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Gary D. Cannon Professional Conductor Ensembles
Cascadian Chorale Performances Projects William
Walton.net Personal Chronology Other |
The musical abilities and experiences of Gary Cannon are exceptionally broad, embracing conducting, singing, composing, teaching, and musicological research. Cannon is active as a choral conductor throughout the Seattle area. He is Artistic Director of the Cascadian Chorale, a 30-voice chamber choir based in Bellevue, and Artistic Director of the Vashon Island Chorale, a 70-voice community choir in Vashon. At the invitation of the Early Music Guild, Cannon founded Sine Nomine, a Renaissance chamber choir. In 2010 he will make his first appearance as Principal Conductor of Vashon Opera, in performances of Aaron Copland's The Tender Land. He also serves as the Chorusmaster of the Northwest Mahler Festival. Cannon conducted the Annas Bay Chamber Choir, a professional 16-voice ensemble affiliated with the Annas Bay Music Festival, in its acclaimed inaugural season in the summer of 2006. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the Kirkland Choral Society and the Davis Festival Singers. Past engagements in church music include positions as choir director at Bethel Lutheran Church in Shoreline, and St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Lynnwood. While a graduate student and teaching assistant, he conducted several choral ensembles at the University of Washington. As an undergraduate, he founded the student vocal/instrumental ensemble Pulchritudina. He has studied and sung with some of the world’s leading choral conductors, including Paul Hillier, Abraham Kaplan, Peter Phillips, Jeffrey Thomas, and Dale Warland. Having worked with ensembles of all dimensions, Cannon's repertoire is especially vast. With Sine Nomine he has conducted the gamut of early music, ranging from chant to madrigals and especially featuring the music of Josquin and his contemporaries. He has led Handel's Messiah, Charpentier's Messe de Minuit pour Noël, and music of the Mexican Baroque. Recent performances also include Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem. His chamber choirs often perform major twentieth-century masterworks such as Barber's Reincarnations, Copland's In the Beginning, Corigliano's Fern Hill, Poulenc's Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël, and Henk Badings's Missa antiphonica. He has conducted or prepared choruses for dozens of major choral works with orchestra, including as Mahler's Das klagende Lied and Second and Third Symphonies, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky Cantata, Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard, and Vaughan Williams's Dona nobis pacem. He frequently presents recent works by local Northwest composers, particularly Linda Gingrich, David Hahn, Bern Herbolsheimer, and Roupen Shakarian. As a tenor, Cannon has appeared as a soloist with the Auburn Symphony, Seattle Philharmonic, Rainier Symphony, and Eastside Symphony, in major works such as Mozart's Requiem, Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Gounod's St. Cecilia Mass, and P.D.Q. Bach's Iphigenia in Brooklyn. Cannon's recital repertoire ranges from Schubert, Brahms and Barber songs to Mozart, Puccini and Britten arias. Cannon sings regularly with The Tudor Choir and Choral Arts, and has performed on soundtracks for many films and video games. He has sung in the stage chorus for Seattle Opera, and premiered the role of Dennis Kearney in Jerome Rosen's opera, Emperor Norton of the U.S.A. Cannon taught music history and fundamental theory for two years at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, where he received the 2006 Faculty Excellence Award, the college’s highest faculty honor. His musicological research emphasizes twentieth-century British music; particularly noteworthy is his work as founder and webmaster of WilliamWalton.net, the premier website dedicated to the composer. He has also edited works from various historical eras for performance by modern choirs. Cannon also composes, especially choral, solo vocal, and chamber music. He holds degrees from the University of California, Davis (B.A. in music, 1999), and the University of Washington, Seattle (M.Mus. in choral conducting, 2003), where he is currently researching a doctoral dissertation on the early life and works of William Walton. Among his other varied interests are Antarctic history, the United Nations, Agatha Christie mysteries, pirate jokes, crossword puzzles, and an extensive classical CD collection. Cannon resides in Seattle, Washington, with his wife, Marnie, and their two cats, Baxter and Pumpkin. Site last updated 26 August 2009 |
