Singing
Brendan was a raised in a musical household. His father holds a Degree in Performance and a Masters in Education, is a jazz musician, a band leader and conductor, was an elementary and secondary music teacher, a private instructor, and a musical director for secondary school productions and for semi-professional community associations. His mother is a talented seamstress and was a costume designer who was raised singing in choirs. His sisters were/are both dancers. All three Bailey children took beginner piano and singing lessons. Brendan followed in his father’s footsteps and played alto saxophone from middle school through secondary school. Local musical productions were annual family affairs, with dad conducting the orchestra and mom and kids performing on stage. For a decade, his mother and sister owned and operated a dance attire and made-to-order costume shop.
After developing a minor speech impediment as a boy, Brendan worked regularly with a speech-language pathologist during elementary school to retrain his use of sibilants and to focus on correct enunciation – leading to a habit of carefully paced speech and measured words. He began taking acting and singing seriously at age 11 and embarked upon classical singing lessons in earnest around age 16. Throughout secondary school, Brendan was heavily involved in an advanced theatre department, the school choir, local community productions, trained in singing weekly, sang in recitals, and competed in the prestigious Cowichan Musical Festival. Brendan was fortunate to be awarded first place in the two categories he competed in during his first festival, and five first places and three second places in the eight categories he competed in during his second festival. Thanks to an excellent teacher and to comprehensive adjudication, Brendan was able to advance quickly as a vocalist.
At age 18, Brendan attended the Canadian College of Performing Arts and studied speech and vocal projection with Dr. Iris MacGregor-Bannerman as well as singing with Jeanette Dagger and Anne Bateman. However, Brendan found himself struggling with new singing techniques and teaching styles and began identifying less and less as a singer and more and more as an actor, director, and playwright during his time at the college. This, however, did not stop him from singing, nor from booking leading roles in musical theatre productions – such as Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Show (musical direction by classical vocalist Aurora Faulkner-Killam and vocal coaching with Anne Bateman).
The year after graduating from CCPA with a Diploma in Performing Arts, Brendan began taking private lessons with another college instructor and opera singer, Rebecca Hass. Also a life coach, Rebecca broke down many of Brendan’s barriers and helped him to regain vocal confidence, expand range, and to consider the strength of his own voice in his early twenties.
Brendan began singing intermittently with his father’s bands: The Devan Bailey Big Band and the Devan Bailey Quartet, and learned that he had a natural affinity for jazz vocals and crooning. Thanks to the encouragement of his parents, Brendan occasionally sang at special events, weddings, and sometimes sat in during regular Thursday night jazz sessions at the Cow Bay pub for a standard or two.
Educating youth in Rockland and Ottawa, ON, through ASNY, and being cast in challenging vocal roles in the local musical theatre scene, Brendan also found himself improving immensely through the advent of practical application and teaching. With the guidance of musical directors such as Jennifer Fontaine and Theresa Cillis-O-Meara, he continued to improve. Brendan played Man 2 in Songs for a New World, Officer Lockstock in Urinetown: the Musical, Gilbert in Anne & Gilbert, and Satan in Gabriel – all vocally challenging and diverse leading male roles in musical theatre.
Living between Rockland, ON, and Victoria, BC, Brendan continued to also perform in Victoria-based musical theatre productions and recitals as well as occasionally singing with his dad’s bands.
Brendan learned how to adapt his voice to emo-rock and rockabilly vocals in Love Kills: A Rock Musical under the tutelage of Donna Williams.
The next year he found himself working intensively in Barkerville Historic Town (now rebranded as historic town and park) for Newman & Wright productions at the Theatre Royal. Under the guidance of musical directors, Amy Newman and Alison Jenkins, Brendan found himself alternating between classical, folk, traditional, pop, music hall, and choral ensemble, and he learned to adapt his vocal use to the style being performed. Brendan also became a beginner multi-instrumentalist for N&W learning basic guitar for one number, keeping rhythm with a bodhran for others, (sort-of) resurrecting a broken and somewhat flatulent sousaphone for a comedic number, and actually becoming quite rhythmically proficient with traditional Atlantic wooden spoons.
