Bach's Christmas Oratorio

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Friday December 8th
6:30 p.m.

Venue: Eglinton St.George's United Church, 35 Lytton Boulevard ( between Eglinton and Lawrence, 1 block west of Yonge ).

The sixth annual Oratorio, with the acclaimed British conductor Jane Glover. Last year she was in town to conduct the TSO's Messiah. Soloists are Nathalie Paulin, Noreen Burgess, Nils Brown, Dan Lichti and Dennis Giesbrecht.

$50 includes dinner, which is served during the 8 p.m. intermission.

To reserve tickets: ( 416 ) 481-1141 Ext.250
A fundraising event for Eva's initiatives and its programming initiatives for homeless and at risk youth in Toronto.

Last year's conductor was Yannick Nezet-Seguin who has conducted the TSO several times and will be conducting the COC orchestra this season in Faust.

 

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Sounds good. Hopefully the dinner has a lot of variety for the vegetarians.

 

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Last year there was a good sit-down dinner, with a carvery and a nice buffet ( wine was extra! ) in the basement. The audience was a mix of all ages - parishoners, music students etc.

Charmingly mid-Toronto WASP - you come back after the dinner and don't find that someone has taken your seat! When I arrived last year I was asked if I wanted a glass of wine and I said yes - I thought it was included, so wandered off with it - and they were too polite to chase me down for payment. The church has a variety of attractive stained glass windows. You can phone to reserve tickets, and pay when you arrive. Makes a change from the Messiah.

 

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Our little group is now up to eight. Not that I'm trying to juice sales or anything ...

 

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Lovely concert, every bit as fine as the one last year, if not better. The acoustics are quite good there. I think the church seats about 450 people. And quite a bit of money was raised for Eva's Initiatives, which has hostels or whatever for young people "at risk" at Yonge and Sheppard and at Leslie.

Our little group was scattered in two seating areas, but we found one another at the nice dinner in the basement. The Bach Consort are doing Bach's B Minor Mass next February ( and my man Yannick's conducting! ) which will raise money for another couple of charities. The musicians, soloists and choir donate their services. It is a high quality, low key, and typically Torontonian event. And there seemed to be quite a few younger people this year.

 

[SD2]

Our little group was scattered in two seating areas, but we found one another at the nice dinner in the basement. The Bach Consort are doing Bach's B Minor Mass next February ( and my man Yannick's conducting! ) which will raise money for another couple of charities. The musicians, soloists and choir donate their services. It is a high quality, low key, and typically Torontonian event. And there seemed to be quite a few younger people this year.

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I couldn't attend, unfortunately, but hopefully next year.

How was the dinner?

 

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Fine. The caterers were from Orillia!

Every once in a while I dip into WASP culture events such as this, for a refresher course. Everyone was so polite. Fur coats were left on chairs and were still there when women returned after the dinner. Two ladies offered to move, so that 5 of our group of 8 could sit together. There was a witty and amusing introduction by the church guy ( he was named in the Globe a couple of weeks ago as being part of the Ignatieff campaign ). Nobody tried to jump the queue as we lined up at the buffet and carvery. That sort of thing.