Renewing Courage
Johannes Brahms (1685-1759)
Ein deutsches Requiem
(Orchestration arranged for two pianos by Duo Octavian)
Susan Elizabeth Brown, Soprano
Ryan Hofman, Baritone
Duo Octavian (Carson Becke & Suren Barry*, pianos)
[*Please Note that Suren Barry is indisposed and will be replaced by Philip Chiu. The Rideau Chorale would like to thank Philip for filling in on extremely short notice.]
Matthew Larkin, Guest Conductor
Saturday April 2, 2022 @ 7:30pm
Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Ave, Ottawa, ON
Visit the concert page for livestreaming information and the post-performance recording.
Contents
Program
A Word of Welcome
Program Notes by Matthew Larkin
Program Text and Translation
Biographies
Rideau Chorale
Rideau Chorale Executive
Artistic Leadership
Special Acknowledgements
Donors & Sponsors
Program
I. CHOIR – Selig sind, die da Leid tragen
II. CHOIR – Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras
III. BARITONE & CHOIR – Herr, lehre doch mich
SHORT BREAK
IV. CHOIR – Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen
V. SOPRANO & CHOIR – Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit
VI. BARITONE & CHOIR – Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt
VII. CHOIR – Selig sind die Toten
A Word of Welcome
Dear Guests,
It is with great pleasure and pride that I welcome you to Rideau Chorale’s second live concert performance of the 2021/22 season. The title “Renewing Courage” was chosen because it represents so well our collective experience at this stage of the pandemic. It’s drawn from a letter Clara Schumann wrote about Brahms: “… heaven has sent me a friend who has borne all my sufferings with me, and truly does only what can cheer me; a young composer, Johannes Brahms, a great favourite of my Robert’s. He has so truly supported me, ever renewing my courage when it threatened to fail – in short he is a friend to me in the highest and finest sense of the word.”
Brahms has been a friend to us as well these past three months, renewing our courage to keep singing together and prepare another live performance. We are extremely grateful to have been led through the challenges of this period, including on-line rehearsals for January and most of February, by the exceptionally talented Matthew Larkin. Not only has he helped us advance musically, he has lifted us all with his passionate, energetic, and encouraging leadership. This concert also is special because our talented Accompanist, Carson Becke, is providing the orchestration tonight with his piano duo partner Suren Barry. Rideau Chorale is very grateful to have such stellar musical leadership and support.
Thank you to our local corporate sponsors, our donors, our volunteers, and our audio and tech support, all of whom are listed in this program, and a special shout-out to Robin Allison, who is leaving the choir and the Executive after a number of years and who has made an immeasurable contribution to our organization. Finally I thank you, our audience. Rideau Chorale relies on audience turnout and the support of generous patrons to keep the music alive. We also continue to welcome aspiring choristers from the Ottawa-Gatineau region. I invite you to check out the choir’s website – www.rideauchorale.com – for news, updates, and details on how you can help support our music and efforts.
I hope you enjoy tonight’s performance as much as we enjoy sharing this music with you.
Elizabeth Tromp
Chair, Rideau Chorale Executive
Program Notes by Matthew Larkin
A few years ago, I took in the beautiful exhibit of Paul Gauguin paintings at the National Gallery. I was drawn to his use and choices of colour, and taken with a work dating from 1897-98, which he titled D’où venons-nous. I did some reading about this, and on the back of the canvas, he had taken the question further, and inscribed (in French) Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
When viewed from right to left, one can see the artist’s depiction of three phases of life: three women with a small child depict life’s innocence, and the purity of its beginning. In the centre, young adults cavort and intertwine, showing the full flower of life at the midway point. On the left, an elderly woman appears alone with her thoughts, and at her feet (in the words of the artist), “a strange white bird…represents the futility of words”. The blue idol in the background apparently represents what he described as “the Beyond.”
