Baroque Brilliance 2025 - the Spirit of Christmas

Baroque Brilliance 2025 - The Spirit of Christmas

The Lavinia Ensemble returns to St. Olave's for what has become an annual event – its Christmas concert in aid of the Bloor West Food Bank. Lauren Yeomans joins the ensemble to perform Vivaldi's piccolo concerto. Other highlights include Bach's double violin concerto, Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite and Vivaldi's concerto in B minor for four violins. The concert ends with audience participation and the traditional singing of the Twelve Days of Christmas!

Program – with links to Youtubes

Syrinx – Debussy

Capriol Suite – Peter Warlock

Violin Concerto in D minor for two violins – Bach

Concerto in C major for Piccolo – Vivaldi

Concerto for 4 violins in B minor – Vivaldi

The Lavinia Ensemble was founded by musical director, Mark Whale, in December 2023, performing its first concert, Baroque Brilliance – in the Spirit of Christmas, in Bloor West Village/Swansea at Morningside Presbyterian Church. Taking its name from Lavinia Avenue, the heart of Swansea (and Mark's home street), the ensemble's "mission" is to bring quality musical performance to the neighborhood. The Lavinia Ensemble comprises professional and semi-professional musicians. Many are members of the Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra where Mark is concertmaster.

Flutist Lauren Yeomans is an active solo, chamber and orchestral musician in the Toronto area providing bold and robust interpretations through a genteel instrument. She is Principal Flute of the Etobicoke Philharmonic (with whom she performed the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto in 2022) and plays with many ensembles in Southern Ontario including the Windsor Symphony, Sudbury Symphony, and Orchestra Toronto.

She is co-founder of Quintagious! a wind quintet specializing in thoughtfully curated concert programming and has arranged several pieces for the ensemble including Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite and Jim Steinman’s Total Eclipse of the Heart. Lauren is also a conductor and recently formed her own orchestra, the Toronto Alternative Chamber Orchestra which had its first performance in March. She has guest conducted the Milton Philharmonic (as a candidate for Music Director) and was previously Assistant Conductor of Summerhill Orchestra. Lauren earned her Master of Music (2013) from Rutgers University studying with Bart Feller, and her Bachelor of Music (2011) from the Glenn Gould School studying with Kathleen Rudolph.

Mark Whale, PhD, is a violinist and fulltime Professor of Liberal Studies at Humber College, Toronto. He teaches courses in music, philosophy and general education and is currently involved in developing Humber's climate educational program. Mark studied the violin in London, England, at the Royal Academy of Music, and in Freiburg, Germany at the Musikhochschule. After a career in Europe as a violinist, teacher, conductor and concert organizer, Mark completed his PhD in music education at the University of Toronto in 2009. A published researcher, he has presented at conferences around the world on the question of musical meaning. In 2014 he gave a TED Talk at Guelph University entitled "Music: Is it just a matter of personal taste?" In 2018 he conducted a research project, funded by Humber College, which included a series of podcasts called "The Music Listening Project." In the series, which is regularly updated, Mark explores what is going on in music from a practical (rather than theoretical) listening perspective. Mark continues to play the violin professionally. He is currently concertmaster of Toronto’s Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra. Other musical engagements are varied, ranging from solo Bach in Humber's Arboretum, Quartets in Cafes, Piazzola on YouTube, to improvisation and the folk music of Bosnia.

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