Volume 22 Issue 4 - December 2016/January 2017

Carols by Candlelight

Carols by Candlelight Sunday, december 11, 4:30pm a traditional candlelight choral presentation featuring choirs and musicians of yorkminster Park. nine lessons & Carols Sunday, december 18, 4:30pm Following the historic tradition of King’s College in Cambridge. Admission is FREE for both events. Doors open at 3:30pm. Child care for children 5 years and under. Yorkminster Park Baptist Church 1585 Yonge St., (1 block north of St. Clair Ave. (416) 922-1167 | yorkminsterpark.com Heiden (Praise the Lord, all ye nations): December 9, 8pm at Christ Church Deer Park. Pax Christi Chorale presents Ode on the Nativity by C.H.H. Parry with the Aslan Boys Choir and other guests: December 10, 7:30pm and December 11, 3pm at Grace Church on-the-Hill, as well as their eighth annual Children’s Messiah, at 4pm December 17 at Church of St. Mary Magdalene. Echo Women’s Choir celebrates its 25th anniversary with “Ain’t Life Sweet.” Special guest Annabelle Chvostek joins the choir with a special arrangement of her song Black Hole. The choir will feature songs and arrangements by Vermont artist Brendan Taafe and Penny Lang among others: December 11, 7:30pm at Church of the Holy Trinity. The super accessible and diverse City Choir presents “This Shining Night, a Bright-Hearted Concert.”: December 13, 7:30pm at St. Peter’s Church. Incontra Vocal Ensemble (which I also sing in) performs “O Nata Lux:” December 14, 7:30pm at Regis College, University of Toronto. That Choir: “Carols.” Most fun a choir can have, legally. ’Nuff said: December 18, 8pm at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Toronto. The huge conglomeration of the Toronto Children’s Chorus ensembles (nine of them!) come together for their annual Roy Thomson Hall concert – “A Child’s Christmas.” Special guest, Stratford Festival veteran Geraint Wyn Davies will narrate the evening. A variety of instrumentalists including TSO musicians will join in the fun: December 17, 2pm at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto. The JUNO award-winning Toronto Mass Choir presents “A Gospel Christmas,” featuring special guests and a truly uplifting concert experience: December 17, 7pm at Bayview Chapel, Tyndale University College. Oh Lord, a New Year! Our double listing for December 2016 and January 2017 would be remiss without some highlights early in 2017. Every year the Toronto Mendelsohn Choir hosts five or six emerging conductors in a weeklong intensive. This culminates with a free concert featuring the choir and the Elora Festival Singers: January 28, 3pm at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is joined by the Amadeus Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers in a performance of Fauré’s Requiem: February 1 and 2, 8pm at Roy Thomson Hall. Soundstreams presents the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir featuring Rachmaninoff’s Vespers and more. February 2, 8pm at St. Paul’s Basilica. Follow Brian on Twitter @bfchang. Send info/media/ tips to choralscene@thewholenote.com The Mystery of the Partimento at Metropolitan United Church Friday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m. Rezonance Baroque Ensemble Lutenists Lucas Harris , Benjamin Stein and other guests explore a lost tradition in Early Music performance Secrets of Improvisation in Renaissance and Baroque Music Music at Metropolitan Admission: ; Metropolitan United Church ages 18 and under : $ 10 56 Queen Street E .,Toronto 416-363-0331 (ext. 26) www.metunited.org 32 | December 1, 2016 - February 7, 2017 thewholenote.com

Beat by Beat | Early Music Heed the Road Less Taken DAVID PODGORSKI It’s a bit of a shame that, with all the marketing behind Christmas, no one ever remembers – let alone observes – Advent anymore. The pre-Christmas season has a rich repertoire of music behind it that often gets ignored in favour of Messiahs, Nutcrackers and Christmas carols, but a few Toronto-based artists are mining this hard-to-market season for interesting music that will keep audiences entertained throughout the month of December. Musicians in Ordinary have been mentioned in this column before as a group that’s known for doing interesting programs of a seasonal nature throughout the year, and I’m pleased to say they’ll be doing just that this month. On December 9 at 7:30pm, the group will bring a concert of Monteverdi, Gibbons and Byrd to St. Basil’s Church. They’ll also be joined by the Pneuma Ensemble, a new group specializing in medieval music, for some Advent tunes from 13th-century Portugal. Besides being seasonally appropriate (especially if, like many people out there, you’re already sick of hearing Christmas music by the time December rolls around), it’s a concert that won’t be done by any other groups in town any time soon. There’s scarcely any chance to hear any pre-Renaissance music in Toronto, and medieval music is hardly heard anywhere, so I’ll be very interested to hear what the Pneuma Ensemble can bring to the music scene. If you’re looking for a chamber concert in early December, the Musicians in Ordinary and Pneuma sounds like an excellent choice. The Oratory: If you’re not particularly into medieval or chamber music, there’s another Advent-themed concert worth checking out The Pneuma Ensemble: Tricia Postle, Eleanor Verrette, Gaven Dianda before Christmas. The Oratory at Holy Family has a regular series of concerts of vocal and chamber music, but this December, the venue has decided to feature a soloist who is one of the music scene’s best-kept secrets. Toronto-based organist Phillip Fournier brings a distinctly Lutheran flavour to Holy Family Church on December 7 at 8pm with a solo concert that includes Buxtehude, Bach and Scheidt. Fournier is a great organist and improviser who plays Bach particularly well, and hearing him play solo is positively delightful. For some actual Christmas music over the Christmas season, consider a few groups that are willing to explore somewhat lessplayed music for the holidays: The Toronto Consort will be putting on an interesting program devoted entirely to Christmas music from the Middle Ages that will feature the work of two notable women from the period. The posthumous legacy of the German abbess, writer, composer and mystic Hildegard of Bingen has already been revived with a slew of CD recordings from the mid-90s onward. Judging from the fact that most of the albums had titles like Canticles of Ecstasy, Heavenly Revelations, and Vision, the artists and record labels were trading on the mystic aspect of Hildegard’s life as much as the music she wrote. thewholenote.com December 1, 2016 - February 7, 2017 | 33