Ottawa choir, The Stairwell Carollers, perform the popular French Canadian carol, Doù viens-tu, bergère?, arranged by André Bellefeuille, at their 40th anniversary concert “An all Canadian Christmas”. Purchase our CDs and help many Ottawa/Gatineau charities
Audio: Tom Barnes.
Recorded at Knox Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Dec 15th, 2017.
Videographers: Matthieu Brennan, Andrew Mason
Video Editing: Pierre Massie
About The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie created our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. We are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
A registered Canadian charity, The Carollers also help local charities with net proceeds from concert, CD and cookbook sales.
Audio: Tom Barnes.
Recorded at Knox Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Dec 15th, 2017.
Videographers: Matthieu Brennan, Andrew Mason
Video Editing: Pierre Massie
About The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie created our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. We are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
A registered Canadian charity, The Carollers also help local charities with net proceeds from concert, CD and cookbook sales.
As it says on the Governor General's website, "Since founding the Stairwell Carollers in 1977, Pierre Massie has been an ambassador for choral music and instrumental in spreading the joy and beauty of a cappella music both locally and around the world. Proceeds from the group’s concerts go to many local charities and scholarship programs."
Pete was surprised and thrilled to hear of his nomination and subsequent award earlier in the year, but was hesitant to brag about it. Now the cat is out of the bag!
From the Governor General's website"The Medal for Volunteers consists of a silver circular medal that is 36 mm in diameter with a suspension ring. The obverse depicts a contemporary effigy of the Sovereign, circumscribed with the inscription in capital letters of the Canadian Royal Title and the word “CANADA”, separated by two maple leaves.
The reverse indicates the ideas of caring and generosity, represented by two interlaced hearts. The sunburst pattern of the rim symbolizes the time that volunteers are giving and their actions. The ribbon uses the viceregal colours of blue and gold. The five gold stripes evoke the fingers of a hand, present in the Caring Canadian Award emblem, while the deep red colour is associated with royalty.
The design of medal was created by the Canadian Heraldic Authority, based on a concept by Darcy DeMarsico of the Chancellery of Honours. The medal is manufactured by the Royal Canadian Mint at its Ottawa facility."
Pierre would like to thank those who submitted his nomination. He also thanks The Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, for choosing him for this Award.
A teaser playlist of a few of the carols you will hear at our concerts. Enjoy!
About The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie created our a cappella choir in 1977 while a music student at Ottawa University. The Stairwell Carollers are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
A registered Canadian charity, our group helps local charities with net proceeds from concert, CD and cookbook sales.
A teaser playlist of some of the carols you will hear. Enjoy!
About The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie created our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. We are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
A registered Canadian charity, The Carollers also help local charities with net proceeds from concert, CD and cookbook sales.
Here it is! The song list you've been waiting for!
We are so excited to be singing such a wonderful mix of old and new carols! Included are brand-new arrangements of both traditional favourites and rare Xmas treats.
Here is a teaser playlist of some of the carols you will hear. Enjoy!
About The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie started our a cappella choir in 1977 while a music student at Ottawa University. The Stairwell Carollers are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
A registered Canadian charity, we also help local charities with our concert, CD and cookbook sales.
A torrent of musical creation has poured from David's heart even before he discovered his muse in his beloved Rideau Falls. In his own words, he tells us his compositional story. (Holly)
In 2015, at the ripe age of 63, I first got the urge to write a piece of music for a cappella choir, a Missa Brevis.
In 2016, I first experienced that unique thrill of hearing one of my pieces performed in public, the “Rideau Carol” written specially for and dedicated to my choir the Stairwell Carollers.
Audio: Tom Barnes. Recorded at Knox Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Dec 16th, 2016.
Videographers: Gert-Jan van Heuzen, Andrew Mason
Editing: Pierre Massie
In 2017, led masterfully by our choir director Pierre Massie, the Carollers performed my second piece in public, a challenging arrangement of the German classic, “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” And this spring in 2018, I got to hear a third piece performed by the Carollers, another challenging arrangement, this time of the medieval song, “In natali Domini.” A true thrill! Throughout all of this, I have been mentored by Pierre, who has taken huge amounts of his precious time to listen to my new works, review them, make comments and suggestions, push me this way, pull me that way, and generally challenge me to make each piece the best that it can be. I owe him a huge debt, thanks Pierre!
