Program Notes

Media Room

December 17, 2024

Festival of Carols Program Notes 2024

2024-25 Season

TMChoir_24-25_event_festival

The program notes are written by Rena Roussin, Musicologist-in-Residence. Welcome to the 25th annual Festival of Carols! A beloved holiday tradition in Toronto that is now a quarter-century old, the Festival…

October 30, 2024

The Love Affair: Waltz & Tango Program Notes

2024-25 Season

The Love Affair: Waltz & Tango concert

The program notes are written by Rena Roussin, Musicologist-in-Residence. The central pieces of tonight’s program—Brahms’s Liebeslieder Wälzer and Palmeri’s Misatango—are both inspired by dance forms associated with romantic love. However, the…

April 18, 2024

Verdi Program Notes

2023-24 Season

The program notes are written by Rena Roussin, Musicologist-in-Residence. After the 1871 Cairo premiere of his opera Aida, Giuseppe Verdi announced his retirement from opera composition. While he would eventually renege…

February 13, 2024

Winterreise Program Notes

2023-24 Season

The program notes are written by Rena Roussin, Musicologist-in-Residence. From the mid-eighteenth-century through to the end of the nineteenth, numerous German-speaking writers (the most famous among them including Goethe and Heine)…

November 13, 2023

Festival of Carols Program Notes 2023

2023-24 Season

The program notes are written by Rena Roussin, Musicologist-in-Residence. Welcome to the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s 2023 Festival of Carols! A December tradition for the choir for many years, the Festival of…

September 28, 2023

Carmina Burana Program Notes 2023

2023-24 Season

The program notes are written by Rena Roussin, Musicologist-in-Residence.   Carmina Burana opens with epic music and astute commentary: “O Fortune, like the moon, you are changeable, ever waxing and waning.”…

September 7, 2023

In Time Program Notes

2023-24 Season

TMChoir In Time Concert Poster

The program notes are written by Rena Roussin, Musicologist-in-Residence.   Welcome to the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers’ opening concert of the 2023-2024 season! This  season begins with a collaboration in musical and…

March 22, 2023

Bach Mass in B Minor Program Notes

2022-23 Season

The program notes are written by Rena Roussin, Musicologist-in-Residence.   Hailed by Bach expert Christoph Wolff as Bach’s “musical and artistic creed,” the Mass in b minor is deservedly considered one…

March 7, 2023

Little Match Girl Passion Program Notes

2022-23 Season

The program notes are written by Rena Roussin, Musicologist-in-Residence.   Described by TMChoir leadership as a “musical vigil drawing awareness to the problems of hunger and homelessness in our city,” the…

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