Full Circle Singing

COME JOIN THE TMU CONCERT CHOIR

The details are below, but the short of it is I’d love you to come join my new choir at Toronto Metropolitan University! And, please pass this information on to anyone you think might be interested.

The choir will be auditioned, but not stringently so. Sight reading ability is required, but you don’t have to be able to read the spots off the page.

Fill in this audition form to tell me a bit about yourself, and I’ll get back to you to firm things up: bit.ly/3yPtQln

Rehearsals: Mondays from 7-9pm.
First Rehearsal: Monday, September 9. (Come and try it out before you enrol!)
Location: Kerr Hall South, room 251. https://maps.app.goo.gl/dwePyxYitR9wfdp59
Duration: 13 weeks.
Dress Rehearsal: December 13, 2024
Concert: December 14, 2024
Two Additional Performances for those who can:
TMU Remembrance Day Ceremony,
Nov. 11 from 10:30-11:15am. In the Quad.
We will sing Godfrey Rideout’s O Canada.
TMU “Frost” Celebration,
Dec. 3 from 3:30-4:00. Under a tent on Gould Street.
We will perform some short works from our upcoming concert and lead the students in a sing-along.

Enrolment WebPage:
https://continuing.torontomu.ca/search/publicCourseSearchDetails.do?method=load&courseId=26382646

My Email: [email protected]

A dream of mine is coming true! For over 2 decades an excellent amateur choir has rehearsed on the TMU campus, (going way back to the Ryerson days.) They were first called The Oakham House Choir, then the Toronto Concert Choir. With the retirement of their conductor, The Chang School is folding it into our slate of music offerings. And I get to take over as conductor!

It will be very similar in concept to the University of Waterloo Oratorio Choir that I conducted way back in the 90’s. Community members as well as enrolled students, and faculty and staff, will all sing together in a wonderful Intergenerational musical experience. We hope that many members of the former choir will form the core, and we will add from there.

Back in the day we did things like The Mozart and Fauré Requiems, Britten’s “Saint Nicholas,” various masses including the Charpentier “Messe de Minuit pour Noël,” etc. We will be delving into similar traditional repertoire, but expanding it with the best choral music from traditionally under-represented composers, as well.

I want to add more music by Canadian composers, Women, First Nations, LGBTQ+, Jewish, and non-Western composers. As long as it is great choral music, I’d love for us to perform it! I would love it for this choir’s repertoire and membership to be representative of the many cultural traditions that make our campus and our nation such great places to be.

If you have any suggestions of repertoire that falls into these categories, please let me know!

This first semester will be a bit of an experiment. I have no idea how many people will enrol, so I have plans for repertoire, but will need to firm up the entire program after the first rehearsal on September 9. We are welcoming people to come to the 1st rehearsal, check us out, and then enrol before the 2nd rehearsal.

But I am leaning towards the Durante Magnificat in B-flat, a few other pieces that tell the Christmas story from Mary’s perspective, as well as some Hanukkah and Winter Solstice music. I’m also looking at some wonderful arrangements by Eleanor Daley, Ruth Watson Henderson, and Corlyn Hanney.

Here is a playlist that will give you a sense of the type of repertoire I am considering:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3VYtBXdbdQUCEZYqGHOtkGmwujmhGlVD&si=gFaQNXfezNjNl-IT

So please, contact me at: [email protected], or fill out the audition form and I’ll be in touch!

This was me doing my best Josh Groban, singing "You Raise Me Up," withe the Ontario Pops Orchestra and the Etobicoke Centennial Choir a couple of weeks ago. (I still have to work on the hair, but they tell me the singing was good!) ;-)

Tonight I’ll be soloing as well as singing with the choir in Dvorak’s "Mass in D" and Paul Winter’s amazing jazz mass, "Missa Gaia."

The choir and orchestra sound great. If you feel like a little trip to Etobicoke tonight you can get tickets online or at the door. Humber Valley United Church. 76 Anglesey Blvd., Etobicoke. 7:30 pm. www.etobicokecentennialchoir

This was me doing my best Josh Groban, singing You Raise Me Up, withe the Ontario Pops Orchestra and the Etobicoke Centennial Choir a couple of weeks ago. (I still have to work on the hair, but they tell me the singing was good!) ;-) Tonight I’ll be soloing as well as singing with the choir in Dvorak’s Mass in D and Paul Winter’s amazing jazz mass, Missa Gaia. The choir and orchestra sound great. If you feel like a little trip to Etobicoke tonight you can get tickets online or at the door. Humber Valley United Church. 76 Anglesey Blvd., Etobicoke. 7:30 pm. www.etobicokecentennialchoir

Here are two of my favourite moments from the arrangement of “Velocipede Jimmy” that I have made for Mark Brownell’s upcoming production of “Three Men On A Bike.”

There are three verses, one each to feature Victor Pokinko, Matt Pilipiak and Scott Garland, who are reprising their roles from “Three Men In A Boat.” They did an amazing job with my music for that show. I can’t wait to hear them sing this.

And what does it all have to do with “wicked boys?” Pea Green Theatre will be providing you with dates and times to find out!

And if you’re looking for a composer or arranger, let me know.

