The Mendelssohn Choir of Toronto (now the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir) performed its first concert on January 15, 1895 in Massey Music Hall under the direction of its founder Augustus Vogt.  All three went on to great things as part of Toronto’s burgeoning classical music scene.

You can read more about Massey Hall and Augustus Vogt in our History blog posts.

There would have been many Toronto luminaries in attendance. One we know of is John McCrae, who would go on to be the author of In Flanders Fields.

What was on the program for the Mendelssohn Choir’s first concert?

Daybreak by Alfred Robert Gaul)
Adagio from Op. 112 by Joachim Raff (played by the Beethoven Trio)
Magic of Spring by M. Weinzierl
Jewel Song, aria from Faust by Charles Gounod (sung by Lillian Blauvelt)
I hear the Soft Note by Arthur Sullivan
You stole my love by George Macfarren
Air, a cello solo, by J.S. Bach
Judge, Me, O God by Felix Mendelssohn
Polonaise in E by Franz Liszt (piano solo played by Harry Field)
Sweet and Low by T. Harold Mason
Au Printemps by Bouhy (sung by Lillian Blauvelt)
Fallih! Fallah by Frank Van der Stucken (sung by Lillian Blauvelt)
Airs Russes by Henri Wieniawski (violin solo played by Heinrich Klingenfeld)
Feast of Adonis by Adolf Jensen

See below for the review of the concert that appeared in the February 1895 issue of the McMaster University Monthly.