NEWS RELEASE
CELLAR SINGERS
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The Cellar Singers are celebrating two of our leading lights with a concert of remembrance.
The choir had its beginnings in 1968 as a small group of music lovers rehearsing in the basement of Dr. William Monk’s home in Bracebridge, hence our name, the Cellar Singers.
Dr. Monk (MD, FRCSC) was a general practitioner and surgeon who served Muskoka for over five decades; he died on Aug. 12, 2021, at home in Bracebridge, in his 94th year. A gifted artist, pianist, and community-minded lover of music, we were honoured to have a small group of singers visit him shortly before his passing. The Cellar Singers are deeply moved to have this opportunity to remember him.
Albert Charles Alexander Greer (Feb. 23, 1937, to May 9, 2024) was the choir’s artistic director from 1977 to 2012 and named to the Order of Canada in 2013. Albert had a remarkable career in music as a tenor soloist, conductor, educator, and composer and arranger of choral music.
Albert directed many choirs, including the North York Chorus and the Ontario Youth Choir. He served as artistic director and conductor of the Cellar Singers for 35 years, and shared his gifts of music as organist and director of music at St. James’ Anglican Church, Orillia, from 1981 to 2018.
In their honour we’re performing two requiems, by Gabriel Fauré and John Rutter. Composed in the late 1880s, Fauré’s Requiem is the best known of his large works, focusing on eternal rest and consolation. He wrote that it “is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest. ( ... It) does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above.”
John Rutter completed his requiem in 1985, having been inspired by Fauré. The work shares the same seven-movement structure and has similar orchestration, including a beautiful soprano solo in the Pie Jesu. Our soprano soloist will be Amy Dodington.
Join us on Saturday, March 1, 3 p.m. at St. James’ Anglican Church, Orillia, for this moving concert. Tickets are $30 ($15 for those under 30) and available from members or at thecellarsingers.com.
If you’re a senior requiring help with transportation from Bracebridge or Gravenhurst, please contact Faith at 905-830-3039 or [email protected]. Thanks to the Community Foundation of Orillia and Area, we’ve been able to provide a bus for this concert, with Hammond Transportation. These free seats are limited, so book soon.
The Cellar Singers are an adult choral organization under professional leadership, dedicated to providing and promoting artistic excellence in Simcoe, Muskoka, and beyond, through education, outreach and high-quality performance of the choral art.
For more information, contact [email protected].
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