I was at McClure for more than 3 years, working with fellow music student Tanis Erhardt, and later with Shirley Blackburn, both of whom were my partners in directing a fun group of singers. The minister, Dale Morrison had been minister of Wynyard United Church while I was growing up, and his family and mine have always been close. At McClure I got to explore and express my faith alongside my musical interests. During this period, I also learned that I had a fairly unusual voice, with a very large range, and an easy flexible falsetto. Thus, my friend Gary Day and I began to pursue another fixation - the hunt for the elusive counter tenor voice, and the pursuit of early music in general. We both began studying the technique with a passion, singing in this range more and more. We sang a lot of Purcell duets... My voice teacher Naomi Friesen helped me expand my range, dynamics, and vocal control. Through his job at the music dept. of the Saskatoon public library Gary did a lot of research. And we both listened to all the recordings of any countertenors we could find.

Pages from my life...

The right edge of the book turns forward a page, the left edge turns back and the central fold takes you back to my info page.

Related Stuff of Interest [I hope]

Counter tenor: a rare [some say thankfully rare] male voice type, the counter tenor sings in a very high range typically reserved for the female alto. Also called contralto at some points, or haute contre in french, the male singer refines his falsetto til it is virtually indistinguishable from the rest of his voice, resulting in a very pale, light highly flexible sound. Approaching some of the qualities of the Castrati voice [while avoiding the necessary nastiness associated there] this range was particularly popular in early music such as that of Bach, and Handel. Much if not most of the music originally written for countertenor is sung by women these days. Pity.

NOTE: I am building a web site dedicated to the Modern Counter-tenor for those who are curious...