Ernesto Cervini:
00:00-00:04
Hi, I'm Ernesto Servini. I'm a Canadian drummer and composer from Toronto, Ontario.

Ernesto Cervini:
00:05-00:10
Growing up, I was exposed to all kinds of music, from jazz to pop, classical music to music theatre.

Ernesto Cervini:
00:11-00:15
My influences were super varied. My siblings and I made music together all the time,

Ernesto Cervini:
00:16-00:19
and we were part of a band now known as the Toronto All-Star Big Band.

Ernesto Cervini:
00:19-00:25
Our next guest is a Canadian Grammy Award-winning baritone who has established himself as one of the

Ernesto Cervini:
00:25-00:30
the most sought-after, accomplished singers of his generation, enthralling audiences around

Ernesto Cervini:
00:30-00:35
the world. At just 35, his career spans the past decade singing in major opera companies

Ernesto Cervini:
00:35-00:41
and orchestras throughout Europe, the United States, and Canada. Please welcome Elliot

Ernesto Cervini:
00:41-00:41
Mador.

Ernesto Cervini:
00:42-00:42
Hello, Vanessa.

Ernesto Cervini:
00:43-00:50
It's such a pleasure to see you. I don't remember the last time we saw each other.

Ernesto Cervini:
00:50-00:54
Yeah, it's been a long time. I've got a few more gray hairs.

Ernesto Cervini:
00:54-00:55
Me too.

Elliot Madore:
00:56-00:58
No, I don't think you have any gray hairs.

Ernesto Cervini:
00:58-00:59
camera's doing a good job.

Elliot Madore:
01:02-01:03
It's been a while.

Elliot Madore:
01:03-01:04
It's been a while.

Ernesto Cervini:
01:04-01:07
Well, first off, congratulations on all your success.

Ernesto Cervini:
01:08-01:16
It's been kind of amazing to watch your journey from afar just through, you know, social media and just seeing things.

Ernesto Cervini:
01:17-01:21
I know Elliot through the Toronto All-Star Big Band.

Ernesto Cervini:
01:21-01:24
And we met, what were you, 17?

Ernesto Cervini:
01:24-01:30
or eight? How old were you? Do you remember? I think I was maybe, I don't know, 15 or 16,

Ernesto Cervini:
01:31-01:34
something like that. You were that young. Okay. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Even back then,

Ernesto Cervini:
01:34-01:40
you had such a stunning voice. So it's been so exciting to see your success. So what I wanted

Ernesto Cervini:
01:40-01:47
to talk to you today about is kind of your journey through music as a Canadian, how it started

Ernesto Cervini:
01:48-01:53
eventually to now, but even more so the moment where you felt like you were established as a

Ernesto Cervini:
01:53-01:54
as a professional musician?

Ernesto Cervini:
01:55-01:59
You know, I was very fortunate growing up in Toronto.

Ernesto Cervini:
02:00-02:04
There was a lot of opportunities for a young man

Ernesto Cervini:
02:04-02:06
who was really interested in music.

Ernesto Cervini:
02:07-02:11
And for whatever reason, I was really drawn to classical music.

Elliot Madore:
02:11-02:13
I can't tell you why.

Elliot Madore:
02:13-02:14
I just was.

Ernesto Cervini:
02:14-02:15
It's quite beautiful.

Elliot Madore:
02:16-02:16
It is quite beautiful.

Ernesto Cervini:
02:17-02:18
It's pretty amazing music.

Elliot Madore:
02:18-02:19
That is true.

Elliot Madore:
02:19-02:20
That is true.

Elliot Madore:
02:21-02:23
You know, although I will say it was a little bit bizarre

Elliot Madore:
02:23-02:28
you know, like a 10 year old walking around with a Walkman listening to, you know, Brahms

Elliot Madore:
02:29-02:31
Symphony No. 2 or something, you know, a little bit weird.

Ernesto Cervini:
02:32-02:33
Even at that age?

