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Alex Colville at the AGO

Go down to the Art Gallery of Ontario and see the Alex Colville exhibit. If you grew up out east during the 70s you’ll be especially proud of this important Canadian painter. I didn’t know that Colville had been an official war artist during WWII. He not only witnessed the horrors of a concentration camp, but had to express that horrible thing visually. The first room of the exhibit is necessarily brutal and unfamiliar. His mature work is entirely different – illuminated with a hyperrealism that entices you to keep looking. His figures are surrounded with bright light, but cast no… Read More »Alex Colville at the AGO

All the boots of tramping warriors

This July, I met up with seasoned travelling companions Chris and Rosemary in Amsterdam. We have conspired on several international adventures in France, Italy, and the far west coast of North America, but this summer we had a quest to learn all we could about the events of 1914. We spent a few days decompressing in Ghent: a cyclists’ heaven. Cars, pedestrians and bikes all share the road with decorum and respect. There are bike racks in front of every public building, and cycling along the canals is a peaceful way to explore. We gaped at the treasured Ghent Altarpiece,… Read More »All the boots of tramping warriors

The Parry Diaries

Jan. 2013 A choir member lends me some old scores bound in red leather – two oratorios by a major composer – King Saul and Judith by C. H. H. Parry. March 2013 Had my family around me for Easter thank goodness. After dinner show my Dad the score of Judith and sing through the big tune. Tough going without his reading glasses, but still beautiful. April 2013 Pax Christi performs Handel’s Solomon with orchestra, soloists, off book and dramatized, high school students from Fr John Redmond. Excitement palpable! Oct. 2013 Great Canadian Hymn contest brings together composers from across… Read More »The Parry Diaries

Bali wall painting

Great navigational errors: Episode two

My second great navigational error was in Bali, Indonesia. Again (as in episode one) I was in the back seat. Bruce Hill and his brother were up front; Chris driving UK-style on the right hand side of the car. We had enjoyed a thrilling late night Gamelan concert in sultry Ubud, with a 30-piece Balinese orchestra, dancers and singers. We picked our way back through the town following some sort of “map.” Heading up into the countryside, the road soon began to get very thin, then disintegrated altogether into a brittle stone cattle path that was certainly not intended for… Read More »Great navigational errors: Episode two

Pressing social questions of everyday life

What would you do? If you prepared supper for someone and they didn’t show up? What would you do if someone sent you a book as a present, but you already owned that book? Would you tell them or just say thank you? What would you do if someone sent you an email obviously intended for someone else? Would you reply and correct them, revealing that you are privy to information you probably shouldn’t have, or would you erase it? If you are in a restaurant waiting for your lunch meeting with a colleague and they are 20 minutes late,… Read More »Pressing social questions of everyday life

Sackville United Church

Paradise: paved or saved?

A place dear to my heart is “For Sale.” Sackville United Church gave me the life-changing experience of singing in a big choir of joyful children’s voices; where I first felt a powerful pipe organ rattle through my feet, had my first chance to act in a play, to paint banners, to memorize poetry, to go Christmas carolling, to sing soaring descants with the big kids. The building is no longer a church. It has been purchased by a developer who intends to take it down from its place of pride; take it out of the heart of town where it… Read More »Paradise: paved or saved?

Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame

The evening of May 24, 2014 will be a special musical memory for me. After a year of work on transcription and rehearsal, my medieval women’s group Schola Magdalena performed Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame for 170 listeners at St. Mary Magdalene church in Toronto. Our programme also featured plainchant, the Lady Anthems, a sample of Hildegard of Bingen, and our own version of the evening service of Compline, intended to be sung in monastic communities just before bedtime. The acoustic of St. Mary Mag’s, paired with a luminous atmosphere of candlelight, made this particularly rewarding to share with our… Read More »Machaut: La Messe de Nostre Dame

Great Navigational Errors: Episode 1

Great Navigational Errors: Episode 1 –  France Have you ever read a map incorrectly, taken a wrong turn, swerved off a highway exit too soon, ending up somewhere you were not supposed to be? I bet you have. Allow me to share some stories of astoundingly bad navigation. Episode one takes place in 2006, the hottest summer ever in France, driving north from Toulouse in the south, to visit a famous monastery called Solemnes somewhere vaguely north of Chartres, to hear some monks sing Gregorian chant so beautifully that it will transport us to some heavenly place. I’m travelling with… Read More »Great Navigational Errors: Episode 1

Happy Easter

Just in time for Easter, here is our Pax Christi video. Two previous blogs refer to this, so I am very pleased to present it to you, hot off the press, with best wishes for a happy and healthy Eastertide. Now the Queen of Seasons

Pax Christi Chorale

Interview with David Perlman; Wholenote Magazine

If you click this link below you’ll go to Youtube, and you can watch a video interview with David Perlman. We’re talking about composition, teaching, learning, writing for choirs, our new Pax Christi video, technology and other things. Click on this link: Wholenote Interview Thanks to Wholenote magazine, David Perlman and Bryson Winchester for the opportunity to chat about music!