Choral - my/maSCENA

Bourgie Hall: First Gesualdo Six Concert on Quebec Soil

By Justin Bernard on 31 January 2023 Baroque and Early, Choral

Bourgie Hall has kick-started the year with a plethora of concerts. Local musicians and ensembles—such as SMAM (Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal) on Feb. 12, Les Violons du Roy on Feb. 24, Nicolas Ellis and Cameron Crozman on March 10, and Orchestre Métropolitain, directed by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, on March 26—and international musicians are front and centre. The Gesualdo Six will make their debut in Quebec. Renowned for their Renaissancerepertoire performances, the United Kingdom-based Gesualdo Six will give a one-of-a-kind concert in Montreal on Feb. 21. Montreal will be the final stop of the singers’North American tour that took them…

Review | Toronto Symphony Orchestra Celebrates Mozart’s Birthday with A Superb Requiem

By Joseph So on 12 January 2023 Choral, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, Orchestral, Toronto

Jane Archibald, sop., Susan Platts, mezz., Isaiah Bell, ten., Kevin Deas, bbar., Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Michael Francis, cond., Roy Thomson Hall, Jan. 11, 2023. Photos: Jag Gundu January is Mozart Month at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. To mark the 267th anniversary of the birthday of the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Jan 27, 1756 – Dec. 5, 1791), the TSO is giving four performances of his incomparable Requiem Mass. The story behind its genesis is very well known, thanks to the hugely successful 1984 movie Amadeus. Mozart died before the completion of the work, and it was left…

Gilbert Patenaude (1947 – 2022)

By La Scena Musicale Team on 14 November 2022 Choral, Classical Music, Daily News Roundup, La Scena Online

Laval, November 14, 2022 – The wife and children of Gilbert Patenaude regret to announce his death on November 13, 2022 at the Cité de la santé de Laval. Born in Montreal in the Rosemont district, he grew up in Outremont where he learned music as a soprano with the Clerics of Saint-Viateur, then piano and organ at the Vincent-d’Indy School. He then pursued most of his musical training at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Montreal. On the recommendation of Raymond Daveluy, he became the first lay musical director of the Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal, a position that…

Bach and Labadie: A Love Story

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 4 November 2022 Choral, Classical Music, Orchestral, Vocal

The Chapelle de Québec and Les Violons du Roy, under the direction of Bernard Labadie, will present the concert Bach, que ma joie demeure (may my joy remain) this December in Quebec City and Montreal. The program, consisting of Bach’s cantatas Ich glaube, lieber Herr (BWV 109), Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (BWV 140) and Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (BWV 147), was conceived by the maestro who is particularly fond of this repertoire.”Bach is the composer who compelled me to become a musician; he is the one to blame,” he confides with a smile. “And his…

Arts Resource Guide Lite

By La Scena Musicale Team on 2 September 2022 Arts Industry, Chamber Music, Choral, Classical Music, Education, Orchestral

Camps – Music Lake Field Music Camp 647-692-3463 | www.lakefieldmusic.ca Application Deadline: June 30 Cost: $899 to 1599 Scholarships: Yes Languages: English Disciplines: Voice, flute, piano, brass, violin, viola, cello, bass, strings, guitar, fiddle, organ, saxophone, clarinet, oboe, woodwinds, percussion, orchestra, choir, chamber music, jazz, world music, improvisation, musical theatre Age Categories: Teens, adults One-week program with 20 coaches offering over 50 ensembles and workshops in Classical, Jazz, World and Popular music. Adult amateur singers and instrumentalists enjoy technique and master classes, small and large ensembles, choirs, musical theatre. Supportive and friendly environment to perform or simply enjoy daily concerts.…

Dr. Shireen Abu-Khadar, Composer in Residence (left) and Dr. Jamie Hillman, Director of Community Engagement and Associate Conductor (right)

Newswire | Shireen Abu-Khader, Jamie Hillman and Others Join Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Artistic Team

By Newswire on 20 July 2022 Arts Industry, Choral, Classical Music, Newswire

Toronto, July 20, 2022 – The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is thrilled to announce their 22/23 artistic team, which includes the appointment of several new collaborators and the commencement of a Composer in Residence program for the first time in the TMC’s 128-year history. Dr. Shireen Abu-Khader is the inaugural Composer in Residence, marking a new chapter of growth and collaboration for the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Dr. Shireen Abu-Khader is a Palestinian-Jordanian Canadian artist, composer, and educator. She holds a PhD in Music Education from the University of Toronto, and a Master’s in Choral Music from the University of Southern California.…

David John Pike singing in a music video (screenshot from 'Ons Heemescht' mat neie Letzebuerger on YouTube)

David John Pike: Celebrating Vaughan Williams

By Zenith Wolfe on 3 June 2022 Choral, Classical Music

Canadian baritone David John Pike has long admired the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams. At his 2012 Luxembourg recital, Pike’s performance of the composer’s Songs of Travel landed him his first solo recording with Signum Records, Whither must I wander? Pike has since performed Songs of Travel on a live radio broadcast with the Gryphon Trio, and he will be singing two of the work’s movements to commemorate Vaughan Williams’s 150th anniversary along with the composer’s rarely performed arrangement of his Five Mystical Songs at the Music and Beyond Festival in Ottawa. The Five Mystical Songs are musical interpretations of…

Iwan Edwards (1937 – 2022)

By Wah Keung Chan on 15 April 2022 Choral

Conductor, violinist and educator Iwan Edwards passed away on the morning of March 4, 2022, at the age of 84. Last issue, he was interviewed by Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais for our feature on the St. Lawrence Choir’s 50th anniversary. In 2019, he contributed a three-page retrospective on his career. We pay tribute to Edwards by publishing the memory of my first experience singing with him (blog post from 2014). Visit the Facebook Group “Remembering Iwan Edwards” for more memories from those he touched: www.facebook.com/groups/3115218298732574/ Filmmaker Amena Ahmad is working on a documentary on Iwan Edwards: Once & For All The First…

Nathan Granner and members of The Young People's Chorus of New York City in Gordon Getty's opera "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"

Review: Goodbye, Mr. Chips – Gordon Getty’s New Opera on Film Takes its New York Bow

By Charles Geyer on 9 March 2022 Choral, Classical Music, Film, Movie soundtrack music, Musical Theatre, Opera, Technology, Theatre

REVIEW: of the New York premiere of a new opera by Gordon Getty, “reimagined for film” – Goodbye, Mr. Chips, screened at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, March 2, 2022, at 7:00 p.m., sponsored jointly by Festival Napa Valley and NYCO (New York City Opera). The idea for an opera version of James’ Hilton’s 1934 novel, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, had been germinating in composer Gordon Getty’s mind for decades – ever since, as a young man, he saw a re-release of the celebrated 1939 film adaptation starring Robert Donat (in an Academy Award-winning performance as the eponymous character) and the…

Iwan Edwards: A Life in Music (1937 – 2022)

By La Scena Musicale Team on 5 March 2022 Choral

Update: March 5, 2022 We are saddened to learn of Iwan Edwards’s passing in the morning of March 4, 2022 at the age of 84. Below is a reflection by Iwan of his career. Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais interviewed Iwan on the occasion of St. Lawrence Choir’s 50th Anniversary in our Feb/March 2022 issue. T’Cha Dunlevy’s touching obituary contained memories from some of Iwan’s students [Montreal Gazette] Robert Rowat’s obituary [CBC] Wah Keung Chan remembers Iwan’s last concert and Iwan’s Mozart Requiem in memory of the victims of December 6. (published Dec. 6, 2014) [Originally published November 7, 2019] Founder of…

Browsing: Choral