Elektra Women's Choir imbues annual Christmas concert with warmth
Every song on the program for Chez Nous: Christmas with Elektra aligns with artistic director Morna Edmundson’s goal to make people feel welcome
Elektra Women’s Choir.
Elektra Women’s Choir presents Chez Nous: Christmas with Elektra on November 26 at 7:30 pm at Pacific Spirit United Church in Vancouver and on November 27 at 3 pm at Good Shepherd Church in Surrey
CHEZ NOUS: CHRISTMAS WITH ELEKTRA may be an annual festive offering by Elektra Women’s Choir, but the music is never the same. The challenge for the ensemble’s artistic director, Morna Edmundson, is to give the concert the kind of welcoming character its title suggests while also making the experience fresh for audiences year after year. She has an old-school way of making it work, and it all comes down to 10 simple words.
“Several years ago, I wrote a list of words that I keep beside me when looking through music that might be included in Chez Nous,” Edmundson tells Stir. “The paper is a bit shabby by now, but the words still ring true, reminding me of my goals: to make people feel welcome; to connect them to familiar music; to move them; to surprise them with something new; and to offer even those who have never heard Elektra before a sense of the music we present, and what they might expect from us at other concerts in the year.
“I know there are people in the audience who don’t expect to like a choral concert—bless them for being there!—so I want them to find it more than entertaining,” she says, “to be glad they came and glad they invested their time with us, with the rest of the audience, and with the music.”
So what are the words on her list? Welcome, joy, beauty, participation, robust, sombre reflection, surprise, memory, and relevance.
“The name of this concert, Chez Nous: Christmas with Elektra—at our house in French—is an expression that is more than a place,” Edmundson says. “Chez nous evokes a sense of welcome and warmth.”
To make audiences feel embraced this year, Elektra is presenting a program that ranges from the thoughtful to the playful with a blend of traditional and newer works. Composers featured include Christian Bährens, Abbie Betinis, Ken Berg, Winnie Brückner, Shawn Kirchner, Don Macdonald, Larry Nickel, Kathryn Parrotta, Erica Phare-Bergh, and Stephen Smith, among others.
Morna Edmundson.
Julia Nolan.
Augmenting the seasonal experience is the appearance of guest artists.
“For this first Chez Nous since 2019, I wanted to create an experience that was calm and centred, with bursts of energy and surprise,” Edmundson explains. “[Saxophonist] Julia Nolan has been our guest several times in the past. She feels like ‘one of us’ and, in fact, the fluid sound of the saxophone has much in common with the human voice. “She plays in four works with Elektra and two solos with our pianist, Stephen Smith, including his newly composed melody juxtaposed over Bach's Prelude in C-sharp major (WTC II),” Edmundson adds. “We also welcome bassist Yefeng Yin to the stage with us.”
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