Hart House Chorus

A wonderful assortment of pieces by faculty and student composers from the University of Toronto, including Healey Willan, Derek Holman and Craig Galbraith

Details: On Sunday, March 25th at 7pm, the Hart House Chorus will be performing their second concert of the season as a tribute to past and present composers at the University of Toronto. The choir will be showcasing works such as Healey Willan’s “Gloria Deo per Immensa Saecula”, Holman’s “Night Music”, and Craig Galbraith’s “Go Lovely Rose”. The concert will be conducted by Brad Ratzlaff and accompanied by Carolyn Shiau, with guest soprano Charlene Pauls.

When: Sunday, March 25th at 7pm
Where: The Great Hall, Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto
Cost: Free (donations are accepted)
For more information, please visit our website at: 
http://hhchorus.sa.utoronto.ca/
or contact the publicity manager at:
jonathon.moir@utoronto.ca

About The Chorus: The Hart House Chorus is a 50-member SATB choir comprised of students, faculty and alumni at the University of Toronto, as well as community members. Performances include one concert in the fall (November) and one in the spring (March), which are held in the Great Hall at Hart House. The choir also participates in the Intervarsity Choral Festival (IVCF) and the Remembrance Day ceremony on November 11, and is often hired to perform at private events and weddings throughout the city. Our repertoire is generally classical, but often extends into a wide range of musical styles, including contemporary and even pop. 

About the Conductor: Since 2006, the choir has been under the direction of Brad Ratzlaff, who is also the Music Director and Organist at Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church, and Associate Director and Accompanist of VIVA! Youth Singers of Toronto. Brad holds an M.Mus in Performance (Conducting) from the University of Toronto, where he taught for several years, and has received associate degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

About the accompanist: Carolyn Shiau is a dermatopathologist and graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, in 2006. Carolyn joined the Hart House Chorus in September 2008 after studying classical piano at the Vancouver Academy of Music under the direction of Professor Lee Kum-Sing. She obtained her Performer's ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1998 and her Performer's Certificate from the Vancouver Academy of Music in 2000. Since that time, she has had the opportunity to perform solo and chamber recitals in Canada, USA, Holland, and Italy.

About some of the composers: 

Healey Willan – Born in Balham, England in 1880, Dr. Healey Willan, C.C., was a composer, teacher and organist at the University of Toronto. Originally organist and choirmaster at St. John the Baptist Kensington in London and a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Dr. Willan moved to Toronto in 1913 to become Head of the Theory Department of the Toronto Conservatory of Music. In 1914, he was appointed Lecturer and Examiner at the University of Toronto, and would eventually be appointed Professor of Music in 1937. He played an important role as Precentor of the church of St. Mary Magdalene in Toronto beginning in 1921, and later founded the Tudor Singers in 1934, which he conducted until 1939. Dr. Willan was commissioned to write an anthem for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey in 1953, the first non-Briton ever to do so, and would later receive the Lambeth Doctorate, Mus. D Cantaur from the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1956. He died in February, 1968, leaving behind a legacy of over 850 compositions, over half of which were sacred choral works. He is commonly referred to as the “Dean of Canadian Composers” and was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1967.

Derek Holman – Dr. Derek Holman was born in Cornwall, England in 1931. He has received both a Bachelor of Music and a Doctor of Music from the University of London, and was awarded a Fellowship Diploma from the Royal College of Organists. Dr. Holman then went on to teach as a sergeant-instructor in the British Army of the Rhine, followed by two years as Music Master at the Westminster Abbey Choir School. In 1965, he immigrated to Canada with his family, where he would begin teaching in the Department of Theory and Composition in the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. Dr. Holman has held positions at numerous churches in England and Canada, and eventually retired from St. Simon’s Bloor Street in 1998. He conducted the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus from 1975-85, and has been commissioned to write works for the CBC, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Children’s Chorus, and many more. Dr. Derek Holman is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and a member of the Order of Canada.

Craig Galbraith – Originally from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Craig Galbraith received a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of British Columbia in 1997 and a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Toronto in 2000. Currently completing a Doctor of Music in Composition at the University of Toronto, Mr. Galbraith has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Godfrey Ridout Award (1998), the Hugh Le Caine Award (2000), the McLean Foundation Graduate Merit Scholarship (2002), the Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian New Music (2004), and the Maurice Wayman Prize (2005). He is often commissioned to write pieces for professional groups, and was the recipient of the People’s Choice Award at the CBC’s National Competition for Young Composers. Mr. Galbraith also frequently sings as a tenor with various choral groups and is a University of Toronto Fellowship recipient.


All composer biographies are courtesy of the Canadian Music Centre website (http://www.musiccentre.ca/) and http://www.craiggalbraith.com/.