Ken Stephen, Large Stage Live!. The Choir once again demonstrated great imagination in launching out into a hybrid arts event which was plainly designed, from the ground up, for online presentation. Indeed, the programme as we saw it on Good Friday evening simply could not be presented in the same way in a live venue.
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TMC brings together choral music, contemporary dance and imagery in an exploration of grief for an online concert on Good Friday
The repertoire for the concert is music for Holy Week (in the Christian tradition) by Schubert, Bach and Brahms. These choral works will be complemented by contemporary dance and imagery that explore the burden of grief and human loss – experienced by so many during this year of Covid-19.
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Laurence Lemieux Artist Statement
How to express and describe human suffering, human loss in the time of the pandemic.
How can one dancer convey the global loss we are experiencing.
How can we even comprehend the scale of this loss?
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The TMC Spreads Christmas Joy
Ken Stephen, Large Stage Live! This week's virtual Festival of Carols concert from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir triumphantly overcame all obstacles to continue a much-loved Toronto tradition in a year of challenges.
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Messiah/Complex joyfully proves beauty of a vast ‘Canadian’ experience
Leah Borts Kuperman, Opera Canada Magazine. I feel I must preface this review with the confession that I have never–not ever–seen a holiday-season Messiah. I am grateful that Messiah/Complex, a filmed collaboration between the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Against the Grain (AtG) Theatre, seen Dec. 13th, was my first.
Messiah has long been a Christmas tradition for some, but as a Jewish-Canadian oft-excluded from mainstream holiday cheer, it was lovely to see a joyful adaptation by co-directors Joel Ivany and Reneltta Arluk that deftly crosses denominations. Their Messiah/Complex is an hour-and-18-minute-long film celebrating different facets of the Canadian experience with 13 soloists and four choirs representing every Province and Territory to the gorgeous sounds of the TSO.
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Toronto Mendelssohn Choir names winner of 2020 Choral Composition Competition
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s Choral Composition Competition is in its sixth year. Each year, the Choir receives entries from emerging composers from across Canada. For 2020, the competition was for an a capella work for the Christmas season. The winner is Alastair Boyd from Toronto, Ontario for his piece A Hymn on the Nativity.
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The Challenge of Remembrance
Ken Stephen, Large Stage Live!
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir has stirred the pot to thought-provoking effect in a remarkable Remembrance Day online concert entitled Notinikew (Going to War) – a Program of Remembrance.
This programme, guest-curated by Winnipeg-based indigenous composer Andrew Balfour, swept away Remembrance Day's more conventional expressions of heroism and sacrifice, and forced the audience to confront difficult truths that cut uncomfortably close to home.
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Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Honours Indigenous Veterans In A Remembrance Day Streamed Program
BWW News Desk.
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir honours and remembers Canada's Indigenous Veterans in a Remembrance Day streamed multi-disciplinary program.
The TMC, under conductor Simon Rivard, is joined by composer and guest curator Andrew Balfour, and Elder Dr. Duke Redbird for a program that brings together choral music, poetry and dance. The centre piece of the program is Andrew Balfour's Notinikew. Movements of the work will be sung by Andrew's Winnipeg-based Camerata Nova and by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
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Toronto Mendelssohn Choir honours and remembers Canada’s Indigenous Veterans in a Remembrance Day concert
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s next online concert, to stream on Remembrance Day, will reflect on and honour the experience of Indigenous Veterans. The TMC, under conductor Simon Rivard, is joined by composer and guest curator Andrew Balfour, and Elder Dr. Duke Redbird for a program that brings together choral music, poetry and dance. The centre piece of the program is Andrew Balfour’s Notinikew. Movements of the work will be sung by Andrew’s Winnipeg-based Camerata Nova and by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
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Toronto Mendelssohn Choir sings glorious songs of Thanksgiving
Ken Stephen, Large Stage Live. On Saturday night, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir premiered what is undoubtedly the most intricate virtual concert I've yet seen. Over a 50-minute span, the Choir presented music ranging from Bach to the present day, and across a geographic span that extended from Canada to Liverpool, and from Leipzig to the south of India. Even more striking, this performance incorporated both visual art creation and dance alongside music -- and dance in a style that cannot have been familiar to many in the online audience.
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