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The Very Beginning
Andrew McAnerney comes by his love of early music, particularly choral repertoire, honestly. It’s a love affair that began quite early in the tenor-turned-conductor’s life. As a boy in school, he “loved singing, all the time. Someone heard my voice, and suggested I join the cathedral choir.” It was then, at just “7 or 8 years old,” that he was first exposed to the British choral tradition.
In the spectacular Gloucester Cathedral, McAnerney was performing “beautiful music with amazing musicians, five or six times a week.” From singing service music to preparing choral masterworks for festivals and the like, he delighted in it all. Since then, the goal has been simply, he says, “to bring that experience to as many people as possible.”
McAnerney studied music at the University of Oxford’s Magdalen College, under Dr. David Skinner. He describes the thrill of being surrounded by “all kinds of experts.” At that time “my eyes opened,” he says. “I realized that what I really loved was a cappella music, voices. There was no shortage to work on that sort of music at Oxford.”
There were adventures to be had in this sort of repertoire. Together with Skinner, for instance, he got to work on some of the unpublished music by William Byrd. He sang and he conducted, immersing himself fully in the world of early vocal repertoire.
A Singer’s Conductor
After school, McAnerney got to work as a singer, based in London. His highly successful career as a tenor has seen involvement with some of the best vocal ensembles in Europe. He has sung on nearly 100 recordings, and has worked extensively with the esteemed Tallis Scholars, led by British conductor and musicologist, Peter Phillips. He describes this as “the pinnacle” of his career as a tenor. While in London, he studied conducting with Paul Brough, who was on faculty at the Royal Academy of Music from 2004 to 2016.
Andrew McAnerney, photo by Tam Photography
It goes without saying that McAnerney’s experience as a singer has informed his approach as a conductor. For instance, he admits that when conducting, he is “singing all the vocal lines in my head.” What’s more, he notes that as a chorister, he has always sung best when the conductor gets out of the way—working with a conductor who “knows where the line is, and is attentive to it. Pieces are in need of breathing space, to let those lines emerge.”
He goes on to stress that clarity is paramount. Finally, vocal music is “all about the words. It is so important to think about the text.” This perspective on conducting ensemble singing has been shaped by McAnerney’s time on the other side of the podium.
The Loss of Christopher Jackson
McAnerney started fresh when he moved to Canada. Previously, “all my work had been in Europe. The question became: What to do?” He spoke to his former Tallis Scholars colleague Peter Phillips, who knew and had a relationship with the late Christopher Jackson, co-founder and then-conductor of the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal (SMAM). “When I found out that SMAM existed,” says McAnerney, “it was something that gave me a lot of hope.”
Christopher Jackson had been a leading force in the birth of Montreal’s early music scene, in the early 1970s. Beyond his role in founding SMAM, and his work as a conductor, Jackson was an organist, harpsichordist, and a teacher. He conducted extensively in Europe and in North America, and was the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Concordia University, in Montreal. Jackson tragically lost his life in 2015, of complications from lung cancer. He was 67. The loss of Christopher Jackson was sudden, and represented a devastating blow to the Montreal classical- music community.
SMAM in 1994, with Christopher Jackson
It was during Jackson’s illness that McAnerney first made his acquaintance. Due to the state of his health, Jackson found himself in need of a conductor who was able to take over a project: the preparation and performance of Antoine Brumel’s Missa Et ecce terrae motus (The Earthquake Mass). McAnerney was the man for the job; he had the experience, he knew the work, and came on Phillips’s recommendation.
“Christopher Jackson’s death was a massive blow to everybody; he was loved and adored,” says McAnerney. “He had led the organization masterfully, inspiring generations of singers and audiences.” Moving forward after a loss like that was a “massive challenge for the organization,” but the spirit in which SMAM forged ahead was a real testament to “the organization that Chris created, and the loyalty of both the musicians and the audiences.”
Standout Moments
Since being appointed Artistic Director in 2015, McAnerney has enjoyed a highly successful near-10 seasons of concerts and recording projects with the organization. “We are a Montreal-based group, made up of Montreal singers and Montreal instrumentalists.” This is important, he says. He emphasizes his pride in the way that SMAM has continued to exist as a “celebration of vocal and instrumental talent in the city.”
It was with this enthusiasm for their roots that McAnerney took the group overseas in 2018. This stands out to him as a highlight of his time with the group. Together, they made their U.K. debut with works from New France. Performance highlights included a live broadcast on BBC Radio, and a concert in St John’s Smith Square, London. “We were so unknown outside of Quebec,” McAnerney points out—which comes as a surprise, given the consistently top quality of their performances.
