Friday, January 7, 2011

Adult Choir TOUR!?!?!?!?!?!?

In the summer of 2009, the MHC Girls' Choir went on tour to France and The Netherlands. One week of the trip was spent at a very unique choral music festival - Europa Cantat Utrecht 2009. The Europa Cantat festival takes place every three years and allows individual singers, choristers, and ensembles to meet people from around the world, and listen and perform choral music with one another.

From July 27 - August 5, 2012, the festival takes place again, this time in Torio, Italy. The website (Europa Cantat Torino 2012) is still under construction, however, you can get a good idea of what the festival will look like by checking out the Utrecht 2009 link above.

Because the Girls' Choir (and all of the accompanying adults) enjoyed the last festival so much, I am proposing that the MHC Adult Choir attend the 2012 festival in Torino. I realize that the summer of 2012 is quite far in the future, however, because of the logistical nature of a trip such as this it is important to start thinking about it as early as possible.

A few words about how the festival is organized:

Each registrant chooses an "atilier" or a choir that he/she will join for the duration of the festival. The choice of atiliers is amazing; choirs range from hip hop to classical to stage production and more. At the end of the week, each atilier performs what they've prepared. Each atilier is conducted by a world renowned guest clinician.

Entire choirs can register for the festival and therefore have the opportunity to put on several concerts of their own repertoire throughout the week. As the MHC Adult Choir, we would likely have a very Canadian repertoire list and perform concerts dressed like Canadians (whatever that is...).

The great thing about this set up is that we can determine our level involvement depending on how many people are planning to go. If we have a group of people who constitute a viable choir (that is, enough sopranos, altos, etc.) then we can register as a choir. If not, then we register as individuals, but still attend as a group.

There are certainly many things to consider regarding an Adult Choir tour. At this point, I'd just like you to consider whether this would be an option for you. Spouses, families, and friends would all be invited, of course, and they could determine their own level of involvement. There would also be opportunity to extend our tour to include other Italian destinations if we want.

Consider it and email me with your thoughts!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Mozart Missa Brevis in D minor

Happy Winter Adult Choir!

As you know, we are going to tackle Mozart's Missa Brevis in D minor this semester.  I've put together a playlist of some good videos on YouTube that will help you learn this piece. Click here to check it out!

Because the Missa Brevis is short (it is literally translated as "short mass" and only includes the Mass Ordinary) we will have to learn something else in order to fill out a concert.  I am currently considering a few options, but haven't come to a final decision.  You can, however, expect something that will compliment Mozart for the first half of our concert.

Enjoy the videos and we'll see you back for our first rehearsal on

Tuesday, January 11, 7pm, MHC Cultural Centre!

Happy New Year!