From the Artistic Director

From the Artistic Director:  

Welcome to the opening concert of the 25^th Anniversary season of the Halifax Camerata Singers.  Twenty-five years is a significant achievement for any arts organization and we welcome you tonight and thank you for joining in helping us celebrate.

The Camerata remembrance concerts have been one of our most popular events over the past decade or so. I deliberately used the word “event” as this concert is unlike any other I program each season. The purpose of the evening is to give each of you the space and opportunity to “remember”  whomever you choose.  Some of the names listed In Memoriam are familiar while others are known only to the person who submitted the name. All are important. The exquisite beauty of the music, solemnity of this lovely sanctuary, and the selected readings will help create the space for you to reflect, to think and to remember.

The concert is in three different sections. We begin by remembering those who have been killed in armed conflict through the ages. Book-ended by two powerful poems by First World War poets, the choir opens the program with the evocative Herbert Howell’s Requiem. Written by Howells in 1936 (but not released for performance until 1980) some say that the death of Howell’s only son in 1935 was the catalyst for his writing of the piece. Howells uses a fragmented portion of the traditional text for the Requiem Mass but intersperses them with settings of Psalms 23 and 121 thus creating a unique but powerful work.

We reflect next on the loss of those who we have known – those who have been our friends, relatives and comrades.  Those who have passed from us but are still vivid in our memories.  Jeff Enns’ “Lord’s Prayer” is one of the most beautiful settings of this well known text I know and we are very happy to bring you the world premiere of this piece. Peter-Anthony Togni’s skilful attention to his ethereal, chord-coloured texts combined with Jeff Reilly’s bass clarinet improvisations over the choir all create a mystical atmosphere so serene you can almost smell the incense!

The final section of the program celebrates life and the influences of those lives who remain vividly in our memories.  Beginning with the David Roberts poem, “There Will Be Peace”  and followed by contemporary settings of the “Ubi Caritas” and “In Paradisium” we now celebrate lives well lived and hope for future generations. As in all of our remembrance concerts, we end by inviting you to stand and join with the choir to sing The Kontakion.

Thank you for your support over the last 25 years, both by attending our concerts and by your financial donations.  We are excited by the music we sing and we hope that you leave today refreshed and renewed at what you have experienced. Please take a rack card and allow us to add your email address to our e concert list. We really do want to see you again!