A New Choral Voice

Shattering any sense of social formality that would be expected of an interview at a choral music conference, I quickly direct the conversation to Michael Zaugg’s bid for Artistic Director of Pro Coro instead of asking him about the conference.

“Oh, you’re talking about Pro Coro, not Podium!” Zaugg remarks, surprised at my conversation starter.

“I’m here to talk about you,” I state.

“O.k.!” he says with a smile as he readies himself.

In addition to his roles as the conductor of the St. Lawrence Choir in Montreal, the Cantata Singers in Ottawa, and voces boreales at the Montreal Choral Institute, over this past year Zaugg participated in a comprehensive selection process for the position of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for Pro Coro Canada. As a Pro Coro chorister, I was able to participate in a small portion of this process and blogged about the experience. The news of Zaugg’s successful appointment as Artistic Director was welcome news not only to me but to the entire Edmonton choral community.

Take Every Opportunity: An Interview with Hilary Apfelstadt

Conductor, Music Educator, Scholar, Author, Director of Choral Studies at the University of Toronto (U of T) --- these are all roles which Hilary Apfelstadt has seamlessly integrated into her life. At the Podium 2012 conference, Apfelstaft’s University ensemble, the MacMillian Singers, performed a joint concert with the Elmer Iseler Singers and she discussed with me her experiences within each of these different roles.

While Apfelstadt enjoys conducting a wide range of ages, she confesses that she loves working with University students because “they are still teachable and in the teaching process they have enough knowledge that they can contribute… it is very collaborative.” A recurring theme in our discussion is the concept of education because Apfelstadt first and foremost sees herself as a music educator. She exudes no air of conductor superiority.

Composers, Conductors, and Choirs

The prospect of interviewing Lydia Adams was a formidable one. In my mind, the choral heavy weights in Canada consist of the three professional choirs in our country: The Elmer Iseler Singers, Pro Coro Canada, and the Vancouver Chamber Choir. Thus, the choral influence of each of these respective organizations is due in large part to their Artistic Directors. I knew I better not mess this up. The choral shame would be too much to bear. Adams is the conductor and Artistic Director of the Elmer Iseler Singers. She met with me following her joint concert with the Elmer Iseler Singers and the MacMillian Singers at Podium 2012, which honoured the work of Canadian composer Ruth Watson Henderson.

The Estonian Singing Revolution

Seeking a quiet moment away from the pre-concert frenzy at Podium 2012, Canadian liaison for the Tartu Ülikooli Akadeemiline Naiskoor choir, Andres Raudsepp, discusses with me the role of music within the Estonian choral community and choir tour so far. As a choir girl who is constantly seeking international outlets to expand my choral experiences, it always perplexes me when choirs choose to tour Canada. Raudsepp describes the appeal of Canada and the relationship between the Estonian-Canadians to Estonians from Estonia. He attributes this appeal to the fact that Estonian-Canadians have always contributed back to their home country in field such as medicine and dentistry, as a result, “Estonia gives back its music.” An excellent example of cultural mutualism.

The Estonian choral community has a rich cultural heritage. Since 1869, Estonia hosts a song festival, “Laulupidu” every five years where over 25 000 singers join together in song. Raudsepp emphasized that this song festival was a formative event in Estonian history because “it established the identity of Estonian choral music… the song festival became an expression of the mentality and desire of Estonia,” and created a “singing revolution.” The reflection of Tartu’s Estonian heritage is also reflected in their repertoire choice at Podium, which was mainly Estonian folklore. Raudsepp remarks this is the case because “the tradition of women as messengers of Estonian's consciousness through folksong over countless centuries is reflected in the current devotion of their country's women singers to their art.” Therefore, the female voices of the group have become a cultural conduit for Estonian sentiments.

The National Youth Choir: Creating an Ensemble Out of Raw Talent

Every two years, the opportunity to be a part of one of the most unique choral and social experiences in Canada appears when 40 singers from across Canada are chosen to participate in the National Youth Choir (NYC). It's an opportunity that would make any chorister jealous. The NYC is the premiere youth ensemble at the Podium choral conference. A group of auditioned singers from ages 18-25 are chosen to be a part of the NYC. The experience includes rehearsing and touring surrounding areas preceding the Podium Conference. Touring through Canadian towns and cities everyday and performing with other passionate choral singers? It's sheer choirtopia. This year singers from all ten Canadian provinces formed the NYC and were placed under the direction of Ivars Taurins, conductor of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir.

