Opus 8 brings you an hour of your favourite Christmas and wintry songs. Get into the spirit of things (if you haven’t already!) just before Christmas arrives.
Join us on Friday, September 27th for a celebration of Opus 8’s third album, Canadian Sacred Music. Taking place at the Church of St Peter and St Simon-the-Apostle (just east of Sherbourne station), we’ll be performing a selection of songs from the recording, interspersed with music from the renaissance.
We’ll be selling a limited number of CDs for this recording, as well as booklets that accompany the recording - for those of you accessing the music online, this booklet means you can still learn about the music and access the texts. We’ll also be selling copies of our previous two recordings, Melancholy & Mirth, and Firsts.
Stick around after the concert for a reception - chat with the singers of Opus 8, meet some of the composers featured on this recording, and mingle with fellow Opus 8 fans over some snacks and drinks.
See you there!
A concert of a cappella choral music fit for a summer afternoon. Opus 8 will sing music all about gardens and the great outdoors, followed by some fabulous close harmony.
B. Britten – Five Flower Songs, Op. 47
Clemens non Papa – Ego Flos Campi a 7
Traditional Arr. Guy Turner – O Waly Waly
Lauper, Steinberg, & Kelly, Arr. Saunder Choi – True Colours
S. Rogers Arr. Busiakiewicz – Northwest Passage
Traditional Spiritual Arr. Busiakiewicz – Swing Low
R. Rodgers, O. Hammerstein – My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music
Wheatus Arr. Busiakiewicz – Teenage Dirtbag
Carly Rae Jepsen, Arr. Ed Rex – Call Me Maybe
Arr. Busiakiewicz – Spice Girls Medley
Wednesday, 12th of July, 7:30pm
Music by Handel, Lawes, Stephanie Martin, Robert Busiakiewicz, and Parry. Music to texts by John Milton. In collaboration with Confluence Concerts. Organist Robert Dixon.
Admission is FREE; no registration required. To read about the 13th International Milton Conference, click here.
The professional choir from Toronto, Opus 8, sing a free concert of a cappella sacred choral music in the heart of New York city.
With music by Roxanna Panufnik, Stephanie Martin, Elizabeth Maconchy, Nancy Wertsch, Cecilia McDowall, Judith Weir, Orlando Gibbons, William Byrd, Thomas Tomkins, Richard Dering, John Sheppard and Christopher Tye.
Donations are gratefully accepted.
Opus 8 collaborates with dancer Holly Treddenick, singing a new commission by John Gzowski at Montclair State University. Performances at the Alexander Kasser Theater given on
Thursday, November 10, 2022 | 7:30 PM
Friday, November 11, 2022 | 7:30 PM
Saturday, November 12, 2022 | 8:00 PM
Sunday, November 13, 2022 | 3:00 PM
More information and tickets available at https://www.peakperfs.org/event/in-the-fire/2022-11-10/
Opus 8 collaborate with dancer Holly Treddenick for a new composition by John Gzowski. Tickets available at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/in-the-fire-tickets-419333687347?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
“This show is about fire,” Treddenick said. “But this show is also about memories, trauma, and my relationship with my Dad. It’s an homage to all the Firefighters out there, and to all those who have lost something or someone to fire.”
Opus 8 collaborate with dancer Holly Treddenick for a new composition by John Gzowski. Tickets available at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/in-the-fire-tickets-419333687347?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
“This show is about fire,” Treddenick said. “But this show is also about memories, trauma, and my relationship with my Dad. It’s an homage to all the Firefighters out there, and to all those who have lost something or someone to fire.”
Opus 8 sing a concert of French a cappella choral repertoire spanning the centuries in Toronto’s finest acoustic, collaborating with organist Robert Dixon. Entrance is free with donations gratefully accepted.
Programme to include works by Poulenc, Debussy, Clement, Lassus, Dufay, Vierne, Demessieux, Hasprois & Martin.
