Blue Pages 2020

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Founded in 1983 by music director and conductor Alex Pauk, Esprit Orchestra’s commitment to commissioning and advancing contemporary music has set it apart as one of the few organizations of its kind on a global scale. Esprit consistently collaborates with outstanding composers, and performs with first-class soloists and ensembles from Canada and abroad. Each concert season, Esprit Orchestra commissions, promotes and performs the work of Canadian composers, and features Canadian premieres of music by leading international composers. With a dynamic annual subscription concert series, this skilled orchestra presents music that is otherwise unavailable in Canada, always performed to the highest standards in the acoustically acclaimed Koerner Hall at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning.

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The 24-voice DaCapo Chamber Choir was founded in 1998 in Kitchener-Waterloo under the direction of Leonard Enns. The mission of the choir is to identify, study, rehearse and present outstanding choral chamber works of the past 100 years and to champion music of Canadian and local composers. Our 2020/21 season has been postponed, but we hope to present the concluding concert of our three-year “Road to Refuge” series (cancelled this past May) as soon as it is safe to gather in 2021. “Illimitably Earth” will be a full-on celebration of renewal – it will be a shout of joy (on so many levels!). We will include two extended works for choir and piano, with guest pianist Catherine Robertson: Srul Irving Glick’s celebrative “Triumph of the Spirit” and Thomas Nazziola’s “Another Spring,” a work that is absolutely on point as the conclusion of our three-year Road to Refuge project.

In the meantime, we are releasing archival concert recordings on our YouTube channel. And our NewWorks CD is available to stream on all major platforms (Read the review of this CD in the April 2019 issue of The WholeNote.) Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @DaCapoChoir!

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Since 2006, Concerts in Care Ontario has presented programming that makes a significant impact in a range of seniors’ care communities across Ontario. Anchored at the intersection of artistic excellence and research about music and the brain, we curate series of turnkey concerts in seniors’ facilities, performed by top-calibre professional musicians. Concerts in Care Ontario knows that music can unlock the healing power to transform. Our concerts provide a focal point for building bridges between elders, caregivers and loved ones, while engaging powerful emotions which can activate memory and improve mood for seniors in care who may be isolated and withdrawn. As soon as Ontario went into lockdown in mid-March, we immediately transformed our musical services into digital musical content in two distinct forms to connect with seniors effectively:

• Live 30-min concert videos that bring specially trained professional musicians to thousands of isolated seniors through high quality productions framed in an informal and personal approach.
• Interactive Zoom Concert Calls including highest quality performances, plus live Q&As and conversations with the musicians.
• And Music Outside plus Concertmobile with Tapestry Opera.

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Fine music is central to life at the Church of St. Peter and St. Simon-the-Apostle. Whether it is our own choir that sings services in the Anglican prayer book tradition – and whose calibre is such that it has twice been invited to sing services in cathedrals in Britain, most recently at Gloucester and Chichester in the summer of 2019 – or the many visiting ensembles and choirs choosing us for their concerts. The church seats 300 for a concert and has an adjacent hall, also with superb acoustics, seating 175 for a smaller concert.

Our 1883 Jacobean Arts and Crafts building (with exquisite windows, a beautiful sanctuary, and a cloister-style courtyard) sits in one of the most intensely interesting neighborhoods in the city. At 525 Bloor St. E. (close to subway), between Sherbourne and Parliament, it has old Rosedale to the north, multi-faceted St. Jamestown to the south, and a fever of new condo developments to the east and west. It exists as an oasis in the midst of this, providing space as well for local youth choral programs and music teachers. Please join us for services, or consider our space for your next musical event.