Elektra announces search for new artistic director
Current leader Morna Edmundson will be departing after the 2024-25 season and 38 years with the organization
THERE’S AN EXCITING job opportunity out there for someone who wants to continue the legacy of a leading local musical organization. Elektra has announced its search for a new artistic director, with current leader Morna Edmundson departing after the 2024-25 season.
Edmundson cofounded the celebrated 45-member treble-voiced volunteer choir in 1987 with Diane Loomer. During her time as artistic director, which began in 2009, Elektra has commissioned more than 120 works and released 17 CDs, many featuring first recordings of Canadian compositions, and launched a YouTube channel.
According to Elektra’s website, the group is seeking someone who “gets” Elektra, who understands and appreciates the legacy that Edmundson has created. The ideal candidate, who will start a transition period in April 2025 and take over fully in July, holds a master’s of music degree or equivalent experience and has comprehensive knowledge of the Canadian choir and composer landscapes, a background in leading adult treble ensembles, and a conviction for maintaining strong connections within the choral community across Canada and beyond.
The role also entails developing programming that spans historic and new repertoire and recruiting the right voices to add to the group as required. The new artistic director will also have a strong grasp of budgets and grant planning, working within a three-year strategic plan.
The part-time contractual position allows the successful candidate to hold other paid positions.
Edmundson’s farewell 38th season kicks off with The Light of Hope Returning (November 30 and December 1 at Vancouver’s Pacific Spirit United Church), composer Shawn Kirchner’s American folk solstice oratorio; it features original video projections by Syrian-American artist Kevork Mourad, who has collaborated with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma. (See Stir’s feature on The Light of Hope Returning here.) That’s followed by The Lost Words: A Spell Book (March 8 and 9, 2025 at Pacific Spirit United Church), which is inspired by the bestselling book of the same name by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. It features works by 10 Canadian composers, the accompaniment of six instrumentalists, and watercolour projections; the performance also sees local actor Laara Sadiq doing spoken word for each spell. (Stir previewed the work when it premiered in Vancouver in 2022; see story here.) Bringing the season to a close is Legacy (May 25, 2025 at Surrey’s Church of the Good Shepherd and May 31, 2025 at Vancouver’s Christ Church Cathedral), a concert featuring Edmundson’s “desert island playlist” of Canadian works drawn from nearly four decades of Elektra commissions. The performance also features premieres of brand-new works by Laura Hawley, Cassie Luftspring, and Tawnie Olson.
Elektra also runs community engagement programs, which mentor the next generation of youth and adult singers, conductors, and composers.
Edmundson has acquired an honourary degree from UBC and has degrees and diplomas in vocal music from Vancouver, Bellingham, and Stockholm. She has adjudicated across North America and Asia, conducted honour choirs throughout the U.S., and codirected the American Choral Directors Association National Women’s Honour Choir.
Formerly associate AD of Coastal Sound Music Academy, Edmundson has also received a BC Community Achievement Award and a Vancouver YWCA Women of Distinction award in recognition of her work. She has served as a board member of Chorus America and in 2020 joined the board of Choral Canada as its president elect.
Gail Johnson is a Vancouver-based journalist who has earned local and national nominations and awards for her work. She is a certified Gladue Report writer via Indigenous Perspectives Society in partnership with Royal Roads University and is a member of a judging panel for top Vancouver restaurants.
Related Articles
Free open house at VIVO Media Arts Centre features live performances by Matthew Ariaratnam, Andromeda Monk, Sapphire Haze, and Anju Singh
Festival co-curated with The Cultch’s Heather Redfern features the workshop premiere of Payette’s musical On Native Land, plus a new choral composition
Performing alongside pakhavaj artist Tejas Tope, Dagar explores the virtuosity of dhrupad, India’s oldest-surviving classical style
White rabbits and Magritte clouds, as Visions Ouest presents film of Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s epic and affecting multimedia performance
Castalian String Quartet, violist Timothy Ridout, cellist Zlatomir Fung, and pianists Angela Cheng and Benjamin Hochman will perform two concerts in one day at the Vancouver Playhouse
Innovative show created by Rodney DeCroo, Samantha Pawliuk, and David Bloom melds music, theatre, and poetry inside a giant fish
The a cappella work by Joby Talbot is meant to be seen and heard
Conductor-composer to lead Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in Canadian premiere of his sweeping mix of Western and Asian traditions, November 8 and 9
Renowned countertenor and Renaissance viol consort play a German Baroque programme based on the latter group’s Signum Classics album
Shawn Kirchner’s exhilarating folk oratorio blends familiar and new carols in an immersive multidisciplinary exploration of winter mysteries
Surrealism is a major influence on the Belgian big band coming to Vancouver courtesy Music on Main
Adaptation of Strauss’s beloved operetta opens Vancouver Opera’s 65th season with cheeky adapted dialogue and musical delights
Vancouver-raised, New York-based artist’s 2022 recording of the works was praised by Glass himself as “a highly dynamic and expressive performance”
Friends of Chamber Music concert features well-loved works by Ravel and Beethoven, alongside a contemporary piece by Israeli composer Matan Porat
Group melds folk traditions, klezmer music, and urban energy into a unique style as it raises money for Ukraine’s humanitarian and military efforts
The artist’s quintet comes to the Ironworks on November 2, as part of the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society’s IronFest V weekend
Appearing at the Kay Meek Arts Centre, Vancouver Island pair fuels its blues and folk with curiosity and joie de vivre
Show written and hosted by Patricia Ward Kelly features scenes from the American icon’s most beloved films set to a live symphony
Representation is at the core of the artist’s new cabaret-style show
Juno Award-winning group weaves doo-wop, R&B, country, and blues with themes of social justice and human dignity
The 65th-season opener features a witty new script by Mark Crawford and a Sweet Charity-worthy array of colourful retro costumes
In this classic of German expressionism screening at the Shadbolt, “Every frame is like an album cover,” says the postrock band’s Simon Dobbs
The trio leader has fully integrated Latin and Caribbean sounds into his approach
Concert program Rest includes two new choral arrangements of the artist’s songs among other diverse works
Evening featuring Fauré’s Requiem and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms offered moments of stunning beauty and clashing dissonance
Award-winning artist’s piece inspired by Chinese and Sanskrit texts tells of six stories from the life of the Buddha, and of a prince’s path to enlightenment
Featured works include “The Raven Conspiracy” by Yellowknife’s Carmen Braden and “Seasons of the Sea” by Rosemary Georgeson and Jeffrey Ryan
The pandemic sent Italian lute virtuoso Michele Pasotti looking back at the poets of the Black Plague—and the way Ars Nova music provided relief
Magical stage adaptation of graphic novel features over 20 miniature sets performed, filmed, and projected in real time to a live score
Soprano Caitlin Wood, tenor Caulin Moore among the standouts in a production that shows the power of songs in musicals from Evita to Sunset Boulevard