Tucked away in the corner of the Lord Elgin hotel lobby, Taurins discussed the NYC rehearsal process, repertoire selection, the bond with his NYC singers, and what he hopes his NYC singers to take away from the experience. After listening to this interview, I knew that this interview was Taurins's homage to his NYC singers. Therefore, I thought I would need to let Taurins speak for himself and post the audio interview. It is apparent that Taurins's love for music, text, and his singers signify the power of choral passion and unity across this country, which is the perfect embodiment of the NYC ideals.

The Culmination of Podium

 Greetings readers,

Day #3 of Podium was a self-indulgent one. It was a particularly gorgeous summer day in Ottawa and a leisurely morning blogging and chatting with friends meant that I only caught the end half of the Toronto Children’s Chorus Chamber Choir (TCCCC) performance. I should preface my following comments with the fact that I am not a fan of choirs that don’t sound like they’re singing with their full range. I just felt like the TCCCC had so much more sound to offer but it remained buried beneath a very proper choral façade. Don’t get me wrong, the notes were all there, the rhythm was there, but I just found their interpretation of the music to be too clinical. I find that when children’s voices are not used to their full range they just sound like they’re in a stunted state of childhood. Childhood should be the time to experiment with our vocal instruments. I understand it’s a completely choral sound aesthetic preference; it just so happens that theirs doesn’t appeal to me.

The Hamilton Children’s Choirs and High Park Choirs (HCC/HPC) were stunning. It made me wish I was 13 again so that I could go and sing in these choirs. They have such control over a wide range of vocal colours and it resulted in such a unified voice. Their show-stopping pieces for me were definitely Hatfield's "Las Amarillas" and Rajaton's "Pakkanen". The TCCCC performed Las Amarillas earlier in the day; however, the HCC/HPC performance re-calibrated my quality bar for the performance. My favorite part of the HCC/HPC is what when they use choralography, it does not take away from the singing. In many ways, it doesn’t even appear as if you’re watching movement, it just feels like you’re viewing an organic entity that visually and aurally embodies the music. Brava HCC/HPC, brava!

Podium Choral Frenzy

Greetings readers,

Day #2 of Podium has officially finished and, if the intensity of the first day was any indication of the pace to follow for the rest of the conference, I was not disappointed yesterday. However, since Belle Canto performed on Thursday, I feel like I have been able to refocus my attention on the upcoming sessions and concerts. My morning began with a quick visit to the keynote address to signal the official start of Podium 2012. Counsellor Hobbs delivered welcome sentiments from Mayor Jim Watson and the proclamation that May 17-20 would be Choral Weekend in Ottawa in honour of Podium 2012. I ducked out soon after to perform in the Rotunda at Parliament with Belle Canto. With our choir draped upon a one deep riser, our conductor managed to negotiate a non-awkward spot in front of the centre pillar dividing the choir. We sang the same program repertoire as our Thursday concert. Our audience was composed mainly of tourist visitors who appeared appreciative as they snapped pictures and took video evidence of our performance.

As soon as the performance was over I hurried back to conference headquarters at the Lord Elgin to begin conducting a consecutive stream of interviews with spotlight concert conductors: Lydia Adams of the Elmer Iseler Singers, Ivars Taurins conducting the National Youth Choir, Hilary Apfelstadt who is director of Choral Studies at the University of Toronto, and Michael Zaugg Artistic Director of voces boreales, the Cantata Singers of Ottawa, the St. Lawrence Choir and, most recently, Pro Coro Canada. I will be posting these interviews following the conference.

