Peter Oundjian made his TSO conducting début in October 1998.

A dynamic presence in the orchestral world, Peter Oundjian continues to make his mark as one of today’s most exciting faces on the conducting scene. His strong bond with the musicians and community of Toronto continues through his fifth season as Music Director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. At the beginning of his tenure, Mr. Oundjian created the now-annual Mozart Festival and the New Creations Festival. His probing musicality, collaborative spirit, and engaging personality have earned him accolades from musicians and critics alike.

The accomplishments of Mr. Oundjian and the TSO continue to spread worldwide through last season’s introduction of the acclaimed TSO Live recording series, featuring stunning and impassioned performances of Elgar, Mussorgsky, and Bruckner, all available online. 

In addition to his post in Toronto, Peter Oundjian is Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Symphony, where he helped to create and launch an innovative multi-disciplinary festival during his tenure as the orchestra’s Artistic Advisor. He played a major role at the Caramoor International Music Festival in New York for over a decade, having served most recently as its Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor. From 1998-2003, Oundjian was the Music Director of the Nieuw Sinfonietta in Amsterdam.

In addition to multiple appearances in Toronto and Detroit, Mr. Oundjian’s 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons feature return visits to many of the orchestras with which he has built ongoing relationships including the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he served as the Director of the Absolutely Mozart Festival for the four years of its existence, San Francisco, St. Louis, Houston, Baltimore, and Colorado Symphonies, as well as Caramoor, Tanglewood, Aspen, and Music Academy of the West summer festivals. Frequent engagements with the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra and the Radio Philharmonique in Paris, as well as forthcoming appearances with the Royal Scottish National and Budapest Festival orchestras are highlights abroad. 

Born in Toronto, Peter Oundjian was the first violinist of the renowned Tokyo String Quartet, a position he held for fourteen years. Mr. Oundjian is in now in his 28th year as a visiting professor at the Yale School of Music. He and his wife Nadine have two children, Lara and Peter.

Performances:

February 25: Azul
February 27: La Pasión
March 3: La Plus Forte

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Osvaldo Golijov has received numerous commissions from major ensembles and institutions in the U.S. and Europe and is the recipient of a Mac Arthur Fellowship, among many other awards. His music is performed regularly by musicians such as Robert Spano, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Dawn Upshaw, Luciana Souza, Maya Beiser, the St. Lawrence, Kronos and Borromeo quartets, and the symphony orchestras of Boston, New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles, to name but a few. His collaborations continue to grow, most recently with the notable film director Francis Ford Coppola, for whom he has written two film scores, in a period of under two years. For the 09/10 season he is writing a piece for Dawn Upshaw and Emmanuel Ax, and is working on a commission for the Metropolitan Opera. He has been composer-in-residence at Merkin Hall in New York, the Spoleto USA Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Music Alive series, Marlboro Music, Ravinia, and several other festivals, and is currently composer-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony.

Notable works include a one-act opera, Ainadamar ("Fountain of Tears"), with a libretto by David H. Hwang, commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the Tanglewood Music Center, a set of folksongs, Ayre, featuring Dawn Upshaw and commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the sublime La Pasión según San Marcos, commissioned by Helmuth Rilling for the European Music Festival to commemorate the 250th anniversary of J.S. Bach's death, and most recently his cantata Oceana, featuring Luciana Souza, the Atlanta Symphony Chorus and Orchestra. The releases of his works on the Deutsche Grammaphon label are continually met with critical acclaim, garnering many awards including several Grammys.

In January and February 2006 Lincoln Center presented a Festival called "The Passion of Osvaldo Golijov", featuring multiple performances of his major works, chamber music, late nights of Tango and Klezmer, and a night at the Film Society. In 2007 he was appointed the first composer in residence for Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. In June 2008 La Pasión was performed as the closing concert of the Holland Festival, to great acclaim. The performance is scheduled to be released on DVD and CD in the near future.

Performances:

February 25: Azul
February 27: La Pasión
March 3: La Plus Forte

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Performances:

February 25: Azul

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Performances:

February 27: La Pasión

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Performances:

February 27: La Pasión

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Performances:

March 3: La Plus Forte

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Performances:

March 3: La Plus Forte

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American cellist Alisa Weilerstein has attracted widespread attention for playing that combines a natural virtuosic command and technical precision with impassioned musicianship. At 27 years old, she is already a veteran on the classical music scene having performed with the nation’s top orchestras, given recitals in music capitals throughout the U.S. and Europe, and having regularly appeared at prestigious festivals. The intensity and passion of her playing has regularly been lauded, as has the spontaneity and sensitivity of her interpretations. Following her Zankel Hall recital debut Justin Davidson of New York Magazine said: "Whatever she plays sounds custom-composed for her, as if she has a natural affinity with everything."

