An Indigo Christmas…
Brown King | Great Joy

co-produced with the Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto

Saturday, December 19, 2026 at 3:00pm and 7:30pm

Grace Church-on-the-Hill
300 Lonsdale Road Toronto, ON M4V 1X4

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Repertoire to feature The Ballad of the Brown King – Margaret Bonds, and Great Joy II: Around the World (10th Anniversary) – a selection of traditional Christmas Carols from several countries including France, Canada, England, Ireland, Italy and Germany arranged in gospel styles by Michael McElroy and Joseph Joubert.

Voices of the Diaspora…
Nigerian Voices

Saturday, February 20, 2027 at 8:00pm

Grace Church-on-the-Hill
300 Lonsdale Road Toronto, ON M4V 1X4

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Repertoire to feature music of Laz Ekwueme, Fela Sowande, Jude Nwankwo, and other Nigerian composers and arrangers. Curated by Jude Nwankwo, DMA Candidate at the University of Alberta.

And Still We Sing…
Dett Poets’ Society: 5 Poets Breaking into Song

Friday, June 11, 2027 at 8:00pm

Grace Church-on-the-Hill
300 Lonsdale Road Toronto, ON M4V 1X4

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Program will feature compositions based on 5 poems of R. Nathaniel Dea, and 5 poems of living poets in homage to R. Nathaniel Dea’s 1911 collection ‘The Album of a Heart’ – the first published collection of African-Canadian verse. Curated by George Ellioa Clarke – E.J. Praa Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto, and Poet Laureate of the City of Toronto (2012-15).

Grace Church-on-the-Hill
300 Lonsdale Road Toronto, ON M4V 1X4

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The program will feature youth from Sistema Toronto, with guest artists/composers Julian Taylor and Aaron Manswell.

Grace Church-on-the-Hill
300 Lonsdale Road Toronto, ON M4V 1X4

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The program will feature the oratorio Hosea, written for The Nathaniel Dett Chorale by Stephen Michael Newby for rhythm section, strings, soloists, and chorus. Guest artists will include Stephen Newby, the Corey Butler Trio, and the Odin String Quartet. The work includes classical, jazz, gospel, hip-hop idioms, and spoken word.

The other featured work is Cantata for a More Hopeful Tomorrow by Damien Geter for solo cello, soprano soloist, chorus, and semi-chorus. The guest artist will be cellist Samuel Bisson. Based on J. S. Bach’s Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen

BWV 12, the work weaves Traditional Spirituals through the contemporary poetry of Salomo Franck & Megan Levad, Aminata Sei, and Walt Whitman, all supported by an evocative cello counterpoint.

Grace Church-on-the-Hill
300 Lonsdale Road Toronto, ON M4V 1X4

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All Saints’ Anglican Church
330 City Hall Square W, Windsor, ON N9A 1J3

The Nathaniel Dett Chorale
D. Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, conductor; Dakota Scott-Digout, collaborative pianist

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Tickets range from $30 to $40

https://amherstburgfreedom.org/

Yorkminster Park Baptist Church
1585 Yonge St, Toronto, Ontario, M4T 1Z9 CA

Doors open at 6:30pm

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Born 150 years ago this year, Samuel Coleridge Taylor remains one of the most influential and widely performed classical composers of African descent. His recently restored lenten masterwork, The Atonement, has not seen a full Canadian performance with choir and orchestra since 1904.

Join the Orpheus Choir of Toronto, and special guests The Nathaniel Dett Chorale, alongside a professional orchestra and soloists as they celebrate the legacy of this trailblazing composer and reintroduce The Atonement in its full splendor to Canadian audiences for the first time in over 100 years.

Tickets range from $20 to $45

Grace Church-on-the-Hill
300 Lonsdale Road Toronto, ON M4V 1X4

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Repertoire to feature the world premiere of Three Songs for Christmas – Damien Geter (including The Work of Christmas); set to poetry by the African American theologian, philosopher, and mystic Howard Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981) – often called the spiritual father of the Civil Rights Movement – in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of his birth.

The repertoire will also include:
– an additional setting of The Work of Christmas by Thomas Bell (Canadian)
– O Nata Lux – Christopher Ducasse (Canadian)
– Light – Greg Jasperse
– Tonight Eternity Alone – René Clausen
– and other seasonal favourites.

Tickets range from $15 to $45

Grace Church-on-the-Hill
300 Lonsdale Road Toronto, ON M4V 1X4

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World premiere of God’s Trombones, a poetic song cycle commissioned from Canadian concert pianist and composer Stewart Goodyear by The Nathaniel Dett Chorale.

Guest artist – Stewart Goodyear.

Tickets range from $15 to $45

Grace Church-on-the-Hill
300 Lonsdale Road Toronto, ON M4V 1X4

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The program ‘Shout for Joy’ combines several elements of black music idioms, including classical, jazz, gospel, blues, and spirituals.

The first half of the program comprises a 150th Anniversary retrospective of the music of the Afro-British composer, conductor and political activist Samuel Coleridge-Taylor hailed by 20th-century critics as a “musical genius”.

The second half of the program comprises arrangements of and variations on the Spiritual. The title is drawn from the third last piece on the program and pays homage to the historical Jesus as a freedom figure.

In his book The Spiritual and the Blues, James H. Cone states that Jesus was not the subject of theological questioning, but rather an experience, a historical presence in motion, liberating and moving people in and to freedom. This program focuses on the jubilation and celebration inherent in both the idea and experience of this freedom.

Tickets range from $15 to $45

June 29 to July 4, 2024

St. John’s, Newfoundland

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HarbourVOICES! International Festival of Collective Singing Traditions is an innovative six-day celebration of diverse singing traditions from around the globe. In addition to performing concerts and events, HarbourVOICES! will provide spaces for collaboration, reciprocal learning, and diversity through the sharing and authentic experiencing of varied musical traditions and cultures.

Find out more at harbourvoices.ca