Composer-in-residence, TMChoir 2025-26

This season I’m delighted to be serving the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir as their composer-in-residence. Several people have asked me: ‘Just exactly what does this mean? Do you live at Koerner Hall? Is it a full-time job? Do you sing in the choir?’

Fortunately, I don’t have to live in the basement of the concert hall, nor is this a full-time job, and I don’t know that I’d pass the gruelling audition for TMChoir! My actual role is to compose three new pieces for this season, to head a mentorship program for composers, and to present a lecture. I am privileged to be working for this epic choir who has been a backbone of Toronto choral culture for over 130 years, and to work with their staff and stellar conductor, Jean-Sébastien Vallée.

My first task was to compose a 10-minute choral and orchestral ‘companion’ work to be performed alongside Brahms’ German Requiem. I chose Christina Rosetti’s beautiful poem ‘Echo’ which deals with loss, memory and dreams. I scored it for the same reduced orchestration used for the Brahms (strings, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, harp and timpani). We premièred the piece in November for audiences at George Weston Hall in North York, and Koerner Hall in downtown Toronto. I’ve housed the score with the Canadian Music Centre, and you can access it here:

https://cmccanada.org/shop/83656

For TMChoir’s December Festival of Carols, I composed a carol-like, SATB piece on a poem by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. She wrote over 500 poems, although she is primarily known for her series of books set in Prince Edward Island about a red-haired girl called Anne of Green Gables. LMM’s poem ‘The Treasures’ emphasizes values often twisted at Christmas time. Wealth and shiny objects take the back seat for LMM who realizes that charity, childlike innocence and friends are the real things to be treasured. Again, I’ve housed the score at CMC:

https://collections.cmccanada.org/final/Portal/Music-Library.aspx?component=AAEY&record=4e442810-3235-46a9-a6bd-5a103da6c3b2

My last piece for TMChoir will première on their April concert. Alberta Poet Robert Pynn’s text ‘Mystical Hope’ was written while working at a rehabilitation centre. It’s a gut-wrenching first-person account of surviving trauma. Here’s the information for the concert:

The Sacred Veil

Beyond this creative work with TMChoir, I’ll be leading a 3-month mentorship session with a group of composers who will have the opportunity to have their compositions workshopped with the TMChoir. This is a new program initiated by TMChoir’s artistic director, Jean-Sébastien Vallée. If you’re interested, look for Pathways: Choral Creation in the 2026-27 season.

And,next month, I’ll be giving a talk about compositional process during TMChoir’s ‘EXCHANGE’ day on February 7^th. I’ll be joining other choral community colleagues for this day-long experience of lectures, singing, workshops and social exchange over lunch. Here’s the info:

EXCHANGE

Hope to see you in Toronto for these upcoming events : )

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