♪ Music notes ♪

Choristers for Hayes Magnificat

Soprano: Sharon Barrett Ewing, Anne Bornath*, Charlotte Cameron, Rosalie Cowan, Amy Hall-Cummings, Shirley Joyce, Carrie Loring*, Lynda MacKenzie, Jean McKen, Lynn McMurray, Caitlin Roberts, Kathy Salisbury, Frances Welsh, Laura Ziliotto

Alto: Emily Berg, Paula Blaser, Martha Boyce, Shirley Chykaliuk, Anne Ewing, Karen Freedman*, Bonita Kersey, Melissa Lalonde, Chelsea Pringle-Duchemin, Anne Pyper, Valerie Scovill, Esther Steen, Allegra Swanson, Patti Vipond, Esther Welsh

Tenor: Mitch Bondy*, Willis Bote, Eugene Burke, Geoffrey Horning, Ryan Jenkins, Ed Oikawa*, Phil Smith*

Bass: Jim Benson*, Philip Blackford, Bill Briggs, Scot Denton, Morrey Ewing, Alex Jozefacki*, Doug Knights, Doug MacNaughton, Gary Poole, Don Smith

*Guest chorister

The Chamber Orchestra heard in the Hayes Magnificat is comprised of musicians from some of Toronto’s finest orchestras, including the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, the National Ballet Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. All of the players have collaborated with the choirs of Fairlawn Avenue on numerous occasions in the past, and hope to do so again in the future, at such time as everyone is once again able to gather safely to make live music!

Violin 1: Sonia Vizante**, Nancy Kershaw
Violin 2: Laurel Mascarenhas, Michael Sproule
Viola: Jonathan Craig, Joshua Greenlaw
Cello: Marianne Pack, Elaine Thompson
Flute/Piccolo: Maria Pelletier
Oboe/English Horn: Karen Rotenberg
Bassoon: Jerry Robinson
French Horn: Scott Wevers
Trumpet: Norman Engel
Harp: Lori Gemmell
Percussion: Andy Morris
**Concertmaster

David Willcocks (1919-2015) was a conductor, organist, composer and arranger, and long considered Britain’s most esteemed choir director. During the course of his remarkable life, to name but a few of his many accomplishments, he was the Music Director of the King’s College Choir of Cambridge University, and was associated for many years with the Bach Choir, based in London, England. His work with both ensembles — renowned for the brightness, clarity and impeccable intonation he routinely summoned from his singers — was considered exquisitely representative of the modern English choral tradition. He was also the co-editor (along with John Rutter) of the beloved Carols for Choirs series – carol books found in virtually every church and community choir’s library, and in which his arrangement of this morning’s prelude appears. As a choral ambassador, Willcocks led ensembles in Canada, the United States and across the globe – and even worked with the Rolling Stones!

Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) was an English Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector, and eclectic scholar. He is particularly remembered as a writer of hymns, the best known being “Onward, Christian Soldiers”, and his translation of the carol Gabriel’s Message (titled The Angel Gabriel in this morning’s Prelude) from the Basque language to English.

Henry Hugh Bancroft (1904-1988) was a British organist, choirmaster and composer who, seeking better prospects, moved to Winnipeg to become the organist at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church. He was also employed at the Church of the Ascension in Hamilton, All Saints Anglican in Winnipeg, Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, Christ Church Cathedral in Nassau, Bahamas, and St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, Australia. On a visit to Cambridge University on his way back from Australia, he experienced the annual Advent Carol service of King’s College, Cambridge, and the next year introduced the tradition to Canada at All Saints’ Church in Edmonton. From 1968 to 1977 he also taught for the Department of Music at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

James Lewis Milligan (1876-1961) was born in Liverpool, England into a family of 9 children. The son of Anglican parents, he received an early education in Anglican schools, but left school at 12 to work in the building trades. As a teen, he began contributing verse to local newspapers, and in 1910 had a collection of his poetry published. With his family, he emigrated to Canada in 1911. They settled in Hastings County, Ontario, where Milligan became a Methodist pastor. Milligan spent 2 years as a lay minister for the Methodist Church; then became an editor for the Peterborough Review in 1913, and a military correspondent (and later editorial writer) for the Toronto Star in 1914. In 1922 he left to do public relations for the Church Union movement and later was involved with public relations for the Ontario provincial department of mines. He ended his career as editor of the Stratford Beacon-Herald, from which he retired in 1937. Milligan’s writings include 2 volumes of poetry, a play, and everything from speeches for Prime Minister Mackenzie King to Lady Eaton’s Christmas cards.

Mark Hayes (b. 1953) is an internationally known award-winning concert pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. Whether concertizing on the other side of the globe, or composing at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, Mark feels blessed to live out his mission “to create beautiful music for the world”. His compositions and arrangements, which draw from many diverse musical styles such as gospel, jazz, pop, folk and classical, can be found in the music libraries of churches and universities around the world. Mark’s 1,200+ published works include pieces for solo voice, solo piano, multiple pianos, orchestra, jazz combo, small instrumental ensembles, and choruses of all kinds. The Fairlawn Senior Choir has sung many of his anthems over the years, and has also had the privilege of presenting the Canadian premieres of two of his larger works with orchestra at past Special Music Sundays: Magnificat (2015) – heard this morning for our Special Music service, and Gloria (2010) which is featured on the choir’s CD titled “Gloria”).

Charles Coffin (1676-1749) was born in Buzancy, Ardennes in the Duchy of Rheim, and educated at College du Plessis. In 1701, he was appointed chief assistant to Charles Rollin, principal of the Collège de Beauvais, and succeeded Rollin as principal in 1712. That same year he was entrusted with the funeral oration for Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the father of Louis XV. In 1718 Coffin became rector of the University of Paris, a post which he held until his death. His publication “The Hymni Sacri” included a poem adapted from the original chant Jordanis oras praevia, which John Chandler later translated to the hymn On Jordan’s Bank, which is sung in churches of many denominations during the season of Advent.

John Chandler (1806-1876) was an English writer, translator and minister. Son of the vicar of Witley, Chandler was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford (BA 1827, MA 1830). He took Holy Orders in 1831, and became vicar of Witley in 1837. One of the earliest and most successful translators of Latin hymns, his translations arose out of a desire to see the ancient prayers of the Anglican liturgy accompanied by hymns of a corresponding date of composition. Two of Chandler’s most well known translations are On Jordan’s Bank and The Advent of Our God.

Georg Weissel (1590-1635) was a Prussian pastor who served a church in Königsberg for most of his career. One of the most important of the earliest hymn writers of Prussia, he wrote Macht hoch die Tür (Lift Up Your Heads) for the first Sunday of Advent. This morning’s choral commissioning is the text of the third verse (translated into English by Catherine Winkworth). Although Weissel wrote some 20 hymn texts in total, this hymn is the only one to endure.

Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) was the foremost 19th century British translator of German hymns into English. Her translations were polished, and yet remained close to the original, and are still used extensively in many denominational hymnals. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge and interest in German hymnody. A pioneer in promoting women’s rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women.

Howard Helvey resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he is active as a composer, arranger and pianist, and serves as organist & choirmaster at the historic Calvary Episcopal Church. Nationally and internationally he is in frequent demand as a composer, conductor, and speaker. Known particularly for his choral music, his hundreds of compositions and arrangements have been featured on numerous recordings, national television and radio broadcasts, in such eminent venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Walt Disney Concert Hall (LA), Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the White House, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and many locations throughout Europe and Asia. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master of Music degree in composition and piano performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.