The College of Toronto Choral Research shall be presenting a showcase live performance on December 1.
4 choirs — MacMillan Singers (Dr. Jamie Hillman, conductor), Soprano-Alto Refrain (Maria Conkey, conductor), Tenor-Bass Refrain (Thomas Burton, conductor), and Chamber Choir (Kathleen Allan, conductor) — will carry out a wide range of works.
The Choirs
Collaborative pianists Eunseong Cho and Dr. Pleasure Lee shall be accompanying the choirs, together with Lori Gemmel on harp.
College of Toronto MacMillan Singers
Dr. Jamie Hillman, conductor
Jayden Browne, assistant conductor
Based by Doreen Rao in 1994, the College of Toronto MacMillan Singers have been named to have fun the legacy of Sir Ernest MacMillan, who had a landmark profession each as a performer and instructor.
Canadian and American musician, conductor, educator, singer, pianist and composer-arranger Dr. Jamie Hillman holds the endowed Elmer Iseler Chair in Conducting on the College of Toronto. He’s additionally Director of Choral Research and an Affiliate Professor, main the grasp’s and doctoral diploma packages in Choral Conducting. Hillman obtained the School of Music’s Educating Award in 2024.
He has labored on the schools of Boston College Metropolitan School/Jail Schooling Program, Boston College Tanglewood Institute, Kodály Music Institute, Longy Faculty of Music of Bard School, and Toronto Summer time Music. He serves as an examiner and adjudicator throughout North America and internationally. Hillman will make a return to Carnegie Corridor in 2025 to conduct.
Dr. Hillman earned an affiliate diploma (ARCT) from the Royal Conservatory of Music, adopted by a Bachelor of Music from Western College, the place he was inducted to Western’s Don Wright School of Music’s Alumni Wall of Fame in 2025. Jamie earned a Grasp of Music on the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Physician of Musical Arts at Boston College.
College of Toronto Soprano-Alto Refrain
Maria Conkey, conductor
Melanie Yirenkyi, assistant conductor
Conductor, clinician and educator Maria Conkey was born in Newfoundland and Labrador, and has begun her Physician of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) on the College of Toronto. She is the Inventive Director of the Oakville Choir for Kids & Youth and the Outreach Coordinator at St. Michael’s Choir Faculty. She has beforehand held positions on the Inventive Director of Younger Voices Toronto, the Conductor of the award-winning senior choirs at St. Bonaventure’s School (NL), and the Choral Director on the Basilica of St. John the Baptist (NL).
Awards and recognition embrace the Elmer Iseler Nationwide Graduate Fellowship in Choral Conducting (2024-25 recipient), and beforehand, the Beryl Barnes Memorial Graduate Award and the Andreas Barban Memorial Scholarship. Maria was a nominee for the 2023 Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting.
College of Toronto Tenor-Bass Refrain
Thomas Burton, conductor
Tyrese Walters, assistant conductor
Thomas Burton is a local of Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He’s Inventive Director of the Orpheus Choir of Toronto, Conductor of the College of Toronto Tenor-Bass Refrain, and Inventive Director of Durham Area’s RESOUND Choir. Different engagements embrace co-conductor of the award-winning Halifax primarily based chamber choir, Jap Horizon. He works as a clinician and educator in addition to a visitor conductor with choirs throughout the nation.
Thomas can be a choral singer, and has carried out with the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers, Voces Boreales, and the Nathaniel Dett Chorale. As a conductor, he has labored with organizations comparable to The Amadeus Choir of Higher Toronto and the Vancouver Chamber Choir, amongst others.
Thomas earned a bachelor’s diploma in from McGill College in Trombone Efficiency, adopted by a grasp’s diploma in Choral Conducting from the College of Michigan. He’s a multi-award winner, together with the Ken Fleet Choral Conducting Scholarship and the Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Basis Award, and in 2024, grew to become the very first recipient of the Iwan Edwards Scholarship for Younger Conductors, as chosen by Jeunesses Musicales.
College of Toronto Chamber Choir
Kathleen Allan, conductor
Yuan (Alba) Chen, assistant conductor
Conductor, composer, and clinician Kathleen Allan has been the Inventive and Govt Director of the Amadeus Choir of Higher Toronto since 2019. She is a member of the music school on the College of Toronto, with a busy calendar of engagements as a visitor conductor and commissioned composer. Her facility extends to early, modern, and symphonic repertoire.
Beneath her tenure, the Amadeus Choir has commissioned greater than a dozen new items of music, and supported rising composers and poets with the formation of the Choral Creation Lab. She is previous Inventive Director of Canzona, a Winnipeg-based skilled Baroque choir (2016-2023), and continuously visitor conducts with organizations such because the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony, Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, and Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. In 2016, she was awarded the Sir Ernest MacMillan Prize in Choral Conducting.
As a composer, her work has been commissioned, carried out and recorded in North America and Europe, and is revealed by Boosey and Hawkes, Oxford College Press, and Cypress Choral Music.
Kathleen can be a gifted soprano, and has carried out as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Nationwide Broadcast Orchestra, and different ensembles in North America and the UK>
Repertoire for UofT Choral Live performance
College of Toronto MacMillan Singers
- Canticum Novum, Ivo Antognini
- The Music of Stillness, Elaine Hagenberg
- When a Considered Battle Comes, Marie-Claire Saindon
- We Shall Overcome, arr. Shelton Ridge Love
College of Toronto MacMillan Singers and Tenor-Bass Refrain
College of Toronto Tenor-Bass Refrain
- Ding-a Ding-a Ding, Greg Gilpin
- “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Night” from Frostiana, Randall Thompson
- What Sweeter Music, Eleanor Daley
- Convidando Esta la Noche, arr. Eugene Rogers
College of Toronto Soprano-Alto Refrain
- Qilak, Andrew Balfour
- This Little Babe, Benjamin Britten
- White Winter Hymnal, Robin Pecknold, arr. Alan Billingsley
- A La Nanita Nana, arr. Victor C. Johnson
- Name of the Angels, Darius Lim
College of Toronto Chamber Choir
- Dona nobis pacem, Ko Matsushita
- Choral Hymns from the Rig-Veda, Op.26 , Gustav Holst
- Hodie Christ Natus Est, Kelly-Marie Murphy
Discover out extra in regards to the live performance on December 1 at Grace Church on-the-Hill [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
