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Maximus’ cure

Dear Maximus, I write to you 9 days before the fruits of all our many months of labour burst into flower. All our preparation and rehearsing will be harvested before an audience in the great amphitheatre. I look forward to our performance, but I am plagued by one malicious spirit: an omnipresent fiddling upon my ears; a singer in my inward eye; a tiny orchestra in my head! Walking to class today I could not shake the music from my brain. The opening strains of the most violent scene played over and over in my mind, as if some small… Read More »Maximus’ cure

The JUDITH team

One of the great things about a big project like Parry’s oratorio JUDITH is bringing alot of people together. Our performance will require 100 adult singers, 43 orchestra players, four professional soloists, four boys and their understudies, and an audience of 900 listeners. If we are able to raise enough funds we will release a DVD recording of the concert, and then our audience could be several thousand people. One choir member told me she was sorry her grandmother could not come to hear JUDITH since she is not mobile and can’t leave the house. So, our recording of JUDITH… Read More »The JUDITH team

Bruce Kirkpatrick Hill Memorial Fund

In March 2012, I was looking for a way to remember Bruce in a meaningful way. Marsha Goold initially set up a fund to help me through that rough time, and many friends contributed immediately. But after things settled down, remarkably, there was a bit left over. I asked for financial advice and approached a couple of different organizations. I needed to find a group that would be willing to do the ongoing work of administering the fund, acknowledge donors with tax receipts, and use the money to do something that would honour Bruce’s passion for choral music, his commitment… Read More »Bruce Kirkpatrick Hill Memorial Fund

Passing the torch

Our Pax Christi Chorale website now presents a link for an “ artistic director search.” I should probably explain that. Performing Parry’s Judith at Koerner Hall this May is going to be absolutely thrilling, and our tour to Britain next year will be a dream come true, and in the following year we will have equally wonderful offerings. But even so, I will be retiring from Pax Christi Chorale in 2017. In the spring of that year I will turn 55. I will have been artistic director of Pax Christi Chorale for 20 years. In that time I’ve seen every… Read More »Passing the torch

Drop slow tears

Since Easter is only 4 weeks away, I’ve changed the choral music “free download” button on this website. Fairbank Music is no longer going to be publishing general choral music . So the copyright has expired, and this piece is, for the time being “out of print.” So it’s my gift to you for this month. You can feel guilt free to download it and copy it for your choir. I’ve also included an MP3 recording of St. Mary Magdalene’s lovely choir singing this live in the church. I would love to know if you will be performing it with… Read More »Drop slow tears

Valkyrie

Die Walküre

Besides rehearsing lost oratorios, teaching masterpieces of classical music, and enduring the rigours of Scottish country dancing, there were some exceptional events this week. I shared a few drinks (many drinks) with girlfriends whilst grooving to Mike McLean at the Jazz Bistro, drank champagne and celebrated the launch of a history book with my other girlfriends (who happen to be Anglican nuns) and also took my parents to see Wagner’s Die Walküre at the Canadian Opera Company. How can I find a theme for my blog, in a week otherwise defined by snow, snow and more snow? Let’s try… Wagner,… Read More »Die Walküre

JUDITH at Koerner Hall

You may know Jerusalem and I was glad, but it’s unlikely you have ever heard a major work for choir and orchestra by C.H.Hubert Parry. Why has a major oratorio by one of Britain’s best-loved composers been neglected for 125 years? Pax Christi Chorale is determined to turn the tide on Parry’s unjust obscurity in the realm of oratorio. You will be the first audience to hear Parry’s Judith in North America when this dramatic work is revealed at Koerner Hall on May 3, 2015. Judith’s first performance in 1888 was very favourably received. Though Parry was self-critical and struggled… Read More »JUDITH at Koerner Hall

Cat in the city: the play

Cat in the City: The play. Act I, Scene 1 Dramatis personae: The Woman. The Cat.   The Cat: meow. Meow. MEOW! The Woman: Ok, OK. I’ll give you some food buddy. But honestly, you are getting really chubby. There. There’s some food for you. Don’t eat it all at once. The Cat: Purrr….purrr… Woman:  I just think… sometimes, the only reason you like me is that I feed you. We should really talk about that sometime. Only, you don’t talk. You just sing for food. Cat: Purr, purr, purrr…. Woman: Anyway, we’ve got to get going here. If you… Read More »Cat in the city: the play

Time

On New Year’s Eve

Stephanus:  Where do the old years go when they die? Is there a country for old years that have passed away? Are the new years waiting, cued up in the wings, waiting to hear their music and make their entrance? Maximus: Stephanus, really, I think you’ve had a bit too much of the Wassail bowl tonight. Look around. We’re the last ones left at this party. All the New Year’s revelers have gone home early to their beds! Stephanus: Nuh- no – no.  I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. They say time passes, that time can fly… Read More »On New Year’s Eve

WholeNote magazine: November’s child

WholeNote magazine is a Toronto treasure. The monthly must-have publication is put together by a group of talented, selfless, hardworking individuals who keep our musical network connecting, informing, and spreading the word about our vibrant underground classical community. I’m catching up with an article that tells a bit of my own story. It’s called November’s Child. It came out in print last month, but there’s a longer interview online. Here’s one of the secrets revealed in the piece- an embarrassing childhood musical memory: “What was my most embarrassing experience as a child learning music? I was entered in a sight-reading… Read More »WholeNote magazine: November’s child