Finding Our Way
Saturday October 29, 2022 – 7:30 pm
Grace Church on-the-Hill
Join us in our first concert of the season called Finding Our Way. Trace life’s journeys …from silence and darkness to music and light. The poetry of Leonard Cohen meets the music of Ēriks Ešenvalds in Wandering Heart, Beethoven’s harrowing descent into deafness is dramatically captured by Jake Runestad’s A Silence Haunts Me, and Mark Sirett’s award-winning Words Stories Truth honours Canada’s Indigenous Peoples, and more.
The choir will also perform Colour of Freedom, an inspiring cultural fusion of Persian traditional singing with Western choral by Iranian-Canadian composer Iman Habibi. Colour of Freedom hopes to raise awareness towards the recent social changes in Iran that inspired hundreds of millions of people across the world to join hands in support of human rights.
Artistic Director Robert Cooper says “this moving and thought-provoking concert will probe the resilience of the human spirit in shades from profound pain to exuberant joy.”
Guest choir: Myriad Ensemble
Habib Hoseini, Persian singer
Deleena Beattay, reader
Gift Of Christmas
Tuesday December 20, 2022 – 7:30 pm
Runnymede United Church
Delight in our popular Orpheus stocking-stuffer ofevocative carols, cheery arrangements, affecting stories and stirring sing-alongs for the festive season! The poignant Gift of the Magi, narrated by Kim’s Convenience star and actor Gabriella Sundar Singh, will brighten your spirits and warm your hearts with our gift of Christmas…always an audience favourite.
Gabriella Sundar Singh, narrator
Masterworks: Missa Solemnis
Sunday March 5, 2023 – 3:30 pm
Metropolitan United Church
Celebrate the glory and grit of Beethoven’s choral masterpiece, Missa Solemnis. Both grand and intimately personal, this expansive score, inscribed by Beethoven with “from the heart, may it again go to the heart”, is the composer at the height of his creative genius. Don’t miss the combined voices of Orpheus and Chorus Niagara, and a stellar solo quartet as we join forces for this spectacular concert event!
Jocelyn Fralick, soprano
Lillian Brooks, alto
Andrew Haji, tenor
Giles Tomkins, bass
Sound Mind
Sunday April 30, 2023 – 3:30 pm
Grace Church-on-the-Hill
Immerse yourself in music’s healing powers. Honouring Mental Health Week, Orpheus’ season-ending journey probes the swirl of thoughts and emotions between music and the mind through Allan Bevan’s dramatic new cantata, Perfectly Mad. Woven together with the works of Jake Runestad, Anna Pidgorna, Dolly Parton and more, Orpheus delves into music as a many-faceted source of hope and healing.
Benedict Campbell, actor
Sidgwick Scholars
Concordo Ensemble