Posts with the Tom Baker tag

Barris Beat

Twelve days of Christmas

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Uxbridge Messiah Singers at Uxbridge Baptist Church, 2022.

About an hour into the concert, we could feel the anticipation. The church fell silent for just a few seconds. Conductor Tom Baker, all 14 musicians in the orchestra and the 80-voices-strong choir seemed to collect themselves for the climax of their performance. The singers rose in unison. Then, so did the audience in rapt attention.

 “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah,” the choir began to sing, somewhat muted at first. Then, their voices rising in crescendo, the mass choir filled the sanctuary with the final refrain: “And he shall reign forever and ever. King of kings. Lord of lords. Hallelujah!” (more…)

Barris Beat

Getting the Handel on Christmas

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Uxbridge Messiah Singers at the Baptist church, Dec. 19, 2022. John Cavers.

About 90 minutes into the Christmas concert at the Baptist Church on Monday night, the conductor signalled his entire choir and solo performers to stand, his musicians to be at the ready. Instinctively, those who knew the music stood in the pews. Then, Tom Baker brought down his baton for the climax of the composition.

“Hallelujah!” the audience and choir sang in celebration together. “King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah!”

I am not a church-goer. But I still love Christmas traditions, and they include attending performances of George Frideric Handel’s masterpiece, the Messiah, presented every few years by our own Uxbridge Messiah Singers. (more…)

Barris Beat

It takes a musical village

Written by Ted Barris on . 2 Comments
Whitney Ross-Barris headlined Toronto’s Lula Lounge, Dec. 5, launching her first jazz CD, “Everybody’s Here.”

It might have been the night she opened in the musical “Oliver” as the character Fagin and sang, “You have to pick a pocket or two.” Then again, it could have happened when she played the White Rabbit in “Alice in Wonderland.” They were both staged when our daughter attended public school. On one of those occasions she asked us for some last minute advice.

“Imagine I’m at the back of the auditorium, Whitney,” I said to her. “And sing out, so I can hear you from there.”

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