Well, I’ve been totally bitten by this “composing bug” and have now written 17 (!) pieces for mixed a cappella choir. Check out my YouTube channel.
It’s way too much for one choir to digest, so I’ve naturally been looking for ways to speed up the process of hearing what each piece actually sounds like, sung by real singers, and not by the artificial sounds of a computer program. (I should mention that I don’t play the piano well enough to hear most of my pieces on a piano even.)
One initiative of mine has worked out quite nicely. A few current and former Carollers have formed a small singing ensemble that we call the “Ad hoc Chorale.” It started out as an invitation to come test out and “workshop” some of my new pieces. The first session went well and the second is coming up soon, and there is even interest to widen the net a bit, as some of our “Ad hoc” members are also choral composers, so I’m really looking forward to hearing their pieces workshopped too!
The other idea I had was to enter various choral composition contests. Not with the main aim of winning, as that might not be realistic, but with the hopes that somehow somewhere someone on the jury panels might actually like one of my pieces and who knows, might program it in future years. (Did I mention that I’m now 66, unknown as a composer, and I’m not sure how many years I have left to explore this new passion of mine.)
Anyways, fast forward to when to my total shock, I got an email from Jon Washburn, the director of one of Canada’s top choirs, the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Jon informed me that my application to the VCC’s “Interplay” composer workshop had been accepted!
Yikes, did that thought make me nervous! But then I thought, this is a professional choir, one of the very best in Canada, and all I had to do is show up, sit back, listen, and learn. How tough could that be?
On April 4, 2018 some of my choral works along with 2 other Vancouver composers were sung by the VCC choir led by Jon and I received their comments and critiques on my pieces.
But that's another tale for later.
Sincere thanks to Jon and the Vancouver Chamber Choir for offering me this unique opportunity to learn and grow as a composer, and a special shout out to the SOCAN Foundation for making this “Interplay” workshop with Jon and the VCC possible. David Rain, a fledgling composer, has sung tenor with the Stairwell Carollers for 25 years.
For fans of choral music, this past summer's Music and Beyond festival in Ottawa certainly went “beyond.” What a lineup Artistic Director Julian Armour assembled!
The Elmer Iseler singers, The Gesualdo Six, Stairwell Caroller favourite John Rutter, Daniel Taylor’s Theatre of Early Music, another Caroller favourite Chanticleer (our 40th anniversary workshop was led by former Chanticleer singer Gabe Lewis-O'Connor), and many others!
First off, I was honoured to have been selected as one of the composers - and flying out from Ottawa to my home town of Vancouver was worth every penny.
As someone who started composing late in life (at age 63), and who has only heard 3 of his 17 choral pieces sung publicly, to have had the opportunity to hear this amazing choir sing 4 of my pieces, 3 of them brand new songs never sung before, is a thrill beyond all thrills.
At times, I was so in awe of the sound of the choir (especially in my arrangement of the Satie piano piece, As Dawn Breaks) that I had to just put down my score, stop following, close my eyes, and just listening to the rich choral sounds that were being produced.
I appreciate greatly that Director Jon Washburn gave his comments freely, not holding anything back, but in a respectful way. I felt like a voyeur at times, as in a way he treated the workshop, like any other rehearsal, i.e. here’s a new piece, choir, let’s give it a try and see how it goes, etc, and when a bit of piano accompaniment was needed, this was done lightly, and only where necessary, and then back to a cappella. That was a treat to witness, i.e. how one of their rehearsals likely goes.
And to have the singers themselves give comments, again freely, really added a huge dimension to my learning, as being a singer myself, I “know” certain things, but hearing from arms length, professional singers…..to hear what works for them and what doesn’t, that really makes you sit up and ponder, bravo!
I also appreciated that Jon allowed me to interact a bit with him and with the singers, that put me at ease and also added to my learning, as I had questions of my own.
