Christ Church Cathedral
Lachrimae, or Seaven Teares
Directed by Lucas Harris
Artists: Chloe and Christi Meyer, violins; Adrienne Hyde and Natalie Mackie, viols; Lucas Harris, lute; Christina Hutten, keyboard; with Myriam Leblanc & Len Torrie, sopranos; Haitham Haidar, tenor.
Pre-Concert Chat: 7pm hosted by Christina Hutton with Lucas Harris.
Run Time: Aproximatily 90 Minutes, Plus Interval
Lachrimæ, or Seaven Teares is the collection that made John Dowland famous across Europe—so much so that he proudly styled himself “Jo: Dolande de Lachrimæ.” The work is emblematic of the Elizabethan fascination with melancholy, yet it reminds us of a timeless paradox: sad music often brings us comfort, not despair. Indeed, Dowland himself once wrote: “no doubt pleasant are the teares which Musicke weepes, neither are teares shed alwayes in sorrowe, but sometimes in joy and gladnesse.” Or, as Elton John put it, “It feels so good to hurt so bad / and suffer just enough to sing the blues.” This concert probes this enduring paradox, pairing Dowland’s seven iconic pavans with songs from the 17th to the 20th centuries that reflect on music’s cathartic power and its remarkable ability to console, heal, and lift us up.
Generously sponsored by RPC Family Foundation.
PROGRAMME
Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Tempro la cetra
John Dowland (1563-1626)
Lachrimæ Antiquae (Old Tears)
Michel Lambert (1610-1696)
Par mes chants tristes et touchants
J. Dowland
Lachrimæ Antiquae Novae (New Old Tears) Strings + lute
Joni Mitchell (1943-)
Blue
J. Dowland
Lachrimæ Gementes (Sighing Tears)
Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)
L’Astratto
Interval
J. Dowland
Lachrimæ Tristes (Sad Tears)
John Danyel (1564-1626)
Can doleful notes / No, let Chromatique tunes / Uncertain certain turns
J. Dowland
Lachrimæ Coactae (Forced Tears)
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
An die Musik
J. Dowland
Lachrimæ Amantis (Lover’s Tears)
William Croft (1678-1727)
A Hymn on Divine Musick
J. Dowland
Lachrimæ Verae (True Tears)
Charles Fox (1940-)
Killing Me Softly with His Song
Lucas Harris, Director & Lute
Toronto-based Lucas Harris discovered the lute during his undergraduate studies at Pomona College, and went on to study the lute and early music at the Civica scuola di musica di Milano and at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen. He is a founding member of the Toronto Continuo Collective, the Vesuvius Ensemble and the Lute Legends Collective (an association of specialists in ancient plucked-string traditions from diverse cultures) and is the regular lutenist for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. Lucas plays with many other ensembles in Canada and the USA and has worked with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Atalante, and Jordi Savall / Le Concert des Nations amongst others.
He teaches at the Tafelmusik Summer and Winter Baroque Institutes, Oberlin Conservatory’s Baroque Performance Institute, and the Canadian Renaissance Music Summer School, and is a regular guest artist with Early Music Vancouver. Lucas is also the Artistic Director of the Toronto Chamber Choir, for which he has created and conducted more than twenty themed concert programs. One of Mr. Harris’ many pandemic projects was the reconstruction of 12 solo voice motets by the Italian nun Chiara Margarita Cozzolani.
Chloe Meyers | Sponsored by Jill Bodkin, Violin
Violinist Chloe Meyers performs with early music ensembles across North America as leader, orchestra member, and chamber musician. She is the concertmaster of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Vancouver and co-concertmaster of Arion Baroque Orchestra in Montreal. She has led or appeared as soloist with groups including the Victoria Baroque Players, Pacific MusicWorks, Ensemble Les Boréades, the Theatre of Early Music, Ensemble Masques, and Les Voix Baroques, of which she was a founding member. She has had the pleasure of sharing the stage with international violin stars, performing double concerti with Stefano Montanari, Enrico Onofri, Amandine Beyer, and Cecilia Bernardini. Chloe’s playing may be heard on many award-winning disks, including the 2022 Juno award winning recording “Solfeggio”… in which she leads the orchestra L’Harmonie des Saisons as concertmaster. In 2023 she was nominated as Best Musical Director for her work in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Edmonton Opera.
