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Schola Magdalena

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

blessing the door 2013

Adieu 2013

2013 was a step up from annus horribilis 2012. My annual New Year’s Eve party usually involves Haggis and pagan rituals: a dark stranger, coins, whisky and coal. This year Fr Tay Moss blessed my house with the works, holy water and all. During the infamous Toronto ice storm I lost power for two days. Thank goodness for Bruce Hill’s stubbornness! He insisted on installing a gas stove when we moved here in 1998, not for heating mind you, but for efficient cooking. Boiling up cinnamon spiced water filled the house with Christmas fragrance throughout the dark and chilly episode,… Read More »Adieu 2013

Composer’s craft

Voces Capituli, a men’s choir in Antwerp, have been singing my music for a while in their beautiful church in Belgium. They took some of my liturgical music on tour to Rome this summer. I have never met any of them, but I correspond with their conductor, Dirk Maes, and he sent me this photo of St. Laurence church where they sing regularly, on the other side of the world. Many of the men in the choir are former choirboys at the cathedral in Antwerp. Needless to say they are all grown up now and have their own website. Click… Read More »Composer’s craft

Schola goes modern

What do Emily Walker, Meghan Bunce, Maurice Durufle, Perotin and Hildegard have in common? Honestly I can not say for sure, but on February 7 and 8 we are going to perform works by these diverse composers that span a thousand years, thousands of miles and many generations of musical ideas and styles. It’s an interesting experiment, and it was Glen Buhr’s idea to bring us together with some young composers who would write new music for us. We (Schola Magdalena,that is) are a group of women who sing a lot of Gregorian chant, polyphonic music written in the middle… Read More »Schola goes modern