Staff
From Opera to Broadway, special show featuring Collingwood-based tenor Craig Ashton and singers of the Canadian Opera Company, will bring a talented quartet to Meaford Hall Saturday, August 20 to perform some of the world’s most loved opera and musical theatre selections.
Soprano Teresa van der Hoeven, mezzo-soprano Kathryn Knapp, baritone Jan Vaculik, and pianist Susan Black will join Ashton to perform music from Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, West Side Story, Verdi’s La Traviata, Bizet’s Carmen and The Pearl Fishers, Puccini’s Turandot, and many more musical gems.
The title of his upcoming show in Meaford could just as easily be a thread in the story of Craig Ashton’s life. Ashton is no stranger to the limelight of the stage. Raised in Fergus, Ontario, Ashton inherited his father’s beautiful lyric tenor voice. His professional operatic career started when he was twenty-four years of age, as a finalist in the Canadian Opera Company’s (COC) Young Mozart Singers’ Competition. From there he was accepted into the prestigious COC Ensemble Studio under the direction of the late Richard Bradshaw. Ashton has performed leading roles in eminent productions by the COC, Toronto Opera in Concert, Toronto Operetta Theatre, The Banff Festival, Edmonton Opera, and Vancouver Opera, to name a few. Craig was also a member of the original Canadian Tenors.
In musical theatre, Ashton’s greatest triumphs are The Gondoliers at Stratford Festival, and Hal Prince’s The Phantom of the Opera and Show Boat. Insight Magazine described Ashton with “an incredible range and fantastic big voice. His powerful singing is reminiscent of the classic Russian tenors”. The Nanaimo Daily News applauded him for the “technical perfection and passion” in his singing. Ashton has charmed audiences all over the world performing on such cruise lines as Celebrity, Cunard, and Costa but his favorite destination, and the thing that brings him such immense pride, is performing at home in Canada. He is an elementary school teacher and brings his passion for the arts and education to the classroom where he inspires young people to reach for their dreams.
Ashton has performed at two Theatre Collingwood benefit events, raising much-needed funds for the local group. He also dedicated all net profit from his 2015 From Opera to Broadway show, a near sell-out at the historic Gayety Theatre, to Theatre Collingwood. This fall he’ll be part of the annual Opera at the Marsh in Clarksburg.
“It is so rewarding that we are able to be contributing members of this community. We are big on supporting the arts and to be able to do that through his art is amazing. Collingwood, and now Meaford, are embracing opera in a meaningful way. It’s just great.”
For his August 20th show Craig has assembled an outstanding ensemble of artists to present arias and ensembles from the world’s best known operas such as La Traviata, Il Trovatore and Nabucco (Verdi), The Pearl Fishers (Bizet), and Turandot (Puccini), and from musical theatre, Carousel, The Secret Garden, Les Misérables, and West Side Story. Joining Craig for this amazing evening of musical performances are Teresa van der Hoeven (Soprano), Katie Knapp (Mezzo Soprano), Jan Vaculik (Baritone) and Susan Black (Pianist)
Formore information on this and other Meaford Hall performances, you can visit www.meafordhall.ca, call 1.877.538.0463 or drop by the box office at 12 Nelson St E.
