Heliconian Hall Series 

Heliconian Hall
35 Hazelton Ave. (near Bay Subway)
Tickets at the door $30/$20 students & seniors

For over a decade Hallie Fishel, soprano, and John Edwards, lutes and guitars, have brought Toronto very elegant songs which, though old, will be ‘new’ to many listeners. In some cases works from our raids of original prints and manuscripts which have lain on library shelves for centuries have been given their North American debut by us.

Nov. 15, 2014 at 8PM
New, Very Elegant Songs and Dances
French solo lute music (and some by Italian immigrants) of the 16th century played by John Edwards. As well as music published in Paris from the royal lutenists Albert de Rippe (the Mantuan Alberto da Ripa) and the homegrown Guillaume Morlaye you will hear the European union of lute music from Lyon (Jean-Paul Paladin/Paladino) and the now French, then German city of Strasbourg where Sixtus Kargel published his collection of dances and songs arranged for the lute Novae, elegantissimae, Gallicae, item et Italicae cantilenae, Mutetæ & Passomezo, adiunctis suis Saltarellis…

Jan. 1, 2015 at 2PM & 2, 2015 at 8PM
A New Year’s Day Concert
After all the pre-Christmas Messiahs and A Baroque Christmas programs, you will have a week off so you will be ready for our annual concert of High Baroque music  with Hallie Fishel, soprano and John Edwards on archlute, with Christopher Verrette and Patricia Ahern, Baroque violins and Borys Medicky, harpsichord. The only new year’s alternative to Strauss waltzes.

Mar. 7, 2015 at 8PM
Donne on Love and Death 
John Donne’s poem An Epithalamion, or Marriage Song On the Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine Being Married on St. Valentine’s Day and his A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day read by scholar and author Seth Lerer with songs by Campion, Dowland and others sung by Hallie Fishel with John Edwards on Renaissance lutes. Music and sweet poetry will be demonstrated to be in such steadfast agreement that it will not be doubted that ‘One god is god of both, as poets feign.’

May 2, 2015 at 8PM
In Stile Moderno
Claudio Monteverdi has been called ‘the creator of modern music’ and Salamone Rossi has been credited with the invention of the trio sonata. We present the then avant garde music of Monteverdi and Rossi and their contemporaries at the court of the Dukes of Mantua. Hallie Fishel sings and John Edwards plays theorbo and lute, with Christopher Verrette and Patricia Ahern playing Renaissance violins.