Linguavision Contestants 2016

English

SETH & Evie

Singing in: English & Japanese
Song Title: Light and Wind
By: Original

SETH is a multiinstrumentalist, singer and songwriter from Ottawa, Ontario. SETH’s goal as an artist is to spread his passion for Japanese music through original songs with Japanese lyrics that highlight his influences, and he hopes to share his love for the music through linguavision.

Evie has been practicing bel canto and chinese folk singing since middle school. Evie participated in Linguavision 2015 to help with nerves on stage, and this year she returns to continue exploring her passion for music, and to continue challenging herself.

The two came together around an idea, a musical composition Evie had recorded a cappella in the form of hummed melodies in high school. This idea evolved into a full composition, and through collaboration with SETH, into a full song. Every step of the way, from music, to lyrical ideas, to a full concept and finally a complete song, the process was a collaborative effort between the two friends who met by chance as a result of the 2015 competition. Through discussion and practice, the duo decided on a flow and wording that best fit their vision of the song, and look forward to sharing that music with the world.

Sunny

Singing in: English
Song Title: Someone Like You
By: Adele

Nianqiao Tang (English name: Sunny) is a second year student in Communication media studies. She loves singing popular song and writing lyrics. She chooses ‘someone like you’ because the lyric touches her when she first time heard the song.  She loves studying languages, especially English literature. She thinks language is the fundamental bridge  to connect people around the world.

French

Arian

Singing in: French
Song Title: L’escalier vers le paradis (Stairway to Heaven)
By: Led Zeppelin

Hey my name is Arian Bashtar, my good friends sometimes call me Tarzan as a play on my last name. As a former soccer player, I’ve got pretty thick skin so I encourage creativity so long as it doesn’t end my last name with the letter d! Why French? Well, after traveling to Honduras last summer and learning Spanish, I became aware of the importance of language, ultimately how it augments intellectual flexibility and one’s utility in society. It also happens to be beautiful language. Studying French at CU has been so rewarding that I wish to become fluent and continue post-graduate studies in French.  Why Stairway to Heaven? I underwent a change in heart partway through the first year of University, essentially a transformation, leading to the discovery of my interest in art, music and most recently language. Although I grew up exposed to music (playing piano, trumpet and bass guitar), my passion was solely for professional soccer and biology. Thus, I have been playing guitar for only 2 years, which started shortly after I heard Stairway to Heaven for the first time. Stairway is a classic, but for me (and a lot of people), it is more than just a really good song. The ambiguous, mysterious or even eccentric aspects of the lyrics invoke deep feelings and nostalgia, certainly indescribable and unique to each individual. Where words fail, music speaks and I’ve chosen my song accordingly – in a language that has opened doors for me.

Emily

Singing in: French
Song Title: Je t’aimais, je t’aime et je t’aimerai
By: Francis Cabrel

Emily Shepherd is a singer/songwriter from Ottawa, Ontario. She is a Bachelor of Music student in her fourth year at Carleton. Emily is currently working on her first EP, which is due to release in the next few months. She was born and raised in Montreal and spent many hours listening to Francis Cabrel as a child, which is why she chose to sing one of his songs.

Kristen and Rebecca

Singing in: French
Song Title: Lumières dans l’Ombre
By: Louise Zbinden

Two Korean girls who can’t speak Korean have joined together to sing a song in French! The song we chose is a Christian song called Lumières dans l’Ombre. The meaning of the song is fairly deep and heavy as it speaks about Christian persecution but we chose to sing this song because it speaks of the struggles Christians experience across the world and also reminds Christians who are free to stand firm in the truth! We will be doing our best to multi-task (i.e. playing instruments and singing) for you all and we hope you will enjoy it!

Yalu

Singing in: French
Song Title: Octobre
By: Francis Cabrel

My name is Yalu, and I’m a Chinese fourth-year translation student. I lived in Spain for the past five years and came to Canada as an exchange student since last September. Not a good singer but crazy about languages, I wanted to challenge myself singing a song in French, and let’s have some fun together!

German

Take me to your Lieder

Singing in: German
Song Title: Geiles Leben
By: Glasperlenspiel

Group Members

Molly McGinn is a second year Applied Linguistics major. She is extremely interested in learning languages and about different cultures. She is currently learning her third and fourth languages at Carleton with a minor in American Sign Language. Her love of cultures really began in 2013 when she backpacked around Europe alone for over three months, meeting many different people and learning how to interact and make friends when there was no common language between them. Two years ago she began learning her second language intensively when she moved to Germany. She decided the best way to learn about something is to fully immerse yourself. Since then she has made friends from many countries around the world, travelled, found her passion for helping and teaching people, the many sides of suppression and racism, whilst learning about what it is like to live in different parts of the world.