As a teenager, Gauguin was a student at a seminary school in northern France. His subjects there included a class in Catholic liturgy taught by the diocesan Bishop who had devised his own Catechism in order to lead his students toward spiritual reflection on the “meaning of life”. The three questions that underpinned this Catechism were, “Where does humanity come from?”, “Where is it going to?”, and “How does humanity proceed?”. While Gauguin, as an adult, was not particularly religious (and, in fact, strongly anti-clerical), it is clear that these questions stayed with him a long time and offered the inspiration for one of his greatest paintings. I submit that Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem crystalizes Gauguin’s sentiments, and I hope that our offering this evening expresses our individual and collective notions of the length of life, as both artist and composer intended.
Brahms was raised in the tradition of Lutheranism, but had a complex relationship with Christian beliefs. He confessed in the last year of his life to his biographer that he had never believed in life after death. His knowledge of the Bible, however, was thorough, and he continued to enjoy the comfort that reading it provided him. When he chose the texts for his Requiem, he took the greatest care to avoid more dogmatic references (even avoiding passages mentioning the name of Christ). Rather than a specifically sectarian document, he saw the work as a universal response by a sensitive soul to the inevitability and sorrow of death, and he even noted that he would be happy if the word “Mankind” could replace the word “German” in the title. (The title as it stands does not denote any nationalistic intent but simply recognizes the fact that the text is in the language he spoke). Rather than use the traditional language of the liturgical Church, Brahms offers words of consolation, designed to reconcile the living with the idea of suffering and death. In the liturgical text whole sentences are filled with the darkest menace; in Brahms’ Requiem, each of the seven sections closes in a mood of cheerful confidence or loving promise. In every sense, this is a Requiem written for the living.
As with all of Brahms’ works, this one (premiered in 1868) shows meticulous construction in its overall structure and proportions. Of this, one of his biographers wrote: “The first half — the first through the third movements — is devoted almost entirely to earthly suffering, lamentation and mourning over the transitory nature of human life, rather than to the consolation and the everlasting bliss of the redeemed. In the second half — the fourth through the seventh movements — mourning is gradually transformed, passing through the stages of pious faith, consolation, and joy in the living God, to celestial bliss and triumphant resurrection.” The overriding mood of the work is one of comforting resignation rather than one of visions of supra-human worlds. Only in the sixth movement is any of the terror of the Dies Irae of the Latin Requiem present, and this is quickly supplanted by the quiet benediction of the closing movement. Ein deutsches Requiem is truly a work of surpassing excellence, and rich in a substance that never wavers from its purpose: sharing a universal experience through the incandescent beauty that only the marriage of art and music can provide.
Turning to the needs of our own time, the past few years have challenged the world community in ways not seen in most of our lifetimes. Ukrainian-Soviet politician Boris Shcherbina once said of the Chernobyl disaster, that “every generation must know its own suffering”. While that is undoubtedly true, Brahms’s choice of Scriptural texts gives us a vision of something redeeming, in the face of sorrow and fear. As we read and ponder these words, we have the capacity to renew our beliefs in the inherent goodness of people, and of the miracle that is life. In the same way that Brahms was reassured by this sentiment, so might we renew our courage, and our conviction that life is worth living to the fullest, all day and every day. His music gives voice to these beliefs, in the same way that all art gives voice to our thoughts and emotions. May it ever be so.
Matthew Larkin
Guest Music Director & Conductor, Rideau Chorale
Program Text and Translation
1.
Selig sind, die da Leid tragen, denn sie sollen getröstet werden. Matthäus 5:4
Die mit Tränen säen, werden mit Freuden ernten. Sie gehen hin und weinen und tragen edlen Samen, und kommen mit Freuden und bringen ihre Garben. Psalm 126:5–6
1.
Matthew 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Psalm 126:5–6 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They that go forth and weep, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them.
2.
Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen wie des Grases Blumen. Das Gras ist verdorret und die Blume abgefallen. 1. Petrus 1:24
So seid nun geduldig, lieben Brüder, bis auf die Zukunft des Herrn. Siehe, ein Ackermann wartet auf die köstliche Frucht der Erde und ist geduldig darüber, bis er empfahe den Morgenregen und Abendregen. Jakobus 5:7
Aber des Herrn Wort bleibet in Ewigkeit. 1. Petrus 1:25a
Die Erlöseten des Herrn werden wiederkommen und gen Zion kommen mit Jauchzen; ewige Freude wird über ihrem Haupte sein; Freude und Wonne werden sie ergreifen, und Schmerz und Seufzen wird weg müssen. Jesaja 35:10
2.
1 Peter 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower thereof falleth away.
James 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receive the morning and evening rain.
1 Peter 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever.
Isaiah 35:10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
3.
Herr, lehre doch mich, daß ein Ende mit mir haben muß, und mein Leben ein Ziel hat, und ich davon muß.
Siehe, meine Tage sind einer Hand breit vor dir, und mein Leben ist wie nichts vor dir.
Ach wie gar nichts sind alle Menschen, die doch so sicher leben. Sie gehen daher wie ein Schemen, und machen ihnen viel vergebliche Unruhe; sie sammeln und wissen nicht wer es kriegen wird. Nun Herr, wes soll ich mich trösten? Ich hoffe auf dich. Psalm 39:5–8
Der Gerechten Seelen sind in Gottes Hand und keine Qual rühret sie an. Weisheit 3:1
3.
Psalm 39:4–7 Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee.
Surely every man walks in a vain show: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heaps up riches, and knows not who shall gather them.
And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1 The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them.
4.
Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen, Herr Zebaoth!
Meine Seele verlanget und sehnet sich nach den Vorhöfen des Herrn; mein Leib und Seele freuen sich in dem lebendigen Gott.
Wohl denen, die in deinem Hause wohnen, die loben dich immerdar. Psalm 84:2.3.5
4.
Psalm 84:1.2.4 How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yea, even faints for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh cries out for the living God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will always be praising thee.
5.
Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit; aber ich will euch wiedersehen und euer Herz soll sich freuen, und eure Freude soll niemand von euch nehmen. Johannes 16:22
Sehet mich an: Ich habe eine kleine Zeit Mühe und Arbeit gehabt und habe großen Trost funden. Jesus Sirach 51:35
Ich will euch trösten, wie einen seine Mutter tröstet. Jesaja 66:13a
5.
John 16:22 And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
Ecclesiasticus 51:27 Behold with your eyes, how that I have but little labour, and have gotten unto me much rest.
Isaiah 66:13 As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you.
6.
Denn wir haben hie keine bleibende Statt, sondern die zukünftige suchen wir. Hebräer 13:14
Siehe, ich sage euch ein Geheimnis: Wir werden nicht alle entschlafen, wir werden aber alle verwandelt werden; und dasselbige plötzlich, in einem Augenblick, zu der Zeit der letzen Posaune.
Denn es wird die Posaune schallen, und die Toten werden auferstehen unverweslich, und wir werden verwandelt werden.
Dann wird erfüllet werden das Wort, das geschrieben steht: Der Tod ist verschlungen in den Sieg. Tod, wo ist dein Stachel? Hölle, wo ist dein Sieg? 1. Korinther 15:51–52.54b–55
Herr, du bist würdig zu nehmen Preis und Ehre und Kraft, denn du hast alle Dinge geschaffen, und durch deinen Willen haben sie das Wesen und sind geschaffen. Offenbarung 4:11
6.
Hebrews 13:14 For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
1 Corinthians 15:51–52.54–55 Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, o Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
7.
Selig sind die Toten, die in dem Herren sterben von nun an. Ja, der Geist spricht, daß sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit; denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach. Offenbarung 14:13b
7.
Revelation 14:13 Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord, from henceforth. Yea, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.
Biographies
Matthew Larkin, Guest Music Director & Conductor
Matthew Larkin was born in Oxford, England, and spent his childhood years in Kingston, Ontario. He was educated at Lord Strathcona School, and received his early musical training as a chorister at St. George’s Cathedral, later serving as assistant organist. He attended the University of Toronto as organ scholar of Trinity College, where he was a student of John Tuttle, and subsequently the Royal College of Music.
