Borderlands Creative Team

Creative Team

The creative team have admired and respected each others’ art for many years. Borderlands marks the first opportunity they have had to work as an ensemble.

Writers

Donna Creighton and Jo-Ann Lawton created the Sirens cycle, integrating it with and adding to Sarah Quartel’s Snow Angel work. Donna and Jo-Ann are singers, multi-instrumentalists and songwriters with extensive experience in music performance, drama and education. Donna managed Over the Wall Theatre, a young people’s drama troupe, for three years, and holds a degree in English and drama; Jo-Ann has a diploma in fine arts, and is an accomplished solo performer who is drawn to lyrics and traditional jazz and swing. With Amber Cunningham they form the musical group Sirens, an award-winning trio boasting an eclectic array of musical styles that echoes their diverse range of experiences.

Sarah Quartel composed the original version of Snow Angel previously performed by Project Sing!. She is a musical explorer who works in many styles of composition including folk, jazz, alternative, and classical music. Her recent projects include film scores (Variations on a Banana, an Ottawa International Student Animation Festival entry, and Sing Along! for the National Film Board) and commissioned choral works and themes for conductors Gerald Fagan and Jennifer Moir and producer Louise Fagan.

Conductor

Soprano Jennifer Moir is an avid supporter of new Canadian music. She has sung leading roles in operas by Puccini and Verdi, and performs with a number of orchestra and string groups. As a conductor she has been recognized with the Leslie Bell Prize for choral conducting. In addition to being the Artistic Director and Conductor of Project Sing!, she teaches in the Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario, conducts the St. Cecilia Singers and maintains a voice studio for the Department of Performance Studies at UWO.

Director

Louise Fagan’s varied career—encompassing music, movement, film, and spoken word works—is woven together by a single thread: the love of telling stories. She has recently directed The Shimmering Verge and The Vagina Monologues, and directed and produced the orchestral recording River, Journey to Wellspring for Ontario cancer support centres. Through her film production company Phat Puppy Productions Louise directed and produced Donald D’Haene’s Father’s Touch. Musically, she produced the progressive classical contemporary recording The World Awaits and the accompanying innovative classical choir video The Huron Carol. Louise continues to work with Children’s Hospitals across the country on her Bedside Stories initiative.