The big take aways for me from all of this can be summarized as follows:
1. Work towards getting the text and the rhythm and the meter all perfectly in synch, such that both choir director and singers have the easiest possible entry point to learning and perfecting your musical creation.
2. When doing a choral arrangement of someone else’s melody, or in my case a piece on another instrument, don’t be afraid to make it your own, to weave the text and the meter etc to the ends of your own piece and not overly “respecting” the original piece and how it was written. Make it your own.
Never in a thousand years did I think this would happen. I’m in a state of total shock.
Sincere thanks to Jon and the Vancouver Chamber Choir for offering me this unique opportunity to learn and grow as a composer, and a special shout out to the SOCAN Foundation for making this “Interplay” workshop with Jon and the VCC possible. David Rain, a fledgling composer, has sung tenor with the Stairwell Carollers for 25 years.
Christmas 2017 and a brand new Youtube selection from last year's Stairwell Carollers Christmas carol concert at Knox United church, Ottawa.
In this upload, our Ottawa choir performs a wonderful original Canadian Christmas carol - The Gower Wassail, composed by Robert Frederick Jones. Andrew Jones, his son, is a tenor in the choir so this piece has a special connection to us.
Audio: Tom Barnes. Recorded at Knox Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Dec 16th, 2016.
The Stairwell Carollers were proud to present a special 40th anniversary donation of $3,000 to the Shepherds of Good Hope on the 15th - a result of their first ever “Sponsor a Song” fundraising campaign.
A registered Canadian charity, we also help local charities with our concerts and CDs !
The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie started our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. The Stairwell Carollers are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
Michel also worked with Pierre Massie in his a pop cappella group SAIJ (pronounced "sage") from 1997 to 2003. They performed in the Ottawa region at many venues and festivals - including the St. Jean Baptiste festival at Nepean Point, which was televised. They also sang on the Parliament Hill main stage for Canada day - televised Nationally. To top off their accomplishments, SAIJ won a Trille Or (the French counterpart to The Juno).
In 1999, Michel founded LGS (Le Groupe Swing), a Franco-Ontarian musical group whose first album brought widespread attention. LGS has performed over 200 times across Canada and around the world. To date, the group has won 12 Trille D'or awards and Attracted over 1.5 million YouTube views.
Dr. Andrea McCrady was named Dominion Carillonneur in 2008. She plays the Peace Tower every weekday and on request to serve parliamentarians.
She took up the carillon in 1971 as an undergraduate at Trinity College, CT. A medical doctor, Dr. McCrady retired in 2006 to continue her study of the carillon and received her Bachelor of Music magna cum laude from the University of Denver in 2008. She now serves as instructor in carillon studies at Carleton University.
She has adapted for the carillon, and performed, five of Pierre's carols - including Mourning Dove.
For nearly 30 years, Joel Haslam has been the Host and producer of Regional Contact - a local Ottawa "good news" show (now a segment of CTV news). He champions the heartwarming stories of everyday people engaged in extraordinary life adventures. Regional Contact has featured the Stairwell Carollers on a number of occasions, helping the choir increase its audience base along the way. Soon after the first segment, Joel joined the choir as a tenor and sang with the Stairwell Carollers from 1991 to 1993.
Joel holds degrees in journalism and political science from Carleton University. He is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Dave Rogers award, presented to a Canadian journalist producing and reporting the best national television feature.
Denyse Mageau is a soprano and has sung with the Stairwell Carollers since 1978, shortly after the choir made its official debut.
Born in Sturgeon Falls, Denyse was a teacher for 36 years. She taught Secondary level French and Cinema in schools through Ontario and in Germany. After retirement, she published children's stories and tales of her world travels. Thanks to a program of the Arts Council of Ontario, she was able to introduce poetry to children through singing and wordplay.
Come hear the Stairwell Carollers sing “A Canadian Christmas” TONIGHT at Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar Street, 7:30pm (December 15th, 2017).
The Stairwell Carollers will present a special 40th anniversary donation of $3,000 to the Shepherds of Good Hope on the 15th - a result of their first ever “Sponsor a Song” fundraising campaign.
