Happy new year!

Happy New Year! I'm writing this in the midst of a major snowstorm which has necessitated the closure of my school for the day and unexpected planning, marking and contemplation time. In just under a month, Confluence presents its next concert program - Centuries of Souls II - curated by yours truly and featuring a wonderful collection of Toronto's finest choral singers under the direction of the esteemed conductor and organist Matthew Larkin. 

This program hearkens back to our first season and a program of music by Hildegard von Bingen, the Requiem by Johannes Ockeghem and a generous sampling of the organ music of Olivier Messiaen. Centuries of Souls II is centred around a rarely-performed masterpiece, the MIssa Gaudeamus by Tomás Luis de Victoria, interspersed with chant, motets, poems, and works for solo lute and violin. As with all Confluence programs, the juxtaposition of these pieces is designed to highlight connections, contrasts and subtle musical shadings. 

In the early 2000s, I helped to run a group called Critical Mass, a monthly series of concerts to support the Out of the Cold program. Over the course of a few years, we performed complete settings of the Ordinary of the Mass by Josquin, Morales, Palestrina, Obrecht, Machaut, Byrd, Lassus, Dufay and others and marveled at the brilliance of these works. Emancipated from their liturgical role and offered in a secular concert setting, they became "pure music", meditative and prayer-like for sure, but an opportunity for general solace, consolation and peace for audiences. 

Centuries of Souls II will be dedicated to the memory of Paul Grindlay, a close friend who passed away at the end of October. Paul was an exceptionally gifted bass-baritone, choral conductor, environmentalist, poet and a true Renaissance man. 

Please join us for a night of beautiful music in the intimacy of Heliconian Hall. 

Larry Beckwith