Choral Scene

Artists of many kinds feel like it should be the goal for their art to rise above the everyday – art is its own thing. Other artists strive to make the everyday the fulcrum of their art: to drive conversations to respond to them, to change narratives, and to leave people changed. Over the next month I’m highlighting two of the latter for you to attend and find yourself inserted into an ongoing conversation about the past, about now, about who we are, about who we want to be. I hope you don’t just accept the music passively and are instead empowered to respond to it. My kind of choral music is about conversations in song. Join me!

The Woman Donald Trump Took off American Money
The Nathaniel Dett Chorale presents a concert version of American composer Nkeiru Okoye’s opera Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom as part of their Voices of the Diaspora series. Harriet Tubman has been much in popular culture lately. Beginning in 2020, she should have been on American $20 bills in circulation across the US, but Donald Trump’s office has stopped this from happening. Tubman, born Araminta Ross, is part of the black history of Canada and her incredible story and leadership continue to inspire. Cynthia Erivo brought Tubman to life in the 2019 film Harriet and has earned Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Original Song for it.

Along with gift exchanges and eggnog giggles with loved ones, listening to Handel’s Messiah has become a Christmas staple for me. Especially in recent years, I repeatedly listen to this masterpiece of a work, my interest for it never wavering. Even after singing it several times and watching a number of performances, I have yet to tire of the soaring harmonies and elegant solos.

Grand River Philharmonic: This year, I’m looking forward to Messiah as performed, in an annual tradition going back decades, by the Grand Philharmonic Choir in Kitchener. With orchestral accompaniment by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the concert will be conducted by Mark Vuorinen and will feature soloists, soprano Mireille Asselin, mezzo-soprano Maude Brunet, tenor Asitha Tennekoon and baritone Samuel Chan. Choosing to see this particular version is part of my quest to broaden my knowledge of the choirs around me, and attend concerts outside of the Greater Toronto Area. Their Messiah will be held at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener, Ontario on December 7. Ever the one to want to introduce the Messiah to new ears, I have gifted a ticket to a friend of mine who (aside from knowing the “Hallelujah” chorus) has never listened to the work in its entirety. 

Choral music is not one of life’s frills. It’s something that goes to the very heart of our humanity, our sense of community, and our souls.” – John Rutter

Some of my earliest memories of community are from being a member of choir. It has always held great prominence in my life. A few weeks ago, I watched a short YouTube video from J.W. Pepper of an interview with John Rutter, a renowned composer of choral music. Although the clip is only a few minutes long, his words resonated with me, for he spoke so eloquently and profoundly of the significance of choir.

My Introduction to the Choral World

I was seven years old when my family immigrated to Canada. Shortly after settling down in Toronto, my mother became involved with the choir of our then-community church as their pianist. Soon after, she encouraged my sister and me to join it. In addition to singing in church, my sister and I also became members of a choir called VOCE, a children’s choir affiliated with the Toronto Catholic District School Board. The rehearsals were held at Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts. (We would go on to attend the high school a few years later.)

Because I was considerably younger than the other members of the church choir, attending rehearsals weekly was something I did primarily because of my mother. However, being part of VOCE, with other singers my own age, was a completely different experience. As Rutter says during the interview, “When you get together with a group of other singers […] all of those people are pouring out their hearts and souls in perfect harmony.” I felt at ease in choir as I mingled with like-minded children; all of us bonding over music, learning our parts together, competing for solos but also supporting one another. I remember having a lot of fun.

Choral Community and Inclusivity

I recently was affiliated with VIVA! Youth Singers of Toronto, as I worked part-time with them and sang with their Main Chorus. Founded in 2000, VIVA! is a welcoming space inclusive to singers with disabilities. After listening to the Rutter video, I was moved to discuss this theme of community with someone deeply rooted in the choral scene, so I reconnected by email with Carol Woodward Ratzlaff, founder of VIVA!, to get her perspective both as a conductor and a chorister.

