Keyword: Festival Chorus

Bringing CMU choruses ‘Bach’ together this festive season

Tuesday, December 6, 2022 @ 8:48 AM

The Canadian Mennonite University Festival Chorus presents J.S. Bach's magnificent Christmas Oratorio, Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248 — a musical telling of the nativity story and the major feast days celebrated as part of the 12 days of Christmas. 

"This oratorio is, in fact, six cantatas in one," says Dr. Janet Brenneman, Associate Professor of Music and conductor of the performance. "You get the whole Christmas story."  

Assembled in 1734, Bach's Nativity-to-Epiphany cycle draws on pre-existing sources — including three secular cantatas — and was composed as part of his duties for two Leipzig churches, St. Thomas and St. Nicholas.  

"Performing Bach is a breath of fresh air," says tenor soloist and CMU alumnus Nolan Kehler. A versatile and varied singer, the music also marks a return to his roots in more ways than one.  

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This Thirsty Land: CMU Festival Chorus and Mennonite Community Orchestra in performance

Monday, October 28, 2019 @ 9:33 AM

On Saturday November 2, the newly formed CMU Festival Chorus and resident Mennonite Community Orchestra will join forces, along with student and faculty soloists, to present This Thirsty Land, a bill of masterworks reanimated for the present moment.

Directed by CMU's Janet Brenneman (PhD), and grafted into the roots of the former Mennonite Festival Chorus, the CMU Festival Chorus brings together three distinct ensembles under the university umbrella, comprising current students, alumni, and community members. Still in its inaugural season, the choir has already worked with several distinguished WSO directors, performing definitive repertoire by Mozart, Britten, Handel, Beethoven, Verdi, Mahler, Schoenberg, Silvestrov, and Pärt.

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