The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir will finish their season with epic Beethoven and a neighborhood live performance, then launch 2025/26 with a brand new Composer-in-Residence. Conductor Jean-Sébastien Vallée will lead the choir — accompanied by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony — in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis on April 4.
That’s adopted by a Neighborhood Live performance spotlighting Duruflé’s Requiem and new works by present Composer-in-Residence Aaron Manswell on Could 9.
When their new season kicks off within the fall of 2025, Stephanie Martin will step into the position of Composer-in-Residence.
Missa solemnis in D main, Op. 123 by Ludwig van Beethoven / arr. by J. Linckelmann
April 4
Beethoven himself described his Missa solemnis as he best work, composed between 1819 and 1823, across the identical interval that he started work on his seminal Symphony No. 9.
Beethoven took the time to check monophonic plainchant, a really early type of Christian sacred music, together with the sacred music of the Renaissance and Baroque durations, to arrange for what can be his second and final mass. It’s additionally his largest and longest composition exterior of Fidelio.
Musically, he mixed components of the normal Mass and the music he composed for live performance efficiency. Due to its size, it’s really problematic for liturgical use, and he conceived of efficiency as a live performance oratorio slightly than in a church service.
It premiered in Saint Petersburg, Russia on April 7, 1824, sponsored by his patron Prince Nikolai Golitsyn, who would fee Beethoven’s string quartets Nos. 12, 13 and 15.
The work itself, nevertheless, was devoted to a different patron (and buddy), Archduke Rudolf of Austria. Beethoven wrote the piece, in reality, to have fun the investiture of the Archduke within the position of Archbishop of Olomouc.
That occurred, nevertheless, in 1820, a full three years earlier than the composition was accomplished.
The Missa solemnis was completed simply 4 years earlier than Beethoven died. He was by then utterly deaf, and suffering from unwell well being, and had largely withdrawn from society due to his illnesses.
The composer inscribed the opening of the Kyrie with the phrases, “From the center — could it go once more to the center!”
The work has a historical past with TMChoir as effectively; the Choir gave the Canadian premiere of the work in 1927.
Featured Performers:
- Jean-Sébastien Vallée, conductor
- Tracy Cantin, soprano
- Simona Genga, mezzo-soprano
- Frédéric Antoun, tenor
- Brett Polegato, baritone
- Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
- Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony
Discover extra particulars and tickets for the April 4 efficiency [HERE].
Duruflé’s Requiem (Neighborhood Live performance)
Could 9
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choirs one hundred and thirtieth anniversary season closes with a Neighborhood Live performance.
Duruflé’s Requiem, Op. 9 (1947, revised 1961)
Maurice Duruflé wrote his setting of the Latin Requiem for solo baritone, mezzo-soprano, combined choir, and organ (or orchestra and organ). He wrote it in the course of the German Occupation of France in 1941. The Vichy regime supplied money to a number of French composers to jot down prolonged works. Duruflé was commissioned to jot down a symphonic poem for 10,000 francs, however he determined to create a Requiem as an alternative.
He was nonetheless composing in 1944 when the Vichy regime collapsed after the liberation of France. Actually, he’d proceed engaged on it for one more few years, finishing it lastly in 1947.
He composed the Requiem in 9 actions, and included themes from the Gregorian Mass for the Lifeless.
It was revealed in 1948, and in the long run, Duruflé demanded and obtained 30,000 francs for his work.
Additionally on this system are:
- One Factor at a Time by this season’s Composer-in-Residence, Aaron Manswell
- Little Welcome Son by Crescenzo DiCecco, rising composer and winner of this yr’s Debbie Fleming Prize for Choral Composition
Moreover, a collection of a cappella items from TMChoir’s anniversary yr recording, Keep in mind: 130 Years of Canadian Choral Music, together with a chunk by incoming Composer-in-Residence Stephanie Martin (see beneath), spherical out the live performance.
Featured Performers:
- Jean-Sébastien Vallée, conductor
- Toronto Mendelssohn Choir
- Aaron Manswell, composer
- Jonathan Oldengarm, organ
- Irene Gregorio, piano
Discover extra particulars and tickets for the Could 9 live performance [HERE].
2025/26 Composer-in-Residence Stephanie Martin
Canadian composer and conductor Stephanie Martin will be a part of Toronto Mendelssohn Choir because the 2025/26 Composer-in-Residence. Throughout her tenure, she’ll be including to the Choir’s repertoire with new works written for them.
She earned levels from the College of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier College, and is an Affiliate of the Royal Canadian Faculty of Organists. In the present day, Stephanie Martin is affiliate professor of music at York College’s Faculty of the Arts, Media, Efficiency, and Design, in addition to a working composer and conductor. Conductor emeritus of Pax Christi Chorale, she is the Music Director of Schola Magdalena, a ladies’s choir devoted to the music of the medieval interval, in addition to compositions by up to date Canadian composers.
She is understood for each instrumental and choral works, which have been carried out throughout North America, Europe, and in Australia. Stephanie’s items have been commissioned by Voces Capituli, Antwerp; the Canadian Males’s Refrain; the Winnipeg Organ Pageant; Saskatoon Chamber Singers; Halifax Camerata; Elora Singers, Kitchener-Waterloo Grand Philharmonic, and choirs in California, Illinois, New Mexico, Texas, and Virginia, amongst different organizations and ensembles.
She has recorded for the Naxos, Marquis, and Dorian labels, and her composition Nothing Gold Can Keep is featured on TMChoir’s album, Keep in mind: 130 Years of Canadian Choral Music.
We’ll look ahead to listening to her works to come back with TMChoir.
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.