Over 18 seasons, the Talisker Players vocal chamber music series created dozens of enchanting and thought-provoking programmes. Combining both the sung and the spoken word, they explored subjects and ideas as diverse as the natural world, nonsense and surrealism, the urban landscape, the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, the wonder and the terror of night – and of course love, in all its many forms.
On this page is a complete library of all our productions, including links to programme notes and audio samples.
2016-17
A Mixture of Madness
"There is no wisdom without a mixture of madness." Aristotle's famous dictum captures both the madness that is part of wisdom, and the wisdom that is part of madness. We explore this connection through the responses of composers and writers from across the centuries.
May 16 & 17, 2017
Land of the Silver Birch
To celebrate 150 years of Confederation, we honour the early explorers and settlers from France and the British Isles. They brought with them a rich treasury of folk songs – and wrote many more about their experiences in their new home. Our programme offers a selection, from both the old world and the new.
March 28 & 29, 2017
'S Wonderful
We've got rhythm! The great song-writing team of brothers George and Ira Gershwin was short-lived, owing to George's tragic early death, but it produced some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century. We sample the best of them.
January 29 & 31, 2017
Songs of Enchantment
Magic is all around us, if we are only open to it. The pathways include allegory, fairy tales, and the insights of visionaries and poets. We explore all of them, in words and music from across the ages.
October 25 & 26, 2016
2015-2016
Cross'd By Stars
From Tristan and Isolde, to Romeo and Juliet, to Catherine and Heathcliffe, we are captivated by stories of star-crossed lovers – soulmates who are fated to be torn apart.
May 3 & 4, 2016
Spirit Dreaming
What begins as a search for exoticism can end by opening new paths of understanding.
March 1 & 2, 2016
High Standards
We sample some of the great favourites from the American songbook.
January 10 & 12, 2016
Renovated Rhymes
Strictly for adults - but only those who can see the lighter side of life.
October 27 & 28, 2015
2014-2015
Heroes, Gods & Mortals
Encounters with Olympian gods and goddesses, in various guises
May 12 & 13, 2015
On a Darkling Plain
Songs of hope and longing, despair and redemption, and the quest for meaning
March 10 & 11, 2015
Puttin' on the Ritz
The Irving Berlin songbook
January 11 & 13, 2015
Songs of Travel
Reflections on travel, movement, departures, arrivals, and wanderlust
October 28 & 29, 2014
2013-2014
A Poet's Love
The romantic imagination
May 27 & 28, 2014
Creature to Creature
A 21st-century bestiary
March 16 & 18, 2014
Anything Goes
The Cole Porter songbook
January 12 & 14, 2014
City of the Mind
The beauty and the madness of cities
October 29 & 30, 2013
2012-2013
On The Wing
The magic and the mystery of birds.
&Wednesday May 8, 2013 • 8pm.
Time and Tide
History, memory and the meaning of lives lived.
Tuesday March 5 & Wednesday March 6, 2013 • 8pm
Mad Dogs & Englishmen
The Noël Coward songbook.
Sunday, January 13, 2013 • 3pm.
The Constant Lover
Affairs of the heart, in words and music.
Tuesday October 30 & Thursday, November 1, 2012 • 8pm
2011-2012
Muse of Fire
He was not of an age but for all time. William Shakespeare in words and music.
April 17, 18, 2012
Starry Night
The wonder and the terror of night, of sleep and dreams.
January 31, February 1, 2012
Rumours of Peace
Reflections on the cost of human conflict and the hope for lasting peace.
November 15, 16, 2011
2010-2011
Façade
The sounds and rhythms of words at play.
May 3, 4, 2011
Love Letters
An unabashed celebration of love, in all its many forms.
February 1, 2, 2011
Intimations of Heaven
The revolutionary rhythms and imagery of American poetry.
November 2, 3, 2010
2009-2010
Illuminations
A window on the world of mystics, visionaries and seers.
May 11, 12, 2010
To the Sea in Ships
Tales of sailors, adventurers and fishers the world over.
February 9, 10, 2010
The Plain Sense of Things
The revolutionary rhythms and imagery of American poetry.
October 27, 28, 2009
2008-2009
Carmina Nova
Ballads, legends and folk songs from ancient times, heard through modern ears.
May 5, 6, 2009
When We Were Young
Stories, rhymes and word play for the young at heart.
February 10, 11, 2009
The Lost Generation
Evocations of a world that vanished in the devastation of the First World War.
November 11, 12, 2008
2007-2008
The Voyage Out
Journeys of exploration - of the world, and of the soul.
May 27, 28, 2008
Perfect Propriety
The manners and mores of relationships in the urban age.
February 26, 27, 2008
The Harp of Fire
The wisdom and the passion of Rabindranath Tagore.
November 20, 21, 2007
2006-2007
Tyger, Tyger
A journey through the mystical, marvellous world of William Blake.
May 29, 30, 2007
True North
A celebration of Canada through its poets, painters and composers
February 27, 28, 2007
Night songs
Of sleep and dreams ... exploring the wonder and terror of the night.
October 31, November 1, 2006
2005-2006
an die musik
An evening of great Lieder, set amidst a rich variety of instrumental colours.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
vox humana
An exploration of the human voice as a pure instrument among equals.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
rumours of peace
Accounts of the cost of human conflict, and the hope for lasting peace.
Wednesday, November 9, 2005
2004-2005
L'amour et la vie
Love and life as only the French can write about them.
Wedesday, June 1, 2005
Reflections of Eden
An exploration of the natural world, and our place in it.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
A Medieval Tapestry
Enchanting tales of olden times, heard through modern ears.
Wednesday, November 3, 2004
2003-2004
Let Evening Come
A meditation on lives lived by people both great and ordinary.
Wednesday, June 2, 2004
Sense & Nonsense
A cure for the February blues: an off-centre look at the world through nonsense poems and tall tales.
Monday, February 23, 2004
Spirit Dreaming
A programme inspired by the stories of indigenous peoples from cultures around the world.
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
2002-2003
Canti Amori
Flirtation, seduction, infatuation... this is a program to enchant even the most cynical, with settings of poetry by the lovestruck down through the ages.
Tuesday June 3, 2003
Chants des Voyageurs
The early settlers and explorers from France and the British Isles brought to Canada a rich treasury of folk songs, which have inspired composers on both sides of the Atlantic.
Monday, February 10, 2003
Songs of the Soul
Mystics and visionaries of many faiths have sought to give voice to the experience of ecstatic connection with the divine. "Where words leave off, music begins..."
Tuesday, November 5, 2002