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The Ottawa Brahms Choir, from Beginning to End
After 40 years of performing some of the most beautiful choral music written, the Ottawa Brahms Choir has finally sung its last chorale – a victim of the COVID‑19 pandemic.
The Ottawa Brahms Choir was founded in 1980 as a local German community choir by Dieter Kiesewalter, the Choir’s first musical director. Originally named the Johannes Brahms Choir, the Choir had a rich history performing not only in various churches in Ottawa but also in the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now the Canadian Museum of History) and the Ottawa Civic Centre.
Initially, repertoire included choral works primarily in German by composers such as Brahms, Mozart, Bach, Händel, Schubert and Schütz. As time went on, the Choir vastly expanded its repertoire to include works by early, baroque, classical, romantic, and modern composers, such as Prätorius, des Prez, di Lasso, Gastoldi, Purcell, Vivaldi, Kuhnau, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninov, and Rutter, to name but a few.
In addition, the Choir enjoyed learning and performing traditional and modern folk songs in a variety of languages including Latin, early English, French, Dutch, Swedish, Romanian, Russian, Swahili, and Mohawk. Christmas carols, of course, in all languages comprised the annual Christmas concerts.
What follows shows a snapshot of the richness and variety of music performed by the Choir during its 40‑year history as well as the musical collaboration it enjoyed with other local and foreign choirs.
1981: The first public performance was held at the First Unitarian Church on June 21, 1981. Works included Brahms’ Lieder, Carl Orff’s Catulli Carmina: Odi et Amo, Telemann’s Sonata in C major for treble recorder, and traditional songs for spring by John Dowland, Pierre Bonnet, and Daniel Friderici.
The Choir typically performed two concerts per year in celebration of Easter and Christmas. In its earlier years, however, the Choir also performed for other occasions, such as staging a cabaret in October called The King and I, or Rasputin’s Baby, written and directed by Kiesewalter. In December, the Choir performed its Christmas concert with the Children’s Choir of the Ottawa German Language School together with the Fine Arts Quintet.
1982: In March, the Choir performed with the internationally renowned Kerber Volk Ensemble from Germany, again with the Children’s Choir of the German Language School.
1983: In May, the Choir presented excerpts from Mozart’s opera Idomeneo, Gluck’s opera Orpheus & Eurydice, and selections from Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder and Neue Liebeslieder Op. 65. The Christmas concert at the Martin Luther Church in Ottawa featured Telemann’s Ouverture in F major and Händel’s Angeletti che Cantate.
1984: In March, the Choir staged another cabaret by Kiesewalter, which he named “Brahms Cabaret”, a fun-filled comedy which attracted a large audience. In May, the cabaret was again performed at a benefit concert for CHEO at the Ottawa Civic Centre in collaboration with the Food and Restaurant Association of Ottawa, which Thomas Kroeger, Association president and owner of the Lindenhof Restaurant, as well as an active member of the Johannes Brahms Choir, had his hand in organizing; the event raised $12,000 for CHEO. In June, the Choir presented its spring concert together with the Ottawa Brass Quintet, featuring Mendelssohn’s Psalm 100 and Psalm 55. In September, the visiting Südwestdeutscher Konzertchor from Pforzheim, Germany, performed with the Brahms Choir at the Martin Luther Church. In October, the Choir participated at the Festival des Arts with Kiesewalter as its chairman, performing in noon-hour concerts Brahms’ Neue Liebeslieder Op. 65 and Orff’s choruses from Catulli Carmina.
1985: In May, the Choir paid homage to Bach’s and Händel’s 300th birthdays, as well as Heinrich Schütz’s 400th birthday at its spring concert with the Ottawa Brass Quintet, performing choruses from Bach Cantatas BWV 144, 663, 664, and 667, the chorus from Händel’s oratorio Susanna, and Schütz’s Psalm 27 and Psalm 100. In December, the Choir performed with the Concordia Male Choir, the Alpen Trio, and the Austrian/Canadian ensemble Stubenmusi, featuring Bach chorales and other German Christmas songs.
