About The Suleika Project

What is the Suleika Project?

The Suleika Project is an art song initiative founded by Edmonton-based mezzo soprano Alia Amad and Toronto-based pianist Chris Foley. Our aim is to create videos of the art song repertory and work towards commissioning new work for the genre.

How did the Suleika Project get started?

One evening on Facebook Messenger, Alia and Chris were talking about art song repertoire they would like to perform together, but because of distance, any in-person collaborations would be difficult to maintain. Our solution was to bridge those distances by creating split-screen videos that are created asynchronously, but are edited together to look like a live collaboration.

What does this process look like?

Once we agree on a song to work together on, we discuss tempo, breaths, textual details and more. Then Chris records the piano part and sends it to Alia. If the recording works out for her voice she sings her part with Chris’ recording on the headphones. Then Alia sends the recording back to Chris, who then synchronizes them in split-screen mode, adds titles and subtitles, and then posts them for everyone to enjoy.