The Captain in Candide and Le Doyen in Cendrillon. In addition to singing, Louis has also danced ballet for 13 years and is at an RAD Advanced 1 level. During his year at Western, Louis was thrilled to perform the role of Gonzalve in UWO Opera production of L’heure espagnole as well as performing Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Marianna Chibotar. Louis is delighted to perform Winterreise once again at Gallery 345 on April 26th with pianist Melanie Cancade.

Melanie Cancade, piano

Melanie Cancade received her Masters of Music in Piano Accompaniment from McGill University, under the guidance of Michael McMahon. While in Montreal, she worked as vocal accompanist at McGill, coached and performed with Liederwolfe Opera Collective, and was musical director at Player's Theatre. She pursued her studies at the Music Academy of the West with Marilyn Horne, the Vancouver International Song Institute, The Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, as well as in Austria at the Franz Schubert Institut. Melanie has performed with Pacific Opera Victoria’s touring productions of “La Cenerentola” and “Carmen”, as well as acting as rehearsal pianist for their Young Artist Program. Other performance credits include Mozart's ”Don Giovanni”, Berlioz's "Orphée et Eurydice", Jason Robert Brown's “The Last Five Years”, Andrew Lloyd Webber's “Song and Dance”, and Vaughn Williams’ “Riders to the Sea”. She has been heard in performance throughout Canada, the United States, Italy and Austria, as well as on CBC Radio and Bravo Television. Currently, Melanie serves as vocal accompanist at the University of Western Ontario.