Crowned with Stars: A concert for the Queen of Heaven

Seven days before the performance, composer Carlos Foggin is still writing! Next Monday, you’ll be among the first to hear his Regina Caeli come to life.

​On Monday, Aug. 18 at 7 pm, the Shrine Church of Our Lady of the Rockies in Canmore will be filled with beautiful sacred music. As part of Mary, Mother of Hope: Jubilee Marian Week, conductor and organist Carlos Foggin will lead a choir of professional singers and a string ensemble in Crowned with Stars: A Concert for the Queen of Heaven.

The program will be drawn from a beautiful range of sacred works: Gregorian chant from the Church’s earliest centuries, Renaissance polyphony by masters such as Thomas Tallis and Josquin des Prez, treasured Marian hymns, selections from Messa della Madonna by Girolamo Frescobaldi, and the charming Church Sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. “Mozart wrote these short, sparkling works to be played during the liturgy,” Foggin says. “They’ve been largely forgotten, but they’re delightful to hear.”

Free Admission: Crowned with Stars Concert - Monday, Aug 18 at 7 pm at the Shrine Church of Our Lady of the Rockies, Canmore

​At the heart of the evening will be the premiere of Foggin’s own Regina Caeli, written especially for this concert. Inspired by the Marian theme, the piece for choir and strings weaves together fragments of melodies from other works in the program with the timeless Gregorian chant for Regina Caeli. “Listeners will be able to hear how it all connects,” says Foggin, “almost like musical threads running through the evening.”

​In addition to his work as Music Director Laureate of the Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra, Foggin is an award-winning conductor and composer whose recent Litany of St. Joseph, premiered at Calgary’s Jack Singer Concert Hall in March 2025.

For the upcoming Crowned in Heaven: A Concert for the Queen in Heaven, the professional choir, organized by Mark Dumbrique, will be joined by accomplished string players Theresa Dumbrique, Peter Li, Osmond Chiu, and Erin Beach, with Foggin at the organ and podium.

This will be more than a concert. It is an invitation to pause, pray, and be lifted by music that gives glory to our Lord, and honours the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Queen of Heaven.