October 27, 2025

CELLAR SINGERS DO WHAT AI HASN’T DONE YET — PUT BRILLIANT FINISHING TOUCH ON MOZART’S REQUIEM

ORILLIA — Could AI have completed Mozart’s unfinished deathbed Requiem?

Will we ever know?

When Wolfgang Amadeus died in 1791 he was about half the average — or median — age of the Cellar Singers and their devoted audience who heard the renowned local choir perform them both beautifully yesterday afternoon at St. James’ Anglican Church along with his Solemn Vespers for a Confessor written when he was just 23.

Under the masterful direction of Mitchell Pady, who coaxed every nuanced syllable out of the 40 central Ontario choristers, their four soloists, accompanist Ernesto De Luca and himself, he presented a pleasing if long concert that wouldn’t have been out of place in the concert halls of Paris and salons of Salzburg more than 200 years ago.

“You just can’t sing this everywhere. It’s hard to find,” said Stan Hunter who sang bass. “It’s a lot for people to sit through — but they do.

“We do all these major choral works. It’s just a real opportunity. It’s such a real privilege. It’s just a gas. I just love it,” said Hunter who has sung with the group for years. “We’re all pretty good.”

Eric Daly, a tenor singer, added “the truth is when we’re singing Latin we’re not quite sure.”

He said Pady “works us hard, but it’ very pleasant and always gets the best out of us.”

**Muskoka singers Stan Hunter and Eric Daly smile after another stunning Cellar Singers concert Sunday in Orillia at St. James Anglican Church. PHOTOS Mark Clairmont MuskokaTODAY.com**

It showed in an even performance that seldom bent his baton save for some thunder reserved for the Requiem.

But otherwise the Cellar Singers were very alive, if pleasantly reserved, allowing the soloists soprano Amy Dodington (originally from Port Carling), alto Lynn Featherstone, tenor Andrew Wolf and baritone Paul Winkelmans to sound brilliantly centre stage numerous of times.

**Artistic director Mitchell Pady, centre, is flanked by his soloists Paul Winkelmans, left, Andrew Wolf, Lynn Featherstone and Amy Dodington.**

After the lighter, shorter introductory fare of the Vespers (1780), Pady shared a little of the back story of Requiem, while noting at least one inconsistency in Mozart’s Amadeus adaptation. “A lovely movie,” he said receiving laughter from his informed audience. “It’s not a bio-pic.”

Written the year of Mozart’s death when he also amazingly composed his final two operas including The Magic Flute, Requiem was an unfinished work as of Dec. 5, 1791.

In fact one section of it, ‘Lacrimosa,’ “had only eight bars of it finished. He had the rest of it in his head and he would go back and finish later.”

Requiem — a commissioned piece Mozart eventually thought he was composing about himself —was completed by his pupil Franz Xaver Sussmayr, before being belatedly revealed as part of a fraud by Mozart’s wife Constanze to receive payment for the full forged score.

Prompting Pady to ponder aloud: “Could it have looked and sounded different now had Mozart finished it?”

Unlikely, the conductor concluded not alone.

Thus back to the supposition in this story lede about AI.

So it’s been up to Pady and others to put their own stamp or interpretation on the work since evoking nuances that enrich the piece though its phonetics.

**The 40-member choir, including soprano Rebecca Campbell, left, and pianist Ernesto De Luca, rose to the Latin challenge articulating a tempo two pieces challenging for even the seasoned choristers.**

Rebecca Campbell, has sung with the choir for nine years since Requiem was last performed by the Cellar Singers.

“I rehearsed, but I was sick and couldn’t do the concert,” she said later Sunday.

Describing the difficulty of both pieces, she said: “Once you’ve sung with a choir like this for awhile you know the standard Latin for the mass and for the Requiem.

“But what was really challenging for this concert was the Vespers. It’s a series of songs in Latin and the challenge was learning those songs well enough that we could sing it at the tempo that we had to. Because there are a lot of words to get in. The pronunciation is very important. (Pady) drills us exactly how the vowels should be and how we should sing it and how it should sound.”

The soprano section singer, retired doctor and Orillia resident, said the Evening Prayer resonates with her personally as a St. James’ congregant and altar guild member.

“It’s about reaching out to God and also stating the belief system.

“The music is very powerful.”

**St. James echoed in the grandiose and majesty of the afternoon Vespers and reverberating Requiem.**

Campbell said her father was a musician, she listens to classical music, played piano all the way through high school and has sung in choirs since.

The choir rehearses Wednesdays and typically works on concerts for six to eight weeks.

“This kind of music you can’t just come for rehearsals unprepared. You can’t possiby learn this music and then perform. It takes several hours a week of preparation. Everyone in this choir reads music quite well.

“It’s a demanding choir, but it’s also so rewarding to be part of something that is producing this kind of quality music. And also to have the connections that Mitchell has to bring in the soloists (paid) of such of top notch professional quality.

“We’re also really grateful to have such a great audience like this that is buying tickets and that we’re still important to people.”