In November 2009, Ms. Weilerstein was one of four artists selected to perform at a White House classical music event that included student workshops hosted by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, and performing in concert for guests including President Obama. In December she performed as soloist (Dvořák Cello Concerto) in Venezuela with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, led by Gustavo Dudamel and was immediately invited back to Venezuela in January for concerts conducted by her brother, Joshua Weilerstein. Another highlight of Ms. Weilerstein’s 2009-10 season will take place on May 1st, 2010 when she performs Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Daniel Barenboim in London for the orchestra’s 2010 European Concert, an annual event that marks the founding of the Berlin Philharmonic. The concert will be televised live worldwide and will also be released on DVD. During the season she will also perform the Elgar concerto with the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre de Paris and the Hamburg Philharmonic.

Following her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in June 2009, John von Rhein at the Chicago Tribune said of Ms. Weilerstein’s performance of the Dvořák Cello Concerto: "The 27-year-old cellist spanned the full emotional range from poignancy to ebullience, bringing out an abundance of sentiment while avoiding sentimentality." During the 2009-10 season she will perform this concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Peter Oundjian, the Cleveland Orchestra and Jonathan Nott, the Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and Giordano Bellicampi, the Hallé Orchestra and Okko Kamu and the Israel Philharmonic and Pietari Inkinen.

Other highlights of Ms. Weilerstein’s 2009-10 season include the Canadian premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Azul with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and her debuts with the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and at the Cartagena International Music Festival. In 2008 Ms. Weilerstein and composer/pianist Lera Auerbach performed the world premiere of Ms. Auerbach’s 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano at the Caramoor International Music Festival and subsequently performed this work at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. They will come together again to perform this work in a program that also includes Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes, making 48 preludes in total, in San Francisco and Vancouver. Ms. Weilerstein will also join pianist Inon Barnatan for recitals in Washington D.C., Baltimore, Denver, Omaha, Ann Arbor and the Virgin Islands.

Ms. Weilerstein has been continually engaged by orchestras across the U.S. and has performed as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, the Seattle Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, among others. In Europe she has performed with the Barcelona Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony, Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, Hallé Orchestra, Leipziger Bachkollegium, NDR Hamburg, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich.

Conductors Ms. Weilerstein has performed with include Marin Alsop, Sir Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Hans Graf, Manfred Honeck, Paavo Jarvi, Jeffrey Kahane, Louis Langrée, Andrew Litton, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Ludovic Morlot, Peter Oundjian, Itzhak Perlman, Kirill Petrenko and David Robertson.

In addition to her performances as a soloist, Ms. Weilerstein performs regularly as a chamber musician. She is part of a core group of musicians that performs at the Spoleto Festival USA each year and she also performs with her parents, Donald and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, as the Weilerstein Trio, which is the Trio-in-Residence at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

In 2008 Alisa Weilerstein was awarded Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal prize for exceptional achievement and she was named the winner of the 2006 Leonard Bernstein Award. She received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2000 and was selected for two prestigious young artists programs in 2000-01; the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) "Rising Stars" recital series and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two. Ms. Weilerstein also recorded a CD for EMI Classics’ "Debut" series in 2000.

Alisa Weilerstein began playing the cello at four years old after her grandmother assembled a makeshift instrument out of cereal boxes for her to play with while she was sick with the chicken pox. After convincing her parents to buy her a real cello, she showed a natural affinity for the instrument and performed her first public concert six months later. Her Cleveland Orchestra debut was in October 1995, at age 13, playing the Tchaikovsky "Rococo" Variations. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony in March 1997. Ms. Weilerstein is a graduate of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Richard Weiss, and she has been appointed artist-in-residence at the Institute beginning August 2009 which will see her visit the campus to work with cello students. In May 2004, she graduated from Columbia University in New York with a degree in Russian History.

In November 2008 Ms. Weilerstein, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was nine, was made a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She meets with members of the local chapters of JDRF when she tours with the aim of demonstrating to young people that living with and managing diabetes does not stop you from doing anything you want to do.

