MUSICIAN OF THE MONTH: JANICE JACKSON
Janice Jackson brings bright and dynamic energy to the Halifax vocal scene.
April’s Musician of the Month is none other than Halifax’s own Janice Jackson!
Janice Isabel Jackson has sung over 200 world premieres and performed with contemporary music ensembles and in concert halls around the world – Beijing, Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Torino, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Berlin, Johannesburg, Cape Town and more. She has appeared in countless contemporary music festivals including the November Festival (Ghent), Wien Modern (Vienna), Ludwigs Lust (Hamburg), The Proms (Amsterdam), IRCAM (Paris), Big Torino 2000 (Turin), the Diem Festival of Electro-acoustic music (Denmark), and the Scotia Festival of Music (Nova Scotia). She is also the Artistic Director of the Halifax based contemporary vocal music society Vocalypse Productions.
Recent productions include: 3 new mini operas entitled HOWL (2013) based on Ginsberg’s famous rant, Miss Fortune’s Portmanteau (2014), a one hour show concerning women from Victorian Halifax, Tim Brady’s new opera Ghost Tango (2015) for 2 singers and electric guitar and Jerome Blais’ Le Tombeau de Barbeau, based on by Canadian ethnomusicologist Marius Barbeau’s wax roll recordings.
1. Which upcoming concerts are you most looking forward to? I am looking forward to singing in a CMC concert coming up in Halifax. I am enjoying the process of learning new material and reviving a work I premiered in 2000. I am also directing a musical, which is more fun than I can express!
2. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Perfect happiness is the life I am leading right now. A terrific husband who showers me with affection, great friends, singing, teaching, producing, directing. I can’t imagine my life without all of these exciting experiences.
3. Do you have a favourite movie or TV series these days? My favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings. My favorite series is Wentworth, an Australian, hard core version of Orange is the New Black. The TV series I am addicted to is The Walking Dead.
4. What is something you would like to have told your 20-year-old self? I would have told my 20 year old self that everything is going to work out just fine, don’t change a thing.
5. What recording(s) would you take with you to a desert island? The recording I would take to a desert island is a live recording of Rachmaninoff playing his 1st three piano concertos. So many mistakes, such perfection.
6. If you could have lunch with any composer, dead or alive, who would you choose and why? If I could have lunch with any composer, I would lunch with a five-year-old Mozart. I would be curious to see what kind of brilliance this child would exhibit. What was he thinking at such a young age? On the other hand, lunch with Luigi Nono (any age) would be awe inspiring.
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- Performing ‘Angst’ by Alice Ho (next performance April 17).
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- Janice with fellow musicians at this year’s Upstream Music Festival – Le Tombeau de Barbeau
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- In Alice Ho’s ‘Angst’
You can follow Janice’s activities through her website.