An Invitation from our Music Director
September 2005
Dear Choral Music Lover,
It is with great honour and pleasure that I take on the position of
Music Director of the Cantata Singers of Ottawa. I am looking
forward to leading the group in its future musical endeavours, and I
am glad to take over the baton from such an artistic and capable
musical personality as Laurence Ewashko.
I hope that you'll join us for the Cantata Singers’ 42nd
season. Choral treasures await you, your family and your friends:
bring them along to our concerts!
The Cantata Singers of Ottawa have once again been invited to the
Outaouais Festival of Sacred Music, where we will perform
Sergei Rachmaninov's
Vespers, a milestone in
Russian sacred choral music.
Our fruitful relationship with the National Arts Centre will continue
as well. Please join us for a concert of
seasonal highlights in the days before Christmas at the NAC.
In the second half of the season, we will present three
concerts, each of a completely different character.
The first concert will take you on a 500-year journey of choral settings to
The Book of Psalms.
You will hear masterworks by composers such as Heinrich
Schütz and Felix
Mendelssohn through to works by contemporary composers.
The second will showcase Music to Hear
by George Shearing and
Nils Lindberg. Come and hear the
choir's lighter side!
The last performance in our 2005/2006 season will be the starting point
for a multi-year concert series entitled
Soundscapes. In each concert, you will hear indigenous
sounds from countries known and unknown, from places near and far,
bringing to you the heritage of various cultures captured in choral
music. Introducing this series will be
A Canadian Soundscape.
We sincerely hope you will be part of our musical journey over
the years to come!
Michael Zaugg, Music Director
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Date |
Programme |
Location |
Tickets |
|
Sunday, 23 October 2005, 8:00 pm
|
Rachmaninov:
Vespers (All Night Vigil)
Michael Zaugg, conductor
The choir repeats one of its most popular concerts from the
1990s, this time as part of the Outaouais Festival of Sacred Music.
Murray Dineen, in his Ottawa Citizen review of the 1998
performance, wrote the following words about the
Vespers:
Rachmaninov's Vespers is a setting of the great sung texts to the All-Night Vigil service of the Eastern
Orthodox Church. On high holy days, the ritual combines evening Vespers with morning service in a night of
worship.
The effect is stunning: It is as if one is in the comfort of one's home, but everything has been changed by a
foreign hand—the same furniture but rearranged, same wallpaper but of different colours, windows facing east
instead of west, roses instead of daffodils on the piano, Tolstoy and Turgenev in lieu of Atwood and Davies in
the bookshelf.
We invite you to
listen
to some tracks from our 1996 performance so that you can hear its
beauty, power and sensitivity.
|
St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church
20 Fairmont Avenue at Wellington Street, Ottawa (map)
|
Contact the Festival at 819-771-5329 or send an e-mail to
info (at) sacree.qc.ca.
|
|
Saturday, 17 December 2005, 8:00 pm
|
Christmas with the NAC Orchestra
We join with the NAC Orchestra to bring the NAC's
annual Christmas concert to life.
Opera Lyra Ottawa Chorus, Laurence Ewashko, director
Ottawa Regional Youth Choir, Barbara Clark, director
This concert is part of the NAC Special Concerts Series.
|
Southam Hall, National Arts Centre
|
Contact the National Arts Centre Box Office.
|
|
Sunday, 29 January 2006, 8:00 pm
|
The Book of Psalms
Michael Zaugg, conductor
A 500-year journey of choral settings, with masterworks by composers
such as Heinrich Schütz and
Felix Mendelssohn through to works
by contemporary composers.
Programme details...
|
St. Matthew's Anglican Church
Glebe Avenue near Bank Street, Ottawa (map)
|
Seniors and students: $15
All others: $20
|
|
Saturday, 25 March 2006, 8:00 pm
|
Music to Hear
Michael Zaugg, conductor
Music on the lighter side, by George
Shearing and Nils Lindberg.
Join the Cantata Singers of Ottawa as it takes you on a jazzy stroll
On the Sunny Side of the Street
(listening as A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley
Square) to the Tuxedo Junction,
where there will be Music to Hear and
you will be sent home with a Smile with
the Lullaby of Birdland.
Programme details...
|
Glebe-St. James United Church
Lyon Street at First Avenue, Ottawa (map)
|
Seniors and students: $15
All others: $20
|
|
Sunday, 7 May 2006, 4:30 pm - 8:00 pm
|
Fund-raising Barbecue Dinner for the Choir
Come celebrate the beginning of Spring with the choir
at a barbecue dinner and a
performance from our repertoire. It's a
fund-raiser for the choir to help support its
vision of providing wonderful and varied choral music
to the City of Ottawa and surrounding region. Chat
with choir members and our new Music Director, Michael
Zaugg.
At 6:00 pm, the choir will perform
works from its repertoire, both past and future!
Menu: sausage, chicken breasts, hamburgers, salad,
cake and non-alcoholic beverages included. Alcoholic drinks extra.
|
The Clock Tower Brew Pub
575 Bank Street near the Queensway (417), Ottawa
(map)
|
Children under 7: $5
All others: $20
|
|
Saturday, 27 May 2006, 8:00 pm
|
A Canadian Soundscape
Michael Zaugg, conductor
A concert of sounds from across Canada, including the Inuit drum and
dance group
Siqiniup
Qilauta and the fiddle /stepdance duo of Tessa and Ella
Bangs. Works by well-known Canadian composers R. Murray Schafer,
Harry Freedman, Malcolm Forsyth, Stephen Chatman are included.
Programme details...
|
Christ Church Cathedral
Sparks Street at Bronson Avenue, Ottawa
(map)
|
Seniors and students: $15
All others: $20
|
