Vancouver Cantata Singers features Shane Raman’s “In the Bleak Midwinter” at Christmas Reprise
The composer is an advocate for diversity and inclusion within the choral and classical-music realms
Shane Raman. Photo by Diamond’s Edge Photography
Vancouver Cantata Singers presents Christmas Reprise on December 21 at 2 pm at the Holy Rosary Cathedral and at 7 pm at Sanctuary on 6th
SHANE RAMAN IS a real-life example of how music programs in schools can have a tremendously positive impact on students. Today he’s a Leo Award-winning baritone, choral conductor, composer, and music educator who works at the Sarah McLachlan School of Music.
“Music and art in school are really important—without that I wouldn’t have had access to so much of what I do now,” Raman tells Stir in a phone interview. “I was so lucky we had a vibrant music program in elementary school and I had access to music classes. I see it every day working at Sarah McLachlan School of Music—I see how music impacts and changes people, not only the youth I work with but also the staff. I am changed every day working with kids and going through the process of making music.
“Music opens up a different portal,” he says. “There’s a different kind of understanding that you don’t have to explain, but when someone hears or feels the emotion or the meaning of the music, there’s a shared experience that you don’t have to explain and can just experience at the time.”
Raman went on to earn a bachelor’s of music in vocal performance from the University of British Columbia. He was a member of musica intima for 10 seasons and Vancouver Cantata Singers for seven years. He’s a conductor with the Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs.
The first piece Raman ever arranged while at UBC was “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Gustav Holst based on a poem by Christina Rossetti. Now, Vancouver Cantata Singers is featuring the piece as part of its Christmas Reprise. The concert features traditional carols and contemporary Christmas compositions, including three contrasting settings of the devotional prayer “Ave Maria”; “A Hymn to the Virgin”, which Benjamin Britten composed when he was 16; and “Coventry Carol” arranged by Sam Dabrusin, a VCS tenor. Cellist Trisha Doo is a special guest.
“I’ve always loved that carol,” Raman says of “In the Bleak Midwinter”. “I really was trying to do a lot of word painting and create the backdrop for the story through using the voices and the music to articulate what the words said. You hear a lot of references to snow falling and anthems sung by choruses of angels. I’ve tried to make it sound like what Christina Rossetti’s poem was saying.”
As part of his work within Vancouver’s music scene, Raman is keen on promoting diversity and inclusion in choral practice and overall vocal culture. Born and raised in Burnaby, he is a first-generation member of the South Asian community; with roots in India, his mother hailed from Trinidad and his dad is from Fiji.
“In choral music, especially as a young person, there wasn’t a lot of representation of people of colour or queer people,” Raman says. “While I love classical music, what you’re taught in school is the western European perspective of music. I loved it, but during the pandemic I started to think ‘How am I supposed to function in this colonized art form that I love but that excludes me as a system?’ So a lot of my original writing is really exploring my space and the voices of my ancestors through the choral medium and just trying to understand how a person of colour functions in a colonial system.
“I think things are changing, especially in the choral world and in classical music,” he continues. “People are seeking out diverse composers—Black, Indigenous, and people of colour and queer people. There is a movement for there to be more representation in people who make up choirs and symphonies and other big modes of expression. It’s happening, but there has to be more inclusion of other styles of music within a colonial system—maybe a South Asian system of making music or an Indigenous perspective. Our 18th-century European ways of learning music aren’t the only ones.”
Raman won a Leo Award for the score he wrote for the dramatic musical short film “Looking Back” in 2021. He has also sung with Vancouver Opera and the Vancouver Peace Choir.
“Music was always a way for me to express myself and to try to understand the world around me,” Raman says. “Somehow listening to someone sing or play music felt like there was more than just the language they were using. It felt like I could know more of them through their music, and I always found that fascinating.”
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