Audio: Tom Barnes. Recorded at various churches around Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Videographers: See individual video descriptions.
Editing: Pierre Massie
It’s a concert not to be missed!
Come hear the Stairwell Carollers sing “A Canadian Christmas” TOMORROW at Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar Street, 7:30pm (December 15th, 2017).
The Stairwell Carollers will present a special 40th anniversary donation of $3,000 to the Shepherds of Good Hope on the 15th - a result of their first ever “Sponsor a Song” fundraising campaign.
Pierre Massie started our a cappella choir in 1977 while a music student at Ottawa University. The Stairwell Carollers are ranked with the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
A registered Canadian charity, we also help local charities with our concert, CD and cookbook sales.
Please DONATE to support our 40th year events! All Donations receive a charitable receipt.
A singular aspect of The Stairwell Carollers choir is that they have been singing in a “humanitarian key” for decades. Apart from introducing great classic and original choral music to concert goers, the Carollers’ other mission is a charitable one - to give back to the community, and they have taken this to heart.
Proceeds from their concerts and CD sales have allowed the choir to make donations totalling over $130,000 to dozens of local charities as well as music scholarships to local high school students going on to study at Canadian universities. Some of the Stairwell Carollers scholarship winners have gone on to significant careers themselves, including Corey Payette (2005), whose recent musical about the residential school experience, “Children of God”, was presented to much acclaim at the National Arts Centre.
This is the 40th anniversary season of the Stairwell Carollers and Pierre Massie has curated a very special Christmas program for the choir’s many fans to hear.
On December 15, at Knox Presbyterian Church, the choir will be presenting a uniquely crafted program of Xmas carols, titled “A Canadian Christmas.” Pierre provides the context: “Canada's 150th year happened to coincide with our 40th season. It seemed appropriate to offer an all-Canadian Christmas concert to celebrate both milestones.”
Concert goers will have the opportunity to hear three brand new carols on December 15. Pierre, an award-winning composer himself, has done a lively new arrangement of the ever-popular “Carol of the Bells”, and has written a beautiful bilingual carol in honour of Canada’s 150th and the choir’s 40th: “A Baby is Born / L'Enfant est né.” In addition, the choir will again be singing the made-in-Ottawa “Rideau Carol” specially composed for the choir by the author of this article. It’s a musical tour of the sites and sounds of the national’s capital.
The Stairwell Carollers are honoured that a number of close friends have agreed to be guest MCs at the December 15 concert. These include two former Carollers – CTV Ottawa’s Joel Haslam and popular francophone singing star Michel Bénac of LGS (Le Groupe Swing) – as well as Dr. Andrea McCrady, the Dominion Carillonneur, who has featured Pierre’s compositions multiple times on the Peace Tower carillon on Parliament Hill.
It’s a concert not to be missed!
Come hear the Stairwell Carollers sing “A Canadian Christmas” at Knox Presbyterian Church, 120 Lisgar Street, 7:30pm on December 15th.
The Stairwell Carollers will present a special 40th anniversary donation of $3,000 to the Shepherds of Good Hope on the 15th - a result of their first ever “Sponsor a Song” fundraising campaign.
David Rain has been taking his musical cues from the back of Pierre Massie’s head for the past 25 years with the Stairwell Carollers. Some photos credit Iryna Zamchevska (OCISO) - Thank you!
To celebrate the Stairwell Carollers’ 40th anniversary, director Pierre Massie has created a special Christmas program, featuring a wide variety of Canadian composers from across Canada and across different time periods, including himself.
In this blog post, he shares a few thoughts about three of his own compositions.
“To honour our 40th anniversary, and also Canada’s 150th anniversary, I wanted to write a special Christmas carol. It is a bilingual carol called, “A Baby is Born / L'Enfant est né.”
Here is a rehearsal audio excerpt to give you a taste...
“Part of the melody had already been created years back. I have a folder of melodic ideas, which I listened to. I then chose one and built from that, until the arrangement was almost complete. Finally, I wrote season-appropriate lyrics in both official languages making it truly Canadian.
“In addition, we will be performing my new arrangement of an audience favourite, “Carol of the Bells.” I wrote this in 2016, but we will be doing the premiere performance this Christmas.
