A Choir in Pictures (and Sound)

I've written a lot about the choir I sing in at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, but I don't think I've ever posted any pictures. On Easter I took my camera along with that (and you) in mind.

Here are some of the irrepressible Trebles, in the choir room in the cathedral undercroft before the 10:00 am service. They sing with us on most of the major feast days, and a few other Sundays during the year. The Treble Choir practices weekly and each child gets a remarkable music education in the process.

The music for each service is written on the whiteboard, at the far right. Beyond it, out of the picture, is a whole wall of filing cabinets: the music library, which also extends outside this room.

Before each service we have a lot of music to organize into our folders. On the left is Carole, our fabulous first soprano soloist (she's also a jazz recording artist and, with her partner Alain runs a well-known jazz label.) On her right is Mary, another first soprano, who's been in the choir for two decades and takes care of all our robes and surplices. You can see the wall of music cubbies, one for each singer, in the background. Another choir member,  Shayna, is the music librarian. Both of those volunteer jobs are significant contributions of time and skill.

 

Here's Hilary, the assistant organist, up in the loft at the organ, with Rachel, the organ scholar, looking on. Both are candidates for masters degrees in performance at McGill. The video monitor shows the altar area so the organist/director can coordinate their timing to what is going on downstairs; the loft is at the back of the cathedral. Hilary will be getting married this summer and leaving for a job in England; her fiance, our former assistant organist, has been at St, Paul's Cathedral in London this year. Watching the development of talented young organists is one of the great pleasures of being in the choir. Another is being in the loft and able to watch brilliant organ-playing first-hand. We sing up here about 1/3 of the time, I think, whenever we're doing music that is accompanied.

On Easter, though, there are brass players in the loft and we sing from the back pews. On the left is Choir One: Trebles, and first (high) sopranos, altos, tenors and basses. On the right is Choir Two: second sopranos (that's me), second altos, second tenors, and the lowest-voiced basses. That's Ashley, our first tonor soloist, giving me the nice smile. In front of him is Dr. Elizabeth Rowlinson, faculty member at McGill and honorary assistant priest at the cathedral; she often presides at Evensong; beside her is Simon, our counter-tenor/first alto soloist.

And that's Patrick Wedd, our extraordinary organist and director of music. He's also a gifted composer, and gives concerts throughout Canada.

Here's Choir Two, seen from above. My section, the second sopranos, are in the top row; I went up into the loft during the sermon to take photos.

And here's the whole view. The majority of the time, we sing a capella (unaccompanied) from the front, either in the middle area behind the altar or in the baptistry, a chapel-like area you can't see here, to the right of the altar. This view makes the cathedral look a bit bigger than it really is, but I hope its beauty and airiness comes across. Come and visit, and hear the music too! (Click the image below to hear a sample.)

 

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