Volume 23 Issue 3 - November 2017

WE ARE ALL MUSIC’S CHILDREN
November's Child
Peter Mahon
MJ BUELL
NEW CONTEST
Who is
December’s
Child?
Toronto-born countertenor Peter Mahon is
both a singer and a conductor. Still a member
of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir after 36
years, he became the artistic director of the
Tallis Choir of Toronto in 2003 after singing
with them for many years. Mahon conducts
the Vespers Choir at St Michael’s Cathedral,
and for the past 11 years has worked at
St. Michael’s Choir School as a rehearsal
conductor and voice coach. H is currently as
the interim Senior Choir director.
As a singer Mahon has also performed
with La Chapelle de Québec and the Theatre
of Early Music, as a soloist in concerts and
on recordings with Toronto Consort, Studio
de musique ancienne de Montréal, Aradia
Ensemble, Montreal Early Music Festival,
Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Toronto
Chamber Choir and the Grand River Chorus.
Mahon and his wife, soprano Katharine
Pimenoff, have six children: four sopranos,
one tenor and one bass. Four are professional
singers and one is an organist.
Do you remember that childhood photo
being taken? It was probably just before the
high mass at St. Mary Magdalene’s Church.
My parents joined the parish and the choirs
very shortly after coming to Canada in 1948.
My mother was a soprano in the Gallery Choir
and my father was the cantor in the Ritual
Choir. Most Sundays we would find ourselves
following Dr. David Ouchterlony’s beautiful
Bentley as he chauffeured Dr. Willan to SMM.
On one of those Sundays when we arrived at
the same time, someone with a camera asked
us to pose with Dr. Willan.
Your earliest memory of hearing music?
There was never a time when I did not hear
music. Hearing my parents sing every week
in church, it was just a part of our life.
Peter Mahon on tour with
St Michael’ Choir School in Germany.
Peter Mahon lives in Toronto with his
wife, Katharine and toy poodle, Molly.
Away from music he enjoys sports,
both watching (football, hockey and
soccer), and as a participant (cycling,
tennis and golf). He also enjoys
undertaking home renovation projects.
This summer, with major help from
his son Andrew, he replaced all the
hardwood floors in their house.
Your first memory of making music?
Singing in school when the itinerant music
teacher would visit the class once a week for
30 minutes: it was always something that the
whole class enjoyed.
Where did you grow up, and go to school?
I was born in Toronto and grew up with my
four sisters in a small house in Willowdale.
My dad (Albert) was a life insurance salesman
and my mother (Anne) was a full-time homemaker
when we were younger and then a
legal secretary when were old enough to
take care of ourselves. My sisters all took
up instruments in the school orchestra – I
was the only one who sang on a regular
basis and only because Walter MacNutt, the
director of music at St. Thomas’s Church on
Huron St. made a special trip over to St. Mary
Magdalene one Sunday after mass to recruit
me. I was not very interested until he said all
the choristers got paid. Of course my next
question was, “How much?”
Autumn 1979,
Truro, Nova Scotia
Equally comfortable in pants or an elegant gown,
and with a nimble penchant for risky high places,
she’s still sweeter than a nightingale, fun like a
case of (Johann) Strauss champagne, and has
the grit to simultaneously combine a busy
international career with family life. She’s
singing three roles, including two debuts, in the
2017/18 Canadian Opera Company season.
Know our Mystery Child’s name? WIN PRIZES!
Send your best guess by November 24 to
musicschildren@thewholenote.com
Previous artist profiles and interviews can be
read at thewholenote.com/musicschildren
What would you say to parents hoping
their young children will grow up to love and
make music? Put them into a choir. Private
lessons are great but practising tends to be a
solitary activity. Singing in a choir is a social
activity that can be shared with friends and
this will often make taking private lessons –
and all the practising that goes with it – easier
to take. We never pushed our children into
music but we did insist that they all join the
church choir when they turned six as part of
their education. They were not enthusiastic
but neither was I. Once they started, they
really enjoyed it.
Please read Peter Mahon’s full-length
interview at thewholenote.com
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS!
The Tallis Choir of Toronto celebrates
their 40th anniversary this
season! Lucky MARUTA FREIMUTS
wins a grand three-concert prize
pack: a pair of tickets for “Forty!
Forty! Forty!” (Nov 25); “Lenten
Treasures” (Mar 3); “Milestones”
(May 12); also a copy of the Tallis
Choir’s’ CD
Splendours
of the High
Renaissance
& A Tudor
Pageant.
LISE FERGUSON and GREER ROBERTS
each win a pair of tickets to “Forty!
Forty! Forty!” The choir will be joined
by alumni and friends for music of
Thomas Tallis including the remarkable
40-part Spem in Alium and the work
believed to
have inspired
it, Striggio’s
40-part Ecce
Beatam Lucem.
GAIL MARRIOTT and CLAIRE LERICHE
each win a pair of tickets for Messiah
(Dec 13) with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra
and Chamber Choir, and guest
soloists, conducted by Ivars Taurins.
Peter Mahon will be in his usual alto section
spot.
NANCY MARTIN and MARY LOUIS each
win Tafelmusik’s “Sing-Along Messiah”
DVD. Peter Mahon has made numerous
recordings with Tafelmusik, including
this one. Try it at
home with all your
singing friends –
while savouring the
magnificent soloists.
SUZANNE DE GRANDPRE wins a
pair of tickets to “Christmas at
Massey Hall” (Dec 2) presented by
St. Michael’s Choir School, joined
by the Schola Cantorum Orchestra,
members of True North Brass and
a stellar list of special guests. Peter
Mahon conducts the Senior Choir.
thewholenote.com November 2017 | 63