In 2011, Brendan began a lucrative 5-year seasonal contract as a vocalist in Dickensian costume with The Christmas Revelers carolling in Vancouver, November through December, every holiday season. Their a cappella songbook included medieval hymns, holiday traditionals, complex jazz and pop numbers, all of which were arranged in challenging four-part harmony. Brendan sang baritone and tenor (occasionally countertenor) and also subbed-in the bass lines when in vocal range. The Revelers visited festivals, homes, private events, public events, markets, sang in amplified stage concert and during special recitals. For five to six weeks every season, the Revelers performed at minimum five-days a week with between two to four hours of singing each day. There could be no better honing for the trained voice than this work. While Brendan is no longer a seasonal Reveler, he does miss the vocal discipline, challenging harmonies, trained ear, lovely arrangements, and seasonal joy of the work. Amy Newman’s Christmas Revelers are still going strong and perform all throughout the lower mainland each Christmas season.
The Christmas Revelers, 2015; from left to right: Brendan Bailey, Alex Crabtree, Amy Newman, and Patrice Bowler
The Christmas Revelers at Burnaby Village Museum; 2015; from left to right: Brendan Bailey, Amy Newman, Patrice Bowler, and Nick Fontaine
In 2016, Brendan returned to work seasonally in Barkerville Historic Town & Park as a daily life interpreter. He learned to play a cigar-box guitar (similar to a four-stringed cuatro; D, G, B, E) and regularly serenaded the streets in the key of ‘melancholy-miner’ during downtimes.
While the street interpreters concluded each day with a twenty-minute set of folk songs, Brendan was no longer training his voice nor honing breath support, range, or endurance as he once had. He intended to sing as though with the natural talent of the untrained voice of a miner, and did so.
In September of 2018, he returned to the Theatre Royal stage to replace an actor for the last month. It was the first time in three years that Brendan had to truly use his singing voice again so he spent the summer rehabilitating it. First, for his sister’s wedding in duet with his other sister (who both sang and accompanied). Second, for the twenty final performances of the season’s Theatre Royal contract in Mrs. McGinley’s Gold Rush Variety Show.
Since 2020, Brendan has continued to sing daily on the Theatre Royal stage in Barkerville Historic Town & Park (now operated by the site, not by a contractor) as a principal male vocalist. He has resumed regular vocal practice, training, and discipline in earnest. The casts have grown from only three and an accompanist when Brendan first performed on the stage in 2011 under the previous contract model to now hosting between six and twelve performers on stage during any given day through a unionized, site-inclusive rotating model since 2022. Brendan has resumed portraying historic Cariboo Amateur Dramatic Society founding member and renowned lyricist, poet, and singer, James Anderson. He had previously played Mr. Anderson for Newman & Wright Productions, and Anderson is also the subject of his own solo show: Sawney’s Legacy.
“Mr. James Anderson” has become known for his rendition of the 1870s Scottish ballad Loch Lomand which has been featured seasonally since 2020.
Finding a balance between playful physical comedic work, dance, and serious dramatic honesty, Brendan lent his voice and instrument as both a soloist and in ensemble harmony to 2020’s Virtual Stage Show, 2021’s informal Barkerville Hotel saloon tunes (the theatre was under renovation), 2022’s The Value of Gold (an expansion of the virtual show for live audiences), and 2023’s Here’s to the Fools.
Of worth for historical note: James Anderson wrote the lyrics of Bonnie are the Hurdies, Oh! to the melody of Robbie Burns’ Green Grow the Rashes, Oh! and reflected on the presence of several German “Hurdy Gurdy” dancers present in Barkerville’s dancing halls during the Cariboo Gold Rush of the 1860s.
One of Brendan’s favourite moments during the 2023 season was singing Ross Douglas’ locally beloved Canadiana ballad Wells in tribute to the late performer twice a week during Here’s to the Fools. It is a song that has significant personal relevance to him and many, many others in Barkerville, the townsite of Wells, and beyond.
