A Choral Weekend in May

I have always love the sound of great choral music in a great setting; usually it is an old church with wonderful acoustics that brings it all together for me, and there have been many memorable experiences for your humble scribe over the years.  In Guelph, for example, there are several old churches in the downtown core I have attended choral concerts at over the years, ranging from The Swingle Singers to the Elora Festival Singers and the Guelph Chamber Choir, always a favourite.

Locally, St. Thomas' Anglican on Ontario Street is probably one of the most reliable venues for choral music performance, and I remember vividly a Chorus Niagara concert there around 2001 as well as a performance of Handel's Messiah a few seasons back conducted by Boris Brott.  But for me, the local gold standard for ambience and sound has to be St. Barnabas Anglican Church on Queenston Street, a church I have visited many times over the years for some great choral performances, one of which even included me as narrator.

This month brings with it several opportunities both locally and beyond to enjoy some great choral music in great settings, beginning with our own Chorus Niagara, celebrating their 50th anniversary this year with a performance of Verdi's Requiem Saturday night.  The performance, beginning at 7:30 pm, takes place at the historic Lake Street Armoury which is just steps away from my house, in fact, and as I went for my evening walk the last couple of days I could see them all hard at work rehearsing in the hall.  This is not the first time they have performed the work there; I recall attending an earlier performance of the Verdi Requiem there many years ago that featured a very young, up-and-coming opera star by the name of Measha Brueggergosman.  What a performance that turned out to be!

This gala evening features over 200 singers and instrumentalists including the Niagara Symphony, Choralis Camerata, Chorus Niagara's Community and Side-by-Side High School Chorales.  The quartet of Canadian Opera stars includes soprano Joni Henson; Anita Krause, mezzo-soprano; David Pomeroy, tenor; and Stephen Hegedus, bass-baritone.  Kudos to Artistic Director and Conductor Robert Cooper for mining the Canadian operatic talent pool for some exceptional young talent yet again.

The performance, generously sponsored by Jeff and Kitty Cairns, will conclude with the lighting of Chorus Niagara's 50th Anniversary Candles as well as a celebratory cake.  For tickets, call the Brock Centre for the Arts box office at 905-688-5550, ext. 3257 or go online to www.arts.brocku.ca.

Meantime, in London Ontario this weekend a very ambitious choral festival is underway starting Friday evening with the Three Cathedrals Choral Festival hosted by St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Ontario.  The Artistic Director of the Festival, Andrew Keegan Mackriell, wrote me some time ago to promote the event and I without hesitation included the information on the Calendar page of my website, which you can find at www.finemusic.ca.

Three renowned choirs from Canada and the United States, St. Paul's in Buffalo, St. Paul's in Detroit and St. Paul's in London, Ontario are all taking part in the event through until Sunday at the historic St. Paul's Cathedral in downtown London.  Scheduled events included Friday evening's Choral Evensong followed by a Friday night Pub Night; Saturday features an open rehearsal with all three choirs, guided tours of the Cathedral and the magnificent Cathedral organ, Festival Artists display and sale, afternoon tea and the Saturday evening Festival Concert featuring the three choirs in a programme of choral and organ music spanning several centuries.  Sunday concludes the Festival with Choral Eucharist and Choral Evensong, featuring the massed voices of all three cathedral choirs.

Mackriell noted in his press release he had been working on this project for over three years now, soon after he took over as Director of Music and Cathedral organist at London's St. Paul's Cathedral.  He drew inspiration from his native England's Southern Cathedrals Festival, a popular draw for about 40 years now.

If you have some time this weekend and want to head to London for some of the action, log on to www.threecathedralsfestival.ca for ticket information and full event details.  I hope it turns out to be a great success so we can make this an annual event!

Finally, Toronto's Harbourfront Centre will play host to SING! The Toronto Vocal Arts Festival May 9th to the 12th, with A capella singers from around the globe taking centre stage at the Harbourfront Centre for the four-day festival.  Launched in 2012, the Festival features a wide range of genres, spanning from pop and jazz groups to classical and gospel choirs to world music ensembles.

There will also be vocal workshops for singers of all ages and experience levels, hosted by industry veterans as part of the Festival as well as interactive sessions geared to music fans, amateur singers and professionals alike.

Some of the musical performances over the four days include one of my personal favourite groups, The Swingle Singers from England, The Real Group from Sweden and Moments to Remember:  A Tribute to Harmony Groups of the 50s and 60s, honouring Frank Busseri of The Four Lads and featuring cast members of Forever Plaid.

Sounds like a lot of fun next week in Toronto, so if you want more information, full event listings are available at www.harbourfrontcentre.com/festivals/sing or www.SingToronto.com, or by calling the Harbourfront box office at 416-973-4000.

Have a great first weekend of May and enjoy some wonderful music with the great spring weather!

May 3rd, 2013.