Viva Voce choir sings its last concert in Montreal

One of Montreal's best professional choral ensembles gave its last concert on Tuesday night at Bourgie Hall.

Viva Voce closedits 17th season with music by Renaissance rock star and Monteverdi role model, Cipriano De Rore.

Founder and conductor Peter Schubert says he's always looking for enticing ways to program a concert, and anniversaries are sometimes helpful.

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So given this would be the 500th anniversary of Rore's birth, he thought why not investigate the composer.

"Sometimes when you're programming you look around and say, 'Who's birthday is it? Maybe we should do that guy.' So I dug up a bunch of pieces and I thought, 'Wow, this looks really good!'And then we started singing it and it's amazing what a good composer he is."

Schubert is putting an end to the chamber music ensemble that he founded 17 years ago with his wife,Lori.

The pair ran the choir as a labour of love, both working full-time jobs at the same time.

Schubert teaches at McGill'sSchulich School of Music and his wife Lori runs the Quebec Writers' Federation.

Schubert says he wantsto continue creating hisYouTube videos introducing Renaissance musictothe online community. They will, however,keep the choircorporation open particularly to record new works.

Viva Voce was always a big supporter of composers, commissioning and performing a new work every year.

Schubert is also known for his friendly, engaging chats about the music during his concerts. It's an educational role he believes in deeply.

"You know kids in elementary school aren't getting the music they need," he said.

"Everybody should learn to read music at an early age. It's crazy that they don't. So I find that people want to know what's going on up there: why are there basses and sopranos?What are they doing? And how do they affect each other? And what's a chord?The real basic stuff but people want to know. How is that connected to why I'm moved by this music?That's the real mystery, right? So I think it's very important."

I wondered when he realized how much he was moved by music.

"Well that's such a good question. I'll tell you exactly. I think it has to do with high school because I've always had this theory that if you don't fall in love with music in your teens it's going tobe very hard later. And I went to a high school where music was very important.The entire school had to get together and sing madrigals so it just sort of rubbed off on me."