Photo: One of the side chapels at the cathedral in Lima, Peru.

The first winter after I moved to Toronto, I was walking past Trinity-St. Paul’s Church in the Annex during a pre-Christmas snowstorm and decided to stop momentarily to see why the front door was open.

From the warm lobby, I could see through the glass panes into the church, were a small group of musicians was giving a concert, with projections of art on a big screen behind them.

It was the Toronto Consort presenting a Christmas concert interspered with readings from an English Bible translated in Middle English.

The following December, a friend and I bought tickets, arriving, as it happened, on the heels of another big snowstorm. The warmth of the building, the beautifully rendered music and the mix of texts and images took me to another place and time — and I was hooked.

It’s been at least a decade since the Consort presented its English Christmas, but there have been two other programmes that are equally as engaging, one Geran and one Spanish.

This year, on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., as well as Sunday at 3:30 p.m., its the Spanish Christmas that reigns, featuring seasonal music from the 16th and 17th centuries performed by nine members of the Consort as well as a few extra guest instrumentalists, all led by artistic director David Fallis.

It’s bound to be a fine antidote to pre-Christmas madness. And, in case you can’t make it, you should know that the Toronto Consort follows the live performances with a recording session for a future disc from Marquis Records.

Regular tickets start at only $25 ($20 for seniors). You can find all the details here.

Here’s one of the carols on the Consort’s programme: “Riu riu chiu,” by an anonymous Spanish composer — sung here by the Nashville Early Music Ensemble:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKnlAU600Sw

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John Terauds

John Terauds, Editor-Emeritus of Ludwig van Toronto, is currently a Divinity student at the University of Toronto and a church music director. He joined the Toronto Star in 1988, was the classical music critic from 2005 to 2012, and continues as a freelance critic for the paper. He is the co-author of Roy Thomson Hall: A Portrait, a book written with Toronto Star Colleague, William Littler.

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