When schools started eliminating arts programming 20 years ago, Ratzlaff, who was working for the Toronto District School Board at the time, felt she needed to turn to the private sector to respond. She tells me: “We need to work to inform education leaders and those in government of the personal advantages, educational benefits and holistic impact of arts opportunities. Too often, adult-centred economic concerns inform educational outcomes. I was aware of many other excellent private-sector choral experiences in the GTA, but I was not focused on what the market was already providing; it was not a business response. I was motivated by the fact that there were many children (as well as youth and adults with disabilities) who were not being provided with opportunities to sing and to create beautiful music together.” Ratzlaff’s words resonate strongly with Rutter’s. As he states: “Politicians need to take note […], and our educators, those who decide education budgets, church budgets, just need to remember [choral music is] not a frill.”

Ratzlaff’s first experiences in choir were from middle school in St. Catharines ON. Since then, she has sung with several esteemed choirs, including the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. She shares: “Choral singing has been one of the great joys of my professional and personal life. I am temperamentally suited to group singing and collaborative creative work. I am particularly intrigued by the rich connections that are fostered between choristers themselves, between choristers and audience, and the changing role of the conductor in this landscape.”

I asked her what she tries to instill in singers as a choral director. She replied: “I try to empower them to make decisions along with me, to take ownership of our creative journey, and to make something beautiful with their voices. […] I seek a balance between meeting individual and group needs.” Ratzlaff shares that she loves “the process of discernment in seeking how to teach a piece of music. [She loves] sound and the capacity of the human voice to produce many expressive colours to tell a story.”

The last word on this topic goes to John Rutter again: “Choral music is like a great oak that rises up from the centre of the human race and spreads its branches everywhere. That’s what music does for us. And choral music must stand as one of the supreme examples of it.”

Concerts around the GTA

Speaking of Rutter, we can listen to some of his works that will be included in a few concerts over the next months. Under artistic director, Oliver Balaburski, the King Edward Choir will perform Rutter’s Angels’ Carol and Candlelight Carol during their concert, “Gloria!” on November 30. The Aurora United Church Chancel Choir and Handbell Ensembles, will have a Carols by Candlelight service on December 8. The first movement of Rutter’s Gloria will be one of the pieces sung. The MCS Chorus Mississauga will take you on a musical and literary journey with Christmas with Anne, also on December 8. Along with readings from Lucy Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables books, savour the sounds of Rutter’s Carol of the Children and Angel’s Carol.

Choral Mosaic: Invitation to Choirs

With all this dialogue on choral music and community, you may feel inspired to get out and join a choir right away. But circle your calendar too for a great choral event, the inaugural Choral Mosaic Festival, taking place from June 25 to 27, 2020. Organized by the Mississauga Festival Choir and Festival Team, under the direction of David Ambrose, it will be three days of choral merriment; the choral Osheaga, if you will. Complete choirs, as well as individuals, are welcome to participate in the festival. Take the opportunity to hone your vocal skills and gain insight from professional speakers, be challenged by a variety of workshops and enjoy fraternizing with other singers. In addition, some notable features include an act by comedian Mary Lou Fallis and a closing gala performance by all the participants. The Festival will be held at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga. If this has piqued your interest, look for more details on the festival website, choralmosaic.com. And take note! Early-bird registration has already begun.

CHORAL SCENE QUICK PICKS

NOV 16, 7:30PM: The Bach Elgar Choir presents Brahms’ Requiem at Melrose United Church in Hamilton. The choir, under the direction of Alexander Cann, will perform with the accompaniment of a full orchestra.

NOV 23, 6:30PM: Join the VIVA! Youth Singers of Toronto with “The World in a City,” an interactive family-friendly concert. The concert will pay homage to Toronto with works conveying Indigenous roots and waves of migration. Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre.

NOV 30, 7PM: The Incontra Vocal Ensemble presents “Creator of the Stars of Night,” under the direction of Matthew Otto. Look forward to hearing the works of Britten, Mendelssohn, and Chilcott, among others. The concert will serve as a fundraiser for the Institute for Christian Studies. At Knox College Chapel, U of T.

DEC 6, 7:30PM AND DEC 7, 2PM AND 7:30PM: Cue the Home Alone face. Relive the joyous and laughter-filled memories with this beloved Christmas film. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, with the Resonance Youth Choir, will present Home Alone in Concert under the direction of Constantine Kitsopoulos. The music by John Williams will be ringing once again at Roy Thomson Hall.

