2014-15 Season

The New Ears Project: New Ears Listen to the Festival of Carols
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The New Ears Project: New Ears Listen to the Festival of Carols

New Ears Review of Festival of Carols 2014: There were three firsts for us: this was our first visit to Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, the first time we heard the Salvation Army's Canadian Staff Band, and the first time we were privileged to hear the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. All three were well worth the drive or subway trip, half way across the city, on one of Toronto's colder nights.

We launched our New Ears reviews in November 2014, with the Mighty Rhino's review of Mozart and Haydn. In December, Naomi Craig, a Toronto-based author and researcher gave us her impressions of this year's Festival of Carols.

An audience-eye view of the sanctuary of Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, with the choir at the front of the church and rows of audience members in the foreground.
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Festival of Carols 2014 Program Notes

One of the joys of Christmas is its predictability. Every year, we associate the Christmas season with familiar images, tastes, activities, objects and sounds. Santa Claus and Ebenezer Scrooge, Handel’s Messiah and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, roast turkey and cranberry sauce, mistletoe and eggnog…….. brass instruments and choral voices. They all provide a joyous, festive and warm mood to which we enjoy returning year after year.

The TMC celebrates 120 years
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The TMC celebrates 120 years

Michael Johnson, Concertonet.com: The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir proudly turns 120 this year, making it the oldest continuing musical organization in Toronto if not the country. Its Artistic Director since 1997, the 7th in its history, is Noel Edison.

Painted portraits of Handel and Haydn
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Toronto Mendelssohn Choirs kicks off 120th season with Haydn, Mozart

Christina Strynatka, The Examiner: 4 stars. Well, that was quite some start to the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir's 120th season! After a much too long wait, the 129-strong choir started its 2014/2015 season on October 15 at the wonderfully acoustic Koerner Hall, an intimate stage space where there's not one bad seat and everything sounds just as lovely no matter where you are. It was a bit of a simple program, with Haydn's "Lord Nelson Mass" and Mozart's "Requiem" on the playlist, with four soloists: Toronto Mendelssohn Choir soprano Lesley Bouza, and guests mezzo-soprano Anita Krause, tenor Charles Davidson and bass-baritone Sean Watson.