Ottawa Bach Choir, Lisette Canton, conductor (Canto)
This season marks the 10th anniversary of the Ottawa Bach Choir and the release of this CD is part of the celebrations. It begins and ends with the music of J.S. Bach, Cantata no. 196 and the motet Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf respectively, and includes music by Monteverdi, Buxtehude and Messiaen among others. In addition to authoritative and beautiful accounts of the Bach works, Monteverdi’s Cantate Domino and Messiaen’s O sacrum convivium! are especially enjoyable, but there are no weak performances in this impressive retrospective.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2012

The Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) presents its opening subscription concerts in this season of magnificent choral works: J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, Saturday, November 14, 2015, 7:30PM, at Grace Church on-the-Hill, 300 Lonsdale Road, Toronto; and Sunday, November 15, 2015, 7:30PM, at Dominion-Chalmers United Church, 355 Cooper Street, Ottawa. This concert features the full setting of one of Bach’s last and greatest compositions, completed in 1749, but only first performed in its entirety in 1859. Today it is considered one of the greatest pieces of choral music ever written. The choir is joined by the Baroque orchestra, Ensemble Caprice, Matthias Maute, artistic director; and world-class soloists, including Daniel Taylor, Agnes Zsigovics, Jacques-Olivier Chartier, Geoffrey Sirett, Daniel Lichti, and more.

“Join the OBC and a spectacular cast of instrumentalists and soloists in performances of ‘the greatest musical work of art of all times and people’—Bach’s Mass in B Minor,” says Founder and Artistic Director, Lisette Canton. “It represents a timeless, crowning achievement of Bach’s musical and spiritual profundity, and continues to move listeners, placing it far above any work composed in Western history. We invite you to join us in this incredible musical experience.”

The Ottawa Bach Choir was founded in 2002 by Dr. Lisette Canton and offers a wide range of choral music from all historical periods, featuring some of Canada’s top choristers. With the combination of a scholarly and emotional approach, the OBC provides an unforgettable experience of choral music at its best.

The OBC has toured extensively in Canada, the United States, and Europe; most recently returning from a two-week tour of Venice, Leipzig, Lübeck, Groningen, and Amsterdam. The choir had the honour of being the first Canadian choir ever to be among the performers in the world’s most prestigious international Bach festival, the Bachfest Leipzig 2014. The OBC also recently performed in the much-anticipated Apocalypsis by Canada’s own R. Murray Schafer at the Luminato Festival, Toronto in June 2015.

Ottawa Bach Choir

J.S. Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232

Saturday, November 14, 2015, 7:30PM

Grace Church on-the-Hill, 300 Lonsdale Road, Toronto

Sunday, November 15, 2015, 7:30PM

Dominion-Chalmers United Church, 355 Cooper Street, Ottawa

Tickets: Reserved $50, Adult $40, Senior $35, Student $15

Tickets are available online: www.ottawabachchoir.ca, by phone: 613-270-1015 (Ottawa) or 416-736-2100 x70191 (Toronto), or at the following outlets: The Leading Note, 370 Elgin Street, Ottawa; Compact Music, 206 & 785 1/2 Bank Street, Ottawa

Information: info@ottawabachchoir.ca or 613-270-1015 (Ottawa) or 416-736-2100 x70191 (Toronto)

Highlights of the Ottawa Bach Choir’s second season included a well received performance of Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium(Christmas Oratorio), a trip to Mexico City to perform Handel’s Messiah with the Orquesta del Nuevo Mundo and concerts of 20th century French repertoire and early German baroque works in Ottawa and Montreal.

Just back from its Carnegie Hall debut in New York City, performances this season included a Subscription Series, an Intimate Concert Series and the release of a new CD in honour of its 10th anniversary, Cantate Domino. The first concert, Baroque Christmas, included festive works from the German and Italian baroque. To celebrate the choir’s tenth anniversary, Bach’s Matthaüs-Passion (St. Matthew Passion), BWV 244, was presented with an array of international stars. The final concert of the season, Song and Spirit, was performed in advance of the OBC’s appearance at Podium 2012 featuring a newly commissioned work by Ottawa composer, Nicholas Piper. The Choir also performed at Ottawa summer festivals, Music and Beyond and Chamberfest.

Dear Music Lover,

It is my distinct pleasure, as Founder and Artistic Director, to invite you to subscribe to the Ottawa Bach Choir’s sixteenth season of magnificent choral music. Over the last 15 years, the professional ensemble has travelled the world and received national and international recognition. The choir released its 6th CD, ‘Twas But Pure Love, last season to critical acclaim, and returned from China in 2016, where it was invited to perform as Canada’s choral representative in the prestigious festival, Meet in Beijing 2016. In 2014, the OBC completed its 4th European tour, which included an invitation to perform in the Bachfest Leipzig 2014 at the Thomaskirche, in Leipzig, Germany, as the first Canadian choir ever to be invited.

Performances this season include a Subscription Series, the recording of the choir’s 7th CD, several Special Events and a concert at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. The season opens with a special concert and event, Bach & Beer, at St. Bartholomew’s Church, in collaboration with Ars Nova, the German Embassy and several local businesses.

The Subscription Series offers three spectacular concerts:

Nativity – December 1-2, 2017, 8 PM

Victoria: Officium defunctorum – March 10, 2018, 8 PM

Baroque Passion – May 4, 2018, 8 PM

The Ottawa Bach Choir is pleased to offer its audiences a subscription series for a limited time only. Get the entire 2017-2018 concert season for 10% less than regular ticket prices. This offer ends on November 30, 2017.

Come discover the best that choral music has to offer!

Lisette Canton
Founder and Artistic Director

Ottawa (Canada) – The Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) presents the final concert of its magnificent season featuring the rarely performed Passion Motets by early German Baroque master, Heinrich Schütz, Handel’s brilliant Dixit Dominus and Bach’s motet, Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229. With Ensemble Caprice baroque orchestra and Canadian soloists, including countertenor Daniel Taylor and other special guests, the music from this concert will be recorded for the choir’s 7th CD, due for release in 2018-19.

“This concert will give Ottawa audiences a chance to experience some of the best of the Baroque with rarely performed works by Handel, Schütz and Bach,” says Founder and Artistic Director, Dr. Lisette Canton. “These spectacular works, performed with the distinguished Baroque orchestra Ensemble Caprice and soloists, will surely awaken the passions!”

The OBC recently celebrated the release of its new CD, ‘Twas But Pure Love, for the choir’s 15th anniversary, featuring two Canadian recording premieres by Ottawa composers Kelly-Marie Murphy and Matthew Larkin, with harpist Caroline Léonardelli and organist Jonathan Oldengarm. It includes ethereal music from the Renaissance to the Contemporary periods from Spain, Italy, England, Germany, France and Sweden.

Founded in 2002 by Dr. Lisette Canton, the OBC offers a wide range of choral music from all historical periods, featuring some of Canada’s top choristers. With the combination of a scholarly and emotional approach, the OBC provides an unforgettable experience of choral music at its best.

The OBC has toured extensively in Canada, the United States, and Europe, and was invited to perform as Canada’s choral representative in the prestigious Meet in Beijing arts festival in Beijing, China, in April 2016. In 2014, the choir completed a two-week tour of Venice, Leipzig, Lübeck, Groningen, and Amsterdam, and had the honour of being the first Canadian choir ever to be among the performers in the world’s most prestigious international Bach festival, Bachfest Leipzig 2014.

Listing information:

Ottawa Bach Choir

Dr. Lisette Canton, Conductor                                   

Baroque Passion

Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Schütz’ Passion Motets and Bach’s Komm, Jesu, komm, BWV 229. With Ensemble Caprice baroque orchestra and soloists, including countertenor Daniel Taylor

Friday, May 4, 2018, 8 PM

St. Jean Baptiste Church, 96 Empress Avenue, Ottawa

Tickets: Reserved $45, Adult $35, Senior $30, Student $15, Children 12 and under Free

Tickets are available online: www.ottawabachchoir.ca, by phone: 613-270-1015, or at the following outlets:

