Artistic Direction

Larry Beckwith, artistic director

Larry Beckwith

Larry Beckwith enjoys a successful and versatile career in the arts in and around Toronto. After growing up in a downtown Toronto home where music and theatre were encouraged and celebrated, he studied violin and musicology at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Toronto. Since then, he has vigorously pursued his interests in choral music, baroque music, theatre, contemporary music, radio, teaching, and writing. As a professional singer, he has appeared regularly with the Elora Festival Singers, Tafelmusik Chamber Singers, Opera Atelier, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, and the Exultate Chamber Singers. As a baroque violinist, he was a founding member of the Aradia Baroque Ensemble, and from 1988 to 2002 was a co-artistic director of Arbor Oak. Mr. Beckwith has lectured on music history for the universities of Toronto and Guelph, and has held positions as a producer for CBC Radio Music, general manager of Choirs Ontario and director of programming for the 2002 Joy of Singing Festival in Toronto. Larry Beckwith teaches music at Unionville High School and lives in Toronto with his wife, Teri Dunn, and their two daughters, Alison and Juliet.

Artistic Assosiates

Derek Boyes, associate director

Derek Boyes

Derek has performed in Masques for a Reaney Day, and directed and performed in Commedia, Masques of War, Dioclesian, Fairy Queen, Venus and Adonis and directed the double bill of Aeneas and Dido and Dido and Aeneas and last season's Indian Queen. He also had a very successful run of Fairy Queen with Tafelmusik. Derek is an associate artist of Soulpepper Theatre and is currently performing in his 6th season with them in Loot and Awake and Sing. Past seasons include The Odd Couple, As You Like It, Our Town, The Government Inspector, Olympia, The Wild Duck, Nathan the Wise, Hamlet , King Lear, Mary Stuart and Time of Your Life.
Other highlights include 2 seasons at the Stratford Festival as Cassio in Othello and Lorenzo in Merchant of Venice and a season at the Shaw festival as Tesman in Hedda Gabler. He spent a season with Robin Phillips at the Citadel theatre as Demetrius in Midsummer Night's Dream and Rev. Paris in Crucible and was in the world premiere of Ann-Marie MacDonald's big hit Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet. He played the title role of Moliere's Bourgeois Gentlehomme for Opera Atelier that traveled to Singapore after Toronto. Derek provided the narration for Via Salzburg's successful production of Histoire du Soldat. He has been heard on many radio dramas for the CBC and is the voice of Jenny's father on Tchaikovsky Discovers America and Mozart on Mozart's Magnificent Voyage, both of which won Juno awards for Best Children's album. He has also played the role of the Uncle in Beethoven Lives Upstairs and Vivaldi in Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery with most of North America's top symphony Orchestras. He has been seen in many TV and film projects including the feature film The Skulls.

Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière, choreographer

Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière

A recipient of grants from the Quebec Arts Council and Canada Council, Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière holds a bachelor's degree in music and studied acting (specializing in commedia dell'arte and mime). Over the years, she has studied historical dancing with Wendy Hilton (Stanford University), Marie-Geneviève Massé (France), Barbara Segal (England), Catherine Turocy (U.S.A.) and Barbara Sparti (Italy). Since 1995, she has been the artistic director of Théâtre Lavallière & Jabot. Ms. Lacoursière has worked as a dancer, choreographer, actress, and stage director with many groups: Toronto Masque Theatre, l'Ensemble Arion (Montreal), Les Idées Heureuses (Montreal), Aradia Ensemble (Toronto), Odyssey Theatre (Ottawa), the Renaissance and Baroque Society (Pittsburgh), and Nota Bene (Kitchener-Waterloo). She has been invited to appear at several festivals, including Montréal Baroque, Berkeley (California), Institute for Historical Dance Practice (Belgium), the International Music Festival of Lamèque (New Brunswick), Les Concerts Royaux (Halifax), and chamber music festivals in New Zealand and Ottawa. She created two shows that toured Canada (Barocambolesque and Folies d'Europe) with Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada in collaboration with L'Ensemble Caprice. For McGill, she has directed Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (Monteverdi) and Les Jeux de l'Amour (Lully-Molière), and has choreographed Rameau's Les Indes Galantes and Mozart's Don Giovanni. As well, for the Université de Montréal opera division, she directed Purcell's The Fairy Queen and Campra's Les Fêtes Vénitiennes and L'Europe Galante. Last season, she choreographed and danced in Toronto Masque Theatre's production of The Fairy Queen (Purcell). Ms. Lacoursière is a professor of gesture and baroque dance at l'Université de Montréal and has also taught at Stanford and Indiana University.