One night only, on Saturday, November 22, 2025 – Soundstreams opens its 2025-26 season with the concert Mass for the Endangered. Featuring choral, instrumental and orchestral works, it’s a deeply moving reflection on our responsibility, relationship and connectivity to the planet and its creatures. On at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre.
A celebration. An elegy. A plea to protect our natural world.
Sarah Kirkland Snider has been hailed by National Public Radio as “one of today’s most compelling composers for the human voice.” Her Mass for the Endangered is a poignant choral meditation, celebration and elegy for the fragility of our natural world a celebration for the natural world. Blending Nathaniel Bellows’ evocative poetry with the traditional Latin Mass, this work is a plea for compassion and stewardship in the face of environmental crisis.
Mass for the Endangered will be performed by celebrated musicians Louise Bessette (piano), Judy Loman (harp) and Erika Raum (violin), with Soundstreams Choir 21 and Ensemble Soundstreams, conducted by David Fallis.
This performance is presented in association with FLAP Canada, a registered Canadian charity widely recognized as the pre-eminent authority on the bird-building collision issue.
About the concert program
The first half of the concert features several pieces from Olivier Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux (L’alouette calandrelle, Le traquet rieur, Le courlis cendré); R. Murray Schafer’s virtuosic Wild Bird for violin and harp (originally premiered by this night’s performing harpist, Judy Loman); Andrew Balfour’s Gaze Upon the Trees; the Canadian premiere of Let them not say by Chris Hutchings; and Veni Creator Spiritus by Arvo Pärt.
The concert concludes with a performance of Mass for the Endangered by Sarah Kirkland Snider.
About Sarah Kirkland Snider
American composer Sarah Kirkland Snider writes music of direct expression and dramatic narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (The New York Times), “groundbreaking” (The Boston Globe) and “ravishingly beautiful” (NPR). With an attention to detail that is “as intricate and exquisite as a spider’s web” (BBC Music Magazine), Snider’s music synthesizes diverse influences to render a nuanced command of immersive storytelling. Her works have been commissioned and/or performed by numerous orchestras in concert halls around the world. Mass for the Endangered, was commissioned in 2018 and has been programmed by dozens of choirs the world over. Read more about her and her work here.
About Nathaniel Bellows
Nathaniel Bellows is an American writer, visual artist and singer/songwriter based in New York City. He is the author of two novels – On This Day (HarperCollins) and Nan: A Novel in Stories (Harmon Blunt Publishers) – and a collection of poetry, Why Speak? (W.W. Norton). His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Paris Review, among many other magazines, periodicals and websites. He has performed his music in the U.S. and abroad.
About Soundstreams
Founded in 1982, Soundstreams is a global leader in the presentation of innovative, carefully curated and immersive musical experiences. It is committed to showcasing the work of living Canadian and global composers/musicians, bringing to focus contemporary conversations to its communities. Since its inception, it’s introduced audiences to works from some of the finest and most groundbreaking composers of our age, from R. Murray Schafer to Nicole Lizée.
“Expressive, evocative, and personal, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s music explores emotional landscapes through vivid, compelling narratives in a unique sound world that she has made identifiably her own – familiar, yet at the same time strange and unsettling.”
— Gramophone
(Photo credits: Soundstreams. Sarah Kirkland Snider.)
Event details
Presented by: Soundstreams
Type of event: classical music concert
Conductor: David Fallis
Performers: Louise Bessette (piano), Judy Loman (harp) & Erika Raum (violin), with Soundstreams Choir 21 & Ensemble Soundstreams
Performed works and their composers:
- Selections from Catalogue d’oiseaux: L’alouette calandrelle, Le traquet rieur & Le courlis cendré by Olivier Messiaen
- Wild Bird by R. Murray Schafer
- Gaze Upon the Trees by Andrew Balfour
- Let them not say by Chris Hutchings
- Veni Creator Spiritus by Arvo Pärt
- Mass for the Endangered by Sarah Kirkland Snider, with poetry by Nathaniel Bellows
Date: Saturday, November 22, 2025
Start time: 7:30 PM ET
Duration: 2 hours (including intermission)
Cost: All ticket prices include taxes & fees.
- Regular: C$33.25, $61.50 & $89.75
- Students, frontline workers & artists: C$22.60
Location: Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON, M5S 1X7
Booking link: Book your tickets here.
Contact Details: Soundstreams, 20 St. Joseph Street, Toronto, ON, M4Y 1J9, Canada; Event box office: (416) 408-0208; info@soundstreams.ca, soundstreams.ca
Content warning: Not recommended for very young children.
Accessibility: Accessible venue. Conveniently located near Spadina subway station in downtown Toronto. All main floor rooms and washrooms are wheelchair-accessible via an entry ramp. For accessible seating requirements, log into your Royal Conservatory account or contact the Ticketing Office at (416) 408-0208 for more information.
Refund policy: Please contact the Ticketing Office at (416) 408-0208.