Corey Andrews is a third year History and Theory of Architecture student at Carleton University. He has declared both minors in German and in Archaeology. For his three years at Carleton, he has been learning to speak and write in German, while studying architecture around the world. He enjoys perusing a healthy and active lifestyle, while making time for movies and games. While he isn’t studying, he is often found in the outdoors connecting with nature or touring around on his motorcycle. In the fall of 2016, he will be studying abroad in Germany for an entire year, in the pursuit of furthering his architectural studies. He firmly believes making everyday, a great day, while living a positive and happy life.

Janna Van de Sande is a third-year student currently completing a Bachelor of Humanities with a Minor in German. On the weekends, you can find her getting paid to teach skiing (best job ever). She loves watching movies and documentaries in her free time. After she graduates, she plans to live in the Netherlands with family and to study international mediation. Her bucket list includes learning as many languages as possible and learning how to jam out on the fiddle.

Kara Haemel is a third year European and Russian Studies student. She also studies history and German. She enjoys music in all languages, especially Eurovision songs. She also enjoys skiing, reading, and speaking in other languages.

Vaughn Prunster is a Cognitive Science student learning German on the side so he can get closer with his family roots. He has a passion for karaoke, hockey, and likes spending his free time looking for new music

Gowlene

Singing in: German & English
Song Title: 99 Luftballoons
By: Nena

Gowlene Selvavijayan is a First Year student currently pursuing a Combined Honours in Journalism and Human Rights. Music has been a part of her life from a very young age: she started piano lessons when she was two, studied Indian Classical Music in voice and on the Veena (an South Indian stringed instrument), actively participated in musical ensembles at her high school as a vocalist, flautist, percussionist, and conductor. Although she is now pursuing a degree in Journalism, Gowlene wants music to be a part of her for a very long time. She loves learning new languages, German being a language and culture that is very close to her heart that she is currently reconnecting with. 99 Red Balloons is a song that inspired and continues to inspire many. Nena shined light on an incredibly important issue of the time and that we must all keep in mind as we live our days on this planet: peace. Our world and the people of our world now face much turmoil, and Gowlene has chosen this piece to serve as a reminder that regardless of what race, gender, sexuality, age or ethnicity one may identify as, we are all human and need to come together and give help to those who need it in times like these. Although Nena’s song is set in Cold War Germany, Gowlene hopes that her rendition of the piece will help reiterate the importance of her message that we must not hear, but rather listen to. 

Winter

Singing in: German
Song Title: Mich Nicht Erreicht
By: Original

Hey guys! I’m Winter, a 3rd year Honours French student here at Carleton. I love to learn new languages, and currently in addition to French, I’m currently studying both German and Japanese. I have this goal of being able to tour all over the world and freely connect with people through both my speech and my music everywhere I go.

 I’m a budding singer/songwriter, currently writing my first album.  The song I’ll be competing with “Mich Nicht Erreicht” or by it’s English title “Won’t Come to Me” was one I began writing concurrently in both English and German this January.  I like to translate the lyrics of my songs into a number of languages, especially languages I’m learning, for a few reasons.  Firstly, I believe that in order to write poetically in any language requires a certain level of mastery over it, and so with languages that are still unfamiliar to me, writing a translation that I feel can capture my original vision really forces me to delve into those languages on a deeper level than what I obtain in the classroom. Secondly, I think it allows me to reach a wider audience by pro-actively removing the language barrier so I can share the full meaning of everything I write with as many people as possible.

Originally, my reason for entering the linguavision contest was simply to be able to perform a brand new song for a live audience, to test the waters for what it will be like playing gigs out in the wild, but as the clock has ticked on, it’s become more than that. Over time, this contest for me has become less about me as a singer, and more about the song itself as a work of art.  This acoustic alternative rock jam is by far my favourite of the songs I’ve written to date, and I’m very excited to showcase it! As for why I chose to sing in German, I did it both to challenge myself to write an original song in German, and to challenge the stereotype I keep hearing about the harshness of the language by producing a song with smoothly flowing lyrics. As I once told my misguided friend, I intend to prove, through my own music, that “German is good for more than Metal.”

