We all like stories that connect us to celebrities in a convoluted way. The traditional “a friend of a friend knows [insert celebrity here]” tale is a popular one. Well, now you’ll have one for the 35th annual Juno Awards when you watch this Sunday as they celebrate the best in Canadian music. And if you’re thinking, “I don’t know anyone from Nickelback,” the link is that some of this year’s nominees happen to be from the University of Toronto.
Alumnus Roberto Occhipinti is nominated in the Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year category for his record Yemaya.
“I dropped out in my third year in 1976,” Occhipinti recalls. “Then my son dropped out of high school, so I told him if he went back to school, I would go back. I went back in 1999 and got my diploma.”
Occhipinti is comfortable playing in a variety of musical contexts, but the bass is his main passion.
As most genres rely on some sort of rhythm section, a bass player has many options. Occhipinti’s diverse career includes an eight-year gig with local Cuban jazz musician Jane Bunnett, which in turn landed him a job as the touring bassist of UK pop/hip-hop group Gorillaz.
“I’ve kind of stumbled into the industry grooves. I’d like to think I had some sort of direction, but I don’t,” he admits.
Occhipinti’s nominated recording is described as a mesh of traditional Cuban music and Brazilian tunes combined with a Russian string orchestra.
“I like all sorts of music. Just trying to find a way in which to pull all this stuff together,” Occhipinti explains.
And after having won so many awards in the past, is this Juno nod any different?
“I’m happy with this, because I’m nominated as an artist…having said that, two of the records that I produced are in the same category,” he points out.
Soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian, nominated in the Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral Performance, is another successful U of T alum, but the world-famous opera singer didn’t study music-she was a biomedical engineering grad.
While a student, Bayrakdarian entered various competitions and attended private voice lessons at the Royal Conservatory of Music. While doing her mandatory internship in the engineering program, Bayrakdarian decided to concentrate on her singing instead, and received an offer to join the Canadian Opera Company.
Since then Bayrakdarian has been involved in a variety of musical styles and performances.
“Choice keeps your life varied and interesting,” she notes.
Besides recording her own albums, she has performed in operas and with symphonies, as well as done film soundtracks.
The research that went into amassing a collection of Pauline Viardot (a 19th-century French mezzo-soprano and composer) songs for her Juno-nominated record was a “labour of love” for Bayrakdarian. Selecting the few songs to record was particularly challenging: “Who are you to decide what is important?” Bayrakdarian asks rhetorically.
Staying true to Viardot, the songs on the album are recorded in their original languages.
Bayrakdarian has already won two Junos, but she says this nomination holds special meaning because it’s only piano and voice, and was recorded with her husband, Serouj Kradjian.
Tafelmusik, the Baroque Orchestra in Residence at the Faculty of Music, is also nominated for three Junos in two categories. Now in its 27th season, Tafelmusik has achieved international success under the direction of Jeanne Lamon. The ensemble has 18 core members; all specialize in historical performance practice and play instruments faithful in design to the originals.
For the 2006/2007 academic year, the Faculty of Music is offering an advanced certificate in baroque performance, an intensive one-year full-time accredited program that allows graduate-level string, oboe, bassoon, and harpsichord students the chance to take private lessons with Tafelmusik musicians and opportunities to perform with the Juno-nominated group.
The Juno Awards air live from Halifax at 7 pm on CTV April 2.