For more information on Ms. Weilerstein, please visit www.alisaweilerstein.com

Performances:

February 25: Azul

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Now celebrating his tenth season as Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Miguel Harth-Bedoya is one of this country’s most exciting and sought-after conductors. Under his leadership, the artistic level of the Fort Worth Symphony and its contribution to the cultural life of the community have grown enormously.

An active guest conductor, Mr. Harth-Bedoya has appeared with the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, National Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Worldwide engagements include the London BBC Symphony, Berlin Symphony, Birmingham Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Madrid National Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, NDR Orchestra/Hamburg, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre de Paris, Residentie Orkest in The Hague, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Stuttgart Radio Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, WDR Orchestra/Cologne, and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, among others.

Equally at home in the theatre, Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducted a new production of La Bohème at the English National Opera in London, directed by Jonathan Miller, during the winter of 2009. He has also appeared with the Canadian Opera Company, Minnesota Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and will lead a production of Ainadamar with the Cincinnati Opera in July 2009. Mr. Harth-Bedoya is the creator and conductor of an exciting new multi-media project called Caminos del Inka. Following its premiere by the Chicago Symphony in October 2008, John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune wrote "...I found the multimedia event a refreshing departure from the usual subscription concert fare and format."

Winner of the 2002 Seaver/NEA Conductors Award, Mr. Harth-Bedoya has also served as Music Director of the Auckland Philharmonia, Eugene Symphony, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Lima. He was born in Peru and now makes his home in Fort Worth with his wife Maritza and their three children, Elena, Emilio, and Elisa.

For more information, please visit www.miguelharth-bedoya.com and www.caminosdelinka.net

Performances:

February 25: Azul

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Joining a rare natural warmth with a fierce commitment to the transforming communicative power of music, Dawn Upshaw has achieved worldwide celebrity as a singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging form the sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. Her ability to reach to the heart of music and text has earned her both the devotion of an exceptionally diverse audience, and the awards and distinctions accorded to only the most distinguished of artists. In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, the first vocal artist to be awarded the five-year "genius" prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Ms. Upshaw’s 2009-10 season opens with concerts in Edinburgh, Montreux, Zurich and the Proms featuring the music of Mahler, Berio, and Golijov performed with David Zinman and the Tonhalle Orchestra. This season she also sings the world premieres of three new works written for her, including a chamber piece by David Bruce to open the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center season in New York; an orchestral work by Alberto Iglesias with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where Ms. Upshaw is an Artistic Partner; and a song cycle by Osvaldo Golijov for Ms. Upshaw and Emanuel Ax, with concerts in Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Upshaw appears twice again at Carnegie this season, reprising her celebrated role in John Adams's El Niño and taking part in a festival celebrating Louis Andriessen. She performs for the first time with the Toronto Symphony, and joins Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for his inaugural season at Disney Hall, among other highlights.

Performances:

February 25: Azul

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These nonconformist pianists boast a repertory from the eclectic to the unexpected. Daughters of Ada Cecchi, a former student of Marguerite Long, Katia and Marielle Labèque spent a childhood filled with music. Their repertoire includes a broad range of material, from Bach on period instruments to the 21st century contemporary composers.

They have a stunning career throughout the world and have been guests of the most prestigious orchestras, including Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, The Philharmonia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Philadelphia Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Dresden Staatskapelle and Vienna Philharmonie. They have played under the direction of conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Christoph Eschenbach and Michael Tilson Thomas. They are regular guests at Festivals, including Berlin, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, Ludwisburg, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Mostly Mozart New York, The Proms, Ravinia, Rheingau, Ruhr, Schleswig Holstein, Tanglewood, and the Salzburg Easter and Pentecote Festivals. For more information please visit their website: www.labeque.com

Katia and Marielle have appeared with many Baroque period ensembles including The English Baroque Soloists with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini, Musica Antiqua Köln with Reinhart Goebel, Venice Baroque with Andrea Marcon, and the Gabrieli Players with Paul McCreesh. For the Bach Centennial, the Labèque’s concert at the Vienna Musikverein with Il Giardino Armonico was televised worldwide by ORF and recorded on DVD.

