CRMSS Atlantic 2025 Course Description
Repertoire
Back to topCRMSS Atlantic 2025 Theme
At previous CRMSS courses, the repertoire has conformed to a given theme, usually based around a national style or a particular composer. The one exception to this was at our very first CRMSS course, back in 2018. At this course the repertoire was selected to represent as wide a range of styles and composers as possible, and to fit the singers who attended CRMSS 2018.
At CRMSS Atlantic 2025, we will take this approach again with respect to including music from all composers and national styles. Instead of focussing of a certain type of repertoire, will instead gear our efforts toward preparing the music for our nightly Compline services as well as Choral Evensong and Mass at our host, St Peter's Cathedral, in the hearth of Charlottetown PEI.
We will learn movements from a Mass Ordinary setting (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus & Benedictus, and Agnus Dei) as well as some motets that will be appropriate to the time of year.
We will perform music by some of your favourite composers, namely: William Byrd, Tomàs Luis de Victoria, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, and Orlando di Lasso. There were so many great composers writing during the Renaissance all over Europe, and we hope also to include music by Henricus Isaac, Thomas Tallis, Cipriano de Rore, Josquin des Prez, and others.
What types of singing will happen at CRMSS Pacific 2023?
Choral
As mentioned above, a major focus of our weekend together will be singing together as one choir, preparing sacred a capella music from the Renaissance for performance during Evensong and Mass.
Solo
While the majority of our time is spent preparing ensemble music in choral and small group contexts, good solo vocal technique is of course essential for good
singing. This applies to music written in any style and from any time period.
Solo singing and good vocal technique are core parts of any CRMSS course and we will be offering individual and small group vocal technique sessions to all participants who request it. More information will be available about this offering as we get a better idea of who is coming and what we will be able to provide as our staff team gets confirmed.
Participants are enthusiastically encouraged to bring their own solo repertoire, and we suggested works written before 1630.
Consort singing: one and two per part vocal chamber music
Any serious amount of time spent getting to know the music of the Renaissance must include small-ensemble singing. While this music won't be performed at Mass or Evensong, it is nonetheless an important part of the CRMSS experience, and will be included in the weekend's schedule.
It is in these small group settings that we can best explore secular repertoire from the Renaissance, and we will choose relevant secular repertoire to sing in these contexts.
Tutor Team
Back to topThe tutor team for CRMSS Atlantic 2025 has yet to be finalized. As staff members are engaged, this page will be updated.
The following people are confirmed as part of the tutor team at CRMSS Atlantic 2025:
Greg Skidmore, and Sharang Sharma.
Performances
Back to topMass and Evensong at St Peter's Cathedral
The precise nature of our collaboration with the cathedral and its musical team is still being finalized. Singing at these church services will be a major focus for our weekend together. More detail will be posted here as it becomes available.
Daily evening church services
On our three evenings together (Friday the 1st, Saturday the 2nd, and Sunday the 3rd) we will sing a Compline service at the very end of the day. Compline, sung in English, is a simple service and is largely made up of plainsong, with a few simple motets included for contrast. It is designed not as something pressured or necessarily to be worked towards, but rather as a way of bringing our day together to a peaceful close - precisely as the service was designed to do in its original monastic context. These three services will allow us to come together as a course and to experience the daily rhythm of liturgical music making that formed the wider context for most of the music we will be studying, even if only for three days. Given that CRMSS Atlantic 2025 only lasts for one weekend, these three Compline services will have a special meaning for us.
Lectures, Symposia, and Round Table discussions
Back to topDuring the weekend, there will be one session where we don't sing! In the past we have held lectures, lecture recitals, round-table discussions, and guided conversations. More details of this session will be posted here in the coming weeks.
Proposed Schedule
Back to topBelow is an outline of a previous weekend-only course we gave in the Vancouver area in 2023. As our plans are confirmed, this schedule will be updated, but the general shape of things below can give you an idea of what to expect at CRMSS Atlantic 2025.
Cost
Back to top$250
($150 for current students)$250 is our standard rate for a singing participant at CRMSS Atlantic 2025. Anyone who is enrolled in full or part-time education at the time of the course (August 1st to 3rd, 2025), studying any subject, qualifies as a current student.
If you are graduating from a course of study at the end of the 2024-25 academic year, you still qualify for our student rate.
You will need to cover your travel to Charlottetown and your accommodation, if required, during the weekend. While CRMSS doesn't bear these costs, we do try to help as much as we can with your logistics.
Location
Back to topCRMSS Atlantic 2025 will be held at St. Peter's Cathedral in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
The address is: 7 All Souls Lane, Charlottetown, PE C1A 3W8
You can find directions to St. Peter's Cathedral on our contact page.