Trish Crawford, The Toronto Star. Frodo, Sam, Gandalf and Aragorns’ valiant mission in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring will be supported full-throttle with a large chorus and soloists performing live while the movie unspools in Roy Thomson Hall. Canadian Howard Shore, who won three Oscars for his Lord of the Rings trilogy scores, notes that this new “concert and a movie” approach has livened up many a symphony hall. “The Toronto Symphony, the Mendelssohn Choir, the Children’s Opera Chorus brings more than 200 musicians to the stage to recreate the score beautifully,” he says. “They do it as a concert first, then bring in the Tolkien dialogue.”
Month: November 2016
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Understanding Audiences: Takeaways from the Intrinsic Impact Audience Project
Kelsey Menehan, Chorus America.
This August, Chorus America released the results of the first-ever systematic look at what moves and motivates the people who attend choral music concerts. In partnership with leading research and consulting firm WolfBrown, the Intrinsic Impact Audience Project worked with 23 choruses across North America to survey their audiences. We spoke with researcher Alan Brown and a number of the participating choruses about what they learned from the study and the implications the findings have for the entire choral field. (Note: Toronto Mendelssohn Choir was a participant in this research project and was interviewed for this article.)
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Festival of Carols 2016 – Dec 7 at Yorkminster Park and webcast live
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir rings in the Christmas season with its annual Festival of Carols, Wednesday, December 7 at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church - and webcast live across Canada and beyond. The Choir is joined by the acclaimed Canadian Staff Band and by organist David Briggs.
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CD Review: Handel’s Messiah – Sir Andrew Davis
Andrew Fletcher, NEMM.org, UK. Sir Andrew Davis claims that for this new concert edition, he wanted to do a ‘grand’ version, and sought to “keep Handel’s notes, harmonies and style intact, but to make use of all the colours available from the modern symphony orchestra”. This goal is achieved, with an overall ‘bright’ feel that is vital, fresh and exuberant, but not overcooked.
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Toronto Mendelssohn Choir delivers a dramatically powerful Elijah
David Richards, Toronto Concert Reviews. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir celebrated conductor Noel Edison’s twentieth season at the choir’s helm with a stunningly powerful performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s iconic oratorio Elijah. Edison put together a formidable cast of soloists which together with the choir and orchestra, created a performance with all the passion one could imagine.
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Tutti Contenti at Amadeus Live
Brian Chang, The Wholenote. The second half of the film is dominated by the Requiem Mass. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir shone the most in these pieces – after all, they know it well. Despite best efforts the diction was lost in the Sony Centre, but the overall effect was not diminished; it is the reality of singing amplified in a space full of soft services and full with 3100 patrons. The choir had excellent blend and balance and was well met by the Motion Picture Symphony Orchestra.