The Upper Canada Choristers and their Latin ensemble Cantemos light up the night with their holiday season concert.
Laurie Evan Fraser conducts, with Hye Won (Cecilia) Lee as pianist. M.C. Nora Dunn introduces an engaging mix of Christmas music from over the centuries, in English and Spanish, along with songs for Chanukah and Kwanzaa, and more.
Subtitled “Celebrating the Life of Matthew Secaur”, the concert remembers with gratitude the valued chorister who passed away unexpectedly in hospital this summer at 49, following a brief illness. Secaur had written two songs for the choir including the rollicking Christmas sea shanty Memories of Summer, which the choir performs in tribute to him.
Laurie Evan Fraser’s arrangement of the 15th century English Boar’s Head Carol opens the concert, which continues with Haydn’s Though My Soul Shall Set in Darkness (a.k.a. The Astronomers Epitaph), and selections from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Break Forth O Beauteous Heavenly Light) and John Rutter’s When Icicles Hang (Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind). Among a set of lullabies are familiar English and Welsh songs and carols, Czech composer Miroslav Raichl’s arrangement of Golden Slumbers, and the premiere of Find the Beauty by Laurie Evan Fraser to a text by Jacqui Atkin celebrating the birth of Jacqui’s grandniece.
Falling on the eve of Chanukah, the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, the concert includes Stephen Schwartz’s We are Lights, arranged by Carole Stephens. Harambee (Let’s Pull Together), arranged by Chad Weirick, with a text in Swahili, celebrates the seven-day African cultural celebration of Kwanzaa, which begins Dec. 26.
In addition to a couple of top 10 numbers from the 1930s and ’40s, the audience, as always, will get its own chance to sing along with a couple of holiday favorites.
The Latin ensemble Cantemos makes its customary appearance in songs from South America – Bajaste del cielo con luz primarosa (You came down from the sky with exquisite light) in honor of Venezuelan composer’s Modesta Bor’s centenary; the Afro-Colombian song Velo que bonito, celebrating the Nativity and Adoration of the Baby Jesus; and El cielo canta (Heaven is Singing for Joy) from the Inca empire of Argentina. Cantemos’ tenor and bass ensemble, Encanto, sings Miguel Delgado Estévez’s Quieres Contar mis estellas? (Do you Want to Count My Stars?), arranged by César Alejandro Carrillo of Venezuela.
Tickets available via Eventbrite: https://bit.ly/3VQsdyP.
The concert also streams live via the choir’s website. While there is no charge, donations are gratefully welcomed.
The concert is sponsored by The Mills Team, Royal Lepage Signature Realty.