Beginning with their first release Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue on the Philips label, Katia and Marielle Labèque have enjoyed tremendous success with their numerous recordings for Philips, Sony and EMI. The aspiration to build a bridge crossing all aspects of contemporary creation has led Katia and Marielle to form their own label, KML Recordings. Transgressing conventions and boundaries, KML Recordings brings together the unexpected in meaningful and artistic ways, constantly associating sounds and images. Their vision goes beyond classical music to look at new territories where rock, electronic, contemporary, improvisation and video have their say. The first releases in 2007 comprise an all-Ravel programme, including a new version of Bolero (from the composer himself), a Stravinsky and Debussy CD+DVD directed by young video artist Tal Rosner, and a Mozart and Schubert CD released in November. In September of 2008, KML Recordings released "De Fuego Y De Agua," a CD featuring Katia and Marielle Labèque in a special collaboration with the renowned Flamenco artist Mayte Martín. www.kmlrecordings.com

In 2005 Katia and Marielle Labèque launched the KML Foundation – www.fondazionekml.com - aimed at furthering research and developing awareness of the duo piano repertory through meetings between artists of all fields - musicians, film-makers or writers. One of their projects is a programme for children under the auspices of the Berlin Philharmonic Foundation's program Zukunft@BPhil, brought into existence by Sir Simon Rattle.

In 2008-2009, Katia and Marielle Labèque opened the season of the San Francisco Symphony and also performed with the Symphony on tour at Carnegie Hall. In January 2009 under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen, they premiered Louis Andriessen’s Double Piano Concerto with Los Angeles Philharmonic. In February 2010 they will bring the North American premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Suite from La Pasión de San Marcos to the Toronto Symphony’s New Creations Festival, immediately following the work’s world premiere in Paris. The duo’s 2010-2011 season will bring them on a coast to coast tour of the United States offering Joan Albert Amargós's Concerto for Two Pianos with the National Orchestra of Spain.

For more information, please visit www.labeque.com and www.katialabeque.com

Performances:

February 27: La Pasión

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Performances:

February 27: La Pasión

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Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan received her Bachelor of Music (1993) and Master of Music (1998) degrees from the University of Toronto where she studied with Mary Morrison. Further studies took place at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia, the Centre d’arts Orford, and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in Holland where she studied with Meinard Kraak.

Her operatic roles include Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Eurydice, Anne Truelove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, the title role in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Larinda in Hasse’s Larinda e Vanesio as well as the title roles in Hasse’s La Contadina and La Fantesca, Bastienne in Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne, Arethuze in Charpentier’s Acteon, Armida in Händel’s Rinaldo and Dalinda in Händel’s Ariodante.

She sang the world premiere of operas including Louis Andriessen’s Writing to Vermeer (Saskia) with the Netherlands Opera, Jan van de Putte’s Wet Snow (Liza) with Holland’s National Reisopera, Michel van der Aa’s solo opera One for soprano, film and electronics, and Gabrielle in the world première of Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant at English National Opera. In 2007 she made her debut at "La Fenice" with the world premiere of Lucca Mosca’s opera "Signor Goldoni" (role: Despina)

She has received much acclaim for her performances of Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, a tour de force for soprano and orchestra which she has sung with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Asko and Schönberg Ensembles of Amsterdam, with further performances in Cologne and Vienna.

She made her BBC Proms debut in August 2003, performing Ligeti’s Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures with the London Sinfonietta conducted by Peter Eötvös, and sang Ligeti’s Requiem in 2004 with the Bamberger Symphoniker conducted by Jonathan Nott at the Salzburg Festival and in 2007 with the Berliner Philharmoniker. In 2006 she sang Mysteries of the Macabre, Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

Dutilleux’s Correspondances for soprano and orchestra has become a major work in her repertoire, which she has sung with the Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw in 2003, and more recently with the CBSO conducted by Sakari Oramo at the 2005 BBC Proms, the Helsinki Philharmonic conducted by Esa Pekka Salonen, the Orchestre National de France conducted by Kurt Masur, the Toronto Symphony conducted by Peter Oundjian, Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and at the Palais Garnier with the Paris Opera Orchestra and Oliver Knussen, with further performances planned for Madrid, Oslo and Cardiff.