DEC 7, 7:30PM: The Christmas season always feels complete with the soaring harmonies of Handel’s Messiah. Take in the beautiful sound of the Grand Philharmonic Choir with soprano soloist Mireille Asselin, mezzo Maude Brunet, tenor Asitha Tenekoon and baritone Samuel Chan. The Choir will be accompanied by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener.

Menaka Swaminathan is a writer and chorister, currently based in Toronto. She can be reached via choralscene@thewholenote.com.

Autumn is the most enjoyable season of the four we are lucky to experience in Canada. All right, this may be a biased opinion, but I stand by it. The temperature is comfortable and somewhat consistent, the leaves are changing and we are presented with beautiful colours for a few weeks. And of course Thanksgiving is nigh, which means pumpkin spice everything. Cue all the excitement. I also notice people are happier around this time. That could be an arguable statement too, but I do think the brightness of the season somehow results in an overall brighter demeanour with people.

While looking through choral performances over the next couple of months, I noticed a bit of a thematic trend, in terms of human connection to nature, which reflects the season we are entering, which we appreciate for the natural beauty that surrounds us. Additionally as part of a culture where attempts at living with zero waste are slowly becoming more prominent, it seems fitting to see concerts not only calling for reflection on the state of the Earth and respect of nature but also, especially with our current political climate, providing opportunities to listen to music that takes us out of the hustle and bustle of everyday life with all its distractions, thereby keeping us zoned in to what is truly important: Earth, nature, togetherness.

Advancing to Where We Are Today

Accordingly, a few concerts piqued my interest pertaining to these themes, one of them being a performance by the Guelph Chamber Choir of Bob Chilcott’s Five Days that Changed the World and other works on October 27. Many choristers will easily recognize Chilcott’s name, for he is a prominent composer of choral repertoire. I have experienced many a Chilcott work, both as a chorister and as an audience member; however, I had not heard of this particular work. I got in touch with Dr. Charlene Pauls, the new artistic director of the Guelph Chamber Choir, to inquire a little further about the work.

I was interested, I told her, to know why Pauls chose to perform Five Days that Changed the World and her reason for calling on this theme of unity; the concert features other pieces as well, but Chilcott is clearly the main event. Pauls explained that “in a world that seems increasingly to highlight so much of what is negative about the human spirit, we wanted to create a program that did the opposite.” As mentioned earlier, we are in a time where there is an increased urge to be more united, trying to leave behind a lighter footprint on our planet and taking care of what we have. “We tend to hear so much about the problems in our world,” Pauls continues, “however, throughout time there have always been those around us who have made an impact through positive change, who have created innovations that have improved society and who have made the world a better place.” This piece “highlights five moments in time that have connected people: the invention of the printing press, the abolition of slavery, the invention of flight, the discovery of penicillin and the first human in space. […] The music is wonderfully varied, with threads of humour, poignancy and wonder woven throughout the various movements.”

Some of the other works to be performed “celebrate connections between us.” They include Winnipeg composer Andrew Balfour’s welcoming song Ambe (sung in Ojibway), American composer Joan Szymko’s It Takes A Village, French composer Maurice Duruflé’s Ubi Caritas, Canadian composer Sarah Quartel’s Sing, My Child, and a great gospel arrangement of Paul Simon’s Bridge Over Troubled Water by Kirby Shaw. Other pieces on the program include works that challenge us to action, such as Eric Whitacre’s Cloudburst that urges us to “dream with our hands.” To top it off, there is a surprise encore piece that should not be missed. Pauls revealed the surprise to me, but I am going to keep it to myself.

Continuing on to explain her aim with this performance, Pauls comments: “Fundamentally, I believe that the foundation of society must be relationships, humanity connecting with each other, because it is only then that we can have empathy and create positive change.”

Nature’s Beauty and Environmental Consciousness

Similarly, another concert that I think will be a captivating listen is “Voices of Earth: In Celebration of Nature’s Beauty” by the Exultate Chamber Singers, entering its 39^th season, conducted by Mark Ramsay on October 18. I was interested to know more about the program as well as his decision to set on the theme of nature. Ramsay answered a few of my questions via email..

The music is quite varied, he says, and the concert is a compilation of works by an interesting mix of composers, many of whom are Canadian.

