KEEPING THE CANDLES LIT
Vancouver's classical music community finds inventive ways to entertain at Christmas
Thinking through the soundtrack for the holidays is one of the traditional tasks of early December.
For most of us, it's a mix of live events, favourite recordings, and the occasional broadcast. The proportions will be skewed online this December, but the sound of a classical Christmas will still be in evidence as resourceful organizations vie for attention with seasonal streams.
The Vancouver Symphony normally goes all out this time of year in multiple events throughout Metro Vancouver. This December, there are three digital events: a program for kids, Do Re Me Fa Snow, to be released Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.; Christopher Gaze reading from Dickens' A Christmas Carol with various musical accompaniments — Andrew Crust conducting — to be released Dec. 19 at 2 p.m.; and VSO concertmaster Nicholas Wright leading Vivaldi's Four Seasons, available to stream Dec. 22 at 7:30 p.m.
Several seasons ago, David Pay's Music on Main claimed the winter solstice for its prime musical offering for December. This year a Music for the Winter Solstice Watch Party will stream Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m., with an extravagant cast of performers, local and international, including MoM special guests Caroline Shaw (voice and violin), COULOIR (Ariel Barnes, cello, and Heidi Krutzen, harp), and Gabriel Kahane (vocals and piano). These are just the tip of an iceberg of talent, so check out musiconmain.ca for details.
A few choral projects didn't make it into our late November choral roundup. Originally, Chor Leoni had something of an extravaganza planned for December, but to everyone's disappointment, this had to be scrubbed.
The ensemble still plans to celebrate, offering a free digital program of seasonal music from Dec. 18 to Jan. 1.
Not a holiday concert per se, but a timely reminder of how choral groups are grappling with tough circumstances comes from the Vancouver Youth Choir. Earlier in the fall, this inventive group took to rehearsing in a parkade at UBC — and they now have a stream to show what they were up to.
“In between the songs, the singers share reflections and words about what it's like to be alive in November 2020,” VYC artistic director Carrie Tennant says. Rehearsal logistics were extra clever: one choir on level three and another on level four.
“I tell terrible jokes to get the camera up the stairs to the other choir in the middle of the show,” says Tennant.
Missing Messiah this year? There is a countrywide initiative involving Against the Grain Theatre's Joel Ivany.
“We're producing a cross-Canada reimagining of Handel's Messiah called Messiah/Complex, in partnership with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which will premiere online — for free — on Dec. 13, accessible to Canadians, and to a global audience,” he says.
Locals may recall Ivany's fine Carmen for Vancouver Opera a few seasons back, as well as selections from his opera-in-progress with composer Bramwell Tovey. Messiah/Complex is a big deal: Ivany's reimagining of Handel's great work features diverse soloists singing in multiple languages — Dene, Southern Tutchone, Inuktitut, Arabic, French, and the standard English — drawn from every province and territory in Canada.
Representing the West Coast in this massive endeavour is tenor Spenser Britten, who filmed his contribution here.
Planning for Messiah/Complex was well advanced before 2020, but as circumstances changed, so did the vision.
“We will capture it as a filmed performance,” the organization shared on its website. “All with the hope that artists, arts organizations and audiences will reciprocate our creative optimism. We all need a sense of hope right now, and this was our way to keep the candles burning.”