CHOR LEONI, THE LEONIDS, ECAP – ERICK LICHTE CONDUCTOR
Witness a world transformed through the power of choral singing at Chor Leoni’s signature community choral festival, The Big Roar. Chor Leoni is joined by its MYVoice educational choirs, the young singers of its PRÉLUDE program, its Emerging Choral Artist Program, and the amazing Leonids in this dynamic and uplifting concert by and for the community. Come hear the bright future of choral music at the glorious Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in this one-of-a-kind singing extravaganza.
Tickets from $70-$80
35 and Under Ticket Pricing Available.
New this year: Deepen your experience and get to know the members of The Leonids at an exclusive reception after The Big Roar performance at The Chan Centre! Tickets for the reception are $50, and can be purchased as a part of your concert ticket by selecting Premium Ticket (Includes Reception) when selecting your seat. We hope you can join us for this special post-concert celebration.
Experience a joyous celebration of a singing community at a choral event unlike any other in Canada, featuring five choirs from the Chor Leoni organization and over 250 singers.
Carrie has been teaching in the public school system for 32 years. She began her teaching career in Coquitlam and is currently teaching in Burnaby, where she enjoys teaching both band and choir. Carrie has also been the coordinator for the B.C. Provincial Honour Choir for the past several years and is one of the Directors of Vivo Children’s Choir.
Melodie is the Director of Choirs at Seycove Secondary, a vibrant school nestled in a cozy town residents affectionately call “The Cove” in North Vancouver. An avid chorister herself, Melodie discovered a passion for conducting while completing her Bachelor of Music degree at the University of Manitoba.
Jonathan teaches choral music, concert band, and vocal jazz at North Surrey Secondary School. He is a keen student of the Kodály method of music education and enjoys the challenge of working with students whose voices are developing. His award-winning choirs continue to inspire young musicians wherever they perform.
Marie-Claire Saindon is a Franco-Ontarian choral composer with a penchant for vivid imagery and a great affinity for setting text. Her experience while studying music at McGill University and Université de Montréal ranges from accompanying dancers, to scoring films, to fiddling in a team of folk musicians on a historical steam train. Based in Montreal as composer-in-residence for Chœur Adleisia, she runs creative choral/vocal composition workshops, scores films, and teaches fiddle. Recipient of multiple composition prizes, her choral works are published with Boosey & Hawkes, Hal Leonard, Cypress Choral Music, and her film scores can be found on documentaries hosted by CBC Gem and Radio-Canada.
Ysaÿe M. Barnwell, Ph.D. MSPH, is a commissioned composer, arranger, author, actress and former member of the African American female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey In The Rock. She is a vocalist with a range of over three octaves and appears on more than twenty-five recordings with Sweet Honey as well as other artists. Trained as a violinist for 15 years beginning at the age of 2 1/2, she holds degrees in speech pathology (BS, MSEd), cranio-facial studies (Ph.D.), and public health (MSPH). She was a professor at Howard University College of Dentistry for over a decade, and over the following 8 years developed training programs in Child Protection at Children’s Hospital National Medical Center, and administered community-based health programs at Gallaudet University, all in Washington DC. For almost thirty years, and on three continents, Barnwell has led the workshop Building a Vocal Community—Singing In the African American Tradition, which utilizes oral tradition, an African world view and African American history, values, cultural and vocal traditions to build communities of song among singers and non-singers alike. Her pedagogy is highly respected among musicians, educators, health workers, activists, organizers, and members of the corporate and non-profit sectors.
Dr. David Morrow is a native of Rochester, NY, and a graduate of Morehouse College with degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. He Morrow conducts the renowned Morehouse College Glee Club, which has achieved domestic and world-wide acclaim. He is a sought-after choral clinician and lecturer, who serves on the board of directors of both the Intercollegiate Men’s Choruses, Inc. and Chorus America, Inc., and serves on the Georgia Council for the Arts. His compositions and arrangements are published with Alfred Music Publishers, Oxford Music and GIA music publishers.
Veljo Tormis has composed almost exclusively for the voice: hundreds of songs, song cycles, largescale compositions for choirs, some stage works, and only the occasional instrumental piece. His own explanation is that for him, music begins with words; he does not have “purely musical” ideas. He has emphasized that he cannot (or does not want to) write music for pleasure or entertainment; his music always has something to say about the world, nature, men and peoples.
Ēriks Ešenvalds is one of the most sought-after composers working today, with a busy commission schedule and performances of his music heard on every continent. Born in Priekule, Latvia in 1977, he studied at the Latvian Baptist Theological Seminary (1995–97) before obtaining his Master’s degree in composition (2004) from the Latvian Academy of Music under the tutelage of Selga Mence. He took master-classes with Michael Finnissy, Klaus Huber, Philippe Manoury, and Jonathan Harvey, amongst others. From 2002–11 he was a member of the State Choir Latvija. In 2011 he was awarded the two-year position of Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, University of Cambridge. As of 2022 he serves as Head of the Department of Composition at the Latvian Academy of Music, where he has been teaching since 2004. He is married with four children.
Malcolm Dalglish is a hammer dulcimer player and composer whose work draws on his diverse background in choir, theatre and folk music. A choirboy in the 1960s with The American Boychoir, Malcolm later attended Oberlin College, where he joined a resident theatre company and worked with Bill Irwin and Julie Taymore. While a music education student at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, he designed and built over sixty hammer dulcimers. Mr Dalglish was a founding member of the popular folk trio Metamora and has nine albums out, including solo offerings onthe Windham Hill label. The American Boychoir, The St. Olaf Choir, The Indianapolis Children's Choir and other choirs throughout the land have commissioned his folk inspired music. In 1997 he formed The Oolites, an engaging young group of folk singers. Their second CD, Hymnody of Earth, is a spiritual celebration of nature that has been performed by choirs around the world.
Passionate, prolific, and complicated, composer David Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention. Lang is at the same time deeply versed in the classical tradition and committed to music that resists categorization, constantly creating new forms. Lang is one of America’s most performed composers. Many of his works resemble each other only in the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision that inform their structures. His catalogue is extensive, and his opera, orchestra, chamber and solo works are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent, hypnotic, unsettling and very emotionally direct. Much of his work seeks to expand the definition of virtuosity in music — even the deceptively simple pieces can be fiendishly difficult to play and require incredible concentration by musicians and audiences alike.
(Songs of the Ancient Sea)
©Chor Leoni 2024