Toronto vocalist wins E-Gré competition

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This article was published 25/04/2023 (1074 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Toronto-based vocalist McKenzie Warriner is still buzzing from last weekend’s Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, where she walked away with the top prize of $11,000.

Warriner said she’s still trying to process the results, especially since she considers the Brandon University event to be the biggest competition she has taken part in so far.

“This is a competition I’ve been wanting to enter for a really long time and dreamed of winning for a really long time,” she told the Sun on Monday. “So the fact that it’s actually happened is a little bit crazy.”

After highlighting string musicians in 2021 and pianists in 2022, the 46th E-Gré Competition focused on vocalists and featured six sopranos hailing from Ontario and Quebec.

Following some presentations and a gala concert on Friday, the final round of competition took place at the Lorne Watson Recital Hall on Saturday, with each participant getting the chance to run through their repertoire in front of a panel of judges.

Warriner opted to cover songs from Canadian composers such as Danika Lorèn and Keith Hamel while also leaving room for works from international musicians like Brian Elias (United Kingdom) and Kaija Saariaho (Finland).

Warriner believes the key to her success on Saturday was her willingness to tackle difficult material like Elias’ song “Peroration,” which required her to sing three lines of music at once.

“And that one is just me, no piano. Just seven and a half minutes of just insanity,” she said.

“So it was a challenge for sure.”

However, Warriner said a lot of credit for her strong performance should also be given to BU pianist Danielle Guina, who accompanied her throughout the competition and complemented her vocals perfectly.

Part of this artistic synergy is due to the fact that Warriner and Guina are old friends and roommates, having originally met when they were both pursuing a master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.

“Since we graduated, we’ve only been able to work together a few times. I’ve been in Ontario or Vancouver and she’s been in Brandon,” Warriner said. “So I hope this marks the start of more frequent collaboration with her.”

Warriner’s connections to Manitoba run much deeper than her friendship with Guina, as she views the province as the place where she came into her own as a professional musician.

After Warriner obtained her bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Manitoba, she went on to cut her teeth in the opera scene by performing in productions for companies like Manitoba Underground Opera.

She also placed runner-up at the U of M’s Zita Bernstein Lieder Competition in 2016, which set the stage for future success in the 2018 Canadian National Music Festival — where she placed second — and the 2020 Gordon C. Wallis Memorial Opera Competition — which she won outright.

Coming out the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, Warriner is showing no signs of slowing down.

Not only is she wrapping up a season with the Vancouver Opera, but she’s planning to return to Toronto to resume her work with Slow Rise Music, a concert series she co-founded in 2021 to help foster creative collaboration within contemporary vocal music.

Later this year, Warriner will embark on a cross-country tour alongside Guina, a privilege won through the E-Gré Competition.

But outside of the grand prize money and the Canada-wide tour, Warriner said she was just grateful to take part in the event, which gave her the chance to connect and collaborate with so many interesting artists.

“I can’t think of a counterpart to this competition in the States, and I love that this competition is so uniquely Canadian and I think it’s amazing that Brandon hosts it every year,” she said. “It was just a really fabulous opportunity.”

The runners-up in the 46th E-Gré Competition were Katy Clark and Sara Schabas, who were entitled to $2,500 and $1,500 for placing second and third, respectively.

Clark received an additional $1,000 from the City of Brandon for winning the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work prize.

The remaining contestants — Sydney Clarke, Rebecca Gray and Claire Latosinsky — received $1,000 each.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson