{"id":100903,"date":"2023-12-15T15:46:30","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T20:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=100903"},"modified":"2023-12-15T15:46:30","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T20:46:30","slug":"scrutiny-winter-celebrations-coc-ensemble-studio-presents-festive-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2023\/12\/15\/scrutiny-winter-celebrations-coc-ensemble-studio-presents-festive-concert\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Winter Celebrations: COC Ensemble Studio Presents Festive Concert"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The COC Studio Ensemble (Photo: Karen Reeves)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ariane Cossette, sop., Wesley Harrison, ten., Alex Hetherington, mezz., Queen Hezumuryango, mezzo., Karoline Podolak, sop., Korin Thomas Smith, bar., Brian Cho, piano, Mattia Senesi, piano. Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, December 14, 2023.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We are now in mid-December, and Christmas music is ubiquitous, in venues large and small. Die-hard voice fans, me included, were looking forward to the annual
\nHoliday Season noon hour concert given by the COC Ensemble Studio members. I already had a sneak preview last week, in the Holiday Carols evening for members of the COC President\u2019s Council. It whetted my appetite for more!<\/p>\n

I got my fill at Winter Celebrations, a noon-hour concert given by the Ensemble Studio. The program was like the PC\u2019s Holiday Carols, but longer, with a larger audience. The RBA was jammed to the rafters, Standing Room Only. The Ensemble Studio singers, minus soprano Charlotte Siegel, were joined by the two pianists, in a delectable program of Holiday chestnuts.<\/p>\n

Pianist Brian Cho and Mattia Senesi kicked off the proceedings with a piano four hands version of the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. I confess I was half expecting dancers to come out to entertain us \u2014 after all, the RBA has beautiful wood floors! Wishing thinking\u2026<\/p>\n

It was followed by two selections from \u201cMessiah\u201d \u2014 Queen Hezumuryango sang \u201cO Thou that Tellest Good Tidings to Zion,\u201d followed by Wesley Harrison in \u201cEvery Valley,\u201d which he also sang in the President\u2019s Council concert, beautifully I might add, with excellent coloratura and long breath-line.<\/p>\n

\"L-R
L-R (clockwise): Karoline Podolak (Photo: Karen Reeves); Mezzo Queen Hezumuryango (Photo: Karen Reeves); L-R: Brian Cho, Mattia Senesi, Wesley Harrison, Korin Thomas Smith, Ariane Cosette, Karoline Podolak, Queen Hezumuryango, Alex Hetherington (Photo: Joseph So)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Karoline Podolak and Alex Hetherington followed up with \u201cGesu Bambino,\u201d their voices blending beautifully. Baritone Korin Thomas Smith, who wasn\u2019t at the PC Carols evening, contributed a beautiful rendition of that chestnut, \u201cHave Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.\u201d Yes, it was a string of easy listening holiday favourites, and the audience loved it.<\/p>\n

The only piece that was less familiar to me was the \u201cWexford Carol,\u201d a traditional Irish sung, here sung beautifully by mezzo Alex Hetherington. I also hugely enjoyed the beautiful, pure timbre of soprano Karoline Podolak in \u201cO Holy Night.\u201d Also very lovely was the rendition of \u201cAuld Lang Syne\u201d by soprano Ariane Cossette. I must say that to me, it\u2019s a piece more associated with New Year\u2019s Eve than Christmas, but I am not complaining.<\/p>\n

The program ended with all the singers in \u201cSilent Night\u201d and \u201cWhite Christmas.\u201d I was just thinking that there was no audience singalong. Well, not so fast! A huge surprise \u2014 mezzo Queen Hezumuryango told the audience that it was her sister\u2019s birthday, so everyone joined in for a round of \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d. We got to exercise our vocal cords before going out into the cold air in a good mood.<\/p>\n

Bring on the Messiahs!<\/p>\n

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Die-hard voice fans, me included, were looking forward to the annual Holiday Season noon hour concert given by the COC Ensemble Studio members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":100909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40430,76,19,5722,43,52],"tags":[5780],"yst_prominent_words":[7306],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/12\/Copy-of-REVIEW-8.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-qft","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100903"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100910,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100903\/revisions\/100910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100903"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=100903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}