Tracy Fehr’s Biography
A classically trained Lyric Coloratura Soprano, Tracy Fehr has been featured on HGTV’s Makeover Wish: Something to Sing About; Premier Christian Radio in London, England; Cross Rhythms Radio in Stoke-on-Trent, England; CHBC; Shaw TV; CBC radio; Giant FM, Penticton; and Okanagan Life Magazine, Who Among Us – Nov/Dec 2008. She has performed with orchestras and chamber ensembles, UBC Okanagan Minds and Music Series, and at the British Embassy in Tunisia. Tracy has held numerous concerts and recitals across western Canada, Ontario, Central America, North Africa and the UK. Active as a clinician in vocal pedagogy and singing technique, Tracy performs frequently with a chamber music quartet, Masterworks Ensemble. In solo recitals and concerts, Tracy offers a selection of Operatic Arias, Baroque Chamber music, German Lieder, and Art Songs, as well as arrangements of African- American Spirituals and Musical Theatre.
Tracy’s solo CD, Over My Head, a fusion of Classical, Jazz and Middle-Eastern Influences was released in November, 2008. Over My Head was nominated for several awards including the Gospel Music Association of Canada’s Covenant Award for Classical/Traditional Album of the Year, Classical/Traditional Song of the Year, and for the BC Interior Music Awards! Tracy received the “Rotary Vocational Award”, February,2010, at the Summerland Community Excellence Awards Gala event.
As an experienced vocal instructor at the Penticton Academy of Music and at her private studio in Summerland, Tracy focuses on the holistic approach to singing: healthy vocal production, understanding the support mechanism, the emotional and spiritual elements of singing, and individual direction and goals for singers. Tracy’s “Women in Song” concert series gives a performing platform to amateur singers while raising funds for projects in third world countries. Past projects have seen funds donated to the Caia Connection’s project for HIV/AIDS orphans in the Caia District of Mozambique, Watoto Child Care Ministries, the Asia Emergency Fund set up by the Mennonite Central Committee, the Penticton and Area Women’s Centre, as well as several fundraisers for local Habitat for Humanity projects. On a humanitarian trip to Guazacapan, Guatemala in March, 2008, Tracy was involved in musical projects with the Casa Esperanza (safe home for abandoned/neglected children).
In 2008 Tracy and ACT Development (http://www.actdev.org), an organization that works with people at risk in Tunisia, began a livelihood project to assist single moms. Through donations and monthly sponsorships over 50 young moms have gone through training (hairdressing, nursing, computer IT, silkscreening) or have been set up in small home-based businesses such as tailoring, raising sheep, weaving, or gardening. This recent work in helping single moms receive education and skills to become self-sufficient has also begun to change the social attitude towards these women and most of the young moms are thriving in their new jobs and able to keep their babies and provide for them as well!
Following the release of her CD, Over My Head, Tracy toured North Africa and the UK, meeting the sponsored women and promoting A Song for Hope through concerts and an interview on Maria Toth’s “Women to women” morning radio show in London. Tracy’s newly released song, “Silenced Voices” was featured during the radio interview. In October, 2011, Tracy spent several weeks on A Song for Hope tour in North Africa and the UK raising funds and awareness for the livelihood project through concerts and radio and media interviews.
Tracy holds a Bachelor of Music, Vocal Performance from the University of Alberta, with distinction, and an A.R.C.T. in Singing, Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto.
