Volume 21 Issue 1 - September 2015

evocative portrayal of the old woman. We are lucky she was around so
much this summer.
Luminato Artistic Director Jörn Weisbrodt has one more festival
under his helm before he passes on the reins. Luminato has been
good for choirs in our region right from the start with such pieces
as R. Murray Schafer’s The Children’s Crusade. But this summer’s
Schafer work, Apocalypsis, was Luminato’s largest act of civic engagement
so far; it was a truly monumental task to produce and assemble
the forces needed for this. One thousand performers will forever
remember this unique event in history. I myself made friends with
choirs and people from Ottawa to Kitchener. Between the festivities of
the Parapan Am and Pan Am games and the grandeur of Apocalypsis,
city-building through choral music has been given a real shot in the
arm. Here’s to much more!
Building time: Followers of choral music are aware of the rehearsal
hours and planning that go into a full season of music. There is often
a lag between the start of the season and the first choral performances.
It takes time to get a choir back into itself. Noel Edison puts it
well when talking about the 130-voice Toronto Mendelssohn Choir:
“There’s a lot of humanity in this room.” All choirs, regardless of size,
need this time together to build good sound.
As adults we may forget the mix of elation and comfort kids feel
after returning to school from summer vacation. But this fun, slightly
nervous feeling hits me afresh as choirs return from break and
begin making sound anew. Most choristers will spend the first few
rehearsals listening to funny quips from conductors about the dismal
quality of the sound or cries of tone deafness, flat basses and sharp
sopranos. (Tenors are always on pitch. Always.) The reality is that it
takes a while for an ensemble to get back into it. Ensembles may have
new members, they definitely have new repertoire. For choral music
audiences, September is a quiet month as choristers get back into the
habit. But for those of us in the choirs, we are busy at work.
A few early birds, of course, are always the exception to the rule:
Intersection: Toronto continues to offer some exemplary opportunities
to experience the civic experience of choral music with
Contact Contemporary Music’s Intersection: New Music Marathon on
September 5. Christine Duncan and the Element Choir will be making
an appearance at Yonge-Dundas Square along with a host of other
performers in a display of performance and interactive installations.
Check them out starting at 2pm.
Wilfrid Laurier leads its school year performances October 4 with
“Sing Fires of Justice 10th Anniversary Concert.” Held at St Matthew’s
Lutheran Church, donations are accepted in lieu of ticket sales. For
ten years now, WLU has used this concert as a commemoration of
murdered and missing indigenous women across Canada creating a
fusion of community-based music and social justice.
Sweetwater: In the last couple of years there have been quite a few
productions of Bach’s Mass in B Minor (one of which I performed
in with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir). I am excited to see it on
the lineup for the Sweetwater Music Festival staged as a sing-a-long
September 19 at 1pm in Owen Sound. There are quite a few moments
of emotion in the piece that are a pleasure to sing as a performer.
The Gloria in Excelsis Deo is one not to miss with its bold trumpets
and the choir going almost at full tilt before settling into the beautifully
gentle Et in Terra Pax. Conductors Kenneth Slowik and Adrian
Butterfield have rightfully chosen the Gloria as a feature in the singa-long.
Unless one is in the Amadeus, Oakham House Choir or
Tafelmusik’s sing-a-long Messiah how often does one get to sing with
an orchestra? The Bach’s Mass in B Minor can be watched in full the
next day, September 20 at 3pm.
Singsation: The Centre for Social Innovation and the Toronto
Mendelssohn Choir are offering a free Culture Days’ Singsation.
Singsation Saturdays are a mainstay for hundreds of people
throughout the season and offer enjoyers of choral music a chance
to sing some fabulous music with fantastic local conductors. A highlight
of last year was COC chorus master Sandra Horst’s Opera
Choruses Singsation. This year VOCA conductor Jenny Crober leads
off with a smattering of diverse choral music. Culture Days runs from
September 25 to 27 across the country. The Culture Days Singsation
takes place September 26 at 10:30am. Free. Last year over 100 people
sang, some of them for the first time ever with a choir, some of them
for the first time since they were children.
So the new season is upon us. I haven’t yet got any of my new music
and rehearsals have yet to start. Like most choristers out there, I’m
ready to get back into it and to tackle new works. With a chamber
choir, a full symphonic choir and a concert band ahead this year – I’ll
be busy. Rehearsing is often considered the painful part with performances
as the reward. I very much feel that rehearsing is where the
community is built, where the people come together and where choirs
truly become great. Performances are merely evidence that everything
else is working well. In this, choirs become fantastic acts of
community, working together towards a goal. At the start of a new
season, there is no time like this in the life of a chorister. A new
season. New voices. New music. New challenges. It’s all very exciting.
Now is the best time to find an ensemble, try it out and reignite or
stoke that love for music and performance.
Brian Chang is a bass clarinet- and horn-playing policy
analyst who sings tenor. Follow him on Twitter @bfchang
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