Elliot Madore:
02:33-02:40
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was really drawn to it. And my family, they were incredibly supportive. And,

Elliot Madore:
02:41-02:46
you know, my mother, you know, she put me in a ton of different choirs, you know,

Elliot Madore:
02:47-02:54
choirs Ontario. Uh, I was in the Etobicke youth choir, high park choir. Um, and so I, I did sort

Elliot Madore:
02:54-03:01
of made the rounds of all the different choirs in Toronto. Uh, and so, you know, I had a wonderful

Elliot Madore:
03:02-03:07
education, musical education that way. So that was, that was really a wonderful experience for me.

Elliot Madore:
03:08-03:13
And I would say in a, in a, and I'm sure you felt this too, you know, being especially,

Elliot Madore:
03:13-03:16
especially being so young and so taken with music,

Elliot Madore:
03:17-03:21
it was almost like I would have these spiritual experiences,

Elliot Madore:
03:22-03:28
singing in a choir and hearing the melding of voices coming together.

Elliot Madore:
03:28-03:30
It was really a magical experience.

Elliot Madore:
03:31-03:37
And even to this day, some of the most profound musical experiences I had

Elliot Madore:
03:37-03:40
and the memories that I have are from that time,

Elliot Madore:
03:40-03:42
singing in choirs in Toronto.

Elliot Madore:
03:44-03:46
So that was really, really a wonderful experience.

Elliot Madore:
03:48-03:54
And then going into high school, I went to Etobicoke School of the Arts, which was wonderful.

Elliot Madore:
03:55-03:58
And I was able to sing in different musicals while I was there.

Elliot Madore:
03:59-04:03
I did Les Mis and Jean Valjean did that whole thing.

Elliot Madore:
04:04-04:05
And that was a great experience.

Elliot Madore:
04:05-04:06
I love that.

Elliot Madore:
04:07-04:10
And so, again, just being able to be a part of an ensemble there.

Elliot Madore:
04:11-04:12
So that was wonderful.

Elliot Madore:
04:12-04:25
And, you know, you mentioned it, but the Toronto All-Star Big Band doing that and being able to be a part of that professional environment was amazing.

Elliot Madore:
04:26-04:27
I mean, just incredible.

Elliot Madore:
04:27-04:35
You know, and I remember to this day, you know, we had those sort of that kind of summer sort of boot camp kind of thing.

Elliot Madore:
04:35-04:36
Do you remember that?

Ernesto Cervini:
04:36-04:37
Of course.

Elliot Madore:
04:37-04:42
And so, you know, we'd be rehearsing like whatever it was every day or something like that during the summer.

Elliot Madore:
04:42-04:50
and just doing that every day and learning how to harmonize and to hear that harmony

Elliot Madore:
04:51-04:55
and to learn how to be collaborative in that way,

Elliot Madore:
04:56-05:03
it really, in all honesty, set the foundation for what I'm able to do today.

Elliot Madore:
05:04-05:09
And so it was really, that was a truly wonderful, wonderful experience for me.

Elliot Madore:
05:09-05:16
And so I feel very fortunate to have grown up in Toronto and in a wonderful musical environment.

Ernesto Cervini:
05:17-05:18
What instrument did you start on?

Elliot Madore:
05:21-05:22
Singing, just my voice.

Elliot Madore:
05:23-05:33
I didn't really learn an instrument until I was about maybe 10 or 11 and I started playing the cello.

Elliot Madore:
05:34-05:37
That was the first thing that I started playing after I started singing.

Elliot Madore:
05:39-05:40
So I played the cello for a while.

Elliot Madore:
05:41-05:45
And then after that, I taught myself how to play the piano.

Elliot Madore:
05:46-05:49
Not well, but, you know, pretty decent.

Elliot Madore:
05:49-05:53
Not as good as the course, but pretty good, pretty good.

Elliot Madore:
05:53-05:57
I did some RCM exams and passed them.

Ernesto Cervini:
05:58-05:58
That's great.

Elliot Madore:
05:58-06:03
Yeah, so those were the two instruments that I learned, yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
06:03-06:06
It's funny because when you said, you know,

Ernesto Cervini:
06:06-06:09
that you're walking around as a 10-year-old listening to Brahms.

Ernesto Cervini:
06:09-06:12
I picture you as like a six-year-old doing piano lessons.

Ernesto Cervini:
06:12-06:16
So it's interesting to me that you discovered this music

Ernesto Cervini:
06:17-06:20
through singing and like first.