Die Fantastischen Drei

Singing in: German
Song: Wenn Jetzt Sommer Wär
By: Pohlmann

Three Canadian girls. Two with glasses. One German performance that will BLOW. YOUR. MIND. 

Be ready…and don’t forget to watch their videos!

Italian

Anick

Singing in: Italian
Song Title: Quando sei via
By: Original

Anick Taverna is a singer/songwriter from Sudbury, Ontario. She is a Bachelor of Music student in her second year  at Carleton. Currently in studio working on her first EP, which is due to release later this year.  Anick chose to write an original song in italian, because of her italian roots . 

Japanese

Charles

Singing in: Japanese
Song Title: 夜は眠れるかい (Yoru Wa Nemureru Kai?) 
By: Flumpool

Charles is a 1st year Bachelor of Music student studying the electric bass with a knack for belching out notes. Through self-teaching and fall semester choir ensemble, he discovered his talent for singing and in turn his passion for the art. His musical upbringing ranges from his parent’s classic rock and pop roots, to his own favorites in the hard rock world such as Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, and ONE OK ROCK. His discovery of Japanese music really opened up his musical world and his interest in the culture, leading him to start taking Japanese language courses at Carleton. Combining his new love for singing and his growing Japanese abilities, he’s coming to deliver a powerful performance to the audience of Linguavision and add a vocal force to shake up the Ottawa hard rock scene!

Sarah

Singing in: Japanese
Song Title: 君をのせて / Kimi wo Nosete / Carrying You
By: 井上あずみ/ Azumi Inoue

Hello, my name is Sarah Dorey (ドリ・サラ)!

I am an interactive multimedia and Design student at Carleton University and I can safely say this is the most terrifying and exciting thing I’ve ever been brave enough to do in my entire university career. You see this is my last year of my program (I graduate this June) and for some reason I got the clever idea that I wanted to do something special to end it. So when I saw this show I decided (with some coaxing) this would be it.

I’ve lived in Ottawa all my life. I have never left North America. I do not have any big awards to my name, and I certainly don’t have my future all laid out, but I do love Japanese music. This song in particular I have been singing since I first heard it during the credits of the Hayao Miyazaki film Castle in the Sky when I was about six years old. I thought the song was amazing, however, for lack of a better explanation I just could never bring myself to sing it in front of a formal audience.

I am not here to win. I’m not here to exactly impress anyone either. I’m here to prove to myself I can get up on that stage sing in the language I have loved learning and walk out of this school having done something I otherwise never could have imagined myself doing before now.

You’ll be hearing my best. Hope to see you there!

ありがとうございます。

Stephanie

Singing in: Japanese
Song Title: ハナミズキ / Hanamizuki
By: Aragaki Yui

皆んな〜こんにちわ！私はステファニーです！ここで三年日本語を勉強しています。日本の歌が大好きだから、よく聞いて、歌います。実は私去年も参加した。私はただ皆んなの前に日本語で歌いたい。今年の6月に卒業します。私は素敵な思い出を残したい。このハナミズキという歌を歌って、皆んな幸せでありますようにお祈りします。

Hey, guys! My name is Stephanie. And I am from China. I have learned Japanese for three years in Carleton. I have Communication Studies as my major, German and Japanese as my two minors. I love learning languages, because it’s a key to build friendship with those who live in another culture. I really love Japanese songs, so I always listen to them and sing those songs. I usually upload lots of personal cover versions on some Karaoke apps. I participated in the first season of the competition last year. And come back this year. That’s because I don’t really care about the prize and the result, I want to cherish each chance that I can sing Japanese songs on a big platform before everyone. I want to deliver my passion for Japanese, and my emotion for Japanese songs to everyone who listens to me. I will graduate this June. So I want the wonderful memories to remain. I choose this song which named Hanamizuki, which means the dogwood. I first heard this song was from a Japanese romantic movie, which has the same name as this song. Both the song and the movie are very touched. The first time I heard this song, I melt to tears. I remembered one year on the Mother’s day, I sang this song as a gift to my mother. Because the song has the meaning of blessing for the people you love. This song was written about the 9/11 terrorist incident. The original artist of this song recalled that in 1912 America and Japan exchanged trees. America gave Japan a Dogwood and Japan gave America a Sakura. Apparently the song is about how though this tragedy happened across the sea, the pain of losing someone is something any one can relate to. By loving someone, we spread the love across the world and hopefully towards peace. It’s a very meaningful song for me. So this time I want to sing this beautiful song to all of you.

