Volume 21 Issue 2 - October 2015

long incorporated choral music. With the recent involvement of the
Tallis Choir with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra in the
Sony Centre’s “Gladiator Live,” I can only hope for more opportunities
that blend film and music in the city. It’s also worth noting that these
film concerts, of which the TSO is doing a few this year (Psycho and
Back to the Future), are often the only time under-30s are not greatly
outnumbered in instrumental music audiences.
A gospel powerhouse hosted by York University, “G.I.V.E., the
Gospel Inter-Varsity Explosion,” will feature more than 150 voices
drawn from the York University Gospel Choir, University of Toronto
Gospel Choir, McMaster University Gospel Choir and Humber Gospel
Choir. G.I.V.E. will perform October 24 at 7pm at the Islington
Evangel Centre under conductors Karen Burke and Corey Butler, with
special guests the Toronto Mass Choir and Gospel Joy, a choir from
Warsaw, Poland.
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir will be singing with the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra in Ralph Vaughan William’s A Sea Symphony.
Soprano Erin Wall was a pleasure to sing with during last year’s
Mahler’s Second Symphony with the TSO. She returns to share
her talent on the stage of Roy Thomson Hall. A bold and bombastic
work, A Sea Symphony’s premiere in 1910 was at a time of perhaps
unrivalled patriotic and imperialist fervour. The work is a perfect
example of a deeply political and nationalist (dare one say jingoistic)
message brought stunningly to life through music. Come and watch us
at RTH on October 21 and 24 at 8pm.
Kaffeemusik: A unique performance will be hosted by the Toronto
Chamber Choir in its afternoon Kaffeemusik series. Classical 96.3FM’s
Kathleen Kajioka will narrate the life of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610),
considered to be the first European allowed into the Forbidden City of
China’s emperors. The China Court Trio will provide accompaniment
with period music from Italy, Portugal and China at the Church of the
Redeemer, November 1 at 3pm.
Remembrance: Commemorations for Remembrance Day begin
over the next few weeks. Exultate Chamber Singers perform “Stories
of Remembrance” at St Thomas’s Anglican Church on October 23 at
8pm. Included are smaller works by Eleanor Daley – In Remembrance
and For the Fallen – but the feature is American composer Donald
McCullough’s Holocaust Cantata. Written in 13 movements for choir,
cello, piano and narrators, this piece is in English, translated from
real-life accounts of letters found in the American Holocaust Memorial
Museum archive.
Brian Chang is a tenor in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and a
policy analyst during the day. Follow him on Twitter @bfchang
2015-2016
Making a
Scene!
Robert Cooper, C.M., Artistic Director
Edward Moroney, Accompanist
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA
Friday October 30, 2015 7:30 p.m.
Grace Church on-the-Hill, 300 Lonsdale Rd.
Silent Film
as You’ve Never
Heard it
Before!
Experience the riveting drama of the 1925 silent horror film Phantom
of the Opera featuring Lon Chaney as the mad, disfigured composer whose
passionate obsession for Christine leads to murderous love. The Orpheus Choir,
complemented by organist Edward Moroney’s inspired improvisations, performs a
live, original choral soundtrack crafted for this macabre cinematic classic.
Orpheus Choir
Edward Moroney, organ
an Ontario government agency
un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario
Tickets: $35; $30 senior; $10 student
www.orpheuschoirtoronto.com
thewholenote.com Oct 1 - Nov 7, 2015 | 31