The Oakville Choral Society presents a concert titled Nature’s Divine Hands, a celebration of spring and its spirit of renewal.
The concert will feature Schubert’s Mass in G as its centrepiece, with soloists Lindsay McIntyre, soprano, and Owen Phillipson, bass. The Oakville Choral Society choir will be accompanied by a string quartet, and conducted by their Music Director Kai Leung.
Nature’s Divine Hands takes place on April 25.
Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G major, D 167
Franz Schubert was an 18 year old school teacher in 1815, a year when he would, incredibly, compose his symphonies No. 2 and 3, two Masses, a string quartet, two piano sonatas, four Singspiele, and 145 songs (including his iconic Erlkönig), and other music.
The Mass No. 2 (his 167th composition) was written between March 2 and March 7 of that year, and follows the success of his first Mass, which had debuted in 1814.
The work consists of Kyrie: Andante con moto; II. Gloria: Allegro maestoso; III. Credo: Allegro moderato; IV. Sanctus: Adagio moderato ; V. Benedictus: Andante grazioso; and VI. Agnus Dei: Lento. The music is characterized by its lyrical beauty and simplicity of approach. Its mood is devotional, and belies those who suggest that Schubert wasn’t very religious.
He wrote on that subject in a letter to his father.
“People have wondered at the piety I express in a hymn to the Virgin Mary, which seems to move every soul and to dispose the listener to prayer. I think that is because I never force myself to pray and, except when devotion involuntarily overpowers me, I never compose that kind of hymn or prayer — when I do, then the piety I give voice to is genuine and deeply felt.”
While the work, sadly, went unpublished during his lifetime, in the ensuing centuries, it has become probably the best known of his three shorter mass setting, also called missae breves.
He had probably intended for it to be presented at his family’s church in Vienna, and revisited the work later in his too short life. It was eventually published in 1846, some 18 years after his death at the age of 31.
Kai Leung, Oakville Choral Society Music Director and Conductor
Canadian choral conductor, composer, and singer Kai Leung is the Music Director and Conductor of the Oakville Choral Society, and the Artistic Director of the Modern Sound Collective. He also serves as the Associate Conductor with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto, and as the Assistant Conductor and Composer in Residence at St. Clements Church. He is the conductor and choir manager of the Toronto Festival Singers, the professional synagogue choir at the Song Shul.
Kai earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto, where he studied voice and composition. He was the 2020 recipient of the William and Phyllis Waters Graduating Award from the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, which recognized his potential for making an impact in the world of music.
Kai is known for his work with young artists. Modern Sound Collective is a choral group for young singers, and Leung conducts their Concreamus, Datsuzoku, Sehnsucht, and Frisson sections.
As a vocalist, Kai sings baritone with the TMSingers, and the Schola Cantorum of St. Basil’s Catholic Church.
He studied composition with Roger Bergs during his time at UofT, and won the Debbie Fleming prize for choral composition, presented by the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, in 2023. His choral works have been performed in Canada and internationally by ensembles that include the Vancouver Chamber Choir, Resonance Youth Choir, Jokolo, Concreamus, the Vancouver Youth Choir, the Oakville choir for Children and Youth, and the Orpheus Choir of Toronto, among others.
Soloists
Lindsay McIntyre, soprano
Lindsay earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in performance from the University of Toronto. She was the first ever vocalist to win the DMA recital competition at that institutions, and won a graduating award “deemed to have the greatest potential to make an important contribution to the field of music”. Her doctoral research involved examining the effectiveness of an intervention on students suffering from Music Performance Anxiety (MPA).
Lindsay has performed as a soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Handle’s Dixit Dominus with the Toronto Mendelssohn Singers, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, and the Canadian premier of Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Sheppard with the Grand Philharmonic Chamber Choir. Her operatic roles include Euridice in the North American stage premiere of Haydn’s L’anima del filosofo, Sophie in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, First Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Hero in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, and Titania in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen.
She recently performed in Soundstreams I Want To Tell You Everything in Toronto, and will reprise that role on tour to Dublin and Chicoutimi, QC. She will also perform as a soloist with the Trinity Bach Project in May 2026.
Owen Phillipson, bass-baritone
Bass-baritone Owen Phillipson is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance at the University of Toronto. He is also a busy performer in both oratorio and opera.
Performance highlights include singing the role of Count Rodolfo in La Sonnambula with Teatro Nuovo, and the roles of Masetto and il Commendatore with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s Don Giovanni. He has performed as a soloist in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols with the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Toronto Children’s Chorus, in Bach’s Magnificat with Stratford Summer Music, and Fauré’s Requiem with St. Thomas’s Anglican on Huron.
Owen is a graduate of the St. Michael’s Choir School, and routinely sings in professional and amateur choirs including the Elmer Iseler Singers, Modern Sound Collective, and the St. Paul’s Choral Academy.
Details
The concert takes place April 25 at St. John’s United Church (262 Randall Street, Oakville, ON)
- Find tickets and other concert details [HERE].
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