There are a great variety of musical events that happen at the club. Check out our latest promotional materials on the right, as well as an overview of the different concerts at the Heliconian Club below.

The Heliconian Club Concert Series

The 2012-2013 concert series features chamber performers, diverse programs, and collaborations with artists, actors and guest performers. Works of art that will be showing in the hall at our concerts are also featured in the brochure.

Debussy: Tonal Painter
Friday, September 28, 2012 at 8pm

“I have decided to create a work in a very special colour which will give rise to as many sensations as possible.” Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

A celebration of Debussy’s 150th birthday, our opening concert features Jane Blackstone, Lenore Beatty, Margaret Lam and Jacqueline Leung who will perform a selection of his piano works; sopranos Barbara Fris and Janet Catherine Dea will perform the “Ariettes oubliées” (Forgotten Songs) and “Proses lyriques”; and guest artist Natalie Wong will perform Debussy’s final work, “Sonata for Violin and Piano.” This concert is narrated by Peggy Mahon, actress, jazz singer, producer, and teacher, and will also feature new art by Simone Creed comissioned specifically for this concert.

Tickets for Debussy concert and subscriptions available here:

Ensemble Vivant
friday, October 26, 2012 at 8pm

A pioneer among classical piano trios, the celebrated group Ensemble Vivant, hailed as “Canada’s Chamber Music Treasure” (Toronto Star), has been dazzling audiences world wide with their exciting, soulful interpretations and their innovative, unique genre diverse programming, both in concert and on their recordings, since the late1980s. The group has received accolades internationally in both the classical and jazz worlds. The core of Ensemble Vivant is Catherine Wilson, piano/artistic director, Erica Beston, violin and Sybil Herceg-Shanahan, cello.

“Catherine Wilson is one of Canada’s most interesting and innovative pianists… no matter the genre, there is magic in her music making”. Rick Wilkins, C.M., musician, composer, arranger

Devotion and Seduction
Friday, February 22, 2013 at 8pm

Join three of our Heliconians, Janet Catherine Dea, Joyce Lai, and Jacqueline Leung in their debut joint recital as a trio of soprano, violin and piano. The three musicians will also be joined by members of the Croydon String Quartet (Andrew Ogilvie, violin, Ian Clarke, viola and Helena Likwornik, cello) to perform music that speaks of love, be it through devotion or seduction! Janet Catherine Dea enjoys a varied career nationally and internationally as a soloist with opera companies, orchestras and in recital. Canadian violinist Joyce Lai (Concertmaster of the Canadian Sinfonietta) enjoys a rich career as a soloist and chamber musician. Toronto pianist Jacqueline Leung shines both as soloist and collaborator

Love: it’s a quiet thing
Friday, April 19, 2013 at 8pm

This concert is a musical journey through music from Broadway that highlight the contradictions and ironies of love. The program includes works by John Kander and Fred Ebb (“It’s a Quiet Thing”), Leonard Bernstein (“We Are Women”), Andrew Lloyd Webber (“Music of the Night”), Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein (“All the Things You Are”) and female Canadian music theatre composer, Leslie Arden (“It Started Out So Well”).
Featuring vocal performances by Janet Catherine Dea, Barbara Fris, Alison Hodsman, and Peggy Mahon who will also be providing stage direction. Guest artists include singer Elizabeth Rose Morris and Emma Vachon-Tweney’s string quartet.

We hope you will show your support by subscribing early. Join us in the historic Heliconian Hall and experience our energy and passion for music and the arts.

The Heliconian Choir and Orchestra

Founded in 2010 as a women’s choir and a chamber ensemble, the HCO is an outreach initiative that strives to create opportunities for women in music, and to strengthen the Club’s community presence. Featuring club members and non-members, the two ensembles perform both timeless classics and new works by Canadian female composers.

Mary Rezza Memorial Student Recital

Former Heliconian Mary Rezza (1930-2000) started the tradition of this annual concert in which the talented students of teaching members of the Music Section are given the opportunity to perform.

Young Artist Recital

A young female artist who is on the verge of a professional career is presented in concert on the stage of Heliconian Hall.

For example, 2008′s artist was Soprano, Deanne Hendriks, student of Music Section member Donna Sherman. She was presented in recital on Saturday, January 19th 2008 at Heliconian Hall with accompanist Jennifer Tung, in a program featuring works by Haydn, Handel, Dowland, Purcell, Milhaud, Rodrigo and others.

Members’ Concerts

The Heliconian Club is fortunate to have a number of musician-members with well established performing careers. Many of them present recitals and chamber music concerts with each other and guests from the broader artistic community  across Canada and internationally. You can learn more about the members of the music section and their concerts on the Members page.