Upcoming Auditions – January 11, 2012

Are you interested in singing with us or know someone who might be? Penthelia is holding auditions for new members on Wednesday, January 11th, 2012. Our rehearsals are held on Wednesday evenings at Rosedale Presbyterian Church (129 Mount Pleasant Road, just north of Bloor) Please contact us for more information.


Collaboration Concert with Renanim

On Sunday, November 6th, members of the choir performed alongside the Renanim Youth Singers at a retirement residence in north Toronto.. The concert was put on in honour of Holocaust Education week and featured Hebrew and Yiddish music and poetry. We sang three songs on our own and two with Renanim, “Oifn Pripitchuk” (By the Fireside), a song that resonates deeply for many, and “Eili, Eili” (My God). The latter was written by Hannah Senesh, who was born in Hungary and moved to Israel at the age of 18. With the war raging, she volunteered to go into Nazi controlled areas in Europe to help save Jewish lives. In 1944, she parachuted into Yugoslavia and was captured and killed.

The English words of “Eili, Eili” are as follows:

May these things never end:
The sand and the sea

The rustle of the water
The lightning in the sky

Man’s prayer.


Saturday Morning Workshop

This past Saturday morning (October 29th), Penthelia had the opportunity to do a workshop with the very talented Mitchell Pady. Mitchell, a tenor and choral clinician, collaborated with us last spring and our resulting concert, A Night at the Opera, was highly successful. We were all looking forward to his thoughts and feedback on the madrigals we are working on for Vocal Treasures, our upcoming concert in December.

One thing about Mitchell is that he is extremely exacting. Before we knew it, an hour had gone by and we were still working on the first piece, Giovanni Pierluigi Palestrina’s “Ahi che quest’occhi miei” (Ah, sad that these mine eyes). Palestrina was a 16th century Renaissance composer of sacred music, who was well known during his life. There are several excellent versions of this piece on YouTube, for those who might like a sneak peek.

Several of our past concerts have featured members of the choir singing together in small groups; for Vocal Treasures this will be a main focus as each singer is part of a trio or quartet. Each group chose a madrigal and has been sneaking in quick practices before and after rehearsals.

For the second half of the workshop, Alice and Mitchell coached each group, working on intonation, phrasing, and expression. This was an extremely valuable experience and has given the pieces a new depth and dimension. They are sounding fantastic and we can’t wait to share them with you on December 3rd.

Debs sings Soprano I with the Penthelia Singers.


Our 15th season begins

September is always an exciting time for Penthelia as we embark on a new season after two months off. Our annual winter concert will take place on Sunday, December 4th at 3:00pm. Ten days later on Wednesday, December 14th, we will hold our seasonal fundraising concert at our rehearsal space, Rosedale Presbyterian Church.

We are extremely pleased to welcome four new singers to the choir this year so far! We are currently recruiting for new members. If you are interested in singing with us, we invite you to contact us! You can find more information on this page.


Welcome to the new Penthelia Singers website!

Greetings and welcome to our redesigned website! We hope you enjoy the changes we’ve made. This site features several new features including a video section, photo galleries, and an expanded previous seasons section. We will continue to add more content in the coming week and months and welcome your feedback as always.

In addition to this website, you can keep up with our latest news on Twitter (@penthelia_sings) and Facebook. We also have a mailing list – sign up and receive updates straight to your inbox.

As always, we are grateful for your support.