Montréal offers a chorus of song for the holiday season

’Tis the season to have your ears sweep you off your feet as many of Montréal’s illustrious choirs and orchestras – offering spirited gospel, pop, classical, jazz and more – bring their holiday A-game to the city’s best venues in the coming weeks.

The award-winning Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir – who closed the Montreal International Jazz Festival this year and have collaborated with artists like Ray Charles, Céline Dion and Barry White – are prepping for the 33^rd instalment of their hugely popular Gospel Celebration Christmas Show. Roof-raising gospel songs and a selection of festive faves are all on tap for what is guaranteed to be an unforgettable celebration of song at Théâtre Maisonneuve, in Place des Arts, December 6. Hallelujah!

The magnificent Saint Joseph’s Oratory – Canada’s largest church, situated on the western slope of Mount Royal – plays host to some 2 million visitors each year, many of whom eagerly anticipate the annual series of Christmas concerts. Again this year, on December 4 (8 pm) and 5 (2:30 and 8 pm), the Basilica of the Oratory will play host to ten renowned artists performing 22 holiday arias in the company of Oratory organist Vincent Boucher musical director/bassist Jacques Roy.

It’s a Wainwright holiday tradition that, every year, the first family of Montréal music shares with their extended city kin. Rufus and Martha Wainwright’s Noël Nights with family and guests takes place December 5 and 6, 7 p.m., at Place des Arts’ Maison Symphonique. This year’s edition of the concert features an all-star cast including Rufus and Martha, folk-singing family members Anna McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, country singer Emmylou Harris, DJ Kid Koala, Québec music legend Robert Charlebois and more. All profits from the concert will be donated to the Kate McGarrigle Fund, which supports research and cancer care at the McGill University Cancer Centre.

And musical merriment via McGill continues with a grand concert holiday tradition courtesy of the McGill Chamber Orchestra, will once again present “the classic of all classics,” meaning, of course, Handel’s Messiah. The concert will feature four international soloists, as well as the Cathedral Singers and Musica Orbium choruses, December 8, 7:30 pm, at Christ Church Cathedral. The historic neo-Gothic church on Ste. Catherine Street is, interestingly, the only church in Canada located above a shopping mall, the Promenades Cathédrale (handy in case you want to combine your concert with some Christmas gift shopping).

Speaking of classical seasonal treats, it doesn’t get any better than catching Montréal’s world renowned Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal performing Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (considered one of Bach’s most accomplished compositions) in majestic, state-of-the-art concert hall Maison Symphonique. Full choruses, as well as solo performances, will figure prominently in these memorable evenings, December 16 and 17 at 8 pm.

And finally, Montréal’s West Island-based Lyric Singers choir celebrate 25 years together with four special performances of their annual holiday concert, this year titled “Candlelight Christmas,” at Concordia University’s Loyola Chapel. The chorus will enter the chapel bathed in candlelight only. “In the evening, it’s breathtaking for both the singers and the audience, a truly magical moment,” say the Singers. An always expansive repertoire of classic seasonal music is to be expected, accompanied by piano, cello, flute, harp, percussion and keyboard, on December 3-4 (8 pm) and 5-6 (4 pm).