Every track on Opus 8's upcoming album Firsts is a premiere recording. These debuts span half a millennium of choral history and are a testament to the ensemble's commitment to unearthing ancient musical gems and celebrating 21st Century composers. Brand new folksong arrangements by director, Robert Busiakiewicz, reimagine and invert old expectations of the genre, while cherishing familiar tunes. John Beckwith's touching setting of bpNichol's 'All At Once' displays an effortless technique through economy of means. This is contrasted with the chansons of Franco-Flemish composers Nicolas Gombert, Thomas Crecquillon, and Jean L'Héritier, who lived during the first half of the 16th Century. These mysterious works subvert our impressions of angelic purity which too often become attached to the works of renaissance polyphony. Through new transposed performing editions and scholarly ficta, these masters of harmony are given a fresh lease of life. Works by Cambridge professor, Robin Holloway and Jazz musician Richard Meehan inspire Opus 8 to virtuosic heights. Their settings of T.S. Eliot and Y.B. Yeats are truly a feast for the ears and the mind in eight-part counterpoint.
As always, entry is pay-what-you’re-able - whether that’s a ticket to the opera or an extra bus fair, all are welcome. CDs will be on sale for $15. As well, there’ll be a raffle - here’s what you’re in for if you win: a copy of Opus 8’s two recordings, Melancholy & Mirth and Firsts, as well as a behind-the-scenes invitation to sit in on an Opus 8 rehearsal.
Opus 8 is honored to open this year’s Wellington Water Week in Prince Edward County on August 17th.
Opus 8 tackles the 12 pitches of the western octave head on in this concert that explores just how much composers can do with only a dozen notes. From the strange and surreal mannerist compositions of 16th Century Europe, to the avant-garde wild cards of 21st Century North America, this chromatic soundscape has thrilled, bamboozled and enthralled across continents and genres. Either weaving between voice parts, or striking tone-clusters, or plainly silly slides - we are pulling out all the stops and certainly using all the notes at our disposal in this intriguing performance including choral works by Ligeti, Brahms, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Gabrieli, Gesualdo and more.
Admission by pay-what-you-can-afford donation.
Opus 8 are delighted to be part of the inaugural season of Confluence. Headed by artistic director Larry Beckwith of the beloved Toronto Masque Theatre, Confluence is a new interdisciplinary, cross-cultural multi-media project that continues the warm approach to programming of Toronto Masque Theatre with many new twists. This concert offers a trio of exquisite sacred music: the Requiem of Johannes Ockeghem, performed by Opus 8; chants by the remarkable 12th-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen, performed by Schola Magdalena under the direction of Stephanie Martin; and sacred organ music of Olivier Messiaen, performed by organist Matthew Larkin.
From Annie Laurie, Alice In Wonderland, Homer & Marge, to the ancient laments for Absalom, Amaryllis and the curious case of Alex's toothache - this concert is real who's who of playful and plangent musical history. Composers have always been inspired by named individuals and this evening sings of those specific people going through all sorts of drama from the ordinary Johnny cutting wood to the extraordinary demise of Johannes, the true treasurer of music itself. There's something for everyone from jazzy close harmony arrangements to classic compositions by Britten, Schafer, Josquin, Rogier, Tomkins, Schein and Monteverdi.
Admission by pay-what-you-can-afford donation/
Opus 8 are thrilled to be part of the inaugural Wellington Water Week, a week-long celebration giving artistic voice to water's ability to mystify, awe, connect, inspire, and define us. By the shores of Lake Ontario, we invite you to join us for no mere offering of sea shanties, but a phantasmagoria of all things aquatic, shipwrecked and watery. Opus 8 will be taking you through a historical journey from the rivers of Babylon and the river Jordan to the torrents of summer and the tears of unrequited lovers.
At intermission, a delicious light dinner provided by Prince Edward County's iconic Picnic, will be served under the tent right on the shore set against the stunning backdrop of Lake Ontario. And, the brilliant mixologists at Kinsip House of Fine Spirits and The County Bounty Artisanal Soda Company are partnering for this fabulous occasion to create very special Water Week-themed cocktails for our guests.