Elliot Madore:
06:21-06:24
Yeah, that is actually a really good point.

Elliot Madore:
06:24-06:25
That is interesting.

Elliot Madore:
06:27-06:31
You know, perhaps it has something to do with my family

Elliot Madore:
06:31-06:35
not being super musical or musical at all.

Elliot Madore:
06:35-06:37
My family was not, they're not musical.

Ernesto Cervini:
06:38-06:38
Really?

Elliot Madore:
06:38-06:40
No, none of them.

Elliot Madore:
06:40-06:41
None of them are.

Elliot Madore:
06:42-06:46
And so it was, you know, I was an outlier in the family.

Elliot Madore:
06:48-06:56
And so I think for them, they were also discovering with me, you know, this musical journey and where to put me.

Elliot Madore:
06:57-06:59
And I always, I loved to sing.

Elliot Madore:
07:00-07:01
I could always do that.

Elliot Madore:
07:01-07:08
And I knew at a young age that I was, I had a decent voice and that I, and I enjoyed performing.

Elliot Madore:
07:09-07:12
And so that was, that was something that I just kind of did.

Elliot Madore:
07:14-07:22
And I don't think at that age, I don't think I equated, you know, that learning an instrument would be beneficial.

Elliot Madore:
07:23-07:26
I don't think I knew that, you know, that didn't happen until later.

Elliot Madore:
07:26-07:30
But, but yeah, that's a really, really good point.

Elliot Madore:
07:30-07:33
It was a bit of a strange journey in that sense.

Ernesto Cervini:
07:34-07:39
So when you started singing, were you taking private lessons or was it just choir based?

Elliot Madore:
07:40-07:41
It was initially it was choir based.

Elliot Madore:
07:42-07:51
And then, you know, I had a few teachers and I was very fortunate to find a really incredible teacher.

Elliot Madore:
07:52-07:56
And she put me on really put me on the right path.

Elliot Madore:
07:56-07:58
And that is Lois McDonald.

Elliot Madore:
07:58-08:03
She actually just received the Order of Canada this year.

Elliot Madore:
08:04-08:07
So she had a wonderful operatic career,

Elliot Madore:
08:07-08:10
and she sang in England for many years at the ENO.

Elliot Madore:
08:12-08:15
And she was in Toronto,

Elliot Madore:
08:16-08:20
and she was teaching at the A-Sharp School of Music.

Elliot Madore:
08:22-08:25
And that was sort of just down the road from where we lived,

Elliot Madore:
08:26-08:31
And I went there with my mother and they suggested that I study with Lois.

Elliot Madore:
08:32-08:40
And of course, I didn't, we didn't know that she had this incredible career and had this vast amount of knowledge and was like this super famous opera singer.

Elliot Madore:
08:42-08:46
And so that was just a real blessing.

Elliot Madore:
08:46-08:49
And I don't know how that happened, but I just got very, very lucky.

Elliot Madore:
08:49-08:57
And she, I think more than anything, she introduced me to the world of opera.

Elliot Madore:
08:58-09:06
You know, I had always loved classical music, but it was her who really showed me all of the possibilities of opera.

Elliot Madore:
09:06-09:19
And I think also more specifically, she really developed a love of words and a love of language that was really amazing.

Elliot Madore:
09:19-09:40
And she was wonderful in that way. So, you know, I studied with her basically through the end of high school. And she suggested that I audition at Curtis. And so she was really instrumental in my development as a young singer.

Ernesto Cervini:
09:41-09:45
It's so incredible that was just happenstance. Did you have siblings?

Elliot Madore:
09:46-09:53
Yes. Yeah, yeah. I have a brother, much younger than me, who lives in Toronto still.

Ernesto Cervini:
09:54-09:57
And no one in your family does anything musical?

Elliot Madore:
09:58-09:59
No, no, no.

Ernesto Cervini:
10:00-10:02
I always find it so fascinating to hear other people's stories.

Ernesto Cervini:
10:03-10:06
And it reminds me that it doesn't all have to be done one way.

Ernesto Cervini:
10:07-10:11
Everyone has their own journey and they can be similar, but they can also be so drastically different.