She has performed with orchestras and ensembles including the Berliner Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, l’Orchestre National de France, the orchestra of the Paris Opera, Helsinki Philharmonic, Holland’s Radio Symphony Orchestra, Radio Chamber Orchestra and Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, l’Orchestre National de France, Bamberger Symphoniker, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Frankfurt and Finland, Combattimento Consort Amsterdam, the SWR German Radio Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Musikfabrik, the Asko and Schoenberg Ensembles, and the Frankfurt Baroque Orchestra, in repertoire ranging from Händel, Bach, and Mozart, to Knussen, Dutilleux and Ligeti. In the 2005-06 season, she was invited by Maurizio Pollini to sing Luigi Nono’s A floresta at concerts in Tokyo, Vienna and Bologna.

She has worked with conductors including Reinbert de Leeuw, Esa Pekka Salonen, Sir Simon Rattle, Kurt Masur, Jukka Pekka Saraste, Ingo Metzmacher, Peter Oundjian, Oliver Knussen, Jonathan Nott, Peter Rundel, Michael Gielen, and Peter Eötvös, and has had the privilege of working with composers including György Ligeti, Louis Andriessen, Gerald Barry, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Oliver Knussen and Henri Dutilleux.

Upcoming engagements include productions at La Monnaie (Ligeti, Grand Macabre), the Aix en Provence Festival ( World premiere of Dusapin’s opera "Passion"), Berlin Philharmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Atlanta and Toronto Symphony Orchestra and concerts with Maurizio Pollini in Rome, Brussels, Zürich, Paris and Milan (La Scala). Besides her activities in concert and opera, Barbara Hannigan presents also liedrecitals with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw.

Performances:

March 3: La Plus Forte

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Performances:

February 25: Azul

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Performances:

February 25: Azul

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Performances:

February 25: Azul

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Founded 32 years ago, the Amadeus Choir, currently under the direction of Conductor and Artistic Director Lydia Adams, is in its 14th season as Choir-in-Residence at the George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts. The Choir has become known for its professionalism, exceptional musicality, diverse, high-quality programming, and warm beautiful sound, all a reflection of the leadership provided by Dr. Adams. During her 22 years as Conductor and Artistic Director, the Choir has grown significantly in size and reputation to become one of Canada's pre-eminent choral groups. The 100 auditioned members of the Choir perform a regular series of concerts in the Recital Hall, as well as at carefully selected downtown venues, presenting well-known artists in works by Canadian and international composers, including major works with instrumental ensembles or full orchestra, as well as challenging a cappella performances. Lydia Adams created the Amadeus Choir's annual Christmas Carol and Chanukah Song Writing Competition in 1987. The competition has grown over the years to include submissions from around the world. It now serves as an inspiration to composers of all ages and experience to write new works, enriching Canada’s outstanding choral tradition. The Choir's first CD, Ring-a-the News! features a number of winning carols from this competition. In addition to the Amadeus Choir’s regular concert series, the Choir takes an active role in Ontario’s choral community by working in collaboration with other prominent local ensembles, such as the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Hannaford Street Silver Band, Salvation Army North York Temple Band, Brantford Symphony, Elmer Iseler Singers, The Bach Children’s Chorus, Toronto Children-s Chorus and NEXUS. The Choir regularly performs benefit concerts and is actively involved in fundraising and other volunteer efforts. The Amadeus Choir has also competed in the prestigious biennial CBC Choral Competition, where it won awards in 1992, 1994 and 1996, before becoming ineligible due to its semi-professional status. In 2000, the singers travelled to Alberta on their first tour, and were warmly received at each of their concerts. They performed at two major festivals, and took the opportunity to launch their CD, Songs of the Spirit, featuring works by Canadian composers Eleanor Daley, Srul Irving Glick and Barry Peters, and the premiere recording of a work by Andrea Gabrieli which had just come to light after 300 years. This CD was given the Outstanding Choral Recording Award for 2001- 2002 by the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors. Voices On High, a combined project with the Hannaford Street Silver Band, was released in 2002, and features music by recent Juno Award winner Bramwell Tovey, Harry Somers and Stephen Chatman, conducted by Bramwell Tovey and Lydia Adams. Everlasting Light featuring the music of Christos Hatzis performed by the Amadeus Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers and directed by Lydia Adams, was released in 2002 by CBC Records. A new CD, The Tokaido, featuring the music of the distinguished late Canadian composer, Harry Freedman, with the Amadeus Chamber Singers and the Elmer Iseler Singers conducted by Lydia Adams, was released in May 2006.

Performances:

March 3: La Plus Forte

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Performances:

February 27: La Pasión

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