Korean

K-Squad

Singing in: Korean
Song Title: KPOP Medley (I Need a Girl, War of Hormone, Ma City, Manse, Call Me Baby, Run)
By: Taeyang, BTS, Seventeen, EXO

K-SQUAD is a group of mismatched friends hailing from Ottawa, China, Kingston and Iran, who met in their first semester Korean class. They arranged a medley of songs to demonstrate the different flavours of today’s KPOP. Erika, Lulu, Pargol and Tarah (and their die-hard fan Sara) share a passion for KPOP they are dying to release on stage.

Mandarin Chinese

Jesse & Jordan

Singing in: Mandarin Chinese
Song Title: Annoyances
By: Original

From the deepest depths of Canadian mountains, having grown up in the most rigid winters of the wilderness, two young boys had fled their small winter village for an educational institute that would strip them of their sleep, social life and free time. But, with great diligence, and determination they had learned to speak a language that would take them much further than the winter gods of their village would have ever taken them. I present to you, winter-village children, laborers of Carleton University’s homework, craftsman of many last-minute papers, hip-hop superstars: Jesse and Jordan

Kelsey

Singing in: Mandarin Chinese
Song Title: A Valentine’s Day without Valentine / 没有情人的情人节”
By: Timi Zhuo / 卓依婷

Trained primarily as a pop and jazz vocalist, Kelsey Hayes studied the fundamental techniques of jazz, pop and classical voice. She is currently a second-year student studying voice and composition at Carleton University in the Bachelor of Music Program. Following the successful release of her first three song self-titled pop EP, Kelsey is currently in studio working on her first full length album, due for release in Fall 2016. At Carleton University Kelsey has had the opportunity to study Mandarin, Chinese, something she is extremely passionate about. Kelsey plans to travel to Beijing, China this summer for two weeks with nine other students from the Carleton Music Department to study traditional Chinese instruments. 

Spanish

Emily Kate & Lorainne

Singing in: Spanish
Song Title: Somos Novios
By: Andrea Bocelli

Emily Kate 
Hometown: Guelph, ON

Emily Kate is a mezzo-soprano, well accustomed to the stage having been in numerous choir and theater performances since age 5. She is most familiar with French and English but is excited to expand her repertoire. She is currently in her first year of International Business, Honours Program, with Spanish as her minor. While Canada is her home, she looks forward to travelling the world, specifically South America during her exchange year.

Lorianne Dueck
Hometown: Emo, ON

Lorianne Dueck has been playing piano since before she can remember and completed her Grade 10 Royal Conservatory of Music Exam last summer. English and German are Lorianne’s first languages, followed by French and now Spanish. She is also in the International Business program and hopes to go to Spain in her third year.

Emily Kate and Lorianne met last semester in Spanish class and soon found out their mutual love for music. This is the first time they have collaborated together on a piece and it has been a blast. They hope to continue singing and playing as a team, and might be joining a choir together in the fall.

Christian Aguliara does an amazing version of this song, so they decided they would try to cover it for themselves and recruited two dancers from their Spanish class to help create the appropriate atmosphere. They hope you enjoy the performance.

Rana

Singing in: Spanish
Song Title: Culpa al Corazón
By: Prince Royce

Hi, my name is Rana and I’m a first year Carleton student. Music has been a huge part of my life ever since I was a young girl. I played the flute for 7 years and I have been teaching myself to play the piano for the past few years. I have always been passionate about the Arts. Coming into my first semester, I was so excited to have the opportunity of learning Spanish because I have always thought it to be a very beautiful language!

This competition is a great way to express my love for singing and also try a new experience in a different language. I was super excited when I heard about it and last year’s video looked like the performers had a lot of fun. I am feeling quite enthusiastic and hope the audience enjoys my performance. Looking forward to the big day!

Taylor

Singing in: Spanish
Song Title: Amor Prohibido
By: Selena, A.B. Quintanilla, Pete Astudillo

My name is Taylor Robillard, and I am a  Franco-Ontarian second year Law student. I have always had a passion for the Latin-American culture because I’ve been exposed to it as a young girl. I’ve traveled to various countries in South America and have really fallen in love with every single country I have been to. I have always wanted to learn Spanish, and I finally got the chance to when starting studying at Carleton. The song I will be singing is called: “Amor Prohibido” originally sung by Selena. When I was little, I used to sing all her songs, and I cannot wait to be able to sing this song for others!