Podium Commences

Greetings readers,

This choir girl has officially landed in the heart of Podium 2012. The first day was a blur: a parliament tour, sound check, choir concert, interview, another choir concert, and welcome reception. As soon as I arrived, it has felt like I've been consumed in a choral-centric whirlpool. Every time I go another round in the swirling vortex there is yet another person I recognize and am excited to greet. This conference is choirtopia. There are so many opportunities to just choir geek-out throughout this conference. One look into the audience and you wonder: “Is that Jeff Enns? the composer of the piece we’re singing?!?!” or “Is that the conductor of the Canadian Chamber Choir!?!?” It’s as if these glances within an audience or during a reception function as choir star-sightings. It feels like all the musical acquaintances that I have slowly compiled have all aggregated en masse this weekend.

Belle Canto's morning began with some lovely historic touring of the East Block of Parliament in the morning followed by lunch in the parliamentary cafeteria with Canadian Senators. Afterwards Belle Canto hurried over to Knox Presbyterian Church to begin the sound check. The church was gorgeous. Reverberant stonewalls containing a cool and comforting atmosphere. We began by singing through our Schumann pieces and communal smiles appeared throughout the choir as we heard the pulsating reverb of our sound. This was going to be a fun acoustic to sing in. After a little bit of physical rearrangement, including my discovery the Belle Canto had introduced some choralography into El Hambo, we were ready for our concert.

Conducting the Interview

Following a regular Monday night rehearsal, Cantilon Choirs founder and Artistic Director Heather Johnson agreed to discuss with me the choral season and Belle Canto’s upcoming participation in Choral Canada’s Podium 2012 Choral conference this week in Ottawa. Johnson is casually balanced on the piano bench at the front of the rehearsal hall. I acknowledge the interesting role-reversal about to occur as I organize myself to conduct the interview. As a choir girl, I have been singing with Johnson for over 10 years. You can probably imagine the influence this woman has had on my formative choral years.

Cantilon Choirs was faced with an interesting process this past season. Johnson had to instigate a search for a new Artistic Director for the choral program, due to a potential family move to Ottawa. Although it has now been confirmed that Johnson and family are, indeed, staying in Edmonton. Johnson remarked that the search process allowed her to reflect upon her role: “I really want [Cantilon Choirs] to survive if, at any time, I am not here.” This is apparent as Johnson revealed one of her ultimate goals is to eventually form a choir school in Edmonton. “I was determined to find somebody to take this over and be as passionate about it as I am. I wanted to know why they wanted to conduct children’s choirs, particularly…and what it was about working with children and youth that was exciting for them.”

Upon further reflection, Johnson announces that she is fortunate that her job allows her to work with people for an extended period. The structure of the Cantilon program is conducive to chorister development since singers as young as kindergarteners can naturally graduate to more advanced groups within the program, such as the Cantilon Chamber Choir and Belle Canto Women’s Ensemble. Johnson pauses at this point in the interview and smiles at me: “I remember you as a child, I really remember you." I give her an acknowledging glance as I look up from my iPad. Johnson remarks that working with people over an extended period of time, from children to adulthood, is an incredible privilege.  "I can help [young choristers] shape the way they look of the world. And for me, that’s why I do this."

A Choir Girl Heads East

Greetings readers,

This Choir Girl is heading out east!

Actually, Ottawa, to be more exact. That is where Podium 2012 is hosted this year, which is the annual Canadian Choral Conference from May 17-20, 2012. I expect these four days to be filled with excellent music, engaging dialogue, and ample opportunity to geek-out as choral music enthusiasts attend sessions and concerts together.

While I have sung at two Podium conferences in the past (Edmonton (2000) and Victoria (2006)), this will be my first year singing, blogging, and formally attending the sessions. It’s going to be a bit of a balancing act; I’m not expecting to get much sleep. In order to make the weekend more manageable, I reorganized the weekend schedule to visualize trends and group activities. It is my attempt at a qualitative analysis of the weekend schedule.

Figure 1. Podium Sessions

[Allow me to explain my colour-coded thought process: Thursday events are in red, Friday events are in blue, Saturday events are in green, and Sunday events are in orange. As well, not every single session has been listed, only the ones from the main sessions page from the Podium website.]

How does one begin scheduling a plan of attack in order to conquer the sheer multitude of choral sessions? A top five priority list? Agreeing to some pre-determined session hopping? Peer pressure? No matter what the plan is, there is much to learn and no right way to go about it. It’s a choose-your-own-choral-adventure type of situation!

Figure 2. Podium concerts