Upcoming Concerts and Services
Come and join us at our next event:
- November 02 7:00 pm
- In Paradisum - St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica
The Choirs of St. Michael’s Choir School will commemorate All Souls’ Day with a performance of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem in D Minor with orchestral accompaniment. The concert, In Paradisum (Eng: "Into Paradise"), will feature the debut of new Principal Conductor S. Bryan Priddy, with Maria Conkey as Junior Choir Conductor and Teri Dunn as Elementary and Tenor/Bass Choir Conductor. In Paradisum takes place Friday, November 2, at 7 p.m. at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica, 65 Bond Street, Toronto. The concert is the first of two concerts of the season, leading up to the annual Christmas Concert, which will take place for the first time this year at Roy Thomson Hall, December 9 and 10.
In Paradisum is named for an antiphon from the traditional Latin liturgy usually heard in requiem Masses. On All Souls’ Day, Catholics commemorate the faithful departed. In addition to the Fauré Requiem, the concert program will include works by John Rutter as well as Arvo Pärt’s De Profundis, a setting of Psalm 130, “Out of the depths, I cry to you O Lord”.
Composed between 1887 and 1890, the Fauré Requiem premiered in 1888 in Paris for a funeral Mass. The sublime setting of the shortened Catholic Mass for the Dead is the most well known of the composer’s larger works. The work was praised by many of Fauré’s contemporaries and was performed at the composer’s funeral in 1924.
A musically rich blend of both secular and sacred carols to usher in the Christmas season. A Toronto holiday tradition, this is the Choir Schools 81st year, and this years concert is sure to be one of the best yet.
Concert dates and details are now available for our upcoming concert series in collaboration with St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica.
Mr. Priddy comes to SMCS with more than 30 years’ experience working in academic, religious, and professional settings.
