The Elora Singers, with Artistic Director Mark Vuorinen, have released a new album titled In Beauty May I Walk. The theme underlying the works on the album is revelation, in its sense of revealing truths and what was previously hidden.
It’s the fourth album from The Elora Singers with Vuorinen as the artistic director. The pieces meditate on spiritual connections, the passage of time, and our relationship to the natural world, among others. The composers represented on the album include Ēriks Ešenvalds, Jake Runestad, Jonathan Dove, Dan Forrest, Stephanie Martin, Gary Kulesha, Frank Martin, Andrew Balfour, and Pēteris Vasks.
The Elora Singers
The Elora Singers’ last release, Radiant Dawn, was nominated for a JUNO Award in the category of Classical Album of the Year (Large Ensemble).
The Elora Singers were founded in 1980 as the ensemble-in-residence of the Elora Festival, which takes places over three weeks each summer. The rest of the years, the ensemble offers a concert series, and has toured both nationally and internationally.
Mark Vuorinen, DMA
Mark Vuorinen is an Associate Professor & Chair of Music at the Conrad Grebel University College/University of Waterloo. He’s also the Director, of the University of Waterloo Chamber Choir, and Conductor of the Grand Philharmonic Choir & The Elora Singers.
Mark is former President of Choirs Ontario.
After earning a BMus at Wilfrid Laurier University, he followed it with an MM at Yale University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Toronto. At the UofT, his areas of research included choral music, pedagogy, the music of Arvo Pärt, and the choral music of Baltic nations.
He’s been the Artistic Director of The Elora Singers for four years. We asked him a few questions about his experiences, and the new album.
Mark Vuorinen: The Q&A
You have made some significant initiatives with the Elora Singers over the last four years. Are you where you thought you might be at this point, when you started out?
The pandemic, of course, interrupted so many things, in terms of planning and starting new initiatives. On the other hand, it forced us to consider trying things we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do, like offering concerts, and in fact, whole festivals online.
With that said, I’ve been really pleased to have taken on some major projects including premiering several new works by Peter-Anthony Togni, Stephanie Martin, Carmen Braden, Melody McKiver, and Annika Sokolofsky, all since the pandemic. We also recorded a Juno-nominated Christmas album, and collaborated with TorQ Percussion Quartet on a new album with three of the commissions featured.
We’re happy to have the pandemic behind us and now moving toward new projects.
How did you come upon the theme for In Beauty May I Walk?
The idea for this album actually came from marrying together music from two concert projects that have become part of the fabric of the Elora Festival.
Several years ago, I began programming a Twilight concert that takes place at 9 p.m., once the sun has set. It is sung by candlelight. It normally contains reflected and mediative a cappella works, suitable for the end of the day.
Several of the tracks on this new album have been part of those concerts over the years. More recently, I have programmed an event we call “Music in the Woods.” It takes place at the Sandy Hills Regional Forest, early in the morning, where the audience moves through a guided walk, and encounters the members of the Elora Singers along the way.
Both experiences evoke a kind of reflective and quiet listening, that I thought would be wonderful to capture in a recorded setting.
How did you come to choose the specific pieces?
The pieces, as mentioned, largely came from the concert experiences from our festival concerts. I also wanted to include the Frosts Sequence which is a commission from Stephanie Martin. This three movement suite was composed during the pandemic and we premiered it in one of our digital concerts in 2021. They are beautiful settings of Robert Frost poems.
Some of the music was chosen for its suitability to be sung in an early morning forest, and some for its serene beauty at the end of the day and to be sung in a candlelit sacred space; I think they pieces work together beautifully.
How long did the project take to put together? I would imagine the planning, curation, rehearsals and so on took quite a bit of time.
The summer is a wonderful extended time for the choir. We are together and working a lot every day for about three weeks, so it’s a good time to come together to record at the end of the festival. So, we recorded the album in July. In January, I had a sabbatical from my university work, which gave me the space to work on the post production with our engineer, Ray Dillard.
Does the choir itself, i.e. their specific voices and abilities, affect how you curate the concerts?
One of the things that I find most astonishing about The Elora Singers as individuals and as an ensemble is their versatility. During the festival we bounce between so many different genres singing an oratorio like Haydn’s The Creation one night, and then singing with jazzer singer Laila Biali the next.
One moment they can be singing as a beautifully cohesive ensemble, and the next singers can step out to perform as soloists. This versatility opens up such possibilities for us to explore in repertoire from a cappella Renaissance music to challenging contemporary scores.
The Elora Singers: Holidays 2024
In addition to the new recording, there are two ways to enjoy the harmonies of The Elora Singers for the 2024 holiday season.
London Symphonia and The Elora Singers will team up for a full and glorious version of Handel’s Messiah on November 30.
“It has been a few years since we have performed Handel’s Messiah and we are excited to partner with The Elora Singers to once again present this well-loved masterpiece,” said Andrew Chung, Artistic Producer London Symphonia in a statement.
“The way The Elora Singers perform Messiah is truly special,” said Chung. “Theirs is an interpretation full of exquisite detail and nuance and the solo arias are performed beautifully by the members of this fantastic ensemble. Bringing together our two organizations to perform this work is really a dream scenario. We can’t wait to fill the rafters of Metropolitan United Church with the glorious sound of Messiah.”
Tickets available for both the in-person version, or through high quality 4K HDR Video On Demand, available to view as often as you like for a 21-day period.
- Find more details about Handel’s Messiah with The Elora Singers and London Symphonia [HERE].
The Elora Singers’ annual Festival of Carols takes place December 17 and 18 (various times) has become a Christmas staple in the area.
- Find more details about the performances [HERE].
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