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Schola Magdalena’s new single

My girlfriends in Schola Magdalena are off to lovely Prince Edward County today to sing at a medieval reënactment at the Rose Museum.In celebration of our summer tours, we have released a “single” on CDBaby, soon to be also available through iTunes.Schola Magdalena is a 6-voice women’s ensemble, singing together for 8 years now,often touring our concerts around Ontario and Quebec,and doing workshops with choirs who want to sing chant, Hildegard, and medieval polyphony.We have two recordings, but after our last series of concerts,at St. George’s Cathedral in Kingston, St. Anne’s Church in Toronto,and our own home venue, St. Mary… Read More »Schola Magdalena’s new single

Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Commemorating a low point in human history is a tough call. Seventy years ago, we dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On August 6 and 9 1945, over 100,000 people suffered horrific deaths. Surely part of our common humanity died as well, as we witnessed our dreadful potential to destroy ourselves and our planet. So, on August 6, 2015 we’re going to gather together in various places and remember this WW II event. In Toronto there is a well-organized event you can attend. Ron Korn will play flute, Taiko Drummers will drum, Raging Grannies will… Read More »Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Meeting Murray Schafer

We are working on Murray Schafer’s spectacular musical creation ‘Apocalypsis’, and the composer himself dropped by to observe our rehearsals this weekend. Everyone wanted to meet him. There are hundreds of people involved in the show, and everyone wants that brief brush with the great Canadian composer. When my turn came, I introduced Mr. Schafer to a young trumpet player in the show. Murray talked with Jair animatedly, for a long time, pouring over the full score and describing how, when he was young, he was not sure if he wanted to be an artist or a musician, so he… Read More »Meeting Murray Schafer

Lunchtime in the garden

A tiny, green humming bird hovers over bright red blossoms, unhindered by the white linen flapping on the line; uninhibited by my hungry, human presence, gobbling up the first fruits of my little garden patch, drinking in the long absent sunshine, sipping white wine, humming old tunes, passing the time. No distractions here; no phones ringing, no urgent tasks; only the intermittent whiz of white noise as cars pass by; only the unintelligible cadenza of Italian dialect from fervent neighbours planting basil, pulling weeds, pruning fruit trees, smoking cigarettes, chastening children, singing lullabies. My modest plot of green begs just… Read More »Lunchtime in the garden

Scribe

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