1987: The April spring concert took place again with the Alpen Trio and Stubenmusi, featuring a musical skit of a well-known German children’s song Die Vogelhochzeit (A Bird’s Wedding). The Christmas concert in November at the Knox Presbyterian Church was performed with soloists and instrumentalists featuring music by Bach, Telemann, and Schütz.
1989: In May, the Choir performed a special concert to a large audience with the visiting Chamber Orchestra from Oberpleis, Germany, with Schubert’s Symphony No. 3, J.Ch. Bach’s Gloria, and music by Beethoven, Telemann and Mendelssohn. In December, a special Christmas concert took place at the Museum of Civilization, featuring choruses from Bach’s Cantata BWV 142 and Telemann’s Christmas Cantata, with soloists and instrumentalists.
1990: The Choir’s 10th anniversary in May was celebrated with a concert at City View United Church with its new director, Cheryl Palmai, presenting Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder, Schumann’s Zigeunerleben, and the Horrortorio by Joseph Horovitz/Alistair Sampson with guest artists and instrumentalists. In December, the Christmas concert at St. Timothy Presbyterian Church presented choral and instrumental music together with the University of Ottawa Brass Ensemble.
1991: The April concert was performed together with the Alpen Trio, with Cheryl Palmai conducting and Robert Palmai on piano. Thirty-four Choir members participated. In June the Choir performed another benefit concert for the Queensway Carleton Hospital’s Palliative Care unit. In December, the Christmas concert was performed with the Canterbury High School Choir and Orchestra in remembrance of the 200th anniversary of Mozart’s death, performing his Ave Verum and choruses from his Requiem and Vespers.
1992: The spring concert included international songs and dances together again with both the Children’s Choir of the German Language School and Stubenmusi. In October, the Choir was joined by the visiting Volkschor Ingersleben, Germany, performing at the Unitarian Church for a large audience.
1993: In June, the Choir performed with Argentinian musician Dario Domingues and his Virtuoso Ensemble the very challenging mass by Ariel Ramirez (1963), Misa Criolla. The Choir was invited again in October to give a concert at the Museum of Civilization to highlight the German-Canadian exhibition “Just for Nice” with traditional German folk songs and music from five centuries. Cheryl Palmai led the Choir and the Alpen Trio with a special Christmas concert again at the Museum of Civilization, featuring César Franck’s Panis Angelicus.
1994: The Choir held its spring concert in May with the Alpen Trio at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, featuring international songs and madrigals with excerpts from the musicals Oklahoma, Carousel, and the title song from Sigmund Romberg’s Desert Song. In December, two Christmas concerts were performed, one at Calvin Christian Reformed Church and one at Glebe St. James Church. Featured were the French-Canadian Christmas Motet Magnus Dominus (anon.), with soloists Marilyn Doyle, Dillon Parmer, and Chin K. Yeung, and international Christmas carols with soloists.
1995: Two spring concerts in April were performed presenting Vivaldi’s Concerto for Recorder in C major, with Dieter Kiesewalter on harpsichord and his son Tobias on recorder. An instrumental ensemble and the Choir’s complete rendition of Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder were the highlights of these concerts. The 15th anniversary concert in December at the Calvin Christian Reformed Church was directed again by Kiesewalter, featuring Telemann’s Christmas Cantata In dulci jubilo and Christmas music by Brahms, Händel, Schütz, Telemann, and others.
1996: In May, under the directorship of David Chin, the Choir performed Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis (Lord Nelson Mass) with soprano Shawne Elizabeth, alto Christina B. Harvey-Finlay, tenor David Langlois, and bass Joel Nordenstrom, who also sang together with the Choir at the November Christmas concert commemorating the 450th year of Martin Luther’s death with Bach’s Cantata BWV 80 Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.
1997: In April, the Choir with soloists Shawne Elizabeth, Christina Harvey-Finlay, Garth Hampson, and David Langlois, together with the Blackburn Chorus, performed the spring concert featuring Schubert’s Mass in G and Imant Raminsh’s Magnificat. The Christmas concert in November included Bach’s Cantata BWV 140, Brahms’ chorus No. 4 from Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Healey Willan’s Missa Brevis No. 4.
