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Pax Christi Chorale

Xmas cake

Seasonal delights: Frost and fruitcake

Here is all of the very most pressing seasonal news. I finished the epic task of baking a traditional, dark and fruity Christmas Cake on ‘Stir Up’ Sunday with an old friend who is luckily a much more experienced baker than I am. She put me right on several culinary details that averted small disasters. Who knew there were different ways of measuring dry and wet ingredients! I do now. The recipe is a special one, passed on to me by my dear friend Janet, who in turn received it from her Mother. Who knows how far back the recipe… Read More »Seasonal delights: Frost and fruitcake

The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak

The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak (SWMC) In May 2017 Pax Christi Chorale gave me a beautiful parting gift: a commission to write a big new piece for them. Here’s what happened. De-programming with my colleague Paul Ciufo at O’Brien’s Irish pub after our first operatic project The Llandovery Castle, I recalled a childhood storybook shared with a group of wide-eyed, cross-legged kids in the public library. Book upon her knee, the librarian entranced us with Aesop’s ancient fable of ‘The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak.’ The Story Two elemental protagonists, arguing… Read More »The Sun, the Wind, and the Man with the Cloak

In search of Shofar

Way back in my university days, my professor suggested I write a paper on the Jewish ceremonial instrument the Shofar, since I was interested in this sort of thing. I never took up that assignment, and now I wish I had. Years later, Bruce Hill would come home from leading choirs for High Holy Days at Holy Blossom Temple, and tell me how stirring and impressive the sound of the Shofar had been. I never attended one of those services, so regrettably never heard the thrilling ‘Tekiah’ call of the Shofar, and I wish I had. Now I’m preparing to… Read More »In search of Shofar

work station

Nimrod, rabbit holes, and the King of the Saxons

Score study for a big work like The Apostles often leads me down research rabbit holes, and I end up in unexpected places. My workstation, as you see from the photo, includes the full score, the vocal score, Jaeger’s analysis, ‘Letters to Nimrod’ ed. Percy M. Young, the Holy Bible, and coffee. Google, YouTube and iTunes are also frequently consulted. My goal today was to study Elgar’s system of leitmotifs, which he uses to unify The Apostles but those serendipitous bunny tunnels lead from one discovery to the next, and I learned a bunch of cool stuff instead. Our performance… Read More »Nimrod, rabbit holes, and the King of the Saxons

Birmingham Town Hall

Elijah and bicycles?

Wrapping up my final year with Pax Christi Chorale is a profound, bitter-sweet pleasure. Things will get rolling on the first weekend of November with Mendelssohn’s dramatic oratorio Elijah. I have adored this piece since I learned it in 1977, at 15 years of age, one of the younger singers in Waterloo region’s Mennonite Mass Choir, conducted by my Dad. I really could not believe that as a choral singer, you could throw yourself into the role of a Baal worshipper, and sing really nasty things. It was delightfully naughty and the big sound of about 230 voices with full… Read More »Elijah and bicycles?

Cloister Gloucester cathedral

Packing

I got the Wanderlust early on when my parents planned a three-month trip to Europe with four children aged 7-14 in tow. My late husband and I made travel a priority in our lives, and we often found interesting ways to fashion extended trips around organ recitals, visits with friends, choir tours, or musical exchanges. All of this was marvelous of course, but one thing in preparing for a long trip drove me around the bend. Whereas I would be fussing about and organizing my suitcase several weeks before the trip, Bruce would calmly leave his packing until the night… Read More »Packing

Menno mosso: 60 years of singing

This afternoon in the sleepy, golden-leafed village of St. Jacob’s Ontario, Menno Singers presents the first concert in their anniversary season. This particular event will shine a spotlight on Abner Martin (my Dad) who founded this choir 60 years ago. In the early years of the choir’s formation, they sang renaissance polyphony. In those days it was common practice to sing Latin motets in English translation. (Even at St. Mary Magdalene’s the choral library is full of anglicized versions of the renaissance classics.) My Dad says one of the principal inspiration for him was in fact not recordings of choral music, but… Read More »Menno mosso: 60 years of singing

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

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