A few works he mentioned are: Voices of Earth by Mark Sirett, which will be performed with a guest violinist, Adrian Irvine. Due North by Stephen Chatman, Ramsay tells me, “is a fun set of five pieces set in the style of soundscapes where [they] explore the sounds associated with and inspired by specific words related to our Canadian landscape, including Mountains, Trees, Mosquitoes and even Woodpecker.”

Come to the Woods by Jake Runestad, with a text by John Muir, is the cornerstone of the program, Ramsay informs me. “It’s an extended work, with a fantastic piano part, that takes us on an emotional journey.” The composer describes it as a piece that “explores Muir’s inspirations and the transporting peace found in the natural world.”

The program also includes, but is not limited to, works by Johannes Brahms, Allan Bevan, Gwynyth Walker, Matthew Emery, and Samuel Barber.

What led him to decide on the theme? Ramsay says: “I personally believe the theme is a timely one. The Earth and our environment has always been a powerful inspiration for writers, musicians and artists from all creative streams. Recently, I think we are seeing a general increased interest in our environment and our relationship with it. How are we harming it? How are we caring for it? What does our future look like? With that in mind I tried to design a program filled with beautiful texts and choral music that depicts this diverse and stunning environment we are so strongly connected to.”

Keep these questions that Ramsay poses in mind as you take in the music. We have to make a conscious effort to take a minute to centre ourselves, think about our planet, think about all that we have gained from it. This theme is one that cannot really get stale or uninteresting, as we continue to slowly but surely witness an active push in working together to keep our Earth healthy and to bridge the divides in society.

On October 27th at 3pm, the Guelph Chamber Choir will perform Bob Chillcot’s Five Days that Changed the World, amongst other works. The performance will take place at the Harcourt Memorial United Church in Guelph. In keeping with a theme of unity, the Guelph Collegiate and Vocational Institute (GCVI) high school choir will join the Guelph Chamber Choir for the main piece.

On October 18th at 8pm, the Exultate Chamber Singers will perform Voices of Earth: In Celebration of Nature’s Beauty at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church in Toronto. 

CHORAL SCENE QUICK PICKS

OCT 20, 2:30PM: The University of Toronto Faculty of Music presents “Choirs in Concert: Seasons of Song.” Be treated to a combination of the Men’s Chorus and Women’s Chorus, under conductors Elaine Choi and Mark Ramsay. Some featured works will be by contemporary Canadian composers Frances Farrell, Matthew Emery and E.K.R. Hammell. The performance will be held at the Church of the Redeemer. U of T students should be sure to carry a valid TCard for free admittance, space permitting.

OCT 27, 3PM: Orchestra Toronto, together with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, will present “Freude! 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall” at the George Weston Recital Hall. Under the direction of Michael Newnham, with soloists Lesley Bouza (soprano), Andrea Ludwig (mezzo), Andrew Walker (tenor) and Bradley Christensen (baritone), with pianist Elijah Orlenko; revel in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9.

OCT 27, 3PM: The Vesnikva Choir, the Toronto Ukrainian Male Chamber Choir and the St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church Choir come together for “Tribute to Koshyts,” a concert featuring some of the sacred and secular works of Oleksander Koshyts; at All Saints Kingsway Anglican Church with an introduction by Wasyl Sydorenko.

NOV 2, 7:30PM: Pax Christi Chorale present the world premiere of The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church. Music by Stephanie Martin, commissioned by Pax Christie Chorale. With the Intermediate Chorus of Canadian Children’s Opera Company and soloists Allison Walmsley (soprano), Catherine Daniel (mezzo), Asitha Tennekoon (tenor), and Brett Polegato (baritone).

NOV 5 and 6, 7:30PM: Remember the choir at the big royal wedding of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry? They will be performing in Toronto soon. With two dates in November, the Kingdom Choir, with a reputation of the best gospel choir in the world, will take over the Meridian Arts Centre. Expect to hear stunning renditions of Beyoncé’s Halo, John Legend’s All of Me and of course Stand By Me, now made famous from their world-viewed performance.

Menaka Swaminathan is a writer and chorister, currently based in Toronto. She can be reached via choralscene@thewholenote.com.