With Erick Lichte leading the charge, Chor Leoni celebrates 10 years of The Big Roar
The choir’s long-time artistic director hopes the upcoming concert will open new ears to choral music’s powers to heal and create community
Erick Lichte.
Chor Leoni.
Chor Leoni presents The Big Roar at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on May 3 at 4 pm
WHEN CONDUCTOR AND COMPOSER Erick Lichte stepped into his first trial rehearsal with Chor Leoni over a decade ago, he didn’t just see a choir. He saw the future. Now in his 13th year as the artistic director of the prestigious music organization, he sees that rehearsal as a moment of instant clarity.
“[After] I got done with that first rehearsal, I thought, ‘I just absolutely adore everything about this organization, this choir, these people, this place,’” says Lichte in a Zoom call. “It was one of those very few moments in life where you're like, ‘I see the vision.’ The matrix becomes clear to you. You can see all of it in front of you. And thankfully, I got it.”
On May 3, over 250 singers and five choirs will take the stage at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts for The Big Roar, Chor Leoni’s signature community choral festival now celebrating its 10th anniversary. Featuring performances by youth programs, emerging artists, and professionals alike, the celebration embodies the organization’s mission to make Vancouver a global destination for choral music.
“We created The Big Roar 10 years ago, and it has been a way for Chor Leoni to be the hub, with our educational programs and bringing in more and more of the community,” Lichte says. “All those things were a part of the dream, and now we’re living it.”
At the heart of The Big Roar is an impressive tapestry of choirs and programs, reflecting Chor Leoni’s commitment to inclusive, collaborative music-making. The namesake ensemble group will anchor the festival with a performance that includes a 30-minute work for the choir, harp, and soprano saxophone, which Lichte describes as “not a common set of sounds, but such a complete one.”
Joining Chor Leoni are the MYVoice educational choirs—an initiative supporting young tenors, baritones, and basses across the Lower Mainland—as well as choir members from the PRÉLUDE and Emerging Choral Artist programs. Rounding out the roster are the Leonids, a new professional ensemble under Lichte’s direction that flies in “the best of the best professional ensemble singers.” The resulting annual reunion further solidifies Vancouver as a home for community-driven music programming.
“These singers keep coming back, and people come back year to year for the Emerging Choral Artist Program,” Lichte says. “There are real friendships and connections. It’s now starting to be like seeing old friends.”
Before joining Chor Leoni, Lichte cofounded the internationally acclaimed male vocal ensemble Cantus, serving as its artistic director for over a decade. Raised in Appleton, Wisconsin, he grew up singing in a 250-member boys’ choir, an experience that felt entirely normal at the time. It wasn’t until later that he recognized how rare this was, a realization that helped fuel his commitment to cultivating music spaces where men and boys feel invited and empowered to participate.
“We want to fix all the toxicity in the world—it’s about bringing people into a place where we have these positive outlets,” Lichte says. “We’re all going to have emotions. A lot of them are negative. But if we have a place for them to have an outlet—and people to share them with—then we don’t act out in those terrible ways. Even if you don’t sing yourself, to be around that kind of communal singing, I think, is a good tonic. It’s good medicine.”
Similarly, breaking down barriers of entry is central to Chor Leoni’s vision, and something Lichte takes pride in because of choral music’s unique ability to be intergenerational and economically inclusive.
“We’ve got an eight-year-old and eighty-year-old on the same stage, and they’re all going to make music at the exact same level,” Lichte says. “The price of entry into the choral world is so low. You don’t have to own a cello. You don’t need to have a piano. So help identify that person in your sphere, in your community. Most people love music, but I don’t think they realize that a choral concert can be this fun, engaging, hyper-emotional kind of space.”
If music lovers want a preview of the The Big Roar, they can see the Leonids, Chor Leoni, and singers of the Emerging Choral Artist Program on May 1 at the Canadian Memorial United Church for their Harmonia concert, showcasing a week of choral programming with a range of ticket offerings.
“Come out and give it a try,” Lichte says of the Chan Centre performance. “I mean, especially right now—five bucks! What else are you going to do and sit in the best concert hall in British Columbia for five dollars?” 
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