Ernesto Cervini:
10:12-10:18
And yet if music captures you and gets a hold of you, then sometimes it doesn't matter how you get there.

Ernesto Cervini:
10:18-10:20
It's like once you get once you get the bug.

Elliot Madore:
10:21-10:25
You know, I think this is like a sort of side side note.

Elliot Madore:
10:25-10:28
You know, I'm I'm I'm teaching at University of Cincinnati now.

Elliot Madore:
10:29-10:35
I see a lot of singers who don't come from musical families, but find their way to music somehow.

Elliot Madore:
10:36-10:43
And I wonder, you know, I just wonder if that's, if there's a reason for that.

Elliot Madore:
10:43-10:44
I'm not quite sure.

Elliot Madore:
10:45-10:55
But I see that very often where it's just sort of this ability to sing happens and then the love of music sort of follows.

Ernesto Cervini:
10:57-10:59
So you went to Etobicoke School of the Arts.

Elliot Madore:
11:00-11:00
Yep.

Ernesto Cervini:
11:00-11:02
And you're still studying with your private teacher.

Ernesto Cervini:
11:04-11:10
and then she's encouraged you to audition for Curtis so then how was that process did you

Elliot Madore:
11:10-11:16
audition to a bunch of different schools and what made you pick Curtis

Elliot Madore:
11:16-11:21
I had decided to take an extra year of high school uh at that time I had a wonderful I also had a wonderful teacher at

Elliot Madore:
11:22-11:29
Etobo School of the Arts uh Mr. Akins Paul Akins um and he was just absolutely incredible and he

Elliot Madore:
11:29-11:35
he went on the Curtis website and he saw that they were, that you could do a late, uh, a late

Elliot Madore:
11:35-11:40
application or, you know, given a late application. And so that's what I did. I gave him a late

Elliot Madore:
11:40-11:51
application and, uh, they accepted me to, to audition for Curtis. And I, uh, I went there,

Elliot Madore:
11:51-12:00
drove nine hours with my family and, and, uh, auditioned. And, um, and then a few months later,

Elliot Madore:
12:00-12:07
I found out that I, that I'd been accepted. Um, and so that was probably one of the best days of

Elliot Madore:
12:07-12:13
my life when I found out when I was accepted there. Um, and, uh, yeah, that was a really

Elliot Madore:
12:14-12:21
wonderful experience going to school at Curtis. Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
12:21-12:26
And so was your experience at all similar to mine where it was just like, whoa,

Elliot Madore:
12:26-12:32
his is exactly, exactly. And, and I think it was also different, you know, for those of, for the, for the people who don't know, um, Curtis Institute

Elliot Madore:
12:32-12:40
of Music is one of the, one of the smallest sort of most concentrated, um, conservatories.

Elliot Madore:
12:41-12:48
I think there's 120 students for all, you know, combined in the school. Yeah. So it's very,

Elliot Madore:
12:48-12:57
very small. And the building itself is right next to this beautiful park in central Philadelphia

Elliot Madore:
12:57-13:02
called Rittenhouse Square. And it's very old and very elegant and very beautiful.

Elliot Madore:
13:03-13:12
And I think there was 20 singers total between undergrad and masters. And so it was a very small

Elliot Madore:
13:12-13:20
class. And one of the wonderful things about Curtis that I loved and that I think served me so well

Elliot Madore:
13:21-13:28
was that they were very big on experiential learning. So effectively they did something like,

Elliot Madore:
13:29-13:37
uh, I think four or five operas a year and between 20 singers. Right. And so I was,

Ernesto Cervini:
13:38-13:40
And doing that math. It's amazing.

Elliot Madore:
13:40-13:41
Yeah, it was incredible.

Elliot Madore:
13:42-13:46
And so, you know, I was 18 or 17 or something.

Elliot Madore:
13:47-13:53
And that first year I did, I was the speaker in the Magic Flute and I sang Sid and Albert Herring.

Elliot Madore:
13:53-13:59
And, you know, with a real operatic production with an orchestra.

Elliot Madore:
14:00-14:05
And I was 18, you know, and so you grow up very quickly.

