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Volume 30 Issue 4 | December 2024 & January 2025

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • Orchestra
  • Theatre
  • February
  • Symphony
  • Violin
  • Jazz
  • Arts
  • Conductor
  • Faculty
TMChoir's Jean-Sébastien Vallée on large-choir community exchange; Vania Chan on Music and Mindfulness; "From Up Here" looks at Classical Life in "Zone 10"; Jazz jam etiquette; Esprit has you on the edge of your seat; Women from Space; a full slate of record reviews; all this and more.

CHORAL SCENESingsations

CHORAL SCENESingsations at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, September 2024COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AS A TWO-WAY STREETJean-Sébastian Vallée’sToronto’s Mendelssohn ChoirANGUS MACCAULLTMCHOIRTAM LAN TRUONGThe comforting smell of coffee lingered in the airas conductor Jean-Sébastian Vallée listened to thefading notes of the morning’s final song. More than ahundred people had gathered in red-carpeted YorkministerPark Baptist Church on a Saturday this past Septemberfor a special Mendelssohn Choir Singsation workshopcelebrating the choir’s 130th anniversary. TMChoir, asToronto’s largest and oldest choral organization is nowknown, has offered Singsations since 1999.Anyone in the public can jointo experience the joy of participatingin a large choir—evenif you simply want to immerseyourself in the body of voiceswithout singing.The room went silent. Valléelooked around the diverse groupand could see that the song,Stephanie Martin’s NothingGold Can Stay, had connectedwith each person. An emotional,communal moment.Jean-Sébastian ValléeTwo-way streets: There’s acommon perception in the artsworld, and the world generally,that the larger an organizationbecomes, the more disconnected it grows from the very communitiesit aims to serve.But Singsations is a great example of how a big organization canchallenge this notion. “We stopped using the word ‘outreach’,” Valléesays. “We felt that the word ‘outreach’ was one-way.” Instead, theirfocus is now on “exchange.” They don’t just think of themselves asserving a community. They are part of the community, and importantexperiences also move back to the choir through all of their events,helping them learn and grow, too. A two-way street.The next Singsation is February 8 at 10:30am, also at Yorkminster.TMChoir welcomes conductor Scott Pietrangelo of newchoir andSoundCrowd for a high-energy session of rock and pop hits. Typicalof Vallée’s approach: he discovered the work of Pietrangelo online andasked him to help offer a session of repertoire that’s usually outside ofthe choir’s wheelhouse.That same evening, at 7:30pm, the TMChoir mounts a multimediaconcert at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church featuring the TMSingers– the core of full-time professional singers within the choir, reconstitutedat Vallée’s urging after a lengthy hiatus. Visionaries: Vivaldi& Da Vinci uses state-of-the-art video technology to sync words anddrawings from Leonardo Da Vinci’s Notebooks with the sounds ofVivaldi’s Gloria.Fresh outlook: Since Vallée joined as artistic director in 2021, theorganization has had a fresh new outlook. In 2022, they tried introducinga Director of Community Engagement advisory role, which was inturn replaced by a two-person Community Engagement Team in 2023.For the current season, which began in 2024, there is no one individualor team tasked with community initiatives as a separate silo. Now it’sa collaborative effort across the organization with everyone working tomake community engagement happen. “We must find ways to stay inthe community,” Vallée says. “So we’ve been trying a number of things.”10 | February & March 2025 thewholenote.com

One successful project that’s already come out of these efforts is theevent they call the Exchange. TMChoir organized with other choirs inToronto last year to offer a conference-style day where singers registeras individuals. Last year, people from about 50 different singinggroups showed up.This same conference-style day for singers is coming up again thisyear. On February 22, TMChoir hosts a whole day of workshops,masterclasses, and lectures. Exchange: A Day of Choral CommunityWorkshops explores different topics in choral music, vocal music,and musical community building. Venezuelan composer/conductorCristian Grases will give the keynote talk. Workshop leaders includemembers of TMChoir, as well as members of Orpheus Choir of Torontoand Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto. “There’s no prerequisite interms of level,” Vallée says. “You just come and learn.”Another example of a willingness to try new things is in their“We want community engagement to also beabout responding to needs we saw and heardabout in the community”—JEAN-SÉBASTIAN VALLÉEapproach to mentorship. Within the conducting community, theirtraditional day-long Conductors’ Symposium has morphed into aConducting Mentoring Program lasting several weeks this spring. It isan initiative to support young conductors, who are sometimes singerstasked to lead local singing groups but find it difficult to get extratraining to do so.“We want community engagement to also be about responding toneeds we saw and heard about in the community,” Vallée says.Big Sound: Of course, it’s worth remembering that, even thoughbig isn’t everything it is still something to behold! Amidst all thecommunity engagement, the full TMChoir is still constantly preparingfor large performances. You can hear them at Roy Thomson Hallon April 4, when Vallée will conduct Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis,featuring several guest soloists and the musicians of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.Angus MacCaull is a Toronto-based journalist and poet.He is currently at work on a memoir about coming to termswith tinnitus as a promising young clarinettist.BRIEFLYCloser than they seem?Nathaniel Dett Chorale’s two concertappearances, a month apart, will be rearviewmirror moments for Brainerd BlydenTaylor – back to early fall 1998.He had been handed the conductor’sbaton at already venerable Orpheus theprevious season – a position he would holdfor 25 years – and, now, a year later, the NDChad been launched with two principal aims:to promote (as Nathaniel Dett had done) “anawareness of Black North American heritage”; and “to honour andpromote Afrocentric composers and their choral music in Canada.”Both of these concerts reflect those aims to the full. First up isthe NDC’s own concert, Saturday February 22, at Grace Church-onthe-Hill– the world premiere of God’s Trombones, a poetic songcycle commissioned by the NDC from Canadian concert pianistand composer Stewart Goodyear, who will also be the guest artistfor the concert. Next, on March 22, the NDC joins the ThomasBurton-led Orpheus Choir of Toronto for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’srarely performed sacred cantata, The Atonement.A wintry reflection of a sharply contrasting moment in time: itwas January 2009 when the Nathaniel Dett Chorale, with Blyden-Taylor in their midst, sang from the US Capitol steps at BarackObama’s first inauguration.CHORAL QUICK PICKSOntario Youth Treble Festival: March 1, 2025Titled “Vibrance”, this full-day festival, at Metropolitan UnitedChurch offers over 200 youth “the chance to connect, learn, andgrow through engaging workshops and collaborative activities. Thefestival culminates in a spectacular evening concert where eachchoir will showcase their unique talents, followed by two powerfulmass choral performances that unite all voices in harmony.” Joinus for an unforgettable day of music, friendship, and community!Taken under the umbrella of Choirs Ontario for the first time in2024, this year’s iteration of the festival involves nine SouthernOntario childrens’ choirs, and will culminate in a massed choirpresentation conducted by Venezuelan conductor Cristian Grases,following his appearance as keynote speaker at the TMChoir’sFebruary 22 Exchange, mentioned earlier.The AtonementSPECIAL GUESTSNathaniel Dett ChoraleCelebrating composerSamuel Coleridge-Taylor’s150th AnniversaryMarch 22nd7:30 pmYorkminster ParkBaptist Churchthewholenote.com February & March 2025 | 11

Volumes 26-30 (2020- )

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Volumes 16-20 (2010-2015)

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Volumes 6 - 10 (2000 - 2006)

Volumes 1-5 (1994-2000)