One of Canada’s most influential liturgical musicians, he has held appointments in Toronto (St. James Cathedral and St. Thomas’s Church), Ottawa (Christ Church Cathedral and St. Matthew’s Church), and Victoria (the Church of St. John the Divine), and was director of music at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa, for fifteen years.
Active as a choral director and conductor, he founded the Caelis Academy Ensemble and has served as musical director of a number of other noteworthy Canadian ensembles, including the Ottawa Choral Society.
He has appeared as soloist with several of Canada’s orchestras, including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, and the Victoria Symphony. His recital work has taken him worldwide, and his collaborative projects have produced commercially successful recordings on several labels, including his most recent release on the ATMA Classique label. He is conversant in a number of musical genres, and is well-known as a composer, arranger, and educator.
Matthew is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists and has served as a member of its Examinations Committee. He currently serves as Custodian for Music at St. Andrew’s Church in Ottawa, dividing his time between there and Toronto, and is engaged with conducting, recital, recording, collaborative, and live-streaming projects. Matthew Larkin is represented by Domoney Artists Management.
Susan Elizabeth Brown, Soprano
Susan Elizabeth Brown has performed throughout Canada in such roles as Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Gilda (Rigoletto), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Mimi (La Bohème), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Cunegonde (Candide), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), La Princesse/Le Feu/Le Rossignol (L’enfant et les sortilèges) and Lucia (Lucia di lammermoor).
She appeared as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) in the Festival d’Opera de Quebec, and on tour throughout Eastern Canada; She was to perform the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor in the same festival and on tour in 2020, but the production was cancelled. She is an alumnus of the world-renowned National Arts Centre of Canada’s Young Artists Program.
She has performed in concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and Waterfront Hall in Belfast. Highlights of her work as a concert soloist include Orff’s Carmina Burana, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Magnificat, Handel’s Psalm 112: Laudate Dominum for soprano, choir and orchestra, Messiah, Samson (Israelitish Woman), Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Fauré’s Requiem, and Vivaldi’s Gloria and Dixit Dominus.
Susan is recognized for her “jewel-like”, “remarkably pretty instrument, pure, ‘spinny’, with beautiful extension and timbre that cuts through an ensemble”. (Natasha Gauthier, Ottawa Citizen). Susan has a diploma in Musical Theatre Performance from St. Lawrence College. Originally from Kingston, Ontario, she is now based in Montreal.
Ryan Hofman, Baritone
Ryan Hofman has had the pleasure of appearing as baritone soloist with multiple choirs and orchestras across Canada and abroad, including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Teplice Opera Orchestra in the Czech Republic.
A fine oratorio singer, Ryan appeared as the baritone soloist in Handel’s Messiah (St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, Caelis Academy Ensemble), Fauré’s Requiem (Cantata Singers) and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass (Coro Vivo Ottawa).
Audiences continue to respond to Mr. Hofman’s warm baritone voice and insightful dramatic and musical interpretations. In February 2022, Ryan appeared as the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance with COSA Canada: The Centre for Opera Studies & Appreciation. In March 2019, he returned to the Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, appearing as Masetto in Don Giovanni. Other company credits include Betto in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Marullo in Verdi’s Rigoletto.
Ryan’s 2018 – 2020 season proved to be his busiest period to date with several impressive debuts. He expanded his growing list of operatic credits making his company debut with Grande Prairie Opera as Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, in July 2019. In September 2019, Ryan also enjoyed being the baritone soloist cover for the National Arts Centre’s concert presentation of Verdi’s Requiem with the NAC Orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley, and performed by the Cantata Singers and the Ottawa Choral Society. Also, in September 2019,
Ryan made his solo debut as the title character in Grieg’s Peer Gynt with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In May 2018, Mr. Hofman appeared with the Opéra de Montréal Chorus (company debut) in their production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Also in May 2018, he made his debut with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alain Trudel in an operatic program featuring renowned Canadian soprano, Measha Brueggergosman.