Alas, choir has been cancelled tonight due to the storm. I love rehearsing Paul Winter’s Missa Gaia, or Earth Mass. Created cooperatively with his Paul Winter Consort, including the inspired Paul Halley, the piece includes recorded tracks of Wolf calls and Whale song. As you can see, Winter even provided credit to his wild collaborators as composers. As cantor, I get to echo the call of the wolf in the Kyrie melody.

Paired with the Dvorak Mass in D, this will be an exciting and diverse concert. Come hear us at Humber Valley United Church on April 6 at 7:30 pm. http://etobicokecentennialchoir.ca/this-season/

Jessye is coming to Toronto! I never had the good fortune of hearing her live, but her recordings and videos are treasures to me. I have the edition of her "Four Last Songs" that was recorded with Masur and the "Leizpig" Gewandhaus! I think they corrected the mistake for the next pressing. Back in the days of needing to carry cassette tapes around, that was one of the precious albums I listened to incessantly on a month long trip to Hong Kong and China. It was my solace on long flights and bus rides, and druing sleepless summer nights in cheap un-airconditioned hotels. I think I memorized every inflection and breath. It is still my standard. In this interview, her intelligence and grace come out with such clarity. And it is wonderful to know that even though she no longer sings, she is full of projects and activities. Brava, Jessye!
https://www.ludwig-van.com/toronto/2019/02/08/interview-jessye-norman-a-force-of-nature/

This is the first draft of the song that Emmy Hemmings will be singing at the Cabaret Voltaire in Mark Brownell’s new play, “MamaDada.” I picture this form of the song as the hit single that Emmy and Hugo Ball play on their Victrola when they’re at home. I’m kind of in love with it, but I fear I’ve strayed a bit too far into Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn territory, harmonically. But, Emmy (Annie Tuma) will “Dada it up” in her own, unique interpretation, so hopefully, we’ll get a bit closer to something that sounds proto-Weill/Eisler, and eccentrically Dada. I can’t wait to start rehearsing!

The second picture is my little buddy Wheatley, who keeps my company when I’m composing by sitting under the piano. He’s a composer’s best friend.

Neil Semer puts the “God” in “pedagodgy!” Okay, I know that’s not how it’s spelled, but I’m so thrilled with my lessons with him that I’m coining a new word. Neil knows the mechanics and technique of vocal production. He has a real gift for communicating that knowledge. He has great ears to hear what I’m doing vocally, and amazing intuition about what I am needing as a student. More than that, he leads from the heart. He is as perceptive about the emotional/psychological aspects of singing as he is about technique. He also understands that ultimately, the whole point is to tell stories, to communicate what is in our hearts, and to touch the hearts of our listeners. It is a truly wholistic, integral approach that has done wonders for me since I began studying with him last spring. Each lesson has unlocked another key, and I continually come away more confident and excited about the joy of singing. I go to each lesson with a sense of excitement and anticipation. I can not speak highly enough about him as a pedagogue. Or, in my new coinage, a “pedagod!” Thanks, Neil! À la prochaine!

Happy Belated Birthday to Helga Dernesch! My first experience of her dramatic and vocal artistry was in a Spoleto Festival production of Elektra, starring the divine Deborah Polaski. I knew nothing of Dernesch's Isolde with John Vickers and Herbert Von Karajan. By this time, she was in her "second career" singing lower voice character roles. Her Klytaemnestra was frightening! I remember her in rehearsals in Chanel suits wearing the highest of high heels. I don't remember whether this was her chosen wardrobe, or her costume, because the whole production was a real piece of regieheater, staged in stark white with a horse carcass hanging above the stage.

Polaski coloured her powerful voice with a cool sneakiness that beautifully set up her confrontation scene with the ferocious Dernesch and her manipulative duets with Chrysothemis. As chorus members, (you can see me just to Polaski's right in the picture behind the venetian blinds,) we were lucky because director Gunther Kramer used us as a kind of Greek chorus, onstage observing and dancing, giving us far more stage time than the usual traditional bit of off-stage singing that the score calls for.

It was my first exposure to Strauss's early "bad-boy" compositional style and I was smitten. It remains one of my favourite operas to this day. So, thank you to Ms. Dernesch for helping to educate me on what powerful possibilities are available to a singing actor.

http://ow.ly/RDcb30nCiqy

I’m off to Tuesday night rehearsal with the Etobicoke Centennial Choir as their tenor section lead and as tenor soloist in the Dvorak Mass in D. It is a new work to me, full of beautiful melodies and lush harmonies. The Agnus Dei begins with a tenor solo that features some of the most lyrical melodic writing. Lucky me! Come join us at Humber United Church on April 6 @ 7:30 pm. http://etobicokecentennialchoir.ca/

New tools of the trade have arrived! A broken Midi cable and lost audio cable brought Amazon.ca to the rescue. Now I can put the finishing touches on two songs for upcoming Pea Green Theatre Group productions.

I can't wait to be working again with Mark Brownell, Sue Miner, Nina Okens, Graham Conway. Reanne Spitzer, Annie Tuma, Jocelyn Adema, Scott Garland, Victor Pokinko, Matt Pilipiak, did I miss anyone? What amazing people do do creative work with! Some fun songs are on the way!

Congratulations to Julie Tepperman , Nathan Caroll, Jeff Lilico, Jennifer Tung and the rest of the creative team behind Hook Up. My friend Janet Dimond saw it the other night and was blown away. Glad to see that reviewers are agreeing!