Voice on Fire Returns with Karina Bray
by Tracey Coveart/The Scugog Standard

Karina Bray is a Voice on Fire. A vocal performance student at Wilfrid Laurier University, the 19-year-old Port Perry native gave her first solo performance before a sell-out hometown crowd on Feb. 25, and she is planning an encore performance, Voice on Fire Returns, at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 17, 2012, at Port Perry United Church. Her accompanist for the evening will be Anna Ronai, and Karina has planned a special surprise for the end of the evening, as well as homemade baked goods and a meet and greet to follow the performance.
_Voice on Fire was a night to remember for this exceptional young soprano, who got her first real taste of what it’s like to stand alone in the spotlight.
_“I thoroughly enjoyed performing my own concert and giving back to the community that has supported me so much throughout my years of developing as a musician,” said Karina. “Seeing the enjoyment of the audience,” was especially gratifying and she is looking forward to stretching herself with Voice on Fire Returns.
_Although there will be “a few popular repeats from last year,” said Karina, “the material will be more challenging for me as a vocalist and as a performer - Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak and Strauss - including some difficult arias. The venue is bigger, so it will give me more exposure, but most importantly it will allow me to share my love of music with a larger audience.”
_This will also be the last chance for Karina - currently in her third year of a four-year Bachelor of Vocal Performance Degree at Wilfrid Laurier University and planning to complete an optional fifth year Opera Diploma - to address any hiccups in her repertoire and performance before her fourth year Undergraduate Recital.
_“All B. Mus. students in Performance must complete a Graduation Recital in their final year of studies,” said bass/baritone Daniel Lichti, Associate Professor and Coordinator of Voice, Faculty of Music at Laurier. “This 45 to 50 minute recital will demonstrate Karina’s competency technically and artistically.”
_The performance will include a variety of languages, styles and at least one larger work, like a song cycle or larger group of songs by a single composer.
_“This will be the major demonstration of Karina’s performing ability at the Undergraduate level,” Professor Licthi said.
_Which makes practice - especially in front of a supportive and appreciative hometown audience - all the more critical as a test run.
_The song selection in Voice on Fire Returns - which Karina said “requires excellent technique, stamina and acting ability” - will demonstrate the improvement in her voice and performance after another year of school and training. Returning audience members, she said, will notice “that I have grown and matured even more as an artist.”
_Professor Lichti agrees.
_“Karina has been making very good progress, and much is due to her passion for singing and the excitement she feels imagining herself doing this for a living. She is maturing as a singer and a student, and her growing confidence in her abilities, and as a person, contribute to her discipline, and to enforcing the dream that with hard work, she has a good shot at a career as a performer.”
_Karina is excited about branching into different and challenging genres of music in her second solo effort, particularly arias, which are meant to show the perfect technique of a lead soprano.
_“I want to gain more confidence by pushing myself with these challenging songs,” said Karina, “and I hope to share with the audience the enjoyment and love that I feel every time I sing.”
_Professor Lichti expects that Voice on Fire Returns “will give Karina the affirmation of her friends and community that she is singing better than ever and that she has grown since they last heard her. Karina feels supported by her community and wishes to give back in this way, to share what she has learned and also her love for music and singing.”
_Performance like these - solo shows in front of a live audience - are of critical importance for emerging artists.
_“By having the great opportunity to perform in Port Perry, it allows me to perfect my abilities in a comfortable environment, while making me aware of areas in which I need to refine my musicianship for future performances,” explained Karina. “It also challenges me to put on a concert and gives me an idea of the business behind being a musician.”
_The economic side of making a living as an artist is a fundamental component of the Laurier vocal performance program, and why Dr. Lichti requires encourages his students to stage their own concerts.
_“Understanding what it takes and then taking personal responsibility for what you can do to make it happen,” said Professor Licthi, “is a big step.”
_As Karina’s vocal training at Laurier comes to an end, she hopes to audition for more performance opportunities with the talented Laurier choirs. (Karina played Senta in Wagner’s Spinning Wheel Chorus in ‘The Flying Dutchman’ with the Maureen Forrester Singers.) One day, the young woman who calls singing “my hobby, my enjoyment, my life” hopes to perform with the great opera companies of North America and Europe.
_“I believe that Karina is a singer ... and that she has to sing,” said Professor Lichti. “She has a dream to continue studies beyond the undergraduate level, relocating to Europe, likely Germany, where she has ancestral roots. Her love of Classical music is no doubt a part of her DNA, so returning to the scene of where so much of the music she will be performing was composed will change her life.
_Just in time for Christmas gift-giving, tickets ($15) for Voice on Fire Returns are available at Wilson and Lee Music Store in Oshawa (87 Simcoe St. N., 905-725-4706) Scugog Council for the Arts in Port Perry (181 Perry St., Unit G-1, 905-982-2121) and from Karina’s mom, Gabrielle Bray at 905-985-2035.