Alongside Chloe’s passion for performance and directing, is her love of teaching. As adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, she trains young artists in the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Program, chamber music and solo lessons. She has years of teaching children, university and students of all ages and levels! She is an active teacher in the summer Victoria Conservatory teaching programs, as well the UVic Collegium orchestral program.
Chloe lives in Ladner, BC, with her ever growing family and dog.
Christi Meyers, Violin
Christi Meyers has had a prominent role in the musical life of Victoria, BC for almost 15 years. Assistant Concertmaster of the Victoria Symphony since 2001, she has also been active playing in musical organizations locally such as the Galiano Ensemble, Odyssey String Quartet and away, for the Vancouver Symphony, Sinfonia Rotterdam (NL) and the European Camerata (UK).
She has also nurtured her love of baroque violin playing as a member of the Victoria Baroque Players, performing also with Pacific Baroque Orchestra and on numerous projects with Early Music Vancouver. As an educator, she coaches the violins of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, maintains a small private studio, and was on the music faculty at the University of Victoria from 2005-10. Christi has recorded chamber music for both CBC radio and television and can be heard on baroque recordings for ATMA (QB) and Marquis (ON). Born in Montreal and raised in Grande Prairie, Alberta, she holds degrees from McGill, Western, and the Vancouver Academy of Music, where she studied with Gwen Thompson and Sonia Jelikova.
Adrienne Hyde, Viol
Natalie Mackie, Viol
Natalie Mackie studied cello at the Conservatoire de Musique (Québec), followed by a degree from the School of Music, University of British Columbia. While at UBC she was introduced to the viola da gamba, and following graduation, she pursued further studies at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. Natalie has played with many ensembles in Canada and the US, including New World Consort, Les Coucous Bénévoles, Tafelmusik, Portland, and Seattle Baroque Orchestras, Les Voix Humaines, Tempo Rubato, Les Voix Baroque, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Victoria Baroque, and Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra among others. Natalie is a member of Pacific Baroque Orchestra and the chamber ensemble “La Modestine”- both Vancouver-based ensembles. She has toured throughout Canada, Europe, and the US and recorded for Radio France, German Radio, BBC, CBC, and NPR, as well as the Canadian label Atma Classique. Natalie is a regular performer in the Pacific Baroque Festival, held annually in Victoria, BC, and teaches in the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Program at the University of British Columbia.
Alexander Weimann | Sponsored by Bruce Munro Wright, O.B.C., Keyboard
The internationally renowned keyboard artist Alexander Weimann has spent his life enveloped by the therapeutic power and beauty of making music. Alex grew up in Munich. At age three he became fascinated by the intense magic of the church organ. He started piano at six, formal organ lessons at 12 and harpsichord at university (along with theatre theory, medieval Latin and jazz piano.) He is in huge demand as a director, soloist and chamber player, traveling the world with leading North American and European ensembles. He is Artistic Director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Vancouver and teaches at the University of British Columbia where he directs the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme.
Alex has appeared on more than 100 recordings, including the Juno-award-winning album “Prima Donna” with Karina Gauvin and Arion Baroque orchestra. His latest album series “The Art of Improvisation” (Volume 1: A Prayer for Peace; Volume 2: Ad libitum; and Volume 3: Canavian Variations, released on Redshift, 2024) unites his passions for both baroque music and improvisation on organ, harpsichord, and piano.
Myriam Leblanc, Soprano
A graduate of McGill University, Myriam Leblanc obtained a master’s degree in choral conducting direction from the University of Sherbrooke. She was a First Prize winner and People’s choice Award winner at the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières Competition, a Jeune Ambassadrice Lyrique in 2014 (Prix Québec-Bavière), Audience Choice Award winner at the Canadian Opera Company Centre Stage Competition, Third Prize winner at the Ottawa Choral Society New Discoveries contest, holder of the Excellence grant given annually by l’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, First Prize winner in the Mathieu-Duguay Early Music Competition at the 2017 Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival. She has been working in the world of music for few years. Leblanc is recognized for the purity of her tone, a flexible and warm voice and her mastery of both technique and musical expressiveness.
