Season finale

My singing performance season ended this week. It has been a remarkable year for the choir and a great learning experience for me as a singer.

In February, we presented Oratorio Terezin in Carnegie Hall, New York. Canadian composer Ruth Fazal came across a book of poems written by children in Terezin, the half-way house camp in Czech Republic for the Jews during the holocaust before their deportation to Auschwitz. In 2003, Oratorio Terezin was born, in memory of the talent and courage of the victims.

Our performance in New York was the American premiere of the piece and it was a true honour to pay tribute to the music and to the history in one of the most gracious music halls in North America.

In April, we presented several beautiiful but rarely performed choral pieces by Brahms - Schicksalslied, op.54 (Song of Destiny) and Nänie, op. 82. as well as the Alto Rhapsody with soloist Susan Platts. We also sang Mendelssohn's Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), a very popular piece in its epoch, and often regarded as inspired by Beethoven's Symphony no. 9. The concert arguably was one of our best in my three years with the choir. One could feel the concentration, the passion and the discipline shared by 150 of us on stage, responding to the most subtle gesture of the maestro Noel Edison.

Fellow choir members often say our singing commitment is like a second job. Well, it is and the reward we get every year - the friendship in the choir, the training and discipline and the sheer joy of music making - makes many of us go back for more.

Famine Remembrance

Tonight, I'll be performing with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in a fund raising concert to support the Ireland Park Foundation. The Foundation is setting up a new memorial park in Toronto in honour of the Irish people who escaped the plague and came to Canada to help build this country.

President Mary McAleese will be the guest of honour this evening and we'll present Famine Remembrance, a modern oratorio by Patrick Cassidy.

Serenade to Music

I know summer is here when our Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is getting ready for the Proms. Our choir collaborates with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra every year on this concert, along with Handel's Messiah during the Christmas season.

Bramwell Tovey returns this year to raise his baton tomorrow at the Roy Thomson Hall. The concert is a tribute to the Proms summer festival in London England. In Toronto, we present three performances, all British and Canadian music, starting tomorrow. We'll begin the concert with Vaughan William's Serenade to Music. What a great piece to set the tone for an evening of fine music making.

So happy Tovey is bringing back We'll gather Lilacs and other unabashed tear jerkers! Visit TSO.ca for info and tickets.

La Môme (ou La Vie en Rose à l’Amérique du Nord)

Le film « La Môme » est sorti cette fin de semaine à Toronto. Il raconte la vie de la chanteuse française le plus célèbre, Edith Piaf. Les amoureux de Piaf, ses dépendances de la drogue et l’alcool et sa mauvaise humeur sont bien connus. Le réalisateur Oliver Dahan nous présent la chanteuse absolument candide mais il nous aide de comprendre Piaf, une orpheline qui ne pouvait jamais aimer elle-même, sauf que le personnage de chanteuse ce qui le monde adoraient.

Plutôt que raconter une histoire chronologique, M Dahan utilise les chansons de Piaf populaires pour souligner les expériences de l’orpheline, la chanteuse et l’amoureuse. Par exemple, la chanson Milord n’est pas seulement une jolie mélodie de cabaret, mais un conte de la vie qu’elle a vu quand elle a passé son enfance dans la maison de prostitution de sa grand-mère.

Marion Cotillard nous présent d’abord la jeune Piaf, une musicienne de la rue, jusqu'à la vieille qui s’est détruite pars les drogues et pars un cœur cassé. L'actrice est vraiment formidable.

Piaf composait le poème « la vie en rose » après elle a été tombée d’amour pour le boxeur Marcel Cerdon. La chanson est encore populaire, je pense, c’est parce qu’elle représente la force de Piaf : sa passion et s’amour pour la musique, ses amateurs et pour Marcel, son vrai amoureux.