Stephanie Martin

Bruce Owen is an extraordinary person who, with a team of dedicated supporters, presents a wonderful series of classical concerts in Barrie, Ontario, about an hour drive north of Toronto. Pax Christi, my 100-voice oratorio choir, with our amazing soloists and orchestra, performed our Salieri and Mozart programme there to an appreciative full house, after being fed a roast beef dinner. Does it get any better? My question on this blog is to singers, orchestra players and audience. I found last night on arriving at the venue that we didn’t have a  lot of extra room, and the soloists ended… Read More »Salieri and the stick

Medieval music was one of my earliest passions. As a kid I listened over and over again to an old Archiv recording of Machaut’s “Messe de Notre Dame” which struck me as so strange and beautiful. It’s amazing to me now that I have found 5 other women who want to sing the same music with me. Schola Magdalena has been singing Gregorian chant and medieval polyphony together now for 5 years, and this Saturday we are launching our second recording “Virgo Splendens.” The CD contains the four Marian Anthems for the liturgical year, chants by Hildegard von Bingen and… Read More »Schola Magdalena launch

On March 27th I had the great privilege of attending the Kingston Symphony’s performance of the Requiem by Healey Willan. I sat with Mary Willan, Dr Willan’s daughter, and we chatted about the circumstances facing her family during those early years, and why Willan did not complete this work. Singing in the choir was Martha Clarke, widow of F.R.C.Clarke who was the musicologist who completed the Requiem from sketches and orchestrated the work. The whole event was very festive, and the conductor, Brian Jackson, signed my score after the concert. He had also conducted the premiere performance 23 years earlier… Read More »Willan Requiem

I am arranging some hymns for brass quintet for Easter Day, but other items just keep piling up on my piano! It’s like there’s a great magnet sunk deep under the strings somewhere, so that everything in the house that requires a surface comes to rest here eventually. Holy Week happens every year, but every year I am astonished at how much musical preparation is required to pull off this epic liturgical event at St. Mary Magdalene. There are 11 musical services between Palm Sunday and Easter Day involving scores of selfless volunteer musicians and an incredible list of music:… Read More »Heading into Holy Week

Feb 2nd is a turning point in the year: there’s that thing with the ground-hog, and there’s the Blue Hag of the Highlands, and Imbolg, but at Manning and Ulster we celebrate Candlemas. I suppose I’ve witnessed five Candlemas services at the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene now, and this year was just as memorable as the last four. A day of doom was forecast by the weather people, but that storm turned into a gentle shower of fluffy stuff that just made trudging to church with my tuna casserole all the more scenic. Seventy brave souls did make it out to… Read More »Candlemas