Handel Society of Music

Handel Society of Music

The Handel Society of Music. Choir founded in 1966 in New Westminster, BC, and directed by Karel ten Hoope. It has performed in New Westminster at Vincent Massey Auditorium, in Vancouver at the Holy Rosary Cathedral, and beginning in 1987 - when tenor Hoope moved to White Rock, BC and relocated the choir there - at White Rock's Peace Portal Alliance Church. The choir's style is continental-European rather than English, and its programshave included 19th-century music (Mendelssohn, Dvořák) in addition to works from the 18th- and 20th-century repertoire, such as Alessandro Scarlatti's Messa di Santa Cecilia (in its first BC performance, 13 May 1972) and Honegger's Cantate de Noël (3 Nov 1972, performed with the participation of the British Columbia Boys' Choir). In 1991 the choir continued to present large-scale works, often with orchestral accompaniment, by composers such as J.S. Bach, Antonia Maria Bononcini, Bruckner, Handel, Haydn and Mozart. tenor Hoope has conducted the Festival of Strings orchestra, comprised of CBC Vancouver and Vancouver Opera orchestral players, in concerts with the choir and on its own in performances of baroque and 20th-century works.

The choir's members come from New Westminster, from towns in the Fraser Valley, and from the US towns of Blaine and Bellingham. On the 25th anniversary of its founding the choir performed Beethoven's Missa solemnis.