In 2016, she made her debut with the Opéra de Montréal in the role of the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida. La Presse music critic Caroline Rodgers described her voice as one of “rare beauty”. Her more recent performances (2017-2018) include Milica in Sokolovic’s Svadba with Opéra de Montréal, Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen with Opéra de Québec and concerts with conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kent Nagano, Matthias Maute and Jonathan Cohen. In 2018-2019, she sang a Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, the soprano solos on Handel’s Messiah with Ensemble Caprice, the Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.2 “Lobgesang” with l’Orchestre Metropolitain under Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s direction. Recently, she was a soloist with Les Violons du Roy under Jonathan Cohen’s direction.
Len Torrie, Soprano
Len Torrie is an Ontario-born, soprano and project maker living in Montreal who just completed a master’s degree in early music performance at McGill University under the tutelage of Dominique Labelle. Most recently, Len sang the title role in Charpentier’s oratorio Judith with ensemble Capella Antica and is lead soprano at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal.
While studying music therapy at Acadia University, Len appeared frequently as a soloist with local ensembles including Symphony Nova Scotia, and was lead soprano of the Manning Chapel Choir from 2014-2018. In 2017, Len was awarded the Canadian Federation of University Women scholarship which funded their participation in Accademia Europea Dell’Opera in Lucca, Italy, where they played Oberto in Handel’s Alcina. This experience motivated Len to pursue a career in performance and upon graduation, Len moved to Montreal to study with soprano Suzie LeBlanc.
Len frequently returns to the Maritimes for solo recitals, collaborations, and residencies. Len also recently completed an artist residency at Banff Arts and Creativity Centre with Canadian tenor Kerry Bursey, as the newly formed early music/folk duo Kalliope. Len is currently exploring the practice of self-accompanying early music on baroque guitar. As a queer, non-binary musician, Len is inspired by the possibility that their queer ancestors had their own musical traditions and that through research, creative speculation, and performance, we can tell a more inclusive and rich story about music and humanity.
Haitham Haidar, Tenor
Haitham Haidar is a Lebanese-Palestinian Canadian tenor highly sought out for his “memorably warm tone… a gripping communicator and charismatic musician.” (Gramophone), and his “arresting warmth and lyricism” (Music Web International). He is a proud graduate of Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music, McGill’s Schulich School of Music, and the University of British Columbia and currently resides in Montreal, Quebec.
Haitham’s JUNO® nominated debut solo album Zaytoun is now available on all streaming platforms, praised as BBC Music’s Vocal Choice 2025 and as “exquisitely beautiful and inherently melancholic” by Gramophone. Zaytoun explores the beautiful intersectionality of Baroque and Arabic music, interlaced with poetry and musical improvisations. Haitham also appears on multiple Grammy® nominated albums, namely as a soloist on Conspirare’s House of Belonging.
Haitham has been seen as a soloist at the Morgenland Music Festival in Osnabrück, as the Evangelist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Seattle Bach Festival, as Matthew in Considering Matthew Shepard at ACDA Northwestern, and with groups like Conspirare and Seraphic Fire. He has also been seen as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Newfoundland Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Arion Baroque Orchestra, and Spire Vocal Ensemble. Recently, he has performed as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with the Choir of A&P in Montreal and with the Cantata Collective in San Francisco under the baton of Nicholas McGegan. Recent engagements include being the artist in residence at Reed College in Portland, a collaboration with Chanticleer, and showcases of Zaytoun in Montreal. Coming up, Haitham will be performing the role of Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Seattle Bach Festival, hold a residency at Cornell University, and continue to present Zaytoun across North America.
Haitham is a proud of Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble, a group that unites music excellence and diversity while offering highly educational and practical experiences to students from middle school to graduate school. KVE launched the first inaugural Kaleidoscope Vocal Academy in 2025 and the group looks forward to this growing educational program.
Haitham’s approach to performance has always been humanity first. Being an Arab immigrant in North America comes with its unique set of oppressive challenges and it is because of that and what he sees around him in the field, that he aims to touch people’s hearts with music and compassion and make change in the world the best way he knows how.
