denise

Antiguan-born Canadian soprano Denise Williams' No Strings Theatre has laid out its major summer event with the announcement of "The Storyteller by Kathleen Mills" from July 6-21, 2023.

Described as a show that "explores themes of growing up, community, and how we can support those in our lives who need us...appropriate for all ages"...."the story develops"in a small village at the base of a mountain spring comes every year on the same day, when one storyteller braves the climb and brings a story to the Goddess at the top. It is the coldest winter yet and it looks like spring may not come this year, when two strangers arrive and the world is changed forever".

Designating Williams as a Singer/Voice Teacher/Music Facilitator/Founding Artistic Director/Producer, the Contemporary Black Biography further states that:

"Denise Williams is a professional singer, music educator and facilitator.  She holds an ARCT in Singing Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music, a Masters in Community Music from Wilfrid Laurier University, and studied Arts and Entertainment Administration at Ryerson University. 

Her 30+ year international solo performance career has put her at home on the concert, opera, and theatre stages, presenting a myriad of self-produced concerts and working with, to name a few national companies,  The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir,  Mirvish Productions, Eastern Front Theatre, Theatre Northwest as well as international appearances.  Highlights of her performance career include most recently a concert performance in with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Oriente in Cuba, and in Toronto, Walk Together Children - A Cross-Cultural Concert Celebration (Black, Jewish, Muslim) at the The Toronto Centre for the Arts, now known as the Meridian Arts Centre (Fall 2018),  the Nathaniel Dett Chorale’s concert performance of Treemonisha at Koerner Hall,  Andrew Craig's King’s Playlist at the Harbourfront centre's Fleck Dance Theatre (2017), the cast of Mirvish's North American Premier of The Sound of Music at the Princes of Wales Theatre (2008-2010), and other notable solo performances. Her CD, Walk Together Children, is a cross-cultural initiative, featuring music from the roots of Black & Jewish music.

Denise currently concentrates her time on performance education, and has founded No Strings Theatre with a desire to aid youth in developing their skills in music theatre as well as grow in their team skills for life.  She has been a private voice teacher for over 30 years (Voices of Colour Music studio), as well as Royal Conservatory of Music examiner and national adjudicator for over 20 years.   She is currently a part time faculty member in Sheridan College’s Music Theatre department, a certified advanced voice teacher for the RCM and sessional sacred music professor for the Canada Christian College. 

Professional memberships include President of The Central Toronto Branch of the Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association (ORMTA-CTB), executive of the National Association for Teachers of Singing (NATS), and the Canadian Actors Equity.

Denise has participated in  international symposiums, particularly addressing cross-cultural sharing of music traditions involving the African Diaspora

Williams has worked to fuse the classical vocal tradition with the rich heritage of black music in the Western Hemisphere—spirituals, jazz, and in her case the folk music of her native Caribbean."

and further:

" Most importantly, her operatic career developed with a series of appearances in local productions, and she evolved into what is known as a coloratura soprano—a singer with a wide vocal range specializing in sprightly comic parts such as the roles for young women in the operas of Mozart. In this evolution Williams was influenced by Kathleen Battle, with whom she appeared as a soloist with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale in 1999. Those concerts, along with Battle’s praise for and encouragement of her abilities, raised Williams’s profile, and she garnered appearances at some of Canada’s top classical venues",  it continued,

"She was a featured soloist (along with Battle) in a Toronto Symphony Orchestra program devoted to music on African-American themes, sang with the Toronto Sinfonietta and other groups, and performed a new recital program, Music in a Time of Conflict, at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall. That program compared the music of German composers Richard Strauss and Kurt Weill, examining the distinct influences in the Jewish-born Weill’s work. Capable of concerts that blended classical, jazz, and popular styles, Williams fit easily into the “crossover” trend that appeared as classical presenters sought new audiences.

Known for her recital performances that fused diverse musical traditions under the umbrella label “Sophisticated Soul” (a phrase she registered as a trademark), Williams planned an even more unusual merging of styles as part of a group called Classical Steel that joined the classics to the music of the Caribbean steel pan ensemble. She released several CDs in addition to Walk Together Children: Forth in Thy Name was a collection of hymns, and on Night Lights Williams performed lullabies from around the world, accompanied by piano, harp, and African drums. In 2003 Williams appeared in the United States, in a series of four Pennsylvania performances of a work called African Sanctus, by composer David Fanshawe. Her career seemed to be growing in scope, ambition, and idealism."

Williams has performed, and continues to, extensively, around Toronto, across Canada and worldwide, including major concerts in Cuba, with Santiago de Cuba's major orchestra.   

Her "No Strings Theatre" remains a major proponent of multicultural, diverse and inclusive musical stylings!

 

WEBSITE: NOSTRINGSTHEATRE.COM

EMAIL: DIRECTORS@NOSTRINGSTHEATRE.COM

PHONE: 416-551-2093