Every December, Toronto sees Handel return from beyond the grave to conduct Messiah, roared at full voice by 2,700 spectators. With its legendary Sing-Along, Tafelmusik transforms the 1741 oratorio into a collective celebration where history, humour, and musical fervour collide like nowhere else. Our contributor Kate Helsen, a member of the Tafelmusik Choir for over 20 years, describes the unique event. 
By Kate Helsen
Toronto, Ontario; Sunday before Christmas. Every year around noon on this day, a golden light shines from Heaven and a portly gentleman in an 18th-century wig and florid dressing gown floats towards the famous Massey Hall, clutching a large piece of rolled-up score paper. Or at least, this is how we must imagine it; for almost 40 years he has managed to make his descent without a witness. I refer, of course, to the annual tradition of Tafelmusik’s Sing-Along Messiah, led by the maestro himself on a one-day guest-pass to the land of the living. In other words, as a Tafelmusik musician, you don’t have to believe in Santa, but you’d better believe in Handel!
A Christmas Handel: Seeing is Believing
How can I explain it? A chorus of thousands, joining a world-class period orchestra and choir, to sing through this oratorio like the great 19th-century British Choral Societies, as a Canadian family tradition. And there in the centre of it all is our esteemed choir director, Ivars Taurins, dressed head-to-toe as the grumpy, exacting, yet ultimately benevolent Handel. It is a crazy vision but joyous, and it blends musical excellence, historical integrity, and theatrical flair in a way that Toronto has come to cherish, but the rest of the world must see (and hear! and sing!) to believe.
Tafelmusik: Fourty Years and Still Going Strong
For over four decades, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir has earned an international reputation as a significant influence in the global movement of Historically Informed Performance (H.I.P.). Founded in 1979 in Toronto, the organization has consistently championed the idea that historical instruments and techniques unlock a more vivid and exciting approach to Early Music. Truly globally connected, the orchestra enjoyed a long tenure as the artists-in-residence at the Klang und Raum Festival in Irsee, Bavaria, for nearly twenty years, as well as being celebrated at home in Canada with nine Juno awards in categories such as “Best Classical Album” and the Canadian Music Council’s ‘Ensemble of the Year’ award within a few years of founding.
Yet, the old suspicion that we might be secret members of the overly intellectual ‘early music police’ might have been hard to shake, were it not for our Messiah season. Every year, it follows the same arc: first, three traditional performances where the complete, nearly three-hour work is performed with utmost precision and profound respect, on historical instruments. A different quartet of internationally renowned soloists join the ensemble each season, bringing their own artistry and interpretations to the famed arias such as ‘The Trumpet shall sound’ and ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’. And then comes the fourth concert, the Sing-Along, which Tafelmusik has presented every year since 1986 (save for the pandemic interruptions).
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