Toronto’s Apocryphonia Concert Series concludes the 2025/26 season with Of Whales And Willpower, and concert that offers a program of rarely performed Jamaican and West Indian classical music.
The program for Of Whales and Willpower: The Jamaican Jonah features several Canadian premieres of works by Samuel Felsted (1743-1802), Jamaica’s first classical composer. It includes excerpts from Jonah (1775), the first oratorio composed in the Western hemisphere.
Rounding out the bill, curated by Jamaican-Canadian organist Joshua Duncan-Lee, is music by Noel Da Costa, Rashaan Rori Allwood, Ted Runcie, Craig Alistair Bloomfield, and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Duncan-Lee performs, with tenors Paul Williamson and Alexander Cappellazzo.
“This truly is a passion project,” says Apocryphonia founder Alexander Cappellazzo.
“From the moment Josh brought Jonah to my attention, we knew that it was something that had to be performed here in Toronto. It was serendipitous that Paul Williamson actually had performed the work in Jamaica back in 2002, and he was thrilled to do it again. The whole team behind this is so committed to bringing this music to life, it’s wonderful.”
The Program
The program showcases two centuries of Jamaican and West Indian classical music, with a focus on the work of Jamaica’s first documented classical composer, Samuel Felsted (1743-1802). His piece Jonah is the first oratorio created in the West Indies, composed in 1775.
Music by later composers connected to Jamaica and the wider Caribbean diaspora, including Noel Da Costa, and Craig Alistair Bloomfield, Torontonians Rashaan Rori Allwood and Ted Runcie. And Guadeloupe-born, Afro-French composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges rounds out the program. Bologne’s L’Amant Anonyme is the first surviving opera by a composer who was born in the West Indies.
Together, the music represents a side of Jamaican and Caribbean musical heritage that is rarely represented and performed.
The performers include leading Jamaican-Canadian artists tenor Paul Williamson and organist Joshua Duncan Lee, together with Apocryphonia’s founder and tenor Alexander Cappellazzo.
The full program includes:
- Samuel Felsted (1743-1802): Voluntary I in E Minor [Canadian Premiere]
- Noel Da Costa (1929-2002): Variations on Maryton –
- Samuel Felsted: Voluntary II in F Major [Canadian Premiere]
- Craig Alistair Bloomfield: Agnus Dei – (1977)
- Samuel Felsted: Out of the Deep ~ Billows Foam from Jonah [Canadian Premiere]
- Samuel Felsted: Voluntary IV in G Minor [Canadian Premiere]
- Rashaan Rori Allwood: Miniatures for Mark (1994)
- Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799): “Depuis longtemps mon cœur soupire” from L’Amant anonyme (1780)
- Samuel Felsted: Voluntary V in B Flat Major – [Canadian Premiere]
- Ted Runcie: Amen from Communal Festival (1970)
- Samuel Felsted: Lord I obey from Jonah [Canadian Premiere]
Concert Details
The production team includes, Joshua Duncan Lee, Curator, Alexander Cappellazzo, Founder & General Director, Apocryphonia, and Ted Runcie, Conductor, Composer & Artistic Advisor.
The concert takes place at Toronto’s Christ Church Deer Park on June 12, 2026.
- Find tickets and show details HERE.
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