UPDATE FROM THE ELORA SINGERS

“The lamps may be different, but the light is the same. All religions, all this singing, one song.”  — Rumi                                                                                                                                       

Elora, ON – The Elora Singers’ Artistic Director Mark Vuorinen is pleased to announce the launch of the choir’s new recording, entitled This Love Between Us.

Reena Esmail’s This Love Between Us explores Eastern and Western musical soundscapes, even as it focusses our attention on a truth of many of the worlds’ religious traditions. Though it is not an easy path, there is still more that unites us than divides us.

Barbara Croall’s Giishkaapkag (Where the Rock is Cut Through) responds to a recurring tragedy befalling women and girls in Indigenous communities of this country, but also of those around the world.  Her powerful elegiac text and music hears their missing voices in the rocks, believed to be the oldest beings of the earth, and is transmitted through the haunting traditional cedar flute, the pipigwan, the voices of the choir and percussion.  This is an important piece for our time, and Mark Vuorinen and The Elora Singers are humbled to be part of it.

Excerpts from the recording will be presented for one week starting at 8:00 pm on Thursday, June 4 on The Elora Singers’ YouTube channel, where there are also interviews with Mark Vuorinen and the two featured composers. It is also available on Spotify and iTunes and may be purchased through The Elora Singers’ website starting on Friday, June 5.  As we continue to observe social distancing in Ontario, all CDs will be shipped free of charge for the month of June.

This is Mark Vuorinen’s first recording with The Elora Singers and it was important for him to tell these stories at this time: “The release of this new album comes at a time none of us could have predicted when we encountered these works for the first time almost a year ago.  One thing this global pandemic has illuminated is that we are all of this same earth.  Borders are erased by disease, even as our instinct is often to build them stronger and higher to try and contain the virus.“

Jordan Scholl, a member of The Elora Singers and soloist on this recording, shared his thoughts about the timeliness of these important works: “With all that is going on in the world right now, I think this is the music that needs to be heard — not just because it is beautiful, but because it’s time. It’s time to be reminded that love isn’t the easy way out. Love isn’t comfortable. But love sparks change. And that change is only possible when we set aside what we feel and know and embrace a perspective different from our own. Not just acknowledging it, but truly seeing it (the best we can).”

This recording has been supported by a generous donation from The Estate of Rick Durst. The Elora Singers are also grateful to anonymous donors for supporting the commissioning of Barbara Croall’s new work.

#LUDWIGVAN

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