Volume 29 Issue 1 | September 2023

Q & A
Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Jan 11-15 concert,
conducted by Michael Francis. The first half
closed with the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers
in Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere Mei, Deus.
Art uplifted when
dance & music
intersect
DAVID PERLMAN
Let’s start by looking back — to a Toronto Symphony
concert in January this year. Second half of the
concert was the Mozart Requiem, with the full
Mendelssohn Choir (TMChoir) doing the vocal honours.
But what made the evening special was how the first half
set the scene.
The concert opened with the sopranos and altos of the Toronto
Mendelssohn Singers (TMSingers) entering in darkness, singing, a
cappella, Hildegard’s haunting O Virtus Sapientiae. Two orchestral
pieces followed (Mozart’s Masonic Overture and an arrangement of
Beethoven’s Grosse Fugue.) And the half closed with the TMSingers’
full chamber contingentturn again, divided up, antiphonally, into two
choirs, in Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere mei, Deus.
The evening felt like an artistic whole. As such, it spoke to the
wisdom of the TMChoir’s decision to formalize the choir’s professional
core as a chamber ensemble. The chamber choir offers an
intimacy that is the emotional flip-side of the main choir’s power. As
such it offers the potential for exploring edgier repertoire, new venues,
and inspiring creative partnerships.
September 22 & 23 is a case in point. Titled “In Time: at the
Intersection of Music & Dance”, the concert renews a creative partnership
formed during the darkest days of the pandemic, with
choreographer/dancer Laurence Lemieux’s Citadel + Compagnie.
Performances take place in Jeanne Lamon Hall, at Trinity-St. Paul’s
Centre, – unfamiliar territory for both ensembles. The repertoire,
on the other hand (Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Bach’s Christ lag in
Todesbanden), is part of the musical DNA of a venue that, as home to
the Tafelmusik Baroque Ensemble for decades, wears Period music
like a coat of paint!
and for me the experience of singing in a large choir satisfies so many
musical needs.
I love the camaraderie, and I love the feeling of letting my voice
soar within this group. I I love feeling how my voice blends into the
group around me and how we all complement and amplify each
other’s voices. The physical sensation of this type of singing is incredibly
cathartic and I’ve often found myself swept up emotionally.
I reached out to Lesley Emma Bouza, a long-standing member
of the TMChoir’s professional core, for her thoughts on the
TMSingers revival.
WN: Let’s start with what makes singing in the big choir special.
LESLEY BOUZA: I love singing in big choirs. My first choir experience
was in a big symphonic choir, at the University of Guelph under
conductor Dr. Marta McCarthy. I fell in love with the feeling of having
my voice be a part of a massive sound machine that can achieve
anything from pianissimo to triple forte and beyond. I’ve been an
instrumentalist and a singer in every size, shape and type of ensemble
thewholenote.com September 2023 | 17