By Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

On November 9, The Burlington Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and the Myriad Ensemble will perform Gustav Holst’s “The Planets” suite at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre (BPAC).

Geoff Tiller, the principal trumpet player for the BSO, has been part of the organization since 2021, initially working as the operations manager until last year.

Tiller talked about his experience with the orchestra.

“It’s great,” Tiller said. “And it’s great to have been a part of the operations experience. I have a great working relationship with the conductor, Denis Mastromonaco, and the current operations manager, Karen. So, it’s a wonderful group of people, some fantastic musicians who really strive for excellence. It’s a great orchestra to be associated with.”

Tiller explained that the final movement of “The Planets,” “Neptune, The Mystic” involves a choir, which is where the Myriad Ensemble comes in.

“Eventually the orchestra dissipates and gives way to an off-stage choir, sounding very ethereal and heavenly,” Tiller said. “It’s an amazing way to end that piece.”

Mastromonaco also chose a piece called “For the Beauty of the Earth” by John Rutter, which will be performed by a smaller group of BSO musicians and the Myriad Ensemble.

The piece shares many themes with “The Planets” according to Tiller, including “creation and the idea of planets.”

Tiller said that BPAC has served as the home of the BSO ever since it opened. He spoke about the importance of an orchestra having a stable place where they can play consistently.

“I’ve been in so many different ensembles that don’t have a home and, some that have a home that are not really all that great, but BPAC and the work that they do when we’re in there is just fantastic,” Tiller said.

Tiller also noted that “The Planets” requires an extra-large orchestra, and that “it will be interesting to see how we all fit on stage.”

Elise Naccarato, the artistic director and founding conductor of the Myriad Ensemble, spoke about why “The Planets” is so often performed by orchestras and choirs.

“It’s one of those iconic works for upper voice choir,” Naccarato explained. “The whole suite ends on this very quiet, ethereal thing where everything sort of dissipates into space and the unknown, and what’s to come in the future. So I think it’s really neat that Holst chose to set that last movement for orchestra and choir and specifically upper voice choir.”

Naccarato started the Myriad Ensemble in 2017 after graduating from McMaster University.

“There wasn’t really a space in Hamilton or the Halton Region for young people to sing,” Naccarato said. “And, I thought, why not give it a try?”

In 2019, Myriad became a more formalized ensemble after performing in a more ad hoc manner in the previous years.

“Myriad is really new in terms of the life of a choir, especially considering that we incorporated in June of 2020,” Naccarato said. “And of course, March of 2020 was the beginning of the pandemic. So we lived most of our organizational life in a pandemic. It’s been a really unique and interesting experience to grow and emerge from that.”

The choir started with six singers and now comprises 60, with the average age of members being 28 to 38 years old.

The Myriad Ensemble previously performed with the BSO in 2018 during a Christmas carol concert in the lobby of BPAC.

This will be their first time performing in BPAC’s main theatre.

“It’s really exciting,” Naccarato said. “It’s nice to be on our home turf. I say that because we’ve performed all around us, but not here in our hometown of Burlington.”

Naccarato explained why the choir will be singing off-stage during the last movement of “The Planets.”

“It’s very typical of this work,” Naccarato said. “Because the choir is meant to be like the stars, they’re sort of ethereal, they generally either perform in the back of a hall or off-stage, somewhere where the idea is that they’re not seen, but only heard. It adds an extra level of challenge for sure, but also it just heightens the whole experience and really makes that last movement all the more whimsical.”

To purchase tickets to the performance, visit https://burlingtonpac.ca/events/bso-the-planets/.