Toronto, ON, March 24, 2026 – The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (TMChoir) is delighted to announce its 2026/27 season, presenting major masterworks through a boldly renewed artistic vision. Alongside these large-scale works, the season also embraces more intimate and socially resonant programming, creating space for reflection, connection, and dialogue with our audiences. This approach builds on our strong foundation of meaningful community collaborations – both with new and long-standing partners – fostering deeper, more engaged deeper experiences for all.
Under the visionary leadership of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor, Jean-Sébastien Vallée, TMChoir invites you into music that feels alive with powerful storytelling from the stage.
“It is the kind of sound you don’t just hear – you feel“, says Maestro Vallée. “Our passion is to share human experiences that connect audiences, grounded in both the grandeur and intimacy of the human voice and brought to life by the TMChoir’s excellence and distinctive sound.”
TMChoir is also committed to building on its leadership within the choral field by deepening its community impact and engagement. This includes advancing educational initiatives, mentorship programs and meaningful partnerships across Toronto’s vibrant choral community. TMChoir continues to champion the creation and performance of new Canadian works by commissioning and premiering new music, while actively supporting the development of both emerging and established artists.
TMChoir further strengthens its community engagement through a renewed season of five core initiatives including: Singsations, our community singing workshops; Exchange, a day of choral community workshops; the Conducting Mentorship Program; Pathways: Choral Creation, a composer mentorship initiative; and our Composer-in-Residence program.
A new commercial recording, Lo, How a Rose, will be released under the label ATMA Classique in November 2026. Built around three contrasting interpretations of the beloved carol, the album reveals the expressive range of a single timeless melody while weaving together cherished classics and contemporary works from both Canadian and international voices. Together, these pieces offer a program of joy, intimacy, and renewal, inviting listeners to rediscover the beauty of this enduring carol.
Mainstage Concerts
TMChoir’s mainstage performances offer a season of music that feels vividly alive, with masterworks reimagined and a choral sound you don’t just hear—you feel. Under the direction of Jean-Sébastien Vallée, audiences will experience the full power of the 170-voice Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, opening at Koerner Hall with an all-Mozart program featuring the Great Mass in C minor and the monumental Requiem—two of the composer’s most profound, unfinished works.
We then return to one of Toronto’s most cherished traditions, Festival of Carols—a joyful celebration where audiences are invited not only to listen, but to sing along and step fully into the spirit of the season. Later in the year, we return to Koerner Hall for Elgar’s rarely performed oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, a vast and deeply moving journey recently brought back into the spotlight by the film The Choral.
This season also shines a spotlight on the TMSingers, Toronto’s leading professional chamber choir, in two more intimate and socially resonant programs. Paul Mealor’s The Light of Paradise, presented with the Quasar Saxophone Quartet, unfolds as an immersive choral opera where space, movement, and storytelling merge seamlessly with the music. The second program, a semi-staged presentation of Considering Matthew Shepard, offers a powerful act of witness and remembrance—one that feels especially urgent today, as LGBTQ+ communities face renewed pressures, and calls us toward empathy, solidarity, and shared responsibility.
TMChoir with TSO
TMChoir continues our historic partnership with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in seven performances including Handel’s Messiah and Mahler’s Symphony No.8.
Find more about Toronto Mendelssohn Choir at www.tmchoir.org