Opus 8 asks the eternal questions of the human condition, through a program of ravishing choral music. From the youthful frivolity of Howells and Britten, to the melancholic despair of Gombert and Gibbons, this concert takes us through the many stages of life - its joys, sorrows, and inevitable conclusion.
Free admission and reception
Explicit material warning! Don’t bring your kids. From the rude, joking songs of Mozart and Morley, to fresh pop arrangements dealing with love, lust, and licentiousness, Opus 8 will churn up music’s sordid underbelly. If you think that choral music can only be genteel or lovely, think again. Join us for what promises to be an evening of frolicks, fun, and a licensed bar to accompany this saucy serenade.
Free admission and reception
A Hamilton repeat of our season opener! An evening of choral music centred around many creatures, from feathered fowl to all things creeping and curious. From the nightingale, blue bird, and swan, to the snail, beetle, and bee, we will sing our way through musical history. Exploring a fantastic array of zoological expression by Ravel, Finzi, Elgar, Monteverdi, and more, this concert has something for young and old alike.
Free admission and reception
An evening of choral music centred around many creatures, from feathered fowl to all things creeping and curious. From the nightingale, blue bird, and swan, to the snail, beetle, and bee, we will sing our way through musical history. Exploring a fantastic array of zoological expression by Ravel, Finzi, Elgar, Monteverdi, and more, this concert has something for young and old alike.
Free admission and reception
This is no mere offering of sea shanties, but a phantasmagoria of all things aquatic, shipwrecked and watery. Opus 8 will be taking you through a historical journey from the rivers of Babylon and the river Jordan to the torrents of summer and the tears of unrequited lovers. Row, row, row your boat to Toronto and check them out. Free admission.
Secular partsongs spanning the centuries unfold in playful polyphony, melancholy laments and colourful songs that cover a multitude of topics from sex and dancing to youth and obesity. Expect 'la - la - la's.' Free admission.
Exploring the power and potential of the Agnus Dei over the past 700 years, this concert of devotional pacifist music will open your ears to a huge variety of interpretations of the familiar 'Lamb of God' text. Intense and beautiful, not to be missed. Free admission.
Also celebrating the release of our début recording, Melancholy & Mirth! Purchase your copy of the CD and join us after the concert for a free celebratory reception.
Join Opus 8 for a feast of yuletide music featuring new arrangements of popular seasonal melodies, as well as the sumptuous wintery works of Holst, Warlock, Chilcott, Britten and Bax. Free admission.
Join Opus 8 at St. James Cathedral for our first concert of the year, a half hour chock-full of music by Britten, Rogier, and Meehan. The Recital will be followed immediately by the weekly Evensong service, sung by the Cathedral Choir, which includes the members of Opus 8 singing, conducting, and organising the post-service reception.
We're delighted to present our program in celebration of spring at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Edmonton, AB. Please join us for this diverse program of Gesualdo, Palestrina, Vaughan Williams, Britten and more!
Admission is free; donations gratefully accepted
Opus 8 joins Pro Coro Canada, one of Canada's finest chamber choirs, in a highlight concert at the Podium Choral Festival in Edmonton, AB.
As we ease our way into the light of spring after a long & drawn-out winter, Opus 8 explores the idea of light and darkness and invites you to reconnect with the land, after months of hiding indoors from the cold. Please join us as we celebrate spring, light and life with a diverse program including music by Gesualdo, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Vaughan Williams, Britten and our very own music director, Robert Busiakiewicz.
Admission is free; donations gratefully accepted.
Our program of musical masterpieces from Northern Europe, repeated in Hamilton, ON.
Free admission; donations welcome
Sixteenth-century masterpieces from Northern Europe including music by Byrd, Gombert, Clemens, de Rore and more.
Free admission; donations welcome
