Elektra Women's Choir brings the songs of the season to your place
With Facebook as the venue, the annual holiday concert features traditional and new choral works
Elektra Women’s Choir, with artistic director Morna Edmundson, photographed pre-COVID-19.
Chez Vous: Christmas With Elektra is on November 29 at 3 pm via Facebook
Every year since 2004, Elektra Women’s Choir has held a Christmas concert. This year is no exception, though it will surprise no one to learn that the format is completely different. Taking place virtually, the show has a new name to reflect its pandemic pivot: Chez Nous: Christmas With Elektra is now appropriately called Chez Vous.
The one-hour Facebook program will feature some of artistic director Morna Edmundson’s favourite tracks from Elektra’s Christmas CDs enhanced with imagery and greetings. Although the show consists of pre-recorded music, Edmundson says the ensemble wasn’t about to do away with the tradition altogether in the face of COVID-19.
“A Christmas concert is often people’s first way into hearing a choir, whether it’s a school Christmas concert or a kids’ concert,” Edmundson tells Stir. “It’s a place where I feel we can really connect with people.
“The way we’ll get through this [the pandemic] is by staying connected,” she says. “A choir is as much a community as it is an artistic thing. I chose the music knowing that I wanted to lift spirits for people and draw them in to the beauty of it.”
The program’s songs are a mix of familiar and new, commissioned and traditional; some are by Canadian composers and women—criteria Edmundson always strives to maintain regardless of how or where the group is performing. “Chez Vous has all the hallmarks of a regular Elektra concert,” says Edmundson, who’s also the artistic director of Vancouver’s EnChor,
Elektra has other events planned for the near future that Edmundson is excited to be able to announce soon. The most recent health restrictions have added a layer of challenge, however. After several months of interacting strictly virtually, the chorists had resumed in-person practices with reduced numbers, physical distancing, masks, ventilation—the works. Rehearsing online is tough for choirs. Internet connections konk out, and different browsing speeds mean people end up singing the same words at slightly different times or that Edmundson can see people’s mouths moving but hear nothing come out. An imperfect platform, Zoom is fraught with frustration. Hence the decision to present Chez Vous: Christmas with Elektra using pre-recorded material.
The show is free, as is the Elektra Christmas Cookbook, with recipes from singers, board and staff members, and alumna, a fun bonus created by marketing director (and graphic designer) Shannon Lythgoe. It’s available for free download and covers all the courses, from cocktails to appetizers to desserts, including some famous gingerbread men.
“We didn’t want there to be any barriers,” Edmundson says of the free event. “We didn’t want to go for a year without connecting with our audience. It’s ‘Here’s the music; come and live with us for an hour—at your house.’”
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