- In the heart of Kingston, a unique musical ensemble is preserving the rich traditions of early music through the voices of its talented corers, using period instruments that faithfully recreate the sound world of past centuries.

- Music at its best allows us to let down and feel things.

And for me, early music, and I think, you know, it may be to do with certain sensitivities I have, but the acoustic nature of it, the richness of the partials in period instruments, like we get power and brilliance in modern instruments and a certain effects from modern orchestras.

Period.

Instruments add a different ki for me, like a, there's a different tonal quality and for whatever reason that just spoke to me right off the bat.

- The narrative aspect of Melos Choir and period instruments concerts is one of its most captivating features by weaving historical, cultural and emotional threads into their programming.

Melos creates concerts that are more than just musical events.

They become windows into the struggles and celebrations of past eras.

So I usually try to have a - Narrative in the light, in the dark concert, the narrative was this sort of idea that this time of year it's the darkening days we're down, we go into this introspective penitential or depressive mode, depending on your view.

And then there's this, you know, as we all know with, with Solstice or Christmas or Yalda or whatever the seasonal turn is, but it's a point to celebrate the return of light.

So, so that was sort of the shape of the program.

So there was a lot of this repertoire that was very like slow and mournful and you know, we did a lot of penitential chant and laments and then we, so we take the audience to like this down point and then we bring in the up and then by the end it's drums and carols and you know, so there's a kind of, there's, you know, a, an emotional rollercoaster.

- Concerts have incorporated themes that connect the east and the west exploring cross-cultural influences through collaborations with musicians from Kingston's newcomer community.

These narratives enrich the audience experience celebrating universal human expression across cultures and times.

- There's been times when you feel like, wow, like what we're doing here is just a electric and the whole cathedral is alive because people can't believe what they're hearing.

We've taken Western music and the eastern musicians are playing with the violins and the harps accord and they're all playing together and we're singing and it's just like, this is, it's, it's something that no nobody's ever heard before or seems, well, I I think it probably rarely happen, but I've never heard it before.

And it's, and it's exciting because it's new for everybody.

Even if the classical players played the piece before, they've never played it this way.

And so there's an, there's an energy and an excitement that comes from that and the audience gets that.

- The organization has expanded their concert narratives from mostly baroque to cover music from the middle ages and from a focus only on western early music to exploring a variety of Eastern traditions playing a key role in ensuring that the choir continues to thrive within the broader community.

- When I came on board with Melos 10 years ago, the budget was about $30,000 a year, and with some focused fundraising, it's now kicking at around a hundred thousand a year.

So in 10 years there's been a 300% growth in the funds.

We did get some funding a couple of years ago, twice actually from the government of Canada because we're such an inclusive organization.

And that's actually largely due to Hawley, the artistic director.

She's very involved in helping newcomers settle and through her church and has been asking them to join.

It's really quite striking that some of the women, say from Iran, who are not allowed to sing in public at all, wind up singing in a concert.

But it's also brought a lot of newcomers who just come to listen to their own music, which is, which we honor in, in, in encouraging them to join and play.

- I feel happy.

I feel I make something in my life.

I make really the baby dream.

He become true and I become, oh my God, I think in my language in Canada and with, with different language.

It's amazing.

It makes something different in this country because you can, when you hear, you can hear Iranian, Arabic, Jewish, German, all the language in the old world that the music he called the soul for inside the people and it's the people he understand the music.

And when I sing my thing in for the peace, really I want all the world - To - Become - Peace.

Whether it's the personal stories of the corers, the carefully curated repertoire, or the advancing of the choir's mission, each performance reflects a deep commitment to the beauty and authenticity of early music.

- I think there's an inner sense that people have that resonates with early music, even though they would not say, I really like early music, but when they hear it, then there's something inside that sort of says yes.

So I think that a lot of the music that we do has the potential to strike people right in the soul.

- For WPBS Weekly, I'm Gail Paquette.