Photo by Annie Ethier
That year also saw the first iteration of the group’s Concerts-intimes series. Conceived as a “celebration of the talent and individual creativity within the choir,” these concerts are proposed and programmed by the members. “Anyone can submit a project,” McAnerney explains. “We select four, and they are programmed as part of our season.” This year’s intimate concerts are all either a recreation of earlier SMAM concerts or a celebration of the organization’s founding members.
50 Years of SMAM
This year, SMAM celebrates its 50th birthday. “We are one of North America’s oldest early- music groups, still going,” McAnerney points out with pride. The festivities will be plentiful, with something for everyone.
The season will open with a bombastic performance of coronation music, presented in collaboration with Arion Baroque Orchestra at the Maison Symphonique. Works by Handel, Byrd, Weelkes, and Boyce will be conducted by both McAnerney and Arion conductor, Mathieu Lussier. Collaborating with Arion feels very natural, says McAnerney. “SMAM was originally both a choir and an orchestra; we only became a dedicated choir in 1988. Arion is, in some ways, a long-lost sibling.”
Collaborations like these are very healthy, he says. They allow the two organizations to “cross-pollinate, to share resources, to present new repertoire to audiences, to offer large-scale performances, and to encourage a spirit of experimentation. Everyone gets the opportunity to shine.” Over the years, SMAM has collaborated with numerous organizations, including Ensemble Caprice and the Elora Festival Singers.
The second concert of the season will run through the “best bits” of SMAM’s a cappella recordings from over the years. The program will conclude with Maurice-Gaston Du Berger’s Nutshimit, which is based on an unpublished text in Innu-aumun by poet Joséphine Bacon, commissioned by Du Berger. Nutshimit explores our “relationship with the natural world,” says McAnerney. “When we first performed it, it left people a bit stunned.” The project, which was supported by a CALQ creation grant, is part of SMAM’s goal to “reflect the diversity of the city in which we live and work.”
McAnerney also looks forward to enjoying the work of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, not from the podium but, instead, as a listener. Harpsichordist and conductor Rona Nadler will lead the ensemble in their interpretation of the Benedictine nuns’ Vespers for the Blessed Virgin Mary, published in 1650. The concert will serve as a celebration of this underperformed work, as well as an occasion to acknowledge Nadler’s huge contribution to early music in Montreal.
The Monteverdi Vespers are sure to be a highlight of the season. McAnerney recalls that when he started at university, his first course was on Renaissance music. “Of the eight weeks of the course, four were devoted to studying the Vespers.” This pillar of the repertoire is something of a “party piece” for SMAM. The group first presented the Vespers in 1978—one of its first performances in North America—and they’ve since sung it numerous times, including thrice at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. They will not be “cutting any corners with this indulgent concert,” which will conclude their 50th anniversary season.
A Cornerstone of Montreal’s Early Music Scene
SMAM owes a great deal to the city in which it was founded. “Montreal has a tremendous energy,” says McAnerney. “It’s a livable, very European city. There are lots of universities with talented young musicians; we have many resources available to us here, including academics, musicians, instrument makers. This makes it possible to do really creative and innovative things with early music.”
These qualities pair well with the very things that McAnerney so adores about the repertoire to which he has devoted his life: the creative possibilities contained within the many-centuries-old scores. “If I take a Palestrina score, it doesn’t have the level of detail a Chopin score would, for example.” McAnerney sees this as an opportunity. “It’s less prescriptive, you can be very creative, there are so many possibilities.”
The Next Fifty Years
It’s this sense of ingenuity and potential that will sustain SMAM for years to come. “All organizations have to move on, to develop and change,” he notes, even those that have years of success behind them. SMAM looks to a future that places an emphasis on diversity and environmental awareness, for example, which “reflects the city we live and work in. Early music,” McAnerney says, “can dissolve the barrier of time,” creating a sense of connection between the contemporary world, and “a world that is gone, to lives that were lived.” He believes this to be quite powerful, adding: “Early music is sometimes seen as very niche; this is one thing that we have to work against.”
In his work with SMAM, McAnerney aims to program concerts that “are more than just the music. An early-music concert can provide truly life-altering acoustic experiences.” McAnerney is determined to continue pushing beyond that which is expected of an early-music ensemble. He hopes that Montreal audiences, so vital to the success of the choir, “are proud of the work SMAM is doing—that they are proud of the fabulous early-music community in this city.”
Beyond his role with SMAM, McAnerney is also the Artistic Director of the Cantata Singers of Ottawa, and the Director of the Choir of Men and Boys at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa. He appears regularly with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Arion Baroque Orchestra, and the Elora Singers.
www.andrewmcanerney.comThe Studio de ancienne de Montréal opens its 50th anniversary season with Royal Splendours on Oct. 12, presented in collaboration with Arion Baroque Orchestra. www.smamontreal.ca
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