K... This is the sweetest thing on the internet right now. Thanks David!
The Monkees sing Riu Riu Chiu.
Thanks to TanjaBarnes channel on Youtube for an early Christmas gift!
And here's our version!
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 the net proceeds from our concert ticket and CD sales.
The Catholic Culture Podcast is featuring our performance of A Virgin Most Pure in Episode 59 - The Glorious English Carol. Thanks to Thomas V. Mirus for honouring us with this inclusion.
The podcast episode is a wonderful overview of the English Carol with many other carol examples included, such as (from the podcast episode description):
Coventry Carol, Harry Christophers and the Sixteen, available on the CORO record label at https://thesixteenshop.com/
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.
Some lovely praise from Mark Holzman - "Pierre - What a wonderful concert on Saturday night. Thank you for your community support over these many years and for choosing to donate to Cornerstone this year. The hard work and dedication shown by all the Stairwell Carollers is evident in the lovely music you all have composed, arranged, practiced and performed so beautifully. And how magical to see the transformation back to winter when we left the church! Attached are several photos of the presentation. Happy holidays to all. - Mark"
The concert was packed to the rafters with a wonderful audience! Even the choir loft was full! Thanks so much for a great night!
Reviews from The concert coming in - "On Sunday I bumped into a
couple of people who had attended the Dec 14th concert, and
told me "how marvelous" it was.
Among many highly
appreciative remarks were: How particularly they had enjoyed
the piece "with all those various carols and yule songs in
with the chant" (i.e., they meant "Christmas is...") and
that they do hope that "Song of The Crib" will go onto the
Carollers' next CD- "it was so beautiful".
Keith, Bass"
Cornerstone has shared with us the impact that donations like ours will have:
“Almost 1,000 women become homeless in Ottawa every year. “Thanks to the support of our partners, donors, and friends, Cornerstone Housing for Women helps two hundred women every day, and nearly five hundred women each year transform their lives from crisis to hope, housing, and healing. “We are the only Ottawa shelter and housing charity uniquely tailored to women that have experienced homelessness. “We offer emergency shelter and supportive housing at five locations, and an outreach program. We give professional and spiritual care to a diversity of women. With support, women can transform their lives and have a fresh start.”
By purchasing your ticket, you provide us with the funds to work towards our 2020 donation to another local charity. Thank you!
This brings our total giving to local charities plus music scholarships to students to just under $145,000. This is the second time the choir has donated to Cornerstone – the first was in 2001 – and we are proud to be able to continue to support their important work. David Rain About The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie created our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. With wins in both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions, we are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs. A registered Canadian charity, The Carollers also help local charities with net proceeds from concert, CD and cookbook sales. Since 1997 we have donated over $144,000 to local charities and scholarships.
Exclusively made up of Pierre's arrangements and compositions, the concert features a carillon setting of his "Nouvelle Agréable" by Wendy Earl - one of Andrea McCrady's graduate students.
If you missed the LIVE performance, here is a recording of a past performance of Stairwell Carol by Dominion Carillonneur, Andrea McCrady.
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.
All our CDs are available on our website in both CD and MP3 formats.
Audio: Tom Barnes.
Recorded at Southminster United Church, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Dec 15th, 2018.
Videographers: Matthieu Brennan, Elisa Torlone
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. With wins in both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions, we are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs. A registered Canadian charity, The Carollers also help local charities with net proceeds from concert, CD and cookbook sales. Since 1997 we have donated over $140,000 to local charities and scholarships.
Cornerstone has shared with us the impact that donations like ours will have:
“Almost 1,000 women become homeless in Ottawa every year. “Thanks to the support of our partners, donors, and friends, Cornerstone Housing for Women helps two hundred women every day, and nearly five hundred women each year transform their lives from crisis to hope, housing, and healing. “We are the only Ottawa shelter and housing charity uniquely tailored to women that have experienced homelessness. “We offer emergency shelter and supportive housing at five locations, and an outreach program. We give professional and spiritual care to a diversity of women. With support, women can transform their lives and have a fresh start.”
By purchasing your ticket, you provide us with the funds to work towards our 2020 donation to another local charity. Thank you!
This brings our total giving to local charities plus music scholarships to students to just under $145,000. This is the second time the choir has donated to Cornerstone – the first was in 2001 – and we are proud to be able to continue to support their important work. David Rain About The Stairwell Carollers:
Pierre Massie created our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. With wins in both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions, we are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs. A registered Canadian charity, The Carollers also help local charities with net proceeds from concert, CD and cookbook sales. Since 1997 we have donated over $144,000 to local charities and scholarships.