Elliot Madore:
14:06-14:32
And, you know, it's admittedly, it's not for everybody. I mean, some singers sink and some, some singers swim. It's a very, it's a very difficult thing to just kind of do it. But I really think, you know, you can practice all day long, but until you get into that, that position of actually doing the thing in a pressurized environment, you're not, you're not really gonna learn. You know what I mean?

Ernesto Cervini:
14:32-14:37
Right. No, of course. Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, you can't learn to perform without performing.

Elliot Madore:
14:39-14:39
Exactly.

Elliot Madore:
14:40-14:40
Exactly.

Ernesto Cervini:
14:40-14:52
You have to do it. Pardon my ignorance a little bit, because obviously I studied classical music for a long time, but I never studied opera besides just the history and all that stuff.

Ernesto Cervini:
14:53-14:59
But, you know, when you're performing, you're also acting. Like, you're an actor, right?

Elliot Madore:
14:59-15:00
Oh, my goodness, yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
15:01-15:03
It's a big part of it.

Ernesto Cervini:
15:03-15:07
And yet it's like the focus is music to start.

Ernesto Cervini:
15:07-15:12
You learn how to, but then you have to be able to like portray a character.

Elliot Madore:
15:12-15:12
Yes.

Ernesto Cervini:
15:13-15:13
Right?

Elliot Madore:
15:14-15:15
It's incredibly demanding.

Elliot Madore:
15:16-15:28
And I think that, you know, the difficult thing about operatic singing is that you are effectively juggling, you know, four to five things at any given moment consistently throughout the night.

Elliot Madore:
15:28-15:43
You know, you're dealing with, you're dealing with staging, you're, you're dealing with, you know, making sure that you are in contact with the conductor to make sure that you're, you know, in line with the orchestra and that's working seamlessly.

Elliot Madore:
15:44-15:54
You're singing in a different language, so you're also, you're sort of, you're translating, you know, in your head, you know, as you sing.

Elliot Madore:
15:57-16:05
And then you're, of course, then you're thinking about all of the technical issues that come with operatic singing, you know, namely that we don't have a microphone.

Elliot Madore:
16:05-16:18
So we're effectively producing, trying to project our voice into a 3,000 seat house over an orchestra and making sure that we're being heard.

Elliot Madore:
16:19-16:25
And then somehow in the framework of all of that, we're trying to look human.

Elliot Madore:
16:26-16:30
which is pretty difficult.

Ernesto Cervini:
16:31-16:33
I didn't expect you to say that. That's really funny.

Elliot Madore:
16:35-16:37
It's really tough.

Elliot Madore:
16:40-16:42
It's a lot of juggling

Elliot Madore:
16:43-16:46
and it takes a lot of focus, takes a lot of concentration.

Elliot Madore:
16:48-16:52
Just going back to what I said about experiential learning,

Elliot Madore:
16:53-17:03
That's really, you know, I think my time at Curtis, learning how to juggle all of those things and feeling what that was like at a young age, I think, you know, helped me a lot.

Ernesto Cervini:
17:03-17:10
Yeah, that's that's really interesting. So, OK, so you're you're at Curtis and then that's a four year program.

Elliot Madore:
17:11-17:14
Yeah. So that's a four year program. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
17:15-17:18
So when you finished at 21 or 22.

Elliot Madore:
17:19-17:21
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
17:22-17:29
What was your what was your next steps?

Elliot Madore:
17:22-17:29
Yeah, so the next big thing for me was auditioning for the Metropolitan Opera Competition.

Elliot Madore:
17:30-17:35
That was sort of the next kind of big breakthrough for me.

Elliot Madore:
17:36-17:39
And that competition, they changed the name now.

Elliot Madore:
17:39-17:43
It's called the LaFont Competition, I think.

Elliot Madore:
17:43-17:46
But anyway, back then it was called the Metropolitan Opera Competition.

Elliot Madore:
17:47-17:57
And effectively that's 3,000 singers or something audition for that competition.

Elliot Madore:
17:57-17:59
And there's many different regions.

Elliot Madore:
17:59-18:03
And then the regions, then it goes to regionals.

Elliot Madore:
18:03-18:04
And then there's the semifinals.

Elliot Madore:
18:05-18:08
And then there's the semifinals that take place at the Met.

Elliot Madore:
18:09-18:12
And then there's the grand finals that you get to sing with the orchestra.

