Songs of Sanctuary
October 20 at 4pm, St Matthews Centre, Kitchener
Our first concert in the 2024-25 Season
I love Mark's warmth and curiosity in his programming. We look to music today to both challenge us and to comfort us -- to open new worlds to us, and at the same time, to show us how interconnected we are. I love that The Elora Singers show us that range in the work they sing.
This is a warm, kind, committed and generous ensemble. Because of the commitment of the musicians to engage so deeply in the music they sing, I found that I learned new things about my own creative process through my work with them.
Reena Esmail, composer (2020)
I was so honoured to work with such dedicated vocal artists on my Elora Singers commissioned work, "Giishkaapkag". I am still in awe of how everyone got every detail of the piece and the message coming from the heart.
It was an emotional journey to honour the missing women in my own family who still to this day have no grave or place for me to visit them. But through this choral work, there are voices singing to them in the Odawa language that they can hear on the other side and it's a way of making and keeping that connection through spirit to members of my family who disappeared.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mark Vuorinen for inviting me to compose this work, for funding part of the commission, to my anonymous sponsor, and to all of the singers, administration and recording crew who worked so hard on the CD project. Chi miigwetch miiniwaa.
Barbara Croall, composer (2020)
It was a great pleasure for the State Choir LATVIJA to perform with The Elora Singers at The Elora Festival in 2019. The Elora Singers have rich and shimmering voices that blend seamlessly to produce an exquisite choral sound of the highest artistic standard. We hope to have an opportunity to work together again in the future.
Māris Sirmais, Artistic Director, State Choir LATVIJA (2019)
Under Mark Vuorinen's direction, The Elora Singers perform each song, each composition like a vibrant painting or a deeply personal story. That's why I find their performances to be so lively, beautiful and inspiring!
Ēriks Ešenvalds, composer (2020)