Description
A COUNTRYSIDE PEEK AT TCO’S ‘THE TENDER LAND’
David Walsh, Tenor, Jennifer Tung, pianist & Ben Wallace, Baritone
What better place than Windrush Estate Winery’s farm in beautiful Hockley Valley (a pretty one-hour drive northwest of Toronto) to peek at TCO’s next production that is set on a farm! Its sweeping folk-inspired melodies tell a story of love, community, and the decisions that come with growing up to widen one’s world beyond the family farm. Just in time for graduation!
Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land is set in the dustbowl Midwest during the Great Depression. A young farm girl named Laurie is approaching her high school graduation and contemplating her future. As her family prepares for her graduation party, two strangers arrive in town and rumours circle around them. Laurie grapples with her desire for a broader life beyond her rural upbringing and her deep connections to her family and the farm. The music reflects both the simplicity of rural life and the complexity of Laurie’s decision-making for her next chapter in a wider world.
Beyond snippets from the opera, our musicians will also sing some opera favorites.
Your $45 reservation includes the concert and reception with Windrush’s award-winning VQA wines, treats and meeting the artists. Guests under 19 and over 90 are free. Proceeds help empower vulnerable kids in Marilyn’s LEAD program at www.youthLEADarts.com
David Walsh, born and raised in Toronto, and finished his Diploma of Opera Performance at the University of Toronto with Honours in 2022.
From there David has participated in a wide range of vocal performances. A couple highlights of the 2024/25 season was David performing as the Tenor Soloist with the Peterborough Singers for Mozart’s Requiem as well as the Tenor Soloist for Chorus Niagara’s Messiah. This past summer, he debuted the role of Nemorino in North York Concert Orchestra’s production of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, as well as Conception in a new production with new libretto of Ravel’s A Spanish Hour in Vancouver. David continues to sing with the Canadian Opera Company Chorus and will be returning for their spring season. In the winter of 2023, David made his debut with the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra as Count Almaviva in a performance of The Barber of Seville. He made his role debut as Martin in Aaron Copland’s opera The Tender Land in Spring 2022 with U of T Opera. A highlight of 2022 was when he performed as the Tenor soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with Chorus Niagara. At U of T Opera in Fall 2021, he made his role debut as Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville.
As well as an avid singer, David is an avid biker. This form of transportation is the way he practices a lot of his repertoire. So, if you ever see a blur of red hair and hear some Donizetti or Fauré on the downtown streets of Toronto, you have most likely encountered David Walsh.
Jennifer Tung:
A Dora nominated conductor (Gould’s Wall), Chinese-Canadian Jennifer Tung is the artistic director of Toronto City Opera and assistant conductor of the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra. She leads a uniquely versatile career as music director, collaborative pianist and soprano. In 2020/21, she joined Tapestry Opera as a conducting fellow in the inaugural year of the Women in Musical Leadership program, in partnership with Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Pacific Opera Victoria.
Jennifer debuted with the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival conducting The Mikado in 2017 and has returned to conduct Sweeney Todd and Tragedy of Carmen. In 2019, she debuted with Opera York in La Traviata and assisted Tapestry Opera and Opera on the Avalon’s joint production of the Dora Award winning opera Shanawdithit by Dean Burry and Yvette Nolan. Recently, she conducted the world premiere of “Gould’s Wall” by Brian Current and Liza Balken, a joint production with the Royal Conservatory of Music and Tapestry Opera.
For the 2022/23 season, she has debuted as guest conductor with Opera McGill’s production of “Plaything” (Anna Pigorna/Maria Reva – Canadian premiere), Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic and Kamloops Symphony. In March of 2023, Jennifer conducted the world premieres of Continuum’s production of the opera “Show Room” (Rodney Sharman/Atom Egoyan) as well as Tapestry Opera/Obsidian Theatre’s co-production of “Of the Sea” (Ian Cusson/Kanika Ambrose). Upcoming engagements include concerts with Kamloops symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia and Vancouver Opera.
Jennifer is on faculty at Toronto’s Glenn Gould School and is a sought-after faculty member for summer programs internationally. She holds degrees in vocal performance and collaborative piano from the Eastman School of Music and has studied conducting with Maestro Denis Mastromonaco.
Ben Wallace:
“Versatile and vocally powerful” baritone Ben Wallace currently studies at the University of Toronto and will be joining the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio in August. He was a winner of the 2025 Toronto Mozart Vocal Competition, recipient of the Laurier Alumni Gold Medal, and a winner of the Laurier Concerto Competition. Recent operatic highlights include Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (UofT Opera), Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Highlands Opera Studio), Prospero in Tempest Songbook (UofT Opera), Pandolfe in Cendrillon (UofT Opera), Billy Bigelow in Carousel (Cambridge Symphony/P&P), Le Dancaïre/Moralès in Carmen (SOLO), John Brooke in Little Women (Opera Laurier), and Barone Douphol/Dottore Grenvil in La traviata (KW Symphony). Last summer, Ben travelled to the Banff Centre to workshop a new opera by Ian Cusson and Royce Vavrek. On the concert stage, Ben has performed as the baritone soloist for Messiah, the Requiems of Fauré, Duruflé, and Brahms, Bach’s Ascension Oratorio, and various Bach cantatas with organizations including the Grand Philharmonic Choir, Grand River Chorus, Symphony in the Barn, Arcady Ensemble, Chor Amica, and Spiritus Ensemble. Also a conductor, Ben formed his own Kitchener-based chamber choir and orchestra in 2022 and has since conducted the world premières of three choral works by Canadian composer Justin Lapierre. He will be conducting the premiere of Justin’s new oratorio, The Gatherers, on May 31 (Kitchener) and June 1 (Guelph).