Elliot Madore:
18:13-18:16
And there's something like 10 singers on stage.

Elliot Madore:
18:17-18:19
And they pick five winners.

Elliot Madore:
18:20-18:24
And so I went through that whole process and I won.

Elliot Madore:
18:26-18:30
So that was, I was 22 at the time.

Elliot Madore:
18:31-18:36
So that was a bit of, that was on the young side to be winning that competition.

Ernesto Cervini:
18:36-18:37
I would think so, yeah.

Elliot Madore:
18:37-18:37
A lot of things.

Elliot Madore:
18:37-18:37
Yeah.

Elliot Madore:
18:38-18:40
So a lot of things kind of happened very quickly for me after that.

Elliot Madore:
18:42-18:45
So I signed with my agent at that time.

Elliot Madore:
18:47-18:51
And I also was accepted into the Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Program.

Ernesto Cervini:
18:52-18:56
So that was kind of the next big step for me.

Ernesto Cervini:
18:56-19:02
And then I moved to New York for, I think, two years to kind of to study in that program.

Ernesto Cervini:
19:03-19:04
So that's that's amazing.

Ernesto Cervini:
19:04-19:07
So now you're at the Met in the Young Artist Program.

Elliot Madore:
19:08-19:08
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
19:08-19:10
And is so what's that like?

Elliot Madore:
19:11-19:14
Again, it was a it was a great experience, firstly.

Elliot Madore:
19:16-19:31
And I think in a weird way, I was fortunate that I was on the younger side because there was a lot of pressure and every coaching and everything that they did, it was like it was an audition.

Elliot Madore:
19:32-19:33
Every single thing that you did was an audition.

Elliot Madore:
19:34-19:37
But I think I was on the naive side.

Elliot Madore:
19:38-19:44
And I think somehow I was able to bypass that.

Elliot Madore:
19:45-19:49
And so it didn't really register with me that it was kind of such a big deal.

Elliot Madore:
19:51-19:55
Of course, I knew that it was a big deal, but I didn't internalize it, I guess, in that sense.

Elliot Madore:
19:56-20:06
And so, you know, we were working with, you know, incredible singers who would come and come and be singing at the Met and they would teach us.

Elliot Madore:
20:07-20:10
And, you know, we had great coaches and, you know, we were working with James Levine.

Elliot Madore:
20:12-20:15
And so it was an amazing experience.

Elliot Madore:
20:15-20:22
And of course, being at the Met, it's this massive opera factory,

Elliot Madore:
20:22-20:29
and they sort of, you know, they churn out opera after opera that is of the highest quality.

Elliot Madore:
20:29-20:35
And so you're sort of immersed in that, and you're going to these performances and rehearsals,

Elliot Madore:
20:35-20:38
and so you're seeing all of it up close.

Elliot Madore:
20:38-20:41
And so that was really eye-opening.

Elliot Madore:
20:41-20:44
It was a beautiful experience.

Elliot Madore:
20:44-20:52
And of course, singing on the Met stage in my first production was also, that was an amazing, that was a crazy experience.

Ernesto Cervini:
20:52-20:57
It didn't strain your relationship with the music and with performing.

Elliot Madore:
20:58-20:58
No.

Ernesto Cervini:
20:59-21:00
I think that can happen to people, right?

Elliot Madore:
21:01-21:06
Yeah, you know, I think, and this is hard to say, you know, everybody's different.

Elliot Madore:
21:06-21:25
But, you know, if I were to imagine myself being older and let's say being in my 30s and going through that again in that same situation, I would feel like there was a bit of a time crunch maybe or that I had to sort of do something of significance to propel my career forward.

Elliot Madore:
21:26-21:29
So I think I would have felt that pressure much more.

Elliot Madore:
21:29-21:34
But being 22, I just kind of felt like I had all the time in the world.

Ernesto Cervini:
21:34-21:37
Well, I mean, in a sense, you did.

Ernesto Cervini:
21:37-21:39
So what happened after that?

Ernesto Cervini:
21:39-21:41
Where was your next big move?

Elliot Madore:
21:41-21:46
Yeah, so after that, I spent a summer in Salzburg.

