Join us for an outdoor and immersive choral concert.
Our season finale is a project that has been years in the making: the premiere of a new major work about Indigenous water sovereignty from Cree cellist and composer Cris Derksen, preceded by an immersive outdoor prelude performance.
Choir members will be scattered throughout the beautiful grounds of Toronto Botanical Garden while concert goers stroll through experiencing pockets of song. The Songwalk will culminate with the full choir and band performing the world premiere of the new work on the outdoor stage.
In the case of rain, the performance will take place at Jubilee United Church. Due to our generous donors and sponsors, this event is now free!
Special Guest: Cris Derksen
Juno nominated Cris Derksen is an internationally respected Indigenous cellist and composer. Her work with the Amadeus Choir is a 30-minute major work for choir, hand drum singers, cello, French horn, piano, and drums about the inequalities of access to clean water in Canada.
Announcing! A new resource for music teachers.
Vespers Education Package
We invite you to experience a unique educational package in connection with our upcoming concert, Vespers. Our package gives students an opportunity to engage in a multi-arts learning experience by watching a choral concert, participating in a workshop and engaging with our resource guide. Students will take a deep dive into the power of music and its ability to offer peace and a space to reflect. Activities in the resource guide not only provide opportunities for exploring and discussing current events, but also connect to expectations in the Ontario Arts Curriculum (grades 9-12).
Included in the Virtual Education Package:
A recording of the live concert on April 2, 2023
Resource guide which includes information on the pieces of music, the composers, the artistic director’s process, discussion questions and activities for the classroom
Sheet music for ‘Twilight’ and a note from composer, Francesca Hauser
Links to livestreamed conversations with Kathleen Allan and select composers
A virtual workshop *limited number of in person workshops available
A post workshop Q & A
Portraits of Home
short films about the newcomer experience in Toronto
Amadeus’ 2021/2022 season began with Portraits of Home: a series of three music videos that brought to life the music and stories of three diverse creators. The pieces touch on themes such as the newcomer experience, the meaning of home, and what Toronto means to people who create a new life here. Each video, filmed at a beautiful outdoor Toronto location, features the choir and the composer performing together.
Portraits of Home includes works created or adapted for the Amadeus choir by composers Natalie Fasheh, Pouya Hamidi and Waleed Abdulhamid. Each composer has taken a profoundly personal approach when crafting their piece, drawing inspiration from the intersections of their identity as a newcomer in Canada.
The choir had the fantastic opportunity to collaborate with the composers throughout the rehearsal process, helping to develop a deeper understanding of the music and the stories they will be sharing. Portraits of Home is one of Amadeus’s most personal and profoundly moving projects yet and hopes to inspire audiences to reflect upon the meaning of home.
About the Amadeus Choir
Enlivening Toronto’s arts community for 49 years, the award-winning Amadeus Choir is a semi-professional choir of auditioned voices from Toronto and the surrounding areas. The Choir champions the best of choral music and premieres works of Canadian and international composers through a self-produced Toronto concert series, guest performances, and special events. Known well beyond Toronto through tours, festivals, recordings, and national and international radio broadcasts, the Choir collaborates with many professional performing arts organizations in the GTA.
The Amadeus Choir is proud to take a leading role in educating the next generation of choral musicians by providing workshops for conductors, composers, singers, and students. The Choir is known for its strong support of Canadian music, and regularly commissions work from established and emerging Canadian composers.
Throughout its history, the Amadeus Choir has received numerous awards, most recently the Association of Canadian Choral Communities's "Most Innovative Performance" award in 2014 for “Music of the Spheres,” a multi-media collaboration with the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Ontario Science Centre, and the Roberta Bondar Foundation.
In 2019, after celebrating the 35-year leadership of Lydia Adams, the Choir welcomed Kathleen Allan as Artistic Director and Conductor.
Get involved
Audition
The Amadeus Choir is a group of professional and advanced volunteer choral singers. The choir rehearses on Tuesday nights in the Don Mills area. Click above to inquire!
Donate
We rely on small donations from individuals to make powerful choral music experiences. A gift of any size can go a long way to support choral music in your community.
Volunteer
The Amadeus Choir has a fantastic support network of volunteers who help the organization succeed. If you would like to be a part of this amazing team, please contact us and let us know how you may like to help!
