Choral - my/maSCENA

Newswire | Voces Boreales 20th Season Set to Shine

By Newswire on 9 September 2025 Choral, Classical Music, Montreal, Vocal

20 years of bold artistic vision calls for a grand celebration! This anniversary season is both a tribute to our history and a promise for the future. With our new subscription plan and inclusive pricing, it has never been easier to join the celebration. This season is sure to be an unforgettable experience! Towards Peace Saturday October 18, 7:30 p.m. Église du Très-Saint-Nom-de-Jésus What if peace were more than just a dream? To mark its 20th anniversary, Voces Boreales invites you to an extraordinary evening—a musical journey celebrating peace and the enduring human pursuit of it. As the centerpiece, Friede…

Opéra bouffe du Québec: Julien Patenaude Unveils a New Era

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 3 September 2025 Choral, Opera

Opéra bouffe du Québec (OBQ) kicks off its season with a new artistic and musical director, Julien Patenaude, who succeeds Simon Fournier. Known for his sense of humour and comedy, Patenaude is a great fan of operetta and, in fact, has previously sung three roles with the company. One of the first things he had to do after taking the helm last December was to choose the main work of the 2025-26 season. His decision quickly fell on Franz Lehár’s popular operetta The Merry Widow. “I hope the selected works will be useful,” says Patenaude. “The Merry Widow is staged…

Choral Calendar: Choir Across Canada

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 3 September 2025 Choral

Montreal Le lys et le lion Sept. 14 at 2:30, 3:30, 5:45, and 6:45 p.m. in the Latin Quarter The Rugissants, directed by Xavier Brossard-Ménard, present this walking concert in Montreal’s Latin Quarter. The departure point varies according to showtime. The choir will interpret the biggest classics of the French songbook: from Vigneault to Poulenc, passing by the Soucy family, Serge Gainsbourg, Hubert Lenoir, and many more! www.rugissants.com La damnation de Faust Sept. 17 & 18, at 7:30 p.m., at Maison symphonique de Montréal Rafael Payare directs the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM) in this concert showcasing Berlioz’s masterpiece inspired…

Children’s Requiem protests modern crimes against children

By Newswire on 27 August 2025 Choral, Classical Music, Newswire, Orchestral, Vocal

Wroclaw, August 27, 2025—On 10 September at 7 p.m., at St. Mary Magdalene’s Cathedral in Wrocław (Poland), as part of the 60th Wratislavia Cantans International Music Festival, the premiere of Zygmunt Krauze’s Children’s Requiem will take place. This monumental work for two soloists, two children’s choirs, a mixed choir and an orchestra is the composer’s loud and poignant cry of protest against the evil that affects the most innocent and defenceless among us every day. It is a funeral mass dedicated to all children killed in conflicts and wars in the modern world, in which, instead of liturgical text, we will hear,…

Erica Petrocelli (Jitka); Members of the Bard Festival Chorale; "Dalibor" by Bedřich Smetana; Bard SummerScape 2025; photo by Maria Baranova

A Czech Masterpiece Reclaimed – “Dalibor” at Bard SummerScape

By Charles Geyer on 31 July 2025 Choral, Classical Music, Opera, Romantic, Theatre

Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, most famous for his comic “folk” opera, The Bartered Bride (Prodaná nevěsta), culled from the myth-shrouded annals of Czech history the material for his only foray into tragic opera, Dalibor. The result is a lush, melodic late Romantic tale of knights, vendettas, heroic resistance, chivalric romance, and – most centrally – male bonding that reaches beyond the grave. And as this year’s featured opera highlight at Bard College’s 2025 SummerScape festival (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York), Dalibor is being accorded what appears to be its historic first-ever fully-staged professional production in America. Czech-ered Past… Premiering in Prague in…

NAC Kipnes Lantern. Photo: Trevor Lush

Celebrate Canada Day with a free concert featuring Alexander Shelley and the NAC Orchestra

By Newswire on 25 June 2025 Canadian Music, Choral, Classical Music, Newswire, Orchestral, Ottawa, Vocal

June 25, 2025 – OTTAWA – Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra is delighted to host a free Canada Day concert featuring an all-star line-up of Canadian talent. Led by NAC Orchestra Music Director Alexander Shelley and supported by the Orchestra’s Resident Conductor Henry Kennedy and guest conductor Benoit Gauthier, the program includes music from celebrated Canadian composers Ian Cusson, John Estacio, Kati Agócs, and Jordan Nobles. Bilingual slam poet, musician, and composer Yao returns to the NAC’s main stage to host this year’s event, which features several local and visiting artists, including NAC Orchestra Principal Trumpet Karen Donnelly, the Hamilton…

Spiritus Chamber Choir: 30 years of Canadian Choral Excellence

By Kaitlyn Chan on 3 June 2025 Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Choral, Classical Music, Interviews, Vocal

In 1995, David Wilson founded the Spiritus Chamber Choir. This Calgary-based ensemble quickly grew in popularity and esteem, filling a space in the community for a high-level chamber choir. During Wilson’s six-year tenure, they received an International Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award (1999) and reached the semifinals in the CBC National Choral Competition (2000). In the 30 years since Spiritus was founded, the choir has become recognized nationally and internationally for its excellence. One of the pivotal moments in its history was winning second prize and the Heinrich Schütz Perpetual Trophy for the best performance of a work by the…

Elora Festival: Rustic Allure

By Madeline Boldt on 29 May 2025 Canadian Music, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Vocal

The Elora Festival, positioned at the crossroads where great music and rural charm meet, is continuously redefining the musical experience. One of its venues, the Gambrel Barn, is used as a storage space for salt and sand 11 months of the year, but transformed into a concert hall unlike any other for the month of July. An acoustically-spectacular space with wide open doors, the Gambrel Barn offers music lovers a uniquely beautiful experience. “I remember one concert a number of years ago,” says Artistic Director Mark Vuorinen. “This torrential storm came ripping through for about 20 minutes. We actually had…

Vivian Chen (harp) with Chor Leoni conducted by Erick Lichte. Photo: Philip Jack

Review | The Big Roar: Chor Leoni’s Heartwarming Celebration of Choral Music

By Kaitlyn Chan on 6 May 2025 Canadian Music, Choral, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Vancouver, Vocal, West

On May 3, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts was filled with the enthusiastic voices of both young and experienced choral singers. This event, The Big Roar, is Chor Leoni’s signature community choral festival. Chor Leoni was joined by MYVoice educational choirs, the young singers of its PRÉLUDE program, its Emerging Choral Artist Program (ECAP), and The Leonids, bringing joy and vigor to this special afternoon event. The programme was diverse, featuring traditional Malaysian folk music, Broadway as well as classical a cappella pieces such as “O Nata Lux.” After the intermission, Chor Leoni performed Melissa Dunphy’s major choral…

Lebrecht Weekly | Surprise Box Songs from Japan and Europe

By Norman Lebrecht on 18 April 2025 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Lebrecht Weekly

Like every reviewer I love surprises, and nothing has surprised me more in a month of Easter Sundays than this delicate and brilliant pairing of Japanese and Viennese classical songs. The album notes are skimpy and mostly in Japanese so I’m guessing here, but I’ll credit the selection of songs as well as the performance to Misaki Kobayashi, apparently a soprano in the Berlin radio choir. The pairings are so smart they are practically symbiotic. Kobayashi opens with a springtime song by Rentaro Taki (1879-1903) and matches it with Beethoven’s little-sung Ich liebe dich. Who’d have thought? It works brilliantly.…

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