As a member of the chorus, he also had the pleasure of participating in the Deutsche Grammophone recording of Verdi: Ildar Abdrazakov & Chœur Métropolitain & Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal & Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
In September 2020, Ryan was one of two Canadian singers invited to sing as part of the Grandi Voci Competition in Salzburg, Austria. He was also a winner of the 2017 NATS National Capital Region Senior Scholarship, as well as a two-time Brian Law Competition Finalist.
Duo Octavian
Carson Becke* and Suren Barry form the two halves of Duo Octavian, a two-piano and piano duet ensemble. Personable, energetic performers, Duo Octavian loves speaking to their audiences, and drawing their listeners into their musical world: if you come to a Duo Octavian show, you will almost certainly hear some music that you’ve never heard before, or hear music that you already know presented in a new way.
Carson and Suren both grew up in Ottawa, Canada, and were frequent adversaries in local music competitions as kids, often tying for second place behind their more talented contemporaries. After going their separate ways for post-secondary education, they reconnected in their early twenties to perform together for the first time. They found that they had much common musical ground, including a desire to place creativity at the center of their musical process. They decided to bury the hatchet of their childhood rivalry, and founded Duo Octavian in 2016.
Duo Octavian seeks to expand the piano duo repertoire with their own arrangements, and with arrangements and commissions by other performers and composers. They have co-authored new two-piano transcriptions of Johannes Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, premiered with the Ewashko Singers in 2019, and Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Their premiere of The Planets was part of an outdoor late-night concert in August 2021, at the peak of the Perseid Meteor Showers. The concert – part of the Pontiac Enchanté concert series – was presented in association with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and was intended to spread awareness about the importance of dark sky preservation.
The duo has presented the Canadian premieres of two arrangements by Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev, including a concert suite from George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess, and Stravinsky’s The Firebird. They have also championed arrangements by the early twentieth-century pianist Harold Bauer, who wrote incredibly imaginative – but largely forgotten – arrangements of music by Bach, Schubert, and others for two pianos.
Carson and Suren are both passionate about the natural world, and they believe that the performing arts industry has an important role to play in the global fight against climate change. They are committed to finding creative ways of adapting their activities as a duo to be more environmentally sustainable, and to raise audiences’ awareness about sustainability.
*In addition, Rideau Chorale feels privileged to have Carson Becke as its rehearsal accompanist.
Philip Chiu, Pianist
A pianist-painter who transforms each musical idea into a beautiful array of colors” (La Presse), Philip Chiu is acclaimed for his brilliant pianism, sensitive listening, and a stage presence that eschews the hermit-pianist image and favours openness, authenticity, and connection with audiences. Inaugural winner of the Mécénat Musica Prix Goyer, Mr. Chiu has become one of Canada’s leading musicians through his infectious love of music and his passion for creation and communication.
He concertizes extensively as soloist and chamber musician and has performed solo recitals and chamber music concerts in most major venues across Canada, as well as concert halls in France, Japan and the United States.
He recently made his debut for the La Jolla Music Society in California in their 50th anniversary season and will be appearing in Maine and Massachusetts in fall 2019. Chamber music partners have included James Ehnes, Emmanuel Pahud, Regis Pasquier, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Bomsori Kim, Johannes Moser, and Raphael Wallfisch.
He has a long-standing violin-piano duo with Jonathan Crow, concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and violinist of the New Orford String Quartet. Mr. Chiu is a veteran touring artist of Prairie Debut, Jeunesses Musicales Canada, and Debut Atlantic, having toured the country 14 times with their generous support.
In addition to his performing activities, Mr. Chiu created the Collaborative Piano Program at the Domaine Forget International Academy and consulted for national and international competitions as a recognized expert in collaborative piano. He has also juried for provincial, national, and international competitions.
