The Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) has won the Outstanding Choral Recording 2020 Award for its recording, Handel: Dixit Dominus; Bach & Schütz: Motets, from Choral Canada. 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 have won this prestigious award and honoured to be in the company of such talented choral musicians from across the country,” 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!”

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

Virtual BACH – Dona nobis pacem from Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, by J.S. Bach. Peace and hope for the world in a time of uncertainty, recorded April 28-May 3, 2020 by the Ottawa Bach Choir with 29 separate videos.

The OBC recorded the Canadian national anthem, O Canada, for a virtual performance in support of “Stronger Together” and to uplift the spirits of all Canadians at this challenging time. Recorded from April 21-24, 2020 with 22 separate videos.

“O große Lieb,” first chorale from Bach’s Johannes-Passion, BWV 245. Virtual performance recorded March 30-April 3, 2020 with 22 separate videos and produced by Daniel Gillis.

The video was included in the worldwide performance of the St. John Passion from the Thomaskirche, Leipzig, Germany, on Good Friday, April 10, 2020. Link to the performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zwy1Gi4ob4

Dear OBC friends, patrons and subscribers,

It is with sadness and regret that we must inform you of the cancellation of our final concert of the season, Prelude-Europe 2020, which was supposed to occur on May 2, 2020, because of the ongoing spread of the coronavirus pandemic in Ottawa, in Canada and across the globe. Our organization has been conscious of the health and safety of our musical family and had hoped to livestream our concert for you; however, with the ongoing community spread of COVID-19, we must continue to practice social distancing as recommended by Public Health experts. The present situation would create an undue risk to our singers, our families and our community.

Although we cannot predict how the pandemic will change in the coming months, rest assured that we will continue to share our music with you through our JUNO-nominated recordings on our website, on various digital platforms (iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, and more) and on social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). And don’t forget to look for our upcoming 2020-2021 season announcement! 

For those who have purchased tickets to our above performance, we offer the following options:

1) Refund: We are happy to offer a refund for your single ticket or final portion of your subscription.

2) Donation: If you are able and would like to donate your ticket purchase to the OBC, we would be happy to issue a tax receipt.

Please let us know what your preference is. If you have any questions, please contact us by email or by phone at 613-270-1015. 

We are united with you and our colleagues in Ottawa, Canada and around the world, and look to the universal message of hope and comfort in Bach’s music as we move through this challenging time together. We thank you so much for your continued support of the OBC and look forward to sharing our full program of glorious music with you as soon as possible.

Lisette Canton, Founder and Artistic Director,
and the entire Ottawa Bach Choir team

For its 18th season, the choir presented A Bach Christmas, featuring the Epiphany cantatas the choir will perform at Bachfest Leipzig 2020, BWV 124, 3 and 111, as well as the celebratory motet Singet dem Herrn and more, with Ensemble Caprice baroque orchestra and soloists, Meredith Hall, Nicholas Burns, Philippe Gagné and Andrew Mahon, followed by The Genius of Josquin, featuring his Missa Pange Lingua as well as magnificent motets and chansons, followed by Prelude-Europe 2020, which included music by German Baroque composers as well as Contemporary gems the choir was to take on its 5th European tour to Germany and Bachfest Leipzig 2020. However, because of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the choir had to postpone its final concert and European tour to 2022. The OBC was also nominated for a JUNO 2020 award for its album, Handel, Bach & Schütz, on the ATMA Classique label.

The JUNO-nominated Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) presents the second concert of the season, The Genius of Josquin, on Saturday, March 7, 2020, 8 PM, at St. Jean Baptiste Church, 96, Empress Avenue, in Ottawa. The concert highlights rarely performed sacred and secular music by the Franco-Flemish Renaissance genius, Josquin des Prez, who worked in France, Belgium, Italy and the Vatican. Repertoire includes Missa Pange Lingua, the exquisite Ave Maria and La Déploration de Johannes Ockeghem, as well as magnificent motets and chansons, all performed in the lush acoustic of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Church, in Ottawa.

The OBC has been nominated for a JUNO 2020 Award for its recording, Handel: Dixit Dominus; Bach & Schütz: Motets, in the category Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral. Released on the ATMA Classique label, the album has been exclaimed as “staggering and movingly performed” (Gramophone Magazine), “among the very best” (American Record Guide) and “awe-inspiring” (The WholeNote).

The choir has also been invited to return to the world’s most prestigious international Bach festival, Bachfest Leipzig 2020,as one of a select number of ensembles worldwide (and the only Canadian ensemble) asked to present the entire chorale cantata cycle of Bach, in June 2020.

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, Europe, and  China, and  had the honour of being the first Canadian choir ever to be among the performers in Bachfest Leipzig 2014.

Listing information:

Ottawa Bach Choir

Dr. Lisette Canton, Conductor                                                   

The Genius of Josquin

Missa Pange Lingua, Ave Maria, Le Déploration de Johannes Ockeghem, and magnificent motets and chansons

Saturday, March 7, 2020, 8 PM: St. Jean Baptiste Church, 96 Empress Avenue, Ottawa

Tickets: Reserved $50, Adult $40, Senior $35, Student $15, Children 12 and under are free

Tickets are available online: www.ottawabachchoir.ca, or at the following outlets:

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

Information: info@ottawabachchoir.ca

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

HANDEL: Dixit Dominus BACH & SCHÜTZ: Motets

It seems to have become fairly common nowadays for choruses, some new, some long-established, to issue discs that either show off a particular program or ensemble. Never mind that downloads and sites such as YouTube may be more accessible to the public at large, but the compact disc is not yet on the same path as the dinosaurs in terms of relevancy. These serve an important purpose, in my opinion, as a means of introducing an ensemble to the world at large, as well as providing archival documentation of their talents. The repertory chosen is, for the most part, based upon known works, but occasionally there can be included odds and ends that are not always readily available as repertory pieces. This brings us to this recording of the Ottawa Bach Choir, which has put together a program of sacred works for which it is eminently suited. Handel’s large Dixit Dominus (HWV 232) is the centerpiece, but here we also find a series of four Passion motets by his German predecessor Heinrich Schütz, drawn from the Cantiones sacræ collection of 1625, and concluding with a filler work, Johann Sebastian Bach’s motet Komm, Jesu, Komm (BWV 229). The term used to describe this grouping in the notes is “German roots,” but in reality it seems as if they were chosen as a documentation of works taken on tour. The opening picture of the Bach Choir in Beijing seems to support this, particularly since all of them are readily available individually in the recording repertory; here I am reminded of John Eliot Gardiner’s fine rendition of the Handel as far back as 1992 on Erato, René Jacobs’s recent recording of all of Bach’s motets in 2017 on Harmonia Mundi, and the complete Cantiones sacræ on Carus by the Dresdener Kammerchor about six years ago. Thus there is no lack of fine exemplars of these works, but here, again, it is the choir and its interpretation that is the key to the disc.

The Dixit dates from 1707 as one of Handel’s earliest large-scale works. The accompaniment is limited to strings, albeit with a rather thicker texture, and it consists of various choruses with a few solos and two arias thrown in for good measure. I’ve always liked the first chorus of this work, since it has the restless energy one finds occasionally in Purcell with a steadily marching bass, machine-like strings, and a forceful declamatory statement by the chorus. It is a rousing way of starting off the piece and serves as a nice foil to the more lyrical aria (Virgam virtutis) that follows. This is texturally more sparse, allowing for the alto solo, here capably performed by countertenor Daniel Taylor, to create flowing lines. Elsewhere, the De torrente, which ought to be vivacious and joyous, is a thoughtful and somewhat mysterious duet for two sopranos that requires absolute control of pitch. Happily, soloists Kayla Ruiz and Kathleen Radke accomplish this with serene beauty, beneath which a ghostly chorus enters with occasional commentary. The suspensions are spine-tingling at times. The doxology replicates the opening chorus, with some of the impressive vocal lines for which Handel is famous. They wander and tumble over each other, and the strings and organ follow suit, especially when the harmonically stable cantus firmus enters in the tenors.

The pieces chosen from about a century earlier are quite different, showing that Schütz owed a great deal to the late Renaissance madrigal. For example, the cascading opening lines of Ego sum seem as blatant a statement of “egotistical” madrigalism as one might wish for in their bright and unmistakable effect. As this motet progresses, the harmonies shift fluidly, and there are moments of imitation but no strict polyphony. This seems reserved for Calicem salutaris, where the vocal entrances are scaffolded and the lines weave about each other until coming to a homophonic cadence. These are well-formed works that require close attention to detail in order to be understood.

As ensembles go, the Bach Choir, from which the soloists were drawn, has a nicely transparent sound that reflects this sort of music well. The diction is clear and the intonation is accurate. Conductor Lisette Canton has a fine ensemble to work with, and the period instrument group Caprice functions well as an accompaniment in the Handel without disturbing the vocal dominance. The clarity of the voices alone will give this performance a place in among the other renditions of this repertory. This is one disc that seems to transcend the mundane needs of public exposure, for it shows a disciplined group that is fully at home in the style of music and equal as a competitor for other ensembles. I, for one, am looking forward to their next disc. 

Bertil van Boer

© September/October 2019 Fanfare

Ottawa (Canada) – The Ottawa Bach Choir (OBC) presents the first concert of its 18^th season of magnificent choral music, A Bach Christmas, on Saturday, November 30, 2019, 7:30 PM, at Grace Church on-the-Hill, 300 Lonsdale Road, in Toronto; and Sunday, December 1, 2019, 7:30 PM, at Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar Street, in Ottawa. The concert features festive repertoire for Christmas by Bach, including the cantatas the choir will perform at Bachfest Leipzig 2020, Meinen Jesum laß ich nicht, BWV 124; Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid, BWV 3; Was mein Gott will, das g’scheh allzeit, BWV 111, and more! This spectacular presentation includes the Ensemble Caprice baroque orchestra, as well as Canadian soloists, soprano Meredith Hall, countertenor Nicholas Burns, tenor Philippe Gagné and bass Andrew Mahon. 

“The OBC is thrilled to be invited to perform this rarely heard music by Bach at the most prestigious Bach festival in the world, Bachfest Leipzig, in June 2020, and we’ll share this beautiful music for the Christmas season with audiences in Ottawa and Toronto,” says Founder and Artistic Director, Lisette Canton. “You won’t want to miss these brilliant concerts with some of Canada’s most celebrated artists in such inspiring venues.”

The OBC’s seventh CD, Handel: Dixit Dominus, Bach & Schütz: Motets, was released on the ATMA Classique label and exclaimed as “among the very best” (American Record Guide) and “staggering and movingly performed” (Gramophone Magazine). The choir has also been invited to return to the world’s most prestigious international Bach festival, Bachfest Leipzig 2020,as one of a select number of ensembles worldwide (and the only Canadian ensemble) asked to present the entire chorale cantata cycle of Bach, in June 2020.

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.

For interviews and information, please contact:

Dr. Lisette Canton, Founder & Artistic Director, 613-222-1882, lisette.canton@ottawabachchoir.ca

Listing information:

Ottawa Bach Choir

Dr. Lisette Canton, Conductor                                                   

A Bach Christmas

with Ensemble Caprice baroque orchestra and soloists

Saturday, November 30, 2019, 7:30 PM: Grace Church on-the-Hill, 300 Lonsdale Road, Toronto

Sunday, December 1, 2019, 7:30 PM: Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar Street, Ottawa

Tickets: Reserved $50, Adult $40, Senior $35, Student $15, Children 12 and under are free

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

Compact Music, 206 & 785 1/2 Bank Street, Ottawa

Information: info@ottawabachchoir.ca