Please join us at our next reading on Sunday, March 24 at 2 PM. Conductor David Arnot-Johnston will lead us in a run-through of Beethoven’s “Symphony No 9 Choral Finale”. The Canadian conductor, tenor and composer/arranger, David Arnot-Johnston, obtained his Master of Music degree in Music History and Performance from the University of
Toronto. He completed the graduate program in Early Music at the Koninklijk Conservatorium of The Hague, Netherlands. As a tenor soloist, David has performed
with several groups, including Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra & Chamber Choir, the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal, Opera Atelier, Dancemakers, and The Toronto Consort. He has sung as a soloist under Sigiswald Kuijken, Andrew Parrott, William Christie, and with Emma Kirkby. He has recorded as an ensemble soloist on the Naxos, CBC,
Marquis, and RCA/BMG labels with Aradia Ensemble, Tafelmusik, Canadian Brass, Toronto Consort, and Theatre of Early Music. David has been music teacher at Canada’s National Ballet School, conductor/coach of Early Music Ensembles at Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, Early Music Ensemble Conductor & Vocal Coach at Lake Field Music, and Conductor of Hart House Singers at the University of Toronto
Beethoven’s Ninth was his last complete symphony and it premiered by popular demand in Vienna in 1824 with the largest orchestra he had ever assembled, although his initial
choice of venue was Berlin. We will read only the final 4th movement which features four vocal soloists and a chorus in what is commonly referred to as Ode to Joy. The lyrics come from Friedrich Schiller’s 1785 poem An die Freude, a celebration of the brotherhood of mankind, and Beethoven added to these lyrics. In 1972, Ode to Joy was adopted by the Council of Europe as the Anthem of Europe, and then by the European Union in 1985 to honour its shared values and emphasize solidarity, freedom, and peace.