A Gathering under the Dome

By Peter Coffman

Music and architecture go together like pasta and wine. The pairing is at its best when the music is composed for a specific type of space – like Gregorian chant beneath a Gothic vault, or a Bach mass in a Baroque church.

There is music that was composed for the lost, lamented St. Anne’s Church in Toronto. And we’re bringing it to Ottawa – to the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre – to be heard as intended, in a historic, sonorous Canadian church beneath a Byzantine dome. The performance will be on the evening of September 29^th. It will be free to the public, and you’re invited.

The Music

When the COVID-19 lockdown was at its darkest, violinist/composer Anne Lindsay sought solace in music. Since she couldn’t perform with others, she isolated herself inside one of the most beautiful and acoustically luminous spaces Toronto could offer: St. Anne’s Church. St. Anne’s was renowned for its beautiful Byzantine architecture, artworks by some of the most important Canadian artists of the 20^th century, and superb acoustics. Ensconced beneath its comforting dome, Anne recorded a suite of pieces that she turned into an album called Soloworks 2.

Soloworks 2 is a radiant duet between violin (or occasionally nyckelharpa) and building. By the time it was released in the spring of 2025, the building was gone forever. St. Anne’s was destroyed in a fire on June 9^th, 2024. Anne Lindsay’s recording turned out to be our last chance to hear its voice.

Renewal

The music of Soloworks 2 was, literally, made for St. Anne’s. But no audience ever heard it performed there, and none ever will. That’s where the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre (CDCC) comes in.

Originally called Chalmers Presbyterian Church (and later re-named Dominion-Chalmers United Church), the CDCC was built in 1914. In many ways it was an Ottawa doppelgänger of St. Anne’s – a transcendent space beneath a Byzantine dome, renowned for its beauty and outstanding acoustics. As the building entered its second century, a dwindling congregation struggled to keep it viable. Then, in 2018, the building was purchased by Carleton University and reborn with renewed purpose as an arts, performance and learning centre.

The Event

On September 29^th, Anne Lindsay will perform music from Soloworks 2 in Ottawa at the CDCC. This will bring the music full circle, into a beautiful historic building beneath a noble Byzantine dome. It will be the performance that no one got to hear at St. Anne’s. This time, we’re making sure as many people as possible get to hear it. Anne’s performance is open to the public, free of charge.

This event will serve to welcome our new and returning students to Carleton’s School for Studies in Art and Culture (SSAC), and also introduce ourselves to a wider public. We’ll take the opportunity to open a bit of a window into what we do in SSAC. The evening will open with a few words about the architecture of St. Anne’s and the CDCC (by yours truly), the intertwining of Canadian visual arts and architecture (by Prof. Brian Foss), and architectural acoustics (by Prof. James Wright). Having set the stage, we’ll then cede it to Anne Lindsay.

There’s no silver lining to the loss of St. Anne’s. But thanks to Anne Lindsay and the CDCC, its story need not end.

Links

Hear some tracks from Anne Lindsay’s Soloworks 2 album

Listen to my podcast with Anne Lindsay about the recording of Soloworks 2 in St. Anne’s Church

Read my blog about the loss of St. Anne’s Church, written just hours after the fire

Two days after the fire, I discussed the loss of St. Anne’s on CBC Radio with Giacomo Panico

Learn more about the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre

Peter Coffman, History & Theory of Architecture program
peter.coffman@carleton.ca
@petercoffman.bsky.social