Classical Recording of the Year!
The Litany of St. Joseph Named 2026 YYCMA Classical Recording of the Year
Carlos Foggin, the Marquis Chamber Orchestra and Chorus receive 2026 YYCMA Classical Recording of the Year
Marquis Music is proud to announce that The Litany of St. Joseph, composed and conducted by Carlos Foggin and performed by the Marquis Chamber Orchestra and Chorus, has been named the 2026 YYCMA Classical Recording of the Year.
The recognition celebrates a project that brought together musicians from across Calgary for the recording of a new sacred work commissioned in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Feast of St. Joseph.
The Litany of St. Joseph was commissioned by God Squad Canada and received its premiere at Calgary's Jack Singer Concert Hall in March 2025, with Foggin conducting the Marquis Chamber Orchestra and Chorus. The work combines the traditional Latin Litany of St. Joseph with an expanded musical setting for choir, orchestra and organ.
The project was conceived not simply as a concert, but as a musical offering. Its creation brought together professional and community musicians in a large-scale collaboration, with the work drawing on the long tradition of sacred choral music while incorporating contemporary musical language.
The recording preserves that collaboration and allows the work to reach beyond its original performance.
For Foggin, the YYCMA recognition is particularly meaningful because of the number of people whose work made the project possible.
“This is really an award for an extraordinary group of musicians who I’m proud to call my friends,” says Foggin. “A recording like this is never the achievement of one person. It represents the time, talent and commitment of everyone who performed, rehearsed, recorded and supported the project. ”
The recording also carries a significance beyond Calgary. Following its premiere, The Litany of St. Joseph was presented to Pope Leo XIV, and a copy of the score was deposited in the Vatican Library. The project received correspondence from the Apostolic Nuncio to Canada, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, and from Marcos Pavan, music director of the Sistine Chapel.
Those connections have helped place a distinctly Calgary musical project within a much wider sacred-music context.
At the centre of the project, however, are the musicians.
The Marquis Chamber Orchestra and Chorus brought together instrumentalists and singers to realize a new work written specifically for the occasion. Their performance reflects Marquis Music's continuing interest in creating ambitious projects that bring musicians together across traditional boundaries and give Calgary artists opportunities to participate in substantial orchestral and choral work.
The YYCMA award is also a recognition of Calgary's musical community and of what can happen when local musicians, organizations and audiences come together around a common project.
For Marquis Music, that spirit of collaboration is central to its work.
“We started Marquis Music with the idea that music should create a culture of belonging,” says Foggin. “The Litany of St. Joseph is a particularly good example of that. Hundreds of people contributed to the project in one way or another, and the finished recording, and this award, belongs to all of them.”
The 2026 YYCMA Classical Recording of the Year award is an important milestone for Marquis Music and for the Marquis Chamber Orchestra and Chorus. More importantly, it provides an opportunity to recognize the musicians and collaborators who made The Litany of St. Joseph possible.
Congratulations to everyone involved in the recording of The Litany of St. Joseph.