The Leading Note, 370 Elgin Street, Ottawa; Compact Music, 206 & 785 1/2 Bank Street, Ottawa

Information: info@ottawabachchoir.ca

Ottawa Bach Choir patron Bill Caswell hosts a delightful Intimate Concert at his stylish home in the heart of Ottawa. The event features operatic delights performed by soloists of the Ottawa Bach Choir, including soprano Kathleen Radke, mezzo-soprano Danielle Vaillancourt, tenor Jeff Boyd, baritone Jean-Sébastien Kennedy and pianist Jennifer Szeto, along with delicious food with a Mexican twist, mouth-watering desserts, champagne, red and white wine, and the good company of Ottawa’s cultural and business community. Space is limited – don’t miss out!

Proceeds from this fundraising event will help support the great work of this world-class choir.

Sunday, August 25, 2019, 2-4 PM
Home of Bill Caswell
Ottawa

Tickets: $70 ($45 tax receipt available upon request)

HANDEL Dixit Dominus BACH & SCHÜTZ Motets

Showing that Toronto is not the only Canadian city capable of producing superb period ensembles, the Ottawa Bach Choir, conducted by founding director Lisette Canton, have combined with Matthias Maute’s Ensemble Caprice from Montreal in eloquent, persuasive performances of Handel, Schütz and Bach. The two have teamed up before, most notably in 2016, when they played in Beijing and Shanghai, and this is reflected in how easily they move to the heart of the music’s spiritual message, and how organically they integrate their HIP knowledge in order to communicate that message.

Their performance of Handel’s Dixit Dominus also gets the young composer’s precocious power and the passion of his utterances. From the exuberant, rigorous physicality of the opening chorus and the clear enunciation of the singing, the choir sing as if the words were actually being listened to and reflected upon by an engaged congregation.

The Canadian countertenor Daniel Taylor’s sweet-toned singing of ‘Virgam virtutis tuae’ is one of a number of lovely vocal contributions, another being sopranos Kayla Ruiz and Kathleen Radke’s exquisite ‘De torrente in via bibet’. There is splendid instrumental work throughout, including Jean-Christophe Lizotte’s cello solo in the ‘Virgam’. And the choir show their virtuosity and staying power in the fugue that concludes the ‘Gloria Patri, et Filio’.

The Schütz songs are similarly vivid and engaged, but even so the grandeur of Bach’s motet is staggering and movingly performed. The sound is captured splendidly by Montreal’s own ATMA Classique label in the audiophile space of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church in Ottawa.

Laurence Vittes

© September 2019 Gramophone

The Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) has won a JUNO 2020 Award for its recording, Handel: Dixit Dominus; Bach & Schütz: Motets, in the category Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral. Featuring soloists, countertenor Daniel Taylor, sopranos Kathleen Radke and Kayla Ruiz, and accompanied by the award- winning Ensemble Caprice baroque orchestra, the recording was released on the ATMA Classique label and exclaimed as “staggering and movingly performed” (Gramophone Magazine), “among the very best” (American Record Guide) and “awe-inspiring” (The WholeNote).

“We are thrilled to win this prestigious award and honoured to have been included in a category with such talented artists,” says Founder and Artistic Director, Lisette Canton. “Congratulations and sincere thanks to the choir, soloists, Ensemble Caprice baroque orchestra, sound engineer Carl Talbot and ATMA Classique! 

The choir has also been invited to return to the world’s most prestigious international Bach festival, Bachfest Leipzig,as one of a select number of ensembles worldwide (and the only Canadian ensemble) asked to present the entire chorale cantata cycle of Bach, now postponed to 2022.

Founded in 2002 by Dr. Lisette Canton, the OBC offers a wide range of choral music from all historical periods, featuring some of Canada’s top choristers. With the combination of a scholarly and emotional approach, the OBC provides an unforgettable experience of choral music at its best.

The OBC has toured extensively in Canada, the United States, and Europe, and was invited to perform as Canada’s choral representative in the prestigious Meet in Beijing arts festival in Beijing, China, in April 2016. In 2014, the choir had the honour of being the first Canadian choir ever to be among the performers in Bachfest Leipzig 2014.

