Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo earned her second Juno Award last month for her album freezing. The win caps off an extraordinary 2024-25 season for the NTCI alum, who recently received critical acclaim last fall for her starring performance in the new opera Grounded at the Met Opera.
Freezing is D’Angelo’s second album and features 17 songs by composers such as Philip Glass, Henry Purcell and Jeanine Tesori. It was also named by NPR as one of the best 50 albums of 2024. D’Angelo won her first Juno in 2022 for her debut record, energeia.
Since graduating NTCI in 2012, D’Angelo has experienced a meteoric rise to fame in the classical music world, and is considered one of Canada’s greatest opera stars. She made her stage debut at 21 and was previously named one of CBC’s “Top 30 under 30” classical artists. In 2016, D’Angelo returned to NTCI to perform as a soloist in Mozart’s “Requiem” for a special edition of Maytime Melodies.
Article reprinted with permission from Graffiti, The Voice of NT.
The 2022 Juno Awards are fast approaching, and while I don’t know much about the nominees, I do know one thing: this year, North Toronto C.I. has a personal connection.
Emily D’Angelo, NT alum of 2012, is nominated for the 2022 Juno Awards in the Best Classical Album Award (Solo) category for her album enargeia, featuring newly-interpreted works from the 12th and 21st centuries.
Emily D’Angelo (‘12), has been nominated for a Juno Award in the Best Classical Album Award (Solo) category for her album “enargeia.” Although Emily played cello at NT, she pursued vocal music at university (also applying for the life sciences programs). Emily was featured in our 2016 Maytime Melodies concert as one of the soloists in Mozart’s Requiem.
There are a number of people who graced the halls of North Toronto, but never graduated from them. Farley Mowat and Keanu Reeves come to mind. And now, Michael Hoecht, who attended NT in the 2013-14 academic year.
Michael Hoecht is in the back row, third from the right.
On September 29, North Toronto alumni were treated to the inaugural NTCI Alumni Speakers Series event in support of the newly-established NTCI Wellness Fund.
The event, “Journalism in a Pandemic”, was moderated by David Brady (‘87), CEO of Cream Productions, and addressed the issues faced by journalists over the last 18 months.
Vassy Kapelos (’00) has loved politics for as long as she can remember.
Vassy Kapelos 2000 Yearbook Photo
As a child, she would spend her evenings debating policy and current events over dinner with her family. After graduating from NT, Kapelos studied political science at Western University, before receiving a masters degree from Dalhousie University. Now, she’s one of Canada’s top political journalists and the host of CBC’s marquee political program Power & Politics.
Dan Levy (’02) can add one more (red and grey) feather to his cap. In addition to his many hard-earned successes, he’s lived up to the words of his school song.
In September, Schitt’s Creek won a record-setting seven trophies at the Emmy Awards. Levy, who co-created the series with his father Eugene, personally took home trophies in three categories: acting, writing, and directing. Not bad for someone who says he started to find his voice in an OAC1 English class taught by Anne Carrier at North Toronto.
Purchase a limited-edition NT mask for $20 at https://soft-masks.ca/ntci and $7 from every purchased mask will be donated to the Foundation. In addition, 20% of sales from all other masks purchased from Soft-Masks by NT alumni or friends of NT between November 16 and December 16 will be donated to the Foundation.
Are you an artist, writer,
musician or inventor? Have you established your own business specializing in a
unique product or service? If so, we would love to hear from YOU!
To further support NT alumni and share the many different career paths NT grads take, the Foundation is initiating a new feature highlighting entrepreneurial alumni. If you have started a venture that you would like to share with fellow alumni, please send a note to entrepreneurs@ntcifoundation.ca. We will get in touch with you and do a short Q&A to post on the website along with a brief bio, photo, and your business contact information.
Our first featured entrepreneur is Bernice Lum (‘82)
Bernice Lum (’82): An NT Entrepreneur
After graduating from North Toronto, Bernice studied graphic design at
Sheridan College. Following her graduation from Sheridan, she freelanced at
several Toronto design companies as well as CityTV. In 1988, she relocated to London,
England where she continued to freelance for design consultants. With more
design work being done by computer, Bernice decided to do the other thing she
loved to do…draw! In recent years, her career as an illustrator has taken her
in many directions. She has published over 50 books and has clients in North
America and abroad. In addition to illustration, her unique “bowling pin”
characters are adding to her success story. Foundation vice-chair Lisa Cain
recently spoke to Bernice about her creations.
You have a great body of work behind you but most recently you have been having great success with your bowling pins. Tell us a little bit about how that started?
The shape of the bowling pins emulate the human form in a fun caricature
way so I decided to use the pins as my diary of sorts. The inspiration to
use bowling pins came from the story of when my oldest brother, Charles, was
born. On that day, my mother was at Women’s College Hospital and on that
very same day, my father had a Bowling Tournament Final, so he went to play
while my mother was at the hospital. When Charles was born, the hospital
called the bowling alley to tell my dad the news and celebratory cigars were
bought for everyone at the bowling alley. The idea to work with the pins
was to pay homage to my brother who passed away seven years ago and my father
who passed away just three years ago.
Your bowling pins were featured at PULSE Contemporary Art Fair in Miami
in December. Congratulations on a SOLD OUT show. How has this new notoriety
changed your life?
Thank you and it was so very unexpected to have all the pins sell
out. As for the notoriety… I wouldn’t say there has been notoriety, but
I will say that it has definitely helped my trajectory, my confidence and [provided]
a lovely confirmation that the work I am doing is connecting with people.
A Toronto City
Councillor for Ward 10 (Spadina-Fort York) since 2014, NT alumnus Joe Cressy was
re-elected in the 2018 municipal election by one of the widest victory margins
of any Councillor in the city. Although he is one of the youngest City
Councillors, he has already held various appointments, including to the Toronto
Board of Health, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation Board of Directors,
the Sub-committee on Climate Change and Adaptation, and the Parks and
Environment Committee, as well as being Toronto’s Youth Equity Advocate.
The son of former
Toronto City Councillors, Gordon Cressy and Joanne Campbell, Joe was born and raised in downtown Toronto as part of
a family whose defining values focussed on community building and public
service – values that continue to drive and define him. NT Foundation board member
Lisa Cain recently asked Joe about his time at NTCI.
As with so many others, my years at NT were a formative experience. As I think back on them a flood of memories return. Teachers, who were more like mentors, like Ms McConnachie and Ms Whelan, who instilled an interest in politics and social justice in me. Years of playing football, rugby and soccer with wonderful coaches like Mr Smith taught me the importance of teamwork. I remember the moments of student activism where I joined with fellow students to host forums and demonstrations against the war in Iraq. We were kids at North Toronto, but even then we believed we could change the world for the better. I grew-up at North Toronto. As with every teenager, it was a time of personal discovery, and not without its challenge. But as I think back, I can’t express how grateful I am to North Toronto (the teachers, coaches, students and administrators) for setting me on the path that I continue to walk down today.
The Paul Raff Studio, headed by architect and NT alumnus Paul Raff, has won a prestigious 2018 CODAworx Award for the artwork “Atmospheric Lens”–an architectural feature at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre subway station.
Commissioned by the TTC for the Toronto-York Subway Extension as part of an official mandate to recognize the importance of the user’s experience in the new infrastructure, this public artwork is being recognized as successfully integrating art into interior, architectural, or public spaces.
This award is one of many that Paul and the Paul Raff Studio have received. In 2001, he became the youngest ever recipient of the Ontario Association of Architects’ Allied Arts Award for lifetime achievement and in 2009 was awarded the Allied Arts Medal by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Congratulations Paul!!