Sneak Peek!
David Rain's gorgeous arrangement of the classic German carol “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” is included in our 2019 Christmas Concert program.
Here is the premiere performance via our Youtube channel.
Don't miss The Stairwell Carollers Christmas concert, An a capella Christmas, at Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Ave at Bank St, Saturday December 14th, 7:30pm.
Looking for that perfect Christmas gift? Stairwell Caroller CDs will be on sale at every concert. We accept credit cards and debit now too with The Square!
Tickets are $20 at the door, or $15 in advance at Compact Music, 206 & 785 1/2 Bank Street
- ONLINE TICKETS.
About The Stairwell Carollers: Pierre Massie created our a cappella choir in 1977 while he was a music student at Ottawa University. With wins in both the 2010 and 2013 Ontario Music Festival Association competitions, we are ranked among the best of Ontario choirs. A registered Canadian charity, The Carollers also help local charities with net proceeds from concert, CD and cookbook sales. Since 1997 we have donated over $140,000 to local charities and scholarships.
Q.What is as painful as birthing a baby but took way longer than 8 Months??
A. A new website :P
When the internet was young, my husband and our darling director, Pierre, built our first website from the ground up. He learned the HTML, spent hours, days, weeks in the chair tweaking it. He loaded it with tons of content and photos (very special since the early internet was pretty wonky with managing the images.
Then, FOR YEARS, he kept his baby chugging along.
Then smart phones appeared. Mobile tech needs mobile websites. Nuh uh - ours had the weirdest look on mobile, and it was way beyond Pete to correct it. He was already dealing with frames and java script nightmares.
Basically our website had become a haunted mansion. With strange random pages still existing out in the nether net - if you had the link - and s-l-o-w- l-o-a-d-i-n-g problems.
Well, two awesome things about our facelift is it's NEW - and it's FAST!
Our brand new shiny website, using Wordpress is courtesy of Cypher systems, designed and managed by our director, Pierre (with editing and proofing help by fellow Stairwellers).
Speaking of CONCERTS ------------ coming up this weekend!
The 2019 Christmas Concert program will feature a number of works by Pierre Massie – including his arrangements of Christmas favourites like “Do you hear what I hear”
and “Mon beau sapin”, along with his original bilingual song, “The Stairwell Carol.”
Two world premieres will be presented during the Carollers’ upcoming Christmas season: the beautiful, gently rocking “Mary’s Lullaby” written by alto, Lyndsay Bolden – and the imaginative, tour de force “Christmas is…” by bass, Terry Brynaert.
Both Lyndsay and Terry have been filled with excitement and anticipation watching their new pieces blossom in rehearsal.
David Rain's gorgeous arrangement of the classic German carol “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” is also included in the program.
It’s a rare choir indeed that can boast such an abundance of creative energy. Ottawa residents can hear the results of this choral composer collaboration at the Stairwell Carollers Christmas concert, An a capella Christmas, at Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Ave at Bank St, Saturday December 14th, 7:30pm.
The Carollers are also pleased to be presenting a $2,000 donation to the Cornerstone Housing for Women at this concert.
And, if you’re looking for that perfect Christmas gift, the choir’s CDs will be on sale too. Net proceeds are used to help local organizations - since 1997 the choir has donated over $140,000 to local charities and scholarships.
Tickets are $20 at the door, or $15 in advance at Compact Music, 206 & 785 1/2 Bank Street
- ONLINE TICKETS.
Hope to see you there on December 14th!
If you can’t make it to Southminster, you can still hear the Stairwell Carollers on Wednesday December 18th at St. Columba Church, 24 Sandridge Road, 7:30pm
- ONLINE TICKETS 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.
The Stairwell Carollers are without a doubt one of the world’s most unique choirs, as their director, Pierre Massie, leads the choir while singing within the tenor section.
Pierre is an award-winning composer, and the Carollers regularly perform his original compositions and arrangements. In recent years, he has encouraged choir members to flex their own composer muscles too. The result is – that for the first time this Christmas – the Stairwell Carollers will perform pieces written by a veritable composer quartet from within their very ranks.
Two world premieres will be presented during the Carollers’ upcoming Christmas season: the beautiful, gently rocking “Mary’s Lullaby” written by alto, Lyndsay Bolden – and the imaginative, tour de force “Christmas is…” by bass, Terry Brynaert. Both Lyndsay and Terry have been filled with excitement and anticipation watching their new pieces blossom in rehearsal.
