Elyse Evangelista finds her voice with Amy, Adele and a little creative freedom
by Scott Roos
photos courtesy of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra
There comes a point in life when you realize you've spent an awful lot of time helping other people bring their creative visions to life. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with that, sometimes you need to take a step back, trust your own instincts and give yourself permission to see what happens when you finally put your own ideas first.
For Saskatoon vocalist Elyse Evangelista, that moment of clarity has arrived in the form of a little Amy Winehouse, a little Adele and a whole lot of newfound creative freedom. On Saturday, Oct. 24, Evangelista will take centre stage at TCU Place for Amy and Adele, a concert with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra that celebrates two of the most distinctive voices of their generation. But while the evening promises familiar favourites there's a bigger story unfolding behind the music. Evangelista is finding her own voice as a songwriter, and she's about to share the results with the world.
Her debut EP arrives Oct. 23, just one day before the symphony performance, following the release of two individual songs in September and early October. It's an exciting milestone for an artist who says that putting together Amy and Adele helped her rediscover something she had been missing: the confidence to trust herself and follow her own creative instincts.
“I guess that biggest thing was the creative freedom and really trust the fact that Mark (Turner - Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra CEO) trusted me to create a show on my own,” Evangelista told NSMZ. “I guess, like, I developed that self-trust.”
That freedom has proven to be a pretty powerful thing.
Born and raised in the Saskatoon area, Evangelista spent the formastive part of her life here before heading to Toronto, where she spent 11 years studying musical theatre, working in theatre productions and eventually teaching at a vocal training studio that worked with original artists. It was an environment that exposed her to the possibilities of making music from personal experience, but it also meant spending considerable time interpreting other people's material and fulfilling someone else's artistic vision.
Musical theatre, after all, comes with scripts, notes and a very specific idea of how things should be done. There's room for interpretation, certainly, but the overall creative direction is already established. The opportunity to build Amy and Adele offered something different.
The concept was pitched to Evangelista, but she was encouraged to select the songs she genuinely wanted to sing rather than simply work through a predetermined list of hits. She could bring her own sensibilities to the material while collaborating with orchestral arranger Donovan Seidel to create something that honoured the original recordings without simply reproducing them.
“I wanted to pick songs that I love to sing,” she said. “He (Mark Turner) said even if they're not the most popular songs ... you have full control to do that.”
For a vocalist who had spent years working within other people's creative frameworks, that kind of trust made a difference. And the pairing of Winehouse and Adele makes plenty of sense. Both artists are known for their unmistakable voices, emotionally direct songwriting and willingness to leave themselves exposed in their music. Evangelista grew up listening to them, with Adele in particular serving as a major inspiration. It wasn't simply the power of Adele's voice that appealed to her, but the emotional quality behind it.
“I just thought it was very powerful and kind of strived to get to that place in my own voice,” she said. “And I think I finally got there.”
Winehouse brings a different kind of energy to the equation. There's a rebellious streak running through her music, along with the jazz influences, unpredictable melodic turns and an unmistakable sense of personality. Evangelista appreciates the freedom in Winehouse's musical choices and the way both singers make vulnerability such an integral part of their performances.
“ (Amy Winehouse and Adele) are just so incredibly vulnerable with their songwriting styles, but also the way that they sing,” she explained.
That vulnerability is something Evangelista hopes audiences will experience throughout the concert. Rather than specifically impersonating either singer, she approaches the material through her own voice and personal experiences. Her background in musical theatre has taught her how to inhabit a character, but she believes that emotional authenticity comes from finding something in the material that connects with her own life. The songs in Amy and Adele explore the ups and downs of love, a subject with which most people can identify. Whether a song captures the exhilaration of a new relationship or the sting of heartbreak, Evangelista looks for the details that make the story feel real to her.
“If you're a human on this planet, you've experienced that,” she said.
The orchestral arrangements add another dimension to the experience. Seidel worked with Evangelista throughout the summer, developing the arrangements song by song and incorporating her feedback along the way. One of her main priorities was ensuring that the orchestra supported the vocals rather than competing with them.
“It's accompaniment, right? It's not a concerto underneath of a song,” she said with a laugh.
The result gives familiar material a different scale and texture. Songs that might otherwise be built around a relatively spare instrumental arrangement can take on a more expansive, almost cinematic quality when performed with a full symphony orchestra. “Rumour Has It” is one example of a song that has taken on a new life in the process, with Seidel's arrangement transforming the original's opening into something much fuller. For Evangelista, the challenge is to preserve what makes the songs special while allowing the arrangements to reveal something new. She also hopes the concert will introduce Winehouse's music to younger listeners who may not have grown up with it. Although Winehouse is no longer here to tell her own story, Evangelista believes her songs remain powerful, honest and relevant.
“I'm just hopeful that I can keep her legacy and music alive,” she said.
But perhaps the most exciting thing about this project is what it has inspired Evangelista to do beyond the symphony stage. After returning to Saskatoon, she started her own business, teaching and supporting emerging artists as they develop their own original music. The independence that came with running her own business also gave her the time and space to focus on her own songwriting. She has been writing for years, but it took a combination of experience, opportunity and a willingness to put herself first to turn those ideas into a collection of songs ready for release.
“I've just done so much over the last 15 years for other people,” she said. “And I just thought, what if I put all that energy into doing things for myself?”
The answer, it turns out, is an EP.
Evangelista says the arrangements on her own recordings reflect the music she hears in her head, including the strings and other instrumental elements that help bring her ideas to life. Rather than waiting for someone else to validate those ideas, she has learned to trust her instincts and make the music she wants to make.
“Not everybody was hearing the things that I was hearing,” she said. “So to write my own music and to get the fullness of all my ideas out exactly how I wanted it to sound was amazing.”
It's a lesson she now shares with the artists she teaches: sometimes the biggest limitations are the ones we place on ourselves. With her new EP arriving Oct. 23 and Amy and Adele following at TCU Place on Oct. 24, Evangelista is putting that philosophy into practice in a big way. The symphony concert may even have a life beyond Saskatoon. There's a possibility that Amy and Adele could become a touring production, allowing Evangelista to perform the show with other orchestras. For now, though, the focus is on bringing this particular musical journey to the stage and giving audiences an evening that goes beyond simply hearing familiar songs performed with a symphony.
“I hope they have an incredible experience,” she said. “Obviously that is the main goal for me, is that they feel something.”
It's a fitting ambition for a performer whose own journey has been about reconnecting with the feelings that make music worth creating in the first place. And with a collection of original songs about to make their way into the world, Evangelista is entering an exciting new chapter. It's one where she isn't just interpreting the stories of other artists, but beginning to tell her own.
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