Enjoy old music at Christ Church in honour of the new year

See out 2017 at Old Music for a New Year, two special musical events at Christ Church Cathedral, Sunday and Monday.

On Sunday, Donald Hunt, the cathedral’s director of music, performs Olivier Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur (The Birth of the Saviour) in the interval between morning mass and choral evensong.

The meditative, visionary music with its depictions of nine aspects of the birth of Christ will be performed on the cathedral’s Helmuth Wolff organ. In this performance, each movement will be punctuated by a biblical reading from the nativity story.

The performance, just under an hour, starts at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

On Monday, Christ Church Cathedral presents Old Music for a New Year on New Year’s Day, with Christmas and other music from 17th-century Germany and Austria.

The music will be performed by La Modestine, a new baroque instrumental ensemble composed of Marc Destrubé and Linda Melsted, baroque violinists, Natalie Mackie, viola da gamba, and Michael Jarvis, harpsichord and organ.

They will be joined by four young singers: sopranos Rebecca Genge and Emma Hannan, tenor Adam Dyjach and bass Paul Winkelmans.

Donations for this short concert are welcome and go toward the cathedral’s music programs. The performance runs 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Monday at Christ Church Cathedral, 930 Burdett Ave. For more information, go to christchurchcathedral.bc.ca.