Information: info@ottawabachchoir.ca

The Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) is excited to welcome you to its 20^th anniversary season of stunning choral music! The professional ensemble has not only travelled the world and received national and international recognition, it also has many ‘firsts’ to its credit, including a recent JUNO award for our album Handel: Dixit Dominus, Bach & Schütz: Motets! The choir will record its eighth album this season and has been invited to return to the world’s most prestigious international Bach festival, Bachfest Leipzig, in June 2022 (postponed from 2020), as one of a select number of ensembles worldwide (and the only Canadian ensemble) to present the entire chorale cantata cycle of Bach.

The choir is delighted to be able to safely offer an entire season of choral music in 2021-2022, with in-person live concerts as well as in our successful Digital Concert Hall. We also introduce our new Administrative Manager, Emily O’Kane, who brings passion and enthusiasm to the OBC.

The Season Series offers three magnificent concerts:

(1) Bach Motets, Available as of October 2, 2021, 8 PM, in OBC’s Digital Concert Hall

(2) Bach: Mass in B Minor, Saturday, November 27, 2021, 7:30 PM, Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, 355 Cooper St. & OBC’s Digital Concert Hall

(3) French Baroque Treasures, Saturday, March 12, 2022, 8 PM, Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar St. & OBC’s Digital Concert Hall

(4) Prelude Europe 2022, Saturday, May 7, 2022, 8 PM, St. Matthew’s Church, 130 Glebe Ave. & OBC’s Digital Concert Hall

Join us and come discover the best that choral music has to offer!

Lisette Canton, Founder and Artistic Director  

By Wolfgang Adam

“Then at noon in the Thomas Church a musical surprise. Three superb Bach cantatas (BWV 124, 3, 111) performed by a powerful Canadian choir. This ‘Ottawa Bach Choir’ conducted by Lisette Canton showed us that the choral basses can be dominant in the polyphonic network of voices. Not the choir sopranos, but this time the men offered the powerful voiced basis. In the soloist quartet, the baritone was also the star of the performance for me.”

Rezensionen und News nach Beendigung vom Bachfest Leipzig 2022

Dann In der Mittags-Zeit in der Thomas-Kirche eine musikalische Überraschung. Drei hochkarätige Bach-Kantaten( BWV 124,3,111), aufgeführt von einem machtvollen Chor aus Kanada. Dieser ‘Ottawa-Bach-Chor’ unter Lisette Canton zeigte uns, dass die Chorbässe im polyphonen Geflecht der Stimmen die Dominanz haben können. Nicht der Chor-Sopran, sondern diesmal die Männer boten die stimmgewaltige Grundlage. Im Solistenquartet war auch der Bariton für mich der Star der Darbietung.

The JUNO award winning Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC), under the artistic direction of Lisette Canton, invites you to join us for our  22^nd season of magnificent choral music! The professional ensemble has travelled the world, received national and international recognition, and also won a 2020 JUNO award for Best Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral, for its album Handel: Dixit Dominus, Bach & Schütz: Motets! The choir has just released its 8^th album, Johann Sebastian Bach: Six Motets, on the ATMA Classique label, and returned from Bachfest Leipzig 2022 last June, the choir’s second invitation to the prestigious festival.

The Subscription Series 2023-24 offers three sublime concerts:

(1) Magnificat, Saturday, December 2, 2023, 8 PM, St. Matthew’s Church, 130 Glebe Avenue, Ottawa

(2) The Maestro of San Marco, Saturday, March 2, 2024, 8 PM, Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar Avenue, Ottawa

(3) Leipzig 1723, Saturday, May 4, 2024, 8 PM, St. Andrew’s Church, 82 Kent Street, Ottawa

Come share our passion and discover the best that choral music has to offer!

The JUNO award-winning Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC), under the artistic direction of Lisette Canton, invites you to join us for our 23^rd season of transcendent choral music! The professional ensemble has travelled the world, received national and international recognition, and also won a 2020 JUNO award for Best Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral, for its album Handel: Dixit Dominus, Bach & Schütz: Motets!

