Canadian mezzo-soprano Catherine Daniel observes that there is a persistent lack of representation and awareness of diversity within the classical music industry. In her view, composers outside the traditional canon are still often overlooked.

“We have been slowly discovering that there are composers of different backgrounds composing in this [classical] style, but the full impact of Black composers and Black artists within this medium has yet to be shown,” she says.

Her upcoming recital, Voices from the African Diaspora (Nov. 28), with pianist Gordon Gerrard features a selection of songs written by Black composers in North America.

Underrepresentation of black composers

“There are so many composers all over the diaspora, not specifically in Europe, so many more than I ever thought possible,” says Daniel. “I simply didn’t know about them because they weren’t made a priority.”

Presented by City Opera Vancouver, her recital came about when a friend challenged Daniel to create a program featuring composers of African descent. The performance will feature works of African American and Haitian composers, including Carmen Brouard and Édourard Woolley, whose music Daniel has performed in the past.

“When I was living in Montreal, I had worked with this organization called La société de recherche et de diffusion de la musique Haïtienne and had done three different recitals with them,” she says.

The Montreal-based organization curates and promotes French arts songs by Haitian composers. Brouard and Woolley immediately came to mind when Daniel was curating the upcoming recital. For English-language songs, however, she needed to do additional research.

“I found some clips on the internet… and thought: What’s ‘Miss Wheatley’s Garden’? What are these songs of love? I got attached and hooked,” she says.

She went on to explore these hidden gems. Yet despite the ease of research on the internet, Daniel notes a lack of curiosity and openness to a broader range of repertoires, especially in western music education. She believes change should begin by encouraging directors and teachers in music schools, conservatories and universities to introduce students to different possibilities and abandon the eurocentric mindset.

“In the perfect world, we wouldn’t even be talking about white composers, Black composers, Asian composers,” she says. “We would just talk about classical, western classical music compositions, and it wouldn’t necessarily have this intense focus on race and racial identity.”

The powerful influence of music

Daniel often performs with orchestra in opera productions. However, she points out that recitals with piano accompaniment give her more flexibility and foster a sense of intimacy with the audience.

“Audiences love this idea of exclusivity when there are 50 or 60 people in a room and they get to see an opera singer up close,” she says. “It’s a great way to share unknown music and music that I’m passionate about.”

Daniel brought this curation to stage last year in Steinbach, Manitoba, and one of her favorite composers in the program is Brouard, who often drew inspiration from the Québécois poet Émile Nelligan (1879–1941). Daniel deeply resonates with one of the pieces, Les Carmélites, which has religious reference to a cloister of nuns.

“The imagery is these nuns marching in a line, with the sound that their feet create and how they sing modal melodies,” she says. “Poetry and imagery inform the music and then the choices that I make as an artist.”

Raised in Canada, Daniel’s musical upbringing was diverse, encompassing everything from religious hymns and pop gospel to characters like Anita in West Side Story. Later she was introduced to art songs and classical music. These varied musical influences have refined her artistry, and she hopes her audience will experience a wide range of emotions at her recital, from laughter to introspection, feeling the transformative power of music.

“I hope it allows them to either feel what they haven’t felt in a long time or return to a memory,” she says. “I want them to leave a little changed, but for the better, as that’s what music has the power to do.”

For more information, see: www.cityoperavancouver.com/season/voices-from-the-african-diaspora