Elektra Women’s Choir returns to live performance for 2021-22 season
The eminent choral ensemble celebrates its 35th season with a lineup of powerful, ambitious concerts
Elektra Women’s Choir, with artistic director Morna Edmundson.
Elektra Women’s Choir is thrilled to be back performing live on-stage for the 2021-22 season.
Under the guidance of artistic director Morna Edmundsun, one of Canada’s best-known choral conductors, Elektra opens its 35th season with The Light of Hope Returning on November 26 and 27.
This ambitious concert of familiar Christmas carols and folk-inspired original music is a reprise of Elektra’s highly successful digital offering released in December 2020 in collaboration with WomenSing from the Bay Area. Composed by Shawn Kirchner and accompanied by breathtaking visuals by Syrian-American artist Kevork Mourad, The Light of Hope Returning poignantly reflects the current state of global uncertainty, while ultimately trusting in the cycle of the seasons and the hope embodied by the eventual return of light. This moving program features Elektra along with guest vocalist Allison Girvan and a talented instrumental ensemble.
On March 8th and 9, 2022, Elektra presents its most ambitious commissioning project to date—the world premiere of The Lost Words: A Spell Book. The multidisciplinary production is a whimsical and evocative response to the fact that, in 2007, the Oxford Junior Dictionary replaced 40 words about the natural world with words about the digital one. Author Robert Macfarlane’s “spells” are meant to conjure back 20 of the lost creatures and plants in the lives of children and adults, and Jackie Morris’s stunning paintings hold the reader spellbound. Ten Canadian composers have written 20 short pieces that have been woven together to create a treat for the eyes and ears, with large-screen projection of the book’s illustrations, an actor reading each spell, and the new compositions performed by Elektra and a small ensemble of instrumentalists.
To round out this exciting concert season, Elektra welcomes the Sitka String Quartet, Vancouver’s own all-female ensemble from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, as guest artists in a concert on May 14, 2022 entitled Lake of Stars. In a program of uplifting works in celebration of life and nature, the concert features the titular co-commissioned work by Argentina’s Santiago Veros, Marie-Claire Saindon’s stunning Blinded by a Leafy Crown, and the world premiere of Two Shakespeare Songs by Stephen Smith.
There’s more: on June 9, Elektra Women’s Choir invites people to celebrate at the beautiful Vancouver Club for an Enchanted Evening with Elektra—a joyful fundraising evening of superb music, delicious food, and live and silent auctions.
Since 1987, over 200 singers ranging in age from from 17 to 79 have been members of Elektra. There are typically approximately 45 singers in the choir, each with a strong passion for singing classical choral music at a high level.
Tickets for The Light of Hope Returning are now available here. (Limited seating available.)
For more information, see Elektra Women’s Choir.
Post sponsored by Elektra Women’s Choir.