The program notes are written by musicologist and PhD student Rena Roussin. Welcome to the 2021 Festival of Carols! This concert, a time-honoured tradition of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, is an opportunity to begin the holiday season by hearing, reflecting on, and singing carols. The 2021 edition of the Festival of Carols is bringing this...
Arthur Kaptainis, Classical Voice North America November 5, 2021 TORONTO — Any performance of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem counts as an occasion, but the concert given on Nov. 2 by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir was special in a few ways. It represented both the return of this venerable society (founded in 1894) to live public performing after an enforced...
Ken Stephen, Large Stage Live November 4, 2021 With the coming of November, the first performing arts season in nearly two years is getting under way. Arts organizations are finally planning live audience performances, and audiences are buying tickets and preparing to return to a whole world of beauty, excitement, and involvement that had seemed lost...
David Perlman, The Wholenote November 2021 I recently connected, twice, with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s recently appointed artistic director, Jean-Sébastien Vallée (the eighth conductor in the choir’s 127-year history). The first time was on September 20, when I visited a TMC rehearsal; the second on October 4, for a chat in The WholeNote office. Both...
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Board of Directors, Staff, and Choristers today recognize the passing of John Lawson with profound sadness. We pause to recognize, with deep gratitude, his extraordinary influence and impact on this organization and, in fact, the arts in Canada. John showed his love of the performing arts in multiple ways and his...
Program notes written by musicologist and PhD student Rena Roussin. Nathaniel Dett’s The Chariot Jubilee (1919) and Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem (1868) were written just over fifty years apart and yet one could be forgiven for initially thinking, as I did, that the two pieces have little in common. While both pieces were written...
Conductor Jean-Sébastien Vallée will lead the 2022 Choral Canada National Youth Choir. This May 2022 project is a one-of-a-kind professional development opportunity for some of Canada’s best emerging choral singers aged 19-26. Deadline to audition is October 15, 2021. Details about the project and how to audition can be found on the National Youth Choir...
Following a competitive audition process, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir has named pianist Dr. Irene Gregorio as its new collaborative pianist. In this critical role, Irene will work with Artistic Director Jean-Sébastien Vallée and Associate Conductor Simon Rivard in the preparation of the Choir for concerts – playing for TMC rehearsals and auditions. She will also...
On June 29th Choral Canada presented an in-depth webinar for the Canadian choral community on the return to singing together. Four experts presented updates on the latest research for safe group singing, the use of ventilation in rehearsal spaces, the current legalities around vaccinations for choirs and singing groups, and recommendations on how to manage...
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