Peterborough Symphony Orchestra and Peterborough Singers come together for season-ending performances of Haydn’s ‘The Creation’

On the Mother’s Day weekend, you can treat mom and all the mother figures in your life to an extra special and rare concert experience that will see two highly acclaimed local music groups performing a classical and choral masterpiece.

To wrap up both their 2025-26 seasons, the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and the Peterborough Singers are collaborating to present two energizing performances of the English version of Joseph Haydn’s The Creation.

The two groups will be performing in Emmanuel United Church in Peterborough on Saturday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday, May 10 at 3 p.m.

“This will be the third time since I’ve been here that we have done a concert together with the Singers, if I’m not mistaken, and I’m getting up to 25 years now,” says PSO music director and conductor Michael Newnham. “This has been a great year for the PSO and I’m just glad this is the way that we’re going to be closing it off. It’s just so positive.”

The concert presents a full-circle moment for the Peterborough Singers, given that the choral group launched in 1990 as the Peterborough Symphony Singers to accompany the PSO under the direction of Syd Birrell. The Peterborough Singers became its own entity in 1993.

“Being two major arts groups of this type in town, it’s just great to get together and share our music,” says Peterborough Singers business manager Peg McCracken. “Something magical happens when we do that. The music is so exciting. It’s just lovely. The Singers are just trying to imagine what it’ll be like when it comes to life with a full orchestra.”

VIDEO: “The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God” (Haydn) – Peterborough Singers (2025)

Often considered “The Father of the Symphony,” Haydn was inspired by George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah when composing The Creation. The Austrian composer was given a German translation of a libretto about the creation of the world according to the Bible’s book of Genesis and John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost”.

The oratorio was first performed in Vienna in 1798 and The Creation remains what Newnham calls “one of the great pieces of music for choir, orchestra, and soloists together that was ever written.”

“It is so full of positivity — everything about it,” Newnham says. “It is all about something being fresh and new and it reminds us about how incredible life is, how incredible things that live are, and to just stop and enjoy everything. Regardless of what’s going on in the news or in the world, The Creation needs to be heard.”

The oratorio explores three parts, beginning with “Representation of Chaos,” an orchestral prelude that portrays the disorder that preceded the Creation story. The remainder of the first and all of the second part then explore the six days of creation, with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the Fall making up the third part.

Both performances on May 9 and 10 will feature soloists, including a couple of locals who will be both familiar and all new for audiences of the Peterborough Singers.

Baritone Alexander Dobson, soprano Karoline Podolak, and tenor Jacob Abrahamse will portray three archangels who perform solo and then come together to tell the story. Soprano Shannon McCracken and bass William Kraushaar will portray Adam and Eve.

“With all the Singers and soloists, it’s a huge event and right now I think it’s a great way of making a statement in Peterborough that this is how we are getting back to basics,” says Newnham. “It’s getting back to why is music important and why we even bother coming to concerts. It’s not just about escape — it’s about being reminded about how precious things are.”

Though Birrell retired in December following 35 years leading the Peterborough Singers, Newnham explains that The Creation concert came together over many years of the two conductors working together. However, it will be Newnham who will be leading the PSO and the choir of 110 singers for both performances, while Birrell will be in the audience enjoying the music.

“It has been an absolute joy to work with them,” says Newnham of the Peterborough Singers. “There is an approach that I’m looking for from this music, to really emphasize what the words are saying. That’s so important in this, and they (the Singers) have to be audible. But at the same time, there has to be lightness to all of this. It can’t sound heavy — it always has to sound like it’s lighter than air.”

“Classical music when it’s done really well and when it’s so superbly written the way Haydn does, is just the best thing ever for a singer,” McCracken adds.

“It builds and builds, and Michael takes it at a fair speed so it keeps us all on our toes. We just love it. There’s nothing better than this kind of music for us, and Haydn is one of the top composers up there with Bach and Mozart in the choral world.”

The concert is being sponsored by the Church of St. John the Evangelist as part of its bicentennial celebration. As a thank you to them, The Peterborough Singers will be doing an evensong service on June 7 at 4 p.m., conducted by Birrell. The evening will book end last summer’s adventure when 56 Peterborough Singers sang at Durham Cathedral in England.

VIDEO: Excerpt from “The Creation” (Haydn) – London Symphony Orchestra (2022)

Both Mother’s Day weekend concerts will be preceded by a maestro talk at 6:45 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. respectively, where audiences can learn more about the music from Newnham.

“A lot of people in the city know people who are performing and it says a lot about our city, with a size of about 90,000 people, that we can put on something as high calibre as this and as meaningful,” says Newnham. “And we’re not doing it once — we’re doing it twice.”

Tickets for the concerts are $53 and can be purchased at thepso.org/the-creation.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the Peterborough Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-26 season.