In 2011, after not having much experience in the field, I applied to the MMus program at UofT in Choral Conducting. I was surprised to be accepted, but my conducting mentor Hilary Apfelstadt told me later “I knew you were a good musician, and I figured I could teach you the rest.” Upon graduating in 2014 I was named the Artistic Director of the Toronto Chamber Choir, which remains my primary conducting opportunity.

I’m constantly amazed at how many skills are necessary to be an effective conductor: music theory/score analysis, library & research skills, languages & lyric diction, knowledge of instrumental & vocal technique, budgeting & contracting, publicity & marketing know-how, communication skills with musicians, patrons & audience members, etc. The list goes on and on. I’m convinced that nobody can be great at every aspect of the job. But trying my hand at conducting has challenged me in so many ways that lute playing hasn’t, and I think has made me a better musician.

I’m most proud of my programming, and invite you to peruse the list of my past Toronto Chamber Choir programs below.

I also serve as chorusmaster at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute.

 Guest Direction

 I’ve also been invited to conduct or direct some special projects, including these:

• The Toronto Consort – The Emperor’s Chapel.  I developed this program of 17th-century sacred music from Austria based on research from a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant I received.

• Les Voix Baroques (Ottawa Chamberfest & Vancouver Early Music) – Beyond the Labyrinth.  I was invited to develop a program of songs by John Dowland with 3 instruments and 6 singers, including the incomparable British tenor Charles Daniels.

• Pacific Baroque Orchestra (Vancouver) – I developed a program of Roman & Neapolitan music for string orchestra (music by Durante, Corelli, Valentini, A. Scarlatti, etc.)

• Ohio State University Opera Program (Columbus, OH) – a staged production of Cavalli’s La Calisto.

• Vox Angelica (Huntsville, AL) – a staged Baroque opera scene project.

Other Directing

• I directed the Toronto Continuo Collective (a pedagogical and performing group dedicated to the art of sevententh-century accompaniment) in many concert programs I developed from around 2005-2010. This is group is no longer regularly active, but has briefly reformed for special projects in 2016 and 2018.

• As a conducting at the University of Toronto, I conducted the UofT Women’s Chamber Choir, the Macmillan Singers, and a chamber choir put together for my Masters’ degree recital.

• From 1998-2003 I co-directed and develped programs for Common Ground Ensemble, a New York-based Baroque ensemble of mixed voices and instruments.

Toronto Chamber Choir Programming

Most of the Toronto Chamber programs I’ve developed required many hours of research and careful preparation, so my thanks for indulging me in providing this list.

Spring 2014

• Purcell & Pärt.  A programming idea by the TCC’s former conductor Mark Vuorinen which I then developed.  A juxtaposition of these two fascinating composers, including a fairly philosophical discussion of some similarities in their composition approach despite being separated by three centuries.

2014-2015 Season

• Air, Fire, Earth & Water: The Renaissance Sense of Humour(s). A comic multimedia program with actor R.H. Thompson which unpacks the many meanings of the word “humour” in the Renaissance.

• Beautiful as a Dove: A Celebration of Mary.  Festive Marian music from the Medieval to the Contemporary periods.

• “The Most Faithful City”: Sacred Music in Naples, 1670-1750.  Choral music with strings by Neapolitan composers such as Scarlatti, Durante, Provenzale, Leo, & Caresana.

 2015-2016 Season

• The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci.  A multimedia program of about the Italian Jesuit who spent his last 28 years in China.  The choir sang sacred polyphony from Renaissance Italy, Spain, & Portugal, trading sets with the China Court Trio (Wen Zhao, director).

• Christmas in Dresden.  Festive music from the time of Schütz & Praetorius, with strings, organ, & the pluckers of the Toronto Continuo Collective.

• A Voice of Her Own.  A multimedia exploration of women composers from Hildegaard of Bingen through Clara Schumann. The script asks why certain women succeeded in composing music despite society’s restrictions, and takes a few case studies from the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical & Romantic periods.

• The Sun Rises in the East.  Seventeenth and twentieth-century music from Central & Eastern Europe.  Included the Canadian premiere of Biber’s Stabat Mater.

2016-2017 Season

• Music & Memory. A multimedia program exploring how our minds process and remember music.

• A Tour of Carols. Tender Christmas carols from more than a dozen nations in simple/folksy arrangements.

• Biber Requiem.  An exploration of Heinrich Biber’s sacred music, including his Requiem in f minor and a pair of cantatas for solo voice with violin.

• Sacred Sounds of Latin America. An exploration of the complex European and Indigenous influences in Latin American music in both the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.

2017-2018 Season

• The Architecture of Music. A multimedia program about the relationship between music and architecture.

• Christmas in San Marco. Music from an imagined Christmas Vespers service in St. Mark’s Basilica with music by Cavalli, Monteverdi, & Rigatti.  With strings, organ, and the Toronto Continuo Collective.

• Bach’s Foundations.  Single & double-choir motets by Johannes, Johann Christian, & Johann Michael Bach.

• The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (remount)

 2018-2019 Season

• Music & Friendship. A 50th anniversary concert with all-time favourites of the choir by Bach, Purcell, Monteverdi, Schütz, & others.

• The Bremen Town Musicians. A comic program of Renaissance madrigals & chansons with actor Peter Keleghan.

• Convivencia: Music Across Three Faiths.  A mingling of Christian, Arabic, and Sephardic music from the Iberian Peninsula.  Co-developed with program curator & soprano Nell Snaidas.

• A Voice of Her Own: Musical Women who Persisted, 1098-1896 (remount)

 2019-2020 Season

• Songs for a Weary Traveler: a juxtaposition of sacred music from the Baroque and Afrocentric repertories.  Co-developed with Brainerd Blyden-Taylor and performed together with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale.

• Mary, the Rose.  A Holiday program of Marian music from the Medieval period to the present day.  Featuring a work by Andrew Donalson as a well as a premiere by teen prodigy Ian Plansker.

• Rosenmüller @ 400.  An exploration of choral & instrumental music by Johann Rosenmüller during his 400th birth year, accompanied by an ensemble of organ, strings and sackbuts.  [Concert cancelled due to COVID19]

• ¡Primavera Barocca!  Latin American music from the seventeeth and twentieth centuries, featuring Ariel Ramirez’s Missa Criolla accompanied by Baroque and traditional folk instruments.  [Concert cancelled due to COVID19]