About

Musique Royale welcomes listeners for a morning of jazz as guest Peter-Anthony will mesmerize and inspire with an hourlong piano performance on Saturday November 23 at 11 am. With music that is spiritually rooted and reaches up to the divine, he will bring us a series of his own compositions, with other jazz and some creative interpretations of Bach to round out the program. Peter Anthony-Togni’s music ragnes from the ethereally quiet to the explosive outer limits of contemplation. Togni has been heard everywhere from Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall and the Moscow Conservatory, to the Oriental Arts Centre in Shanghai and the Vatican in Rome for His Holiness Pope John Paul II. His music is broadcast regularly in Canada on CBC, as well as internationally, including on the BBC, Classic FM, Deutsche Wella and Radio France. Join us in the intimate setting of Cecilia’s Retreat in Mahone Bay (1199 Oakland Rd, RR2) to hear Peter up close.

About Peter-Anthony Togni

Peter-Anthony’s music is spiritually rooted and contemplative. It ranges from the ethereally quiet to the explosive outer limits of contemplation. Togni has been heard everywhere from Toronto’s Roy Thompson Hall and the Moscow Conservatory, to the Oriental Arts Centre in Shanghai and the Vatican in Rome for His Holiness Pope John Paul II. His music is broadcast regularly in Canada on CBC, as well as internationally, including on the BBC, Classic FM, Deutsche Wella and Radio France.

Togni’s works have been released on XXI Records, CBC Records, Hänssler Classics, and Warner Classics UK. In 2010 his Lamentatio Jeremiah Prophetae, a concerto for bass clarinet and choir, was recorded by bass clarinettist Jeff Reilly and the and released on the ECM label, produced by Manfred Eicher. In 2013 Peter-Anthony’s latest solo CD was released. The Sanctuary Trio’s newest CD came out in the Fall of 2015, along with a recording of on ATMA Classique. Hymns of Heaven and Earth, a disc of entirely Togni music was released by Centrediscs in 2016, and in July 2020 released Sea Dreams, another entirely Togni disc, on distributed by Naxos. In 2021 , Peter-Anthony’s duo with bass clarinettist Jeff Reilly, released their debut recording of original music Lost and Found, which was nominated for two ECMA awards; their most recent album Passages came out in October 2024.

In 2006, Togni’s Illuminations (a concerto for bass clarinet and string orchestra) was nominated for a Juno award in the category Classical Composition of the Year. 2011 brought two nominations for Peter-Anthony’s , for an East Coast Music Award in the Classical Music category, and for a Juno award in the category Classical Composition of the Year. The work was also a finalist in 2010 for the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award, celebrating outstanding works of contemporary art that inspire and promote the development of artistic endeavour in Nova Scotia. In 2012, Togni’s , the result of a project with the Latvian Youth Choir BALSIS, was published by Musica Baltica, and was premiered in Canada by . Also in 2012, Peter-Anthony was the recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.

The project for bass clarinettist Jeff Reilly and vocal quartet premiered in July of 2013 and the recording was released in 2015 on . The work is the grand prize winner for the 2014 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award. Responsio was also nominated for a for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral Performance. , a work for percussionist Jerry Granelli and choir premiered in Bolder Colorado in 2014, with its Canadian premiere in March 2015 with the Elmer Iseler Singers in Toronto. In 2016 Peter’s opera , based on the libretto of Sharon Singer and in collaboration with Opera in Concert, premiered to critical acclaim in Toronto.

Sea Dreams premiered in Calgary in February of 2018 with and flutists Sara Hahn-Scinocco and Sara Geick; the work is part of their CD released in 2020 which was nominated for a Juno award in the category Best Classical Recording Vocal or Choral. Sea Dreams is the winner of the 2021 for Classical Composition of the Year. Togni’s Living Flame of Love premiered in 2019 with Edmonton’s and accordionist Joseph Petric, and two commissions for the RCCO premiered during the RCCO’s July 2019 National Competition. 2020 brings the work Magnificat for the

Togni’s Voice of the Weaver is a composition commissioned by Jeff Reilly for bass clarinet and choir, with texts by Mi’kmaq poet Mary Louise Martin, and which premiered in 2022 with the . This work will be performed at the 2025 Scotia Festival and at the Millbrook First Nations, featuring Jeff Reilly and The Elora Singers, with a commercial recording to follow. HIs newest endeavour is The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, premiering in November 2024 in Toronto with the and The Elora Singers in joint concert.

Peter-Anthony is also a pianist, improviser and organist. He has given many solo recitals across Canada and in Europe. He also worked extensively in Canada as a church musician. In July of 2015, Peter-Anthony took part in the 53rdMagadino International Organ Festival in Switzerland, which was co-founded by his late father, Victor Togni. He has also worked extensively in Canada as a church musician. He was music director at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Calgary, an organist at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto and organist and choir master at St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica in Halifax. He was the organist in the internationally acclaimed trio Sanctuary alongside bass clarinettist Jeff Reilly and cellist Christoph Both. Sanctuary, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, formed in 1999 and performed across Canada and around the world, at venues such as St. John’s, Smith Square in London, Saint- Séverin in Paris and the Dom Cathedral in Riga, Latvia. In 2008 they were the first Canadians since Glenn Gould to play at Philharmonic Hall, in St. Petersburg Russia. They have also made several recordings including their acclaimed CD The heart has its reasons for Warner Classics UK. The , a jazz ensemble with drummer Malcolm Gould and bassist George Koller, performs throughout Canada and the United States, and has two released recordings. Peter-Anthony also collaborates with artists such as jazz saxophonist Mike Murley and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler. He is currently half of the duo with bass clarinetist Jeff Reilly and the duo recently perform with cellist, composer and improviser India Gailey, and he tours his solo piano works.

Peter-Anthony was born in Pembroke, Ontario in 1959. He spent his early years in Toronto where he attended St. Michael’s Choir School. He later went on to study at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, studying organ with Frederick Geoghegan and composition with Stephen Chatman. He furthered his studies in organ and improvisation in Paris France with the great French organist Jean Langlais. Togni also studied composition with Allain Gaussin at the in Paris where he was awarded first prize in composition.

For over twenty years, Peter-Anthony was also a broadcaster, hosting radio programs for CBC Radio 2, including That Time of the Night, the award-winning Stereo Morning, Weekender and Choral Concert. Peter-Anthony teaches at Acadia University’s School of Music in Wolfville, and is the organist and choir director at St. Benedict Parish. He currently resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia.