Choirs and Groups

When our daughter was in high school I helped with the stage setup when their school presented the musicals ‘Princess Ida’, 'The Sound of Music’ and ‘Brigadoon’. She had one of the leading parts year after year. From here we both joined the Clarkson Music Theatre company in the presentation of ‘Brigadoon’ and then ‘Anything goes’, the latter with our daughter in the lead part. We were also joined by some of our choir members from St Mary's in this endeavour.

Not all was lost with my opera prowess either. A few years later I joined the Toronto Opera Repertoire in the production of the Italian operas ‘Traviata’, ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ and ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’, the latter of which I had completely memorized even from back home in Malta. After the complete operas I was invited to sing tenor excerpts from ‘Cosi Fan Tutte’ and ‘Traviata’ on stage with the same company.

And how about my Oratorio background one might ask? About 10 years ago well into my retirement now, I joined the tenor section of the Masterworks of Oakville to sing the Messiah all over again in 2015 and also in 2016 the ill fated Elijah of which I had had the taste back in Malta. This time I was elated that at last I had completed something that was missing in my musical life. 

In January 2019 I had the pleasure of joining an Italian choir in Toronto, the Coro San Marco. Our repertoire consists of Masses, Italian songs, Italian Opera excerpts and other classical pieces. I blended easily from the start sight reading music and also some that I had done in other places before. We have quite a few events we perform at right through the year and in October took a tour of Italy taking part in a Choir festival held around Salerno then traveling to the North of Italy we visited several cities including Venice.

In the summer of 2025 I did join yet another choir, this time with my wife. The choir is called the Horner Singers and the organizer and director is none other than our daughter Stephanie. We sing to entertain at Seniors' homes especially for Christmas and our repertoire consists of various music that appeals to seniors. Our rehearsal place is at the Horner community centre.