1998: The May spring concert featured Brahms’ Zigeunerlieder and Schumann’s Zigeunerleben, and the Alpen Trio delighted the audience with its folk songs from the Alpine region. The November concert presented music by Archer, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schütz, Telemann, and Willan, with participation from the Alpen Trio and the Stubenmusi Folk Ensemble.
1999: In April, the Choir performed with the visiting Schaumburger Kanada Chor from Germany, featuring Telemann’s So gehe hin und iss dein Brot mit Freuden, along with spirituals and choruses by Brahms, Gastoldi, and Mendelssohn. In the fall, Brenda Beckingham became the Choir’s new director. In December, the Christmas concert featured Bach’s Cantata BWV 142 Uns ist ein Kind geboren and Christmas carols by Foley, Berlioz, G. Young, and Rutter.
2000-2003: From 2000 on, the Choir continued to inspire audiences every year at their Easter and Christmas concerts, often joining other local choirs or performing with visiting choirs from abroad. In the May 2001 concert, the Choir was joined by Carleton University’s Early Music Ensemble “Les Barricades Mistérieuses,” led by Rohanes (Iain Phillips), a Mohawk elder. In fall 2003, Brenda Beckingham left the Choir, and the Christmas concert was led by Calvin Church, Southminster United Church’s music director, who conducted a double choir with the Brahms Choir and the Southminster Choir in a premiere performance in Ottawa of Buxtehude’s Magnificat Anima Mea with instrumentalists from the University of Ottawa.
2004-2005: In 2004, Rohanes became the director of the Choir, now renamed the Ottawa Brahms Choir, adding his own composition to the Choir’s repertoire, Ron Wa Son Naiens (Creation Hymn of Praise), sung in Mohawk and English. In April 2005, the Choir performed the first of a series of three concerts with Carleton University’s Early Music Ensemble, the Croatian Folk Ensemble, and the Alpentrio. Highlights of the program were Telemann’s Schulmeister Kantate, with the Choir’s conductor Rohanes as soloist, and a premiere performance of two songs written and composed especially in recognition of the Choir’s 25th anniversary by Ottawa composer and musician Helmut Seemann.
2006: Sadly, Rohanes passed away in July at the early age of 52. Jiří Hlaváček became the new director. Under his direction, the Choir performed Jakub Jan Ryba’s Czech Christmas Mass in December.
2008-2012: Following Jiří’s tenure, Kurt Ala-Kantti directed the Choir from 2008 to 2012, including in spring 2011 a celebration of the Choir’s 30th anniversary by a joint performance with the Harmonia Choir of Ottawa of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 40, a concert that packed St. Thomas Anglican Church to the doors. The 2011‑2012 season closed with a sold-out performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.
2012-2016: From 2012‑2014, Denise Hawkins served as director of the Choir, followed in July 2014 by Christopher Askwith, the Choir’s final director. In April 2016, Askwith directed the 35th anniversary concert with works ranging from the 16th century (Jakobus Gallus, Thomas Morley) to the 21st century (Arvo Pärt), and including, as always, works by Johannes Brahms.
2019-2020: The end came as a consequence of COVID‑19. The Choir’s last performance was on December 1, 2019, when the Choir performed Vivaldi’s Gloria to an audience of over 100. Kurt Ala-Kantti, bass, and sopranos Nadia Petrella and Isabelle Lacroix were guest vocalists, augmenting beautifully the 26 choristers of the Ottawa Brahms Choir. As preparations and training were underway to perform the April 2020 spring concert, to be titled Water Music and consisting of music by Mendelssohn, Strauss, Brahms, and others, the virus was declared a pandemic, and all further practice sessions were cancelled.
2021: Efforts to revive the Choir could not be sustained, and the Ottawa Brahms Choir was officially declared over at an online Zoom meeting of members in November 2021.
But we all – choristers and audiences alike – enjoyed 40 years of singing by the Ottawa Brahms Choir.
by Randy Sharp
with assistance from Sieglinde Phaneuf,
Barbara Riley, Susan Isaac and Gretel Harmston
For online articles on the Ottawa Brahms Choir in the Hofbräuhaus News, see the October‑December 2014 issue (p. 3) and the April‑June 2011 issue (p. 3).