Mr. Chiu has recorded for Warner Music, Analekta, ATMA Classique, and CBC Music. He can be heard on BBC Radio 3, France Musique, ICI Musique, and CBC Music. He is eternally grateful for the support of Mécénat Musica, the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Roland Graham, Founding Music Director
A musician with an array of artistic talents, Roland Graham is an accomplished pianist, conductor, composer, and impresario. Until recently, he was the Director of Music at Southminster United Church. He is the founder and Artistic Director of both the Doors Open for Music at Southminster and Concerts by the Canal series, as well as the Master Piano Recital Series.
Roland has conducted the Rideau Chorale since its formation in 2015. He began his choral training as a boy chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, Ontario, and subsequently enjoyed formative experiences with the St. Matthew’s Choir of Men and Boys, the Ontario Youth Choir, the Anglican Chorale of Ottawa, and various other ensembles in the National Capital Region.
Roland holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Ottawa where he studied piano performance with Jean Desmarais, and a master’s degree from the Université de Montréal where he studied piano interpretation with Jimmy Brière and Marc Durand.
Roland is on sabbatical for the 2021-22 Season.
Rideau Chorale
Soprano: Lucia Marc, Anne-Christine Bonfils, Rhona Einbinder-Miller, Hilary Esmonde-White, Sylvia Grambart, Paula Hurtig, Frances Isaac, An Ngo, Krisha Séguin, Elizabeth Tromp, Anna van Holst Pellekaan, Susanna Wiens, Dorothy Wood, Allison Woyiwada, Hiroko Yokota-Adachi
Alto: Mary Wilson, Hélène Caron, Janice Gray, Isabella Grigoroff, Natalia Jaworska, Angela Kelly, Andrea Lockwood, Aditi Magdalena, Mary Nightingale, Susan Rich, Susan Robertson, Pamela Robinson, Linda Russell, Margaret Schatzky
Tenor: Janice Manchee, Guy Bujold, Lawrence S. Cumming, Michael Koros, Don Macpherson, Yves Menard, David Oliver, Dillon Palmer
Bass: Marty McCurdy, Tomo Adachi, Terry Brynaert, Clément Delannoy, Donald Leek, Greg Lopinski, Geoffrey Oliver, Mark Olo, Ralph Osterwoldt, Archibald Ritter, Tim Shobert
Rideau Chorale Executive
Chair: Elizabeth Tromp
Treasurer: Robin Allison/Hélène Caron
Membership Coordinator: Linda Russell
Secretary: Greg Lopinski
Member-At-Large: Rhona Einbinder-Miller
Artistic Leadership
Guest Music Director & Conductor: Matthew Larkin
Accompanist: Carson Becke
Founding Music Director: Roland Graham
Special Acknowledgements
Rideau Chorale and its members respectfully acknowledge that the land on which we gather, rehearse and perform our music is the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People. We are grateful to have the opportunity to be present in, and to perform on, this land.
Volunteers
Rosmarie Gerber and her team – Front of House operations
Monika Rahman – graphics and social media
Emily Walpole, Natalia Jaworska – website
Janice Manchee – sponsorship, fundraising and communications
An Ngo, Susanna Wiens, Anna van Holst Pellekaan – set-up
Hilary Esmonde-White – program compilation
Sylvia Grambart, Paula Hurtig, Dorothy Wood – COVID protocol support
Hélène Caron – ticket sales
Additional Credits
Mike Mullin – audio & video
Reid Smith – technical support
Donors & Sponsors
Donors
Rideau Chorale wishes to acknowledge the generosity of our valued donors in helping us to present this concert. Gifts such as these make it possible for the choir to cover the considerable costs involved. In particular, we wish to acknowledge the generosity of Rena Upitis. If you are interested in making a donation (tax-deductible), learn more on our website.
Sponsors
We would also like to thank the Ottawa businesses whose generous sponsorships have supported this concert. We encourage you to patronize our sponsors and let them know that you appreciate their support of Rideau Chorale.
Business Sponsors
Community Sponsors
Avenue Lock & Security
Penelope Jones & Co.
