He’s back! The Toronto Symphony Orchestra welcomes the return of Gerald Finley, the Land of Maple’s No. 1 former boy chorister, as a soloist in its annual *Messiah.*

Gerald Finley’s Long Game

At 65, Canada’s star bass-baritone is cruising through another annus mirabilis

By Matthew Gurewitsch

With texts from Scripture and music by Handel at his most inspired, Messiah unfurls revelation after revelation—none more electric than the interplay of the bass and the ecstatic brass soloist in “The trumpet shall sound.” Few singers today dispatch the aria with the panache of Gerald Finley, who performs the oratorio next week with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, from December 16 to 21. Remarkably, he’s been honing his Handel for more than half a century.

Finley went pro at an early age, collecting his first paychecks as a boy chorister at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in Ottawa. His manifest talent, plus a web of fortunate connections, soon carried him to London’s Royal College of Music, where seasonal Messiahs all over the British map were his bread and butter.