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Toronto, Ontario Canada M6G 1S6

Celebrating the Art of Song

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Sunday Afternoon Series 2009/10

In the Sunday Series, each program is set around a theme — literary, musical or historical — weaving the musical selections around interesting readings from letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, poetry.

All concerts take place at 2:30 pm in Walter Hall in the Edward Johnson Building, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, 80 Queen's Park Circle, Toronto. Complimentary tea is served at intermission.


 

 
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

 

Sunday, October 18

Virginia Hatfield soprano
Lynne McMurtry mezzo
Michael Barrett tenor
Alexander Dobson baritone
Christopher Newton and
Fiona Reid readers

 

Tennyson, Queen Victoria's Poet Laureate, was born two hundred years ago and lived into the last decade of the nineteenth century. He was, in many ways, the epitome of an era sublime in its confidence; yet a biographer described him as a “difficult and often rebellious character, upon whom the mantle of respectability never sat very securely.” Settings of his magical poetry range from warhorses of the drawing-room to rarer French, American and Canadian songs.

 

Blessed Cecilia

Sunday, November 22

Shannon Mercer soprano
James McLean tenor
Giles Tomkins bass-baritone

On her feast-day, the patron saint of music receives our grateful homage. One of her most devoted sons was Henry Purcell. His exact birthdate is unknown, but by common consent the 350th anniversary is being marked this year. One of Purcell’s greatest devotees, Benjamin Britten, was born on St. Cecilia’s Day – we can seize the opportunity of celebrating the songs of two English masters, while we acknowledge the healing and sustaining power of music.




 

The Lady of the Lake,
and other tales

Sunday, January 24

Anita Krause mezzo
Christopher Enns tenor
James Levesque baritone
with vocal ensemble

Our annual Greta Kraus Schubertiad, honouring the memory of our beloved mentor, centres around the settings which Schubert made of poems from The Lady of the Lake. Sir Walter Scott’s narrative poem was published two hundred years ago and immediately inspired music from many different composers. Schubert gives us his famous Ave Maria, together with other fine songs and partsongs which will come to vivid life in the context of Scott’s epic story.


Hugo Wolf, the Mighty
Miniaturist

Sunday, March 14

Monica Whicher soprano
Michael Colvin tenor
Brett Polegato baritone

With three of our finest recitalists, the day after his 150th birthday, we celebrate the extraordinary career of one who revered the massive music-dramas of Wagner, but who achieved his success at the opposite end of the scale, in songs of a jewel-like perfection. His burning intensity of expression demands, in the words of his biographer, Frank Walker, “the grateful love of inarticulate humanity, for whom he sang of truth and beauty.”


City of Villages

Sunday, May 2

Lucia Cesaroni soprano
Allyson McHardy mezzo
Lawrence Wiliford tenor
Benjamin Covey baritone

Over the two hundred or so years of its existence, Toronto has absorbed cultural influences from the four corners of the world. Diversity is reflected in the various communities which make up our city; our musical and literary tapestry evokes some of this richness. Our singers will present varied repertoire, including recreations of some of our own commissioned works. Come and enjoy a village walkabout in song!


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