Founded in 1984 by Music Director David Cameron as an ensemble of sixteen singers, Melos expanded in 2000 to become The Melos Choral Ensemble, a mixed-voice community choir of about 30 members. The Choir has been administered by the Kingston Melos Society, a non-profit organization with registered charitable status, and membership is by audition.
Melos performs three or four concerts per year, which take place at city churches or at one of the two Kingston cathedrals. Rehearsals are on Wednesday evenings, from September to May, at the Upper Canada Academy for the Performing Arts in St. Mary's Parish Centre, at the corner of Brock and Clergy Sts. in downtown Kingston.
In the past, Melos's repertoire has ranged over the choral music of six centuries (masses, madrigals, motets, anthems, part songs, and contemporary compositions). Performances have included music sung a cappella, and music accompanied by piano, organ and various instrumental ensembles. Qualified singers sometimes have opportunities to perform solo parts.
In past years Melos has combined with the Choir of Chalmers Church to perform a major choral work with guest soloists and orchestra for the annual Good Friday concert at Chalmers, a tradition now over a century old . The roster of featured compositions has included Bach's B Minor Mass and the Requiems of Mozart, Brahms and Fauré; both Bach Passions; new works by Graham George, Clifford Crawley, David Cameron himself, and other Canadian composers. For many years, Melos regularly revisited Handel's Messiah in the December holiday season, and at this time of year it has presented more unusual repertoire by composers such as Lully and Charpentier. Under the auspices of Music West, Melos presented staged productions of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors.
For Good Friday 2009, with Chalmers Choir, Melos again performed Messiah, but this complete performance marked a new departure. It was accompanied by an orchestra using Baroque bows, and some replica winds, playing at Baroque pitch, and with a serious attempt to present what is increasingly being termed "an historically informed performance".
The success of this concert, both artistically and in the response of audience and performers alike, led to two further historically informed performances. These included a Christmas concert featuring Charpentier's Midnight Mass for Christmas and Bach's Cantata 140, Wachet auf, at Baroque pitch with a chamber ensemble playing Baroque instruments, and on Good Friday 2010, Joseph Haydn's Mass in Time of War and Bach's Magnificat in D Major. Again audience enthusiasm, and the interest of the musicians, was gratifying, and at a meeting of orchestral musicians in May 2010 it was agreed that a serious attempt should be made to establish an historically informed chamber orchestra in Kingston, to work not only in the choral repertoire with the Melos choir, but also to undertake authentic performances of the Baroque, Renaissance and Classical instrumental repertoire.
So for the 2010-11 season, Melos has undergone certain changes. Formerly an unincorporated charitable organization, the parent Society will soon become a legal corporation (it remains a non-profit, registered charity). The performing wing of the Society now includes two elements: the Melos Choir, and the new Melos Chamber Orchestra consisting of Kingston professional musicians who are willing to undertake the special disciplines and training to play early music in its appropriate style. As funds permit, the orchestra will bit by bit be equipped with replica instruments.