The 2024-2025 Season Series offers three spectacular concerts:

(1) Bach: Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio), Saturday, November 30, 2024, 7 PM, St. François d’Assise Church, 20 Fairmont Avenue, Ottawa

(2) Polychoral Extravaganza, Saturday, March 1, 2025, 7:30 PM, Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, 355 Cooper Street, Ottawa

(3) Gloria!, Saturday, May 10, 2025, 7:30 PM, St. Patrick’s Basilica, 220 Kent Street, Ottawa 

Early Bird Subscription tickets, at a 15% discount, are available through our website for a limited time. Offer expires on September 2, 2024. Afterwards, regular subscription (at a 10% discount) and individual ticket prices will apply. For more information, e-mail us at info@ottawabachchoir.ca,

Don’t miss the chance to share our passion and discover the best that choral music has to offer!

Ottawa Bach Choir & Baroque Orchestra / Lisette Canton
Canto 2011—55 minutes

This program is in honor of the Ottawa Bach Choir’s 10th anniversary. It’s a well constructed program that begins and ends with JS Bach, with the pieces arranged chronologically in between and encompassing modern times, the most recent composer being Eric Whitacre, who was born in 1970.

The first Bach piece is a wedding cantata from the young Bach, BWV 196. Two Monteverdi words are included: the title piece, ‘Cantate Domino’, and a longer ‘Beatus vir’. Following is ‘Hear my Prayer, O Lord’, by Henry Purcell, and a short piece each from Buxtehude and Saint-Saens. Four modern composers are represented: Olivier Messiaen, with his ‘O Sacrum Convivium!’; Rupert Lang, with an Agnus Dei in French; Eric Whitacre, ‘Lux Aurumque’; and, finally, from Knut Nystedt a work called ‘Immortal Bach’. The final Bach piece is a motet and chorale, ‘The Spirit Doth our Weakness Help’. All song lyrics are printed in the notes.

These works are all beautifully sung; I have enjoyed listening to this several times. The sound is excellent.

CRAWFORD

© American Music Guide 2012

The Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) presents its second subscription concert in this season of magnificent choral works: Songs for Chamber Ensemble, Saturday, January 30, 2016, 8:00PM, at Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Avenue, Ottawa. A small ensemble of solo singers from the OBC will perform with pianist Frédéric Lacroix in an intimate setting. The concert will feature Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder, Debussy’s Trois chansons de Charles d’Orléans, Poulenc’s Un soir de neige, as well as works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Ottawa’s own Nicholas Piper, Schütz, Monteverdi, Pearsall, and more.

One of the main features of the evening will be Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder (“Gypsy Songs”). First performed in Berlin in 1898, the piece is a song cycle with texts based on Hungarian folk songs and originally written for solo singers. Although the origin of these songs is Hungarian, the entire cycle is sung in German; the original Hungarian text having been translated into German before the composition by Brahms. Another work of note is Poulenc’s Un soir de neige (“An evening of snow”). The work is another short cycle of sung poems describing the beauty and solitude of winter. This concert also features Deux chansons de la Belle Cordière by Ottawa’s very own Nicholas Piper. 

The Ottawa Bach Choir was founded in 2002 by Dr. Lisette Canton and offers a wide range of choral music from all historical periods, featuring some of Canada’s top choristers. With the combination of a scholarly and emotional approach, the OBC provides an unforgettable experience of choral music at its best.

The OBC has toured extensively in Canada, the United States, and Europe; most recently returning from a two-week tour of Venice, Leipzig, Lübeck, Groningen, and Amsterdam. The choir had the honour of being the first Canadian choir ever to be among the performers in the world’s most prestigious international Bach festival, the Bachfest Leipzig 2014. The OBC also recently performed in the much-anticipated Apocalypsis by Canada’s own R. Murray Schafer at the Luminato Festival, Toronto in June 2015.

Ottawa Bach Choir

SONGS FOR CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

Saturday, January 30, 2016, 8:00PM

Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Avenue, Ottawa

Tickets: Reserved $50, Adult $40, Senior $35, Student $15

Tickets are available online: www.ottawabachchoir.ca, by phone: 613-270-1015, or at the following outlets: The Leading Note, 370 Elgin Street, Ottawa; Compact Music, 206 & 785 1/2 Bank Street, Ottawa

Information: info@ottawabachchoir.ca or 613-270-1015

This season, the Ottawa Bach Choir expanded its repertoire of Bach’s greatest works with a glorious performance of the Mass in B minor, performing with some of the the best voices and instrumentalists in the world. The culmination of the work the Choir achieved thus far was highlighted with the release of its first CD, Festival Baroque, and its first tour to Europe with performances in Prague, Stuttgart and in the Motette series at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany, the home of J.S. Bach for 27 years.

Over the past ten years, this professional choir has performed throughout the world and has been acclaimed on both the national and international levels. As the choir moved into its second decade after an amazing tenth anniversary, the choir presented Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) by Johannes Brahms, Masters of the Renaissance, which included a cappella works by two of the period’s most important composers, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Tomás Luis de Victoria, and the final concert of the season, Baroque Magnificence, which included Bach’s early cantata, Himmelskönig, sei willkommen, BWV 182, Handel’s early choral masterpiece, Dixit Dominus, and Charpentier’s Exaudiat Pour le Roy.

In this 13th season, the choir’s Subscription Series featured a performance in the Shenkman Arts Centre series in Orleans, Ontario, with the OBC singing Christmas Around the World, and it performed two other concerts, the masterpiece by Orlando di Lasso, Lagrime di San Pietro, and Now is the Month of Maying, highlighting madrigals and part-songs by Renaissance masters as well as Haydn’s 13 Part-Songs. The second Venetian Carnival gala performance also took place in February, and the choir was also featured in Schafer’s Apocalypsis in the Sony Centre in Toronto in June, along with 11 other professional choirs from Ontario.

Join the Ottawa Bach Choir, in collaboration with Ars Nova and the Rideau Club of Ottawa, for a delightful Spring Party, featuring beautiful music performed by the choir, along with delicious hors d’oeuvres, sumptuous desserts, wine and cocktails, and the good company of Ottawa’s cultural, business and diplomatic community, at the prestigious Rideau Club. Space is limited – don’t miss out!

Proceeds from this fundraising event will help support the great work of this world-class choir.

Friday, May 25, 2018, 5:30 PM
Rideau Club
99 Bank Street, Ottawa

Tickets: $85 ($60 tax receipt available upon request)

THE WHOLE NOTE

VOCAL AND CHORAL

Handel: Dixit Dominus; Bach & Schütz: Motets – Ottawa Bach Choir; Lisette Canton

Written by Dianne Wells

Category: Vocal and Choral

Published: 27 March 2019

Handel – Dixit Dominus; Bach & Schütz – Motets
Ottawa Bach Choir; Lisette Canton
ATMA ACD2 2790 (atmaclassique.com/En)

The Ottawa Bach Choir and Ensemble Caprice join forces in this recording for thrilling performances of Baroque masters Handel, Bach and Schütz. From the outset of Dixit Dominus, the quick pace and precision with which the chorus deftly moves through Handel’s ever-running and cascading phrases is awe-inspiring. Daniel Taylor guests for the alto aria Virgam virtutis in which the interplay between his golden voice and the continuo instruments is sublime. Soprano Kathleen Radke maintains a wonderfully relaxed vocal line through the execution of elaborate lines in Tecum principium in die virtutis and later she and Kayla Ruiz create enchanting chemistry in the soaring duet De torrente in via bibet.

Looking back almost a century, next on the recording are rarely heard Passion Motets from Heinrich Schütz’s Cantiones Sacrae. Heavily influenced by Italian madrigals of the time, Lisette Canton coaxes the full anguish of the thematic material from the choir in emphasizing dissonances and highly expressive rhetoric. The recording ends with homage to the choir’s eponym. In Bach’s Komm, Jesu, komm, excellent recording technique and choice of venue shine through, with a lovely resonance from the start and an erudite interchange captured in the dialogue of a choir divided into two sections by the composer.

To purchase the CD: https://ottawabachchoir.ca/en/product/handel-dixit-dominus-bach-schutz-motets-2/