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Sunday Concert Series 2011/12

In the Sunday Series, each program is set around a theme — literary, musical or historical — weaving the musical selections around interesting readings from letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, poetry.

Four of our concerts take place at 2:30 pm in Walter Hall in the Edward Johnson Building, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, 80 Queen’s Park Circle, Toronto. Complimentary tea is served at intermission. Our 30th anniversary gala concert on February 19th will take place in Koerner Hall.

Clair de lune

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Shannon Mercer soprano
Anita Krause mezzo
Andrew Haji tenor
Brett Polegato baritone


Our first two concerts introduce a pair of fascinating composers who were of great significance in the development of art-song. Gabriel Fauré’s song-writing spanned a period of sixty years; between 1861 and 1921, his music reflected the cultural kaleidoscope of French society. At the same time, it evokes the misty, amorous world of the fête galante, viewed by a voluptuary who was equally at home in the organ-loft. Fauré’s engaging and intriguing personality comes to life through his songs and through his letters.

The Great Comet

Sunday, November 27

Joni Henson soprano
Colin Ainsworth tenor
James Westman baritone


The fine quality of the wines of the vintage of 1811 was ascribed to a comet which shone for 260 days. Napoleon took it as a sign of his eventual victory in Russia, but a band of gypsies encamped in the Hungarian countryside showed greater prescience when they predicted a brilliant career for the newborn Franz Liszt. In a style which anticipates the innovations of Wagner, Berlioz and Ravel, he sought to establish the ‘music of the future’. Art clashed and mingled with tortuous personal relationships on a grand scale to produce an epitome of Romanticism.

The 30th anniversary gala

Sunday, February 19

With soloists including
Colin Ainsworth, Benjamin Butterfield, Michael Colvin,
Tyler Duncan, Gerald Finley, Gillian Keith, Shannon Mercer,
Nathalie Paulin, Susan Platts, Brett Polegato,
Lauren Segal, Krisztina Szabó, Giles Tomkins,
Monica Whicher, Lawrence Wiliford

Hosts: Christopher Newton C.M., Catherine Robbin


On February 21, 1982, four talented young singers, accompanied by the present Artistic Directors, performed the first concert of the Aldeburgh Connection in the University of Toronto’s Hart House. From that modest acorn, a mighty oak has grown. Now, steps away, in the architectural and acoustic splendour of Koerner Hall, Toronto’s newest musical venue, we present an unrepeatable gathering of Canada’s vocal Olympians. It is their role to represent the multitude of wonderful singers with whom it has been our pleasure to perform over three decades. Our concert will be a panorama of songs in celebration of our anniversary, in many languages and styles – solos, duets and various other groupings of voices, from the English, Canadian, German, French and Italian traditions, climaxing in Vaughan Williams’s ecstatic Serenade to Music.

Schubert and the Esterházys

Sunday, March 18

Leslie Ann Bradley soprano
Erica Iris Huang mezzo
Graham Thomson tenor
Geoffrey Sirett baritone


Outside the town of Želiezovce (once known as Zselíz), on the border of Slovakia and Hungary, lie a decayed park and palace which belonged to a branch of the Esterházy family. Here Schubert stayed in the summer of 1818 as music tutor to the two daughters of Count Johann. Again in 1824, he repeated his visit – this time to become warmly attached to the elder daughter, Caroline. Presenting the extraordinarily beautiful music written for the lucky family, and in particular for Caroline, this concert constitutes our annual Greta Kraus Schubertiad.

A Country House Weekend

Sunday, April 29

Lucia Cesaroni soprano
Krisztina Szabó mezzo
Peter Barrett baritone


Aldous Huxley’s brilliant and witty novel Crome Yellow is a series of thinly disguised character sketches of guests at a house party given by the formidable Lady Ottoline Morrell. It will provide our narrative, linking a sequence of songs and piano-duets by English composers – John Ireland, Frank Bridge, Peter Warlock, William Walton, Benjamin Britten – which evokes all the glitter, romance, heartbreak and nostalgia of the period between the World Wars once termed “The Long Weekend”.