Media
Media Room
October 5, 2016
TMC offers a powerful interpretation of one of the pinnacles of choral music – Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah
2016-17 Season
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir celebrates Artistic Director Noel Edison’s 20th anniversary season with the Choir with a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s great oratorio, Elijah at Koerner Hall on November 5th. The 135-voice TMC and Festival Orchestra will be joined by four critically-acclaimed soloists. American bass-baritone David Pittsinger, praised for his roles in opera and as Emile de Becque in South Pacific, will make his debut performance of Elijah.
October 4, 2016
Fireworks! Mendelssohn’s Elijah Takes Off on Guy Fawkes Day
2016-17 Season
David Perlman, The Wholenote: What are the odds that there would be three separate performances of Felix Mendelssohn’s final completed oratorio, Elijah, all taking place this coming November 5? It’s not as though there’s some particularly significant Mendelssohnian anniversary in the offing: he was born in 1809 and died in 1847, at age 38, 14 months after Elijah premiered, in English, at the Birmingham Town Hall, as part of the Birmingham Festival. But by one of those odd twists of planning and timing (and without any discussion among themselves), Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Pax Christi Chorale and Chorus Niagara have all scheduled the work, same day and time, as a major part of their respective 2016/17 seasons.
September 27, 2016
Elijah Program Notes
2016-17 Season
Noel Edison speaks on why he chose Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah to celebrate his 20th season with the Choir: “How could I not choose a work by Felix Mendelssohn, the namesake of the Choir? And Elijah is one of my all-time favourite orchestral-choral works. Orchestral works are in the Choir’s DNA and this work is chock-full of big chorus effects. I love the drama and the way the story plays out — it’s religious opera bursting with the hellfire and brimstone of the Old Testament. And it’s tuneful and fulfilling, full of one beautiful piece after another. Enjoy!”
September 13, 2016
TMC presents the Elora Festival Singers in concert
2016-17 Season
The TMC launches its 2016/17 season by presenting the Grammy-nominated Elora Festival Singers in concert on October 16. In this season, celebrating Noel Edison’s 20th with the Choir, the TMC is proud to give audiences an opportunity to experience Noel’s internationally-acclaimed chamber choir, the Elora Festival Singers (the other half of his artistic life), in Toronto. The EFS will perform a cappella works by the Italian Renaissance master Palestrina and contemporary composers Arvo Pärt, John Tavener and Jocelyn Morlock.
August 18, 2016
TMC part of ground-breaking choral audience research by Chorus America
2016-17 Season
Chorus America has just released the results of its ground-breaking two-year long study into choral music audiences and the impact of choral concerts. The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir was one of…
August 15, 2016
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir celebrates Artistic Director Noel Edison’s 20th season
2016-17 Season
The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (TMC) presents a season of inspiring choral music for 2016/17 – from an intimate a cappella performance to a grand oratorio with full orchestra. In November the Choir celebrates Noel Edison’s 20th season with one of his favourite works, Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah, at Koerner Hall.
Noel Edison has been widely recognized and appreciated by choristers, critics and patrons for his skillful interpretive work with both choir and orchestra. His vision for the TMC is to create performances that connect audiences emotionally with some of the greatest traditional and contemporary choral repertoire.
July 9, 2016
ELORA FESTIVAL opens with a celebration of life, love and redemption!
2015-16 Season
David Richards, Toronto Concert Reviews. Last night, the Opening Night Gala (of the Elora Festival) brought together the widely acclaimed Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Elora Festival Singers, the Elora Festival Orchestra and four superb soloists in two magnificent and large choral orchestral works. The performance took place on the outskirts of the historic village in a mammoth storage barn transformed into a cathedral-like concert hall. The program opened with moving multi-verse arrangements of ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘O Canada’. The audience felt goosebumps from the glorious choral-orchestral sound that gave a hint of the very special evening that was about to unfold.
June 6, 2016
Conductor And Soloist Try The Soft Sell With The TSO
2015-16 Season
Arthur Kaptainis, Musical Toronto. Expectation and fulfillment: We get a bit of each every day, and giant helpings whenever an orchestra like the Toronto Symphony programs Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé as a complete ballet. This score is languorous and lavish in equal measure, and if the first of two performances in Roy Thomson Hall under the baton of Juanjo Mena was a little heavy on the languor, the emphatic moments had their properly fulfilling effect.
May 17, 2016
T.O. concert for Queen’s 90th was indeed Happy and Glorious
2015-16 Season
Martin Knelman, Toronto Star. It was a highly enjoyable celebration of the Queen’s 90th birthday with a distinctively Canadian twist. And it should have been on national TV in prime time so millions could have joined the party…. From an Ontario perspective, the most stirring mix of provincial pride and nostalgia came when the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir sang “A Place to Stand,” which became an anthem for the Ontario Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, which the Queen visited.