TMC announces 21-22 season – a season to connect

All concerts streamed across Canada (and internationally) plus limited in-person tickets available

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s 2021/22 season, under the leadership of its new Artistic Director Jean-Sébastien Vallée, is one of connection – reconnecting singers in music-making, bringing singers and patrons together again in a shared love of choral music, and bringing the works of different composers together in new ways to share new insights.

TMC concerts for the 2021/22 season will be at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church (Yonge and St. Clair) – a spacious, well-ventilated venue. There will be a limited number of in person tickets sold for these performances. Tickets can also be purchased to enjoy the live-stream of the concert online.  Online streaming tickets will go on sale on October 1 and in-person tickets will go on sale by mid-October.

Artistic Director Jean Sébastien Vallée has crafted a season that will take the Choir and concert audiences on many journeys of discovery. The 100 + singers of the TMC will be joined by chamber musicians, soloists and choirs throughout the season.

Jean-Sébastien says of the season:

“The TMC’s upcoming season is truly one of connection. After the challenges we all faced in the past 18 months, we are thrilled to be joining our voices together again — not despite these challenges, but rather to express them in meaningful ways. Using the human voice to build bridges and express the unexplainable is at the core of our new season. The human voice is the simplest and yet one of the most complex musical instruments. Being both vulnerable and powerful, the human voice speaks directly to the soul of the listener, and this is why choral singing is so moving. The 2021-22 season features new and old works combined in order to express the breadth of experiences present in our community. I can’t wait to connect with the TMC singers and our audiences in the months to come.”

2021-22 SEASON CONCERTS

Coming to Carry Me Home – November 2, 2021

TMC launches a season of hope with a concert that speaks to our search to find our place, a sense of home and belonging.

The Chariot Jubilee by Nathaniel Dett

Ein deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms

Jean-Sebastien Vallee, conductor
Jonelle Sills, soprano
Brett Polegato, baritone
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Chamber Orchestra from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Festival of Carols – December 1, 2021

TMC’s annual welcome to the holiday season. This year the Choir will be joined by the talented musicians of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Lauda per la Nativitá del Signore by Ottorino Respighi

Music and carol selections by Andrew Balfour, Sally Beamish, Rosephanye Powell, Hyo-Won Woo and many others.

Jean-Sebastien Vallee, conductor
Simon Rivard, associate conductor
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra

Free Concert – Saturday, February 5, 2022

The TMC re-launches its Conductors’ Symposium for 2022, welcoming emerging conductors to work with Artistic Director Jean-Sébastien Vallée. This program, part of the Choir’s Education and Outreach efforts, is built on the TMC’s belief in the importance of fostering the next generation of choral leaders. The symposium will conclude with a free community concert where people can enjoy the TMC performing a diverse range of great choral music, conducted by emerging conductors. Some in-person tickets will be available as well as online streaming.

Sacred Music for a Sacred Space – April 13 and 15, 2022

TMC and the Nathaniel Dett Chorale join forces to perform two works that draw on different influences and traditions, while sharing a common thread: humanity’s belief that amidst the most adverse circumstances imaginable, a higher, transcending world is enveloping us, and that a strong voice is necessary to evoke it.

All-Night Vigil by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Selected works by Nathaniel Dett

Simon Rivard, conductor
Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, conductor
Nathaniel Dett Chorale
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir

Endangered – May 28, 2022

Stories of the creation of our world and a call to protect it.

Creation by Barbara Assiginaak – a TMC commission

I am so honoured to be invited to work with the Tkaronto Mendelssohn Choir and to seek a way to honour my ancestors and family who did not always have a voice, or else had no one who would listen to them. It is a huge responsibility I have carried as the child of a residential school survivor, through decades of working through the medium of so-called classical music and finding a way to respect that tradition while also honouring Anishinaabeg traditions and language. Chi miigwetch.”  Barbara Assiginaak

In the Beginning by Aaron Copland

Mass for the Endangered by Sarah Kirkland Snider – a Canadian premiere

Mass for the Endangered is a hymn for the voiceless and the discounted, a requiem for the not-yet-gone. Using original text by writer, visual artist, and musician, Nathaniel Bellows, in combination with the traditional Latin, Mass for the Endangered embodies a prayer for endangered animals and the environments in which they live.

Jean-Sébastien Vallée, conductor
Simon Rivard, associate conductor
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
Chamber Orchestra
Soloists

 

Online and in-person concert tickets

Tickets for concert streaming will be available October 1st. The TMC also plans to make a limited number of in-person tickets available for sale to fully-vaccinated patrons starting in mid October.  Ticketing Services for both streaming and in-person tickets are managed by RCM Tickets.

TMC places the highest importance on the safety of its community. All TMC choristers, performers, staff and volunteers are fully vaccinated.  Patrons who purchase in-person concert tickets will be required to provide proof that they are fully vaccinated, based on the Government of Ontario’s implementation of an enhanced vaccine certificate and verification app that must be used in concert settings.  Patrons at in-person concerts will also be required to wear masks and will be seated in areas physically distanced from other patrons.

The TMC enters this season with hope and excitement; however concert programs, ticketing options, and safety protocols are all subject to change as the situation in Ontario develops. Visit the TMC website at www.tmchoir.org for concert, ticketing, and Covid-19 safety protocol updates.

 

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