Janelle Lucyk
Janelle Lucyk
“Such an angelic voice. Her expressiveness is beyond words. It’s as though she’s channeling God.” – Dr Cowan
Janelle Lucyk is a leader among an emerging generation of Canadian artists specializing in old music and historically informed performance, taking ideas from conception to the stage.
In fall 2022, she was invited by legendary organist Xaver Varnus to perform at his two sold out performances in Hungary, including at the spectacular Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest. She has had the good fortune of working as a soloist with the Kings College Chapel Choir under five-time Grammy winner Paul Halley on many unforgettable concerts including Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and Selva Morale e Spirituale and multiple Bach Passions. Janelle is the artistic director of Ménestrel, her ensemble with Kerry Bursey which produces alternative early music mixing ancient repertoire with oral folk traditons. In 2022 and 2023, Ménestrel produced their “Messiah-on-the-go!” congregating twenty emerging performers from across Canada to perform Handel’s masterpiece in historic Nova Scotian venues.
2024 includes touring in most of the provinces and territories of Canada as a soloist representing Ensemble ArtChoral’s multiyear project Coast-to-Coast-Coast.
Kerry Bursey
Kerry Bursey is a Canadian tenor and plucked string instrumentalist from Montréal. An early music specialist and a versatile singer, he is acclaimed for his “clear voice, made of dreamy troubadouresque sweetness” (Ôlyrix) and “beneficent tenderness” (Le Temps). He is a sought-after lutenist and guitarist, notably invested in self-accompaniment, from lute songs to folk music. Recently, he made his European debut as a soloist at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Manchester International Festival, Bregenzerfestspieler and the Southbank Centre. In 2024, he will sing at the Muzikgebouw in Amsterdam and at the Ruhrtriennale.
He regularly works as a soloist with early music groups such as Ensemble Caprice, Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Harmonie des Saisons, Theatre of Early Music, les Idées Heureuses, la Nef, Pallade Musica, Infusion Baroque and Clavecin en Concert. He tours internationally with his ensemble, Ménestrel, co-founded with soprano Janelle Lucyk. He is a member of Quartom, the leading classical vocal quartet in Québec.
Kerry is frequently hired as a session musician and creative collaborator because of his broad musical output, from pop to video games. He composed and performed the soundtrack of award-winning thriller, 444, which premiered at Fantasia Festival, and worked on the sci-fi movie Mistral Spatial. He frequently works with Ubisoft and notably sang gregorian chants as a monk in the game Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla.
Kerry holds a masters’s degree in classical guitar from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal and has studied voice performance at McGill University. He was a winner at the 2011 Grand Prix de Guitare de Montréal.