Elliot Madore:
21:47-21:56
I was with a thing at a program called the Salzburg Young Artists Project.

Elliot Madore:
21:57-22:01
And that was a young artist program at the Salzburg Festival,

Elliot Madore:
22:02-22:05
which is this amazing operatic festival,

Elliot Madore:
22:06-22:09
and they put on amazing productions with amazing singers.

Elliot Madore:
22:10-22:14
So we were, there was a group of singers there who was a part of that,

Elliot Madore:
22:14-22:20
and the Zurich Opera House came through to hear us.

Elliot Madore:
22:21-22:25
We auditioned for them, and they offered me a contract.

Elliot Madore:
22:25-22:31
So that was my first, or actually it was my second international contract

Elliot Madore:
22:31-22:39
at that point. And so I was able to work in Zurich for two years and I was part of the ensemble.

Elliot Madore:
22:39-22:51
And so what that means is basically you work with the Zurich Opera House and you're there

Elliot Madore:
22:52-22:58
singing in every single production throughout the year. And so that's what I did. That was an

Elliot Madore:
22:58-23:06
amazing experience to, to be in Zurich and, you know, uh, to be in a, you know, it's a different

Elliot Madore:
23:06-23:12
vibe in Europe, especially when it comes to opera. Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
23:06-23:12
I would love to know, uh, because as I was

Ernesto Cervini:
23:13-23:18
saying this, this podcast, what I'm, what I'm really trying to explore is, is kind of people's

Ernesto Cervini:
23:19-23:26
growth through music as Canadians, um, from, from the start up until like when they first felt like

Ernesto Cervini:
23:26-23:32
they had kind of made it as a professional musician. So when was that, when was that moment

Ernesto Cervini:
23:32-23:37
for you? When was that like, wow, I'm here?

Elliot Madore:
23:32-23:37
That's a, that's a really great question. Um,

Elliot Madore:
23:38-23:45
it's, I, I, there was a moment that I had, um, and this was when I was singing on the med stage,

Elliot Madore:
23:45-23:52
uh, and it was my first, it was my first role. Uh, it was a small role, but, uh, it was in,

Elliot Madore:
23:52-23:57
an opera called Billy Bud. And I was singing, I was, the role that I was singing was called

Elliot Madore:
23:58-24:07
A Novice's Friend. And he has this really beautiful melodic line. And there I was singing

Elliot Madore:
24:07-24:16
on the stage, singing this beautiful music. And I felt at ease. And I think that was, you know,

Elliot Madore:
24:17-24:21
and that doesn't happen very often. And, you know, to this day, that still doesn't happen very

Elliot Madore:
24:21-24:27
often. But, you know, when I felt that moment on the Met stage with that orchestra, singing that

Elliot Madore:
24:27-24:34
music and being at ease and feeling comfortable, then I felt like at that time, okay, this is,

Elliot Madore:
24:35-24:40
I'm in the zone. This is, this is sort of what I'm, what I meant to do, I think.

Ernesto Cervini:
24:41-24:46
Yeah, that's, that's awesome. I just, a couple more quick questions. I wanted to talk to you

Ernesto Cervini:
24:46-24:52
quickly about um your heritage and your identity and and because you you you know you said you came

Ernesto Cervini:
24:52-24:58
from from not a musical family but i'd love to hear a little bit more of about your about your

Ernesto Cervini:
24:58-25:05
family and and you're kind of

Elliot Madore:
24:58-25:05
sure yeah sure well um sort of long long story short um you know i've

Elliot Madore:
25:05-25:15
never met my father my father is black uh i grew up with my mother and my grandparents um and so

Elliot Madore:
25:15-25:23
you know I'm half black biracial and so um you know and I just sort of had a very interesting

Elliot Madore:
25:24-25:29
upbringing in the sense that you know I never really was able to connect with you know that

Elliot Madore:
25:29-25:35
other part of me you know because I'd never met my father um so that was that that was in that

Elliot Madore:
25:35-25:42
sense it was kind of an interesting uh upbringing and and actually you know we we created a new

Elliot Madore:
25:42-25:51
song cycle called Identity, which is for, ironically enough, a jazz trio and baritone voice.

Ernesto Cervini:
25:51-25:52
Oh my gosh, amazing.