The 2019 Christmas program will also feature a number of Pierre Massie gems – including his arrangements of Christmas favourites like “Do you hear what I hear”
and “Mon beau sapin”, along with his original bilingual song, “The Stairwell Carol.”
I also share in the excitement – as my own arrangement of the classic German carol “Es ist ein Ros entsprungen” is included in the program.
It’s a rare choir indeed that can boast such an abundance of creative energy. Ottawa residents can hear the results of this choral composer collaboration at the Stairwell Carollers Christmas concert, An a capella Christmas, at Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Ave at Bank St, Saturday December 14th, 7:30pm.
The Carollers are also pleased to be presenting a $2,000 donation to the Cornerstone Housing for Women at this concert.
And, if you’re looking for that perfect Christmas gift, the choir’s CDs will be on sale too. Net proceeds are used to help local organizations - since 1997 the choir has donated over $140,000 to local charities and scholarships.
Tickets are $20 at the door, or $15 in advance at Compact Music, 206 & 785 1/2 Bank Street
- ONLINE TICKETS.
David Rain has been taking his cues from the back of Pierre Massie’s head in the tenor section for going on 27 years.
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 is a little teaser of the songs you will hear:
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.
• Compact Music, 206 & 785 1/2 Bank Street locations OR
• Books on Beechwood, 35 Beechwood Ave.
($20 at the door)
2019 Spring Choral Concert TEASER PLAYLIST
Full Programme in an upcoming Blog Post
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.
"I've had the opportunity to experience dozens of masterclasses with various presenters and Gabe was by far the most unique presenter I've had. His approach is very organic and his technique is flawless."
Workshop hosted by The Stairwell Carollers chamber choir - furthering choral excellence and development in Ottawa's choral community now for over 41 years.
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.
Katie and Suzannah smile for the camera at choir rehearsal
TOP TEN Reasons to Register! #2 Suzannah Barrett (soprano): "He was super animated and I loved the way he explained things! Sort of like telling stories."
Workshop hosted by The Stairwell Carollers chamber choir - furthering choral excellence and development in Ottawa's choral community now for over 41 years.
Ottawa choir, The Stairwell Carollers, perform In natali Domini, Traditional melody, arrangement by David Rain in memory of his Mom. Here is the backstory to David Rain's dedication to his Mother. All our CDs benefit charities and are available on our website in both CD and MP3 formats. Audio: Tom Barnes. Recorded at St. Barnabas Church, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, June 2nd, 2018. Videographers: Matthieu Brennan, Andrew Mason 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.
Tulip festival selfie with Pete - my Hubby and director of the Stairwell Carollers
TOP TEN Reasons to Register! #3 Holly Massie (alto): "Gabe is the kind of person that you immediately feel comfortable with the second you meet him. He is passionate about choral music and his empathy and compassion shone through every conversation - balanced with a delightfully devilish sense of humour."
Workshop hosted by The Stairwell Carollers chamber choir - furthering choral excellence and development in Ottawa's choral community now for over 41 years. Ottawa choir, The Stairwell Carollers, perform Say Love if Ever Thou Dids’t Find - by John Dowland. The Renaissance madrigal, Say Love if Ever Thou Dids’t Find, is on our “Audite nova” CD. All our CDs benefit charities and are available on our website in both CD and MP3 formats. Audio: Tom Barnes. Recorded at St. Barnabas Church, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, June 2nd, 2018. Videographers: Matthieu Brennan, Andrew Mason 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.
Keith toasts the Christmas singing season at Josée's annual Xmas party
TOP TEN Reasons to Register!
#4 Keith Bailey (bass): "Looking for a choral stimulant? As instructor, teacher and coach, Gabe's the encouraging encapsulation of all that's best. And a most engaging raconteur, into the bargain!"
Workshop is hosted by The Stairwell Carollers - Ottawa's chamber choir furthering choral excellence and development in our choral community for over 41 years.
Ottawa choir, The Stairwell Carollers, perform I Love My Love - a traditional English Melody in an arrangement by Gustav Holst. All our CDs benefit charities and are available on our website in both CD and MP3 formats. Audio: Tom Barnes. Recorded at St. Barnabas Church, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, June 2nd, 2018. Videographers: Matthieu Brennan, Andrew Mason Editing: Pierre Massie
About the choir:
Pierre Massie created The Stairwell Carollers in 1977 while a music student at Ottawa U. 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.
A registered Canadian charity, we also help local charities with the net proceeds from our concert ticket and CD sales.
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