Volume 25 Issue 6 - March 2020

St. Michael’s Concerts
presents
Mozart
Requiem
Thursday, March 12 | 7:00 p.m.
St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica
65 Bond Street, Toronto
St. Michael’s Choir School Schola Cantorum
Schola Cantorum Orchestra
Guest Soloists
Teri Dunn – Soprano
Krisztina Szabó – Mezzo-Soprano
Michael Colvin – Tenor
Robert Pomakov – Bass
Conductor
S. Bryan Priddy
Freewill offering only.
For more information visit:
www.stmichaelscathedral.com/concerts
Beat by Beat | Choral Scene
Graduation With
High Honours in Song
BRIAN CHANG
The end of March and beginning of April mark a special time for
anyone in the post-secondary education sector. The term comes
to a close, the academic school year settles into its final exams,
papers, and for music students – final concerts. This month we’re
exploring the end-of-term concerts at Western University, University
of Toronto (my alma mater), and York University.
University of Toronto is lucky in its breadth of ensembles and
guests. The program is also very large with four major choral
ensembles and over 200 students across the various ensembles. As
conductors Mark Ramsay, Elaine Choi, Lori-Anne Dolloff, and David
Fallis share, this work begins the previous year before the students
even start classes.
It’s a delicate balance to program works that are familiar while challenging;
pedagogical, but fun. Not all the music needs to be new, because as
Ramsay shares, “Working with a new conductor and/or singing with new
colleagues can bring a fresh perspective to a familiar work. Singers also
sometimes note [by revisiting familiar works] that their own skills have
improved. Elements such as break management, vowel unification and
dynamic control that were challenging the first time, may now be easier.”
But they note, “It’s important to have some challenging music late in the
season to keep a goal to strive for.” The MacMillan singers, under David
Fallis also have the pleasure of singing a composition written by one of
their own, Katharine Petkovski’s The Angels.
For many singers, some songs they are singing may be familiar,
some may not. John Holland at York University’s music program notes
that he strives to “work towards finding a mix between unique music
and music that will challenge the singers to raise their level of musicality.”
It can’t just be all choral masterworks or the most popular
music out there. The challenge is part of the work, and for Holland,
“keeping choral students interested and excited, first and foremost,
comes from the repertoire.” Holland’s approach is to create a
welcoming and productive atmosphere that helps set the stage for
a positive musical experience. “The students learn that they will be
treated as professionals and are also held accountable for their work
outside of the rehearsals, and that has helped foster a choral program
that has produced many first-class choral musicians.”
The Value of Music Education
“Choir provides our students with crucial opportunities to explore
and develop their professional musical selves,” shares Patrick Murray
about the choral faculty at the Don Wright Faculty of Music at Western
University. I asked him about the importance of setting students up for
success as they graduate. “Be that through solo singing opportunities,
furthering their ensemble skills, mentoring younger singers, leadership
roles producing concerts and social events, or opportunities to
connect with the community through concerts off-campus and on
regional tours, ensemble singing sets our singers up to value their own
musicianship and the role they want to serve in the community in
their future careers.”
Many of them will go on to sing in choirs for years to come, lead
ensembles of their own and teach a new generation of musicians.
(Murray’s colleague, Gloria Gassi, was my one of my high school
music teachers.)
The impact of solid music education is essential to a vibrant cultural
landscape that enhances and vitalizes our communities. Murray
continues, “It’s important that a musical education develop students’
critical thinking skills to question the canon, value works by living
composers and other musical traditions, and think about what they
will teach their own future students.”
32 | March 2020 thewholenote.com