“The motivation here was to create new settings of traditional carols for our audiences, the ones they would recognize as tried and true - to give the songs a fresh and different appeal.
“Finally, we will be singing “Eya, eya, gaudeamus”, which in 2007 placed first in the Toronto Amadeus Choir Carol Competition.
“I started with a melody line and it grew from that point forward. I have a tome of Latin text and hymns that I use for inspiration, as with this carol. It harkens back to my youth when I would attend midnight mass and sing French and Latin Christmas carols.”
by David Rain, tenor
Interview with Pierre Massie, Director and Founder of The Stairwell Carollers Excerpts from Stairwell Caroller rehearsals, edited by Holly Massie
A registered Canadian charity, we also help local charities with our concerts and CDs !
The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie started our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. The Stairwell Carollers are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
Here is a video I made using simple rehearsal audio from our dress rehearsal for our St. Bartholomew concert last spring. The song is called "One Last Song" and is written by Contemporary Irish composer, Michael McGlynn. The rendition is a bit rough -- it is a rehearsal, but still has a lonesome beauty in the men's pure raw voices.
"I don't sing solo very much anymore, and this is probably the hardest piece to sing for me as I wrote it for a special old soldier. I had two Great Grandfathers who joined the British Army in the Great War, one a Private, the other a Farrier. Times were terribly hard in Ireland and it was a way out of poverty for so many."
Remembrance day is this Saturday, so I think it's fitting. - dedicated to those who sacrificed for our freedom...
Audio: The choir's Sony recorder :)
Photos: Holly Massie
The Legion's Virtual Wall of Honour and Remembrance and Two Minutes of Silence.
FYI, There is no sound to these videos.
About The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie started our a cappella choir in 1977 while a music student at Ottawa University. The Stairwell Carollers are ranked with the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
A registered Canadian charity, we help local charities with our concert, CD and cookbook sales.
An interview with Pierre Massie (fellow tenor) - Director and founder of The Stairwell Carollers - on the choir's 40th Anniversary
Part 2 - A Babe is Born
by David Rain
I understand you have also written a special composition to honour the choir’s 40th anniversary?
Yes, it is a bilingual carol called, “A Baby is Born / L'Enfant est né” Inspiration comes when it comes, in different ways. Part of the melody I used here had already been created years back. I have a folder of melodic ideas. I listened to some of them, chose one and built from that, until the arrangement was almost complete.
I then wrote season-appropriate lyrics in both official languages making it truly Canadian.
Do you have any final comments, have there been any changes with the choir these past 40 years that you'd like to highlight?
We change with the years and with age of course.
In the beginning our philanthropic adventures brought us all over the city: carolling on a bus, singing for a parking lot attendant, in hospitals, malls, retirement homes, food banks, on the street and live in local markets. Some years we'd perform over 20 gigs at Christmas time. Back then we had the energy for it.
Our primary mandate is still to educate and promote the public understanding and appreciation of choral music. This is done through presentations of traditional Christmas carols during the Christmas season, and sacred and secular music from all eras during our spring season.
In order to fulfill this mandate, we encourage professional development and we often have choral workshops and ear training and rhythm activities when we can fit it in.
The money we raise is used to cover our annual operating expenses which occasionally includes upgrades to our lighting system, and our media storage for our every growing archives. This allows us to continue providing the global community with an opportunity to experience high quality a cappella singing.
Our library of sheet music, live concert footage, and vocal training podcasts are great educational tools, not only for the choir but also for the general public.
Our many social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest help promote interest in, and give exposure to our genre of music.
We feel it essential to maintain this portal to a repertoire that ranges from the Medieval to the most modern 21st century examples of a cappella singing.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Pierre, and I’m sure I speak for my fellow choir members when I say we are really looking forward to this 40th anniversary season! David Rain
A registered Canadian charity, we also help local charities with our concerts and CDs !
The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie started our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. The Stairwell Carollers are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs, winning both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions.
A registered Canadian charity, The Carollers also help local charities with net proceeds from concert, CD and cookbook sales.
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