Whispers from Mother Earth
May 5, 2024
Beginning with Eleanor Daley’s “Salutation of the Dawn” (described by one audience member as ‘absolutely spiritual and prayerful’), the program moved through the themes of “Our Mother; Our Earth”, “Our Relationship with Mother Earth”, “A Planet Threatened” and “Hope for the Future”. The audience reaction was electric and the entire afternoon was described as “incredibly moving” and “inspirational”.
Amid the Winter's Snow
December 9, 2023
La Vie en Rose
May 7, 2023
With the concert hall decorated in soft candlelight and red rose petals; our tenors and basses looking very “James Bond” in black tie and red boutonnieres, and the sopranos and altos dressed in various shades of red accessorized with lots of ‘sparkly bling’; the choir presented a program of love, loss and lament, with (of course) lots of chocolate as the main feature of our intermission refreshments!
In this program we began with “Something’s Coming Tonight” from West Side Story, and referenced the many stages of love throughout the ages: “Middle Ages Flirting” (“It Was a Lover and His lass” and “Now is the Month of Maying”) and “Courtly Love” (“Dirait-On” by Morten Lauridsen, and Quilter’s “Go Lovely Rose” ) and of course a section entitled “Ah! Sweet Love” which featured a great arrangement of “Moonglow” and Willan’s “Rise Up My Love” as well as Eric Whitacre’s “Five Hebrew Love Songs” for choir, piano and string quartet. This section concluded with “I Could Have Danced All Night” from My Fair Lady.
But it seemed to be the “Love Lost” section that created the most poignant moments for our audience. “When the Earth Stands Still” (Don Macdonald), Daniel Elder’s “Lullaby” and “Let My Love Be Heard” by Jake Runestadt really expressed the pain of lost love whether through rejection or death.
Fortunately, we resurrected the joy and hopefulness of love at the end of the concert with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and Gjielo’s “Across the Vast Eternal Sky”.
Starry, Starry Night
Dec. 11, 2022
Our music director has put together a great post about the creative process behind putting a concert like this together, definitely a good read!
With this concert title, it was no secret that we were referencing Vincent Van Gogh’s iconic painting by the same name, so we decided to completely “go for it”. We used Van Gogh’s paintings interspersed with spectacular slides from the Webb telescope for our slide show and the program was also interspersed with many Van Gogh quotes.
Beginning with a Ralph Emerson arrangement of “Vincent” sung by a small ensemble, the concert was divided into 3 sections: “The Void”, “Emergence of Light” and “Illuminare”.
The Void began with “Nuit Délaissé” (a newly composed work for solo cello) and featured the choir singing gorgeous pieces like Eric Esenvald’s “Stars”, Frank Ticheli’s “There Will Be Rest” (from Sara Teasdale’s poetry, ‘Constellation’) as well as Tawnie Olsen’s “O Inexpressible Mystery”
The Emergence of Light took us into the more traditional repertoire for the Christmas season, plus Eleanor Daley’s “Grandmother Moon” and “Bethlehem’s Star” as well as John Rutter’s “Star Carol”.
In the second half of the program we performed the Canadian premier of Elaine Hagenberg’s first multi-movement work; “Illuminare” with strings and piano. This was a very exciting and spectacular part of a concert program that brought our audience to their feet with enthusiastic applause!
What the audience said...
May 15, 2022 – “Homeward Bound” was a re-visioning of the concert planned for the spring of 2020. It featured a beautiful 18 voice choir, a string quartet, and guest jazz artist, Beatrice Carpino. We also had our amazing new Collaborative Pianist, Adolfo De Santis.
This concert took us on a journey through the stages of “leaving home”, whatever that may mean for you. We began with awakening to the realization that the time has come to move on, but also acknowledged the emotional trials, as well as the adventure, joys, promise of new beginnings and, ultimately, an appreciation of ‘home’. It is such a positive and hopeful message for our times today, as we emerge from this pandemic!
Hear excerpts from the concert on our music page.
What the audience said...
December 7, 2019 – Our annual holiday concert had music ranging from early medieval dance (performed with a lively percussion ensemble) to gorgeous modern and contemporary works. We also honoured our veterans and their families by commemorating the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. This concert also featured special guests Lloyd Robertson and cellist Naomi Barron.
Joy of Singing – May 4, 2019
Village Voices celebrated 30 years of singing together in the Markham community! Our alumni joined us in the performance of our favourite songs. This special concert featured: Hoagy Carmichael: A Choral Portrait, Moonglow, I Could Have Danced All Night and River in Judea.
Rejoice! – December 8, 2018
In December 2018, we celebrated 30 years of Christmas tradition with new and old holiday favourites and introduced our new Chamber Choir, talented voices from our group who performed some exciting new compositions.
Celebrate Love – May 12, 2018
This concert was a celebration of mothers, children & the journey of life and love. It featured Medley from Les Miserables by Edward Lojeski as well as some superb contemporary works including Light Everlasting by Olaf Christensen and Searching Love by Kim Andre Arnesen.