Elliot Madore:
25:53-26:02
Yeah. So we're working with a wonderful composer, Dinak Bujaratne. And it's really, really wonderful

Elliot Madore:
26:02-26:12
music that sort of blends. He's, he's Sri Lankan, part Sri Lankan. And so he, he has a lot of

Elliot Madore:
26:12-26:18
Eastern influences that he put in there. There's a lot of classical, obviously influences in there.

Elliot Madore:
26:20-26:25
And of course, you know, there's some straight jazz stuff. So it's, it's a really cool kind of

Elliot Madore:
26:25-26:30
blend that we're working with. And so we were talking about kind of working outside of the box.

Elliot Madore:
26:30-26:34
And I guess maybe that's sort of my attempt to kind of get there a little bit.

Ernesto Cervini:
26:34-26:38
Oh, that's really cool. So is this something that you're going to be recording or performing live?

Elliot Madore:
26:39-26:42
Yeah. So we made a film about it and we've recorded the first five songs.

Ernesto Cervini:
26:44-26:45
OK, I need to see. I got to I got to go.

Elliot Madore:
26:46-26:47
Yeah, that's I'd love to find that on my website.

Elliot Madore:
26:48-26:51
OK, great. There's a film about it.

Elliot Madore:
26:52-26:56
And I sort of talk about my childhood and and that's what that's what the song cycle is about.

Elliot Madore:
26:57-27:02
It's about my basically talking about the theme of finding one's identity.

Elliot Madore:
27:03-27:06
And I sort of tell it through the lens of my childhood, as it were.

Elliot Madore:
27:07-27:08
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
27:08-27:09
Oh, that sounds very exciting.

Ernesto Cervini:
27:09-27:11
I can't wait to check that out.

Elliot Madore:
27:11-27:11
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
27:12-27:14
And that's fascinating about your childhood.

Ernesto Cervini:
27:14-27:14
I didn't know that.

Elliot Madore:
27:15-27:15
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
27:16-27:18
So that's really interesting.

Elliot Madore:
27:19-27:19
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini:
27:20-27:22
And thank you for sharing that.

Elliot Madore:
27:22-27:22
Sure.

Elliot Madore:
27:22-27:23
Yeah, of course.

Ernesto Cervini:
27:23-27:26
Guess just another note about growing up in Toronto.

Ernesto Cervini:
27:26-27:30
Did you have any favorite Canadian bands when you were growing up?

Elliot Madore:
27:30-27:39
I listened to so much classical music that I, you know, I didn't, I didn't really venture out too far into, you know, listening to a ton of bands.

Elliot Madore:
27:40-27:48
I will say, you know, my favorite singer of all times still is to this day is Canadian baritone, Gerald Finley.

Elliot Madore:
27:50-27:52
He is, is my idol.

Elliot Madore:
27:53-27:56
And, you know, I was lucky enough to work with him on a few occasions.

Elliot Madore:
27:57-28:03
um so you know he was he gave me great advice when i was a younger singer and um you know to this day

Elliot Madore:
28:03-28:09
he's my you know absolutely you know absolute favorite singer um and so you know i did i did

Elliot Madore:
28:09-28:15
listen to you know a lot of canadian operatic singers you know when i was younger and you know

Elliot Madore:
28:15-28:23
john bickers incredible incredible tenor amazing singer um and uh so yeah i mean that those i would

Elliot Madore:
28:23-28:29
say those two, John Bickers and Gerald Finley, were really my, sort of my go-to Canadian singers

Elliot Madore:
28:29-28:34
that I listen to.

Ernesto Cervini:
28:29-28:34
You know, sometimes they say don't meet your heroes, so I hope it was good to

Ernesto Cervini:
28:34-28:40
meet your heroes.

Elliot Madore:
28:34-28:40
He's a great guy. He's a great guy. Yeah, yeah. Well, Elliot, thank you so much

Elliot Madore:
28:40-28:45
for doing this. It's really, it's been such a pleasure to chat with you and to hear all your

Elliot Madore:
28:45-28:51
stories. And thank you so much. And I wish you continued success. Thank you so much. It's great

Elliot Madore:
28:51-28:52
to talk to you Ernesto.