’d like to invite you to join the Toronto Consort for a musical ride through the wonderful world of early music! The 2009-2010 Season starts off with a program with one of our favourite guest artists, soprano Suzie LeBlanc, as she and our own fabulous female singers each takes on the role of one of the famous primadonnas of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, when operas were first created, and virtuosa singing reached dazzling heights. Then comes a rare chance to hear one of Toronto’s most important instrument collections, the Hart House Viols, played by Les Voix Humaines and friends in a program of music by Henry Purcell, honouring the 350th anniversary of the death of this supreme genius. At Christmas, we take you to the world of Renaissance and early Baroque Spain, Mexico, Guatemala and Peru, in a program full of flashing melodies and exotic rhythms.

In the new year, we turn to the sumptuous repertoire of the German sacred symphonies by Schütz, Schein, Praetorius and J. S. Bach. For this lavish program, we have assembled an international team of cornettos, sackbuts, strings, keyboards, lutes and voices to do this magnificent music full justice. Even lovers of the music of J.S. Bach rarely get to hear his music that calls for cornettos and sackbuts played the way he intended. And to finish our journey, we really go for a musical ride across the Middle East and to China, as we invite virtuosi on the world’s lutes to join us on stage and discover the rich poetic traditions of oud, pipa, and European lute. Come and join us on the best musical ride in town!

D A V I D   F A L L I S
Artistic Director

© 2009, Toronto Consort