COLIBRI DUO
MERRILL TANNER, voice
ERNST BIRSS, guitar
To listen to some songs please click on the links below:
1/ Scottish Traditional, The Dowerless Maiden
2/ Scottish Traditional, Kirsteen
3/ Thomas Campion, When to Her Lute Corinna Sings
4/ Enrique Granados, El Tralala
MERRILL TANNER, voice
ERNST BIRSS, guitar
Merrill Tanner and Ernst Birss (the
Colibri Duo) are a voice and guitar duo based in Edmonton, Alberta.
They are available for performance in formal concerts, and at weddings
and other special occasions. The duo's repertoire includes Renaissance lute songs,
music by classical era composers Mozart, Schubert and Fernando Sor, music from Spain and Brazil, and
arrangements of contemporary pop songs. Selections
from Marjory-Kennedy Fraser’s Songs of
the Hebrides (as arranged by Ernst Birss) add
a Celtic element to their performances. Ernst and Merrill gave their
premiere recital at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in February 2006, and
have since appeared on the Acquired Taste concert series, the Music
Wednesdays at Noon series at McDougall Church, and on the Arts Jasper
series in Jasper, Alberta.
Merrill Tanner is a lyric soprano, voice teacher, speech-language pathologist and PhD student in Rehabilitation Medicine. She has a Masters of Music degree in voice performance from the University of Alberta and has studied with Selena James, Harold Wiens, Heather Myers and Cory Miller. In addition, she has received coaching from Vera Rozsa, Dalton Baldwin, Beatrice Gauchet, John Wustman and Richard Miller. Her dramatic roles have included Monica in Menotti's The Medium (Saskatoon Opera Society), Sylphinia in Only a Miracle (Prairie Opera), the Mother in The Little Match Girl (Prairie Opera), and the Countess in Strauss' Die Fledermaus (Saskatoon Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival). She carries her love of singing over into her work with geriatrics, where she has conducted a study on the "The Effect of Singing Lessons on Voices of Persons with Parkinson's Disease", and is currently doing research on voice therapy and aging as part of her PhD program.
Merrill Tanner is a lyric soprano, voice teacher, speech-language pathologist and PhD student in Rehabilitation Medicine. She has a Masters of Music degree in voice performance from the University of Alberta and has studied with Selena James, Harold Wiens, Heather Myers and Cory Miller. In addition, she has received coaching from Vera Rozsa, Dalton Baldwin, Beatrice Gauchet, John Wustman and Richard Miller. Her dramatic roles have included Monica in Menotti's The Medium (Saskatoon Opera Society), Sylphinia in Only a Miracle (Prairie Opera), the Mother in The Little Match Girl (Prairie Opera), and the Countess in Strauss' Die Fledermaus (Saskatoon Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan Festival). She carries her love of singing over into her work with geriatrics, where she has conducted a study on the "The Effect of Singing Lessons on Voices of Persons with Parkinson's Disease", and is currently doing research on voice therapy and aging as part of her PhD program.
To listen to some songs please click on the links below:
1/ Scottish Traditional, The Dowerless Maiden
2/ Scottish Traditional, Kirsteen
3/ Thomas Campion, When to Her Lute Corinna Sings
4/ Enrique Granados, El Tralala
For wedding repertoire see the wedding music page
For information call (780) 482-3741, or send an email to
ebirss@telusplanet.net
For information call (780) 482-3741, or send an email to
ebirss@telusplanet.net
